CleanTech News
Investment:
Now that developers are adding Gigawatts of Solar every quarter, we can only wait to see what will be next developments in the quantity and kinds of solar being put in to the market.
In order to fund larger and larger projects, two of the largest firms linked with renewables have teamed up. As more mainstream banks and funding sources join partnerships like this, we might be in the middle of a turning point where capital might no longer be one of the biggest issues to get a project started.
More on how to change the way commercial solar projects are funded.
Technology & Business:
As the country barbecued, clean energy jobs were firing up as well. Many proponents of clean energy and CleanTech have talked about the economic benefits, particularly on job growth. Here the NRDC reports a boom in growth that we are so excited about. At Evergreen we have been talking about this for a while now and this national view reinforces what we saw in the Clean Jobs Illinois Survey.
As we noted earlier today this is a 900% jump in Energy Storage and we are really excited about it. Prices are falling with all indications pointing towards even more coming from economics of scale.
This is a novel introduction of a technology that has been in the works since the 1990s. But now it seems like the use of fuel cells to solve the emissions produced by coal plants. It will be interesting to see what this means for the future of coal.
Policy:
Even in California, a state that has been long known for its support of climate change prevention initiatives, these bills have faced heavy opposition. These most recent proposals have to be passed by Friday or die, so we will be watching closely to gain a sense of how far lawmakers can push climate initiatives, as these might create signals for future reform in other places.
A push to completely revitalize the way that we focus on energy Efficiency in the US. Given the enormous return on investment that energy Efficiency projects give consumers, more work needs to be done to increase participation in these projects.
A lot of talk has been going on about the Clean Power Plan President Obama unveiled a couple weeks ago. However little talk has been about the effects of the CPP on water consumption.