US offshore wind developers welcomed the federal government’s environmental assessment of expected projects off four eastern states, saying it would cut the time needed for permitting by around two years and boost the prospects that a number of planned projects will be built.
“The issuance of the draft EA…is very good news for the offshore wind industry,” said Jim Lanard, president of the Offshore Wind Development Coalition, a trade group. Keep reading →
Though San Francisco came in at the top of the recent New Urban: Cities and The Emerging Energy Economy, sponsored by Siemens and written by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), it is clear that each of the top five cities has taken a unique approach to energy efficiency.
“Cities have various strengths and weaknesses,” Siemens’ Chief Sustainability Officer Alison Taylor told Breaking Energy. There are no winners and losers in the report, she said. Keep reading →
Duke Energy will build a second wind farm in Kansas, the utility announced Wednesday.
Located in Gray County, approximately 200 miles west of Wichita, the 131 MW ‘Cimarron II’ will generate enough electricity to power nearly 40,000 homes, and will contribute to the company’s already robust $1.5 billion renewable generation portfolio. Keep reading →
Biomass has a problem: It burns.
Biomass-fueled electricity has an image problem created by its use of a combustion technology; biomass power plants burn something, emitting pollution from a smokestack. This fact has framed the debate over whether power from naturally-grown renewable fuels are truly green or simply greenwashing. Keep reading →
After a decade of sluggish and piecemeal progress on crafting a new electricity market, the US federal government is finally showing its hand in the growing debate over how to ease new infrastructure investment in the sector.
IBM’s smart grid project in Malta seemed unique because the island’s tiny size allowed for easy installation a national energy communications system. Though exponentially larger than Malta, a national and federally-mandated energy system may be nearer in the United States than ever before. Keep reading →
In an energy-starved world, debates about resource extraction often go global quickly.
The debate over hydraulic fracturing in the US has accelerated and intensified in recent week against the background of federal investigations into specific incidents at Chesapeake Energy operations and into the natural gas drilling industry more broadly. Keep reading →
Assessing how much natural gas and oil are in the ground, and where, involves a lot of complex science – along with big dollops of art and luck.
While experts say their ability to predict has improved markedly with advanced technology like 3-D seismic testing, they say the only proof remains actual drilling – and the most promising geology can still produce a dry hole. Keep reading →
If anyone knows clean and green energy it is former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, an unusual elected politician who also has a background as a public utility commissioner and served as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency a decade ago.
Nuclear energy needs to stay at its current 20% share of total electricity generation, Whitman told Breaking Energy during a swing through New York. One of the rare governors who has kept a high profile since leaving the administration, she now runs Whitman Strategy Group in New Jersey and Washington, DC and also serves as co-chair of the CASEnergy Coalition. Keep reading →
Private investors in the nuclear industry could still take advantage of federal tax credits before a 2014 construction deadline, despite permitting delays after the Fukushima disaster.
Alan Lederman of the Florida-based Gunster law firm said yesterday that section 45J, the nuclear reactor tax credit, presents investors with great income potential despite the “cloud” currently over the industry. Keep reading →
The current U.S. boom in shale-gas extraction has significant economic benefits that heavily outweigh the costs of air and water pollution caused by the industry, a new report said on Tuesday.
The analysis from the Manhattan Institute, a free-market advocate, said a typical well in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale field yields about $4 million in economic benefits compared with only $14,000 in environmental costs. Keep reading →
