Since the Fukushima nuclear plant failure was kick-started by Japan’s devastating May 11 earthquake, nuclear power generation seen intense scrutiny. In the financial markets, speculators assumed the nuclear market would take an immediate and impactful hit. Subsequently, nuclear-heavy utilities slid in the marketplace and low-carbon alternatives such as solar and wind generation immediately spiked. As…

AWEA CEO Denise Bode recently wrote a little rant on the AWEA blog regarding federal energy subsidies. While it is a good article and I agree with many of the points, as I’ve pointed out before, it’s just not the whole story. I’m continually surprised by the lack of impartiality that runs rampant through the…

Since recently attending the AWEA Transmission workshop in Omaha, NE last week, I’ve been thinking a lot about the technical struggles of implementing a national Renewable Portfolio Standard. In past posts, I’ve focused primarily on the policy behind an RPS while glancing over the application of such policies. This workshop brought to light some issues…

I’ve recently found myself perplexed by the media situation surrounding renewable energy and renewable energy development. Obviously, I am part of this conundrum, and frankly that only furthers my need to question. I recently ran across a tweet from one of my favorite Twitter contributors, @wind2power, that linked to a blog style article titled “Should…

The section 1603 cash grant program is set to expire at the end of 2010, leaving developers/owners little more than 3 weeks to begin “significant” work on their projects. I recently read an article on the matter which quoted Senator Baucus (D-MT), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, in which he was quoted saying,…

I was meandering through websites, looking for the latest news on renewable portfolio information, and I stumbled upon some information from DSIRE (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency) that I found interesting. DSIRE is a DoE backed website offering information, by state, on the various renewable energy policies and incentives throughout the U.S.…

We’ve all read the news that the United States has, after four years of remarkable growth, relinquished its’ position as the most attractive country for renewable energy investments. But rather than state the news, I want to discuss why we are slowly slipping behind our foreign competitors. One key factor in the U.S. decline is…

The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) issued the following statement last week from Denise Bode, AWEA CEO, in response to United Steelworkers (USW) filing a trade case against China: “China and many other countries are using every tool at their disposal to lead in clean energy manufacturing including strong renewable energy targets. The US has…

So, to follow up on Mr. Sigrists thoughts, I wanted to see just how much impact the $70 billion has on the energy prices we as consumers pay. So, without going into too much detail on the subject, according the the U.S. Energy Information Administration during the time period from 2002-2008, the United States consumed $5.9 trillion of fossil fuel energy (this statistic came from a compilation of numerous reports of which can all be found throughout the Energy Information Administrations website).

Earlier today the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory released its’ 2009 Wind Technologies Market Report, which gives a fairly detailed description of the wind industry to date, as well as points out some key characteristics and data from 2009. As I was reading through the information, looking at all the graphs, and taking in the different…

There has been a lot of hype these past few days, much of it stemming from the AWEA lobbyists, about the lack of a strong RES in the latest so called “energy bill”. After some research and a bit of thought, I’ve come to the conclusion that the lack of an RES is the “energy…

Yesterday’s webinar, hosted by Information Forecast, Inc., on REC Trading in California brought up some interesting points that I just hadn’t considered before and got me thinking. The number one thing that stood out in my mind during this hour and a half program on the differences between Senate Bill 722 and the California Public…

A recent market study conducted by IHS Emerging Energy Research shows that states with strong renewable portfolio standards will see an average of 250% growth over the next 15 years. The research estimates that renewable energy production from all RPS enforced states combined will increase from 137 TWh in 2010 to nearly 480 TWh by…

Approximately two months ago, the energy industry in the United States ran into some serious turbulence. The semi-submersible Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, killing 11 and unleashing anywhere between 20,000 and 40,000 gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Since that day, rig owner BP plc has made multiple attempts to stop the oil…

Expectations for grandeur have certainly surrounded the recent renewable energy boom in the United States, with thousands of companies entering the market in the hopes to glean no more than a sliver of the profits this energy revolution could provide. However, just as the great recession has impacted the manufacturing and financial industries, the wind…