Category: Green Building LEED News
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13 Renewable Energy Breakthroughs of 2013
By Kiley Kroh and Jeff Spross While the news about climate change seems to get worse every day, the rapidly improving technology, declining costs, and increasing accessibility of clean energy is the true bright spot in the march toward a zero-carbon future. The year had more clean energy milestones than we could fit on one…
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The Twelve Days of Invasive Species in the Great Lakes
By Tim Campbell ‘Tis the season to spread some holiday cheer, and of course, ‘tis always the season to spread aquatic invasive species (AIS) awareness. With some inspiration from Al House, one of our advisory committee members, I put together an AIS version of the classic “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Enjoy not only the…
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5 Big Energy Stories of 2013
By Manish Bapna The U.S. is awash in oil and natural gas. China’s air pollution is so bad some cities were nearly shut down. A massive typhoon wreaked havoc in the Philippines. These are some of the top stories of the past 12 months. [caption id="attachment_316238" align="alignnone" width="500"] The past year was clearly a mixed bag…
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Failure to Pass Tax Credit Creates Uncertainty for Wind Industry
By Ryan Koronowski The U.S. House of Representatives has already gone on vacation back to their districts and the Senate effectively adjourned for 2013 on Friday, meaning that the one-year extension of the Wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) will expire on Jan. 1, 2014. The PTC is a $0.022 per kilowatt-hour tax credit on the power that new wind…
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Solar Cost Reduction Goal Way Ahead of Schedule
Less than three years in, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) solar cost reduction initiative has risen far above expectations. The DOE announced the SunShot Initiative in February 2011 with the goal of encouraging a price drop for utility scale installations by 75 percent by 2020. So far, the federal department has achieved about 60 percent.…