This blog was written by SACE intern Rachel Mountain and Natalie Mims. Beginning January 1, 2012, the federal government is implementing a lighting standard that requires incandescent bulbs to be at least 30% more efficient, resulting in a $7 billion reduction in consumer energy bills by 2020. Further, the lighting efficiency standard will reduce energy [...]
This post was authored by Dan Cannon, Florida Organizer for the Southern Energy Network, a program of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. On April 15th – 18th, I will be surrounded by over 10,000 young climate activists in Washington D.C. Power Shift 2011 is going down, and, just like the two previous Power Shift [...]
The long darkness is over! OK, that’s a bit melodramatic but … after many years of very little access to energy efficiency programs, Southeastern households and businesses are finding that their utilities may be offering attractive and comprehensive energy efficiency programs. As recently as 2008, significant energy efficiency programs in the Southeast were limited to [...]
Stion’s thin-film solar panels will be manufactured at a new facility in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Solar energy is fast becoming an economic driver in a location that may surprise some people: the Southeast. The most recent developments include two thin film solar cell manufacturing facilities to be located in Mississippi and South Carolina, the beginning of construction [...]
On a blustery, yet sunny, December afternoon in Summerville, South Carolina just outside of Charleston, a crowd of about 100 gathered to witness the unveiling of the state’s largest solar tracker. The German-based company, IMO, recently moved to South Carolina following the announcement of Clemson University’s Wind Turbine Drive Train Test Facility. They were the [...]
This blog was co-authored by Toni Reale and Simon Mahan The atmosphere at Clemson University’s groundbreaking ceremony for their new Drive Train Testing Facility yesterday was truly electric. Roughly 300 elected officials, academics and wind energy experts filled a North Charleston, South Carolina warehouse that, beginning in January 2011, will begin to be transformed into [...]
Despite a promising start (Congress allocated $80 billion of the 2009 Recovery Act funding for clean energy & efficiency programs), our country’s work on much-needed energy policy reform has barely begun. The list of pending energy policies is extensive, and the looming midterm elections mean that substantive work at the national level will not resume [...]
On August 2nd, North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue signed into law HB 1829, an expanded Combined Heat and Power (CHP) and renewable energy tax credit. For the first time, investments in CHP systems are now eligible for North Carolina’s 35% renewable energy tax credit. This new incentive sponsored by Representative Paul Luebke and supported by [...]
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s (SACE) “Clean Energy Gulf Challenge” Finalist Webinar Series begins today. SACE, along with a panel of expert reviewers, have chosen three Clean Energy Gulf Challenge finalists to present their ideas to the public via lunchtime webinars on July 6th, 7th and 8th. Beginning on July 9th, the public [...]
On summer weekends visitors and residents alike head to beaches across our region to surf, fish, swim and play. One hard reality of the still-ongoing Gulf oil disaster is that at least 100 miles of Gulf coastline cannot welcome people or animals due to the oil and tar balls that continue to wash up on [...]
