The Guardian announced in November that “BP had dropped all plans to build wind farms and other renewable schemes in Britain and is instead concentrating the bulk of its $8bn renewables spending program on the US, where government incentives for clean energy projects can provide a convenient tax shelter for oil and gas revenues”. The ARRA (aka Stimulus Package) should hasten that shift of focus.

Similarly, Fotowatio of Spain today announced its bold move: By buying the assets of Baltimore and San Francisco based Solar Developer MMA Renewable Ventures (MMARV), Fotowatio’s global portfolio will include more than 130 megawatts of operating solar projects in the United States. It might not be a name you’ve heard much about… yet. Fotowatio has invested more than US$880 million (€700 million) in solar projects since 2006 and plans to invest up to US$3.2 billion (€2.5 billion) by 2012 in Spain, Italy and the United States.

(more…)

The US electrical grid is a century-old “machine” built for a singular purpose: to power the development and industrialization of the nation’s economy.  It is designed to deliver electrons from centralized power producing plants through transmission wires to end consumers.  This archaic, unidirectional architecture is unreliable, inefficient, and unsafe.

Using many of the same technologies and assumptions first implemented in the 19th century, today, the grid must keep up with rising demand which outstrips available generating capacity and technological advancements designed to make the grid “smarter“.

(more…)

U. of Wisc. photo

Depending on where you live, the Great Lakes may seem far from local.

But they hold 84 percent of the freshwater in North America. So if you ever get thirsty, you might want to pay attention.

President Barack Obama has proposed $475 million in funding for a Great Lakes restoration in his Fiscal Year 2010 budget. It would be a downpayment on a $5 billion campaign promise.

(more…)