For a long time ‘clean’ and ‘green’ marked the forward trend in the energy industry. Then came the quest for ‘smart’ energy. And now ‘innovation’ is the buzzword.

It’s easy to see why. As Americans, we believe our ability to innovate sets us apart in today’s international market. Sure China can manufacture computers and cell phones more quickly and cheaply, but we came up with Google and iPhones in the first place.

The energy industry offers a lot of opportunity for US innovators, given our aging grid, quest for alternatives to fossil fuels, and our glimpse into the possibilities of a virtual, democratized grid that gives consumers more control over their energy use and production.

But will energy innovation help the US job market? Or will the products be conceived here but be manufactured elsewhere?

Siemens U.S. CEO Eric Spiegel offers some interesting thinking in a recent piece: “Where the Jobs Are: Higher Technology Manufacturing.” He takes issue with the idea that US manufacturing is doomed.

Such thinking wrongly assumes that the manufactured products of the future, like those of today, will be commodities, “the kind that could be built of equal quality, with equal technology, anywhere in the world,” Spiegel wrote. Blue jeans are his example.

He said that if innovation delivers, tomorrow’s products will be more high-end and require “skilled workers, precision assembly, intensive research, and complex technology,” the kind of thing the US does well.

Many new energy products, like smart grid technologies and wind turbines, require skilled manufacturing. Another, he points out, is the high efficiency natural gas turbine that Siemens builds in North Carolina. If the US remains an innovation leader, more of these high-end manufacturing jobs will make their way here, according to Spiegel.

But he isn’t Pollyanna about the US’ economic future. Sure, high-end energy manufacturing is occurring in the US, but it’s happening elsewhere as well: Europe, Brazil and parts of Asia. They too are innovating.

So the US has no reason to be overly confident about its innovation economy. Well aware of the intense competition, the federal government, states, universities and others are trying to create a more favorable climate for innovators. Below are a few ways that’s happening. I welcome readers to add to the list in the comments section of this blog. With the exception of the NYSERDA program, all of these were announced this week.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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The Kroger Co., often just referred to as Kroger, is a popular American supermarket chain first founded in 1883 in the Ohio city of Cincinnati. It is one of the largest grocery store chains in the United States with more than 3,600 stores. Kroger comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, including supermarkets, department stores, hypermarkets, and convenience stores. Just like a majority of other supermarket chains throughout the United States, Kroger is taking a number of necessary steps to bump up its sustainability record and become more environmentally friendly. This includes opening up a lot of recycling ports in grocery stores and initiating a program to limit the utilization of plastic bags for groceries. Listed below are just a few of the ways that Kroger is taking a stand to become more sustainable and protect the environment for generations to come.

1 ) Sustainable Seafood Policy. As one of the largest traditional grocery retailers in the United States, Kroger realizes the important role it plays in the responsible sourcing of all seafood for products. As such, Kroger will not purchase seafood that has been illegally caught or comes from unregulated fisheries. In 2009, Kroger partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to find adequate sustainable fisheries to source seafood from. Kroger also complies with the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices Program in regards to industry accepted guidelines for all farmed raised seafood.

2 ) Carbon Footprint and Energy Reduction. Kroger has been using a lot of new technology in their stores to increase energy efficiency and decrease their carbon footprint. For example, all stores built after the year 2000 consumer 30 percent less energy. All stores are equipped with LED lighting and motion sensors. There are also skylights to increase natural lighting, control systems for all HVAC and lighting systems, and a number of Energy Star appliances.

3 ) Reducing Waste. One of the primary sustainability priorities for Kroger’s is waste. Since 2010, the grocery chain has been making a number of strides in reducing waste, including reducing packaging, diverting waste from landfills, and recycling plastic bags. For example, all food scraps from meat and deli departments are picked up by local companies along with old produce to be composted. As well in 2010, Kroger manufacturing plants have been able to reduce waste sent to landfills by more than 20 million pounds – a 30 percent reduction since 2009.

4 ) Reducing Plastic Bag Use. Kroger is always looking for ways to reduce the number of plastic bags used and help customers make the transition to reusable bags. By 2014, Kroger wants to save one billion plastic bags via education, signage, and aiding in changing customer habits. Kroger has a “Fill the Bag” training to teach employees how to optimally fill plastic grocery bags so not too many are used, reducing the number of plastic bags at retail locations. In 2011, over five million reusable bags were sold.

5 ) Transportation Efficiency. Kroger is always looking for new, more efficient ways to transport products to stores throughout the United States. The company’s fleet consists of 8,200 trailers and 1,200 tractors, plus there are over 2,500 third party tractors and trailers utilized for product deliveries. By 2010, Kroger was able to improve fleet efficiency by almost ten percent. The goal is to improve total fleet efficiency by 40 percent by the year 2014 by employing fuel-saving strategies, routine maintenance to ensure all equipment is at peak performance, and reducing the total number of miles traveled.

6 ) Food Safety. Kroger believes food safety to be a top priority in all stores; ensuring customers receive fresh, wholesome, and safe food. The supermarket chain has put in place a number of best practices to ensure the safety of all food items. For example, bi-monthly food safety review audits are done in every store to ensure food safety.

7 ) Animal Welfare. Kroger has made a strong commitment to their business practices, including the human treatment of all animals from the farm to the table. Kroger does not currently operate farms or animal processing facilities, but ensure that all suppliers meet the Food Marketing Institute’s Animal Welfare standards and guidelines.

8 ) Renewable Energy. In 2010, Kroger completed its very first wind energy project with two new installed wind turbines in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for Kroger’s Turkey Hill Dairy. The turbines will supply 25 percent of all annual electricity needs, enough to produce 15 million gallons of ice tea and six million gallons of ice cream. In terms of solar energy, in 2011 Kroger completed the first phase of installing solar photovoltaic systems on the roofs of four stores and one distribution center. It will produce around 900 kilowatts of solar energy capacity.

9 ) Customer Sustainability. Kroger Manufacturing operates a number of certified organic processing facilities. Kroger has also partnered with HarvestMark to enable customers to learn about where produce sold at all Kroger stores is grown. Kroger also works with a number of local farmers and suppliers to provide locally produced goods to all grocery stores. Customers can look for “locally grown and produced” signs around the stores.

10 ) Portland Kroger LEEDs the Way. A Kroger store in Portland, Oregon was able to reach LEED Silver Certification as it reached the environmental sustainability guidelines set up by the United States Green Building Council. It is the first store to achieve this rating and features items like increased insulation along exterior walls to decrease energy costs, water-saving fixtures in kitchens and bathrooms, skylights, efficient refrigeration and ventilation systems, and concrete floors that do not necessitate chemicals for cleaning. While the renovations cost more than normal renovations, the store will make it back tenfold in energy savings. According to Justin Doak, the manager of the LEED for Retail program, “[Supermarket] energy bills are so high because of refrigeration that they are constantly looking for ways to become more efficient. So, it’s a little more money upfront in construction costs but tremendous savings in the long run. And it’s the right thing for the environment.”

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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The building equipment and services industries have always been highly fragmented. While leaders such as Honeywell and Johnson Controls have large, multinational presences, most of the market is divvied up among thousands of smaller companies with a relatively narrow regional or technological focus. Even CB Richard Ellis, the real estate firm with the largest footprint of space under management (2.9 billion square feet), has only captured less than 1 percent of the world’s 400 billion sf of commercial space.

The result is an industry that has historically consisted of an overwhelming array of service providers, each with different capabilities. This has posed a challenge to tying building systems together into single solutions, as I explained in my last blog. In the past, vendors designed products such as building automation systems, controls, and certain types of equipment specifically so that they would not work with other vendors’ products, ensuring the vendor a long-term market for replacements and upgrades.

These vendor-specific fiefdoms are starting to break down as demand for building energy management systems (BEMS) as well as comprehensive, end-to-end solutions for energy efficiency including new capabilities such as demand response and energy procurement continue to grow. The word of the decade in the building sector is convergence: the integration of building control technologies with ICT. No single player on either the HVAC or IT side can do it all, so the drive toward convergence has resulted in “co-opetition” – i.e., partnerships between competitors that would have been pitted squarely against each other in the past, and in some cases still are.

This week Schneider Electric and Cisco announced that they were expanding their partnership efforts to deliver better enterprise energy management solutions. The partnership will pair the strengths of Cisco’s EnergyWise platform, which is ideally suited for data center and IT energy management, with Schneider Electric’s building management system (BMS). The union is mutually-reinforcing, as the BMS can be used to monitor and control parts of the information and communication technology (ICT) network, and vice versa.

This is not the only example of this we’ve seen over the last few years. IBM made one of the earliest moves toward co-opetition in smart building technology when it launched the Green Sigma Coalition in 2009, an industry alliance that has helped tie smart building technology into enterprise energy management and includes Honeywell, Siemens, Johnson Controls, and others. There are also countless sub-rosa partnerships between rivals to enable a wider range of offerings in RFP responses and major contracts.

The co-opetition trend, however, isn’t all about vendors deciding to play nice. It’s about vendors finding that the combined capability of two systems – whether ICT systems linked with BMSs, demand response services tied with energy procurement services, or one of the dozens of other possible permutations – is often greater than the sum of the parts. Combining two powerful solutions from separate vendors can open up new opportunities that are impossible to achieve individually.

Make no mistake; competition is still alive and well in the building sector, and that’s a good thing for the industry as a whole. But these co-opetion arrangements demonstrate that the highly fragmented building industry is finding opportunities to pair technologies in novel ways to deliver smarter buildings in mutually beneficial ways.

Article by Eric Bloom, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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Albert Arnold Gore, Jr., more commonly known as Al Gore, was the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under former President William “Bill” Clinton. While many know Al Gore for the 24 years he spent as an elected official, today he is more known for his work as an environmental activist. Al Gore has founded a number of non-governmental organizations based around the environment, and created the 2006 documentary film An Inconvenient Truth about the affects of global warming. For all his efforts, Al Gore has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as an activist regarding climate change.

1 ) Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, Byers Climate Solutions Group. Al Gore heads the climate solutions group at Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, Byers (KPCB), a premier venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley, California. The Wall Street Journal has listed it as the “largest and most established” firm in the globe. KPCB has been championing investment into the clean technology sector since 1999 and has actively invested in a number of ventures that have the potential to solve a variety of urgent challenges associated with the global climate crisis. The focus includes funding technologies that are related to renewable energy, clean water, sustainable agriculture, and next-generation transportation.

2 ) Al Gore Endorses a Green Bank Bill. In 2009, when testifying right before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Al Gore endorsed a new Green Bank Bill. First introduced by Congressman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), this bill would create a financial institution that is government-owned and would provide necessary support to qualified energy efficiency and clean energy projects.

3 ) Call to have all Energy in the United States made Renewable in Ten Years. In 2008, Al Gore decided to make the challenge to the United States to get the country to make a switch to completely renewable sources of energy in ten years time. He made the mention that the solution to the current climate crisis will also help in renewing the economy through the creation of more jobs, and it will provide an escape route for the United States when it comes to continually rising energy prices.

4 ) Global Marshall Plan. Al Gore created the Global Marshall Plan in his book “Earth in the Balance,” and provides specific ideas regarding how to save the current global environment. In his book, Gore states, “The model of the Marshall Plan can be of great help. For example, a Global Marshall Plan must focus on strategic goals and emphasize actions and programs that are likely to remove the bottlenecks presently inhibiting the healthy functioning of the global economy. The new global economy must be an inclusive system that does not leave entire regions behind. The new plan will require the wealthy nations to allocate money for transferring environmentally helpful technologies to the Third World and to help impoverished nations achieve a stable population and a new pattern of sustainable economic progress. To work, however, any such effort will also require wealthy nations to make a transition themselves that will be in some ways more wrenching than that of the Third World.” There are five strategic goals, stabilizing the global population, the quick development of technologies that are environmentally appropriate, a change in economic rules of the road in respect to the environment, new international agreements regarding the environment, and a plan to educate the world about the environment.

5 ) Supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. Al Gore has been a huge supported of the Kyoto Protocol. This protocol was formed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and is geared toward fighting the increase in global warming. This international environmental treaty has the goal of stabilizing the carbon dioxide emissions concentrations throughout the atmosphere to a level that would prevent the possibility of dangerous anthropogenic interference with the current climate system.

6 ) An Inconvenient Truth. An Inconvenient Truth is a book written by Al Gore in 2006. It is based on Gore’s lecture tour regarding the topic of global warming and further elaborates on a number of points regarding climate change. It was turned into a documentary film also in 2006 that followed Gore’s initiatives to educate the general public about climate change. The movie won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Both the book and the movie have been widely credited for increasing international public awareness in regards to the climate change and helped to reenergize the global environmental movement.

7 ) The Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition. The Al Gore Sustainable Technology Venture Competition is the very first and most prestigious clean technology and sustainably business plan competition in Asia. It was established in 2007 and looks to increase the generation of India’s engineering, technology, science, and management students to start thinking more sustainability and creating sustainable technology solutions that will provide a positive impact on the environment.

8 ) The Climate Reality Project. The Climate Reality Project was founded and chaired by Al Gore and currently has over five million members around the world. It is a nonprofit organization that remains dedicated to providing education to the global community in regards to the importance of the implementation of a comprehensive solution to the current climate crisis. The project emphasizes the requirement to bring together a very diverse range of organizations and individuals to strengthen the global network of people looking to take action when it comes to various climate issues.

9 ) Live Earth. Live Earth was established by Kevin Wall along with Al Gore and “built upon the belief that entertainment has the power to transcend social and cultural barriers to move the world community to action…Live Earth seeks to leverage the power of entertainment through integrated events, media, and the live experience to ignite a global movement aimed at solving the most critical environmental issues.” For example, on 07/07/07, Live Earth produced “Live Earth: the Concerts for a Climate in Crisis,” which was hosted on seven continents and broadcasted in 132 countries.

10 ) Generation Investment Management LLP. Generation Investment Management LLP is a private, independent owner-managed partnership that has offices in New York, New York, London, England, and Sydney Australia and focuses on environmental and social responsibility. It was co-founded in 2004 by Al Gore and David Blood. The mission of Generation Investment Management LLP is to “Deliver superior investment performance by taking a long term investment view and integrating sustainability research within a rigorous fundamental equity analysis framework; create long term client partnerships by delivering unique investment insights and exceptional client service; [and] attract, retain, and develop the best professionals within a passionate investment culture.”

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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A new record has been set by the high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) solar module industry. A module made by Semprius, a company in which Siemens invested as a strategic partner in June 2011, reached 33.9 percent, breaking the previous record of 32 per cent. The module was tested by the Instituto de Energía Solar at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (IES-UPM). This efficiency result was certified by the IES-UPM and corroborated by outdoor measurements made at the Institute of Concentration Photovoltaic Systems (ISFOC) in Puertollano, Spain.

“This is a significant milestone for Semprius and the entire PV industry,” said Scott Burroughs, vice president of Technology at Semprius. “For the first time, we have been able to convert more than one-third of the sun’s energy into usable electricity. This demonstrates how concentrated PV can leverage rapidly increasing efficiencies to continue driving down the cost of solar generated electricity.”

Semprius’ HCPV module design begins with its proprietary micro-transfer printing process. This process enables the company to fabricate the world’s smallest solar cell (approximately the size of a pencil point) to create solar modules with high efficiency and performance.

“This is the culmination of our emphasis on bringing smart design to solar,” said Joe Carr, chief executive officer of Semprius. “We looked carefully at each component of our module – cell, optics, enclosure and the manufacturing process – to develop a competitive solution that embodies high efficiency, performance and reliability.”

After developing its module with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Semprius is now ramping up global deployment of demonstration systems while completing construction of a pilot plant in Henderson, North Carolina. Commercial production at the plant will begin during the second half of 2012

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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AHRI vs. City of Albuquerque, a case that I first posted on in 2008, finally reached its conclusion last week.  In line with the preliminary injunction she ordered on October 3, 2008, Judge Maria Vazquez of the District of New Mexico decided that Albuquerque’s energy code was preempted by Federal law mandating the energy efficiency of HVAC equipment. 

Appliance Magazine reported:

In the latest opinion, Judge Vazquez confirmed her Sept. 10, 2010, rulings:
(1) The prescriptive energy efficiency standards in the 2007 Albuquerque code that are more stringent than federal minimum efficiency standards are preempted and cannot be saved from federal preemption by the availability of alternative code compliance paths.
(2) A particular performance-based code compliance option is preempted because it is based on a standard reference design that uses efficiency levels that exceed federal efficiency standards. Responding to a summary judgment motion filed by the city that essentially asked Judge Vazquez to reconsider her earlier rulings, she declined to do so and denied the city’s motion.

A similar suit was filed by the Building Industry Association in 2010 to enjoin (or, in regular english, stop) the Washington State Energy Code from taking effect. 

The foundation of both AHRI and BIA is in essence one of preemption–that the federal government has enacted laws that prevent lesser governmental authorities from passing laws on the same subject, here the Federal regulations governing the efficiency of HVAC equipment preempted state and local energy efficiency laws.

Interestingly, in the Washington case, the court found that the Washington State energy code was not preempted.   This creates a split between the District of New Mexico and the Western District of Washington. It will make it more difficult for local governments to know the extent to which they can regulate HVAC energy efficiency, which may make local governments shy away from doing so.

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Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs allow local governments to loan money to homeowners to do energy efficiency projects.  The PACE loans are generally repaid as a property tax line item.  PACE programs were initially very popular, and more than 25 states passed PACE-enabling legislation.

As discussed in earlier posts, in the summer of 2010 the Federal Housing Finance Agency put the brakes on PACE programs.  The FHFA issued an advisory that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should put more stringent evaluation standards in place for mortgages on properties with PACE assessments.  On February 28, 2011, FHFA issued a directive stating that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should continue to refuse to purchase mortgages on properties with PACE loans.

In the wake of the FHFA actions, several law suits were filed, including one in the Northern District of California.  The plaintiffs in the California PACE case alleged that the FHFA acted without following the appropriate administrative procedures, and without doing and Environmental Impact Assessment. 

The District Court issued a preliminary injunction requiring FHFA to proceed with the the necessary administrative steps that FHFA had failed to do prior to issuing its greenlining mandates.  

On January 26, 2012, the FHFA began the  "notice and comment" period for advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on PACE.  Specifically, the FHFA’s proposed action is to prevent Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from buying certain mortgages whether or not the particular mortgage has a PACE assessment associated with it:

FHFA’s Proposed Action would direct [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] not to purchase any mortgage that is subject to a first-lien PACE obligation or that could become subject to first-lien PACE obligations without the consent of the mortgage holder.

The wording of the proposed rule is interesting.  Not only would it prevent Fannie and Freddie from buying mortgages on properties with PACE loans, but also potentially from buying any mortgages in a community that has a PACE program, whether or not the particular mortgage has a PACE loan associated with it. 

The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking triggers a 60-day comment period, which opened January 26 and closes March 26.  The ANPR seeks comments about both the environmental and fiscal aspects of PACE.  The ANPR is here.

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General Motors, more commonly known as GM to the public, is an American multinational automotive corporation with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. In 2010, it was listed as the second largest automaker in the world, and for the first half of 2011, GM was actually listed as the first largest. GM is known for its numerous divisions and brands, including Buick, Chevrolet, Cadillac, and GMC. However, it is not just with automobile manufacturing that puts GM in the lead above all other automakers, but also its use of renewable energy. In 2008, GM made the commitment to ensure that half of its manufacturing plants are landfill-free. Aside from building hybrid and all electric vehicles for public consumption, GM has spearheaded a number of sustainability initiatives to make its actions much greener, paving the way for a much greener environment.

1 ) Greener Vehicles. GM is now building a number of fuel-efficient vehicles that fit the needs and lifestyle of their customers while, at the same time, being much better for the environment. Currently, 12 vehicles made by GM get a minimum of 30 miles per gallon on the highway, and GM is also the leading FlexFuel vehicle producer in the world. The engineers at GM are working tirelessly to develop advanced technologies for automobiles that will allow for improved fuel economy, a reduced dependence on the need for petroleum, and less carbon dioxide emissions.

2 ) Energy Efficiency. At GM, there is the need to reduce emissions as well as dependence on petroleum by becoming more energy efficient. Between the years 2005 and 2010, GM has been able to reduce use of energy by more than 30 percent. GM has also been able to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent. Currently, seven facilities house 30 megawatts of solar energy, with plans to double that amount by 2015. GM is also the second largest industrial users of landfill gas throughout the United States. In facilities, for example, GM utilizes energy efficient lighting, energy efficient HVAC systems, shutting down equipment, and technologies to track hourly energy consumption. The Lansing Delta Township Assembly plant in Lansing, Michigan has received LEED Gold Certification from the United States Green Building Council for all its ways of reducing energy.

3 ) Waste Reduction. Out of all the global automakers, GM reuses and recycles the most waste coming from manufacturing facilities. In 2010, GM recycled or reused approximately 92 percent of all worldwide waste, which translates into around 2.5 million tons. Half of all global manufacturing facilities are just about waste free. Employees are always looking of ways to reduce scrap as well as design products. This allowed them to cut total waste from all global operations by 43 percent from 2000 to 2010.

4 ) Resource Preservation. At GM, the goal is to help in the preservation of natural resources as well as enhance the natural habitats that surround all facilities. For instance, between the years 2005 and 2010, Toyota was able to reduce water consumption at all global facilities by 35 percent. GM also has more certifications from the Wildlife Habitat Council than any other manufacturer from North America. GM also has 15 different habitat programs going on around the world to aid in ensuring that species of plants and animals around the areas of manufacturing facilities are properly cared for and not put into danger.

5 ) Goal of Zero Landfill Waste. GM has the goal to kick landfill to the curb, and by that, GM means not sending any of the waste to landfills. GM remains committed to reducing the total amount of waste created in all facilities. As previously mention, half of all manufacturing plants are landfill-free. At these facilities, 97 percent of all waste that has been generated by daily manufacturing operations is reused or recycled, while the remaining three percent is converted straight to energy. While it is impossible to not generate certain kinds of waste, including paint sludge or scrap metal, GM is finding new and innovative ways to repurpose it so it will not end up at a landfill.

6 ) 30 HM Plants meet the Environmental Protection Agency Energy – Reduction Challenge. In December of 2011, GM had listed that they were able to cut the energy intensity at 30 North American manufacturing plants by 25 percent, equivalent of the carbon dioxide emissions created by 97,000 homes in the United States. Therefore, they were able to meet the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Challenge for Industry. These facilities were able to avoid the production of more than 775,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide passes and saved over $50 million in energy costs.

7 ) Lansing Plant Receives Energy Star Certification from the Environmental Protection Agency. In December of 2011, the Lansing, Michigan GM plant was the very first in the United States to get an Energy Star certification for its superior level of energy efficiency. This facility builds the Chevrolet Traverse, GMC Acadia, and the Buick Enclave. The vice president for Sustainability and Global Regulatory Affairs, Mike Robinson, said, “Certifications like this demonstrate our commitment to improving energy efficiency practices beyond our vehicles.”

8 ) GM’s First United States Landfill-Free Assembly Plant Located in Fort Wayne. The Fort Wayne GM Assembly Plant, which is responsible for building GMC Sierras and Chevrolet Silverados is the very first assembly plant to recycle, reuse, or convert to energy all the waste that was created by daily operations. Jon Bradburm, the GM Manager for waste-reduction efforts said, “Assembly plants are challenged with a large amount of waste streams and byproducts, from varying types of plastics and metals to expendable packaging and containers. Fort Wayne has succeeded in finding sustainable options for these materials while working with other GM lpants and suppliers to improve its impact from an overall systems perspective.”

9 ) EcoCAR Challenge. The EcoCAR Challenge was created in a partnership between GM and the United States Department of Energy. This competition challenges 16 different universities in North America and asks them to find a way to reduce the overall environmental impact of vehicles by decreasing its fuel consumption and emissions while still retaining the performance of the vehicle, as well as consumer appeal and safety. Students design and integrate their technologies into a vehicle donated by GM.

10 ) GM Installs the Biggest Rooftop Solar Panels in the World. In 2008 the largest rooftop solar power station began construction in Spain. It is made up of 85,000 lightweight panels that cover approximately two million square feet. It belongs to the GM car factory in Zaragoza, Spain. GM unveiled the €50 million project with hopes install solar panels at an additional 11 plants throughout the European Continent.

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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NewScientist’s January 28 issue is likely to unsettle clean energy advocates – but it is worth the read.

The cover article, “Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever,” posits that even renewable energy can warm the planet, and eventually change climate, if we continue to ratchet up power production to serve our ever increasing demand for electricity.

It turns out that wind farms create heat, albeit a miniscule amount compared with fossil fuels or nuclear power, according to the article. Research from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign indicates that wind turbines heat the ground nearby at night, apparently caused by the turbines sucking air downward from above.

Solar panels, too, create unintended heat. The article points to a study that indicates building a 1-TW solar power plant in California’s Mojave desert could raise temperatures in the air by 0.4 degrees Celsius. When dark solar panels cover light-colored sand, they warm the air and change temperature and wind patterns within a 300-kilometer radius, the article says.

Energy almost always creates some sort of waste heat, even in powering our cell phones and computers, says Eric Chaisson of the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, in the article. Electricity heats the circuits. We don’t use this heat; it dissipates into the air.

Of course, this is one of those glass half-full or half-empty issues. Heat by-products are not bad thing if we make use of them. Farmers already take advantage of the localized warming caused by wind turbines to fight frost, says the article. And while solar panels may generate heat when they cover light-colored surfaces, like sand, they cool when placed over dark surfaces, like a black roof.

More importantly, we can sometimes use recycled heat instead of fossil fuels. Residential solar panels are now available that convert waste heat from the panels into useful energy for cooling a house. And for many years we’ve captured and used waste heat in buildings and factories through combined heat and power (CHP) and recycled industrial waste heat systems.

Plenty of need exists to channel heat energy for useful purposes, including air conditioning in the US, as our aging population continues to shift southward. Globally, about 47% of the energy we consume goes toward heating/cooling, with industry as the largest single user, consuming about 43%. Homes follow at 41%, then commercial and public buildings, 9% and agriculture 6%, according to the International Energy Agency.

Should we worry that renewables generate heat? Perhaps. But the impact is small. Heat from renewables poses no immediate threat. Long term, however, waste heat from all sources could become a serious contributor to climate warming, if we continue to increase our consumption of electricity at the current rate of about two percent annually, the article says.

So clearly, it would be hard to take any argument against renewable energy seriously based on its heat output – particularly since renewables can displace fossil fuels that create far more warming. But the findings do underscore the value of exploring energy efficiency measures that make use of waste heat. We hear a lot about smart power; but stay tuned as smart heat rises up as a new priority.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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Today global thinking on sustainability is undergoing a revolution. Whereas once we may have looked at water efficiency, alternative energy and land use as separate issues, today our understanding is growing that in order to truly address sustainability, we need to look at all three together. McKinsey & Company recently issued an important report on this subject: “Resource Revolution: Meeting the world’s energy, materials, food and water needs”. Aquate Group is one Israeli company at the forefront of this new approach. Aquate has developed a triple-purpose infrastructure solution that produces new water in reservoirs, generates solar energy, and increases agricultural land.

According to Israel NewTech, currently Israel manages to reclaim around 75% of its urban sewage water, which is mostly used for agricultural irrigation. Israel is the global leader in water reclamation usage, with other countries trailing far behind.

In order to ensure that reclaimed water reaches its destination in optimal form, reservoirs need to be protected from the sun, which causes evaporation and high water salinity. The ideal method for protecting reservoir water is to use reservoir covers, a proven solution. Top-standard reservoir covers offer two major advantages—they serve as both water reclamation facilities and as roofs for installing solar panels. These facilities not only protect the water in the reservoir, but also produce renewable solar energy without using up valuable agricultural land (as happens with large terrestrial solar applications). Aquate is currently leading the deployment of these next generation multi-purpose reservoir covers. The focus in the water and energy industries on resource efficiency and productivity explains why Aquate has been receiving plenty of attention from key stakeholders in governments, businesses, and NGOs.

Aquate was established in 2006 and has locations in Israel and the Unites States. Barak Yekutiely serves as CEO and Chairman, and works in conjunction with the company’s 26 shareholders, senior executives, and engineers. The Aquate team has over 30 years of experience managing reservoir cover projects and solar energy installations.

The company operates on the basis of BAT – Best Available Technology. Aquate assesses and integrates the best available technologies into its proprietary and engineered infrastructure to provide a tailored and fully-financed solution for each individual project in order to ensure maximum long-term performance. To facilitate this, Aquate runs its own technology validation plant in Israel and has an expert team covering all aspects of project creation—design, regulatory approval, finance, construction, and maintenance.

Aquate’s projects pipeline covers 10% of all existing water reservoirs in Israel. Select projects under development involve The Israel Electric Corp.; the enhancement of Israel’s first pumped storage hydroelectricity facilities in the Gilboa and Manara with Electra; and the Moshavei Hanegev Development Company, the largest agricultural company in Israel.

Recently, at Israel’s leading industry event—the WATEC Exhibition (International Conference on Water Technologies, Renewable Energy & Environmental Control), Aquate signed a ground-breaking agreement with Mekorot, Israel’s national water company.

According to the agreement, Mekorot will give Aquate a 24-year lease on a 25-acre reservoir. Both companies estimate that the deal will save 4 million cubic meters of water. Aquate plans to establish an integrated evaporative water reclamation cover system on the reservoir, as well as a six megawatt solar plant.

Due to global interest in Aquate’s MRP activities and their immense potential, London-based Ernst & Young has developed an economic model for MRP solutions, and The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is working on establishing guidelines for setting an international standard for MRP.

Aquate’s innovations are leading a fascinating niche for MRP solutions involving water, energy, and land resources. The opportunity for MRP solutions is immense – McKinsey & Company, in a November 2011 report, estimated the MRP market at $3 trillion.

Article appearing courtesy Israel NewTech.

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