SmartReads: Week of April 13
SmartReads is a weekly summary of all the latest clean energy and energy efficiency news. Send us your tips on Twitter using the hashtag #SmartReads.
CLEAN ENERGY
Huffington Post: America’s Pastime and Its Clean Energy Future – Baseball is back and the outfield has never looked so green! [April 10, 2012]
Yahoo! News: US grabs lead over China in clean energy race – The United States has regained the lead in the clean energy race, investing $48 billion last year to surpass China, which held the world’s top spending spot since 2009, said a study Wednesday. [April 11, 2012]
Pew Report: Global Clean Energy Investment a Record $263 Billion in 2011 – Global clean energy finance and investment grew to $263 billion in 2011, a 6.5 percent increase over the previous year, according to new research released by The Pew Charitable Trusts. [April 11, 2012]
Arizona Republic: Arizona’s solar energy plans vex military – A solar tower nearly twice the height of the Empire State building. Hundreds of spinning 200-foot-tall wind turbines. A 500-mile high-voltage power line from central New Mexico to southern Arizona. Those are among the projects the renewable-energy industry sees in Arizona’s future. [April 7, 2012]
SmartPlanet: How is the US Air Force adapting to renewable energy? – For fuel-consumptive industries, the shift to renewable energy can be an expensive process — one that requires extensive planning, investment, and occasionally battles in the political arena. [April 11, 2012]
The Guardian: Windfarms do not cause long-term damage to bird populations, study finds - A major new study has quashed fears that onshore windfarms are causing long-term damage to bird populations, but found new evidence that some species are harmed when windfarms are built. [April 12, 2012]
Bloomberg: Wind Power Seen Surging as Custom Barges Cut Set-up Costs – Offshore wind-power producers from Dong Energy A/S to RWE AG (RWE) are building custom ships at record rates to reduce the cost of the technology that’s three times as pricey as electricity from coal plants. [April 10, 2012]
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
New York Times: Real-Time Data to Reduce Electric Use – WHEN Max Dunn walks through his kitchen in San Jose, Calif., he often glances at the home energy monitor that sits on the countertop. The monitor resembles a car’s GPS device and connects wirelessly to the home’s power meter. [April 10, 2012]
Treehugger: How Smart Meters Transform Our Relationship to Energy - From a DIY remote to turn off any TV to the notion of outlawing standby buttons on electronics, we’ve seen plenty of novel ways to cut back on pointless use of energy. But how much do we actually spend on energy that is literally doing nothing for us? [April 6, 2012]
GAS PRICES
LA Times: Higher gas prices cause less public anger this time – Gas prices have soared about 15% in the last six months, hitting $3.94 a gallon on average nationwide, and $4.29 in California. [April 6, 2012]
