Green Education Prospectus
Green Job Growth
Source: Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009, based on the National Establishment Time Series Database; analysis by Pew Center on the States and Collaborative Economics.
Green Job Distribution
Source: Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009, based on the National Establishment Time Series Database; analysis by Pew Center on the States and Collaborative Economics.
Tag Archives: electricity
Helping People Green Their Homes
Making one’s home environmentally friendly used to be Ed Begley Jr.s’ concern. But now, more and more people are jumping on the green bandwagon. Ed’s business has become everyone’s business as people are taking on ways to ensure that everything’s greener than ever.
There’ a million reasons why “going green” at home is essentially important. Captain Planet worked so hard to keep Planet Earth a good place to live in because what’s good for the planet is also good for us. Plus, saving money on utility costs is a really big help at times when the economy is at its lowest.
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Effective Ways to Save Energy in Homes
Quite a lot of Americans do not consider efficiency as the most effective way of cutting down energy consumption. A new survey proposes that people may be lacking knowledge in the amount of energy required by appliances and other activities, resulting in poor choices when it comes to energy conservation. Education can help consumers to make smart decision to save energy because there is a large gap in knowledge and reality. An example is Americans assume that by shutting off lights they are saving energy, but they may not consider the significant energy savings from utilizing energy efficient equipment like using fluorescent light bulbs and behaviors.
The report said participants concentrated more on cutting back rather then efficiency, which could be due to, improvements involved research, time, effort and unexpected costs (e.g. buying a new energy efficient appliance). Curtailing was easier to implement without affecting one’s daily schedule or without any upfront costs. People were asked to conserve energy, what would be the single most effective thing they would do. 55% of the respondents named, reducing energy consumption like less driving, as the most effective way while 11.7 % choose efficiency. The survey also asked them to guess how much energy was used by nine devices and energy saved by six household activities. Continue reading
Posted in Green
Tagged electricity, energy, green energy, green living, household energy efficiency, light bulbs, misconceptions, report, survey, sustainable energy
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Consumers Need Help in Identifying Energy Efficient Practices
If you think “turning off the lights” is one of the best ways to save energy, you may be wrong. But you are just like everyone out there; most people always say the same thing. So, here’s a survey that shows people’s misconceptions on the best ways to save energy.
Shahzeen Attari, one of the proponents of the study entitled, “Public Perceptions of Energy Consumption and Savings”, said turning off the lights is not a bad idea at all but it doesn’t have much impact when compared to swapping out bulbs for the more energy-efficient ones. Leaving energy-efficient lights on are actually effective. The Department of Energy affirms that the lifespan of compact fluorescents or CFLs is reduced when they’re regularly switched on and off. If you leave a room for less than 15 minutes, keeping a CFL on is truly more efficient; but if you’re gone for more than 15 minutes, it’s best to keep the lights off.
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Posted in Green, Green Collar, Sustainable Living
Tagged americans, appliances, attic insulation, cfl light bulbs, conserving energy, consumers, curtailment, efficiency, electricity, energy, energy consumption, misconceptions, saving energy, single action bias, weatherizing our homes
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Wind Power Projects: A Discussion on the Industry’s Past, Present and Future
Together with the green jobs and wind energy industry’s growth, the average size of install wind farm projects have also grown. In 2007, installed projects averaged about 91 MW. This size is over 30% below the average project size of 120 MW in 2009. Wind farm project sizes change because of a number of reasons.
Possible reasons could be: increasing wind power demands; increasing turbine sizes; continued practice of large turbine orders which reached up until the 2008/2009 credit crisis; partnership of project developers so such orders can be supported; and the increasing turbine and project costs. Whatever the reason may be, larger project sizes are a manifestation of an increasingly mature energy source that is making its way into the domestic electricity market.
In 2007, strengthening of the wind energy business had slowed down. But by the final quarter of 2009, it had normalized at 2008’s tempo. 2007’s slowdown may have been caused by several factors, along with an opinion within the industry that many of the prime targets for wind power investment were already acquired in earlier years. Continue reading
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Tagged electricity, energy, financial options, funds, independent power producers, investments, investor-owned utilities, iou, ipp, pou, publicly owned utilities, recovery act, tax equity investors, treasury grant programs, utilities, wind energy, wind farm project developers, wind farm projects, wind power, wind power industry
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Will the Government approve a Renewable Energy Standard?
It looks like carbon cap is going to remain a dream and not a reality for environmentalists, but there is hope that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s energy bill will cover more than an oil spill measure. Last week Reid said his bill does not include a renewable energy standard (RES) or a mandatory percentage of the country’s electricity coming from green sources. Today a few Democrats and even a Republican have shown that they are keen on including an RES. Republican Senator Sam Brownback (Kansas) said though he’s against the carbon cap in energy bill, he’s in favor of a national RES.
Republican Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas said that he was still against a carbon cap in an energy bill. Kansas produces 2.9% of its electricity from renewable sources and is a wind rich state. Environmentalists are pushing aggressively for strong RES in any energy bill, but many times polices on renewable energies are forced to stop and start again. Continue reading
Posted in Green, Renewable Energy, Wind Energy
Tagged carbon cap, climate crisis, eco friendly, electricity, energy bill, environment, green, green collar, harry reid, power, renewable energy, res, senate, wind energy
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Watchdog Group Reports Positive Results in Reducing IT Energy Consumption
The Computer Savers Computing Initiative or CSCI was established by Google [NASDAQ: GOOG] and Intel [NASDAQ: INTC] in 2007 with the goal of reducing global carbon dioxide emissions from the operation of computers by 54 million tons per year. It focuses on power management strategies through changes in policy, software and hardware.
CSCI’s coordinated efforts led to slash a total of 32 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions over a period of three years beginning July 1, 2007 and ending June 30, 2010, according to the study conducted by Natural Logic.
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Terra-Gen Gets Green Light for Wind Farm in Mojave Desert
Tuesday marks the start of the Alta Wind Energy Center, which plans to build turbines on thousands of acres in California’s desolate Mojave Desert. It is being called the largest power project in the country, placing towering wind turbines in the Mojave Desert foothills, which will produce electricity for 600,000 homes in Southern California.
The project has faced a lot of problems, from years of ownership changes, opposition from local residents and endless infrastructure delays. On Tuesday the project will finally kick off in the Tehachapi Pass, a budding hot spot for wind energy located 75 miles north of Los Angeles. Analysts have said that after completion, the Alta Center could produce three times more energy than the country’s largest existing wind farm.
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Posted in Green
Tagged alta wind energy center, california, electricity, environment, green, green energy, mojave desert, power, power project, sustainable energy, tehachapi pass, wind
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Successful Tesla IPO “Charges” Electric Car Market
In the midst of a struggling economy, it always feels good to hear about a company that has managed to carve out some success despite the trying times. It feels even better when that company is a key player in the green technology sector. In this case the company is Tesla Motors [Nasdaq: TSLA], the manufacturer of the groundbreaking Tesla Roadster.
A June IPO (Initial Public Offering) for Tesla managed to raise 200 million dollars in equity financing for the company, the first US automaker to go public in 54 years. The success of their financing push in the midst of the current financial turmoil is an encouraging sign for the electric car market in general, signaling that investors (and hopefully consumers) are ready to move on the technology. In addition since IPO’s in general have lost popularity with investors since the dot com crisis earlier this decade, the relative strength of Tesla’s IPO may be another herald of success.
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Posted in Car, Green
Tagged carbon dioxide emissions, carbon emissions, deepwater horizon, electric car, electricity, energy efficiency, environment, green car, green jobs, gulf oil spill, tesla
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Leading Tech Businesses Work to Reduce Pollution from IT Sector
Key players in the information technology industry were able to reduce thier carbon dioxide emissions by a total of 32 million metric tons of over a period of three years, according to a study performed by Natural Logic covering the period starting July 1, 2007 and ending June 30, 2010.
Natural Logic helps companies and communities prosper by identifying strategies to increase environmental performance. By increasing efficiency and reducing impact, these techniques help to build profit, bolster competitive advantage and increase quality of life for the companies and communities they serve.
A few of the larger companies that were most recognized for thier efforts to cut energy used by thier computers and computer networks are: Cisco Systems Inc. [NASDAQ: CSCO], Google Inc. [NASDAQ: GOOG], Intel Corp. [NASDAQ: INTEL], Dell Inc. [NASDAQ: DELL], Hewlett-Packard Co. [NYSE: HPQ], and Microsoft Corp. [NASDAQ: MSFT]. Continue reading
Posted in Green, Sustainable Living
Tagged carbon dioxide emissions, carbon emissions, computers, eco friendly, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, environment, environmental protection agencygreen builders, epa, Google Inc, green living, Hewlett-Packard Co, Intel Corp., Natural Logic, sustainable living
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The U.S Dept of Energy grants $1.8 billion for the creation of clean energy jobs
The Energy Department has granted $1.8 billion to Abengoa Solar and Abound Solar Manufacturing, to aid them in the construction new solar plants. This grant is a part of the Government’s policy to start a sustainable environment and also for the creation of more job opportunities for the American people. The grant is a part of the $862 billion stimulus bill set aside for environmental protection, creation of sustainable job opportunities and ending the country’s dependence on foreign oil.
Abengoa Solar, based in Arizona will build one of the world’s largest solar plants. It is reckoned that this project will reduce carbon dioxide emissions yearly by 475,000 tons which is equivalent to carbon dioxide emitted by 90,000 vehicles annually. Construction is expected to start by autumn and begin operations by mid 2013. Continue reading
