There simply couldn’t be a better time to talk about how renewable energy is financed, and how changes in financing are affecting the entirety of a market that has matured at a rapid pace.
As bankers, project developers, analysts and regulators gather for another year at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum – Wall Street, they will be standing before that overused but apt metaphor: A crossroads. Keep reading →
It’s not just oil that’s turning Kansas’ rural communities into America’s latest boomtowns.
Wind turbines are being built right next to oil rigs, bringing an additional rush of jobs and revenue to the small towns along the southern border of the state — as well as big paychecks to local landowners. BP Wind Energy is currently building the biggest wind farm in the state, and it plans to begin production by the end of this year. The project has already brought 500 jobs to the three counties its wind turbines span: Harper, Barber and Kingman, according to BP. These same counties are also filling up with hundreds of oil workers, as big fracking and exploration companies seek to tap the billions of barrels of oil that are estimated to be in the Mississippian limestone formation.
The energy sector is one of the most regulated in the US, and at the same time, one of the most innovative industries in the world.
Amid a tidal wave of change wrought by IT, communications technology, engineering advances and huge economic shifts the energy business has not just managed to keep the lights on and transport moving – it has launched thousands upon thousands of megawatts of new energy generation technologies and changed the outlook for one of the world’s fundamental sources of development and growth. Keep reading →
Energy benchmarking can help you better understand your commercial property’s energy use and monitor performance over time. It allows for comparisons among similar building types and helps identify which ones could operate more efficiently.
The Environmental Protection Agency and its ENERGY STAR® Program offers a free online tool called Portfolio Manager that allows users to track and assess building energy consumption for a single building or an entire portfolio. Portfolio Manager can help comply with local energy laws, set investment priorities, identify under-performing buildings, verify efficiency improvements and receive EPA recognition for superior energy performance. Keep reading →
The electric utility industry needs to replace nearly half of its skilled workforce as a generation reaches retirement age in the next few years. Keep reading →
The spread of innovative drilling techniques combined with high oil prices have caused a renaissance in American oil exploration and production. The boom has been confined in large part to traditional oil-and-gas states like Texas and North Dakota, but other states that have seen resource dividends pass them by in previous eras are now enjoying their own expansions thanks to oil and gas development.
The latest round of American boomtowns to be profiled by CNNMoney lie in Kansas, and the site has profiled seven of the workers benefiting from oil investment even as they grapple with the challenges of a resource sector that often requires a high degree of mobility and a tolerance for isolation. Keep reading →
Additional wind power in the US Midwest could cut wholesale electricity prices by more than 25%, saving a typical household as much as $200 a year, proponents of new renewable energy capacity in the region said.
The analysis for the advocacy group Americans for a Clean Energy Grid found that if 20 GW was added to the existing 10 GW of wind capacity in the MISO region, consumers’ power costs would decline by $3 billion to $6.9 billion a year after the costs of new transmission is factored in. Keep reading →
Who has the power in the power industry?
Minority communities for years have seen large industrial facilities as environmental justice issues, says CASEnergy’s Patrick Moore, with high-impact plants built in their midst because they’re powerless to stop it, but he insists nuclear is different. Keep reading →
Plans to roll back parts of Pennsylvania’s controversial new law on natural gas development would make the state less attractive to energy companies seeking to develop the Marcellus Shale, one of America’s biggest gas fields, critics say.
Democratic lawmakers in the state House want to remove a measure in Act 13 that restricts the control of municipalities over gas development, and to cancel a section that requires doctors to sign a confidentiality agreement if gas companies disclose the identities of fracking chemicals to them. Keep reading →
