The movement to use energy retrofit loans to install solar panels and other green climate control technology on commercial and residential properties may have suffered a serious setback following a Federal Housing Financial Authority (FHFA) announcement (pdf) last week in which they refused to accept use of the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program for...Read more »
An innovative financing agreement combining county bonds and funds from Tioga Energy will enable Morris County, New Jersey to install solar roof panels on county property. County officials have dubbed the landmark public-private financing method the “Morris Model.”
The 3.2 megawatts worth of panels will be installed atop 14 schools and 5 other properties, including...Read more »
Residential solar panel financing startup SunRun has inked a $100 million financing agreement with a subsidiary of Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) to help homeowners install solar panels for less upfront cost than usual. The financing, called a power purchase agreement, will allow 3,500 homeowners in five states to use solar panels to lower...Read more »
An organization called One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) is offering homeowners in select parts of the country the opportunity to purchase residential solar panels on a neighborhood level at a group discount. Currently available in Los Angeles, Orange County, Inland Empire and southern New Jersey, the 1BOG program provides a 15 percent discount...Read more »
A 26-year-old Australian teacher, Hugh Whalan, has started a non-profit agency called Energy in Common that allows energy conscious investors to make "microloans" to individuals to promote renewable energy projects in developing countries. These small loans, some for as little as $100, are designed to finance individual businesses and homes with simple clean energy...Read more »
DOE announced today that it has awarded $62 million in grants to various research projects to develop specific aspects involving development of Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems to improve and accelerate solar technology. This five year program will study the feasibility of creating utility-scale solar power plants capable of operating 18 hours a day,...Read more »
The EPA has just made it even harder for HDTV makers to earn the coveted Energy Star certification by lowering their energy consumption limits. Beginning May 1, TVs must achieve a 4.0 rating, which means a 40 percent reduction in the amount of power any television manufactured after that date can consume. The current...Read more »
On April 22, the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, the U.S. Department of Energy announced plans to invest more than $200 million over five years to promote solar, water and wind technologies in the United States. DOE Secretary Steven Chu emphasized that the funding represents the current Administration’s commitment to revitalizing and encouraging a...Read more »
As a result of recent finding that ENERGY STAR products have not been performing to claimed energy efficiency standards, on April 14, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) announced changes to the ENERGY STAR product certification process. The purpose of the changes is to tighten up the certification...Read more »
A recent sting operation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that inferior products were receiving the EPA's Energy Star labels. As a result, all electrical products must now complete in-house laboratory testing to receive the coveted certification. The GAO operation uncovered many inconsistencies with the current procedure, obtaining Energy Star certifications for bogus...Read more »
Along with the push to use environmentally sound building elements comes the need for those items to be verifiably safe. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) has moved into safety testing of solar photovoltaic panels by opening three dedicated facilities since 2008, including the largest facility in Europe, in Franfurt, Germany.
Underwriters Laboratories became well known for evaluating,...Read more »
Wouldn't it be nice to know if a company is truly green? A study published in New Scientist has found that consumers really don't know which companies are green…and which are not green. To come up with this finding, the study polled 30,000 consumers and questioned them about the "greenness" of more than 100...Read more »
Virginia-based McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) has announced that their Cradle to Cradle standards certifications list now totals over 300 products. The certification recognizes products that are made, packaged, and used with the environment and renewable energy in mind. Products are grouped in one of the achievement levels, basic, silver, gold, and platinum....Read more »
The U.S. Department of Energy plans to invest up to $366 million over the next five years to establish and operate three new Energy Innovation Hubs, with a focus on accelerating research and development in the following three areas: producing fuels directly from sunlight, improving energy-efficient building systems design and developing advanced nuclear...Read more »
SB-375 has stirred the blood of both real estate developers and cities. As most are aware, it is part of the state’s pioneering initiative to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) by decreasing the amount of carbon that spews into the air from vehicle and other emissions. The primary goal of SB-375 is to significantly...Read more »