When Austin Energy put out a request for proposal for a new advanced distribution management system (ADMS) in early 2012, the Texas utility compiled more than 4,200 requirements that the vendor would have meet to win the contract.
The project will involve a combined outage management and distribution management system and also a SCADA system specifically for the distribution system, something that Austin did not already have. Keep reading →
The BGS Auction in early February triggered an increase in prices, lifting them to $130 for RY 2013 SRECs. Now a month after the close of the BGS and with the upcoming EDC Auction as the next large market event in sight, RY 2013 SREC prices have softened slightly from their six-month peak. The spot contract traded to $117.50 on March 8. Karbone anticipates that prices could potentially retreat further in the lead up to the March 19th EDC Auction, when 53,000 to 62,000 RY 2013 SRECs will be introduced to the market.
Annual Installation Potential Breakdown Keep reading →
Sometimes getting bigger isn’t the same as growing up. California’s cleantech economy has slowed its intense growth cycle in recent months, but the emergence of new credit-worthy investors and intensifying technology innovation in the state has helped consolidate the gains of the last few years.
That’s the message of the latest California Green Innovation Index, released today by the organization Next 10 and compiled by Collaborative Economics. Keep reading →
Rising oil and gas prices have brought big oil, plenty of workers and lots of housing headaches to the nation’s fastest-growing boomtowns. The small city of Williston, N.D., was once a sleepy farm town — until oil companies discovered ways to tap the vast Bakken formation believed to hold as many as 24 billion barrels of oil. “It’s a game-changer, a bonanza,” said Tom Rolfstad, executive director for the city economic development department.
Wind farms have been accused of killing hosts of birds that get caught in their turbines, accusations that have failed to slow the proliferation of wind energy installations across the country, but killing an eagle is a different matter.
The US Fish and Wildlife Service is investigating the death of a golden eagle at a wind farm in Kern County, California, and is asking for local resident’s help. Keep reading →
The NY State Assembly voted to enact legislation that would extend the moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing until 2015, aiming to facilitate additional health and environmental impact assessments.
On March 6, 2013, the New York State Assembly passed a bill to further suspend issuance of permits for high volume hydraulic fracturing until May 15, 2015. The bill passed with a vote of 95-40 and marks the Assembly’s third moratorium, following similar measures in 2010 and 2011. The industry currently awaits the release of DEC’s Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) and a subsequent ruling for permit issuance. Keep reading →
The Department of Energy has led sector technology changes in part by helping create a series of “data jams,” and today announced several new related events on its blog, including one set for the upcoming New York Energy Week.
From Energy.gov: Keep reading →
California has traditionally thought of itself as the leader in US environmental policy; where the state goes, the nation follows. If that’s the case, the next round of clean energy policy promises to be no more decisive or conclusive than the last ten years of lawsuits and countersuits. A 2006 law passed by voters in California’s infamous bottom-up system of interactive democracy requires renewable energy investments by the state’s utilities, but current lawmakers are backpedaling on widely acknowledged goals, according to recent coverage by the Associated Press as featured on the San Francisco Chronicle. Read more about that here, and read some of AOL’s in depth insight on the issue here.
The rise of the energy workforce has been a broader story in the slow economic recovery of the past few years, as demand for qualified workers in oil and gas fields alongside related sectors has proved a unusual bright spot for jobs. The Houston Chronicle notes that the trend has filtered even into internships; while interns in other sectors often go unpaid, energy company interns can early properly grown-up salaries. Keep reading →
What’s next, a blackout at the Academy Awards?
During one of the highest profile television events of the year in the US, viewers and players sat in the dark after one half of the storied Superdrome stadium was plunged into extended darkness. The first thought for many in the energy sector was of Entergy, the electric generating firm that is the dominant power supplier to the region. Keep reading →
In the popular imagination, New York City is dominated by finance, media and other professional jobs of the kind likely to feature in glossy television shows. But the steady departure of manufacturing jobs that once employed many of the city’s residents has been embraced by city leaders as a challenge they can meet by leveraging access to the centers of commerce, education and technology for which the city is famous.
New York has traditionally ceded energy and cleantech leadership to other places, notably Houston and San Francisco, but is increasingly building public support for clean energy companies and projects that can replace its traditional manufacturing base and diversify the city’s economy. Hard on the heels of Governor Cuomo’s announcement of a billion-dollar Green Bank to underpin infrastructure development, the New York City Economic Development Corporation says it will open a new NYC Clean Technology Entrepreneur Center. Keep reading →
