First of it’s kind, Sacramento’s American River Packaging opens a plant that turns waste into energy and other useful goods.
Hydrogen cars on the horrizon? No one is talking about it but…
Plug-in hybrids that use hydrogen instead of gasoline are the most exciting advancements in the future of the automotive industry, but no one is talking about them.
Well, almost no one. we’re always talking about them around here and occasionally something is written about it elsewhere. AutoGuide, our favorite car website/blog posted this today and I’m glad they did.
Hydrogen Cars and Who is Making Them
What do you want to bet California will lead the way to a hydrogen highway infrastructure?
Posted in Cars, Energy Efficiency, Gas, Oil
Leave a comment
Three Congressmen say: BIG GOVERNMENT IN THE WAY OF ENERGY PRODUCTION
According to three Colorado Congressmen (one Democrat and three Republicans) big government is in the way of energy production. Some of this has some merit and some of it is political BS, but here it is. What do you think?
Three Congressmen say: BIG GOVERNMENT IN THE WAY OF ENERGY PRODUCTION
By Colorado Congressmen Scott Tipton, Mike Coffman, Doug Lamborn
Posted in Electricity, Energy Efficiency, Federal Government, Gas, Oil, Solar, State Government
Leave a comment
California Energy Commission creates efficiency rules for battery chargers
We’re all for this, such a simple solution with such great benefits. But it’s sad that this sort of thing has to be regulated and the industry hasn’t already done this themselves. And while we think the 1 year deadline is a bit unreasonable, if the industry had done this themselves already it wouldn’t have had to be forced upon them.
LINK: SacBee
One of the great things about California being the first do do these things is that we have to power to make greater change, beyond our borders, simply because of our size/population. Companies NEED to sell their products to our consumers and as they implement changes like these for California they will naturally be implemented in products sold in other states as well (why manufacture things one way for California and another way for the other 49 states?).
Posted in Energy Efficiency, State Government
Tagged ca puc, california, California energy commission
Leave a comment
European Supergrid Could Be Costly But Worth It In The End
To us this seems to be counterproductive to smaller “smart grids” that are the future but linking the UK’s electricity grid to a European ‘supergrid’ could be costly but could also bring significant benefits for boosting the supply of renewable energy, according to a parliamentary select committee report.
The report from the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee cautions that while the cost of developing a supergrid could be “very high”, it would allow National Grid to balance supply and demand more effectively and enable a greater proportion of renewable energy.
Posted in Electricity, Energy Efficiency
Tagged energy efficiency, smart grid, supergrid
Leave a comment
Governor Jerry Brown Signs Renewable Energy Bills
FOWLER — Gov. Jerry Brown will sign legislation this morning authorizing the state to raise $200 million more from utility rate-payers to subsidize the installation of photovoltaic solar panels on homes and small businesses, and also extending the Public Utility Commission’sauthority to collect $83 million annually from ratepayers for similar projects.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Solar, State Government
Leave a comment
SPI Solar of Roseville, CA to build 8 Mega Watt System in Palm Springs
Roseville, CA based SPI Solar has entered into an engineering, procurement, and construction contract for nearly 34,000 solar modules on 37 acres in Palm Springs, CA.
Southern California Edison will be the exclusive purchaser of electricity generated by the 8 mega watt system over the next 20 years.
SPI’s CEO Steve Kircher said, “This is both our largest utility-scale project and our largest project with SCE to date.”
When the system is completed it will produce around 8,000 kilowatt hours of electricity in just the first year.
Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs
George Shultz, California’s previous Secretary Of State, along with hedge fund manager Thomas Steyer are fostering a new alliance between business and environmental groups (the same that defeated Prop 23 in 2010). This new group, called ‘Californians for Clean Energy and Jobs’, will support the rollout of new regulations under California’s climate change law (AB 32) that survived last year’s initiative (Prop 23) that would indefinitely delay its implementation. The group plans to greatly expand the state’s renewable energy industries, mainly leaning on solar and wind…
George Shultz, a Republican that supported AB 32, said he wants to make sure the law “is not disrupting to the state’s economy” but asked “how many times can you be hit on the head with a two-by-four?” at a recent press conference. “I go back to the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Clean energy is going to protect our national security.”
Right now there is a bill moving through the California state legislature with aims to require 1/3 of all the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources. Governor Jerry Brown has placed an emphasis on rooftop solar, saying that 12,000 of 20,000 new megawatts of renewable energy could come from such locally generated sources alone.
Steyer said the new group would also promote energy efficiency by reaching out to owners of the state’s commercial office space to teach them about retrofit programs and energy audits…. “No one has sent out staff before to help them change their behavior, “Saving energy, not just building new renewable’s, is the killer app.”
-CALIFORNIA ENERGY NEWS
Report: CA Energy Efficiency Policies to Create Over 200K Jobs, but Could be Improved
According to the University of California at Berkeley’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, California’s energy-efficiency policies should create at least 200,000 jobs by 2020, but the state could be creating even more and higher quality jobs. Their report, ‘California Workforce, Education, and Training Needs Assessment for Energy Efficiency, Distributed Generation and Demand Response at the State Capitol’, gives recommendations to the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as well as other agencies concerning “workforce strategies needed to achieve the state’s ambitious energy efficiency goals.” The California Long Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan mandated the study.
The main finding of the report is that California’s current energy efficiency policies will stimulate about $11,200,000,000 of both private and public investment and create approximately 211,000 jobs by 2020. However other findings are that 2/3 of expected jobs directly related to energy efficiency work will be in traditional construction work, only about 1/3 of these new jobs will be in new, specialized, higher-paying “green jobs.” As report shows, unless certain systemic improvements are made this unnecessarily and significantly limits the environmental progress that is made and the worker benefits created: “Poor quality installation of energy efficient equipment in some sectors is undermining the achievement of energy efficiency goals and is directly linked to low wage labor markets which do not reward workers or businesses for investments in training.”
One of the simple but clear recommendations in the report is for the state to continue to expand its energy efficiency policies. It says these policies will create even more jobs and help improve the economy, and, of course, help protect the environment. More specific key recommendations are as follows:
- “Green” existing training programs for traditional occupations by incorporating energy efficiency skills and knowledge into curricula, rather than promote stand-alone, narrowly focused green training programs.
- Use our public and ratepayer investment to promote high quality work and good careers for Californians by setting high quality skills certification standards for workers and enforce building codes as well as require other strong quality standards for contractors.
The State of California already is said to have the second-best energy efficiency market among the 50 states and following these recommendations will show the country what is possible on this front, hopefully more states or the nation as a whole will implement such policies and programs.
Posted in Energy Efficiency, State Government
Tagged ca puc, california, energy efficiency, puc, upgrade
Leave a comment
Senate bill promotes energy efficiency
In a hearing held last week, the Senate Energy Committee brought to attention a bill that would put in place more stringent energy efficiency standards for appliances. The bill, which was passed and will go into effect next year, has angered many Republicans, particularly for its regulations concerning light bulbs.