Wind Power is the Most Under Exploited Energy Opportunity in the Southern U.S.

This blog is a guest post by Herman K. Trabish originally posted at greentechmedia. New technologies make the Southern states’ wind resources a new frontier for developers. The U.S. has nearly 45,000 megawatts of installed wind capacity. There is a total installed capacity of 29 megawatts in the southern block of states of Arkansas, Louisiana, [...]

Did N.C. lead a retreat from cleaner air standards?

Recent articles in the New York Times and the Raleigh News & Observer suggested that North Carolina and its governor, Bev Perdue, may have played a key role in halting White House efforts to ratchet up the current ozone air standards. In September, the Obama Administration suddenly announced it was dropping its two-year effort to [...]

Report on power plant water use garners SE media coverage

On November 15, the EW3 (Energy and Water in a Warming World) Initiative released a report titled, Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants: Electricity’s Thirst for a Precious Resource. Across the Southeast the media paid close attention to the valuable new information in this report, and in large part because of the efforts of SACE staff [...]

New Report Highlights Power Plant Stress on Freshwater Supplies in Southeast

A new report by the Energy and Water in a Warming World Initiative (EW3), “Freshwater Use by U.S. Power Plants: Electricity’s Thirst for a Precious Resource,” details how water use by power plants for cooling needs stresses freshwater resources around the country, including here in the Southeast. The report also reveals that the reporting of water [...]

Grants Now Available for Advancing Biofuels Commercialization in NC

The story of David and Goliath is one that should bring courage to advanced biofuels innovators. So should a new round of grants from the Biofuels Center of North Carolina.

Progress making progress with low-income energy efficiency program

This blog was written by SACE intern Jeannie McKinney and Natalie Mims. Finding best practices in utility-led energy efficiency programs usually means looking beyond our region. Sadly, most of the leading programs are developed and demonstrated by peer utilities in other regions of the U.S. It has been particularly distressing to see that the great [...]

Looking beyond Solyndra to REAP big rewards

Yes, Solyndra was disappointing. But we must not forget the many successful projects that have also received taxpayer support. Here are a few great examples of REAP solar projects in the Southeast region.

Southeast is movin on up in ACEEE state scorecard ranking

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE ) released their 5th annual state scorecard on energy efficiency yesterday and the results, not surprisingly, support that the efficiency sector continues to grow and create jobs. The report found that the nationwide budget for electricity efficiency programs increased $1.1 billion from 2009 to 2010, and [...]

Solar Decathlon impresses despite nasty weather

All week last week, while traveling to Denver for a conference by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, I was looking forward to the Solar Decathlon. (No offense to ACEEE of course.) Even on Friday, when the weather was best described as “questionable,” it was a great feeling to walk across the D.C. [...]

NC Court Ruling on Biomass is Bad Policy

This may have been a precise and solid legal decision, but it’s still bad policy.