Janus is the Roman God with faces that look backward and forward. With New Jersey having recently enacted a “solar resurrection bill,” Gaurav Naik, principal of GeoGenix, one of New Jersey’s oldest solar integrators, looks at where the state’s solar industry has been and where it is headed.
Q. First, please tell us a little about GeoGenix and about yourself. Keep reading →
New Jersey is the Germany of the United States when it comes to solar power. It’s a place not known for its sunshine, but thanks to some sound policy the state has become a solar leader. In the first quarter of 2012, New Jersey even managed to lead the nation in newly installed PV capacity, with 173.8 megawatts to California’s 148.4 MW.
And now the state has made a move to keep this good thing going. Keep reading →
Regional transmission organizations (RTOs) must be more transparent in their operations and accountable to the states where they operate, says Malcolm Woolf, Director of the Maryland Energy Administration.
“We are at the mercy of PJM,” the Middle Atlantic regional transmission operator, said Woolf. “We’re increasingly aware we do not have the tools we need to solve problems” of electricity supply and price for state citizens. Keep reading →
A single Northeastern US state is preparing to miss out on growing export markets for woody biomass fuel production due to pending new regulation designed to lower carbon emissions. The decision would be a departure from the design of most regulations and markets designed to prevent global warming in Europe and the US.
Massachusetts is poised to adopt a regulation which, according to biomass experts, would keep forest products on the renewable energy sidelines. Keep reading →
As presidential candidates prepare positions on energy policy, a coalition of U.S. citizen groups is calling for the phase-out of natural gas, coal and nuclear power in favor of a more aggressive adoption of renewable-energy sources.
Thirty-six local organizations who say they represent 1.1 million members reject President Obama’s “all of the above” approach to energy policy, saying it perpetuates the dominance of fossil fuels while avoiding what they call the “real solutions” of clean energy. Keep reading →
Future natural gas transportation costs to New York City could be reduced with the expansion of the existing Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline from Linden, New Jersey to Manhattan, New York (see map here). On May 22, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-the main jurisdictional authority over the construction of interstate natural gas pipelines in the United States-approved an 800,000 million British thermal unit (MMBtu) per day, or 800,000 dekatherms per day, expansion of the pipeline.
This project is slated to begin service in November 2013 and represents one of the biggest transportation service expansions in the Northeast during the past two decades. The project could have the following effects on the New York City market: reduce reliance on oil-fired generators, enhance the reliability of natural gas supplies, and lower transportation costs-especially in the winter. Spectra Energy secured firm transportation agreements for this expansion with these customers: Consolidated Edison (170,000 MMBtu per day); Chesapeake Energy Marketing, Inc. (425,250 MMBtu per day); and Statoil Natural Gas LLC (204,750 MMBtu per day). Keep reading →
Jeanine Cotter’s two-hour commute from her San Francisco home to her job as in-house counsel at software maker Intuit gave her plenty of time to think — mostly about how much she disliked commuting. “It was nonproductive time,” says Cotter, age 46, who began making the drive in 2000. Those lost hours, combined with the demands of her work, made it difficult for her to meet her family’s needs. “It was hard to find balance,” recalls the mom of three. Having seen entrepreneurs in action — small business was the core of Intuit’s customer base — Cotter admired their flexibility, and she began itching to start her own company. Around 2004, conversations with her parents and husband, all of whom had experience in renewable energy, got her thinking about solar contracting.
California energy regulators believe energy storage capacity could reach up to 8,000 MW by 2020, and could be further accelerated by renewables targets and the ongoing closure of one of two of the state’s nuclear power plants.
Michael Gravely, deputy chief of R&D at the California Energy Commission said he anticipated “fairly substantial amount of increase in services” in energy storage to balance the grid and integrate renewables over the next decade. Keep reading →
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
A reported plan by New York State government to allow natural gas drilling in a handful of counties may represent an effective lifting of the state’s moratorium on fracking but increases the chances that energy companies will run into local opposition, analysts said. Keep reading →
In the farm country of southern Kansas, water is a precious commodity. And not just for farming — for fracking.
