Alternative Energy

Selling Coal Short – Taxpayers Lose Big

IEEFA: U.S. TAXPAYERS LOSE MORE THAN $1 BILLION WITH BLM OK OF PEABODY’S LOW-BALL BID FOR POWDER RIVER BASIN COAL Competitive” Bid Process With Only One Company Underscores Deep Flaws in BLM “Giveaway” Process; Approved Price for U.S.-Owned Coal Well Under Half of Fair Market Value. U.S. taxpayers will lose an estimated $1.2 billion now that the federal Bureau of …

Read More »

Citizen Struggle To Save Clean Energy

TAKING BACK AMERICA’S ENERGY FUTURE FROM THE LOBBYISTS: 1 MILLION AMERICANS TO FIGHT INDUSTRY EFFORTS TO KILL CLEAN ENERGY AGENDA Three Dozen Citizen Organizations From Across Nation Take on Undue Influence of Energy Company “Goliath”; Push Reflects Views of 83 Percent of Americans That a “New-Grassroots Driven” Effort is Needed. Fed up with the undue influence of the energy companies, …

Read More »

Why Wait Till Gas Hits $10 a Gallon?

There’s a lot of moaning and hand-wringing whenever gasoline prices approach $4 a gallon. But all it would take for them to hit $10 a gallon overnight would be hurricanes wiping out a couple of refineries or saboteurs disabling a couple of pipelines, says Dr. R. Paul Williamson, founder and CEO of the non-profit Sustainable Systems of Colorado. “The United …

Read More »

Submerging Solar: New Frontiers for Renewable Energy

By Ysabel Yates It sounds like a child’s question: can you generate solar power underwater? The answer, according to Phillip Jenkins and his team at the US Naval Research Laboratory, is yes. The researchers recently demonstrated a method for harvesting solar power underwater at depths of 30 feet. Currently, the only option for underwater energy is batteries, which shortens the …

Read More »

Coal Satire Released – Check It Out

The Renewable Energy Accountability Project (REAP) has released its latest satirical video, “The Most Ignorant Man in the World.” The soft release on YouTube and Funny or Die has already garnered hundreds of views and been shared with thousands across Facebook and Twitter. “You say burning coal for electricity causes extreme weather disasters…that’s like saying cigarettes cause cancer,” is one …

Read More »

Renewable Energy Rankings

NEW REPORT RANKS WORLD’S BIGGEST COUNTRIES ON RENEWABLE ENERGY NRDC: Countries need to do more, beginning with Rio+20 Earth Summit U.S. production of renewable energy has increased by more than 300 percent in the past decade, but the United States still lags far behind Europe and Indonesia and is only slightly ahead of Mexico in the percentage of electricity it …

Read More »

End Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Our friends over at Celsius have raised the bar and worked to promote a call to action with regard to ending fossil fuel subsidies. We at Alt E HQ support this effort and ask you to read the article below and join the cause: Dear friends, This is huge. Two weeks ago we joined a diverse coalition to launch an …

Read More »

Renewable Jet Fuel Flight Scheduled

during Rio+20 Environment Conference in Brazil Amyris’s Sugarcane-Derived Jet Fuel Ready to be Used in Azul’s EMBRAER 195 Powered by GE’s CF34 Engines Azul Airlines joined Amyris, Inc. and GE in announcing today that Amyris’s innovative renewable jet fuel sourced from Brazilian sugarcane has successfully passed all required testing and will be used during a demonstration flight on an Azul …

Read More »

Sustainable Energy Plan

Why Wait Till Gas Hits $10 a Gallon? Sustainable Energy Expert Details National Plan of Action There’s a lot of moaning and hand-wringing whenever gasoline prices approach $4 a gallon. But all it would take for them to hit $10 a gallon overnight would be hurricanes wiping out a couple of refineries or saboteurs disabling a couple of pipelines, says …

Read More »

Ventura County Reaps Rewards of Energy Efficiency

Reduces Both Costs and Carbon Ventura County’s outstanding cost savings and sustainability efforts have earned them the silver level in Southern California Edison’s (SCE) Energy Leader Partner Program. The Energy Leader Partnership Program awards local governments who are performing outstanding sustainability efforts with the support to identify and address energy efficiency opportunities in municipal facilities. The County of Ventura who …

Read More »

Renewable Energy Helps Soothe Texas Power Concerns

Industry Says Even Greater Assurance Possible Hardly a week has passed since Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association, TREIA,hosted the Electric Generation Adequacy & Reliability Forum at the Texas State Capitol on Tuesday, May 8 where Texas PUC Commissioner Pablos and industry leaders spoke to a standing room only audience about issues facing energy industries in Texas. TREIA President Steve Wiese …

Read More »

Alternative Energy Under Fire In House Bill

U.S. ENERGY SECURITY EFFORTS UNDER ATTACK IN ANNUAL DEFENSE BUDGET BILLS House Defense Bill Undermines Public-Private Initiative to Develop Domestic Alternative Energy Sources to Reduce Reliance on Foreign Oil The House on Friday approved a $642 billion annual Defense authorization bill, 299-120. Included in the bill are harmful provisions that would undermine efforts to reduce the military’s dependence on the …

Read More »

India Wants To Import Shale Gas From US

India is looking to fortify their energy needs and they are looking to the USA for large scale importation of liquified shale gas. This has some very positive implications for foreign trades concerns but how does it play out with our own energy policy and development? India is looking at the possibility of importing liquefied shale gas from the US, …

Read More »

High School Program Installs Solar

Students from Porterville High School’s AERO — Alternative Energy Resource Occupations — Academy spent Tuesday and Wednesday installing solar panels and hanging an inverter on a local affordable-housing project. Working with GRID Alternatives, the students climbed the roof of the home, measured, mounted, racked gear and placed the solar modules and panels on what is GRID’s 100th home installation in …

Read More »

Finding Ways to Reduce Grid Usage In Small Towns

Thinking Neutral: Small Towns Look to Renewables to Reduce Reliance on the Grid By Dave Levitan The town of Fowler, Colo., (pop. 1,087) sits in a 150-mile corridor between Pueblo and the Kansas border that boasts about half a million head of cattle. A few years ago, Fowler, like much of the country, faced a difficult economy and rising energy …

Read More »

SURVEY: “PARTISAN DIVIDE” ON ENERGY ISSUES IS A MYTH, STRONG BIPARTISAN SUPPORT SEEN FOR SHIFT TO CLEANER ENERGY

Washington Out of Step With Public? Little Confidence Seen in National Lawmakers Finding Solutions is Evident in Across-the-Board Political Support for Grassroots Drive to Take Back Issue. Clean energy issues and solutions. Majorities of Republicans, Independents and Democrats agree that the United States should move away from its reliance on dirty energy sources that foul the air and water and …

Read More »

What does it mean to be a high-performance building?

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 47 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions are from existing buildings. From a global perspective, reducing energy consumption in buildings is imperative for a sustainable future. So when property owners and managers transform an existing facility into one that’s a high-performance building, what does that mean? Essentially, it means doing more with less. …

Read More »

Water From Wind Turbine

A cool new concept being tested in the Abu Dhabi desert uses a wind turbine to condense water from the air and pump it into storage tanks for filtration and purification. The technology was created by Eole Water after its founder, Marc Parent, was inspired by the water he could collect from his air conditioner unit while living in the …

Read More »

Surplus Supply of Polysilicon Pressures Pricing

—but not all Polysilicon Prices are Equal An ongoing surplus in the production of polysilicon—the key raw material in the photovoltaic (PV) industry—will lead to excess supply, leading to further erosion in its pricing, according to an IHS iSuppli PV Perspectives Market Brief and the IHS iSuppli Polysilicon Price Index from information and analytics provider IHS (NYSE: IHS). Polysilicon prices …

Read More »

Debunking Energy Efficiency Misconceptions

Your clients may hold some common misconceptions about how to begin conserving energy in their homes. In this article, I hope to debunk a few of those misconceptions. An audit from a company like EnergyLink is a good place to begin; it shows homeowners where to concentrate. A report called Driving Demand for Home Energy Improvements looked at successful and …

Read More »