This blog was co-authored by Katie Stokes, Simon Mahan and Glenn Mauney There’s wind in the North Carolina desert! OK, it’s not really a desert. An area in Perquimans and Pasquotank counties in northeastern N.C., locally referred to as ‘the Desert’, may soon be home to N.C.’s first wind farm. Iberdrola Renewables recently announced they [...]
Place your Bets If you were going to spend (bet) $8 billion on two nuclear reactors, would you invest in a nuclear reactor design with the following history? They were designed in the late 1960s. Their design has never received a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) operating license. Only four reactors of this design were [...]
1 MW solar farm in Georgia installed by ESA Renewables Renewable energy continues its expansion in the Southeast with the recent unveiling of two 1-megawatt solar farms in Tennessee and Georgia. Each is the largest solar energy project in the history of its state, but more importantly, these facilities continue the recent trend of economic [...]
Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED) recently released a report, “Building Clean Energy Careers in Kentucky.” The report justifies the creation of clean energy policy in Kentucky for economic development. Kentucky has a long history of profiting from jobs and cheap energy from coal. The concern is that as coal resources deplete and its [...]
A new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy provides a great reminder as to why a focus on energy efficiency is good for the American worker. As a result [of energy efficiency standards for appliances and equipment], consumers and businesses spend less money on utility bills. This moves money from the utility [...]
Visiting with relatives over the holidays, I was asked, “is biomass electricity a smart thing to do?”
Tennessee businesses in the solar industry have been awaiting the announcement of awarded grants from the Tennessee Solar Institute (TSI) for weeks. And they finally got it. On December 8th, TSI announced $7.25 million in Solar Innovation Grants awarded to 21 businesses throughout Tennessee’s solar industries that will fund 36 projects across the state. These grants will [...]
SACE Executive Director, Stephen Smith, discusses his home’s solar technologies as part of the city’s October 2nd Solar Tour. Knoxville’s solar community shone even brighter than usual this past October 1st and 2nd when the city’s annual Solar Tour took place throughout the greater Knoxville area. On Friday, October 1st, downtown Knoxville was alive with [...]
TVA’s draft Integrated Resource Plan is missing something: a serious commitment to developing the Valley’s renewable energy resources. With significant solar, bioenergy and wind resources available throughout the TVA territory, these resources, along with energy efficiency, should be TVA’s go-to resources for meeting future energy demand. With the draft plan now out for public comments, [...]