germany solar industry still growing

despite germany cutting feed-in-tarriffs (FITs), their solar PV market continues to remain strong.  this outcome may be a surprise to a number of market critics that forecasted otherwise.

expanded article here.

solar PV technology improvement to cut cost

san jose, ca-based twin creeks technologies has developed a new process for ultra-thin solar photovoltaic wafers.  this innovative technology is purported to reduce cost, which may assist in driving down panel price.

read the full release here. 

Denver Receives High Marks on Energy Policy for National Green Cities Study

A recent study of 27 US municipalities by Siemens, notes that the energy policy in Denver, Colorado is one of the best in the country.

Way to go, Denver!

Siemens' Study Acknowledges San Francisco as US City Leader in Sustainability

International corporation, Siemens, conducted a survey of 27 cities to quantify and stratify green/sustainable cities.  Among the 31 objective factors that the study reviewed, San Francisco has risen among the group as the official municipal green leader.

Metrics reviewed for the study included: CO2/capita, water consumption, recycling/capita, LEED-certified buildings, and other key objective measures.

The full study can be found here.

wireless electric vehicle (ev) charging?

automobile innovators believe that the eventual future of electric vehicles (ev) will be a far cry from extension cords and finding an outlet.  the vision is for wireless inductive charging.  this method seems very plausible for market induction, as it would increase user convenience dramatically.  

i would be curious to learn more of cost of the technology, implementation/construction of the infrastructure, and energy loss as a result of the technology operations.

chevy volt declared greenest car in 2011 by kelly blue book

kelly blue book just announced their list of the top ten greenest cars in 2011.  not surprising, the chevy volt, weighing in at 93 miles per gallon took the pole position over number two, toyota prius.  nice work, chevy!

new green professional (gpro) job training program launched in colorado

Green Job Training for Traditional Electricians

 Denver, CO, February 2, 2011 – Over 180 traditional electrical students were some of the first in the country to receive a new green building training called GPRO. GPRO was developed over the last 3 years at an expense of over $750,000 by the Urban Green Council chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the leading organization committed to a prosperous and sustainable future through cost-efficient and energy-saving green buildings. GPRO is a visionary job skill training that target those working in the building trades and will elevate the green building skills of the Colorado workers, keeping our workforce competitive in the emerging green marketplace.

 Through a unique partnership between Independent Electrical Contractors-Rocky Mountain (IECRM) and USGBC Colorado Chapter, GPRO was launched through a SESP state grant in January 2011 to all 3rd and 4th year Electrical Apprenticeship students at IECRM. The students that received the training were ecstatic at the opportunity and hungry for more. “The GPRO Fundamentals of Green Building class was great! The course was very informative and really relevant on all of the jobs we work on these days,” said student, Luke Fletemeyer.

“The LEED® green building certification program is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings. LEED®, however, has largely focused on developers, architects, and engineers—not those that actually construct the buildings. GPRO is designed to educate trades people in the who, what, and why of green building. GPRO empowers the workforce with the skills necessary to compete in today’s changing construction industry,” said Spenser Villwock, IECRM Executive Director. 

GPRO will be available to the public at the upcoming USGBC Colorado annual conference, Rocky Mountain Green, on April 19, 2011 in Denver, as well as through the IECRM Energy Academy later this spring. IECRM is a 170-member strong non-profit association and Colorado’s largest electrical apprentice training school, educating hundreds of electrical and renewable energy professionals each year.

For more information, visit www.IECRM.org. U.S. Green Building Council Colorado Chapter (USGBC Colorado) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to advancing and promoting sustainable planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment through education, improving industry guidelines, policy, advocacy, and information and resource sharing. To learn more, visit www.usgbccolorado.org.

renewable transmission...more visionary leadership needed

as the renewable industry worldwide continues to grow, issues with the infrastructure of energy transmission will grow alongside the emerging markets.  distributed energy and large-scale transmission will be hot-button topics that requires a wealth of visionary leadership from our governing agencies, utilities, and regulators.  

europe is leading part of this charge and you can read more about the transmission issues and possible solutions in this forward-thinking article.

new green news source for solar, energy efficiency, and expert opinions

check out "the spenser villwock green news" for the latest information on solar photovoltaic, energy efficiency, green building, environmental issues, and, more importantly, solutions for creating sustainable businesses.

solar study identifies market penetration

a boston consulting group released a recent study that identifies trajectory of solar market share to challenge conventional fossil fuel energy sources.

the study highlights a market equilibrium and economy of scale to hit the solar pv market in next 5-10 years in regions of pronounced solar resource.

with continued demand for solar products increasing along with advancements in the technology-- efficiency increase and resulting cost per unit decrease--the longterm outlook for the photovoltaic industry seems to be very promising.

us senate energy committee passes $3.6bn electric vehicle bill

as part of a push from the administration to launch the widespread adoption of electric vehichles (ev), the bill will work to create infrastructure for charging stations at targeted cities across the us (wsj article). the goal of this infusion of capital is to support ev industry growth and market adoption to the tune of 50% of all domestic vehicles be electric by 2030. very interested to see how this rolls out and where the targeted cities will be.

how solar photovoltaic panels work

quick video provides brief overview on solar pv.

diplomatic adventures navigating renewable energy in japan

meeting with iwate-ken governor and senior advisors to discuss renewable energy initiatives in northern japan.

getting further detail from industry development director for iwate-ken.  a number of strong take-aways thus far:

• city of morioka –green initiatives
• iwate prefecture –dedication to advancing green technologies
• kowai closed-loop biomass facility–creating energy from organic matter discards
• city of ninohe –green initiatives and solar installations
• iwate hospital –energy efficiency, green roof, and solar initiative
• kashiwadai hydro-electric power station –in-line small hydro facility generating 13,100kw in the three stations, interesting to note: facility on national park land and strong efforts to keep visual impairment of facilities from public eye
• green power kuzumaki –wind farm in kuzumaki, energy self-sufficient town of 8,000 people by renewables
• kashiwadai kougen –biomass energy production for kougen facilities

photovoltaic performance in heavy japanese snow

well, we toured a city facility with 50kW of solar pv in ninohe, japan on a day with 100% cloud cover and 1" snow accumulation per hour.  needless to say, we experienced the painful example of the intermittence in generation that photovoltaics are subject to.  fortunately, on such days the tendency of wind is in greater likelihood and, therefore, can serve as a secondary generation source.

there are a number of large wind generators in iwate prefecture that provide self-sufficiency for their demand area and surplus consumption.  this surplus is sold back to conventional energy producers via the grid and is mandated by the japanese government to be paid to the renewable energy generator at 2x the going kilowatt hour rate.  in this case, a typical japanese kwh goes for roughly .20cents.  surplus renewable energy (re) generation is purchased by a utility company from the re owner at .40cents per kwh.  not bad, eh?  it incentivizes larger systems beyond self-sufficiency for a homeowner or business to install--helping to leverage a fledgling renewable energy tidal wave to the conventional power generation on the grid.  we'll see what happens...
 

greening the city of baltimore, sustainably...

featured as this week's expert essayist with an audacious idea, www.audaciousideas.org, to create a true model of green industry creation and sustainability in baltimore, maryland.

baltimore has a ripe opportunity to foster green industry growth that will not only be environmentally beneficial, but will also elevate the financial and physical health of the community through green job-creation and generating substantial profit.  this triple-bottom line approach, i call green3.

ohayo gozamasu--good to meet you, renewable japan... (retrospective: week 1 of 5)

the professional renewable exchange team from colorado team's first week in japan has been tightly packed with site visits, information exchange, meeting with dignitaries and elected officials, and various meetings.

upon arriving in sendai city, miagi prefecture, japan, our colorado team has been on the move, nonstop.  our gracious and wonderful japanese hosts have set up a tight curriculum for our single focus exchange on renewable and sustainable industries, yet have orchestrated all the logistics to ensure that our travelling team is well-fed, rested, and able to be expedited to each location--so as we can remain focused on the goals of the exchange. domo arigato gozamasu!

our whirlwind exchange is nearing the end of the first intensive week.  during this time we have gained a strong overview of:

• city of morioka --green initiatives
• iwate prefecture --dedication to advancing green technologies
• kowai closed-loop biomass facility--creating energy from organic matter discards
• city of ninohe --green initiatives and solar installations
• iwate hospital --energy efficiency, green roof, and solar initiative
• kashiwadai hydro-electric power station --in-line small hydro facility generating 13,100kW in the three stations, interesting to note: facility on national park land and strong efforts to keep visual impairment of facilities from public eye
• green power kuzumaki --wind farm in kuzumaki
• kashiwadai kougen --biomass energy production for kougen facilities

thus far, take-aways from this experience have illustrated that there are a number of advances in renewable energy that the government and businesses of northeastern japan have taken.  a number of incentive programs for solar photovoltaic (pv) adoption, similar to those we have in the usa, have resulted in stimulating the purchase of systems for government buildings and beta model test applications.  they have an expressed roadblock in achieving economy of scale and targeted packaged programming to drive the residential solar pv market.

the biomass operations that we have seen have been modest in scale and have had a closed-loop application.  organic matter coming from the main farming facilities, being composted and digested for methane capture, transfer of methane to alternating current electricity, and reapplication of nutrient-rich soil amendment following the methane capture process.

the in-line hydro-electric facility was very impressive in it's attention to utilizing the kinesis of the river current and balancing the environmental degredation that can result from hydro facilities.  a large majority of the in-line system was masked by facility design to blend in to the natural environment and conduit is largely underground and, therefore, unseen by the national park visitors the facilities are housed within.

our travelling colorado renewable energy team looks forward to continuing our intensive focus in the coming weeks.  

30% of colorado's electricity from renewables by 2020

colorado state legislature passed hb 1001 last friday, which sets the renewable portfolio standard at one of the highest in the nation, 30% of all energy production via renewable technology--and within the next decade.  governor ritter will sign the bill into law later this month, as he noted in today's denver post.  this legislation is expected to call for over 100,000 rooftop solar photovoltaic systems to be installed within the state in the coming years.

an exciting next step in the continued new energy economy within the great state of colorado.

renewable energy potential by u.s. state

national renewable energy laboratories, nrel, released a study recently on the wind capacity for the entire united states.  the study found that 10.5gw of harnessable wind is contained within the union.  texas being the largest state and largest wind producer.

the new rules project expounded the nrel study to factor in solar photovoltaic, hydroelectric, geothermal, and off-shore wind.  the below was devised as part of the new rules undertaking.  very interesting and compelling conclusions from both nrel and nrp.  

recycled plastic homes

a wales-based company, swansea, has designed homes made of waste plastic.  the structural material is called thermal poly rock and has high r-value and allows for prefabricated design. 

it is also fire-retardant, water-proof, lighter than concrete, and does not rot.
at the end of its lifecycle, it can be recycled, too!
very innovative product!

hand-wash vs. dishwasher--revealed!

this debate circles around many households-- what saves more water: hand-washing dishes or using the dishwasher? the answer, based on a good deal of scientific anaysis, is resoundingly clear--dishwashers save water, money, and time.

the u.s. epa notes that an average energystar dishwasher saves over 5,000 gallons of water, $40 in utility costs, and up to 230 hours of your time, annually!

a european study gathered participants from 7 different countries illustrated similar results: hand-washing consumed 27 gallons per load, whereas a dishwasher utilized a scant 4 average gallons per load.

the answer to this debate? use a full dishwasher to do your dishes, and snuggle with your loved ones for the 230 hours each year you just earned back.