President Obama's New Budget Includes $10,000 EV Rebate

From EcoGeek:Written by Megan Treacy on 16/02/12President Obama's recently released new budget plan includes lots of incentives for cleantech industries and reportedly an exciting $10,000 rebate for electric vehicle purchases.Currently, if you purchase an all-electric vehicle, you are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit that you receive when you file your taxes for that year, but this new rebate program would allow consumers to slash $10,000 off the top of the cost of an electric car, right at the time of purchase. That's a huge incentive for drivers who are on the fence and would likely support some large gains in sales of those vehicles.Many of the first crop of mass market EVs are still in a price range that is just beyond...

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Sustainability in the Boardroom and Classroom

Here's a link to an interesting video that profiles Enid Cardinal, Senior Sustainability Advisor to the President at Rochester Institute of Technology,  ash she explores the role of sustainability in today’s society. The discussion ends with a look at sustainability in higher education:  http://www.environmentalleader.com/2012/02/27/sustainability-in-the-boardroom-and-classroom/We had a number of classrooms logged into our daylong broadcast yesterday, from the Compost Conference, and we'd love to have thousands more.  Help us get the word out to our next generation, and let them live a sustainable life. Here's the URL on the video.  Enjoy and send us your comments:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mJMXf2r5...

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Great Day tomorrow

First, we will broadcast the 3rd Annual RI Compost Conference and Trade Show.  The show is sold out, so make sure you watch on the Arpin Broadcast Network, courtesy, of course, of Renewable Now and our fantastic sponsors, including Arpin Group, Cardi's, Atrion and RI College.  The broadcast will run from 9:30a to about 3p.Here's the link with all of the information:  http://www.environmentcouncilri.org/compost2012.htmlAnd the link to watch us broadcast the event:  http://www.arpinbroadcastnetwork.com/Arpin-RenewableNow.htmlThen we will tape our first four shows on our Green America Hometown Tour.  Those shows will start airing next weekend on radio and TV.  Again, use the same link--http://www.arpinbroadcastnetwork.com/Arpin-RenewableNow.html--for information...

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Germany is Powering Cars on Food Scraps

As we broadcast live from a Compost Conference on Monday, right before we film our opening four shows on our Green America Hometown Tour, which starts in RI, it is interesting to find and publish this very interesting use of food scrap in Germany.  Hopefully, this same possibility of converting scrap to energy will be discussed at the sold-out conference:A pilot project in Germany is collecting food waste from wholesale fruit and vegetable markets and cafeterias to ferment and make methane, which will then be used to power vehicles that have been converted to run on natural gas.The pilot plant has been developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology and is located next to Stuttgart's wholesale...

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Enjoy the show

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So Begins our tour

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From Bloomberg Business Week

Good news from Spain (who needs it, as does much of Southern Europe):FEATURED BLOGSpain's grid hits 30% renewables... Thanks to a windy and wet winter, Spanish windmills and dams cranked out so much juice that renewables supplied more than 30% of the country’s power in the past year. With GDP of about $1,500 billion and a population of 41 million, Spain is on par with California. But by comparison the Golden State--though one of the greenest in the US--met 23.5% of its electricity demand with renewables in 2007. President Obama has pointed to Spain as a role model for the US to follow. He wants the nation to to hit 10% renewables by 2010 and 25% by 2025, up from about 8% today.Congratulations to Spain on a great renewable performance.  We...

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Hydropower – good to know

The worldwide use of hydropower is constantly growing, and has increased by 5,2% in period between 2009 and 2010. At the end of 2010 global hydropower capacity accounted to a record 3,427 terawatt-hours, contributing to more than 16 percent of globally produced electricity.The hydropower still has relatively low costs, in average around 3 to 5 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour and it is also one...

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Japanese Solar Panel Owners Sold $1.2 Billion Worth of Surplus Power Back to Grid Last Year

This from EcoGeek:"Japanese home and business owners with solar power installations sold 2,150 GWh of electricity back to their power utilities last year, a huge 50 percent increase over the amount sold back to the grid in 2010.  The sellers collectively made a nice $1.2 billion off their surplus electricity.The Japanese government has a feed-in-tariff scheme that requires the utilities to purchase the extra power which was small beans compared to the average 884,000 GWh of electricity that those utilities sell to customers per year.The government is set to introduce even more subsidies for domestic renewable energy power developers. The new scheme will include electricity from solar, wind, small hydroelectric, biomass and geothermal...

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Enjoy the show on Saturday at 2:30p, EST on ABC 6 and on line

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Take a look at the new video we just posted...

On the perfect city car.  Amazi...

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A Cloudy Outlook for First Solar

Interesting article this month in Kiplinger's Magazine on difficulties faced by one of our leaders in renewable energy.  Here's part of it: An alternative-energy leader comes under pressure as government subsidies shrink.By Kathy Kristof, Contributing Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Financet was once one of the brightest lights in alternative energy. But the future has dimmed for First Solar (symbol FSLR), the nation’s largest producer of photovoltaic equipment.The once-hot stock, which traded for as much as $317 a share in May 2008, fetched just $35 on January 6. Its descent accelerated in 2011 after the Tempe, Ariz., company ousted its CEO and started cutting earnings forecasts late in the year. It now sees a profit of $3.75 to $4.25 per share this year—roughly half of what...

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Are gas prices going to sink the recovery?/WARL show today 12-1p

Take a look at the video we posted last night and send us your comments.Don't forget to listen in to our radio show today on WARL 1320 AM, 12-1p, EST.More lat...

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Thanks to Mark Learn

For another great article and for being a major contributor to Renewable Now:Concentrated Solar Startup Sets a New Efficiency RecordSemprius makes solar modules using tiny cells that need less cooling"Semprius, a startup that makes miniscule solar cells capable of capturing concentrated sunlight without costly cooling systems, announced this week that it had made the world's most efficient solar panel.The company's solar panels use tiny solar cells made of gallium arsenide—the record-breaking solar module contains hundreds of such solar cells, each about the width of a line drawn by a ball-point pen, arranged under lenses that concentrate sunlight 1,100 times.Gallium arsenide is far better at absorbing sunlight than silicon, the material used...

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Our newest sponsor. Thank you

 Rhode Island College Speaker Ser...

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New show this weekend on ABC 6

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Love this article

Here is the essence, looking at the consumer side, of the business side of green...the investment and return of branding green.This from Environmental Leader: Will Customers Pay More for ‘Green?’"Will people pay to go green? That’s a key question – maybe the question – for any company committed to sustainability. At Walmart, we’ve learned that the answer is a bit nuanced: Basically, usually not – but it depends.Some customers will pay more for certain products that are better for the environment, and their top purchases include chicken, milk, fruits and vegetables, household cleaners and laundry/dish care. The environmentally responsible products they are less likely to pay more for? TVs, cell phones, computers, beer, pork, mops and sponges and printers.The economy remains a far more pressing...

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Wisconsin lawmakers weary of wind setback issue

From an article by Dan Haugen on Midwest Energy News:Wisconsin’s politically contested wind-turbine siting rules would quietly go back on the books if the state’s legislature doesn’t take up the issue this session.While it’s premature for wind energy supporters to declare victory, the rules’ opponents appear to have little appetite for reopening the controversy, according to observers.“This is an issue they don’t want to have anything to do with right now,” says Michael Vickerman, director of Renew Wisconsin, a renewable energy advocacy group. “It’s kind of reached the radioactive phase.”The first-in-the-nation rules were aimed at streamlining the messy, often shifting patchwork of local setback rules, which govern the distance wind developers need to leave between turbines and adjacent...

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China Set to Vigorously Develop Green Economy

BEIJING -- "Due to growing urbanization and resulting environmental threats, China has invested nearly US$50 billion annually into its renewable energy sector since 2009. China's five-year investment in environmental protection is on track to reach 3.1 trillion yuan (US$454 billion). By 2015, its environmental protection industry is expected to top 2 trillion yuan (US$317 billion).China will introduce favorable tax and financial policies to support the development of its green economy, according to its 12th five-year plan, which started last year. A strong “green” policy is essential if China is to maintain its rapid and sustainable growth. "China will build a good fund raising environment for companies to develop green technologies by establishing green technology investment and related equity...

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Super Bowl/Weekend Edition

Kudos to the NFL for working towards a greener event: A Pleasant Surprise: Super Bowl XLVI Goes Green!Tom SzakyBusiness / Corporate ResponsibilityFebruary 1, 2012"When I went to check out the eco-cred of the Super Bowl, I’ll admit I was pleasantly surprised.I learned about how the NFL is partnering with Green Mountain Energy Company, the nation’s longest serving provider of clean energy, to the Super Bowl this year.That means that Green Mountain will provide 15,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy certificates (RECs) that will power everything at the Super Bowl: the lights, the computers, the scoreboard, everything. The company is also providing carbon offsets to balance out the greenhouse gas emissions created from the the Patriots' and...

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Kodak Switching from Camera Film to Thin-Film Solar Cells

Interesting that a company that just fell into bankruptcy, Kodak, is aspiring to a better future with a better, more eco-friendly product.This from Eco-Geek: Written by Megan Treacy on 20/01/12"Kodak may be in the middle of some financial trouble -- it just filed for bankruptcy yesterday and has shut down almost all of its camera film production -- but they're looking at solar energy as a way to a fresh start. The camera and film maker is hoping to use its already existing manufacturing processes to produce thin-film solar cells.Kodak is working with Natcore Technology to develop and produce flexible, thin-film solar cells made of nanotubes that could match the efficiency of conventional silicon cells. Thin-film cells haven't made as much...

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Nice site to visit

There are some great stories and videos on here: http://www.planetforward.com/.Here is a story that caught our eye: City Trees Help Combat Urban Heat Islandsby American Society of Landscape Architects | 10:45 am February 2nd, 2012"Nature provides solutions. Increasing the tree canopy in cities is one way to fight both poor air quality and urban heat islands. Research shows significant short-term improvements in air quality in urban areas with 100 percent tree cover. There, trees can reduce hourly ozone by up to 15 percent, sulfur dioxide by 14 percent, and particulate matter by 13 percent.U.S. trees remove some 784,000 tons of pollution annually, providing $3.8 billion in value. Furthermore, a single large healthy tree can remove greater than 300 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere...

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Small Businesses Request Resumption of Renewable Energy Support

For immediate releaseJanuary 31, 2012Small Businesses Request Resumption of Renewable Energy Support Over 150 small businesses, organizations, schools, and local officials appealed to the Public Service Commission (PSC) to restore full funding for a nationally recognized renewable energy program that reduces the cost of solar, wind, and biomass installations for Wisconsin utility customers. In an open letter delivered to the PSC yesterday, the signers asked the PSC to “to exercise its oversight authority over Focus on Energy and restore funding, without delay, for renewables at a level consistent with previous years’ allocations.” The impetus for the open letter arose from RENEW Wisconsin’s Energy Policy Summit held two weeks ago in Madison. At the summit, the 140 people who participated...

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Good work from our UK office

The Arpin Group is, we believe, the greenest moving company in the world. Not only have we remodeled our headquarters into an efficient space, powered mostly by solar energy, but we've extended the transformation to every corner of the world through the help of our global offices.Here's the most recent work done by our staff located in Kent: "ENVIRONMENTAL The Environmental Protection Act 1990 (sec. 34) places a duty of care on businesses, companies and other organisations who produce waste to be responsible for the safe disposal or recycling of their waste.Organisations must:§ Ensure that the waste they produce is suitably contained while awaiting collection, ensuring it does not get blown away causing litter.§ Ensure that the waste they produce...

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PSC must establish wind energy rules

From an editorial in the Green Bay Press-Gazette:A committee wants Brown County to ask the state to pay medical bills for anyone becoming sick because of wind turbines, but we don't think it's the county's place to make such a move. The human services committee voted last week to seek emergency aid for families near the Shirley Wind Farm in the town of Glenmore, blaming the state for allowing what supervisors said was "irresponsible placement" of wind turbines. Several people testified to the committee that they or their neighbors have experienced conditions such as anxiety, depression and weight loss and fear they have been exposed to a greater cancer risk. We feel for local residents who believe their health has been compromised by wind turbines. But until the state establishes setback rules...

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