Mapping New York City’s energy hogs
February 1st, 2012 Posted in Green News | Comments Off Columbia University researchers create an interactive map of the energy use from New York City's buildings with the hopes of identifying potential efficiency improvements and shared on-site energy systems, such as solar.Originally posted at News - Cutting Edge
Nine years from now, in early 2022, the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard will have reached its intended target, 36 billion gallons of biofuel blended into the U.S. domestic auto and truck fuel supply.
Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) is an upcoming renewable market that promises to provide cost-effective power generation at high levels of efficiency. The performance of a CPV system is dependant on the direct normal irradiance (DNI). Because of this major performance parameter, the number of regions ideal for CPV system installations is limited. According to Prof. Humayun Mughal, the potential market destinations based on DNI for the CPV technology are Southwest US, Mexico, Chile, Southern Peru, Southwest Bolivia, Northwest Argentina, and Mediterranean countries, Australia, North Africa, Middle East, Western India and Western China.
With developers having made their final end-of-year push through the last day of December, the January ritual of announcements concerning new projects entering commercial operation and new PPAs kicking in continued this week.
Earlier this month, I attended EUCI’s Utilizing Clean Power Development Conference in Philadelphia. The conference attracted a variety of large institutions (hospitals, municipalities, universities, etc.), developers, and financers to discuss the opportunity and challenges surrounding deployment of on-site renewable energy. Instit
North America is at an inflection point in managing organic materials. Just as paper, metal and plastics were the darlings of the recycling industry a couple decades ago, our society is defining a new relationship with organic materials: one that harnesses the full carbon, energy and nutrient potential of organics. In order to help shape that new relationship, industry leaders are cultivating North America's awareness and understanding of anaerobic digestion's features, benefits and potential role in society.
In recent years, run-of-the-river hydropower projects have emerged as a viable, low-impact alternative to existing large-scale projects. Run-of-the-river facilities use conventional hydropower technology to produce electricity by diverting river flow through turbines that spin generators - before returning water back to the river downstream.
What if electricity cost more when the sun was shining?
Many utilities are using new electronic "smart meters" to adjust the price of electricity as often as every hour, to reflect supply and demand. And charging more when electricity is in short supply can be good news, increasing the value of solar by 33 percent or more.
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A big energy-related disaster doesn't just leave horrible marks on people's lives; it also can propel better and quicker policy and technology adoption. Kyocera on Monday said it plans to start selling a system that pairs solar panels with lithium-ion batteries for the residential market in Japan starting this summer.
With personnel nearly the population of Chicago and a fleet of over 500,000 aircrafts, vessels, and vehicles, the U.S. Department of Defense is a massive and energy-hungry institution.
The U.S. wind industry posted strong fourth quarter results, AWEA reported on Thursday during a webinar for members and press.
In New York, the expected release dates for the Obama Administration's Bioeconomy Blueprint came and went, leaving Novozymes and Bloomberg New Energy Finance's "Moving Towards a Next-generation Ethanol Economy" report, released this month, as the most intriguing assessment of the job-creating potential of an expanded bioeconomy. In this case of this report, BNEF focused on the potential for ethanol production from agricultural residue.
The volatile swings seen in the upstream part of the solar PV supply chain, from silicon to cell/module pricing, have been well documented. End-market demand and associated policies supporting it is also a roller coaster, with many key regions currently embroiled in what to do for 2012 and beyond.
Solar players on both sides of the Pacific have been warily anticipating the Feb. 13 deadline when the Department of Commerce was set to announce whether it would impose duties on solar cells and modules coming in from China.