renew

China is the Saudi Arabia of waste heat, according to Roger Ballentine, president of Green Strategies.

The country's power plants aren't very efficient and, unlike Denmark or Japan, China hasn't invested a lot in technologies that can capture the heat and harness it to produce electricity. That means there's a vast amount of potential energy being squandered--or waiting to be tapped by an entrepreneur or two.

China isn't alone. Over half of the electricity produced in the U.S., for instance, never actually gets used for a productive purpose. A lot of it gets converted … Read more

Hydro Green Energy, which wants to plumb America's waterways for electricity, has received $2.6 million in funding.

The company wants to create somewhat small, modular turbines and then set them down in arrays in waterways. Each turbine would be capable of harvesting 250 kilowatts of power. The size of the array would then depend on the size and power of the waterway.

It hopes to plant these arrays in Minnesota, Louisiana, Mississippi, and other states.

Many other companies, such as Ireland's OpenHydro, are building large machines that look like oil derricks for harvesting power. These larger machines … Read more

Wind power is worth it, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

ERCOT studied the costs and benefits of wind power in three scenarios and concluded that expanding wind power in Texas would outweigh the total costs of boosting the state's electrical grid with conventional technologies. (Renewable Energy Access has a more detailed story here.)

The organization estimated the costs of putting in 5.1 gigawatts (GW), 11.6GW, and 18GW of new wind energy as well as the required grid connections. The 5.1GW plan would bring with it a $3.8 billion premium, but save $1.… Read more

Want some turbines to build a wind power park? Get in line.

High demand--coupled with the engineering challenges of building turbines that can extract hundreds of kilowatts or megawatts of power from the wind--has created a shortage. Wind park developers, thus, are being forced to jostle their plans and supply line relationships to keep projects on track.

If you order now, you might not get turbines until late 2009 or later.

"There has been a backlog for a significant period of time. The lead time is around a year to a year and a half," said Myke Clark, … Read more

Suppliers in the renewable-energy industry have tried just about everything to pass a law to renew an important investment tax credit that is set to expire at the end of this year.

On Thursday, Sens. Mary Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Senator John Ensign (R-Nev.) introduced a bill that would extend that credit and provide incentives for energy-efficiency measures.

The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008 ( click here for PDF) extends the investment tax credit for eight more years for businesses.

Consumers would have the existing 30 percent federal tax credit on renewable energy projects, such as solar panels, extended another … Read more

Standard Renewable Energy, which wants to build a nationwide chain of dealers that can install solar panels and advise businesses and homeowners on saving energy, got $7 million in a second round of funding.

The company also said that Peter Corsell, CEO of smart grid specialist GridPoint, joined the board.

Standard, Conergy, and Solar City are trying to bring more standardization and brand equity to the energy efficiency field. Back in the '70s, and still today, solar installers were mostly independent dealers and contractors. Some, such as Berkeley's Sun Light and Power, established strong reputations. Others weren't so … Read more

A plan designed to help make San Francisco the nation's solar power capital hit a budget snag last week.

The largest residential solar rebates from a U.S. city would have offered up to $5,000 to homeowners who install photovoltaic panels. But the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has halted launching the solar program, pending the S.F. Board of Supervisors' decision to review funding. Supervisor Jake McGoldrick introduced a proposal Tuesday to freeze $3 million needed for the rebates.

"It's troubling that what appears to be a political debate has gotten in the way of … Read more

DUBLIN, Ireland--It's easier here than in most industrialized nations to green the electrical grid.

Peak demand for electricity in the Republic of Ireland comes to about 5,000 megawatts, Graham Brennan, program manager for renewable-energy research and development at Sustainable Energy Ireland, the government's green-technology arm, said in an interview in SEI's Dublin offices. The peak occurred last December, at 4,907 megawatts.

Studies show that onshore and offshore wind turbines located in the republic could deliver approximately 5,000 megawatts of power over both parts of the island, he added. This figure takes into account only … Read more

Right now, wave power is in the early experimental stages, but venture capitalists are lining up to be on the ground floor.

Orecon has lined up $24 million in funding from Advent Ventures, Venrock, Wellington Partners and Northzone Ventures to build a full scale prototype of its wave power machine and, if the results are positive, move toward commercial deployment.

The U.K.-based Orecon has devised a large-scale buoy for harvesting power from waves. In a nutshell, waves striking the device create pressure in a chamber, which is used to turn a turbine and create electricity. A single device … Read more