This article was originally posted at The Climate Group. View the original post here. LONDON: Japan will soon have the world’s largest floating solar power plant, signalling increasing adoption of the efficient and innovative technology in Japan, which is due partly to lack of … Continue reading Japan Will Soon Have the World’s Largest Floating Solar Power Plant
The Victorian Labor party has introduced amendments to the Napthine government’s bill to scrap the successful Victorian Energy Efficiency Target. Labor’s amendments would prevent the government from cutting next year’s energy efficiency target and abolishing the scheme at the end of 2015 … Continue reading Policy Watch: Vic Labor pledge to keep efficiency scheme as energy debate heats up
Published by Climate Progress. View original article.
President Obama is expected to announce a series of executive actions and agreements on Friday morning that will advance solar power and energy efficiency in the United States, part of his pledge to tackle climate change without having to go through a gridlocked Congress.
According to a statement from the White House, the initiatives will represent an 850-megawatt increase in solar power deployed, or enough to power 130,000 homes. They will also lead to more $2 billion in energy efficiency investments in Federal buildings, $26 billion in savings for businesses on energy bills, and a 380 million metric ton decrease in carbon pollution — the equivalent of taking about 80 million cars off the road for a year, the statement said. Continue reading “Obama’s Move On Solar Is Equivalent To A Year Without 80 Million Cars”
Published by The Conversation. View original article.
The latest review of Australia’s energy-saving appliance scheme has delivered a rare trifecta: a good news story for the economy, the community and the environment.
According to my estimates from data in the Department of Industry review, the value of energy saved in Australia last year alone was around A$3.2 billion. Of this, some A$2.7 billion was saved by households. Continue reading “Energy-smart appliances cut Australian power bills by billions”
Published by www.etwasluft.blogspot.com.au. View original article.
There’s a clever way of criticising something, without needing to adhere to logic or reality. For example:
“I purchased this vehicle recently. Unfortunately, after a week using the vehicle, I found that it was unable to fly. I deem this vehicle to be a failure.”
Set your own criteria. If you really want the subject of your criticism to fail, intentionally shape those criteria to guarantee failure.
It’s this fallacy that drives criticism of the generation output of wind energy on hot days. As with all fallacies, it’s convenient, simple and palatable. Continue reading “The Laws Of Physics Not Consciously Aware of Human Behaviour, Reports The Australian”
Article by Silvio Marcacci. Originally published in Clean Technica.
America’s clean energy economy created nearly 80,000 green jobs in 2013, benefitting virtually every state across the country even as looming market and policy uncertainty threaten to shrink green growth.
Solar, energy efficiency, and public transportation created the highest number of green jobs in America last year, according to the second annual Clean Energy Works For Us report from Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). Continue reading “Clean Energy Created Nearly 80,000 Green Jobs In America During 2013”
Victoria was poised to become a global hub for clean technology with key policies in place to drive emissions reductions and attract investment in a green industrial revolution. Yet the change of government in November 2010, writes Peter Hansford, resulted in an abandonment of key climate change policies and the vision of Victoria becoming a global leader in cleantech. Victoria’s ability lead is not lost. It can be reclaimed but only if politicians are open to ideas not ideology.
In 2010, the Victorian government released a climate change white paper which included a cleantech industry development strategy which sought to position Victoria as a top five global leader in clean, innovative technologies and climate solutions.
At the time Victoria’s cleantech sector was rapidly emerging with a number of leading firms supplying domestic and international markets. One analysis of the cleantech sector identified that there were 1,273 firms employing 23,200 people in Victoria.
As the author of the strategy I was confident that the prospect of increasing jobs, exports and investments would excite the government to invest a small amount of money to accelerate the job creation opportunities presented.
The background work conducted identified a suite of potential action areas: Energy (particularly renewables, CCS and smart grids); Urban Planning, Design and Construction; Water; Food and Farming; Materials (including efficient materials management), Advanced Manufacturing; e-Vehicles; use of ICT and Fast Broadband; and a range of Services Industries including carbon market services, and international education. Continue reading “Victoria need ideas not ideology”
Iowa has been a prime example for the progress of wind energy in the past few years. As this article shows, Iowa’s wind energy benefits extend from being an electricity generator and economic driver, it drastically cuts pollution and benefits the environment. Read on.
Original post by Think Progress. View article here.
Iowa’s hugely successful wind industry isn’t just an economic driver, it’s having a major impact on cutting pollution and saving water. Wind energy generation in Iowa avoids more than 8.4 million metric tons of climate-altering carbon pollution — the equivalent of taking 1.7 million cars off the road, according to a new report released by Environment Iowa.
Additionally, the report found that wind energy saves Iowans nearly 3.8 billion gallons of water per year, enough to meet the needs of over 158,000 people. The U.S. National Drought Monitor shows a significant portion of the state is in moderate to severe drought conditions and has been for several months. Continue reading “Wind Energy In Iowa Cuts 8.4 Million Tons Of Carbon Pollution Per Year”
Originally published by Wisconsin State Journal. View original here.
Occasionally a misinformed reader asserts wind turbines produce insignificant electrical output. That’s simply untrue.
MGE reports the energy produced by its wind turbines annually. According to reports, its Rosiere Wind Farm in Kewaunee County produced 19,513,000 kilowatt hours in 2011 and 20,279,000 in 2012, the former at an operating cost of 2.11 cents per kilowatt hour. Continue reading “Data show wind energy works and is cost-effective”
Published by The Conversation. View original article here.
By Alan Pears AM, energy policy guru and Adjunct Professor, RMIT University.
We should not be debating a choice between direct action and carbon pricing: we need both, but with credible, well-designed mechanisms.
We need a carbon price based on certificate trading for several reasons.
It sends a signal to both emitters and investors that they need to cut emissions, starting today. The price rises if there is insufficient action, and declines if action is effective. And there is the potential to profit from trading. All of that makes emitters more likely to innovate and bring down the cost of reducing emissions.
The revenue from a carbon price provides funds to support additional cuts and help those affected by the price to adapt. Because a price brings in revenue, funds don’t have to be dragged from other government activities.
We need effective direct action because carbon pricing is a relatively crude and imperfect incentive. A carbon price can be undermined by non-financial barriers and market imperfections. Weak carbon caps lead to low carbon prices that do not reflect true long-term costs of climate change.
Businesses and households also tend to put more value on money they have now than money they have in the future. That means future carbon costs are not necessarily powerful motivators when compared with other factors.
In the electricity industry, profits increase with higher sales, so a carbon price will encourage action that reduces emissions per unit of electricity sold, such as renewable energy, but not actions that reduce sales. Energy companies won’t encourage energy efficiency, the most cost-effective abatement option, because it cuts their profits.
A carbon price does increase the prices consumers pay for fossil fuel sourced energy, but it is a small increase in a small part (1-5%) of most business and household costs. If we want consumers and businesses to improve their energy efficiency, or set up distributed energy generation such as solar panels, direct action can help.
Direct action can be applied to activities that cannot be included in a carbon trading scheme. We have already seen this approach under the Carbon Farming Initiative, which encourages sequestration by rewarding those who act. Continue reading “Direct action vs carbon pricing: we can have it all”
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