Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) will invest $100 million in stimulus money to support renewable energy projects. Read More »
Will U.S. power consumers ever rely on Chinese green power for their electricity? This notion, that just a few years ago seemed far fetched, will likely become a reality. On Tuesday, Chinese wind turbine maker A-Power Energy Generation Systems received Chinese regulatory approval to proceed with a 600 megawatts, $1.5 billion wind farm to be constructed in Texas. The greenlight by the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission is a crucial hurdle to pass and will allow the project developers to, among other things, start approaching banks for financing. Read More »
Right-wing firebrand Rush Limbaugh thinks the planet would be better with former New York Times climate reporter Andrew Revkin dead and Climate Progress blogger Joe Romm wants him to get something (anything) right. Being the target of these two flamethrowers, in addition to writing Page One stories for The Times from the Copenhagen climate summit, running the Dot Earth blog and writing books would wear anyone down. On Dec. 21, Revkin packed it in and left The Times, where he had been a staff writer since 1995. Not, mind you, to run and hide, but to begin the next phase of his career as a senior fellow at Pace University’s new interdiscplinary program for applied environmental studies. We caught up with Revkin to talk about Copenhagen and the future of the climate for our Cornerstone Conservations series with leading executives and thinkers in clean tech and green energy.
GER: What was the Copenhagen climate summit like to cover?
Andrew Revkin: I’m sure everyone over there had a different perspective based on their experience. I was seeing some really bad signs early on; it was kind of like watching a truck you know is going too fast miss the intersection. There was just no way you were going to get any substantive breakthroughs coming out of something like that. Read More »
Most cleantech companies, it seems, have put a hold on any major announcements during the Copenhagen climate talks.
But the U.S. Department of Energy has boldly forged ahead with its funding bonanza, today announcing that $100 million will be available for electrofuels, advanced carbon capture and storage and batteries for hybrid cars.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu made the announcement at an event with Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.
The “funding opportunity” for the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) calls for submissions by Jan. 15. The previous funding round, released in late October, saw 37 companies and labs receive $157 million in funding.
Update | 1:31 PM: The DOE just emailed us the release on the $620 million smart grid funding announcement.
The funding will support 32 projects across the country.
Of the $620 million, $435 million will support fully integrated, regional smart grid demonstrations in 21 states, representing over 50 utilities and electricity organizations with a combined customer base of almost 100 million consumers. And $185 million will fund utility-scale energy storage projects.
On the funding Secretary Chu said:
This funding will be used to show how Smart Grid technologies can be applied to whole systems to promote energy savings for consumers, increase energy efficiency, and foster the growth of renewable energy sources like wind and solar power.
So, to recap: Yesterday, the DOE disbursed $18 million to support 107 small cleantech firms. Today, the DOE released another $620 million in stimulus funding for next-generation smart grid and energy storage projects – See here for a list of the selected projects.
