At this week’s Detroit Auto Show, electric vehicles are on top. Two of the year’s highest-rated cars are electric. The plug-in hybrid electric Chevy Volt was awarded this year’s “Car of the Year,” just beating out the all-electric Nissan LEAF.

But regardless of which car wins, the message is clear: electric cars (more…)

Your new “McMansion ” is 10,000 square feet of triple-pane, low-e, argon gas-filled windows, R-35 walls, R-60 ceilings, a solar thermal hot water system, a solar photovoltaic 10 kilowatt energy system, and a water reclamation system that reuses “greywater” for ornamental plantings around the exterior. (more…)

As our economy continues to sputter, one little-noticed industry has been booming for a while now: energy efficiency. The sector is hiring like crazy — a fact that speaks volumes about the close relationship between clean energy and the economic recovery that we’re all waiting for. Energy efficiency could save us all.

My firm works with utilities, government (more…)

AVACOS Solar (AVACOS) has announced its completion of an experimental green energy project in residential Toronto, Ontario that includes a 4.6 kW rooftop PV installation and uses several other environmentally-friendly building techniques.

AVACOS is an Ontario-based designer, (more…)

I have three predictions for 2011:

• When it comes to energy policy, austerity will be in.

• Therefore, energy efficiency will become a favored choice among mayors, governors, state lawmakers and Congress, as government becomes increasingly edgy about the cost of (more…)

Every surfer knows you can’t ride a wave until it breaks.  But for the residential energy efficiency industry, whose surge in growth has often been compared to a tidal wave, the wave may be more of a slow ripple.

Despite the billions of dollars that have been allocated nationwide to increase demand for residential retrofits, the corresponding surge in job growth just (more…)

From the earliest days of the Obama administration, we have been working to promote innovation and competitiveness in high-growth sectors like renewable energy and energy efficiency (RE&EE). President Obama’s Recovery (more…)

Check out Google Earth – the ‘view from above’ of your favorite American city. And look at the roofs of the office buildings, warehouses, shopping centers, and even the homes. Most of them are probably pretty dark in color – and this means they heat up a lot when the weather is warm – up to 50 degrees hotter than light roofs. All of those dark roofs mean that as a nation (more…)

The General Services Administration is one of the largest owners of real estate in the country, composed primarily of office buildings and courthouses, land ports of entry, and warehouses.  The GSA owns and leases more than 354 million square feet of space in 8,600 buildings across the nation.

The GSA is also the owner of one of the greenest real estate porfolios.  As of the (more…)

There are plenty of not-so-sunny renewable policy news headlines these days. Congress failed to pass comprehensive energy legislation this year – and as of yesterday, things don’t even look good for a piecemeal extension of the critical Treasury Grant Program before it expires this month. But it’s not all doom and gloom. Despite gridlock higher up, state (more…)