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Green Energy Ads: Johnson Controls

eblock — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 17:40:47 +0000

Sep 9, 2011 – Johnson Controls has a new ad with pictures of 4 buildings in the top half and the following below: “Make your building more efficient and sustainable. Save money too.” They go on to tell you how they will partner with you to reduce energy use and save money while benefitting the environment. That’s good for them, you and the whole world. They tell you that you can expect a 30% reduction in your building’s energy and operating costs.

GreenEnergyForEarth believes that the quickest return for green energy is conservation. Johnson Controls and other companies producing products to improve efficiency are leading the way.

Please leave your comments here on other companies that are active in this area.

Must Read: “Solar Showdown” in Miller-McCune Magazine

eblock — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:14:13 +0000

Apr 28, 2011 – Here is a must read for those interested in solar power. Check out Miller-McCune Magazine’s May/June 2011 issue that has “Solar Showdown” as its cover main subject. Subtitle is “Could huge solar projects on public land in the Southwest actually be anti-environmental boondoggles in the making?” Read the articles and please leave your comments here.

Wanted Green Energy Writers & Bloggers

eblock — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 14:01:16 +0000

Does global warming concern you? Is the environment your passion? Have a zeal for Green life? Want to discuss, comment, learn, rant about these and more? Blog/ Write on a site that helps you take your opinion to the world and make your voice heard. Let your opinion make a difference in the world. Share your thoughts, views, express your feelings, voice concerns on http://www.GreenEnergyForEarth.com. GreenEnergyForEarth.com is an open and highly relevant site, where anyone can report and add their voice from anywhere.

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Novel Financing For Residential Solar Power

eblock — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:56:41 +0000

Jul 2, 2009 – It is a down economy and yet everyone wants to do their part to save the planet and reduce their own personal energy costs. What about the upfront costs in a recession? Matt Jenkins reports in the July-August issue of Miller-McCune in an article titled, “$olar System”, on the novel plans of Francisco DeVries in Berkeley, California. California has less than 0.5% of its homes with photovoltaic systems despite its reputation for green and sunshine. Now, based on his proposal, the Berkeley City Council has created the Sustainable Energy Financing District. Under the program, homeowners join the District, the District issues municipal bonds to finance the systems and the homeowner pays a monthly tax assessment, presumable with the funds that are saved in energy costs. Check out all the details in the article. Many other cities and towns have already contacted Berkeley to see if the details make sense for their communities.

Forbes reports on “The Business Of Tracking Carbon”

eblock — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 19:58:38 +0000

Jun 3, 2009 – Rebecca Buckman reports in Forbes that “..the software industry is creating technology to marshal data about companies’ carbon emissions and use of natural resources, like water and coal–with an eye toward helping them use less.”

“One company trying to capitalize on the trend, Hara Software, officially launches its product Monday. The company, founded in 2007 by former executives of software outfit SAP, has received $6 million from venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. It says more than a dozen organizations, including Coca-Cola, are using its product.

It’s not alone: San Bruno, Calif., start-up Planet Metrics, funded by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, sells software that lets companies track and forecast their carbon footprint, including carbon generated by their facilities and products. ”We kind of define ourselves as business intelligence software,” says CEO Andy Leventhal–though it’s surely business intelligence for the green age.”

“Business-software giant SAP bought a company called Clear Standards that helps companies measure and report greenhouse-gas emissions. And Tom Siebel, whose Siebel Systems specialized in sales and customer-relationship software, is rumored to be working on a similar project.”

“Coke’s director of energy management and climate protection, Bryan Jacob, says Hara’s tools are helping him track greenhouse-gas emissions across the company’s 1,000 global manufacturing plants. The software–which is delivered over the Internet, instead of packaged form–also lets him test out possible emissions scenarios and manage Coke’s carbon output as it tries to meet its own emissions-reduction targets. (Coke has pledged that by 2015, it will have expanded its business but kept emissions from operations at 2004 levels.)”

See the whole story in Forbes.

Xcelsior Bus is Fuel Efficient and Ready For Stimulus to Stimulate Its Stock

eblock — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:49:26 +0000

May 6, 2009 – New Flyer Industries [Other OTC: NFYIF.PK] is a Canadian maker of buses for city transit systems. Matthew Schifrin reports in Forbes that it is a play on the US stimulus package. New Flyer has been making buses since 1930, another period of economic turmoil. Chicago just put into use 150 New Flyer hybrid electric buses. They have a backlog of $4.1 billion, up 44% from a year ago. President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan promotes mass transit. Its stock is up to $8 from $6 when the article went to press. Please leave your comments here. Do you have any other stock recommendations?

Today’s Restaurant News Green Edition

LMerker — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:54:46 +0000

Today’s Restaurant News, a newspaper for the restaurant industry in Florida and Texas, will have a green issue in March. Products that are classified as energy savers or services to help companies go green will be featured. For infomration about subscriptions or advertising, please visit trnusa.com.

Energy Investment Opinions by Bill Paul

eblock — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 19:38:53 +0000

Jan 4, 2009 – Bill Paul is a former Wall Street Journal energy and environmental reporter with more than 30 years of experience. He recently wrote an article titled, “Stay Ahead of the Energy Curve” for Stocks, Futures and Options magazine. As he has been reporting on energy issues before many of the green energy advocates were born, it is worth reading what he has to say. He starts off by saying that the bad news is that despite the stimulus plan for green energy of President-elect Barack Obama, the global economic slow-down will cause the scale back of capital-intensive green energy projects such as wind farms and utility-scale solar power plants. He doesn’t even mention the cost of the infrastructure to move that electricity from new plants to the electrical grid [see previous posts]. This projected slowdown is in line with prior posts on GreenEnergyForEarth.com. Similarly, the cost of new, multibillion dollar nuclear plants can be expected to be slowed down. He also sees a slow down in the search for new oil deposits north of the Arctic Circle, in deep ocean and in tar sands due to tight credit, increasing costs and decreasing oil prices. Thus, when the economy picks up again in 2010 or 2011, new oil supplies won’t be here and prices will rise quickly. Maybe, that will then stimulate the incentives for renewable energy.

What is the good news? There is a continual increase in the world’s demand for energy. Well, some would say that is not good news. Anyhow, that combined with increasing regulations requiring cleaner energy generation will continue to prod utilities to develop alternative energy sources. Paul targets geothermal and cleaner coal technology as 2 winners. He notes that Google’s director of energy and climate initiatives calls geothermal energy the next “killer app”. Also, the US government has opened millions of acres of federal land for geothermal development.

As we have noted in GreenEnergyForEarth.com energy efficiency provides the quickest return on investment not only for industry, but especially for residences, especially with the 8-year extension of federal tax credits and other state and local incentives for green and efficient energy upgrades.

The transportation use of energy should also benefit from the Congressional legislation of 2008 that provides tax credits for purchasers of “plug-in electric hybrid vehicles” [PHEVs] that are higher than either President-elect Barack Obama or John McCain proposed during the campaign. Don’t expect to see such models early in 2009.

Paul expects the US average price for regular gas to over $3.25 by the summer of 2009 and even higher if a major hurricane threatens or damages oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. Paul quotes a University of Maryland study that posits that US consumers are ready to spend $54 billion on PHEVs and hybrid vehicles as soon as the price premium drops to $1,000 per vehicle. That could be quite a boost to the automakers and the economy. The same survey projects that consumers would spend another $50 billion on other green energy efficient products.

Finally, Paul discusses carbon cap-and-trade legislation that he expects to be passed by the new Congress and expects that this will provide a new market place in the USA as it has already in Europe. He states, “Globally speaking, during the next several years, hundreds of billions of dollars are going to be spent by millions of companies to abide by the rules of this new carbon-constrained world.”

Please post your comments and discussions of the points that Bill Paul makes.

“Fill ‘Er Up With Human Fat” from Forbes

eblock — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 01:00:21 +0000

Dec 22, 2008 – Peter C. Beller reports on one of the most outlandish green energy stories in a Forbes article titled “Fill ‘Er Up With Human Fat: How a Beverly Hills doctor powered his SUV using his patients’ spare tires.” See the story below. It I had received this by email and it wasn’t in Forbes I would be checking it on Snopes.

“Liposuctioning unwanted blubber out of pampered Los Angelenos may not seem like a dream job, but it has its perks. Free fuel is one of them. For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator. Love handles can power a car? Frighteningly, yes. Fat–whether animal or vegetable–contains triglycerides that can be extracted and turned into diesel. Poultry companies such as Tyson are looking into powering their trucks on chicken schmaltz, and biofuel start-ups such as Nova Biosource are mixing beef tallow and pig lard with more palatable sources such as soybean oil. Mike Shook of Agri Process Innovations, a builder of biodiesel plants, says this year’s batch of U.S. biodiesel was likely more than half animal-derived since the price of soybeans soared.
A gallon of grease will get you about a gallon of fuel, and drivers can get about the same amount of mileage from fat fuel as they do from regular diesel, according to Jenna Higgins of the National Biodiesel Board. Animal fats need to undergo an additional step to get rid of free fatty acids not present in vegetable oils, but otherwise, there’s no difference, she says.
Greenies like the fact that waste, such as coffee grounds and french-fry grease, can be turned into power. “The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel–and I have more fat than I can use,” Bittner wrote on lipodiesel.com. “Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly but they get to take part in saving the Earth.” Bittner’s lipodiesel Web site is no longer online.
Using fat to fuel cars might be environmentally friendly, but it’s definitely illegal in California to use human medical waste to power vehicles, and Bittner is being investigated by the state’s public health department. Although it’s unclear when Bittner started and stopped making fat fuel or how he made it, his activities came to light after recent lawsuits filed by patients that allege he allowed his assistant and his girlfriend to perform surgeries without a medical license.”

Has anyone heard this story before? Has anyone else tried this before? You might want to answer that anonymously.

Steve Forbes on Barack Obama’s Alternative Energy Plan

eblock — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 04:30:20 +0000

Steve Forbes, Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine and two-time former presidential candidate, writes in his “Fact and Comment” editorial on president-elect Barack Obama’s $150 billion alternative energy program. During the campaign Obama stated that he would propose that the US government spend $15 billion per year for 10 years. Forbes posits that Obama’s big initiative will be “some sort of cap-and-trade scheme for carbon dioxide emissions.” He says that the cost of carbon permits will be rolled into the prices for goods and services resulting in “a sort of energy version of the value-added tax.” As such, it would be a regressive tax. He claims that the fact that tax credits aren’t set for long periods make it difficult for investors in alternative energy. The recent tax credit legislation extended the tax credit for solar energy for 8 years, but as readers of GreenEnergyForEarth.com know, the wind energy tax credits were only extended for 1 year, although hopefully they will receive a longer extension during the next Congress. Forbes doesn’t expect Obama to cut back on ethanol subsidies even though ethanol production for fuel is inefficient and has an adverse effect on the cost of corn-derived food. He expects Obama to quietly allow more offshore drilling and passage of legislation for construction of nuclear facilities. We will have to wait until 2009 to see if Forbes’ predictions are correct as Obama has made it clear that he is not telegraphing his moves until January 20.