Tag: Featured Business
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Wind Energy Company Fined $1 Million in First-Ever Settlement Over Bird Deaths Caused by Turbines
[caption id="attachment_313255" align="alignright" width="360"] Photo courtesy of Shutterstock[/caption] For the first time, a wind energy company has faced prosecution for the death of birds. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Duke Energy announced a $1 million settlement Friday related to the deaths of more than 160 protected birds in Wyoming. The charges stem from the discovery…
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World’s First Electric Helicopter Takes Flight
The world’s first two-seat electric helicopter took its initial test flight this week in Germany. The emissions-free VC200 Volocopter hovered over its creators, the E-volo team, in a hangar in the City of Karlsruhe. The “multicopter” has 18 spinning blades and quietly soared to about 72 feet. Following the test flight, the company described the vehicle as having…
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Precedent-Setting Policy Passed in Maryland Requires Renewable Energy For All Public Buildings
For the first time, a county in the U.S. decided that all of its new governmental buildings must incorporate renewable energy into their designs. Prince George’s County Council in Maryland unanimously approved a measure this week necessitating 1 kilowatt of solar, wind or geothermal energy for every 1,000 square feet of a public facility. The…
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Federal Interconnection Ruling Will Expedite Solar Energy Projects
The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a ruling this week that should expedite solar project interconnection and lower its cost. The decision will speed up interconnection—the regulations and processes a solar user must follow to plug into the grid—by loosening various fast-track requirements that FERC had demanded. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) praised…
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Why Are Facebook and Google Members of ALEC? Even Top Officials at These Companies Can’t Explain
Their memberships are so confounding, even representatives from Facebook and Google can’t explain them. The two web companies have become corporate leaders in renewable energy investments, powering data centers with wind and funding green projects around the globe. So why, then, are they members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)—a group mostly consisting of fossil fuel…