Ecomagination

The World’s Biggest Companies on Why They Buy Renewables: ‘It’s a Very Clear Economic Issue’ | Greentech Media Many companies, both large and small, continue to struggle with the economics and complexity of procuring clean energy. The Rocky Mountain Institute estimates that for every successful renewable energy deal there are five to 10 failed attempts or significant delays, which impedes overall market growth. Reflecting these challenges, the commercial solar market experienced its first down year in recent history last year. Several companies leading the charge for clean-energy adoption presented on their lessons learned this week at Verge to help other businesses meet their renewable energy purchasing goals. Use what you already have For General Motors, renewable energy procurement turned out to be a natural extension of the company’s core competencies, said Rob Threlkeld, GM’s manager of renewable energy. “The biggest thing I highlight [to other companies] is to leverage the internal resources they already have available,” said Threlkeld. Game-changing PPAs Always efficiency first

Energy Efficiency - State of Green Saving energy in buildings Buildings account for 40 per cent of the global energy consumption and nearly the same share of CO2 emissions.Consequently, reducing the energy consumption of buildings will be a key priority for any country or community striving to save money and reduce CO2 emissions. With today’s existing technologies, it is possible to reduce energy consumption in buildings by at least 50 per cent, and possibly as much as 80 per cent. These huge savings can be made quite easily with simple measures such as energy-efficient windows, insulation materials, heat regulators, ventilation systems and lighting,just to mention a few. Denmark has been a world leader in energy efficiency in buildings for decades and energy-efficient solutions are widely implemented in newly built and refurbished housing, offices and public institutions all over the country. Join the Future.

השמש לא מחייכת למשקיעים במניות האנרגיה הסולארית - MarketMoney בעולם הכלכלי המודרני אנשים מחפשים דרכים יצירתיות לייצר לעצמם הכנסות מנכסים שהם מחזיקים. יש מי שמשכירים את הדירות שלהם כשהם נוסעים לחופשה. אחרים חולקים כלי רכב בנסיעות ארוכות. חדש! עקבו אחר המדדים המובילים ונהלו תיק השקעות ב-TheMarker Finance בשנים האחרונות התפתח, בעידודן של מדינות ועיריות תחום פעילות חדש - השכרת גגות לחברות אנרגיה להתקנת פאנלים סולאריים לייצור חשמל. התחום הסולארי מתפתח בשנים האחרונות. לכאורה, נראה שהסביבה הכלכלית תומכת בחברות האנרגיה הסולארית. כך למשל, סולאר־סיטי, שבעל המניות העיקרי בה (25%) הוא אילון מאסק, המייסד של חברת המכוניות טסלה, איבדה 57% משוויה בתוך חמישה חודשים. ענף האנרגיה העולמי תלוי ברובו במקורות אנרגיה מסורתיים - בעיקר נפט וגז טבעי. כדי להפיק חשמל מהשמש נדרשים שטח גדול ותשתית יקרה. אבל בשנים האחרונות חלים שינויים שמוזילים אט־אט את העלות. נתונים של בנק ההשקעות אופנהיימר מראים כי עלויות ההתקנה ירדו בשנים האחרונות מרמה של 7 דולר לוואט עבור התקנה ביתית ו–5 דולר לוואט בהתקנה מסחרית ב–2010 - לרמות של 2.75 דולר ו–2 דולר לוואט בהתאמה. הגז תחרותי יותר

NAESCO: National Association of Energy Service Companies America’s First All-Renewable-Energy City To understand what makes Burlington unlike almost any other city in America when it comes to the power it consumes, it helps to look inside the train that rolls into town every day. The 24 freight cars that pull up to the city’s power plant aren’t packed with Appalachian coal or Canadian fuel oil but wood. Each day 1,800 tons of pine and timber slash, sustainably harvested within a 60-mile radius and ground into wood chips, is fed into the roaring furnaces of the McNeil Generating Station, pumping out nearly half of the city’s electricity needs. Much of the rest of what Burlington’s 42,000 citizens need to keep the lights on comes from a combination of hydroelectric power drawn from a plant it built a half mile up Vermont's Winooski River, four wind turbines on nearby Georgia Mountain and a massive array of solar panels at the airport. The environmental sustainability revolution has spread to other sectors of civic life. Story Continued Below Tidy it is, and also financially effective.

The Economics of Renewable Energy: Falling Costs and Rising Employment | Adnan Z. Amin The general public perception of renewable energy is often in terms of saving the environment and reducing global carbon dioxide emissions. While it is true that renewable energy provides great environmental benefits and may yet prove to be our main hope for decarbonization, it is just as true and often overlooked that renewable energy provides considerable economic and social benefits. Take jobs for example. While the bulk of employment is found in a relatively small number of countries, more and more countries are deploying renewable energy and creating jobs. Solar PV is the largest renewable energy employer with 2.5 million jobs worldwide, up from 2.3 million at last count. Wind is another example where falling costs are creating new jobs. The new reality is that the cost of generating power from renewable energy sources has reached parity or dropped below the cost of fossil fuels for many technologies in many parts of the world. The economics of renewable energy are now undeniable.

Trash From Hurricane Irma Will Add Energy to Florida’s Power Grid When it comes to garbage, geography is destiny. Look at Texas and Florida, recovering from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. Homeowners and businesses not incapacitated by the storm have begun the arduous and emotional work of separating destroyed possessions and materials by type and placing them curbside. Cities have begun the intimidating logistics of picking it up and transporting it to its final destination. And what is that destination? Florida, by contrast, is a peninsula with a longer coastline than any state other than Alaska, and much less room for trash. Florida burns a disproportionate amount of U.S. trash. But the main point is to make stuff disappear. Waste-fueled power plants were built mostly in the 1980s and early 1990s, encouraged by a 1978 federal law. Burning stuff up doesn’t make it entirely disappear, even once the ash is disposed of. That makes garbage an attractive, if marginal, alternative to fossil fuels in some areas.

Connected Everything: Have We Finally Reached the Tipping Point? - Renewable Energy World There is a lot of buzz about the Internet of Things (IoT) these days. But what does the proliferation of these smart and connected devices mean for our energy systems? I was recently in Home Depot, taking my usual look at LED prices to see how much they had come down. I was excited to see that they had dropped to around $4 per bulb. On this particular shopping trip, I found something a bit more interesting than just the declining price of LEDs. I got home, connected the system (some assembly required), and now my front and back porch lights are connected and controllable via my iPhone. The behavior of large commercial energy users, and certainly grid operators, around the new wave of connected and smart applications is quite a bit more rational than my “wow factor” experience getting into connected lighting. I will be hosting a two-part online meeting on April 20 called Connected Everything – What it Means for the Grid. Who are the leading providers of these smart applications?

March: How best to encourage renewable energy after COP21 14 March 2016 Participants at the IEA Renewable Energy Working Party workshop in Paris. More than 150 researchers, government officials, investors and other energy experts met Monday with IEA officials in Paris to share ideas about the opportunities and challenges for renewable energy following the global accord to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius. The findings from the invitation-only workshop of the IEA Renewable Energy Working Party (REWP) will help inform Agency recommendations, including a special report on renewable energy in the forthcoming World Energy Outlook 2016. Executive Director Fatih Birol told the participants that the COP21 accord is just the first step towards a new energy sector. Besides the effect of fossil fuel costs, the workshop looked at the cost-effectiveness of carbon pricing and other ways to improve the competitiveness and uptake of renewables necessary to meet the COP21 pledge. Read more about the workshop here.