Over the course of the past academic year, 30 collegiate athletic conferences comprising more than 70 universities competed in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) College and University Green Power Challenge. The competition, which is an offshoot of EPA’s Green Power Partnership, wrapped up last month with the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania taking the top [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Solar Energy’
EPA’s Green Power Challenge
May 15th, 2012 
Eric Wilson 
Posted in Education, Eric Wilson, News, Renewable Energy 
Tags: Biomass, EPA, Geothermal, Hydroelectricity, Solar Energy, Wind Power 
No Comments »First Major Solar Installation on Public Property Goes Online
May 10th, 2012 Chris DeArmond While renewables accounted for just 1.5 percent of total energy production last year, the Obama administration has approved at least 29 green energy projects on public lands as part of its “All-of-the-Above” initiative. If all projects are completed, the renewable projects will produce more than 6,500 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power more than [...]
DOE’s SunShot Initiative Announces Funding Opportunity for “Plug and Play” Photovoltaic Systems
May 4th, 2012 Chris DeArmond The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) SunShot Initiative is an ambitious program that aims to dramatically reduce the cost of solar energy. By the end of the decade, one of SunShot’s official goals is to cut the cost of photovoltaic (PV) systems by 75 percent, or to about 6 cents per kilowatt-hour. Besides making the cost [...]
May 2012 Clean Energy and Sustainability Events
May 1st, 2012 Eric Wilson A recent report measured American “Green Jobs” for the first time. Perhaps no place in the U.S. was hit as hard by the economy of the past several years than Detroit. The Motor City has seen a decline for quite some time, but later this month there is a conference focused on green jobs in [...]
Posted in Conferences, Education, Eric Wilson, Renewable Energy, Sustainability Tags: Army, Calendar, Economy, Green Jobs, Los Angeles, Solar Energy No Comments »America’s Largest Solar Panel Producer Struggles to Remain Sustainable
April 23rd, 2012 Chris DeArmond As we have become somewhat accustomed to bad news in the solar panel industry, it is hardly surprising to hear that some companies are struggling to remain profitable. Earlier this week, First Solar, America’s largest solar panel producer, announced a plan detailing significant cutbacks to its workforce and production. The announcement came just weeks after [...]
Posted in China, News, Renewable Energy Tags: Chris DeArmond, Photovoltaic, Solar Energy No Comments »Hertz on Demand: Toward Sustainable Transportation
April 18th, 2012 Eric Wilson Can a rental car company really move society toward sustainable transport? Hertz on Demand, a car sharing service from the eponymous rental agency, believes they have devised a way to more appropriately share cars. Currently there are a wealth of these types of services. Occasional Car, eGo Car Share, and ZipCar are some of the [...]
What Does the Natural Gas Boom Mean for Sustainability?
April 15th, 2012 Eric Wilson Both NPR and the New York Times ran stories last week that highlighted the role of natural gas in the U.S. energy economy. NPR interviewed Amy Myers Jaffe, director of Rice University’s Baker Institute Energy Forum. Jaffe predicted that natural gas prices would remain low for the foreseeable future, specifically 5-10 years. The New York [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Featured Posts, Op-Ed, Renewable Energy, Sustainability, Transportation Tags: Biomimicry, Fracking, Natural Gas, Solar Energy, Wastewater No Comments »Double Set of Five Friday Facts: Natural Gas Leads the Pack
April 13th, 2012 Eric Wilson When looking at which energy source provides the most energy to the American economy, natural gas topped the charts for 2010 (the most recent year for which data was fully available). Today’s set of facts looks at the breakdown of the various sources and follows up last week’s Five Friday Facts which looked at the [...]
Posted in Eric Wilson, Five Friday Facts, Renewable Energy Tags: Biomass, Coal, Energy, Geothermal, Hydroelectricity, Natural Gas, Nuclear, Oil Consumption, Solar Energy, Wind Power No Comments »Eco-Marathon Challenges Students to Create Ultra Fuel-Efficient Transport
April 9th, 2012 Eric Wilson When energy efficiency and fuel economy come to mind, big oil is not always the first image that pops up. However, Shell Oil has been supporting the Eco-Marathon, a competition for “high school and college student teams from around the world to design, build and test energy efficient vehicles.” The current record is held by [...]
Posted in Energy Efficiency, Eric Wilson Tags: Battery, Fuel Cells, Hydrogen Economy, Oil Consumption, Peak Oil, Photovoltaic, Plug-in Hybrid, Solar Energy No Comments »LightSail Energy, Storing the Wind and Sun
April 3rd, 2012 Eric Wilson The days of a single dominant energy source are just about over. In the U.S., no one source provides a majority of the energy that is converted into electricity. Recent numbers put coal at the top of several sources. It is responsible for 45% of the electricity generated as of 2010. Moving forward, there will be a [...]
