By Elisa Wood
What’s the shelf life of today’s support for energy efficiency technologies? The industry has seen an unprecedented boom over the last several years. But all booms eventually bust.
A recent souring of public opinion about global warming science has some industry insiders bracing for impact. Will American enthusiasm for clean energy come to a halt? Only if it was global warming that spurred the enthusiasm in the first place – and I suspect it was not.
Continue reading Will Public Support for Efficiency Continue?
By Elisa Wood
Energy efficiency appears to have married rich in partnering with smart grid. Yet another report shows that together they have formed what has become today’s most appealing clean tech sector for venture capital.
Ernst & Young, using data from Dow Jones VentureSource, recently reported that financing rounds grew 11% in 2009 for energy efficiency, this as deals for the clean tech sector as a whole dropped by
Continue reading Efficiency “sweet spot” for Investors
By Elisa Wood
It’s clear that the energy efficiency industry is undergoing an unprecedented boom, spurred by state and federal support and movement toward a smarter grid. But for those in the industry, where exactly can the new business – and the jobs – be found?
Two new reports by Colorado-based Pike Research shed some light.
After years of focusing
Continue reading Hot Sectors for Energy Efficiency
By Elisa Wood
Not once, but twice President Obama mentioned the importance of energy efficiency in his state of the union address January 27. His support for the resource is no surprise; his administration has channeled $20 billion toward energy savings programs. Obama made clear that going into his second year his support will not
Continue reading Obama, Energy Efficiency & Accountability
By Elisa Wood
Don’t be surprised, says the report, to see a national retail store chain partner with an electric battery maker to install charging stations nationwide for plug-in electric vehicles. A new wave of corporate mergers and acquisitions also could
Continue reading Is green energy our new plastics industry?
By Elisa Wood
Tip his hand? In fact, as Stewart pointed out, Obama has shown that hand broadly to the world for the last year. Starting with his January 2009 inaugural speech, Obama buoyed the clean energy industry by advancing renewable energy, a first for a US president in that forum. But that turned out to be just the start. In talk after talk this year, he
Continue reading Obama, Poker and What 2010 Holds for Energy Efficiency
By Elisa Wood
A recent White House task force on the middle class finds that our homes generate more than 20% of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions. If we make our houses more efficient, we can significantly cut emissions and reduce energy use by 40%, a move that could lower our bills by $21 billion annually.
Continue reading No place like home for energy savings
By Elisa Wood
Even on Main Street, ask pretty much anyone and they know solar, probably like it, and see it as an economy builder. Ask the same people about geothermal heat pumps and there is a good chance they won’t know what you’re talking about. Or they may
Continue reading What’s geothermal again?
By Elisa Wood
Bragging rights go to California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Oregon and New York,* the top five states (in that order) doing good by energy efficiency. Some red faces, however, might be found in Nebraska, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Wyoming, the group that ACEEE says “most needs to improve.”
Continue reading It’s the environment, stupid!
By Elisa Wood
Here’s what I took away: Energy efficiency helps the carbon reduction cause. But the carbon reduction cause doesn’t do much for
Continue reading Efficiency left out of cap and trade
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