A Movement is Born [PDF]

It is not often that one feels one is present at the launch of something civilization changing. Electricity was in the air at the recent Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, which attracted a swarm of more than 8,600 energy entrepreneurs, government officials and academics from around the world.

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The Future of Global Energy Emerges Out of the Box - Expect the Unexpected [PDF]

Fresh from engineering school, Vinod Khosla dreamed of setting up a soymilk production facility in India to help feed millions of Indians who lacked refrigeration. It failed, but Khosla did not. He went on to found Sun Microsystems in 1982 to build powerful workstation computers.

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Articles Within This Feature

• Bringing Light to the Himalayas - Tapping Remote Hydroelectric Resources [PDF]

• Going with Geothermal - Iceland Did It - Others Can [PDF]

• The Frontiers of Change [PDF]

• The U.S. Seizes Leadership Role - Next-Generation Thinking for Next-Generation Energy [PDF]

• The WIREC World - Building on Global Cooperation [PDF]

 

The Next Generation - Training a Future Workforce [PDF]

When Al Zeits started a wind energy technology program at an Iowa community college in 2004, he optimistically expected 12 to 15 students per year to supply trained workers for a burgeoning local industry. He was off, by a bit. In the current term there are 60 students and for fall 2008 he’s expecting 90 students in the two-year program, which is now one of a dozen like it throughout the United States. Even so, the wind industry is still wondering if it will have enough qualified workers to operate and maintain – let alone build – dozens of projects from coast to coast.

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The Emerging Global Intelligent Utility - Reinventing Power [PDF]

About 200 utility industry leaders recently convened in Monaco at Accenture’s International Utilities and Energy Conference to define the intelligent utility of the future, the challenges that must be confronted and strategies for success. The event attracted diverse attendees from 17 countries, with the largest delegations coming from opposite sides of the world — the Netherlands and China.

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Riding the Rails - Utilities Raise Concerns [PDF]

It’s full steam ahead for some in the utility world. They are going after rail carriers, saying that those enterprises are exploiting their market power and causing captive shippers to pay inflated prices for their transportation services — costs that are eventually passed through to consumers.

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Reshaping LA’s Utility - Responding to California’s Renewables Push [PDF]

The Los Angeles Department of Water & Power has attracted attention and controversy throughout its 106-year history, and it has often struggled to maintain its focus and direction. First established in 1902 primarily to deliver water to thirsty citizens of the small but growing desert metropolis of Los Angeles, the utility has morphed into a giant that dwarfs municipal rivals and delivers water and electrical power to nearly 4 million residents in an area of 465 square miles.

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Boulder Boosts Smart Grid - Controlling the Power Network [PDF]

As a member of the Boulder City Council and as an electrical engineer deeply concerned about climate change, I am excited that Xcel Energy has chosen Boulder, Colo., as its “Smart Grid City” partner. I have seen Xcel change over the past four years from a power company opposed to renewable energy and energy conservation to a company that is a dedicated leader in wind power and a partner with environmental groups.

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Washington Energy Maverick - Helping Congress Deal with Energy [PDF]

Jay Inslee, a Democratic congressman from Washington state, grew up in sight of Mt. Rainier, the volcanic peak that lies about 50 miles southeast of Seattle. Now he worries that the Alpine meadows and ski slopes of his childhood are disappearing. “This is not an abstract thing,” says Inslee. “There are no salmon in the streams, no snow on the lower slopes.” The tree line is creeping up the slope, he says, eliminating those meadows and many of the delicate flowers that flourished there.

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The Sweet Success of Texas Retail - Cities Succeed in a Customer Choice Energy Market [PDF]

A unique group of Texas cities has been setting an example of how to succeed in the Texas retail customer choice market. Cities are an often overlooked customer segment that, in aggregate, can represent a large load for an electric service provider. Specifically, cities need electricity for a broad range of public services, including water pumping and street lighting, as well as for city halls, police stations, fire stations, and park and recreation facilities. A city’s electrical usage is ultimately funded by taxpayers, making both cost and price stability important issues in electricity purchasing.

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Feed-In Tariffs - A Regulatory Tool [PDF]

All across the country, whether motivated by a concern for the environment, energy security, job creation, the economy — or just a desire to make a buck — Americans are looking outside our borders to see what’s been fueling the global growth in renewable energy. They are finding that one type of legislation, in Europe and elsewhere called a feed-in tariff (FIT), has proven to be the world’s most effective renewable energy policy.

Link to this author's site: http://www.earthaction.org

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Capping and Trading - Getting a Handle on Carbon [PDF]

With the three remaining presidential candidates all agreeing on the need to curb emissions of greenhouse gases, the debate in the United States is now turning to the type of measures that need to be introduced. In recent months, cap-and-trade schemes seem to have gained the ascendancy over a carbon tax as the mechanism best suited to encourage the necessary change in the economy. This may be due to the attraction of linking with schemes that are in operation in Europe and that are being contemplated in other countries. But the argument may not yet be over. In any case, European experience has revealed that not all cap-and-trade schemes are the same. The precise details of each scheme’s implementation can have significant influence on the results, in terms of prices that customers have to pay and actual abatement achieved.

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Women Designing Energy Policy - Group Tracks Regulatory Moves [PDF]

Women’s Energy Matters is an organization of women having fun working for clean energy, healthy food and caring communities. It was founded in 1997, just after California passed electricity deregulation. According to the organization’s Web site, the group “is a network of women and men who approach energy issues from a woman’s point of view.” It continues, “WEM also celebrates the ways women have used their own energy through the ages to work for the public good.

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Building a Pathway to the Future - Powering a Carbon-Constrained World [PDF]

America’s electric power industry is transforming the way it generates electricity. We are expanding the role of energy efficiency. We are investing in renewable energy sources, and developing advanced power plant and transmission technologies. All are essential for meeting the electricity demands of a nation with a growing population, economy, and standard of living.

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The Rising Risks Faced by Utilities - New Approaches to Offset Challenges [PDF]

Brenda Boultwood, the chief risk officer at Constellation Energy, had watched closely the Federal Reserve as it bailed out Bear Stearns by approving a $30 billion credit line to JPMorgan Chase. Prior to its collapse, Boultwood and the credit team at Constellation Energy, based in Baltimore, Md., had gotten reliable information that Bear Stearns was facing liquidity issues.

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Binding Europe and Africa - Using Transmission to Secure Solar Power [PDF]

Concentrated solar power is a concept, quite literally, of dazzling simplicity. It is an idea so simple and with such extraordinary promise as a means of power generation that it seems astonishing that we are only just waking up in Europe to its potential — more than 20 years after its use was pioneered in California.

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Extended Nuclear Life - Plants Beyond Age 60 [PDF]

Growing concern about climate change has refocused attention on the carbon dioxide emissions that could be avoided with new nuclear plants as compared to other large, baseload generating stations. Their effect would be diminished, however, if the sizable avoided emissions from existing plants were taken off the table due to retirement.

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Prices are Rising - Nuclear Cost Estimates Under Pressure [PDF]

The rising cost of materials and labor has the potential to put an end to the nuclear renaissance before it ever gets started. Company estimates that have been released show costs for an individual unit could be as high as $12 billion, and one consultant expects those estimates could rise if material prices continue to escalate.

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Youth Influencers - Early Start to Good Energy Habits [PDF]

In 1977, Ward Eames was a 19-Yearold theater student at the University of Minnesota who sported shoulder-length hair, bell-bottoms and clogs. Only a few years had passed since the oil crisis of the early 1970s.

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Training for Efficiency - Utilities Tap Government’s Energy Star Effort [PDF]

With energy prices continuing to skyrocket — now more than ever — people are taking the initiative to incorporate energy efficiency into their lives. Whether through replacing their incandescent light bulbs with Energy Star compact fluorescent light bulbs, buying a programmable thermostat, or better insulating their homes, consumers are looking for energy and money saving opportunities.

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Chilled Ammonia Gets a Warm Reception - Tackling Carbon Dioxide [PDF]

WE Energies, the electric Power Research Institute and equipment and service provider Alstom have started a pilot project to test an ammonia-based absorption system to remove carbon dioxide from the emissions of an existing coal-fueled power plant.

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A Rotating Solar Device - Tapping Solar Heat to Create Fuel [PDF]

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories are building a prototype device that will use solar heating to split carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide and oxygen, and water into hydrogen and oxygen.

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Mississippi River Generation - Catching Current [PDF]

Small turbines up and down the Mississippi River could provide as much electricity as a nuclear power plant in the near future. Earlier this year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued its first preliminary permits for in-river hydrokinetic projects that would be powered by river currents.

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Calling All Energy Visionaries - Mit’s Spring Conference Attracts Growing Throng [PDF]

Energy issues were becoming more important to members of the MIT Energy Club and the Sloan Energy and Environment Club a few years ago. What could the groups do to examine limitations with current energy policies and advance emerging energy issues? The answer to that question is MIT’s annual energy conference, one that has been gaining attention from coast to coast.

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The Khazzoom-Brookes Postulate - Philosophizing On Energy [PDF]

It’s no secret to economists that improving efficiency boosts productivity, leading to higher output and higher consumption. What is perhaps less understood is that this efficiency and consumption relationship also extends to the production and use of energy. Back in 1980, before the issue of climate change had raised much more than a flicker even in academic circles, economists Daniel Khazzoom and Len Brookes independently published papers arguing that improvements in energy efficiency worked to increase, rather than decrease, energy consumption.

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Metrics [PDF]

• M&A Deals Surge Around the World
• Coal Exports Soar
• Spending Flat on R&D
• Asia Leads Global Power Growth

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Sailing to Commanding Heights - Hudgens Steers PPM Energy [PDF]

PPM Energy sits nestled in the gorgeous Pacific Northwest, surveying the American landscape for opportunities to develop energy projects for wholesale, industrial and commercial customers. The Portland company, founded by PacifiCorp, became part of ScottishPower, which was acquired by Iberdrola in late 2006. Under European guidance, the Northwest company is focusing on development of wind resources in the United States.

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Avoiding Venice’s Fate [PDF]

The scientific evidence that man-made climate change is occurring is increasingly convincing. We are told that there will be dramatic impacts on human activity if business-as-usual emissions are allowed to play out. This science, and the public response to it, is motivating governments to act. Policymakers all over the world are putting in place targets for reducing emissions and promoting clean energy. Over time, they’re also enacting fiscal and regulatory policies to achieve those goals.

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