New York City’s iconic Empire State Building, once the world’s tallest building, has been undergoing a multi-million dollar green renovation that will now extend to the power that’s used by the 102-story Art deco landmark’s tenants.

Malkin Holdings, which operates and maintains the 2.85 million square-foot office building has announced it will buy 100 percent of its power from a wind farm owned by Green Mountain Energy Company.

“It was a natural fit for us to combine 100 percent clean energy with our nearly completed, groundbreaking energy efficiency retrofit work,” said Anthony E. Malkin, President of Malkin Holdings, which runs the building, said in the announcement.

“Clean energy and our nearly 40% reduced consumption of watts and BTUs gives us a competitive advantage in attracting the best credit tenants at the best rents,” he said.

The two-year contract for 55 million kWh of renewable energy annually will prevent nearly 100 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions each year, the firm said.

(more…)

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.

(more…)

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.”

(more…)

International Energy Agency (IEA) calculations based on preliminary data show that China has now overtaken the U.S. to become the world’s largest energy user.

China’s rise to the top ranking was faster than expected as, according to the IEA, it was much less affected by the global financial crisis than the U.S.

For those who have been following energy consumption trends closely, this does not come as a surprise. What is more important is the phenomenal growth in demand that has taken place in China over the last decade; also prospects for future growth still remain incredibly strong. Since 2000, China’s energy demand has doubled, yet on a per capita basis it is still only around one-third of the OECD average.

Prospects for further growth are very strong considering the country’s low per-capita consumption level and the fact that China is the most populous nation on the planet, with more than 1.3 billion people.

China’s demand today would be even higher still if the Government had not made such progress in reducing the energy intensity (the energy input per dollar of output) of its economy. It has also very quickly become one of the world’s leaders in renewable energy, particularly wind power and solar energy, and paved the way for a big expansion of nuclear power.

The worldwide implications of these new trends will be assessed in the upcoming World Energy Outlook 2010 to be released on 9 November 2010

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.