Two U.S. energy experts are calling for a new strategy to develop renewable energy, including the creation of regional programs to drive innovation of new technologies.

Richard Lester of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and David Hart of George Mason (more…)

As we all learned in kindergarten, every snowflake is unique.  Now, studies have shown that is not entirely true (see here if you are marginally interested in the science of snowflakes), but close enough.

Uniqueness may be good for snowflakes, but lousy for financial transactions. At least part of the problem (more…)

The Norwegian government last week launched a global initiative to finance access to renewable energy, energy efficiency and low carbon development in developing countries.

The launch took place during a conference organized by the International Energy Agency and (more…)

Eighth annual Wharton Energy Conference to be held Friday, October 29, 2010 at the Union League of Philadelphia

This year we witnessed the negative effects that fossil fuels can incur in our environment and in our lives. Months after the Gulf disaster, the 8^th Wharton Energy Conference wants to open a dialogue (more…)

It’s always interesting to get out and interact with different groups who have specific perspectives on the energy industry. And, to that end, I’ve commited to a certain travel schedule that will take me — either as a speaker or as a participant — to a decent number of conferences over the next 12 months.

I enjoyed my trip to Boston earlier in the (more…)

PACE financing is one of those issues that has sweeping implications for clean energy adoption, but can be just so darn difficult to understand (see: net metering). If you can you believe it, the current acronym (PACE stands for Property Assessed Clean Energy) is a major step toward intelligibility from what we were first calling it (Municipal Property Tax Financing . . . or MPTF?). Acronym alphabet soup aside, it’s a topic that mixes the intricacies of tax law and bond finance with mortgages and clean energy. Like we said, not easy. (more…)

During the 2010 Solar Power Finance & Investment Summit in San Diego, a large crowd learned that Chinese companies have cash and interest in the US solar energy market, yet partnerships require patience and low risk.

To explore the opportunities, R. Thomas Hoffmann, Partner with Ballard Spahr, led a panel with three experts on Chinese solar investing. They were:

• Jimmy Chuang, is with GCL Solar, the largest polysilicon producer in Asia and the largest solar developer in China.  GCL has access to $4.5 billion.

• K. Scott Son, Vice President of Project Finance at Suntech, the largest producer of silicon PV in the world (nearly $2 billion in revenue in 2008).

• Sha Wang, Principal at Cybernaut Investment, a family company with US and Chinese roots and a $500 million solar investment fund.

(more…)