As the home of some pioneering community solar projects, Maryland’s clean energy champions are seeking to establish a platform on which these renewable energy arrangements can flourish.

Recently introduced as Senate Bill 595, state lawmakers will be considering a proposal that would enable Maryland residents and small-businesses to join together in sharing the costs and benefits of renewable energy.

Most commonly conceived as a single renewable energy system in which individuals can invest in a portion of a facility’s clean generating potential, these arrangements offer a direct experience for those unable to install on-site renewable energy. For those that have a shaded roof or rent, community solar offer the promise of renewable energy access.

As an increasing number of jurisdictions look to broaden accessibility to the solar economy through this concept (e.g., here), we applaud these efforts for bringing solar into the mainstream. We look forward to this trend.

Hats off to Maryland for getting out of the gate early.

Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.

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Renewable energy investments in India increased by more than 52 percent in 2011, the fastest growth among major global economies, according to a new report.

More than $10.3 billion was invested in renewable energy projects in India last year, with about $4.6 billion targeting wind energy projects and another $4.2 billion going toward solar projects, the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) report said.

For solar, that represented a seven-fold increase from 2010, when investments totaled about $600 million. According to a separate report, the declining price of solar panels has now made solar powera cheaper energy option than diesel generators in India.

“India’s record performance in 2011, and the momentum it is carrying into 2012, is one of the bright spots in the clean energy firmament,” said Michael Liebreich, BNEF’s chief executive.

According to the BNEF report, India is likely to exceed its target of adding 12.4 gigawatts of grid-connected renewable energy as set out in its current five-year plan, which ends next month.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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This week our friends at Environment California released a new report ranking California cities by the amount of solar they’ve installed. The good news?

“From Fresno to San Francisco and Clovis to Culver City, solar power is becoming a mainstream technology throughout California,” said Michelle Kinman, clean energy advocate with Environment California Research & Policy Center and co-author of the report. “Solar power is booming in California and with the right leadership we can continue to benefit from the cleaner air and local jobs that this industry inevitably brings.”

The state has doubled its solar capacity in just two years, with 1 GW of rooftop solar today – the equivalent of two traditional fossil fuel power plants. And, most exciting, plenty of that growth is happening in cities and towns that you might not typically associate with clean energy . . .

Huge congrats to San Diego for topping the list! As Mayor Sanders said: “San Diego didn’t become the state’s No. 1 solar city by happenstance; it was the result of local policies and programs that encourage investment in solar power.” Good work, we say.

Chico, Woodland, Rancho Cordova, Livermore and Petaluma ranks top for “mid-size cities.” Sonoma, Auburn Oroville, Healdsburg and Newman have the most solar installed per capita in the “large town” category. And of the state’s “small towns,” Herald, Edwards AFB, Lebec, Maxwell, and Middletown rank highest.

Our own Executive Director Adam Browning added: “Solar used to have a reputation of being for the hip and hippy. This analysis shows that solar is benefiting all Californians–solar’s just as much Fresno and Chico as it is Santa Cruz and Sebastopol. People all across the state are lowering utility bills and creating good jobs by tapping into the sun.”

Governor Jerry Brown has called for expanding California’s solar market to 12 gigawatts by 2020. To date, more than 60 elected officials statewide have endorsed Governor Brown’s vision. Vote Solar, Environment California and allies are advocating that local and state leaders continue to push big policy initiatives to continue expansion of one of California’s strongest markets. First and foremost is ensuring that Californians continue to have access to net metering – the policy that allows a homeowner or business to receive a credit on their electric bill to offset electricity usage during the night.

It may sound wonky but net metering has delivered tremendous benefits to the Golden State:

California’s solar industry employs more than 25,000 workers. Solar job growth has been ten times higher than the overall economy, providing a rare bright spot during the recession.

Solar has driven $10 billion in private investment in the state over the past 5 years, making it a real economic engine.

Cash-strapped public agencies will save $2.5 billion in electricity costs of the next 30 years by going solar. Schools alone will save $1.5 billion.

Rooftop solar has reduced the need for California ratepayers to invest in expensive and polluting peak generation and the transmission infrastructure needed to carry it.

Local solar business innovation and scale that has effectively driven costs down and made solar more accessible to more Californians. Since 2009, 2/3 of California’s home solar installations have been in median income zip codes.

And as we see in today’s report, those installations are happening all over the state. California’s stable, transparent, long-term net metering policy has been key to its solar success. Help us urge state lawmakers to continue support for rooftop solar and net metering here.

Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.

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There are many solar energy gadgets out there, but some of them seem to stand out. Take the LightShip, for example. It is a practical, portable solar light that could be the clean energy answer to campers, boats, cabins and emergency use. I particularly like the fact that it features three suction cups so that you can attach it to any smooth surface!

• Eight hours of light on a full charge of sunshine
• Daylight sensor that automatically turns it off during the day
• 3-way switch – white light, red light, off
• Long-lasting 900mA NmH battery for quick charges
• Weather-proof
• Tough polycarbonate plastic housing
• 5″ Diameter x 2″ High

It weights only 227g and the bulb features white and red LEDs.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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3M is an American multinational conglomerate located in Minnesota. 3M is responsible for over 55,000 different products, including abrasives, adhesives, laminates, dental products, passive fire protection, medical products, electronic materials, car care products, optical films and electronic circuits. With operations in over 60 countries, 3M products are available in over 300 countries. Some of the more popular products include the Post-it note, Scotch Tape, Scotchgard, and Thinsulate, Scotch-Brite. 3M has been very instrumental in the clean technology industry.

1 ) 3M Creates Renewable Energy Division. In 2009, 3M announced the creation of its Renewable Energy Division. Within it, there will be two distinct divisions – energy generation and energy management. Energy generation will work toward the development of materials to be used for geothermal, solar, wind and biofuels solutions, including coatings, tapes, films, and sealants and adhesives. The energy management division maintains focus on thermal efficiencies, energy storage device membranes, and numerous other applications used for residential, commercial building and automotive markets.

2 ) 3M Signs Renewable Energy Research Agreement with NREL. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, part of the United States Department of Energy, announced a number of Cooperative Research and Development Agreements with 3M. This collaboration looks to demonstrate both bodies’ commitment to meeting America’s clean energy needs through the development of different technologies that are essential to the production of large-scale sources of new renewable energies at lower costs. The three main areas of innovation include biofuels, thin-film photovoltaics and concentrating solar power. “3M is excited for the opportunity to tap into NREL’s expertise and understanding of a variety of solar modules and the interplay between the materials and systems,” said Mike Roman, general manager and vice president of 3M Renewable Energy Division. “Also, NREL has pilot plant capabilities, which allow valuable application testing of 3M’s biofuel distillation technologies in a controllable and scalable environment.”

3 ) 3M Cool Roofing Granules is a recent 3M innovation that looks to be an energy efficient breakthrough for roofing granule technology. The Cool Roofing Granules keep a home much cooler using less energy consumption, thereby lowering total energy costs. This is because Cool Roofing Granules are up to four times more reflective than any comparative conventional colored granules. Having a cooler roof means having a lower electricity bill due to less energy consumption. The Cool Roofing Granules meet all Energy Star requirements, making them a primary choice for green building.

4 ) The 3P Pollution Policy also known as the “Pollution Prevention Pays Initiative,” was started in 1975. Since its establishment, the 3P initiative has assisted in eliminating more than three billion pounds of pollution and saved 3M more than $1 billion. The policy is “based on the belief that a preventative approach is more effective, technically sound, and economical that conventional pollution controls. Building conventional controls require natural resources, human energy, and money; operating them requires even more.” The 3P initiative is different because it decreases overall resource consumption by preventing the creation of pollution right up front, via product reformulation, equipment redesign, process modification and waste material recycling and reuse. Projects include redesigning adhesive electrodes, preventing solvent emissions coming from the source, and improving environmental footprint.

5 ) Managing Waste. To 3M, minimizing waste is an essential strategy to lowering carbon footprints. At the Irvine, California facility that manufactures dental products, as part of its overall operation, the facility generates platinum catalyst waste. They turn the waste into raw materials via a recycler to recover as well as process waste so it can be reused. This has saved the plant over $100,000. 3M’s German and Japan facilities have eliminated all landfill waste through reuse, recycling, conversion to energy or incinerated.

6 ) Biodiversity. As part of their goal to preserve and enhance biodiversity, 3M has donated over $10 million to The Nature Conservancy to safeguard critical biodiversity and habitat throughout the United States, China, Mexico and Brazil. 3M has also worked alongside with Conservation International to assist in protection endangered wildlife species and restore threatened forests throughout China.

7 ) Climate Change. For 3M, reducing their total carbon dioxide emissions level is very important. Since 2005, 3M has saved over $100 million in energy costs simply by implementing a number of projects that improve energy efficiency. In their Brooking, South Dakota plant, 3M replaced the fume incinerator with a more efficient technology to control pollution, further reducing carbon dioxide emissions by over 11,000 tons. 3M has also invested in alternative energy sources. For example, its Austin, Texas facility has 13 percent of its energy coming from the wind.

8 ) Water Stewardship. 3M is always looking for new ways to cut their total water use and prevent water pollution in any way that the company is able to. In the Sumare, Brazil facility, the employees in 2007 implemented a new project to reduce total water use by almost 16 million gallons, saving $200,000 per year by using a process of reverse osmosis to treat and then reuse water. The 3M facility in Bangalore treats all its wastewater on-site, thereby reducing the facility’s utilization of water by 1.5 million gallons per year, also cutting their water bill by almost half.

9 ) Air Emissions. One of the main priorities at 3M is reducing volatile organic air emissions. Since 1990, 3M has been able to reduce the total amount of air emissions by 95 percent. The factory in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, for example, uses coating reformulations and equipment modifications to cut the amount of VOCs and other harmful air emissions by approximately 90 percent. This saves more than 500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

10 ) Packaging. 3M has realized the cost and environmental benefits of reducing the packaging associated with all their products. Through the redesign, reuse, and increased recyclability of their packaging, along with using already recycled materials, 3M is reducing their environmental impact. The results of less packaging include less energy utilized in processing packaging materials, a decrease in the cost and emissions stemming from transportation, and less storage required.

Article by Shawn Lesser, Co-founder & Managing Partner of Atlanta-based Watershed Capital Group – an investment bank assisting sustainable fund and companies raise capital, perform acquisitions, and in other strategic financial decisions. He is also a Co-founder of the GCCA Global Cleantech Cluster Association ”The Global Voice of Cleantech”. He writes for various cleantech publications and is known as the David Letterman of Cleantech for his “Top 10″ series. He can be reached at shawn@watershedcapital.com.

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Masdar Carbon, one of the five business units of Masdar, the Abu Dhabi national clean energy conglomerate, announced yesterday in Abu Dhabi that it is moving ahead with a carbon capture and sequestration facility that will capture nearly 1 million tons of CO2 annually at the Emirates Steel complex at Mussafah.

The CO2 feed stream from the Emirates Steel plant will be compressed, dehydrated and then pumped through 50km of pipeline and injected in an onshore field, operated by Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Oil Operations.

Part of the collaboration between Masdar and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the carbon capture facility is part of a program to explore joint projects between the two firms to reduce the carbon footprint of the emirate. The UAE has the second-highest per capita carbon emissions in the world, mostly because of it’s energy-intensive industrial base and extreme climatic conditions.

“Climate change is not a mirage,” Masdar Carbon Director Bader Al Lamki told me at the World Future Energy Conference in Abu Dhabi as we sat down to talk on Thursday.

“The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has recognized CCS as a means to reduce carbon emissions,” and “the International Energy Agency clearly states that CCS is part of the answer for climate change mitigation.”

“The close collaboration between Masdar Carbon and ADNOC will ensure steady progress and the project will take us another step closer to implementing measures for the reduction of carbon emissions and contributing to Abu Dhabi’s clean energy initiatives,” said Al Lamki said.

Bader Al Lamki explained that successful carbon capture projects are anticipated to have a positive long-term economic impact on Abu Dhabi including economic growth, job creation and the development and export of CCS-related technology know-how.

“It will also decisively affirm our global status as a major developer of carbon abatement projects and technologies,” Al Lamki said.

Mandated by the Abu Dhabi government to drive cleaner fossil fuel energy and energy efficiency at an industrial level, monetizing emission reductions along the way, Masdar Carbon provides technical assistance, project management, carbon finance and emissions trading expertise to asset owners primarily in the oil and gas and power sectors in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

And as was announced earlier in the week by Scotland First Minister Alex Salmond in Abu Dhabi, Masdar will be partnering with Scotland, another small, oil-producing nation gunning to ramp up its renewable energy portfolio, to develop advancements in CCS technology, value chain applications, policy and deployment strategies for clean energy and CCS.

Article by Timothy Hurst, appearing courtesy Earth & Industry.

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As the founder of the Bay Area networking group, Women In Cleantech & Sustainability, I am keenly interested in learning about who the media thinks as being the most influential women in the field. However, it feels like every top ten list for women in Cleantech always lists the same lovely ladies. This is not to say that the women are not contributing massively to the effort of clean technology, they are. And there are so many more women in the field!

Clean technology is ever-changing, with new innovators, particularly among women, making their mark in a traditionally male-dominated field. In this occasional series, we shine the spotlight on the most savvy and accomplished women pioneers in cleantech and sustainability. Some are building their own start-ups, others are climbing the ranks of high-profile companies, and still others are investors. Whether they are on the front lines or behind the scenes, they inspire us to keep striving forward, to break the ever existent glass ceiling, and change how the world lives.

As always we are open to your suggestions of who you feel are the female game-changers. Who do you think should be on the list?

*Special thanks to Shawn Lesser of Watershed Capital for his support and mentorship for this series.

1. Virginia Klausmeier, CEO, Sylvatex

Quite possibly the youngest CEO in the biofuel/Green chemistry industry, Virginia Klausmeier has spent the past five years developing the Sylvatex fuel technology with her late father, Dr. William Klausmeier. Sylvatex is currently commercializing a proprietary renewable fuel for the US diesel and biodiesel markets. The company has won numerous awards at industry conferences and venture funding competitions, including Silicon Valley LAUNCH and PortTechLA, as well as funding and support through San Francisco’s Greenstart accelerator program. Virginia earned her B.S in Chemistry and Physiology and M.S. in Biomechanics at the University of Oregon and has is also active in San Francisco’s BioDiesel Task force and Biodiesel Coop.

2. Kef Kasdin, CEO, Proterro BioFuels

Kef Kasdin is CEO of Proterro, a venture-backed start-up located in Princeton, New Jersey. It develops non-plant-based, noncellulosic fermentation-ready sugar feedstock, which enables the economical and scalable production of biofuels and chemicals. The company, which is transitioning from discovery to the engineering phase, has functioning prototype sucrose-producing organisms and a working model bioreactor system. Proterro’s Protose sugar is a sustainable, inexpensive, geoflexible, feedstock that can be used to produce a variety of commercial scale fuels and chemicals through standard industrial fermentation methods. Before Proterro, Kef spent nine years at 3Com Corp, including managing $1B division. She also spent 10 years as venture capitalist, and is general partner/cofounder of Battelle Ventures and affiliate Innovation Valley Partners, with company-creation, lab-spinout, and energy-market expertise.

3. Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, CEO and Co-Founder, LiveFuels

Lissa Morgenthalter-Jones leads strategic planning and corporate development for the LiveFuels, a company with the goal of developing the most efficient and scalable algae-based biofuel process. Since 1990, she has also specialized in biotechnology investing since 1990. After learning about turning algae and animal waste into fuel, she started her own clean energy venture capital fund in 2004. She raised $10 million from the Quercus Trust and individual investors in May 2007. To date, her company has established pilot operations across the U.S., generated extensive intellectual property, and is well on its way to producing an economically feasible and sustainable algal fuel.

4. K’ Lynne Johnson, CEO, Elevance Renewable Sciences

K’Lynne is leading Illinois based Elevance, with her 19 years of experience in the oil and petrochemicals industry (Amoco, BP and Innovene). The company is striving to be the first to successfully bridge the renewables and chemicals industries. With its Nobel-prize winning technology the company transforms natural plant-based oils, like soybean, rapeseed (canola), palm, corn, or algae, into specialty high-performance, cost-effective commercial products, such as advanced biofuels, deterents and cleaners, personal care products, and others.

5. Jennifer Case, co-founder and CEO, New Leaf Biofuel

In 2010, co-founder Jennifer Case took the helm at New Leaf Biofuel as CEO. She has helped grow the company to 24 employees and increase its customer base, including US Navy, the City of Chula Vista, Allied Waste, and dozens of other commercial and municipal fleets in Southern California. Jennifer Case obtained a BA in Political Science from UC San Diego, and a law degree from Pepperdine University. In her legal practice, Jennifer represented individuals, business and public entity clients in such areas as general business litigation, real estate, construction and technology. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Case was an administrator of a start-up fiber optics company in the Silicon Valley.

6. Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D, microbiologist, Founder of Xenogen Corp and Cobalt Biofuels

Cobalt Technologies, located in Mountain View, CA, is leading the transportation industry for cleaner, more efficient renewable fuels. It is a venture-backed company that produces biobutanol from renewable feedstock. Xenogen Corp, located in Alameda, CA, was founded in 1998, and is a leader in the field of biophotonic imaging. Pamela R. Contag, Ph.D., is a microbiologist who has been called a “serial entrepreneur,” having founded two biotech and two biofuel startups. She is the founder of Xenogen Corp. and Cobalt Biofuels, Inc. She is also the founder and CEO of Cygnet Biofuels and ConcentRX, Inc., a biotechnology company developing a unique cancer therapy. She founded Xenogen Corporation with two colleagues while at Stanford University, where they invented in vivo biophotonic imaging. Pamela has filed a patent on a process she developed that utilizes algae to produce polysaccharides that can be easily converted to alcohol fuels or to biolipids, and then to biodiesel. She was also named one of the “Top 25 Women in Small Business” by Fortune Magazine.

7. Cynthia (CJ) Warner, President, of Sapphire Energy

Cynthia (C.J.) Warner joined Sapphire Energy in February 2009 as President. She brings more than 27 years of experience in the energy, refining and transportation industries. At Sapphire Energy, Ms. Warner is tasked with driving the company’s initiative to transition technology trials and research into commercial-scale crude oil operations. Using only sunlight, CO2 and non-potable water, Sapphire Energy is one of the world’s largest leaders in algae-based crude oil. A chemical engineer by training and one of the very few senior women in the oil and gas industry, CJ served as an executive with energy industry giants British Petroleum, Amoco Oil Company and UOP. CJ is currently a member of the National Petroleum Council. She is a featured leader in the 2008 book ‘Becoming a Resonant Leader: Develop Your Emotional Intelligence′ (Harvard Business School Press). CJ has a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Vanderbilt University and an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology.

8. Dr. Claire Kinlaw, Lead Product Development, TerViva BioEnergy

Claire is an MBA-trained scientist and currently Project Lead for TerViva BioEnergy, a startup commercializing the high oil seed tree pongamia in the US as a feedstock for biodiesel refining. Pongamia pinnata, a nitrogen fixing tree native to India that grows on marginal soils. TerVia is working to commercialize this tree as a renewable source of diesel fuel, planting across the southern USA on pasturelands and other lands not used for food production. Claire leads the R&D effort to improve the underlying asset, the tree for even greater, more predictable oil production and good growth characteristics in US locations. Prior to joining TerViva in 2010, Claire developed commercial strategies for biotechnology startups and small businesses, negotiated and managed research and business agreements, directed the USDA Institute of Forest Genetics, and led life science research projects with molecular genetics and genomic science focus. Claire holds an MBA from UC Berkeley, a PhD in biochemistry from Rice University, and a BA in chemistry from the University of Virginia.

9. Nicole Kennard, co-founder and former CEO, New Leaf Biofuel

Nicole Kennard founded New Leaf Biofuel in 2006 with four co-founders, with the aim to be the biggest provider of biodiesel in San Diego County, a dream that involves trucking tons of used fryer grease from 900 area restaurants to New Leaf’s San Diego processing facility and converting it into B99 (99 percent biodiesel fuel), which is then purchased by government and business fleets across the county, such as Sun Diego Charter Co and C & D Towing, and the Regional Transportation Center, San Diego’s only alternative fueling station. She built the company to 10 employees and a company capacity to produce 140,000 gallons of fuel a month. Nicole has BA in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from UC San Diego and an MS in Mechanical Engineering with an emphasis on Renewable Energy from San Diego State University. Formerly, Nicole was the Coordinator of the Department of Energy’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), located at San Diego State University. She is also a renewable energy adviser and biodiesel consultant for the San Diego City School District and a co-founder of the Biofuels Action and Awareness Network, a student action group at UCSD focused on community outreach and education.

10. Susan B. Leschine, Founder and Chief Scientist, SunEthanol

Susan Leschine founded and was the Chief Scientist of SunEthanol, now QTeros. Currently, Dr. Leschine is a senior faculty member in the Microbiology Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Dr. Leschine is internationally-known as an authority on the biology and diversity of cellulose-digesting microbes. Her research formed the basis for SunEthanol’s Q Microbe biodigesting technology.

Article by Lisa Ann Pinkerton, founder of Women In Cleantech & Sustainability, a networking and career development group dedicated to the advancement of women in various environmental technology sectors. She is also Founder and President of Technica Communications, where she handles public relations and marketing strategies for cleantech and biotech companies. Lisa Ann is a former award-winning broadcast journalist who reported for National Public Radio, PBS Television, WPXI-NBC, American Public Media, and Free Speech TV.

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There is a looming battle over the cost of energy between the ‘green at any cost’ versus the ‘green enough at a reasonable cost’ where wind/solar forces will battle natural gas—you can sense the fog of war ahead as the battle is being set up. The graphic above from a recent GTM Research report shows the reality in clear focus.

The policy landscape has been designed to drive toward clean energy policies sometimes without much regard to the cost. It started with environmental groups challenging our polluting ways. Over time those views gained mainstream acceptance and today there is broad public support for the goal of a clean environment, protecting air quality and water quality for the future.

We’ve supported the growth of regulatory requirements since the 1960?s to reduce contaminants and pollutants imposing environmental impact review procedures ahead of new construction of virtually anything today. Congress and the states have passed environmental protection laws that continue to advance this policy agenda. In the ‘good old days’ before our economy crashed business complained about the cumulative cost of these rules, but the public view was conditioned to see it as whining since it rarely affected us directly and we knew from looking around us that things needed to be cleaned up.

We needed this process of redemption to change our ways and correct the mistakes we have made from the days when the air was truly dirty and we dumped all manner of wastes into our waterways. We sinned badly against our environment and it was time to repent, clean up our mess and our act.

That repentant view, however, gave way to a continual push for even more environmental ‘remediation’ not to fix things broken but to impose a view of the way things should be that came to be a tipping point in the battle brewing today. It began building slowly as public support for environmental protection grew. Politicians took notice and jumped on board. Laws were passed to score ‘greener than thou’ points, regulations were adopted to pursue green agendas. Environmental impact statements were required and the process of getting building permits, operating permits and other regulatory approvals moved beyond reasonable mitigation to turn our regulatory permitting process into regulatory extortion.

Congress did not help by approving laws so vague that it essentially gave government agencies vast power to write rules so onerous, prescriptive and intrusive they bore little resemblance to their underlying enabling act. This corruption of the legislative process has led to a corrosive regulatory kudzu covering everything with unintended consequences.

At some point in the process of environmental reformation and repentance we moved from seeking redemption for our past environmental sins and righting those wrongs to pursuing a ‘greener is required’ agenda that tilted the balance and transformed the message into a ‘green at any cost’ prescription. Times were good, business was making money, the economy was solid, people were comfortable so we all were swept along by this greener is better consensus view.

We lived comfortably in that greener is better world for the past decade or so, but stuff happened.

It wasn’t the great recession although that was as close to ‘rapture’ that any of us wanted to get. It wasn’t the loss of jobs, the erosion of our manufacturing base, the rise of China as the production factory of the world, the volatile price of imported oil. Each of these things had a logical explanation.

Something happened that opened our eyes and showed us that we had eaten of the fruit of the tree of regulatory life in the center of the garden and realized we were now naked. The great recession had the effect of breaking all of our comfortable cycles. It changed the rhythm of life for everyone. It forced us to confront reality or face our economic rapture. And when we opened our eyes and saw that we were naked—we were ashamed and afraid.

Oh, Brother! I know, you must be thinking where is this rant going?

Look around you, we still care about our environment. We still believe in protecting the quality of our air and water and leaving this planet a cleaner, healthier place for our kids that we inherited. We do. But our eyes have been opened to the reality that our willingness to accept this cumulative cost of greener is better has turned into regulatory kudzu. You know kudzu, it is that coiling, climbing, trailing plant that grows along roads and forests covering trees with a shroud of dense foliage. It eventually kills its host plant by blocking out the sunlight. Efforts to eradicate it have proved difficult because of its relentless growth and insidious twining structure—and because environmental rules prevent spraying herbicides for fear we might threaten some endangered species.

Regulatory kudzu may be the existential threat to both our economic growth and our environmental sustainability. And that is what the looming battle is shaping up to decide. Will we spray some common sense herbicide on this regulatory kudzu before it chokes the life out of us?

What is the reasonable and appropriate balance between ‘greener is better’ and ‘green at any cost’?

• Has our regulatory kudzu made it so costly, so time consuming, so much of a hassle to build, manufacture, or drill anything in America that our businesses and our jobs go elsewhere to stay in business?
• Must we sacrifice our economic competitiveness in order to have reasonable environmental quality?
• Are these regulatory policies counter-productive in a global competitive market where renewable portfolio standards and solar subsidies in America and the EU are used by China to fund its excess production for export growth causing PV prices to fall so much that they drive domestic US and EU producers out of business to assure global market share dominance?

The coming battle over the cost of energy is being framed by unintended consequences. The forward movement on these separate fronts revolves around energy choices or energy impacts on our economy. But one unintended consequence is that regulatory kudzu is now being forced to compete with global economic competitiveness, the rebirth of manufacturing, domestic energy production growth, energy security and the need for reliable low cost energy to create sustainable jobs and restore America’s global economic competitiveness. The flashing red light of regulatory kudzu overreach is being exposed not just in our environmental regulations but in financial and market rules, health care and labor and other areas as well.

The Battle for Low Cost Domestic Energy Security

The Rebirth of American Domestic Energy Production is Sustainable. After decades of growing American dependence on imported oil, America turned the corner using American technology and quiet American persistence the growth of unconventional oil and natural gas using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing to unlock the previously uneconomic energy treasure under our feet. With that technology America turned back imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a replacement fuel for declining conventional natural gas supplies. American became a net exporter of energy in 2010 for the first time in decades. The growth of domestic energy production and its rippling effect in job creation across places we scarcely imagined possible is changing our attitudes. When North Dakota, West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania can join the traditional big energy producing states of Texas, Alaska and California in benefiting from this rebirth of domestic energy production we have a genuine Spindletop on our hands.

The American War on Coal is a both an Economic and Regulatory Failure. The tsunami of new regulations designed to undermine the economics of coal fired generation as a power supply source in America is a failure. Despite all the proposed new regulations pancaking on top of our already strong laws, the US EIA says that coal will still be a significant contributor to America’s power supply mix through at least 2035. But guess what? All that coal we have decided not to use in America is being exported to China where you can be assured it will not likely be used in as an environmental responsible manner as we would have used it. Do you see the point? We have elected to impose on ourselves the cost consequence of shutting down more than 80,000 MW of low cost coal fired power generation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in America to reduce global warming or moderate the climate crisis (in Al Gore speak du jour) so that China and other emerging countries can buy that coal now exported by US companies unable to use it at home. The US Court of Appeals has now stayed the Cross State Air Pollution Rule implementation, one of the most onerous of these new rules, meaning the court found the opponents of the rule are more likely than not to prevail in their appeal. How do you spell S-T-U-P-I-D again?

The Holy Grail of Grid Parity has Arrived. For years we have been told that wind and solar energy would come down in cost and when they reached grid parity (able to compete head to head without subsidies with natural gas combined cycle power generation) we would be victorious in energy transformation. Grid parity has arrived. Thanks the massive expansion of export production of photovoltaic panels and wind turbines in China designed to suction up all the renewable energy subsidy monies in markets where state regulators imposed renewable portfolio standards forcing utilities to buy renewable energy—many times above the market cost of alternatives—the price of PV panels and wind turbines are at or near grid parity in many markets. In Europe, the costs of these above market feed in tariffs are unsustainable and being cut back. In the US subsidies of any kind are increasingly suspect by a public that fearing rising federal debt and deficits and many states will soon reach their RPS goals and declare victory—except California which upped the ante to 33%.

Grid Parity is Our Friend. Not only will grid parity pricing of solar and wind energy reduce the need for subsidies and thus restore the domestic market for the next generation of wind and solar projects using America’s best technology rather than China’s least efficient, grid parity pricing will more effectively undermine the economics on new coal and new nuclear power projects than anything the government regulators can imagine. Faster, better, cheaper and with none of the regulatory kudzu overreach in the current war on coal. The long term sustainable impact of this reliance on market forces is America will get both more clean renewable energy using the best technology, it will get less dirty coal and more clean natural gas generation. It will accelerate the transition from large, hugely expensive baseload nuclear power to smaller, safer, modular small nuclear projects.

And then there is this, an epiphany is coming to light even in California.

In California in December 2011, the California Energy Commission released its draft 2011 Integrated Energy Policy Report, the biennial statement of California’s energy policy strategy. The reaction of the utilities was decidedly skeptical. In filing after filing they pointed out the cumulative cost of California’s energy policies are going to result in substantial rate increases. They worry about the flight of business out of state to avoid the burdens in a fragile economy. They worry about losing their opportunities for growth sufficient to cover the costs of all these regulatory burdens.

It was not a fierce battle but it was a shot across the bow. The time of economic reckoning or rapture draws near. Get back to a reasonable balance fast is the plea. Fight regulatory kudzu. Resist being so green that everything turn brown from disuse. We are searching for a new energy and environmental consensus—one that is balanced with environmental quality and economic competitiveness given equal weights.

Amen!

Article by Gary L. Hunt, appearing courtesy oilprice.com. Find the original post on oilprice.com.

Gary Hunt is President, Scalable Growth Strategy Advisors, an independent energy technology and information services adviser and a partner in Tech & Creative Labs, a disruptive innovation software collaborative of high tech companies focused on the energy vertical. He served as VP-Global Analytics & Data at IHS/CERA; global Division President at Ventyx, now an ABB company; and Assistant City Manager-Austin Texas responsible for Austin Energy and Austin Water.

photo: Peter Heilmann

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One of my very first posts in 2010 was about what I called the triple crisis. As I noted back then “our economies are crumbling, our climate is warming and our energy supplies are getting scarcer.”

You would think that after two years, we would have started to do something about them. Well, from what I see, we haven’t. Unemployment is still high, we are still as reliant on oil and coal and our climate is getting weirder by the month.

On top of these crises, a fourth one has emerged: government debt. Our economies are completely broken as the richest are getting even richer and as more and more people are struggling.

We are now certain that we are beyond peak oil. The IEA announced it in its World Energy Outlook last November. Since conventional oil supply is not growing any more, any increase in oil supply will come from extreme oil. And with it more pollution per barrel of oil extracted.

Meanwhile, our climate continues to get warmer and weirder as more extreme weather events that have occurred in the past two years. From Texas to Thailand, from Europe to Australia and Brazil in South America, all our continents have been affected.

This would be worrying enough, but with positive mechanisms feedback such as the melting permafrost in Russia or the Amazon rainforest which started EMITTING greenhouse gases, the situation threatens to move from alarming to dire.

The Economist announced that we should  “Be afraid” in a recently published issue. Well, I am starting to be seriously worried for our common future, for my own future…

Solutions DO exist most fortunately:

Energy efficiency, conservation and sobriety can do wonders. This is why I am now preferring efficiency and sobriety over renewables… As we have less and less capital to spend and as a mechanism to engage our chronic unemployment, these mechanisms can do wonders.

Renewable energy sources like solar, wind and many others (geothermal or tidal among others) still have the potential to completely change our ways of life this decade, but they need to be paired with efficiency efforts and behavioral modifications.

Let’s hope we will apply them with the necessary scale and scope… Let’s make it happen in 2012 and after!

photo: Flickr

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A wave of reports trumpeting the oil industry’s shift to unconventional fuels has appeared in recent weeks. The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times are among the major publications covering changes in the global fossil fuel industry. With their investments in new technologies and new resources, the world’s largest fossil fuel companies are rapidly redrawing the map of the global energy industry, at a global and local scale. Unfortunately, this changing map leaves significantly reduced territory for the cleantech industry.

In the last several years the world’s largest oil companies have shifted their upstream fossil fuel production investments back to OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, typically the largest importers of fossil fuels. What used to look like a 50-50 division of investments between OECD and non-OECD, is now closer to 70-30 for some oil companies, according to The Wall Street Journal. From Australia to Canada, and from the United States to Poland, the exploration and production of oil and gas in the developed world is exploding. Thanks to innovative (and often controversial) new technologies such as horizontal drilling, ultra-deepwater wells, and hydraulic fracturing, oil companies are now exploiting the market for previously inaccessible fossil fuels. A majority of the future value for Big Oil companies – as much as $1.7 trillion, according to energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie – is anticipated to come from Australia, Europe, and North America.

Oil companies are leveraging technology innovation to become diversified energy companies. That does not necessarily translate into additional investment in cleantech. Oil company investments are rapidly moving them toward the production of liquefied natural gas, shale oil, and coal gasification, not wind or biofuels. In a time when the future of the Section 1603 tax breaks, which benefit clean energy and mass transit programs, is up in the air, massive new investment in fossil fuels may dampen the momentum the cleantech sector has built over the last couple years.

It certainly does when investment in unconventional oil and gas actively displaces investment in the cleantech industry. This may be the case in Colorado, where ConocoPhillips, the US’s third largest oil company, has indefinitely postponed its plans for a technology research and education campus in the Denver-Boulder area. Following significant investments in the local biofuels industry through 2008, ConocoPhillips (which is in the process of splitting into two companies, ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66) now appears to be more actively pursuing the “unconventional” opportunity. Not until later in 2012 will the full effects of the transformation of Big Oil on the cleantech sector become apparent.

Article by Brittany Gibson, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.