Infrastructure

Sustainable Development is Not Possible Without Sustainable Energy

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (C) and his wife Ban Soon-taek receive Brazil’s football team jerseys as gifts from residents during a visit to the Babilonia shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 27, 2010.

In rural villages in East Africa, nearly 150 women entrepreneurs are selling solar lamps and cell phone chargers that provide clean and reliable lighting and connectivity to remote and energy-poor communities. These women, empowered by the social enterprise Solar Sister, are the ground troops of social and economic development. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 8, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Powering US Transportation Through the Gas Line in Your Home?

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As US natural gas producers note the benefits of existing infrastructure while seeking ways of stimulating demand for newly abundant shale gas, questions continue to swirl about the total cost of conversion.

Beyond the potential of natural gas for the long-haul trucking industry, as championed by Texas oilman T. Boone Pickens, gas advocates say private cars are a clear target market, since gas as an auto fuel is currently roughly less than half the cost of gasoline, while at the same time emitting much lower levels of greenhouse gases. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 5, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Mass Transit Use Jumps Amid High Gas Prices

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Mass transit use jumped 5% in the first quarter of 2012, as high gas prices and a rebounding economy put more people on the bus and train. Over 2.65 billion trips were made using trains, buses, ferries or street cars in the first quarter of 2012, according to the American Public Transportation Association. That’s up from 2.5 billion trips in the same period last year. The increase was one of the largest quarterly jumps on record, and comes on the heels of a 2011 ridership rate that was the second highest since 1957 — when widespread use of the car and suburbanization began to turn many people away from mass transit. Of course, high gasoline prices were a defining theme at the start of 2012. Gas rose to nearly $4 a gallon — its highest level ever for that time of year — as an expanding economy and fears over Iran drove up the price of oil.

 /  Published June 4, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Survey Surprises: Smart Grid Impediments, Electric Vehicle Roadblocks and More

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The greatest roadblock to developing smart grids in the US is not high up-front investment, good news when 65 million electric vehicles could be on the road by 2025, according to the results of a recent annual electric utility industry survey. Infrastructure firm Black & Veatch queried over 500 qualified industry participants about some of the most prescient issues of the day and the results may surprise you.

The top issues the industry is concerned about in 2012 are aging infrastructure, reliability and the environment. Aging infrastructure steadily crept to the top of the list over the past three years – in the 2009/2010 survey the issue ranked sixth in a list of the top ten. The importance of security has also gained importance according to the survey participants. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 4, 2012 at 10:00 AM

An Unlikely Energy Development Opportunity Emerges in Haiti

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Essentially starting from scratch, Haiti has a unique opportunity to build the kind of sustainable power generation, transmission and distribution system that could be replicated in other developing nations.

Although deep poverty remains a challenge, the country’s leaders say they are eager to move forward into the twenty first century with governmental and economic stability supported by reliable energy infrastructure. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 30, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Enbridge Details Pipeline Expansion Projects

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Enbridge said it has secured funding for $2.6 billion in additional pipeline projects linking western Canadian oil to eastern markets, while Enbridge Energy Partners said it will spend $360 million to expand its crude-oil mainline system. Enbridge said its Eastern Access expansion projects will include the expansion of its Toledo pipeline, which connects with the Enbridge mainline in Stockbridge, Mich., and serves refineries at Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, and a rereversal of its Line 9B from Westover, Ontario to Montreal to serve refineries in Quebec. The company previously announced plans for a rereversal of Line 9A from Sarnia, Ontario to Westover.

 /  Published May 18, 2012 at 9:40 AM

Utility of the Future: The Upside of Disruption

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It is easy to enumerate the challenges facing the utility sector over the coming decade, but participants in DNV KEMA’s fifth “Utility of the Future” Summit in Washington, DC today were optimistic about the opportunities to build on what many pointed out was a relationship of deep trust with consumers and regulators.

Southern Company Services CEO Susan Story grabbed the conference’s attention with an easy command of extensive facts about the largest vertically integrated US utility’s efforts to adjust to changing operating and technology environments. She balanced the deep dives with illustrative examples and a strategic view of her industry’s changing place in the world. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 16, 2012 at 8:00 AM

Four Things That Are Different About Electricity Infrastructure

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Infrastructure investing has been a hot business sector for several years against a background of swift economic development in the emerging world and efforts by developed-world governments to limit the impacts of a grinding recession, energy infrastructure investment has continued to lag needs.

While investing in water or transportation infrastructure has links to energy both in the way deals are structured and in how the actual assets impact each other, energy infrastructure has some key differences, highlighted by the American Society of Civil Engineers in its recent report on Investment Trends in Electricity Infrastructure. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 10, 2012 at 8:00 AM

The Bill To (Mostly) Avoid Blackouts? $75 Billion Annually

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Anyone who thought economics was the dismal science should try civil engineering.

Despite more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in investment from 2001 to 2010 the US is still facing an enormous shortfall in electricity infrastructure. That decade was marked by higher spending on reliability in the years that followed the high-profile California blackouts and were interrupted by an equally notable New York City blackout. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 9, 2012 at 11:45 AM

What Drives a Global Future for Natural Gas?

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Natural gas could reach the status of a globally priced and traded commodity within five years if sufficient shipping capacity is developed.

The use of natural gas in transport has the potential to change the role of energy infrastructure, politics and investing, but without the right mix of government policies and business commitment fuel consumption patterns will lag broader shifts that include a shift in consumption power to emerging economies. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 7, 2012 at 8:30 AM
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