Another year, another wringing of the hands over tax credits and incentives for clean technology.
Lobbyists and vendors in the U.S. are once again singing the blues, calling for continued and expanding government investments in clean technology. At the same time, political challengers continue their Solyndra hootenanny, raking the curren Archive for the ‘Green Power’ Category
Rethinking the Role of Government in Cleantech
17
May
Another year, another wringing of the hands over tax credits and incentives for clean technology.
Lobbyists and vendors in the U.S. are once again singing the blues, calling for continued and expanding government investments in clean technology. At the same time, political challengers continue their Solyndra hootenanny, raking the curren Hans-Josef Fell, Father of the Feed-in Tariff
14
May
I dropped by the Bundestag office of Germany’s Green MP Hans-Josef Fell the other day. Fell is a fascinating character and is one of the figures hailed as “the father of the feed-in tariff (FiT)” — Germany’s law that guarantees private producers of renewable energy a fixed, higher-than-market rate for their e Winners and Losers in the Renewable Energy Race
10
May
According to a recent Pew Charitable Trust report entitled, “Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race,” the United States overtook China in green energy investments during 2011 after lagging behind for the previous two years.
When you add up asset finance, public markets, venture capital, and small distributed investments together, we Exxon’s Big Bet on Shale Gas Won’t Pay Off if Clean Energy Scales
02
May
For several years now, we’ve been making the case that the clean energy industry has to dramatically scale its advocacy investment to meet an aggressive disinformation campaign trained against it by the fossil lobby. We’ve found increasing receptiveness to that message, but we still run into people who think we’ve got tin foil on Why "Passive Activities" May Be Clean Energy’s Biggest Hurdle
25
Apr
If you care about the future of the American renewable energy industry, you need to learn what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) calls “passive activities.” Because these important rules mean that as long as the U.S. relies on the tax code to provide renewable energy incentives, renewable energy can only grow as fast as Wall Another Great Example of (Non-Solar) Guerrilla Marketing
13
Apr
I love finding guerrilla marketing examples on YouTube. Unfortunately, I rarely find ones that are related to solar. Bummer. Nevertheless, it’s always great to get inspired, and below is a wonderful model that you might be able to adapt…if you’re willing to push that button.
Watch this video first, and then we’ll discuss Rural Africa Looks Beyond the Grid
12
Apr
In picking South Africa for last year's meet-up, the COP-17 climate change talks prompted some inevitable grumbles. Why was the global climate change industry holding its jamboree in a country that, despite its commitment to renewables, pumps out so much CO2? Sponsor PennWell’s Wall of Honor To Recognize Military Service Personnel
09
Apr
Exhibitors and attendees at PennWell's 2012 events in the U.S. can become sponsors of the Wall of Honor. Chile’s Uncertain Renewable Energy Future
09
Apr
In May 2011 Carlos Slim, the Mexican business magnate, predicted that Chile will be the first Latin American nation to attain the status of a developed country. Chile's GDP per capita of US$15,400 in 2010 puts it far ahead of most of its neighbours and with economic growth for 2011 slated at 6.5 percent, the country would appear to be well on course to achieve Slim's forecast. Trade-in the 20th Century Electric Grid, Don’t Trade-off Local Energy
05
Apr
In a New York Times Sunday Review piece last month — Drawing the Line at Power Lines — Elisabeth Rosenthal suggested that our desire for clean energy will require significant tradeoffs:
There are pipelines, trains, trucks and high-voltage transmission lines. None of them are pretty, and all have environmental drawbac