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Texas Approves Major New Wind Power Project
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July 17, 2008 - Google News
| | Austin, Texas -- In what experts say is the biggest investment in clean and renewable energy in U.S. history, Texas utility officials gave preliminary approval to a $4.9 billion plan to build new transmission lines to carry wind-generated electricity from gusty West Texas to urban areas like Dallas. Texas is already the national leader in wind power, generating about 5,000 megawatts, but the lack of transmission lines has kept a lot of that power from being put to use and has hindered the building of more turbines.
| | | By Jim Vertuno © 2008 The Associated Press © 2008 Google
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Hawaii Requires Solar Water Heaters for New Homes
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June 27, 2008 - Google News
| | Honolulu -- With a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels, Hawaii has become the first state to require solar water heaters in new homes. A traditionally powered water heater is the largest consumer of electricity inside a home, accounting for about 25 to 40 percent of the power used. A solar system costs about $5,000 more than an electric or gas water heater but it may save about $50 a month in utility costs.
| | | By James Song © 2008 The Associated Press © 2008 Google
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Wind Farm To Be Built Off Delaware Shore
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June 23, 2008 - CNN
| | The nation's first offshore field of wind turbines will be built about a dozen miles from Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. The 150 wind turbines are expected to be operational in four years and supply enough power to light about 50,000 homes. Delmarva Power will get about 16 percent of its electricity from the wind turbines, which the utility believes will help stabilize consumer energy costs since their 25-year contract locks in the price Delmarva will pay per kilowatt-hour.
| | | By Paul Courson © 2008 Cable News Network
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With Gas Prices Soaring, Americans Driving Less
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June 19, 2008 - CNN Money
| | New York -- Americans drove 1.4 billion fewer highway miles in April compared with the same month last year, and 400 million fewer miles than they did in March, according to the Transportation Department. With Americans driving less and opting for more fuel-efficient vehicles, gasoline demand will likely decline in 2008 for the first time in 17 years, according to the energy consulting firm Cambridge Energy Research Associates.
| | | © 2008 Cable News Network
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Germany Touts Wood Residue, Straw and Sour Milk as Biofuel Sources
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April 17, 2008 - Google News
| | Berlin -- A group of German companies and leaders are working to generate biofuels from excess biomass so that edible food does not need to be used. “Second generation” biofuels aim to reduce carbon dioxide emissions while also leaving cropland available to grow food that is increasingly in demand and becoming significantly more expensive. However, the technology is still early in development and refineries are very expensive.
| | | By Aurelia End © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 Google
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Westinghouse Strikes Deal to Build US Nuclear Power Plants
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April 8, 2008 - Google News
| | Washington -- Two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plants will be built at a site near Augusta, Georgia. The two plants will have an electric generating capacity of 1,100 megawatts and are expected to be built by 2017. No nuclear power plants have been built in the United States since 1978.
| | | © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 Google
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New Street Light Technology Could Save Energy, Money
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April 6, 2008 - The Detroit News
| | Washington -- According to a new study, the 10 largest U.S. metropolitan areas could reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 million metric tons and save $90 million a year, just by switching to more efficient street lighting. The report focuses on two energy saving strategies: changing the lamps to LEDs and creating centrally controlled street-light networks so that managers can adjust lamp brightness based on environmental conditions.
| | | By Sarah Karush © 2008 Associated Press © 2008 The Detroit News
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Paris Airport to Go Green with Geothermal Energy
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April 3, 2008 - WBCSD
| | Orly Airport, one of the two big airports serving Paris, will drill two, one-mile deep shafts on the airport's perimeter to access a water table warmed by heat emanating from the Earth's hot core. Drawn upwards by natural pressure, the water will emerge at the surface at 165 degrees Fahrenheit and then be injected into the airport's heating system. It will then be pumped back into the ground at a temperature of 113 F.
| | | © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 World Business Council for Sustainable Development
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Wind Power Breaks Records in Spain
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March 25, 2008 - WBCSD
| | Madrid -- For a brief period of time last weekend, over 40 percent of Spain’s electricity was supplied by wind power. Heavy winds lashed Spain on Saturday evening which generated 9,862 megawatts of power. Spain, which along with Germany and Denmark, is among the three biggest producers of wind power in the 27-nation European Union, is aiming to triple the amount of energy it derives from renewable sources by 2020.
| | | © 2008 Agence France Presse © 2008 World Business Council for Sustainable Development
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Study Finds Profit in Cutting Emissions
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February 14, 2008 - Financial Times
| | Half the cuts in greenhouse gas emissions needed to make the world safe can be achieved at a net profit to the global economy, a study has found. Investing about $170 billion a year worldwide into energy efficiency would yield a profit of about 17 percent, or $29 billion. The energy savings would be equivalent to 64 million barrels of oil a day, while the cost would amount to about 0.4 per cent of GDP. The study also found that the most inefficient sector in the world is heavy industry in China, with the second being residential housing in the US, where homes are large, poorly insulated and equipped with a range of appliances that are often themselves inefficient or poorly used, such as air-conditioning systems left on unnecessarily.
| | | By Fiona Harvey © 2008 The Financial Times Ltd
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US Energy Dept Sets New Power Transformer Efficiency Rules
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October 12, 2007 - SmartMoney
| | New York -- Under a new rule, new electricity transformers will need to be 38% more efficient than current models. However, this measure still falls short of the standards requested by both utilities and environmentalists. Transformers only lose about 1%-2% of electricity through heat, but because there are millions of them in the United States tremendous amounts of energy could be saved through improved efficiency. The implementation of this requirement is expected to save 320 billion kilowatt hours of electricity over the next 29 years, according to the DOE.
| | | By Matthew Dalton © 1995 - 2007 SmartMoney © 2007 Dow Jones Newswires
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After Oil and Gas, Sahara Sunshine?
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August 11, 2007 - The Boston Globe
| | Algiers, Algeria -- Work has begun on a 150 megawatt hybrid power plant that will use a combination of solar energy and natural gas. This is part of a larger plan to tap the vast amount of land in North Africa and the high amount of solar radiation that hits the area everyday. The potential for energy production is huge since the country receives enough sunshine to meet Western Europe's needs 60 times over.
| | | By Aidan Lewis © 2007 The Associated Press © 2007 The New York Times Company
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House Shifts $16 Billion Toward Renewable Energy
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August 5, 2007 - Planet Ark
| | Washington -- The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Democratic rewrite of U.S. energy policy that strips $16 billion in tax incentives away from Big Oil and puts it toward renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. Included in the bill is an amendment that would require U.S. utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar by 2020. Republicans criticize the lack of drilling incentives and “green pork.” The White House threatened to veto the bill on concerns that it could boost energy prices.
| | | By Chris Baltimore © 2007 Reuters © 2007 Planet Ark
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U of D Researcher Says Seeds from Salt-Tolerant Plant a Promising Source of Biodiesel
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July 10, 2007 - ENN
| | Lewes, Del. -- The seashore mallow could be a source of biodiesel in the future. The oil composition is similar to that of soybeans and cottonseed, however annual plantings are not required and because the plant is salt-tolerant it can grow in areas where other crops cannot, so additional land does not need to be diverted away from other crops. The stems of the plant can be used for cellulosic ethanol, the roots can be used to make industrial gum, and the meal left over can be used for animal feed.
| | | By Randall Chase © 2007 The Associated Press © 2007 ENN
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Nearly Half of Electricity From Renewable Resources By 2030: Berlin
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July 5, 2007 - Yahoo! News
| | Berlin -- Germany plans to generate 45 percent of it's electricity from renewable sources by 2030. The country has already surpassed it's previous goal of 12.5 percent by 2010.
| | | © 2007 Agence France Presse © 2007 Yahoo! Inc.
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Fructose Biofuel Spells Sweet News
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June 21, 2007 - The Australian
| | Biofuel engineers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison have developed a process that converts plant carbohydrates into 2,5-demethylfuran, or DMF, which carries 40 percent more energy than ethanol. Researchers are trying to develop more efficient biofuels since ethanol has several drawbacks including an energy intensive production process.
| | | © 2007 Agence France Presse © 2007 The Australian
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