Last week, council members got a preview of the projects. Several proposals were criticized. So were the formulas used for determining job creation and emissions reduction.
The 18 projects – culled from about 250 ideas – are part of a community conservation strategy required under terms designated by the federal program. The projects must be approved by council and submitted to DOE by Dec. 4.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Business Journal article, which includes a summary of the projects, here.
Can’t make the meeting but want to stay informed? Those of you with cable can watch on the GOV channel.
Councilwoman and Mayor Pro-Tem Susan Burgess talks about why young folks should get involved in local politics pre-election:
OK, maybe not everyone — but Environment North Carolina would like to see a lot of solar panels installed in our state. Plus, they say Mecklenburg County is a great place to get started with their solar aspirations. Oh, and make it snappy.
The big snag, as always, is money. Though, if the state — and especially Charlotte — wants to become an alternative energy leader, I’m sure they’ll find a way to step up supply — which will lead to lower prices — to meet rising demand.
An environmental advocacy group that says North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions are rising proposes a solution: Putting solar panels on nearly 700,000 rooftops.
Environment North Carolina, in a report to be issued today, says that based on current solar energy development in the state, the sun could supply at least 14 percent of the state’s energy needs in two decades.
The group’s report identifies Wake and Mecklenburg counties as having the greatest number of rooftops suitable for solar panels.
…
The goal set out by Environment North Carolina would require the state to develop 13,900 megawatts of solar energy, which would make this state nearly equivalent to the 14,730 megawatts of solar energy currently available worldwide.
Megawatt for megawatt, solar power is the most expensive form of electricity today, but green energy advocates say planning can’t be based on current costs.
“The cost of solar power is coming down, while the cost of dirty energy is going up,” said Elizabeth Ouzts, state director for Environment North Carolina. “In the not-too-distant future, the cost of solar will be cheaper than building a new coal-fired power plant.”
The solar report comes a day after the group released a study saying North Carolina’s greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere have risen 39 percent from 1990 to 2007. The data come from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s “State Energy Consumption, Price and Expenditure Estimates.”
The rise in emissions is caused by more cars on the road burning more fuel, and more electricity being generated by the state’s 45 coal-burning units.
Read the entire Raleigh News and Observer article here.
The energy industry is getting a makeover. The U.S. needs to lead the way to remain competitive in the global market, and Charlotte’s ready to lead the charge.
The $787 billion stimulus package the Obama administration put together this year includes about $70 billion in grants and tax breaks for the energy industry — almost all of it directed at clean-energy companies. The Charlotte region, hungry for growth in the sector, has already received significant grants from the clean-energy programs in the bill.
The largest was the $42.9 million awarded to Celgard, a local subsidiary of Charlotte-based Polypore International Inc. That will help Celgard beef up production of membranes used in lithium batteries to power electric vehicles.
That effort will create 200 jobs. Celgard has payroll of 300 at its plant on Carowinds Boulevard. But it’s not clear whether all the new jobs will be in the region. The company intends to use the stimulus funding to help build a second plant, but Mitch Pulwer, general manager, says Celgard has not decided on a site.
Chemetall Foote Corp. in Kings Mountain, a division of Germany-based Chemetall, will also be working on batteries for electric vehicles, using a $28.4 million grant.
The funds will be part of a $56 million investment in expanding Chemetall’s lithium-production facilities.
Tim McKenna, spokesman, says about 60% of the total will be spent in Kings Mountain.
Both companies are already major players in the lithium-battery market. Chemetall produces about a third of the lithium for batteries worldwide. And Celgard is a major supplier for membranes used in batteries for cell phones, laptops, digital cameras and other common products.
But both see the nascent electric-vehicle business as a major new market. That could mean more growth in Kings Mountain and Charlotte down the line.
Read the entire Charlotte Business Journal article here.
Great news: North Carolina’s Biomass Trader is at your service whether you’ve got trash or need some trashy materials. The site will even connect you to the 411 on composting, organic products and more. Check it out :
The headline doesn’t seem to make sense at first, does it? Or, perhaps you thought I meant Charlotte’s energy giant, Duke Energy, is doubling down to oppose climate change legislation.
If anything, Duke’s CEO, Jim Rogers, is making more headway in the clean energy industry and with climate change progress than a lot of politicians, as yesterday’s Charlotte Business Journal points out.
How so? Well, for starters, he’s negotiating cooperative green energy technology contracts with China and actively working to shape climate change legislation in Washington.
But, what you can’t forget when reading all of these headlines is Duke is a publicly traded company. If green energy technology will add a little jingle to shareholders’ pockets, green energy wins. If coal is the answer, well, the company — and their two new coal-fired plants — are gearing up for that potential win, too. If climate change legislation is a must, might as well be at the table instead of pouting in the corner.
So, I say, if Rogers can significantly lower his company’s Co2 emissions, create green jobs, green the energy grid and turn a profit all at the same time and without regulation — more power to him.
All the same, most environmental groups would appreciate it if you would watch what the company does as well as what its charismatic leader says, then compare the two. According to many of them, Rogers is little more than a green washer in a suit.
Rogers is the CEO of Duke Energy, the nation’s third largest electric utility. His stacks pump 100 million tons of carbon dioxide every year, which makes what comes out of Rogers’ mouth so surprising.
“Controlling carbon emissions in the near future is inevitable in your view. This is going to happen,” Pelley remarked.
“It’s inevitable in my judgment,” Rogers agreed.
“You’re one of the biggest polluters in the world when it comes to carbon emissions,” Pelley pointed out.
“We’re one of the largest emitters. And it tells you how daunting the challenge is that we have in front of us,” Rogers replied.
“You know, there are a lot of people many of them in your industry may who you probably know who say that global warming is not a big problem,” Pelley said.
“It’s my judgment it is a problem,” Rogers said. “We need to go to work on it now. And it’s critical that we start to act in this country.”
Like a reformed tobacco executive, Rogers says we can’t survive the emissions his industry creates.
Here’s Mr. Rogers at a recent environmental forum:
Going green is all the rage, especially when job creation is the topic of conversation.
In fact, North Carolina’s Clean Energy Economic Forum will be held at the Mint Museum of Art next Wednesday, from 7:oo – 8:30 p.m. It’s free and open to the public. The keynote speaker is Lt. Gov. Walter H. Dalton. The big topic: Green Jobs. You can submit a question to the panel here and register — again, it’s free! — here.
Meanwhile …
Work is under way on the Mecklenburg County parks and recreation department’s first LEED-designed facility.
The main athletic area at the Revolution site will be used for boxing, wrestling and martial arts.
The nearly 30,000- square-foot sports facility also includes space for a golf shop and lounge, lockers, offices and a kitchen.
…
LEED standards are quickly becoming a mainstream method of construction, says Darrel Williams, a principal at Neighboring Concepts and a former county commissioner.
“A lot of folks still use cost as an excuse,” he says. But he cites long-term benefits from saving energy and water.
…
The sports academy site is near two major bus routes and adjacent to a proposed extension of the Irwin Creek greenway.
The facility is slated for completion by April.
…
The Police Athletic League, Charlotte Boxing Academy and The First Tee of Charlotte plan to offer programs at the building.
The county is paying for the project from a 2004 bond issue.
In other green-county news:
Hybrid buses will start running Monday along a new, high-frequency route to the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport.
Get ready coal, you cheap bastard, wind and solar are finally ready to compete.
“Why are we ignoring things we know? We know that the sun doesn’t always shine and that the wind doesn’t always blow.” So wrote former U.S. Energy Secretary James Schlesinger and Robert L. Hirsch last spring in the Washington Post, suggesting that because these key renewables produce power only intermittently, “solar and wind will probably only provide a modest percentage of future U.S. power.”
Never mind that Schlesinger failed to disclose that he sits on the board of directors of Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal company — a business with much to lose if a solar- and wind-powered future arrives. But at least he and his co-author got it partly right. The benefits from wind and solar are mostly intermittent — so far. But the pair somehow missed the fact that a furious search for practical, affordable electricity storage to beat that intermittence problem is well underway.
For decades, “grid parity” has been the Holy Grail for alternative energy. The rap from critics was that technologies like wind and solar could not compete, dollar-for-dollar, with conventional electricity sources, such as coal and nuclear, without large government tax breaks or direct subsidies. But suddenly, with rapid technological advances and growing economies of manufacturing scale, wind power is now nearly at grid parity — meaning it costs roughly the same to generate electricity from wind as it does from coal. And the days when solar power attains grid parity may be only a half-decade away.
Today we raise a glass of warm green beer to a fine fellow, the Irishman who didn’t rid the land of snakes, didn’t compare the Trinity to the shamrock, and wasn’t even Irish. St. Patrick, who died 1,507, 1,539, or 1,540 years ago today—depending on which unreliable source you want to believe—has been adorned with centuries of Irish blarney. Innumerable folk tales recount how he faced down kings, negotiated with God, tricked and slaughtered Ireland’s reptiles.
