Cleantech News
Investment:
As large-scale renewable projects become more common, it is important to consider who will own these projects: rate-payers or utilities like traditional power production schemes. Gavin Donahue argues that distributed ownership allows for more market influences and that utility ownership would reduce an emphasis on efficiency that has driven costs down.
Energy Efficiency measures were once all more cost effective measures to reduce carbon footprints of buildings. However, as the cost of renewable energy continues to drop, some efficiency projects are no longer able to compete. This changes the modus operandi of developers of low-footprint buildings. Now developers need to more carefully weigh their options before just blindly turning to efficiency projects.
A sign of other investors like Bloomberg want their views on climate change to be represented.
Technology & Business:
A lot of work still needs to be done, but this is a huge advancement for the development of smart grid technologies. This huge proof-of-concept shows the advantages of such a system on a broad scale. It also shows that parts of the technology that should be focused on as well as what should be ignored.
This also appeared on cleantechnica.com. This is more ammunition for proponents of net metering. Here we see that solar energy is being undervalued, highlighting the benefits of distributed generation, not only to the producer but also to the rest of the community.
As more renewable energy gets online we need more ways of storing the energy that gets produced. As we mentioned last week our partners at JCESR are working on revolutionizing energy storage. Check out their recent developments here
Policy:
This has been known for a while, but it is good to quantify the health savings from cleaner air. This means that the negative externalities of carbon-based fuels can be better understood, allowing for better pricing on carbon markets along with many other applications.
Energy companies that depend on coal for their lifeblood are not going to let it go without a fight. This Bloomberg piece highlights attempts to try and keep these plants alive well past their profitability.
The President has been increasingly active on the issue of tackling climate change since the release of the much discussed Clean Power Plan. As President Obama sees the end of his term in office, it is important that we find leaders who are able to continue to champion the issue as the president has begun to do.