Archive for October, 2009
Landfill Biogas – The Roger Dangerfield of Renewable Power
October 17th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Some of the landfill gas at McCarty Road Landfill in Texas was captured for sale to a local utility, but the rest was just getting flared. Now, though, Ameresco Services captures that excess and sends it four miles through an underground pipeline to Anheuser-Busch brewery to meet their goal of getting 15 percent of their needs by 2010 promised a few years ago.
How much business is there to be made in capturing and using waste energy? Well, the company that developed the energy recycling waste-to-power system that helps fuel the biopower plant at the brewery has got to be one of the few companies in this economy to enjoy 47% growth over the last 5 years!
Posted in Uncategorized | 
Tags: Ameresco Services, anheuser-busch, Bio-Energy Recovery System (BERS), biopower, landfill gas, Thin Film Solar, thin film solar panel, waste reduction | 
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60% of US States Could Supply 100% of Their Own Power From Renewable Energy, New Rules Project Shows
Using just the resources that are currently commercially deployable; 31 of our 50 states, or 60% of US states could get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources in-state, and another 14 percent could generate 75 percent of their electricity in-state, according to a paper published by New Rules Project that focuses on the potential for local production.
In some ways, very local; which actually makes this a conservative estimate. For example:
7 African Countries to Get Utility-Scale Solar?
California-based eSolar has just announced that it is expanding into southern Africa now. It has partnered with Johannesburg-based Clean Energy Solutions (CES) to create “eSolarSA” which will sell its concentrating solar power technology throughout Sub-Saharan Africa.
Posted in solar energy, solar power |
Tags: ACME Group, africa, Botswana, Namibia, NRG Energy, Pasadena, Sierra, Sierra SunTower, South Africa, Thin Film Solar, thin film solar panel |
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China Wants China-Grown Wind Turbines, for Itself and Europe
Big shifts seem to be stirring in the wind turbine market. Foreign companies are backing out of China due to China’s move to use more home-grown technology. At the same time, China is looking to expand its wind turbine sales into Europe.
How Fort Irwin Just Signed The Largest Solar Farm in Dept of Defense History: 1,000 MW
In a win-wIn move for the US Army and the USA, a mutually beneficial financing arrangement was signed this week between the US Army and a new partnership (”Irwin Energy Security Partners LLC”) comprising Clark Energy Group and multinational solar power giant Acciona. By using Enhanced Use Leasing they can now not only finance the solar project for Fort Irwin, but double the size to 1,000 megawatts.
The solution they came to this week provides a model for how to get around the difficulties encountered by utility scale solar companies in getting past NIMBY opposition and other roadblocks to developing big solar in the desert.