Solar To Power Leading Wind Power Maker


sam adamsX390 300x219 Solar To Power Leading Wind Power MakerPortland Mayor Sam Adams has announced  solar panels v90 195x300 Solar To Power Leading Wind Power Makerfrom SolarWorld, the largest U.S. manufacturer of solar technology for more than 35 years, have been selected to power the North American headquarters of Vestas, a leader in providing high-tech wind power systems. “As Portland seeks to become the capital of the global green economy, collaborations among our leading clean energy firms are key,” Mayor Sam Adams said on July 20. “I’m excited to announce this unique partnership. It’s an excellent example of how two companies can come together and make something great happen in Portland.” The move links two of the top U.S. producers of renewable energy systems and underscores the companies’ confidence in the vitality of American manufacturing and the value of sustainability.

The announcement came outside the 102-year-old Meier & Frank Depot building in downtown Portland, future home of Vestas’ continental head office. The building’s redevelopment will feature a 112-kilowatt photovoltaic system, the largest roof-mounted solar array in Portland’s central business district. The system will cap an impressive list of cutting-edge energy and environmental features that are expected to position the historical building on Northwest Everett Street to pursue LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum certification. The SolarWorld panels will supply about 12 percent of the building’s electricity needs.

Vestas HQ Rendering1 150x150 Solar To Power Leading Wind Power MakerBoth SolarWorld and Vestas have their headquarters for the Americas in the Portland area. SolarWorld employs more than 1,000 workers at its main U.S. site in Hillsboro, Ore., and more than 250 in Camarillo, Calif., where it has operated a solar-panel manufacturing site since the late 1970s. Vestas employs about 400 people in Portland and 3,000 nationwide. The company, which will celebrate its 10th anniversary in Portland next year, has sold more than 11,000 wind turbines in North America. When complete in spring 2012, the building will measure 172,000 square feet, including an addition on the fifth floor featuring an eco-roof terrace and garden and tenant and retail space on the first floor.

Eicke Weber Envisions Worldwide Solar Power Network

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PetersenDean Solar Joins California Jobs Summit


 PetersenDean Solar Joins California Jobs Summit

still solar 300x165 PetersenDean Solar Joins California Jobs SummitPetersenDean Solar was joined by Assemblyman Bob poloBob3 PetersenDean Solar Joins California Jobs SummitWieckowski and over 100 local business leaders at the 2011 Business Summit sponsored by Fremont, Newark and Union City Chambers of Commerce. The summit focused on a roundtable discussion with local business owners, industry leaders and government officials to collect ideas to build up the local economy and bring new jobs to the community. Wieckowski, who represents the 20th Assembly District in the California State Legislature, announced a new “Made in California Jobs Initiative” program. The plan is to revitalize California’s economy through targeted incentives, streamlining government and investing in emerging technologies such as clean energy, biotech and medical research.

The Jobs Initiative Plan, a 7-Point strategy, includes support of California’s Green and Clean Technology Industries, an essential issue to alternative energy companies like PetersenDean Solar, Inc., the nation’s largest private provider of solar solutions. “I am encouraged to know that someone like Assemblyman Wieckowski, who serves as the co-chair of the Assembly Select Committee on California’s Clean Energy Economy takes this kind of interest in job creation for local communities,” says Jim Petersen, CEO and founder of PetersenDean Solar, Inc. “We need the support of our elected officials to represent local employers in alternative energy.”

executivejimpetersen PetersenDean Solar Joins California Jobs SummitCurrent legislation of particular interest to alternative energy providers in California is the Assembly Bill 1314 – Renewable Energy Act which allows clean technology projects to be funded faster and in turn spurs the economy. According to Jim Petersen, “We have seen it in our own business, people want to enjoy clean energy but it needs to be affordable. When government helps people get the funding they need to afford alternative energy, it leaves us less dependent on foreign and domestic oil and encourages people to fulfill their alternative energy needs.” Assemblyman Wieckowski’s focus is to provide the proper incentives to create jobs and grow the economy. “We at PetersenDean are interested in job creation because we employ real people to do our work and not robots,” says Petersen. “Government support for clean energy stimulates the clean energy economy and that means we can put more people on the payroll.”

Butte College Generates 100% Energy from Solar

Lufthansa Schedules Sustainable Biofuel Flights


 Lufthansa Schedules Sustainable Biofuel Flights

2010 12 05 1331 lufthansa clouds e1291577527642 300x248 Lufthansa Schedules Sustainable Biofuel Flights  Last week, Lufthansa launched a six-month biofuel trial on regular scheduled flights. Christoph Franz, Chairman and CEO of the Lufthansa Group, said: “Lufthansa is the first airline worldwide to use biofuel in scheduled daily flight operations. We are thus continuing to steadily implement our proven and successful strategy for sustainability.” A Lufthansa Airbus A321 with the registration D-AIDG will fly the Hamburg-Frankfurt-Hamburg route four times daily. One of its engines will run on a 50/50 mix of regular fuel and biosynthetic kerosene. The biofuel for jet engines has been approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). During the six months test run period, the use of biofuel will reduce CO2 emissions by up to 1,500 tonnes.

As air transport is the only mode of transport that will remain dependent upon liquid fuels for the foreseeable future, the aviation industry and the research community must develop and test alternatives. “Fossil raw materials are finite,” Franz cautioned. He added that next to reducing CO2 emissions the main aim of this long-term operational trial, was to examine the effects of biofuel on the maintenance and lifespan of aircraft engines. The biosynthetic kerosene used by Lufthansa is derived from pure biomass and consists of jatropha, camelina and animal fats. The fuel used by Lufthansa is produced by Neste Oil, a Finnish oil company. Neste has extensive experience in the production of biofuels and has been a successful partner of Lufthansa for many years. Suppliers must provide proof of the sustainability of their processes and meet the criteria stipulated by the European Parliament and the Council in the Renewable Energy Directive. Lufthansa guarantees that the production of its biofuel is not in direct competition with food production and that no rainforests are destroyed.

The use of biosynthetic kerosene is one element of the four-pillar climate protection strategy pursued by Lufthansa with a view to reducing overall CO2 emissions in the air transport sector. By combining a range of different measures – for example, ongoing fleet modernization, technology improvements to aircraft and engines, operational measures such as engine washing or the use of lighter materials and an improved infrastructure – Lufthansa aims to achieve the ambitious environmental goals set out in its strategy. The implementation of new technologies has seen Lufthansa improve its fuel efficiency by over 30 per cent since 1991. Source: Valere Tjolle
, Sustainable Tourism Report

PRESIDIO GRADUATE SCHOOL ANNOUNCES NEW PRESIDENT

bill shutkin fullbody 200x300 Lufthansa Schedules Sustainable Biofuel Flights

Charlize Theron & Ryan Reynolds Going Green Hollywood Style


 Charlize Theron & Ryan Reynolds Going Green Hollywood Style

Green lantern 300x264 Charlize Theron & Ryan Reynolds Going Green Hollywood StyleIf you can believe the latest word out of Hollywood, Green normal 003 199x300 Charlize Theron & Ryan Reynolds Going Green Hollywood StyleLantern star  Ryan Reynolds and Academy Award winner, film producer and former fashion model Charlize Theron have been dating for months. Both have some pretty strong ” green” activist street creds. Theron also is a supporter of animal rights and active member of PETA. She appeared in a PETA ad for their anti-fur campaign.

In July 2009 it was announced that Theron’s Africa Outreach Project (CTAOP) would form a coalition with LAFC Soccer Club to give soccer fields to rural areas in South Africa. LAFC Chelsea, one of the United States’s most successful and prominent youth soccer clubs, made a three-year commitment to help build a community-wide soccer program for the schools in the hdr who are we 01 300x90 Charlize Theron & Ryan Reynolds Going Green Hollywood StyleUmkhanyakude District. This help includes uniforms, cleats, balls and equipment, along with professional training for local coaches, referees and administrators. “Our goal is to help truly create a safer, healthier and better life for young people in South Africa, especially those living in remote areas, and to ensure that the resources we bring are self sustaining. The three year commitment is so incredible and key to being sure that the program will be around for many years to come”, says Charlize Theron.

Canadian born actor Ryan Reynolds known for his roles in National Lampoon’s Van Wilder, Waiting…,  Definitely, Maybe, The Proposal and  X-Men Origins: Wolverine wrote in the Huffington Post after the BP oil rig explosion; “What we’re doing is literally the same thing cave men did: we set things on fire to produce energy. There are so many viable alternatives. Wind farms and solar plants, for instance, don’t explode, destroying thousands of miles of marshlands and oceans. That’s something worth focusing on. I started out feeling angry about the spill, and I think a lot of other people did too. Slowly but surely, I’ve been trying to redirect that anger into something positive. And you start to think, “How can we change this? How can we turn this into an opportunity? I see this whole thing as a wakeup call: a chance to shift to cleaner energy and build a greener economy. 
It’s easy to vilify Big Oil after a tragedy like this, but there are still hard working people in that industry who need to put a roof over their heads. I firmly believe we can pass clean energy and climate legislation and by doing so, put millions of Americans to work.”

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Solar Affordable In San Francisco With Solar@Work


 Solar Affordable In San Francisco With Solar@Work

san francisco aerial view 300x200 Solar Affordable In San Francisco With Solar@WorkThe City of San Francisco launched Solar@Work, a new program that offers solar energy systems to businesses in the Bay Area through an innovative group purchase model. The new program makes it possible, for the first time, for small- and mid-sized businesses and commercial property owners to pay less for solar power than they pay for electricity from the grid without local rebates. This can allow some business owners to save hundreds of thousands of dollars over the lifetimes of these solar power systems. As the first major commercial group purchase of solar power in the United States, Solar@Work will bring together interested participants to buy more than 2 Megawatts (MW) of solar power over the next 6 months.

The Solar@Work model was developed by the City and County of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment (SF Environment), in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and Optony. SF Environment found that the main barriers keeping San Francisco businesses and commercial property owners from purchasing solar energy were upfront costs and lack of access to affordable financing. With American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities program and support from U.S. DOE’s SunShot Initiative, SF Environment proposed the Solar@Work “aggregation” approach, which combines multiple participants into one solar purchasing group, along with a standardized solar equipment lease. To help make this a reality, the program’s stakeholder group, led by the World Resources Institute (WRI), negotiated with solar vendors who could address the unique needs of businesses and property owners in San Francisco, and selected winning vendor, SolarCity.

SolarCity, a national solar integrator with more than 15,000 projects completed or underway, is headquartered in the Bay Area, and is an approved installer with the San Francisco GoSolarSF program. SolarCity expects to hire more than 400 new workers in the second half of 2011, including 100 in the Bay Area. “We believe Solar@Work will provide the most affordable solar options available to small and medium-sized businesses in San Francisco,” said Erik Fogelberg, SolarCity’s director of commercial projects. “SolarCity is honored to have been selected for this important project.” “The city has the ambitious goal of meeting its electricity needs with 100 percent renewable energy, so we need to do everything we can to make sure our local and regional building owners have the ability to install renewables with minimal up-front investments,” said Melanie Nutter, Director of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment.” “Programs like Solar@Work will boost our economic competitiveness, create American jobs, and help reach the President’s goal of doubling our clean energy in the next 25 years,” said Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Program Manager, U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative.

Money Comes Together To Fill Solar Funding Gap

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Solar Incentives Powering Growth In Arizona


 Solar Incentives Powering Growth In Arizona
Maja W 300x157 Solar Incentives Powering Growth In Arizona Fueled by aggressive, new business incentives, Arizona is quickly becoming the premier location for renewable energy companies. The Arizona Commerce Authority will feature those new incentives and business opportunities available to companies at Intersolar North America, the leading annual solar industry exhibition and conference in San Francisco, July 12-14.  Arizona is home to more than 100 significant solar energy businesses, including the world’s two largest solar companies, First Solar and Suntech.

“Arizona has been an ideal location for First Solar to grow its business, including our new factory under construction in Mesa that will add 600 associates to our local workforce,” said Maja Wessels, Executive Vice President of Public Affairs for Tempe-based First Solar. “Arizona offers an attractive business climate, a talented workforce and boundless potential for clean solar energy.”In recent months, Arizona has experienced significant growth in the renewable energy marketplace. Companies are taking advantage of tax incentives, a pro-business climate, a specialized workforce and more sunny days than any other state in the country.

“Arizona’s aggressive new focus on solar and renewable energy following the passage of the Arizona Competitiveness Package will significantly enhance economic development opportunities and encourage business relocation for companies that are leading the way in this fast-paced, innovative industry,” said Governor Jan Brewer. “The ACA is spreading the word that Arizona is the place to be for cutting-edge solar technology.”Incentives for renewable energy companies in Arizona include: Up to 10% of capital investments as a refundable income tax credit, Arizona Competes deal closing fund, Income tax credits up to $9,000 for each quality new job, Up to $1.5 million in reimbursable grants to train employees, Up to 34% R&D tax credit, and Significant business tax reductions including lowering the state income tax from 6.97% to 4.9%.

“The U.S. solar industry has the opportunity to double in the coming year. Arizona and the ACA are committed to being a part of that growth,” said Don Cardon, president and CEO of the ACA. “Arizona is armed with business opportunities and tax incentives which make us the leading contender in the renewable energy.”

QUESTPOINT IS: MOBILE