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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Alstom and SSE Renewables have signed a new joint venture agreement to co-develop the world’s largest wave farm in the Costa Head Wave Project, off the coast of Orkney, Scotland. The farm will deliver up to 200 Megawatts of renewable energy utilizing AWS Ocean Energy Ltd’s (AWS) Archimedes Wave Swing III technology (AWS-III).

AWS is based in Inverness, Scotland, and the company’s stated purpose is to develop and deliver the technology of choice for utility scale generation of offshore wave power.

AWS-III is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0185721, entitled “Energy Conversion Device” (’721 Application) and directed to an array of interconnected compressible cells which convert wave energy into pneumatic energy by moving air between the cells. Turbines within the device convert the moving air into electricity.

Figure 1 of the ’721 Application illustrates the wave energy device. The device has twelve interconnected cells (20) arranged in a ring. The cells are connected to a ring-like air duct (not shown) and have a diaphragm (30) on their outer edge.

The diaphragm moves relative to the cell when wave action (40, 50) presses against the movable diaphragm surface. The movement of the diaphragm causes air within the cells to be pumped into and out of the air duct and between the cells. The moving air then spins a turbine, which produces electricity.

Each multi-cell array can produce up to 2.5 megawatts of electricity. Once in place, the devices are moored to the sea floor in depths ranging from 60 – 150 meters. Each device will be connected to the local utility grid from an offshore substation via a high voltage link.

According to a joint press release, a 1:9 scale model of the AWS-III was deployed in Loch Ness, Scotland in 2010. Full scale component testing will commence in 2012 and a full scale prototype is planned for deployment in 2014.

In the press release, Simon Grey, Chief Executive at AWS stated:

The selection of the AWS-III system for this exciting and ground-breaking project is a significant endorsement of our technology and team. We firmly believe that the AWS-III will become the established choice for utility scale offshore wave power generation. We look forward to working with Alstom and SSE to deliver Costa Head.

AWS and Alstom predict there is a potential worldwide market for renewable wave energy in the 200 to 300 gigawatt range. If successful, this 200 megawatt wave farm will be a large step in making that prediction a reality.

Article by David Gibbs, appearing courtesy Green Patent Blog.

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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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2011 was a year of much political chest thumping but not much progress on the significant issues. Subsidies for wind energy are among the many unanswered questions and are likely victims of the challenging budget decisions. The industry has grown used to generous subsidies for wind generated electricity. The current subsides are going to expire at the end of 2012 without any guarantee they will be renewed. This leaves the market in an uncertain state.

Along with the government subsidies that provide wind energy producers 2.2cents per kWh, many states have passed renewable energy mandates which required that a certain amount of electricity come from renewable sources. The nascent wind industry has grown a lot recently thanks in large part to innovative insight and support by both state and federal governments. To add to the excitement, wind researchers have produced renewable electricity as cost efficiently as others produce it now from non-renewable sources.

All sources of renewable energy (including solar power and hydro, for example) are in jeopardy of further decline due to the nation’s foreboding economic outlook. It is imperative for wind technology to continue to lower production costs in order to be an important part of the U.S. electricity portfolio moving forward. The bottom line in free markets is invariably cost.

Wind generated electricity has several benefits. Wind provides clean and endless electricity. To survive, the wind industry must effectively combine environmental cleanliness with low cost. In a future with reduced government subsidies and less pressure for renewable energy mandates because of cost concerns, it has to be able to compete on cost to remain viable. In the wind industry’s favor is the fact that fossil fueled power has continually risen over time in cost. If renewables continue to go down in price the two will ultimately intersect.

However, one fossil fuel – natural gas – has made strong advancements in cost. This provides a formidable challenge for the alternative energy industry. Since 2008, new natural gas drilling technology advancements have triggered a dramatic decline in electricity rates in Texas. Texas, along with a number of other states, gets a significant percentage of its power from natural gas plants. Because of this, the wind industry faces a huge cost challenge for the near future.

A major complaint about wind energy is that it doesn’t produce electricity consistently and predictably. After all, simply building wind turbines doesn’t guarantee that the wind will blow to turn them. The result of idle equipment is zero electricity production. Because there are no effective technologies to control the wind, there is no good way to calculate just how much electricity will be generated at any given moment from a particular wind turbine. If the wind industry can develop technologies that first stores the overflow of electricity produced when the wind is active and then steadily supplies it to consumers, then renewable wind energy will grow in future importance. There are many interesting technologies on the horizon for solving this issue, but today none of them are at a stage where they could be implemented on a large-scale and to great effect.

Article by Devon Bass who has been active in the energy markets for 16 years, first as a trader then as a consultant.

He is the founder of Vault Energy Solutions and the Texas Chamber of Commerce Energy Association.

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More than 9,600 megawatts of wind power capacity was installed in European Union member states in 2011, accounting for about 21 percent of all new power capacity installations, according to an industry report.

New offshore wind farms in the UK and land-based projects in Sweden and Germany pushed EU member states to a combined 93,957 megawatts of wind power capacity, an increase of about 10.5 percent from 2010, according to the European Wind Energy Association.

Overall, renewable energy installations accounted for more than 71 percent of all new installed power capacity, with more than 32,000 megawatts installed, according to the report. In the UK, the Department of Energy and Climate Change and the offshore wind industry will unveil new policies today to encourage greater production of wind turbines within the UK, setting a new target requiring that more than half of the equipment for the next generation of wind farms will be made domestically.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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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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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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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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Ecotricity, a British alternative energy provider, announced on its website that it is financing a new technology called Searaser. The company says the new technology tackles two of the main obstacles faced by the renewable energy industry: cost and intermittency.

The Searaser was invented by Alvin Smith, an engineer from Devon (UK). It uses ocean power, which is constant, to create electricity on demand.

“It’s such a simple design and we believe it’ll produce electricity cheaper than any other wave-power technology, or indeed any other type of renewable energy,” Ecotricity said on its website.

The difference between Searaser and existing wave technologies to produce power is that the former does not generate electricity in the water. Instead, it uses the constant motion of the ocean swell to drive seawater through an onshore turbine.

It pumps the water using a vertical piston between two buoys. One stays on the surface of the water, while the other is suspended underwater and tethered to a weight on the seabed. As the ocean swell moves, the buoys move up-and-down and the piston pumps pressurized seawater through pipes to an onshore turbine. This produces electricity.

Ecotricity said Searaser units could also supply energy on-demand by pumping seawater into a coastal reservoir, with a hydropower turbine, solving renewable energy’s problem of fluctuating output. The company is pumping money into the project to drive the next phase of development. The hope is to have a product ready for market in 2014. What do you think? Promising or not?

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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