Wind

110,000 Green Jobs Created in 2012

By


Despite wildfires, drought, a superstorm and an election, 2012 wasn’t all chaos. As the talking heads debated, the clean energy and transportation sectors continued their quiet but steady upward growth. Companies and communities across the country announced more than 300 projects in 2012 that are expected to create 110,000 jobs, according a report released today by Environmental Entrepreneurs.

Although fossil fuel industry lobbyists and the politicians who love them threatened to eliminate funding and tax incentives, the energy and transportation sectors soldiered on, further proving their value as the future of our economy. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 8, 2013 at 2:00 PM

Bill Richardson On Science, Politics and Energy

By


In the presence of recently nominated new Obama Administration energy secretary Dr. Ernest Moniz, MIT Professor of Physics and Engineering Systems, former Governor Bill Richardson stated that science should play an important role in politics.

The country needs scientists to be more involved in politics and find ways to collaborate in the policy making and review process. Richardson also recognized the path started by Obama in this direction by appointing Dr. Steven Chu to energy secretary during his first term, but he said more initiatives need to be taken to facilitate scientist involvement. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 8, 2013 at 11:30 AM

Sequestration Could Mean End of Green Jobs Count

By


Reports today indicated that the Labor Department is planning to cut release of a number of data sets if the budget cuts required by sequestration go through today (as looks likely).

The green jobs data set “provides data on jobs related to production of green goods and services, jobs related to use of green technologies and practices, and green careers.” Keep reading →

 /  Published March 1, 2013 at 2:05 PM

Big Solar Looks To Grow With Precise Cloud Forecasts

By


The forecast is looking better for getting more solar energy onto the grid and at lower cost, scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research say.

A team at the federally funded research and development center in Boulder, Colo., is embarking on a three-year project aimed at giving solar power plant and grid operators three-day forecasts that break down expected sunlight and power production by 15-minute increments. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 25, 2013 at 8:30 AM

The Top 10 Wind Energy States In 2012

By


We already knew it was a record-breaking year for the U.S. wind power industry in 2012, as fears that the production tax credit for wind would vanish drove installations at a frenzy pace toward the end of the year. Some 8,380 megawatts of the year’s 13,124 megawatts of generating capacity went online in the fourth quarter, which means that nearly 15 percent of the total wind power capacity ever installed in the country happened in the last three months of 2012.

But which states did the most damage in the year? A new release from the American Wind Energy Association breaks it down. Keep reading →

 /  Published February 1, 2013 at 12:00 PM

Wind Energy PTC Extension Underlines Lobby’s Growing Heft in DC

By


They took it right to the edge, but the US wind energy business managed to rescue the production tax credit around which many of their projects and manufacturing investments are structured. In the process Capitol Hill supporters of the sector rescued a claimed 37,000 jobs and the supply chain for a rapidly expanding form of power generation.

The effort to rescue the wind energy PTC and the also-extended investment tax credit (ITC) was not directly linked to the fiscal cliff debate, but became intertwined with the calendar-driven effort to prevent earlier tax cuts and credits from expiring without any replacement policy in place. The inclusion of the wind energy PTC, which was thought to be sufficiently likely to expire that companies spent significant sums as they rushed to turn on wind farms before the end of 2012, speaks to the expanded power of the wind industry groups in Washington, DC and the increased centrality of the wind energy business to major infrastructure and engineering firms with substantial US manufacturing operations including GE Energy, Siemens and Vestas. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 2, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Secretary Chu on the future of wind energy: http://1.usa.gov/YqAGUT

By

Secretary Chu on the future of wind energy: http://1.usa.gov/YqAGUT ENERGY

 /  Published December 26, 2012 at 11:35 AM

Wind Industry OK With Giving Up Tax Credit

By


The wind industry has a deal for lawmakers: they’re willing to sacrifice their tax credit for deficit reduction, as long as it’s not snatched away too quickly. Wind turbine makers say they’re OK with an industry plan to gradually phase out its tax credit as part of the fiscal cliff discussion — provided lawmakers extend it for another six years. The wind industry has been fretting that its tax credit – which covers about 30% of the cost of wind power — won’t be renewed when it expires at the end of 2012. The industry says up to 37,000 jobs are on the line if the credit expires. In a bid to prevent that from happening, the American Wind Energy Association said last week that the industry can compete against other power sources like coal and natural gas by 2018, so long as the credit doesn’t disappear before then.

 /  Published December 20, 2012 at 2:00 PM

A New Push to Cut Generators’ Carbon Emissions

By


A new plan for deep cuts in carbon emissions from US power plants is designed to help counteract climate change and reduce health risks but could also lead to more job cuts in the beleaguered coal industry.

The environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council recently issued the proposal that would use existing technologies to cut generators’ carbon pollution by 26 percent by 2020 and 34 percent by 2025, also reducing emissions of other pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 18, 2012 at 11:30 AM

GE Reaches Milestone for Wind Installations as US Industry Heads for Cliff

By

A Vietnamese employee of GE’s newly built turbine generator factory walks in front of wind turbine components inside an assembly line in the northern coastal city of Hai Phong on October 15, 2010.

GE last month celebrated its 20,000th wind turbine installation, a gargantuan achievement given the US power generation giant only stepped into the sector in 2002 when it purchased the wind power assets from recently bankrupted Enron. Keep reading →

 /  Published December 17, 2012 at 12:00 PM
Page 12 of 391...8910111213141516...39