Strong quake near #Iran nuclear plant kills 3 http://bit.ly/XAV9Hl @HDNER
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DOE’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative would accelerate manufacturing of clean energy products and strengthen competitiveness of the U.S. clean energy sector in the global energy market.
On March 26, 2013, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new program – the Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative – to support manufacturing of clean energy products in the U.S. The DOE announced the initiative at the opening of its Oak Ridge Carbon Fiber Technology Facility in Tennessee. The facility manufactures cost-efficient and lightweight carbon fiber used in electric vehicles, energy storage components, and wind turbines. According to the DOE, carbon fiber can reduce the weight of a passenger car by 50% and enhance fuel efficiency by approximately 35%. DOE estimates that the material could cut the weight of vehicles by up to 750 pounds by 2020. Keep reading →
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), a rocket-engine manufacturer based in Los Angeles, Calif., has marked a major milestone in technology that will provide reliable solar energy on demand – even when the sun isn’t shining.
The last of 14 Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) receiver panels and heat shields have been installed at the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy project, and construction of the 10,400 articulating mirrors, or heliostats, on the 1600-acre heliostat field is underway in Tonopah, Nevada. PWR has provided the worldwide exclusive license to SolarReserve, a developer of large-scale solar energy projects based in Santa Monica, Calif., for the molten salt power tower and heliostat technologies. Keep reading →
Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, Masdar, recently inaugurated the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant and took a group of journalists on a tour of Masdar City, a grand urban sustainability experiment.
When it reaches 130 degrees fahrenheit in the summer, the UAE requires lot of air conditioning that is currently supplied mostly with natural gas, much of it imported. The country’s rapidly expanding economy and population has caused natural gas consumption to outstrip production and imports to surpass exports. The UAE is one of the few countries to both import and export LNG. Keep reading →
There’s still a ways to go, but PETE is moving along.
“Photon enhanced thermionic emission,” the conceptual breakthrough that Stanford researchers introduced three years ago as a way to capture and make use of both the light and heat in a solar device, has undergone improvements that boost its efficiency by 100 times. Keep reading →
It may not compare to the German solar market. But the U.S. is definitely becoming a major force globally when it comes to new installations.
According to the 2012 Solar Market Insight report from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association, America installed 3,313 megawatts of solar capacity last year — accounting for 11 percent of total global installations. That’s up from 7 percent in 2011. Keep reading →
Central Hudson Gas and Electric based in Poughkeepsie, New York is working with state and federal authorities and industry groups to investigate a cyber attack earlier this month where hackers gained entry to as many as 110,000 customer accounts. Employees detected the computer system intrusion, which happened over a weekend, as a result of regular control procedures, the utility said.
So far there appears to be no evidence that customer information was misused or downloaded during the incident, but the utility has warned customers to monitor bank accounts for suspicious or unauthorized activity. Newsday reports that while customer information may have been compromised, a company spokesman indicated there is no evidence the intruders found their way to the electric infrastructure. The investigation is continuing. Keep reading →
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), a rocket engine maker based in California, celebrated another milestone in its effort to conserve energy and reduce waste with the commissioning of United Technology Corp.’s first operational large (400kW) fuel cell in the San Fernando Valley.
About 35 people attended the Jan. 9 event at PWR’s headquarters in Canoga Park, including Los Angeles City County Councilman Dennis Zine and representatives from California state assemblyman Bob Blumenfield’s office; the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power; and Southern California Gas Company. Keep reading →
Security analysts are predicting that 2013 is when nation-sponsored cyberwarfare goes mainstream – and some think such attacks will lead to actual deaths.
James Hughes, CEO of First Solar, recently gave a hugely interesting interview to Australia’s Renew Economy in which he discussed his company’s future, the state of the global solar market.
Hughes’ views on utility scale v. rooftop solar are intriguing and worth reading, as First Solar is one of the largest solar manufacturers in the world and a major player in the U.S. utility-scale solar market. The company has paid considerably less attention to small-scale commercial and residential solar, and this focus is reflected in Hughes’ comments about the future of distributed renewable energy generation: Keep reading →
