It may well be that someday a lot of people will be hired by state and local agencies to weatherize homes – and actually do the work – on the grand scale envisioned when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was signed into law, a year ago this month. But by the end of December, some 10 months after the stimulus bill was enacted, most aspiring cast members of The Greatest Weatherization Show on Earth were still waiting for callbacks.

Over the past few months, a flurry of news reports – some of which we’ve recapped on GBA – have highlighted states’ struggles to expand their programs, manage huge funding increases delivered by the stimulus bill, and sort through accompanying federal regulations, such as the imposition of the Davis-Bacon Act’s prevailing-wage requirement. Federal officials are now echoing the concerns raised in the news stories.

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GTM Research has released its “2010 North American Utility Smart Grid Deployment Survey”, a comprehensive analysis of the trends emerging in the US as utilities across the continent roll out smarter grids. The report shows that smart grids are no longer just a concept and are beginning to become critical to utilities’ business plans.

The 2010 North American Utility Smart Grid Deployment Survey draws on over 30 detailed smart-grid deployment questions posed to decision makers at more than 50 North American utilities. It provides critical insights about the near-term issues and longer-term plans for the developing smart grid market including: AMI and smart meter deployment schedules, priorities for building out a networked grid, utility deployment concerns, connecting smart grid networks to consumers, and the integration of renewables, storage and PHEVs.

“Many North American utility executives hold smart-grid initiatives as a very high priority,” said David J. Leeds, Smart Grid Analyst with GTM Research. “70% of survey respondents regard smart-grid projects as either a strong priority or the highest priority relative to their overall business plans between now and 2015.”

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GBI Research has published its “North America Renewable Energy Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2015” report giving an in-depth analysis of the North America renewable energy market and providing forecasts up to 2015. Offshore wind and photovoltaic solar are expected to perform well, although infrastructure bottlenecks and a skills shortage could hamper growth.

The report analyses the growth and evolution of the North America wind, solar and biopower markets up to 2008 and gives historical and forecast statistics for 2001-2015. This research looks at the market scenarios for these technologies and regulatory policies that govern them. Detailed information on key current and upcoming wind farms, photovoltaic (PV) solar parks and biopower production facilities give a roadmap to this market’s development. This coupled with elaborate company profiles of key market participants give a comprehensive understanding of the market’s competitive scenario.

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This week’s drop in natural gas prices below the $5 US per thousand cubic foot mark has spurred a lot of chatter of whether this price level is the new normal for North America.

The answer, according to EnCana chief executive Randy Eresman, is that prices are likely to sit in the $6 range and that expecting any big price jumps is unrealistic.

Eresman was participating in a panel discussion at the annual natural gas conference hosted by the Canadian Energy Research Institute on Tuesday.

The recent sell-off in natural gas is being explained as a reaction to recent weather forecasts showing a warming trend south of the border, which means the amount in storage will exit the winter heating season ahead of the same time last year. As of last week, the storage numbers of 2.02 trillion cubic feet were 1.3 per cent greater than at this time last year and 2.7 per cent higher than the five-year average.

The natural gas business in North America is facing an embarrassment of riches as a result of technology that has unlocked shale gas deposits. And while it presents some short-term challenges — especially for Canadian producers that are at an immediate disadvantage because of their distance to major markets, Eresman also believes there are opportunities to be had.

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By: Todd Woody

On the heels of San Francisco’s announcement last week that it plans to spend $150 million greening up homes, comes a new report that studies a slew of other innovative ways to finance energy efficiency improvements for all types of buildings.

It’s no big surprise that the key to ramping up the energy efficiency industry and fostering technological advances is no-money-down financing so building owners can avoid the capital costs of retrofits. And that’s exactly what the California Clean Energy Fund (CalCEF) is working toward.

Energy efficiency “immediately saves money for end-users, improves the bottom line for companies, reduces local exposure to electricity grid outages and offsets the need for new power plants,” wrote the authors of the report from the CalCEF, a non-profit venture capital outfit based in San Francisco. “Yet, efficiency upgrades and their respective financing options are often out of reach for most end-users, as the initial capital cost exceeds near-term savings.”

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