ATLANTA, Georgia–Shumate Mechanical, which has operated in Atlanta to provide residents with all of their heating and cooling demands since 1978, announces that it’s now the exclusive Bosch tankless water heater dealer for Bosch in Georgia. The condensing tankless water heater sold by Shumate Mechanical is state of the art. While actually cheaper than the non-condensing tankless water heaters on the market today from companies like Rinnai, Noritz, and Rheem, it is next generation technology that saves more energy.

In addition, the new Shumate-Bosch partnership is utilizing a proprietary and first of its kind program to actually let consumers buy the tankless water heating unit directly from Bosch online… and then, seamlessly arrange installation by Shumate within 24 to 48 hours by Shumate. This unique system is obviously faster and more customer-friendly than water heater ordering and installation systems have operated in the past. This is just one more way in which Shumate Mechanical seeks to maximize the benefits that customers derive from doing business with them.

Why should you want to have Shumate Mechanical installing a Bosch tankless water heater in your home? To begin, A Bosch tankless water heater provides endless hot water while using energy more efficiently. A tankless water heater turns on and off when you open and close the faucet. What this means is that the only energy that gets consumed is for the hot water that is being used–the tank is not constantly filling up with, storing, and heating hot water for later use. So, you don’t waste energy heating water when you don’t require it. With a Bosch tankless water heater, when you open a faucet the flow of the water triggers the heater to turn on. Whether you use gas or electricity for your fuel, the powerful gas burners or electrical elements will instantly turn on, rapidly heating the water as it passes through the unit. The water is heated instantly.

As you can imagine, this saving of energy means saved money for you. You can drop anywhere from 5% to 69% off your current hot water heating bill, depending on which model you purchase and what system you are replacing. In addition, you are conserving water, which is healthier for the environment. Yet, heating the water as you’re using it means that you get an endless supply of hot water – no more waiting for the tank to heat up in between showers, running the dishwasher, and so forth.

In addition to these clear advantages of having a tankless water heater installed in your home, there are even more. For instance, a tankless water heater is very small–small enough for you to hang on the wall and thus save yourself valuable floor space. It’s designed with replaceable parts and is built with such materials as copper, stainless steel, and aluminum so that you probably only need to buy one in your adult lifetime, while storage tank water heaters decrease in efficiency over time and eventually need to be replaced. The Bosch tankless water heater is almost completely recyclable, so if you should ever decide to replace it you won’t be negatively impacting the environment by taking up more landfill space. A tankless water heater also won’t develop a corrosive leak like a storage tank water heater all too easily does; this keeps you protected against expensive water damage in your home.

By: Todd Woody

Four months ago, General Electric fired up the imaginations of would-be entrepreneurs tooling away in garages everywhere when it offered up $200 million as part of an “Ecomagination Challenge” to crowdsource smart grid and renewable energy ideas.

On Tuesday, the global conglomerate announced the first set of winners, a dozen startups that collectively will secure $55 million in investment from GE and two venture firms collaborating with the company, Foundation Capital and RockPort Capital Partners.

The winners hail from everywhere from Silicon Valley to Sweden. Most are developing technology for the smart grid.

Others are focused on smart buildings. ClimateWell of Stockholm is making heating and cooling systems designed to operate not on electricity, but on solar-heated hot water. Soladigm of Milpitas, Calif., meanwhile, manufactures windows that incorporate electronics that allow them to darken — keeping buildings cool during sunny summer months. In winter, they lighten to trap the sun’s heat.

The payoff for these companies goes far beyond the cash. Given GE’s involvement in just about every aspect of the electricity distribution system as well as its smart home efforts, the global behemoth is a huge market for their services.

“We are working with these new partners to accelerate the development and deployment of these concepts on a scale that will help drive a cleaner, more efficient, and economically viable grid,” Jeff Immelt, GE’s chief executive, said in a statement. “The partnerships formed through this Challenge represent a new way of doing business at GE as we continue to expand our broad digital energy offering in the growing power grid market.”

GE also named five Innovation Challenge award winners that will each score $100,000. Among the most intriguing startups is Capstone Metering, a Texas company developing a smart water meter, and WinFlex of Israel, which is developing an inflatable wind turbine.

GE and its venture capital partners received nearly 4,000 entries in the contest.

“This is perhaps the largest participation in an open innovation challenge a company has ever generated,” GE executive Beth Comstock said on a conference call Tuesday.

Another executive noted that the company received many ideas from individuals, which will prove valuable to GE.

“It gives us insight into how consumers are thinking about energy and energy efficiency,” he noted.

QUINCY, MA The state declined to grant a variance for a heating-system replacement project for Quincy public housing because the new heating units do not comply with a new energy code that took effect July 1.

The state Board of Building Regulations and Standards rejected the Quincy Housing Authority’s variance appeal after a hearing last month, the authority’s director and Quincy’s inspectional services director said.

The appeal was filed after Jay Duca, the city’s inspectional services head, denied a contractor permits to install more than 400 heating units because they cannot be programmed to turn on and off at preset times. That programmability is a requirement of the latest International Energy Conservation Code, which took effect July 1 in Massachusetts.

Meanwhile, some residents of public housing in Quincy have been without heat for nearly a year.

The units that were to be installed – gas-powered, direct-vent wall furnaces similar to ones found in hotel rooms – are made by Rinnai America Corp. of Georgia.

Quincy Housing Authority officials want to use them to replace old, leaky and mold-prone steam radiators. The radiators often malfunction, leaving residents of Snug Harbor in Germantown and West Acres in West Quincy without heat.

Andrea Lindo, a Snug Harbor resident, told The Patriot Ledger that her heater has been broken since February and that the housing authority placed three standalone space heaters in her apartment. Lindo’s neighbor said she hasn’t had heat since 2009.

Housing Authority Director Jay MacRitchie declined to comment on specific tenants’ circumstances. He said eight of the authority’s 436 apartments are currently without heat, and that the authority spends about $50,000 annually to replace boilers.

MacRitchie said if the stimulus money does not come through, the authority will replace boilers as it customarily does – a short-term fix.

“It will be like saying, ‘We know you’re going to get a new car, but we’re going to replace the transmission,’” he said.

The $2.5 million for Quincy is a portion of $25 million in federal stimulus money that the state doled out for public-housing heating upgrades.

The state Department of Housing and Community Development, which approved the Rinnai system, “is still continuing to work with all parties to replace those old heating systems,” spokesman Phil Hailer said.

Hailer said if appeals of Duca’s denial are exhausted, the agency “will consider the feasibility of an alternative, comparable, conforming heating system.”

Asked about the standstill, Christopher Walker, spokesman for Mayor Thomas Koch, said the mayor “doesn’t overrule his inspectors.”

Duca and Quincy’s fire chief have criticized the proposed system as inadequate to heat multi-room apartments. The system requires wall fans and gaps in doorways to circulate hot air. Duca said no system of its type has been approved for use in Massachusetts.

The Board of Building Regulations and Standards voted on May 5 to grant the Quincy Housing Authority a variance to use the heating system under the 2006 International Energy Conservation Code.

Shortly thereafter, the city granted permits to install 10 of the heating units, a test run called for in the housing authority’s contract with Rinnai. When the company returned in September for the rest of the needed city permits, it was turned down because the new code had taken effect.

The Board of Building Regulations and Standards agreed, declining to grant the authority a second variance after an Oct. 19 hearing.

“You’ve got to meet today’s codes,” Duca said.

Washington, DC – Since its launch in 2000, the LEED green building certification program has been recognized internationally as the leading benchmark for buildings that are designed, constructed and operated sustainably. The new LEED International Program furthers the global reach of LEED by emphasizing global consistency, enabling a regional approach, and providing local outreach and support.

The increasingly global nature of the green building movement – and its unrivaled potential to effect real economic and environmental progress worldwide – is at the heart of the Greenbuild 2010 International Forum, being held in Chicago Nov. 16 in conjunction with the annual Greenbuild International Conference & Expo. The International Forum is also your first chance to learn more about the LEED International Program from representatives of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the nonprofit organization that develops the LEED rating systems and hosts Greenbuild. Learn more at www.greenbuildexpo.org/international.

“For years, the leaders of the global green building movement have looked to LEED as the benchmark for what it means to build green,” said Scot Horst, Senior Vice President of LEED at USGBC. “The LEED International Program allows us to work collaboratively to bolster the power of LEED to transform the marketplace in communities worldwide.”

Over the years, the green building community has found many innovative ways to adapt the LEED rating systems to locally and regionally specific needs. Under the LEED International Program, a globally consistent set of LEED rating systems will ensure that LEED certification represents the same level of rigor no matter where a LEED-certified building is located.

This global consistency depends on the ability of LEED credits to be applicable regardless of geographic or climatic region. Under the LEED International Program, this does not require a fundamental change in LEED or a rewriting of the credits; instead, alternative compliance paths will offer country-neutral ways to reach a credit’s intended outcome, allowing teams a non-country-specific option by which to earn the credit.

The regional approach of the LEED International Program will incorporate global perspectives through the LEED International Roundtable, with representatives from green building councils and leadership organizations around the world. The roundtable will provide regular feedback on the non-country-specific options and the LEED International Program in general.

“The LEED International Roundtable enables us to collaboratively identify common solutions to regional issues,” said S. Raghupathy of the India Green Building Council, a LEED International Roundtable member.

And because all green building occurs locally, the LEED International Program will provide resources, tools, education and other outreach to help advocates and project teams find on-the-ground success with LEED. This will include some translation of LEED materials into difference languages.

By: Todd Woody

The United States is on the verge of a solar boom that could provide 4.3 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2020, according to a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

There’s just a 12-figure catch: Investors need to put $100 billion into the solar industry to keep the generation of solar electricity growing by 42 percent a year for the next decade to expand capacity from the current 1.4 gigawatts to 44 gigawatts.

“Policy measures such as tax credits, capital expenditure grants, generation incentives and renewable electricity credits will remain a key driver of solar uptake in the U.S. for at least the next three years,” according to the report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance, a research and consulting firm. “The current drop in solar costs is taking place just as such policies are being implemented by the federal and various state governments, which is expected to lead to rapid growth in commercial, utility and residential solar power.”

Over the past two years, solar module prices have plunged by 50 percent as low-cost Chinese manufacturers expanded production and entered the U.S. market.

“Policy, rather than sunshine, will remain the U.S.’s greatest solar resource for the next few years,” Milo Sjardin, Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s head of U.S. research, said in a statement. “By the middle of this decade, however, the U.S. retail solar market will be driven by fundamental, unsubsidized competition, which should transform the U.S. into one of the world’s most dynamic solar markets.”

Exhibit A for such a phenomenon is Germany. With about as much sunshine as Maine, the European nation became the world’s solar stronghold through policies that rewarded homeowners, businesses, and farmers for generating their own electricity.

Such policies are needed in the U.S., according to the report, given that solar electricity remains four times as expensive to generate than coal-fired power.

Of course, the failure of Congress to pass national climate change legislation and the current attempt to kill California’s global warming law shows that progress on green energy issues is not guaranteed in the U.S. And Congress’ habit of offering short-lived tax incentives for renewable energy and then dithering about extending them when they expire has played havoc with the industry and investors.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance predicts photovoltaic panels will account for 30 gigawatts of the 44 gigawatts of solar electricity generation by 2020, with 14 gigawatts coming from solar thermal power plants. Solar thermal farms deploy huge arrays of mirrors to heat liquids to create steam that drives electricity-generating turbines.

That might be a conservative estimate, if the California and federal officials’ rush to green light big solar projects in recent weeks is any indication. On Monday, for instance, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar approved a 1,000-megawatt solar thermal power plant to be built in the Southern California desert.

By year’s end, nearly four gigawatts of solar thermal projects are expected to be licensed. Just 10 gigawatts to go until 2020.

Solar City is a California-based startup company that offers its solar-related services to homeowners, businesses and government. “Install solar. Save money from day one. No upfront investment. And you have a predictable forecast of what your power costs will be for the next 20 years” is their selling proposition. The company’s customer base includes 10,000 homeowners, companies such as Intel and eBay, over 75 schools and universities, and government agencies. Solar City provides solar system financing, design, installation and monitoring.

Lyndon Rive is the CEO of Solar City, and his brother Peter Rive is its chief operating officer. They founded the company in 2006.

Solar City is one of many companies that allow lease of solar equipment; the others include SunRun and Sungevity. All are CA-based companies, and for good reason. According to Lyndon, over half of the estimated 80,000 US homes with rooftop solar are situated in the area covered by PG&E Corp., a solar-friendly utility company which has invested in both Solar City and SunRun.

Solar City does not see SunRun or Sungevity as big competition says Lydon. If anything, increase in solar on roofs, regardless of who installs it, should move the category forward. “Our primary competitor is the homeowner doing nothing,” he stated. “The market is not saturated.”

Very few homes have solar panels on their roofs due to many reasons. The average startup costs are around $30,000. Majority of people don’t know how to shop for panels at all. Who would they hire for installing these panels? What happens when the sun gets blocked? Or when the panels break?

Lydon and Peter focused on those adoption barriers when they started the company. According to Lydon, “Solar is a market that can really scale.” The focus of other companies was on manufacturing and researching new technologies, but none, in those days, was focusing on the mechanism for delivering the product on a big scale. Their vision was to develop the first national consumer-focused solar brand.

According to Lyndon, there were not really any models for brand that offers services for the home. Undeterred, they took the first steps in making rooftop solar as easy as possible.

So far, the company is operating in California, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and Oregon. They chose these five states because they have generous state subsidies, or ample sunlight, or high utility bills–ideally all of the three. Under the right circumstances, leasing of panels costs little or nothing upfront and the panels immediately help save 10% to 15% on utility bills.

Two announcements made recently by the company put a spotlight on it. Last month, Solar City announced that it got the contract for supplying thin-film solar panels to 20 to 30 Walmart stores in California and Arizona. Last week, the company said that homeowners will be able to lease energy efficiency products and services along with solar.

And impressive (but not gross) demonstration.

ATLANTA, Ind. — Indiana-based research firm, Inventive Research Co., announced that it has invented a new way to generate ac power from a solar panel without using costly dc-to-ac power conversion equipment. When commercialized, the company said its new AC Solar Generator could not only revolutionize how solar power is generated but also make it practical to input solar power into the grid system competitively and profitably.

Inventive Research’s Jason Oliver is credited with developing the patent-pending process to obtain and generate alternating current (ac) power directly from solar cells through the company’s AC Solar Generator, which works on the same principle as existing generators. Inventive Research said the new invention has caught the interest of several companies who would like to develop the product for large-scale use.

For Oliver’s ac solar process, solar cells are arrayed in a circular pattern. Above them is a spinning disc with slots that alternatively allow light to shine on the panels to produce an ac waveform. The resulting voltage produced is sinusoidal or ac that can be configured to three-phase power usable with the national power grid.

In addition to developing a method to successfully and consistently generate ac power, the researchers also developed and patented a sensing technology to match the phase of the power from the AC Solar Generator to the phase of the power grid.

Oliver believes the product can bring about substantial power savings during peak daylight hours. “Many years of research, testing, and ultimately successful application has brought about the very real possibility of affordable, clean, and renewable energy to our fingertips now.”

The AC Solar Generator is a candidate for General Electric’s 2010 Ecomagination Challenge, a competition that awards funding to projects designed to improve energy use.

Bosch Thermotechnology North America, a leading provider of high quality water heating and comfort heating systems for homes and businesses, announced today that it has launched a new consumer education website at http://bosch-climate.us.

The website features links to product information covering Bosch’s portfolio of residential and commercial solar thermal tankless water heaters, gas tankless water heaters, electric tankless water heaters and electric mini-tank water heaters.

Visitors to the site can explore an interactive Energy Efficient Home, learn about available tax credits and rebates and discover how Bosch’s patented tankless water heating condensing technology works to heat water up to 50 percent more efficiently than a traditional gas storage tank water heater while reducing NOx and CO2 emissions, making for a more sustainable world. Additionally, visitors can take advantage of the site’s Dynamic Sizing Calculator to determine the appropriate model tankless water heater for their needs. An insightful intellectual challenge awaits those ready to put their energy efficiency knowledge to the test by taking the site’s Energy Quiz.

“We wanted to create a site that really drove home the idea of becoming more energy efficient because for most consumers, the home is where it starts. Bosch offers a large variety of products and solutions that can improve the quality of life of consumers while becoming more energy efficient. This new website presents information on energy efficient Bosch products in a professional, entertaining and engaging way, proving that becoming more energy efficient doesn’t have to be hard work, and the return is not only great on your pocketbook, it’s great for the environment too,” says Nuno Fernandes, customer engagement and demand creation director, Bosch Thermotechnology. “Bosch tankless water heaters and Bosch solar thermal systems are among the highest quality and most reliable products in the industry and are backed by the strongest service organization in the industry. Our goal with this project was to design an industry-leading website to appropriately showcase our industry-leading products and services. ”

The site’s Support Center tab features a comprehensive suite of customer service materials ranging from product manuals, warranty information and technical support to a sophisticated new “Where to Buy” contractor look-up to quickly connect to a local installation professional.

Database and calculation portions of this new site where designed and are maintained by the MyPointNow.com network.

WASHINGTON — A major U.S. union is asking the Obama administration to crack down on various Chinese trade practices that it says are robbing American workers of jobs in the burgeoning field of clean energy such as solar and wind power.

The United Steelworkers union on Thursday filed a 5,800-page petition with the administration contending that China’s central and provincial governments are giving Chinese companies unfair advantages over American firms through the use of government subsidies that are prohibited under global trade rules.

Under U.S. law, the administration will have 45 days to decide whether to accept the petition and launch an investigation that could lead to cases being filed against China before the Geneva-based World Trade Organization.

The deadline for the administration to decide the case will occur just a little over a week before this year’s November congressional elections, a fact union officials hope will bring pressure on the administration to rule in its favor.

“We believe it is well beyond time that people started standing up to China’s illegal practices and started standing up for American workers,” Steelworkers president Leo W. Gerard told reporters during a conference call.

“Green jobs are key to our future. Right now, China is taking every possible step, many of them illegal under international trade laws, to ensure that it will control that sector,” Gerard said.

In its petition, the Steelworkers contended that the subsidies the Chinese government was providing to Chinese manufacturers of wind turbines, solar panels and other clean energy equipment violated WTO rules.

The union asked the administration to begin formal talks with China. If those talks fail to convince China to drop the contested government support, the union said the administration should file cases against China before the WTO.

The Steelworkers’ petition on clean energy comes at a time when the two countries are already fighting on a number of other trade fronts from Chinese tires to imported steel products.

The administration is also applying pressure to get Beijing to allow its currency to rise in value against the dollar as a way to reduce a yawning trade deficit, the largest with any country.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the deficit with China totals $145.4 billion through the first seven months of this year, 17.7 percent higher than the same period a year ago.

The rising deficit has produced increased calls from U.S. lawmakers for the administration to take a tougher approach with China on trade issues including China’s currency regime, which American manufacturers contend has kept the yuan undervalued by as much as 40 percent, giving Chinese companies a competitive advantage over U.S. firms.

Nefeterius McPherson, a spokeswoman for U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, said the administration would review the Steelworkers’ petition and make a decision on whether to begin an investigation within the 45 days provided by U.S. trade law.

Various lawmakers issued statements praising the Steelworkers and urging the administration to launch investigations.

“There is no question that China is ignoring trade rules so that it can cheat its way to first place in the clean-energy manufacturing race,” Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, said that a report prepared by his office showed that China’s exports of green energy products had surged to $27 billion in 2008, an increase of more than 500 percent since 2004.

“The adoption of clean energy technology provides the opportunity for the United States to be energy independent and support millions of new jobs, but this can only happen if the Obama administration effectively combat’s China’s unfair trade practices,” Wyden said in a statement.