 |
|
Here is a brief list of some of the interesting sustainability news articles from this week:
And you’ll find more headlines at CEILeadership.org!
With a 54-mile range as a “pure electric vehicle,” Virginia Tech’s EcoCar has some true green credentials. The vehicle can be run on gasoline, e-85 or electricity; and in the end this gives the car an 80 mpg-e rating.
But the EcoCar challenge also required cars to be consumer friendly, which often includes performance. The Virginia Tech team didn’t disappoint in this category. Watch the video above to learn more about the “consumer acceptability” part – also known as the 6.68 second 0-60 time.
Also, in case you were wondering, the team took first place in the challenge
The energy sector is expected to expand in the coming years and the number of troops returning home is expected to increase as well. Perhaps with this in mind, the Department of Energy has teamed up with several energy companies and the Center for Energy Workforce Development to launch the Troops to Energy Jobs program. In a speech at the National Press Club recently, Sec. Chu had this to say about the program:
While many veterans are looking for jobs, many energy companies are looking for skilled workers. We need a new generation of workers to fill critical positions like plant operators, line workers, pipefitters, engineers and technicians…To compete in the global clean energy race, we’ll need to upgrade our electric infrastructure, use energy more efficiently and develop and deploy low-carbon technologies. All of these are job generators. All of these will help America become more competitive in the future…We must seize this opportunity. Today’s veterans can serve as the next generation of energy leaders. The “Troops to Energy Jobs” program will help accomplish this goal.
We’re excited to hear about a program that is designed to help secure America’s energy future by helping those who secure America.
Read the full text of Sec. Chu’s remarks here, and find out more about the program from the Center for Energy Workforce Development and the White House’s Joining Forces blog.
Urban Smart Grid and Energy Innovation from Penn IUR on Vimeo.
Jon Wellinghoff, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, talks about the Urban Smart Grid. Things really begin at the 8 minute mark, where he begins to describe how your EV can be an asset for the smart grid. Talk about being plugged in.
We all remember a time not that long ago when PCs cost a small fortune and cell phones were worth their weight in gold. Obviously, times change. The electronics and computing industries developed increasingly-powerful and ever-cheaper products. The result? Lower prices and greater usage.
How does this apply to solar panels? Since solar technology is, well, a technology, many analysts are predicting that solar panels will follow the path of the PC to lower costs and widespread use. Just look at the graph below, produced by Climate Progress:
From 1985 to today there has been a pretty clear downward trend in the price per watt of solar energy. The Climate Progress article states that the average price today is about $1.50/watt. While this is great, what does it mean when compared to the price of other sources of energy? It means that solar is already, or will be shortly, more economical than other energy sources. Visit the article to find out how, by 2020, solar will be more affordable than new nuclear and new coal, and is already more cost effective than natural gas for peak-generation needs.
For this week’s Top 10 Twitter list we’re focusing on renewable energy. There is plenty of information sharing on Twitter about renewable energy, but these are the ten folks we think are leading the charge.
Follow the entire list here: http://twitter.com/#!/CEILeadership/toprenewabletweeters
Check out our previous Top 10 Lists:
Can wind, water and sunlight power the world? Professor Mark Jacobson of Stanford University lays out a plan to do just that. Professor Jacobson starts off by talking about why it’s important to find clean energy sources, and then jumps into the details of the energy options at about minute 8 of the talk.
Here is a brief list of some of the interesting sustainability news articles from this week:
And you’ll find more headlines at CEILeadership.org!
Last week, the Brookings Institution held a metropolitan policy event, and the focus of the event was the clean economy. Topics included the outlook on the regional and national green jobs market. Above, we’ve shared the opening remarks from an event well-worth watching, if you weren’t able to make it in person. Visit the Brookings website for more videos and information.
There are many great ideas out there for how to increase the amount of recyclables an office collects. We’ve seen easy-to-use sorting methods and volunteer-organized recycling programs make a real impact by making recycling at the office easier to do and more coordinated. But we haven’t come across as simple an idea as the one The New York Times reports Dartmouth College implemented in 2010.
A year ago, more or less, Dartmouth replaced the faculty, staff and administration’s standard-sized wastebaskets with ones 6 inches tall. The result, as reported this July, is that the school sent 200 fewer tons of garbage to the landfill and improved their recycling rate by 1/3. Of course we like this idea because it’s simple, quick, and anyone can do it.
The whole idea was coordinated by the Dartmouth Sustainability Initiative, which runs many sustainability programs at the college. Be sure to check out their website to see more of their great work.
Image via Dartmouth.
