Archive for the ‘Alternative Energy’ Category

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Investment in Alternative Energy Resources

Monday, May 18th, 2009

Alternative energy resources are reaching companies via increased financing from venture capitalists and lenders at a time when other small companies are suffering the economic downturn and being turned away by investors. This influx of resources is allowing many alternative energy companies to hire more staff, revamp marketing efforts and expand geographically.

During the previous administration in 2008, alternative energy was hailed as “the brightest sector in venture capital over the last year,” by Brian Fan, research director at Cleantech Group, an industry trade organization in San Francisco. The current Obama administration’s efforts to boost alternative energy resources are stoking activity in private venture-capital outreach.

In 2008, investments in alternative energy companies totaled $8.4 billion, up nearly 40% from 2007, according to Cleantech Group. The third quarter alone set a record, with venture capitalists poured $2.6 billion into clean technology. In the fourth quarter, they invested $1.7 billion.
Yet the credit crunch and nose-diving energy prices are prompting companies to scale back or cancel alternative-energy projects.

In 2008, research firm New Energy Finance predicted total spending on clean-energy projects was expected to fall 4% to $142 billion from 2007. But venture capital and private-equity firms are still investing in alternative energy resources, largely due to the President Barack Obama’s administration and its efforts to boost the sector.

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Alternative Energy Companies Provide Wind Power

Sunday, May 17th, 2009

In August of 2008, there were 125 companies that were squarely focused on alternative energy production globally. Of those, 41 were based in the United States – roughly a third. At the time, the value of those alternative energy companies was approximately only 25%, a figure that has waxed and waned with the turbulent global economy. However, alternative energy companies have still followed a general pattern of growth despite economic downturns.

For example, First Wind, a Massachusetts company formerly known as UPC Wind which has constructed facilities in both New England and Hawaii,, hopes to raise $450 million in an offering underwritten by Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and JPMorgan. The 130-employee company has wind farms operating or in development in six states and one Canadian province. The company will be listed on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbol “WNDY.”

Wind energy is one of the fastest-growing sources of alternative energy in the United States and is expected to account for 1.8 percent of electricity production by the year 2012. The Department of Energy is examining the possibility of raising that output to 20 percent by 2030, which would require the construction of more than 300,000 megawatts of generating capacity.

However, alternative energy companies have farms that are large and unwieldy, and sometimes make for difficult negotiations with those who have interests in real estate development. Thousands of new turbines generally generate countless permitting processes and regulatory reviews. Some companies, however, such as First Wind, pride themselves as possessing the skills to both engineer the technology and handle the ensuing bureaucracy.

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Types of Alternative Energy Sources

Friday, May 15th, 2009

What Are The Different Types of Alternative Energy Sources?

Alternative energy sources may be the key in reducing the amount of mostly carbon-based toxins that are by-products of energy use. Alternative energy sources are also in many cases virtually infinite. Solar and wind are two prime examples, however both are termed as “intermittent”, meaning they are not constantly present. To remedy this, systems of storage and transport will have to be developed. Wind energy sources harness the power of the wind to propel the blades of wind turbines.
Solar energy sources are used commonly for heating, the production of electricity, and even in the desalination of seawater.

There are other alternative energy sources, such as geothermal energy. Geothermal energy sources capture emissions of ultra hot vapors that emit from fissures in the earth. Hydropower energy sources come from harnessing the gravitational descent of a river into driving a water turbine and generator. Another variation is to make use of water’s kinetic energy through sources such as tidal power. These alternative energy sources, however, are basically infinite as solar and wind, and as such have their own definite limitations.

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Alternative Energy Stores Pay More

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Alternative Energy Stores

A White House report stated that alternative energy stores pay 10 to 20 percent more than the average wage in other industries. Alternative energy jobs are also more likely to be unionized. Labor unions see green energy jobs as replacements to jobs lost to overseas manufacturing and outsourcing, leading to a domestic market of alternative energy stores to supply the parts and goods necessary to fuel this industry. To keep alternative energy manufacturing jobs here in the United States, President Obama has already begun to develop that policy in the form of $500 million on alternative energy job training and $150 billion over the next decade on tax incentives to keep those jobs here in our borders. Because most of the industry revolves around revamping US infrastructure, alternative energy jobs are becoming immune to outsourcing and will in turn help develop these alternative energy stores, ensuring that Americans can once again enjoy the prosperity and stability of a booming economy.

For example, there are 8,000-plus components that go into a wind turbine, and there is a supply chain of approximately 16,000 manufacturing firms in the U.S. that would be involved in the manufacture, distribution, and sale of these components. Areas of the US that are hard-hit by the economic recession could become new boom areas of alternative energy stores. For example, a study by the Land Policy Institute at Michigan State University estimates that state incentives would create more than 4,000 jobs in construction and maintenance of alternative energy system by 2029 in Michigan, a state that has been particularly hard-hit by economic recession.

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Alternative Energy Resources Providing Valuable Jobs

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Alternative energy resources are providing promising chances for employment as they enjoy substantial growth as enormous utility-scale projects get built. More than 3,000 megawatts of giant solar facilities are being developed in the American southwest. These kinds of large-scale alternative energy projects generate thousands of construction jobs, a sector of the economy where far too many Americans lost their livelihoods.

Employment opportunities developing alternative energy resources of a different type will develop as well. In February the National Clean Energy Project conference convened to discuss a modernized electric grid for the US. This new network of power lines will be an effective transport system to distribute the energy generated from alternative energy resources. The sheer magnitude of the project will require an enormous amount of engineers and high-skill workers.

Engineers and skilled workers will also be innovating geothermal energy, which is shaping up to be one of the more promising alternative energy resources. A recent analysis concluded that geothermal energy is cheaper than coal, and with further innovation in the technology it could prove to be both highly lucrative and a powerful industry that employs people in the manufacturing, construction, management, and technology sectors. In less than a decade, the global industry of alternative energy resources is projected to explode from a $150-billion-a-year industry to a $600-billion-a-year industry.

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Alternative Power Sources

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

Which Alternative Power Sources are the Cleanest?

According to a recent study of the European Union: Environment Directorates General (DG), wind power emerges as a clear winner ahead all other alternative power sources in terms of its overall impact on the environment and human health. The objective of the Environment Directorate-General is to protect, preserve and improve the environment for present and future generations. The four priorities of the DG for the years 2002 to 2012 are climate change; nature and biodiversity; environment, health and quality of life; and natural resources and waste. Other alternative power sources, including solar, geothermal and hydroelectric power, finished ahead of nuclear power and coal combined with carbon capture and storage.

Alternative power sources should be differentiated from renewable power sources in that they are not virtually infinite but instead are finite – for example solar power will not decrease in our lifetimes but the availability of radioactive materials to fuel nuclear power plants will. The study assessed alternative power source technologies not only for their ability to deliver energy, but also for overall performance in several categories. The most heavily scrutinized categories were carbon dioxide emissions, mortality, resource abundance, land area required and water consumption.

The study also considered twelve different combinations of alternative power sources and vehicles to meet transport needs. Battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell and flex-fuel, which are able to run on a blend of petrol and ethanol, were all examined. According to the results, wind, whether being used to power battery-electric or hydrogen fuel cell cars, emerged the clear winner as the best alternative power source in fueling the vehicles in question.

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Alternative Energy Companies Create Millions of Jobs

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

Alternative Energy Companies Still Showing Promise

Amidst some of the bleakest financial doldrums our nation has faced in decades, as many Americans have to face the indignity of a pink slip, one industry still shows promise. That industry is alternative energy, and it is the wave of the future both economically and technologically. To ensure the industry meets that promise, it will need substantial manpower to develop the viability of these alternative energy companies. That means jobs, and lots of them. The current administration has made the development of jobs for these alternative energy companies its top priority.

President Obama announced more than $20 billion for investment in a more sustainable and greener economy. A White House report concluded that substantial investment in alternative energy companies would help to create tens of thousands of high-quality green jobs in the near future. Estimates for further down the line are even more promising. One analysis posited that an economy that shifts to generating 40 percent of its electricity from wind, solar, biomass, and other sources of alternative energy would create 4.2 million green jobs by 2038. Yet another analysis found that a $500 billion investment in alternative energy companies over the next 10 years would create 5 million green-collar jobs.

The involvement of the administration in developing the green job market is clearly working. Wind and solar energy underwent substantial expansion last year. According to the American Wind Energy Association, 2008 saw the wind energy industry surpassing all expectations with a 50% increase in generating power and $17 billion injected in to the economy. Investment in alternative energy companies is a sensible and sustainable way to inject much-needed capital in to our faltering economy.

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Alternative Energy Sources

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

New National Grid to Optimize Use and Transport of Alternative Energy Sources

In February the National Clean Energy Project conference convened, where a veritable army of policymakers and policy experts caucused over the need for a modernized electric grid in the United States. This new latticework of power lines buttresses the Obama administration’s efforts to promote alternative energy sources, which will need an effective transport system, comprised of a high-voltage mainline and state-of-the-art grid technology, to actually be effective. For example, the American Southwest may have solar plants galore, but since sunlight is a transient alternative energy sources, the energy captured may never reach, say, Virginia. Additionally, the electric grid would also need “two-way flows” to effectively disperse surplus alternative energy sources from one structure to another. This is in addition to the stimulus package $4.4 billion for “modernization of the electric grid” and $8 billion for transmission improvements, with entirely separate measures for climate legislation to cap carbon-dioxide emissions.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu reiterated transient energy conundrum with wind and solar energy: how do you store alternative energy sources that are not constant? In the U.S. wind and solar energy production only comprise 0.8% and 0.02%, respectively. However, aggregate estimates state that solar and wind could have potential outputs of up to 69% and up to 20%, respectively. At such quantities, storage becomes a problem. In times of no sunlight and no wind, Chu suggested the U.S. expand its pump-hydro storage capacity while developing compressed-air storage. Transporting the alternative energy sources will then present the prospect of perpetual resistance from local governments about having to build through their areas. Senator Reid’s solution was to introduce a bill expanding presidential powers to designate “renewable energy zones,” where the federal government could overrule local governments.

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Africa’s Move toward Alternative Energy

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Oil and gas deposits in Algeria are finite. The scorching sun is not. Even though the North African nation gets 95% of its export earnings from oil, it decided to exploit the one alternative energy resource they knew they would have indefinitely, a resource that could power the world four times over. So Algeria constructed an enormous solar facility a year ago with parabolic solar energy troughs nearly 45 football fields wide in the Sahara Desert. Not only will Algerian homes and businesses be alternative powered, but European ones as well, with the final objective to export 6,000 megawatts to Europe by 2020. That is the equivalent of 4 million homes. As the technology behind solar energy cells gets better, the facility becomes more and more productive.

Elsewhere on the continent, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the lack of electricity is a deterrent to investors. With demand growing 8% a year, the Rift Valley, which stretches from the northern end of the Red Sea down to Mozambique in east Africa, may hold the solution hidden in the ground: geothermal Alternative Energy. An energy source that is impervious to any kind of weather and minimal carbon emissions. Perhaps most crucially, though, east Africa sorely lacks West Africa’s oil or the Sahel’s capacity for solar energy. So geothermal Alternative Energy is a very inexpensive source of energy. Hydroelectric dams currently power much of the area, but are subject to drought. The United Nations Environment Program estimates its potential yield as 14,000 megavolts, while only 200 megavolts are being currently harvested. With the right infrastructure and capital, it could provide 10-25% of the region’s energy by 2030.

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