By Peter Whoriskey Tuesday, September 7, 2010; 10:39 PM

Original source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/07/AR2010090706933.html

WINCHESTER, VA. – The last major GE factory making ordinary incandescent light bulbs in the United States is closing this month, marking a small, sad exit for a product and company that can trace their roots to Thomas Alva Edison’s innovations in the 1870s.

The remaining 200 workers at the plant here will lose their jobs.

“Now what’re we going to do?” said Toby Savolainen, 49, who like many others worked for decades at the factory, making bulbs now deemed wasteful.

During the recession, political and business leaders have held out the promise that American advances, particularly in green technology, might stem the decades-long decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs. But as the lighting industry shows, even when the government pushes companies toward environmental innovations and Americans come up with them, the manufacture of the next generation technology can still end up overseas.

What made the plant here vulnerable is, in part, a 2007 energy conservation measure passed by Congress that set standards essentially banning ordinary incandescents by 2014. The law will force millions of American households to switch to more efficient bulbs.

The resulting savings in energy and greenhouse-gas emissions are expected to be immense. But the move also had unintended consequences.

Rather than setting off a boom in the U.S. manufacture of replacement lights, the leading replacement lights are compact fluorescents, or CFLs, which are made almost entirely overseas, mostly in China.

Consisting of glass tubes twisted into a spiral, they require more hand labor, which is cheaper there. So though they were first developed by American engineers in the 1970s, none of the major brands make CFLs in the United States.

“Everybody’s jumping on the green bandwagon,” said Pat Doyle, 54, who has worked at the plant for 26 years. But “we’ve been sold out. First sold out by the government. Then sold out by GE. ”

Doyle was speaking after a shift last month surrounded by several co-workers around a picnic table near the punch clock. Many of the workers have been at the plant for decades, and most appeared to be in their 40s and 50s. Several worried aloud about finding another job. Read more

Original source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/09/07/eco.nano.web/index.html

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Nanofluid developed by IT researchers could lead to more efficient computer servers
• Using nanofluid would reduce energy needed to cool vast server farms
• Iceland with geothermal energy has been proposed as good natural site for server farms

(CNN) — The internet may soon be a greener place thanks to new research that looks set to slash the carbon footprint of our surfing by introducing nanotechnology to computer servers.

Computer servers are often housed in giant warehouses, known as “server farms” and generate huge amounts of heat, which in turn requires huge amounts of power to fuel cooling systems.

Researchers from Sweden’s Institute of Technology have discovered that adding some nanoparticles to water can improve its ability to conduct heat by around 60 percent. This nanofluid could then be used in cooling computer servers and reduce the total amount of energy needed to keep temperatures down.

“We have had some really significant successes,” Mamoun Muhammed, Sweden’s Institute of Technology, told CNN.

So far those nanoparticles showing most potential are oxides of metals like zinc and copper, but carbon nanotubes are also being tested.

“What we are using are nanofluids, which are fluids engineered to contain nanoparticles dispersed in such a way that the liquid’s capability to move heat is much enhanced compared to normal cooling fluids,” said Muhammed. Read more

September 7, 2010 |  3:01 am

Original source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/09/energy-star-consumer-reports.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Energy Star standards, which rate the energy efficiency of buildings and products, need an update, according to Consumer Reports.

On the heels of criticism of Energy Star last week from a New York congresswoman, the magazine said the ratings program needed to raise the bar on qualifying products and develop better testing standards.

More than 35% of all products sold in certain categories get the Energy Star rating, according to Consumer Reports. Having a glut of qualifying items results in consumers having a harder time choosing truly eco-friendly goods, the magazine said.

The Energy Star system is run by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Consumer Reports also found that some appliances tested under Department of Energy standards ended up performing differently in home situations.

More than 40% of Americans have purchased an Energy Star product, Consumer Reports said, and 23% have upgraded to a more energy-efficient heating or cooling system. The vast majority — 77% — made the switch to cut down on their energy costs.

Potential cost savings abound, Consumer Reports found: $200 a year just by programming the thermostat, $400 by fixing leaky ducts, $75 by avoiding pre-rinsing dishes before they go in the washer.

But conserving energy and using it wisely, even without Energy Star, can be complicated. In the last 12 months, 91% of all homeowners made an energy purchase or improvement that qualified for a government rebate or tax credit. But just a quarter of those said they took advantage of an incentive program, Consumer Reports said.

Most were confused by the tangle of rules behind many programs, and others thought the incentives were too small to justify the hassle. Consumer Reports surveyed more than 1,500 homeowners on the subject in June.

– Tiffany Hsu

Sep 3 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Jen Lynds Bangor Daily News, Maine

Original souce: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16863652

A significant investment is expected to pay even bigger dividends for Northern Maine Community College, as the Presque Isle college is slated to benefit from a huge push to make the campus more green.

The college has undertaken several projects in recent months designed to reduce both energy costs and the campus’s carbon footprint. The college has invested more than $2.2 million in the effort, and the scope of completed work includes building and lighting upgrades, mechanical renovations and insulation, and building controls installation.

Tim Crowley, president of NMCC, said Thursday that making the college more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly has been a major priority over the past few years. Crowley said the investments NMCC has made in its buildings and around campus “will pay dividends for years to come.”

The college has entered into a performance contract with Honeywell to upgrade existing facilities. The arrangement, approved by the Maine Community College System last year, allowed NMCC to borrow $1.36 million from the system to initiate energy conservation work on campus. Read more

Shoppers across Europe are panic buying the last remaining stocks of old fashioned 75W light bulbs before the traditional household items are banned in the EU next week.

By Leigh Philips, in Brussels, Louise Gray and Andrew Hough Published: 8:00AM BST 28 Aug 2010

Original source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7968248/Shoppers-panic-buying-old-75W-bulbs-before-EU-ban-comes-into-force.html

The panic buying has come ahead of a EU ban next week. Photo: REUTERS

Last year 100W incandescent light bulbs were outlawed, triggering the first wave of stockpiling by worried consumers who do not like the more expensive energy saving alternatives.

Now it will be an offence to import or manufacture 75W bulbs, although shops can continue to sell the model until stocks run out.

The European Lamp Companies Federation said shoppers around Europe are already snapping up the last remaining stocks, with a 35 per cent increase in sales across the EU.

Demand is highest in Germany, Austria, Poland and central Europe. Read more

mglover@sacbee.com Published Friday, Sep. 03, 2010

Original source: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/03/3002457/california-sees-increase-in-appliance.html

California’s Cash for Appliances program is speeding up.

More than half the federal rebate money in the program has been either paid out or is being processed, reflecting increased demand since the state expanded the program in late July.

The California Energy Commission on July 28 approved more qualifying appliances, aiming to have more people take advantage of nearly $20.3 million in rebate funds then remaining of the original $31.7 million.

As of Tuesday morning, the state said it had received 112,324 rebate applications and has $14.8 million remaining in its rebate pool. Read more

Sep 2 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Nina Culver The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.

Original source: http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=16840486

If Liberty Lake loses power in the next ice storm, Liberty Lake police will still be able to function thanks to the recent installation of solar panels on the roof of the police station.

The panels furnish power to the station and keep a large bank of batteries fully charged as an emergency power source.

The department, which previously didn’t have a backup power source, will now be able to run its computer servers and recharge cell phones, portable radios, laptops and flashlight batteries for at least 72 hours. All those things are vital for officers to function, said police Chief Brian Asmus. “If we lose our computers, we don’t have access to records management or criminal histories,” he said. “The batteries aren’t doing anything but being charged when we have power.”

The panels and batteries were paid for with a $135,000 grant from the Department of Energy and the Washington State Department of Commerce. The city of Liberty Lake provided matching funds of nearly $22,000.

The 60 solar panels span 162 feet. The panels will generate an estimated 17,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The average home uses about 12,000 kilowatt hours a year, Asmus said. During peak times, if the system produces more energy than the station uses, it will be sold back to Avista at 18?cents per kilowatt hour.  Read more

Power to the people

Technology and development: A growing number of initiatives are promoting bottom-up ways to deliver energy to the world’s poor

Sep 2nd 2010

Original source: http://www.economist.com/node/16909923?story_id=16909923

AROUND 1.5 billion people, or more than a fifth of the world’s population, have no access to electricity, and a billion more have only an unreliable and intermittent supply. Of the people without electricity, 85% live in rural areas or on the fringes of cities. Extending energy grids into these areas is expensive: the United Nations estimates that an average of $35 billion-40 billion a year needs to be invested until 2030 so everyone on the planet can cook, heat and light their premises, and have energy for productive uses such as schooling. On current trends, however, the number of “energy poor” people will barely budge, and 16% of the world’s population will still have no electricity by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.

But why wait for top-down solutions? Providing energy in a bottom-up way instead has a lot to recommend it. There is no need to wait for politicians or utilities to act. The technology in question, from solar panels to low-energy light-emitting diodes (LEDs), is rapidly falling in price. Local, bottom-up systems may be more sustainable and produce fewer carbon emissions than centralised schemes. In the rich world, in fact, the trend is towards a more flexible system of distributed, sustainable power sources. The developing world has an opportunity to leapfrog the centralised model, just as it leapfrogged fixed-line telecoms and went straight to mobile phones.

Generating electricity from rice husks

But just as the spread of mobile phones was helped along by new business models, such as pre-paid airtime cards and village “telephone ladies”, new approaches are now needed. “We need to reinvent how energy is delivered,” says Simon Desjardins, who manages a programme at the Shell Foundation that invests in for-profit ways to deliver energy to the poor. “Companies need to come up with innovative business models and technology.” Fortunately, lots of people are doing just that.

Let there be light   Read more

By ERICA GIES September 1, 2010

Original source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/02/business/global/02iht-rensave.html?_r=1&ref=energy-environment

Jeffrey Sauger for The New York Times

LED streetlights in Ann Arbor, Mich. The chair of a 2010 report on efficiency potential said buildings could use nearly 60 percent less electricity by 2030 by installing existing technologies, like compact fluorescents or LEDs, insulation, double- or triple-paned windows, and on-demand or solar hot water heaters.

SAN FRANCISCO — Energy efficiency is a way to meet the world’s growing energy needs, just like building more power plants — except that it costs less, emits no carbon dioxide or radiation, and does not rely on scarce resources in potentially hostile places.

Efficiency is often confused, detrimentally, with conservation. Conservation connotes making do with less — turning down the heat or driving a smaller car. Efficiency means getting more bang per buck. For example, California’s 35 years of efficiency standards for appliances have created refrigerators that use 75 percent less electricity than models from the 1970s. Yet today’s refrigerators are larger, have more features and cost less in inflation-adjusted dollars.

In transportation, “we could double fuel economy for light-duty vehicles by 2035 without changing the size or acceleration of vehicles,” said Lester B. Lave, an economics and engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and the chairman of a 2010 report on efficiency potential from the National Academy of Sciences.

He said buildings could use nearly 60 percent less electricity by 2030 by installing existing technologies, like compact fluorescents or LEDs, insulation, double- or triple-paned windows, and on-demand or solar hot water heaters. Tuning up and optimizing settings on climate controls would also contribute.

Experts say that economy-wide efficiency improvements could have a head-turning effect on the U.S. energy mix, helping to halt climate change, reduce energy insecurity and fix the economy. Yet in the vociferous debate about how to get off fossil fuels, efficiency has taken a back seat — partly because of the difficulty of talking about it concretely.

“It’s harder to talk about something that doesn’t exist, that you don’t produce,” said Cathy Zoi, the assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at the U.S. Energy Department.

Highlighting this blind spot is a recent book, “Invisible Energy: Strategies to Rescue the Economy and Save the Planet,” by David Goldstein, a physicist who won the MacArthur genius award in 2002 and works as energy program director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

Mr. Goldstein argues that the United States could reduce its projected energy consumption 88 percent by 2050, and that a 30 percent reduction is possible by 2020. Read more

Original source: http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/10/09/how-philadelphias-navy-yard-will-become-mini-city-energy-innovation

Sep 1 – McClatchy-Tribune Regional News – Tom Avril The Philadelphia Inquirer

Congratulations. You’ve blown some insulation into the attic, screwed in some compact fluorescent lightbulbs. Perhaps you replaced those old, drafty windows.

Energy-saving moves, all of them.

But that’s nothing compared to what is coming at the Navy Yard.

Pennsylvania State University and a slew of partners plan to implement and develop the very latest in eco-friendly technologies at the South Philadelphia site, with the help of $159 million in federal and state grants announced last week. Read more

By TODD WOODY August 31, 2010, 5:30 pm

Original source: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/31/homeowners-must-pay-off-energy-improvement-loans/?ref=energy-environment

Many homeowners who participated in a program that let them repay the cost of solar panels and other energy improvements through an annual surcharge on their property taxes must pay off the loans before they can refinance their mortgages, two government-chartered mortgage companies said Tuesday.

The guidance came from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as efforts to resolve a dispute over the program — called Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE — have failed.

Approved by 22 states, the programs let municipalities sell bonds to finance improvements in energy efficiency. Homeowners typically pay back the loans over 20 years through an annual property tax assessment. As is the case with other property tax assessments, a lien is placed on the home that has priority over the mortgage if the homeowner defaults.   Read more

August 30, 2010 |  3:48 pm

Original source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/08/energy-star-energy-efficiency.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

The government’s Energy Star system, used to rate products and retrofitted buildings for energy efficiency, could use a fixer-upper of its own, a legislator said Monday.

The voluntary program uses relative instead of absolute ratings, comparing subjects to others in the same field, according to Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.).

For example, consumers are told that a certain Energy Star-rated washing machine uses 30% less energy than a traditional appliance but aren’t informed just how much energy is used or how much money can be saved in energy bills, Maloney said.

Energy Star ratings should be updated, she said in a letter Monday to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, whose agencies run the program.   Read more