With October now upon us, data providers are beginning to issue their preliminary analyses of cleantech investment in the third quarter of 2012 that just closed. This quarter, the Clean Energy pipeline service of London’s VBResearch is the first to weigh in, counting cleantech venture capital & private equity investment (excluding buyouts) as approximately $1.7 billion.

Data from other providers, like Dow Jones (more…)

“In Europe, over 250 ice rink operators have started to use a vortex process technology, to lay and resurface ice rinks. This technology removes micro-bubbles from water by spinning the water into an ordered vortex movement. Through this process, micro- bubbles are driven to the inside of the swirl (more…)

A decline in U.S. carbon emissions in recent years is unlikely to continue over the long term unless there is a significant shift in how the nation produces and uses its energy, according to a new analysis.

While several factors have triggered a 9 percent decline in annual carbon emissions in the U.S. (more…)

Shale gas is being widely tapped in the U.S., but whether and to what extent other countries,―particularly in Europe and China,― will adopt it remains unclear. Although estimates vary as to how much of this unconventional and controversial fuel is bound up in domestic shale formations, natural-gas prices are likely to remain low for the time being. In this interview, Harvard Business (more…)

If there were an equivalent in the energy industry to Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, natural gas would be this year’s winner.

The dramatic rise in natural gas supply, and fall in price, has reconfigured the energy scene in the United States, suddenly creating a bounty of domestic energy, driving down wholesale power prices and speeding retirement of polluting coal-fired plants. (more…)

Here is some really good news coming from the European Union. From the EU environmental agency – EEA, located in Copenhagen – greenhouse gases emissions from the 15 first Member States decreased by 3.5 % between 2010 and 2011. The EU-15 emissions are now 14.1 % below the base-year level under the Kyoto Protocol. (more…)

The rising costs of living definitely has an impact on our everyday lives. You have to budget everything, from the food you eat to the utility bills that you have to pay for every month. It’s no longer strange that most people today are looking for alternate energy sources in order to save a few dollars from their electric bills. Compared with most types of alternative energy (more…)

The newfound abundance of natural gas carries with it a few main issues, some good, some bad, which I abbreviate as follows:

1) Good news: It holds the potential to lessen the cost and environmental impact of our energy consumption for at least the short term.

2) Bad news: That lowering of costs will make the R&D (more…)

Coal bed methane is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. In recent decades it has become an important source of energy in United States, Canada, and other countries. The term refers to methane adsorbed into the solid matrix of the coal. It is called sweet gas because of its lack of hydrogen sulfide. The presence of this gas is well known from its occurrence in underground coal mining, where it presents a serious safety risk for miners. Water from coal-bed natural gas production may contain sodium bicarbonate at concentrations that can harm aquatic life, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey and US EPA. An increase in the production of coal-bed natural gas has occurred throughout the nation. The results of this aquatic study may help resource managers achieve a balance between beneficial use of water resources (such as irrigation) and the protection of aquatic life throughout the nation and abroad. The study area included the Tongue and Powder Rivers in Montana and Wyoming, where several types of experiments and assessments were used for 13 aquatic species.

Coal bed methane is currently expanding in the Powder River Basin of northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana. Seven percent of the natural gas (methane) currently produced in the United States comes from such extraction. Methane from coal bed reservoirs can be recovered economically, but disposal of water is a potential environmental concern.

Sodium bicarbonate, which is also celled baking soda, is a commonly used chemical that people and animals are often exposed to in food and household products. So it is not considered highly toxic. However, it is a simple salt and enough salt to make fresh water salty water which can be harmful to freshwater fish.

The water extracted along with coal-bed natural gas is called produced water. Produced water is a by-product of the coal-bed natural gas extraction. Companies may dispose of produced water in several ways— discharging it directly into watersheds; treating and then discharging it; injecting it into deep wells; discharging it to drip irrigation systems; or capturing it in evaporation ponds. Produced water is not the same as water injected during hydraulic fracturing.

The aquatic species tested had difficulty surviving in waters in which sodium bicarbonate was found at levels from about 1,120 to greater than 8,000 milligrams (mg) of sodium bicarbonate per liter. Results varied across species and depended upon the age of the organism. Chronic toxicity was observed at concentrations that ranged from 450 to 800mg of sodium bicarbonate per liter. The specific concentration depended on the sensitivity of the four species of invertebrates and fish exposed. The Tongue River, for example, has a natural baseline of approximately 280mg of sodium bicarbonate per liter.

Deionization treatment practices employed in the Tongue and Powder River watersheds appear to reduce the concentrations of sodium bicarbonate and reduce the toxicity of untreated effluent water. Areas with concentrations likely to cause significant mortality in the Tongue and Powder River Basins appear to be limited to tributaries and parts of mixing zones with considerable additions of untreated discharge.

Conventional and unconventional (including hydraulic fracturing) oil and gas extraction practices often result in large volumes of produced water that contain elevated salts and dissolved solids from naturally occurring sources. The addition of sulfates and bicarbonates to surface waters may also result from the disturbances associated with mountain top removal mining. The current data can also be used to separate effects of saline discharges from those potentially posed by other constituents.

Article appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

A surge in investment in renewable energy in India, coupled with strong green energy growth in the U.S. and China, led to a 17 percent global surge in alternative energy investments last year, according to reports by the United Nations Environment Program and another organization. (more…)