Source: Greentech

That could actually serve as the informal motto of the energy industry. Getting individuals and businesses to change the way they interact with their thermostat has become one primary goals of utilities, regulators and energy start-ups. To spur adoption of renewables, incentives have to be properly calibrated.

But what works. One of the most successful companies so far in bringing behavioral dynamics to energy is OPower. It sends notes to individuals about their energy consumption in their utility bills. On average, the system-backed up by complex software and reams of survey data-gets individuals to reduce power consumption by around 2 to 3 percent. In Europe, CityBin hasmanaged to boost recycling in a similar manner. Read more here. 

Source: Greentech

SmartGridCity, the smart grid/home automation project in Boulder, Colorado created by Xcel Energy, has received its share of lumps.

The project has cost far more than expected,many prospective partners shied away from participating, and regulators, community leaders, and others have raised objections to having the cost of the $100-million-plus budget whittled down through tariffs on utility bills. Read more here. 

Source: Greentech Media

Electric cars and biofuels seem to inhabit different universes these days. Nissan, General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen, Honda, Ford, BMW, Tesla Motors, Fisker Automotive and Daimler, among others, have unfurled plans to release affordable electric cars over the next few years. Thousands of consumers have plunked down deposits on upcoming models and states have sought grants to pay for charging networks.

Meanwhile, biofuel startups, struggling for cash, have branched into jet fuel, chemicals and food additives as a way to get revenue to come in the door. Read more here. 

Source: GreenTech Solar

The BIPV solar sector is poised for rapid expansion after years of being confined to niche markets. Impelled by maturing energy-efficiency codes, lucrative feed-in tariffs and supply-side product development, BIPV players are experiencing demand for a new array of BIPV solar components, including shingles, curtain walls and flexible panels for roofs and windows.

GTM Research's latest report, Building-Integrated Photovoltaics: An Emerging Market maps the global BIPV solar landscape from current and projected market opportunity to technology evolution, supplier portfolios and the sector's innate design challenges. GTM Research's report acts as a crucial guide through the levels of the expanding BIPV market structure. Read more here. 

Source: R&D Mag

Stanford engineers have figured out how to simultaneously use the light and heat of the sun to generate electricity in a way that could make solar power production more than twice as efficient as existing methods and potentially cheap enough to compete with oil.

Unlike photovoltaic technology currently used in solar panels—which becomes less efficient as the temperature rises—the new process excels at higher temperatures. Read more here. 

Source: R&D Mag

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) calculated projected temperature changes for various scenarios in 2007 and researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg have now gone one step further: they have developed a new model that specifies the maximum volumes of carbon dioxide that humans may emit to remain below the critical threshold for climate warming of two degrees Celsius. To do this, the scientists incorporated into their calculations data relating to the carbon cycle, namely the volume of carbon dioxide absorbed and released by the oceans and forests. The aim of the international ENSEMBLES project is to simulate future changes in the global climate and carbon dioxide emissions and thereby to obtain more reliable threshold values on this basis. (Climatic Change, July 21, 2010). Red more here. 

Source: MHT

The electricity from the Cape Wind project would cost about 10 percent less than previously planned under an agreement reached in principal with the state attorney general’s office.

Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley announced Friday that her office had reached the deal with the developer of the proposed Nantucket Sound wind farm, Cape Wind Associates, and with utilityNational Grid, which plans to buy the power from Cape Wind.

The starting rate would be 18.7 cents per kilowatt hour under the agreement, compared to the original rate of 20.7 cents per kilowatt hour. The deal would save ratepayers up to $456 million during the 15-year life of the power purchase contract, Coakley’s office said. Read more here. 

Source: Greentechmedia

Why is natural gas now being pushed to top-tier energy prominence? In a word -- 'supply.'  Five or so years ago, pundits were predicting a natural gas crisis.  Natural gas was declining according to just about every measurable metric.  Since then, technology has created a natural gas renaissance, enabling us to unlock vast resources from reserves previously perceived as uneconomic.

Additionally, these new reserves have been exploited by a large group of relatively unknown players, the independents.  They approached these new reserves opportunistically, and leveraging new technologies such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, they broke the mold.  They approached reservoir development from a completely new perspective, by thinking about it in terms of a drilling factory. Read more here. 

Source: Greentech Grid

Source: PopSci

In February, the Swiss company PlanetSolar SA unveiled PlanetSolar, a floating test bed for renewable energy, during a ceremony held in Kiel, Germany. The $15-million catamaran measures 49 feet wide, 25 feet high and 102 feet long and weighs 94 tons. It is equipped with 5,380 square feet of photovoltaic solar panels, and its four motors run entirely on solar power (when it’s cloudy out, energy stored in batteries powers the boat).

The designers purposely eschewed fuel-powered engines to emphasize the need to conserve global resources. The company’s scientific coordinator and COO, Pascal Goulpié, hopes that its size and visibility—the boat will make a world tour next year—will inspire others to pursue alternative-energy ventures throughout the next decade. Read more here.