Utility Scale

Optimize Your Building with Innovative Energy-efficient Technology

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Buildings represent a large percentage of all the energy consumed in the United States. That’s why increasing the energy efficiency of buildings – especially existing ones – has become a major priority for many cities throughout the country. In addition to enhancing overall quality of life, transforming commercial and industrial properties combats climate change and fosters innovation that ultimately strengthens our economy.

This push for high-performance buildings has created a market ripe with innovations in building technology. Building technologies such as high-efficiency replacement motors, variable frequency drives (VFDs), lighting and controls for heating and cooling equipment are rapidly improving. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 5, 2012 at 9:00 AM

Duke Energy: What a Utility of the Future Might Look Like

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Transformation of the ageing electric power grid in the US is inevitable and urgent; most people in the energy industry can agree on that.

But exactly at what pace and how the future electric system will look are hotly debated. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 27, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Oregon Eco-Winery Goes Beyond LEED

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In 2002, more than a dozen structures and countless trees were scorched in the course of the Biscuit Fire, which took down roughly 500,000 acres in southern Oregon. Now a Dayton-area winery with a history of green innovation – Stoller Family Estate – has put a number of those trees to use in its new tasting room, along with a whole lot of solar power.

This wood comes courtesy of the “standing dead,” i.e., trees that were killed by the fire but were left standing, often in excellent shape for those willing to make use of salvaged wood. Stoller put that wood to work in constructing its new tasting room, which features mostly reclaimed wood. Wood from the Biscuit fire was used in the building’s rolling ceiling, while the tasting room’s large support columns were upcycled from an old Portland warehouse. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 12, 2012 at 1:15 PM

Appetite Grows Among Consumers for Green Brands in Latin America

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Data show that consumers in Latin America value products made with renewable energy sources, but no single brand currently stands out as having this distinction, giving companies an opportunity to establish a “green” reputation ahead of the curve.

The Global Consumer Wind Study conducted by wind turbine manufacturer Vestas in partnership with Bloomberg quantifies and analyzes the importance people around the world place on addressing climate change and various means of doing so.

Citizens in the Latin American countries analyzed in the GCWS – Brazil, Chile and Mexico – ranked climate change as one of the more serious challenges facing the world today. Greater than 90% of the respondents in these countries said they would like to see an “increased use of” renewable energy over the next five years.

At the same time, fewer than 10% of Latin American respondents want to see an increased use of fossil fuels over the next five years.

Putting Their Money Where Their Mouths Are

Consumers in Latin America also expressed a willingness to pay a premium for a wide range of products including cars, software, cell phones and clothes, if they were made with renewable energy sources. For example over 30% of Latin American consumers “would definitely be willing” to pay a premium for a car manufactured using renewable energy, compared with only 11% in the United States, according to the GCWS.

The evidence appears to show that consumers in Latin America find climate change a pressing global concern that can be mitigated through increased use of renewable energy and would even pay more for products that advanced this goal.

However, there is currently no mechanism in the Latin American countries queried for identifying which products or brands are “greener” than others. In Brazil, 77% of respondents said that a label identifying products manufactured from renewable energy would be “very important” to them. Such a label would be very important to 59% of respondents in Mexico and 54% in Chile.

In addition, 30% to 40% of the respondents in Latin American countries said current guidance about which products are made with renewable energy is “not at all sufficient” and fewer than 10% found this guidance to be “very sufficient.”

The Brazilian Wind Energy Association (ABEEólica) and the Brazilian Clean Energy Generation Association (ABRAGEL) recognize the appetite on behalf of consumers for this kind of information and are launching a clean energy certificate program, “which will be given to companies that buy energy directly from renewable energy generators, such as wind farms, ABEEólica told Breaking Energy in an email.

“This certificate is aimed to enhance socio-environmental responsibilities of companies, and giving consumers information on the environmental impacts of their consumption, and also the option to choose a more environmental-friendly product,” ABEEólica said.

This piece appears on Breaking Energy as part of the Energy Transparency series in partnership with Vestas.

 /  Published August 29, 2012 at 11:30 AM

FERC Licenses First U.S. Wave Power Project

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Ocean Power Technologies has gained approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the complete build-out of its wave power station off the southern Oregon Coast, the first wave power station to be licensed in the U.S.

FERC granted a 35-year license for the wave power station to OPT subsidiary Reedsport OPT Wave Park, LLC. OPT said in a news release that construction of the first PowerBuoy® is almost completed and should be deployed 2.5 miles off the Reedsport coast later this year. After the first buoy is deployed, OPT will build up to 9 additional buoys and their grid connection infrastructure – assuming additional funding and the remaining regulatory approvals are obtained. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 27, 2012 at 10:30 AM

An Unlikely Energy Leader: Maryland Makes A Splash

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Downtown Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

When Americans think about the states that lead in energy, they conjure up Texas, California, perhaps Alaska or West Virginia and – with fracking – now Pennsylvania and Ohio. Maryland isn’t an obvious choice. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 22, 2012 at 12:05 PM

Two Billion Square Feet Of LEED-Certified Commercial Space

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How successful has the U.S. Green Building Council‘s (USGBC) LEED program been in bringing green building to the commercial sector? Exactly two billion square feet of successful, according to a recent announcement [PDF] – with seven billion more coming down the pike.

A number of factors converge in LEED’s popularity with the commercial sector – among them, energy efficiency and publicity. Because commercial buildings leave the lights on longer and require more of their HVAC systems than residential structures, green building systems can pay for themselves in short order (and serve to lower operating expenses thereafter). Also, that lovely glass plaque announcing a building’s LEED status to the world has proven attractive to many companies looking to build a brand and gain favor with green-minded customers. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 22, 2012 at 10:15 AM

Bill Clinton Urges Focus on Clean Energy While Musk Admits to Tough Times at Tesla

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Energy efficiency and solar are the low hanging fruit for American companies both at home and overseas, former President Bill Clinton said yesterday.

“We should pick the low hanging fruit. It always begins with efficiency. We’re much more energy efficient than we used to be but we have not made a serious attempt to get it to scale,” Clinton said in the closing keynote of the National Clean Energy Conference in Las Vegas last week. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 13, 2012 at 8:30 AM

China’s Rare Earth Supply to Get Even Rarer (and Why that Should Worry You)

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Quick Take – The good news: China is taking environmental goals more seriously. The bad news: As a result, it plans to shutter one third of its 23 rare earth mines and one half of its 99 rare earth smelters and reduce its rare earth exports by one fifth.

Since China controls 95% of the world’s rare earth supplies, the ensuing shortage could have a major impact on industries that are dependent on these materials, including renewables, electric vehicles, energy storage. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 9, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Through Innovation and Investment, the U.S. Can Lead in Next-Generation Energy, Nuclear Fusion

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The U.S. innovation system has a rich history of developing transformational technologies that usher in new eras of economic growth. The ultimate success of all energy technologies – whether coal, natural gas, oil, hydropower, nuclear, solar, or wind – has depended upon a tradition of public support during their research and development stage.

Consistent R&D support allowed new technologies to move through the stages of innovation – from basic and applied research, to prototyping, demonstration, commercialization, until they are finally market competitive. This process often takes decades, so returns are uncertain and dispersed, meanwhile, costs are certain, immediate, and focused, – so the private sector underinvests in R&D. Since the private market is not designed to address these problems, there is a clear role for smart government policy. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 3, 2012 at 12:30 PM
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