FEATURES AND NEWS
The Environmental Defense Fund places graduate fellows in commercial and industrial companies. The news from the front lines is good
General Motors announced yesterday that it will get its electricity from renewable sources across all of its 350 worldwide operations by 2050. The company said that it also is joining RE100, which is a global collaborative of businesses committed to 100 percent renewable electric power. GM says that it saves $5 million ... Read more »
Solar power is an increasingly vital part of America’s energy profile. However, the photovoltaic modules that collect the light are inefficient. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) is looking to help change that. The DoE’s initiative will be funded at more than $30 million for five years, subject to appropriations, ... Read more »
The transformation of a facility into an intelligent building creates lucrative business benefits. The efficiency gains achieved with this kind of optimized building translate into lower operating costs, higher sustainability performance, and greater occupant satisfaction. Intelligent building software, or a building energy management system (BEMS), is the keystone of this ... Read more »
In 2014, the Energy Department said it could potentially make $12.5 billion available to build advanced reactors. As for Terrestrial Energy, it is asking for as much as $1.2 billion to build a 195 megawatt molten salt reactors. They can burn “thorium” that may not only be safer but also create less radioactive waste than uranium.
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Bayer will buy Monsanto for a record $66 million in a deal that will create the largest seed and pesticide company in the world and could have major implications for sustainable agriculture.
Major automotive suppliers say national fuel economy and emissions standards are important for long-term business plans and investments — and don’t want to see the feds weaken the vehicle rules, according to an industry survey commissioned by clean transit technology nonprofit Calstart. The survey comes as federal agencies undertake a ... Read more »
Google has pledged to achieve zero waste in all of its global data centers. The company didn’t set a timeline for this goal, but says it defines zero waste to landfill as diverting 100 percent “to a more sustainable pathway with no more than 10 percent of it going to ... Read more »
Houston-based EMEX announced on September 13 that the company has created a new subsidiary, EMEX Consolidated Partners (ECP) – which has, in turn, acquired all of the assets of Waco-based Texas Energy Aggregation (TEA).
SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive will not have to make good on a threat to pull out of Nevada rather than deal with a decision that would “end customer choice, damage the state’s economy, and jeopardize thousands of jobs.”
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In Tallahassee, Florida, 117,000 retail electric and natural gas customers will see rate relief on October 1, according to a report by the local Tallahassee Democrat.
Making building owners report energy usage leads to more efficiency. But how big a step is it toward mandating changes?
An energy standard for datacenters has been published by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). ANSI/ASHRAE 90.4-2016, “Energy Standard for Data Centers,” establishes, according to the organization, minimum energy efficiency requirements of datacenter design and construction. It also helps set standards for the operational planning and ... Read more »
Rheem and Fujitsu General Ltd. have entered what the companies call a strategic collaboration to expand both organizations’ heating and cooling product portfolios. Demand for ductless air conditioning is growing in the United States. The press release says that demand for mini-slit and commercial Variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems has risen ... Read more »
Arizona Public Service is getting out ahead of the curve by providing battery storage devices to a finite set of consumers with solar rooftop panels. It’s trying to figure out how such storage devices will impact the demand for electricity.
Eastman has developed a plasticizer that meets the EPA’s Safer Choice program criteria — an industry first, according to the chemical company.
An Alabama attorney allegedly defrauded investors out of millions of dollars, which he claimed would be used to develop waste-to-energy projects, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commissions.
Short-Term Price Benchmark Trends After rising for three straight weeks, the Energy Research Council national average benchmark price for retail electricity declined last week by -1.84%, to $0.0730 per kilowatt hour (kWh). With last week’s drop, electricity prices are only 0.34% higher than this time one month ago. Prices decreased ... Read more »
Hoping to save money over the next 25 years, the Martha’s Vineyard Airport Commission voted on September 8 to buy the bulk of the retail electricity for the island’s airfield from a New York private equity fund that develops solar power facilities, according to a report in the local Vineyard Gazette.
QuotEnergy Advisors, an energy procurement firm and approved provider in the TIPS/TAPS purchasing program, announced on September 13 that it has helped Victoria County, in southeast Texas, to successfully procure 40 million kilowatt-hours ( kWh) of electricity to power its facilities.
Today, a look at the vital topics of nanogrids and microgrids.
College campuses are the epitome of free thinking and where innovation often gets its roots. Burning greener fuel and improving energy management are two sprouting concepts there — ideas that are being facilitated by micro-grids.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) this week announced $10 million in funding to promote energy efficiency and cost reductions at industrial and manufacturing sites in the state. The On-Site Energy Manager Initiative, which launched this week, will provide $7 million in funding in partnership with ... Read more »
Active Power has introduced the CleanSource 275XT UPS uninterruptible power supply. The company says that the new device increases the runtime of its flywheel technology by 78 percent compared to its current system, the CleanSource 300 UPS. It spins the flywheel rotor faster to increase runtime to one minute at ... Read more »
By: Ian Bowman, Director of Product Management, Ecova Distributed Energy Resources (DERs)—energy supplies that aren’t produced by traditional large centralized fossil fuel plants—continue to be a hot topic among organizations seeking to reduce their environmental impact and increase cost-efficiency. While incorporating DERs like solar, wind & battery can offer significant ... Read more »