California wants private companies to take the lead on investment in energy efficiency.
California’s critical investments in energy efficiency must come from private debt and equity markets, rather than the government, said the state’s most recently appointed public utilities commissioner. Keep reading →
The only way for utilities to meet demand as they retire coal-fired power plants will be to build a host of new natural-gas fired units, Deutsche Bank Vice President and Climate Change Research Analyst Nils Mellquist says in this Breaking Energy podcast.
Mellquist speaks here with Breaking Energy’s Felicity Carus after a presentation at the Ceres conference in California where he said the US had the potential to become the “Saudi Arabia of gas.” Keep reading →
Total #cleantech investment now over $400m: @google to invest $55mn in Alta Wind Energy Center in CA for 1,550 MW plant http://bit.ly/iG3RrK @AOLenergy
The US is poised to become the Saudi Arabia for natural gas and has the potential to quickly become a net exporter as shale reserves are exploited.
“It’s clear from the supply side that the US is the Saudi Arabia of gas we have based on the most recent estimates at least 40 years of supply from shale alone based on current demand in the economy,” Deutsche Bank vice president and senior research analyst Nils Mellquist told Breaking Energy. “China has around 400 years of supply based on their relatively modest gas demand.” Keep reading →
Insurance buyers expect their insurer to be able to return them to financial health when something unforeseen happens. For that reason insurance companies are generally among the most conservative financial service institutions. Insurers don’t address risks they don’t understand or can’t quantify. With this said, it is noteworthy that the property, liability and life segments of the insurance industry are all very active in their support on renewable energy today in two very specific ways.
First, as a direct result of the demonstrated improvements in manufacturing, construction, operations, and the overall risk profile of renewable energy, insurers now actively compete to insure the risks on the basis of pricing and coverage conditions. Today, there are at least 15 major international and numerous regional insurers addressing various forms of risks directly related to renewable energy projects – many of them with divisions now focused exclusively on renewable energy business. Insurance coverages are much broader, and costs are a fraction of what they were just 10 years ago. In fact, issues in financing renewable energy projects are driving some of the most innovative changes under consideration in property and liability insurance today. Finally, because renewable energy presents a clear opportunity for business growth, the number of insures competing for business is forecasted to increase, leading to an even more robust competitive market favorable for insurance buyers. Keep reading →
Canada is America’s largest supplier of oil and it plans to stay that way. Keep reading →
Efforts to spread the production and use of clean electricity production as part of job creation are global.
This video outlines a project from the World Bank in the politically volatile Middle East, where the bank’s funds are helping build solar energy. The bank has begun investing millions in concentrated solar projects (CSP) that will not only capture the desert heat for electricity production, but also help temper the region’s sky-high unemployment rates. Keep reading →
NRG Energy is a massive and diverse power generation company with assets ranging from lignite coal-fired units in Germany to solar generation in California. Keep reading →
Energy management firm Hara received $25 million of funding today, writes TechCrunch. Keep reading →
Chinese energy consumption, and the country’s large-scale investment in clean energy, are increasingly becoming central to the development of the competing US clean energy industry.
Recent efforts at think tanks, colleges and other institutions to bring the US and Chinese clean energy industries to a closer understanding has resulted in a host of events, with Harvard’s China Energy and Environment Conference a recent high-profile addition to the field. Keep reading →
