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Egypt, World Bank sign $820m loan agreements for CCGT, wind projects
Nov 8th
Egypt and the World Bank have signed two new loan agreements worth a total $820m to finance the construction of a gas fired power plant and a wind farm.
The two agreements are for the construction of a 1500 MW combined-cycle gas turbine power plant in north Giza, near Cairo, worth $600m, and the development of wind power project worth $220m.
Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abulnaga and Shamsad Akhtar, the World Bank vice president for the Middle East and North Africa region, signed the agreements.
Akhtar said the World Bank was “pleased to support the renewable energy strategy of More >
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Loading ...Arithmetic trumps Ideology: Digging Into Conservative Misconceptions of Energy Costs
Sep 2nd
September 2, 2010 in Energy & Fuel
Here is an excellent guest post by an energy veteran and businessman on the costs of clean energy compared to old, dirty energy.
We’ve been writing on clean energy more and more these days. It is clearly one way to address global climate change, air pollution, and water pollution. And with another offshore oil production facility catching fire today, the sense of urgency to switch over from “dirty” to “clean” energy is growing.
In this guest post from Tom Rooney, President and CEO of SPG Solar in Novato, California we get a deeper look into the real costs of energy. Tom has More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...RENEWABLES COULD ADD TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS IN TEXAS (Former Chief Dpty. Comptroller, Billy Hamilton)
Aug 16th
August 16, 2010
RENEWABLES COULD ADD TENS OF THOUSANDS OF JOBS IN TEXAS
If lawmakers next year expand the renewable portfolio standards for electric generation to 13,000 with about one-fourth of that set aside for solar power, Texas could expect to add nearly 23,000 jobs a year for the next decade and almost $279 million more in state and local tax collections, a study released today shows.
The study, Texas’ Clean Economy … What We Need to Succeed, by former Chief Deputy Comptroller Billy Hamilton, argues that the state has a vast untapped potential More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing – CNN.com
Aug 12th
By Thom Patterson, CNN
August 9, 2010 7:36 a.m. EDT | Filed under: Innovation
New Yorker Philip Wilentz powers his TV with a car cigarette lighter during 2003′s massive blackout. STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Non-disaster U.S. power outages up 124 percent since early ’90s
- U.S. electricity reliability low compared to some nations
- Experts: “Smart grid” would avert blackouts, save billions
- Austin “Easy Button” controls tens of thousands of Texas thermostats
(CNN) — New York’s Staten Island was broiling under a life-threatening heat wave and borough President James Molinaro was seriously concerned about the area’s Little League baseball players. It was last July’s Eastern heat wave and Consolidated Edison was responding to scattered More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...The Good News and Bad News about Cisco’s Smart Grid Strategy
Jul 19th
Jul 15, 2010
In separate stories, we’ve described how Cisco’s home energy management initiative reveals the underpinnings of the grid’s first operating system. And how Microsoft’s bureaucratic stupidity caused it to miss this billion-dollar opportunity.
I want to use this space to discuss the good and bad aspects of Cisco’s Smart Grid strategy from the utility point of view. Remember, I’m talking here about Cisco’s strategy, not about its current offerings, which still fall far short of the company’s long-term goals.
Let’s Start with the Good News
There is a lot to like about the idea of a standard operating system for the grid. For instance:
· A target for More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Challenges to Cisco’s Smart Grid Strategy
Jul 19th
Jul 15, 2010
Cisco is one of America’s great companies. But that doesn’t mean it has a lock on creating thegrid’s first operating system. I see at least five challenges in its way.
Finding the right business model. Can Cisco really foist the cloud computing model onto utilities? After all, utilities make money by building and owning assets. Those assets go into their rate base, on which they earn a regulated return. And utilities notoriously prefer to have close control of all their systems.
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Helping utilities find the right business model. Today, utilities are asked to spend enormous amounts on Smart Grid equipment that More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Cisco Smart Grid Strategy: The Grid’s First Operating System
Jul 19th
Jul 15, 2010
More than a year ago, I gave you an early warning of Cisco’s end-to-end smart grid strategy. Later in 2009, Tulane professor Geoffrey Parker stopped by with an important survival guide to the impending smart grid platform.
With the recent announcement of the Cisco home energy management solution, Cisco’s Smart Grid strategy is becoming ever more clear. The company describes its offerings as “an innovation platform.” I think you’ll get a better sense of its impact if you think of it as the grid’s first operating system.
In this article, I’ll quickly review the home energy offering. Elsewhere in this issue, More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...University Receives $19 Million To Monitor Carbon Storage Project
Jul 8th
June 28, 2010
AUSTIN, Texas—The University of Texas at Austin will receive up to $19 million from the U.S. Department of Energy and NRG Energy to design and oversee a monitoring plan for a carbon capture and storage demonstration project in southeast Texas.
The project will demonstrate advanced technology to reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) from a coal-fired power plant.
This project will be among the first in the state of Texas, and one of only a handful in the world, to use anthropogenic CO2 as opposed to naturally occurring CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). EOR is a technique that More >
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...FERC Publishes Long-Awaited National Action Plan for Demand Response
Jun 19th
Jun 17, 2010
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has published its National Action Plan on Demand Response, which calls for a public-private coalition to develop and deploy “successful and cost-effective demand response programs” for states, localities and regions. FERC was directed to develop the plan under the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. EISA directed FERC to identify: the requirements for technical assistance to states to help them optimize the amount of demand response (DR) that can be developed and implemented, the requirements for a national communications program for broad-based customer education and support, and to develop or identify More >
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