Synopsis: Energy:

#Top 10 States for Clean energy Job Announcements Top 10 States for Clean energy Job Announcements Last Year:

California, Texas, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, New york, Missouri WASHINGTON (March 12, 2014) More than 78,600 clean energy and clean transportation jobs were announced in 2013 at 260

Solar power generation was the year top sector with more than 21,600 jobs announced. Other strong sectors included building efficiency and public transportation.

This is the second full year that E2 has tracked clean energy and clean transportation job announcements. Over the past two years combined, E2 has tracked more than 500 announcements that could create more than 186,500 jobs.

When we invest in clean energy and clean transportation, we put people to work in every corner of the country.

Whether it a new wind farm in Iowa an energy efficiency retrofit in Massachusetts, or a utility-scale solar array in Nevada, these projects require American ingenuity and labor.

The sector is helping stimulate our economy, said E2 Executive director Judith Albert. Last year job announcements were about 30 percent lower than in 2012.

clean energy job growth also faced economic headwinds in 2013. These headwinds came from the continued low cost of natural gas,

as well as attempts by renewable energy opponents to block or roll back favorable policies at the federal level and in numerous states. s a business owner,

I see a strong need for long-term policies that can stimulate private investment in clean energy and energy efficiency.

Here a closer look at some clean energy and clean transportation announcements in 2013:**In California, the California Ethanol and Power Project will produce 66 million gallons of ethanol annually from sugar cane and sweet sorghum.

The company has a growing customer base for its energy saving thermostat. The announcement came from Rep. Lloyd Doggett district near Austin.*

*In New jersey, Trinity Solar LLC installed solar panels at housing units at Joint Military Base Mcguire-Dix-Lakehurst in Burlington County,

Clean energy is an increasingly common presence on military bases nationwide. Looking ahead, clean energy and clean transportation job growth could see an uptick in 2014

if Congress reinstates critical tax policies such as the wind industry production tax credit (PTC) and several energy efficiency tax incentives.

Congress let these tax incentives expire at the end of 2013. Clean energy jobs also could benefit from the rollout of the first-ever limits on carbon pollution from power plants

as well as from other elements of President Obama climate change initiative. CONTACT: Ailis Wolf at (703) 276-3265, aawolf@hastingsgroup. com;

#GE Makes A Wind turbine Especially For Japan Generous solar power feed in tariffs have driven a boom in installations in the last year

and solar cools off wind power might find a new opening in the Japanese market. This is the speculation from industry players in a new Japan Times article looking at wind power in Japan.

GE sure seems to be positioning itself for opportunities in Japan introducing what it calls the. 85-103 wind turbine for Japan.

That right Japan gets its own wind turbine. GE says the 2. 85-103 comes with enhanced tower engineered for Japanese environmental conditions including seismic and extreme wind events as required by Japanese construction and building codes.

image via GE) What is it about Japan that it requires a specially designed wind turbine?

GE explains: GE 2. 85-103 wind turbine is engineered specifically for Japanese environmental conditions and is able to withstand higher turbulence areas typhoon class extreme wind speeds

and lightning beyond the current IEC standard. The 2. 85-103 for Japan includes the Japanese requirements for lightning protection across all Japanese regions

Japan installed wind power capacity inched up steadily during the 0s with 200 to 300 megawatts going in each year.

Cleveland-based quasar energy group uses organic waste to produce a renewable energy source known as biogas which is converted then into Compressed natural gas (CNG) one of two fuels that can power the 2015 Chevrolet Bi-fuel Impala.

For instance its Columbus Ohio Renewable energy Facility processes up to 25000 wet tons of biosolids from the City of Columbus Department of Public utilities for wastewater.

while reducing greenhouse gas emissions everybody winssaid Mel Kurtz president of quasar energy group. uasar Columbus facility can produce 1. 3 million gasoline gallon equivalents of CNG each year. hat

More information on Chevrolet models can be found at www. chevrolet. com. quasar is a Cleveland Ohio based renewable energy company that designs builds owns

and 120-volt charging options that allow it to charge nearly three times faster meaning less than three hours for plug-in hybrids and less than six hours for full battery electrics.

plug-in hybrid electric buses that use rechargeable batteries to run on both electricity and diesel, battery electric buses that do not use any diesel fuel

and create no tailpipe emissions, or fuel cell buses powered by hydrogen. Benefits of commuting on electricity Though electric buses are not newhe first was introduced in Berlin in 1882lder models frequently required wires to hang over each bus route, marking bus paths through city streets.

Growing up in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I remember hearing loud pops as sparks flew from an intersection of overhead electric bus wires near my bedroom.

Today however, electric buses are being developed that do not require any overhead wires. Instead, they are powered by lithium-ion

or iron-phosphate batteries that can be recharged from central stations prior to beginning each route or by hydrogen-powered fuel cells.

Volvo claims its plug-in hybrid buses can operate on electricity alone more than two-thirds of the time,

Better yet, battery electric and fuel cell buses produce zero tailpipe emissions, and can use renewable resources like solar

and wind power to charge their batteries or produce hydrogen to power fuel cells. Moreover, as Ie previously mentioned, driving on electricity is compared cheaper to driving on oil.

The expected operating cost-per-mile of an electric bus in New york is $0. 20 to $0. 30 cents,

No wonder why companies like Volvo and BYD are beginning to take advantage of the many reasons why cities are shifting bus fleets to rely on electricity instead of diesel.

or fuel cell buses still have a ways to go to reach commercial scale, state and federal policies are helping the transition to cleaner bus fleets.

and the Federal Transit Administration has provided $13. 6 million for eight projects to advance the commercialization of American-made fuel cell buses. These incentives are important for helping further develop electric bus technology by reducing the upfront costs that remain a barrier

to the widespread adoption of electric and fuel cell buses. California, a usual suspect in the race for investing in clean transportation,

Developing additional policy levers on the state and federal level can help take battery electric and fuel cell buses beyond pilot programs and onto city streets near you.

(and get involved yourself) by discovering why driving on electricity is a part of the UCS plan to alf the Oil.

and their energy bills add up to $22 billion a year. This is a sector that doesn get a lot of attention

ousing industry studies have projected that multifamily properties can become 30 percent more efficient by 2020 unlocking $9 billion in energy savings

said Transportation secretary Anthony Foxx in a statement. e are proud to initiate a new program that reflects the Obama Administration commitment to reducing our nation dependence on oil while developing more sustainable sources of energy here at home.

A previous example of this was the National Fuel cell Bus Program, which invested in the research, development and testing of alternative fuels and related equipment,

and deployment projects to reduce the cost of fuel cells for transit use. In the push for no emissions buses, a few benefits are seen as being possible.

According to the National Renewable energy Laboratory, zero emission buses can achieve more than double the fuel economy of buses running on diesel and other fuels l

#State Leadership In Financing A Greener Future While crippling paralysis has become standard operating procedure for Congress in the face of mounting climate and energy challenges,

and less-polluting domestic clean energy infrastructure. Notably, in 2013, the state of New york set the foundation for a $1 billion state green bank to support private investment in New york clean energy economy.

In December 2013, Gov. Cuomo announced an initial capitalization of $210 million to fund the bank launch in early 2014.

The New york Green Bank is launching at a time of mounting evidence of the direct negative impacts of climate change on the nation environment, economy, and energy infrastructure.

and low-carbon energy infrastructure. At the same time, new clean energy technologies are distinctly ready to meet this challenge, but bringing these technologies to scaled deployment across the economy is contingent on having ready access to capital and strong market structures to support new investment.

In recent years the clean energy sector has demonstrated dynamic growth. U s. solar power capacity, for instance, recently surpassed 10 gigawatts as the price of solar panels has fallen some 75 percent during the past five years

and continues to drop. Furthermore, America largest source of new electrical capacity in 2012 came from wind power,

lifting the total U s. wind capacity to more than 60 gigawatts. These successes are spurring new private-sector attention to the opportunities for clean technology.

The leadership of individual states to utilize their financing authorities to improve access to credit

and better manage financial risk is a bright spot in advancing the development of a clean energy economy powered by a modernized and climate-resilient electricity infrastructure.

one of the primary hurdles to bringing new clean energy technology to market remains the availability of the affordable capital needed to move great ideas from the research

Advanced energy technologies are forced to compete with well-established and historically government-subsidized conventional energy industries for limited available capital.

This competition creates an artificially inflated perception of risk, which can strand innovative business models and new technologies in

These financial institutions are some of the most powerful tools for mobilizing new sources of public and private capital into emerging and necessary clean energy projects.

and predictability to investors by ensuring reliable access to efficiently priced and long-term sources of credit to finance publically beneficial, clean energy infrastructure.

and systematically marshal public credit supports to build emerging clean energy markets. In the United states the Connecticut Clean energy Finance and Investment Authority is building a strong track record of success,

while Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California are also establishing similar clean energy financing entities. These emerging green banks also draw on the experiences of infrastructure banks employed in California, Puerto rico, British columbia,

and elsewhere to finance the construction of bridges, roads, transit, and other public facilities. Current state of clean energy financing programs Connecticut The New york Green Bank will join the Connecticut Clean energy Finance and Investment Authority,

or CEFIA, in paving the way for the successful implementation of state green banks and public,

state-level, clean energy financing. Established in 2011, CEFIA featured an initial capitalization of $48 million to provide broad credit support to Connecticut clean energy projects and companies.

CEFIA supports the development of Connecticut clean energy industry through a combination of grants, loans, and other credit supports,

as well as educational programs for businesses and homeowners. These programs include lending for residential solar electricity and hot-water systems,

deep energy efficiency retrofit loans through the Property Assessed Clean energy, or PACE, program for commercial and multifamily buildings,

and a competitive grant program for micro-grids. In 2013 CEFIA used $40 million to attract more than $180 million of private investment f

This investment supported almost 30 megawats of new clean energy and savings of 9, 000 MMBTU of energy per year.

which authorized $100 million in bonds to finance a renewable energy loan fund that can provide low-cost financing for homeowners

and businesses to invest in solar panels and other clean energy projects. The loans, which are designed to offset the upfront cost of photovoltaic systems,

can be paid back through on-bill financing, a payment plan that allows homeowners to pay back the loans through a premium on their utility bills.

The California Alternative energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority, orcaeatfa, and the California Pollution control Financing Authority, or CPCFA.

These programs have issued more than $13 billion in tax-exempt bonds to finance low-cost loans for energy-efficiency improvements and tax incentives for clean energy manufacturing.

Such a bank would further augment California ambitious support for a robust clean energy industry and would represent an efficient use of funds already designated to reduce California emissions.

Massachusetts In 2009, Massachusetts established the Massachusetts Clean energy Center, or Masscec, which invests in early stage clean energy companies and renewable energy projects.

Masscecalso provides financing tools to municipalities, homeowners, and businesses in the form of loans, rebates, and grants.

Masscec programs have helped support the growth of Massachusetts clean energy industry, with an 11.8 percent increase in clean energy jobs from 2012 to 2013.

The most likely projects for WCX are new development and the retrofit of the region electricity grids and water infrastructure.

but underutilized tools because they attack the very heart of the challenges currently facing renewable energy and energy efficiency in capital markets.

These financial institutions can specifically target some of the most significant and persistent market barriers that have served to slow the development and deployment of new clean energy technologies.

green banks can employ improved mechanisms to flexibly facilitate the aggregation, credit enhancement, andsecuritization of renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects.

By doing so, states can significantly improve the function and structure of their clean energy markets.

Aggregation State green banks should focus on mechanisms that allow the aggregation of decentralized investments across energy and real estate markets.

Currently, the volume and project size of clean energy transactions are often too small and decentralized to attract private capital efficiently into the market.

decreasing investment and establishing a vicious cycle that suppresses clean energy deployment. By serving as a warehouse for energy-efficiency and renewable energy loansnd by providing a clear point of entry into the market for customers

investors, and project developersreen banks can play a critically important function in beginning to build volume,

and achieve scale across statesclean energy markets and within the emerging industries. In addition, green banks should be allowed flexibility to experiment with policy designs

Credit enhancement A key principle of green banks is that they use public dollars strategically to reduce perceived risks for private investors in undertaking investments in clean energy projects.

however, must be driven by the needs of different energy technologies, market segments, target investors, or beneficiary populations within the state,

Securitization Green banks can add great value to a state renewable energy and energy-efficiency market by facilitating the securitization of these asset-backed investments.

and origination of specific clean energy projects and the scaled institutional investment in pooled financial products. The current inability of project developers to efficiently access institutional capital in the secondary market limits the liquidity of investments

green banks will greatly support the development of clean energy projects across states and will positively impact the cost of clean energy development by offering real consumer protection for ratepayers,

while expanding the deployment of renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects. A key design principle of any proposed green bank is that it is structured to increase private-sector participation in the market for clean energy project financing.

This will gradually reduce the need for public subsidy as the market achieves maturity and commercial scale.

Rather than crowding out participation of private financial institutions, a green bank should use carefully targeted inducements to leverage greater private investment

Through green banks, these strategies can be employed to meet the specific challenges of clean energy deployment and market transformation.

and 25 states haveeers mechanisms to promote clean energy development. Green banks can act as powerful accelerants of these important policies by facilitating the availability of the capital necessary to finance the costs of meeting these goals

Green banks can enhance the predictability and stability of renewable energy and energy-efficiency markets and, if properly administered

otherwise be unavailable for clean energy investments. Furthermore because green banks are designed to recycle the proceeds from these transactions,

accelerating the maturation of state clean energy markets, and helping the nation as a whole move toward a transformed, clean energy economy.

Conclusion With the initial capitalization of the New york Green Bank, New york has launched a dynamic tool that,

which will continue to invest in clean energy projects and promote overall economic growth long after the Obama administration tenure.

as well as sound energy policy, and it will benefit New york ratepayers and taxpayers as it improves environmental and community health.

and expanding clean energy markets that meet the needs of a vibrant and growing economy. As clean energy technologies continue to demonstrate their growing competitiveness

they will require access to sufficient streams of affordable capital for successful commercialization. This trend is already underway through new investments in public solar companiesand auto companiesrenewed focus on clean technologies.

Green banks are the right tools to leverage the private financing necessary to bring these technologies to wide-scale commercialization and support their competition within energy markets.

America and the rest of the world are facing vast climate and energy challenges. State green banks are a uniquely flexible solution that can operate at the scale of this challenge to accelerate the development and deployment of next-generation technology and infrastructure that is clean

As our country faces the growing danger of extreme weather and climate change, it is all too clear that investment in state of the-art-the art clean energy infrastructure is essential for the continued strength of the U s. economy.

#Implants And Powering Them From Within Your heart expends half a joule of energy every time it beats.

Before every contraction, the potential energy trapped in chemical bonds within cardiac muscle cells is released and converted into the mechanical power of the heartbeat.

But, like all energy, that which is harnessed to power the heart is destroyed never; it just changes form as it radiates away from the organ as heat and vibrations of surrounding tissue and fluid.

Now, a science team has announced a breakthrough in harvesting the energy released from the movement of the beating heart,

Theye developed a superthin device that can be attached to an organ to generate electricity from its movements.

The tiny device is already within the range of generating enough electricity to power a pacemaker on its own,

a coauthor of the study that was published on Jan 20 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. he thing about cardiac pacemakers is that they are operated currently battery

a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign materials science and engineering professor. hen the battery runs out, you need to have surgery to replace it.

When the piezoelectric material flexes due to contraction and relaxation of the organ to which it is affixed,

it generates electrical energy from the movement. Because organ movements occur as pulses, the team had to include energy storage in their creation

so that electricity could be delivered continually. They accomplished this by building in a tiny chip-scale

commercially available battery into the device. Thin, flexible mechanical energy harvester, with rectifier and microbattery, mounted on the bovine heart.

Courtesy University of Illinois/University of Arizona. Thin, flexible mechanical energy harvester, with rectifier and microbattery, mounted on the bovine heart.

The team found through testing that their system could deliver 0. 2 microwatts per square centimeter of stable electricity over 20 million cycles.

or without batteries. ur ultimate goal is to replace the battery of an implant altogether,

ut even extending the life of the implant own battery is useful. They grew rat smooth muscle cells on their prototypes to determine that the materials were not toxic.

Their system converts mechanical to electrical energy at about two percent efficiency, a number that Rogers says is need based on the not to interfere with the target organ natural operation.

both inside and outside the human body. ardiac and lung motions, in particular, serve as inexhaustible sources of energy during the lifespan of a patient,

The potential to eliminate batteries or, at least, the need to replace them frequently represents a source of motivation for continued work in these and related directions. e

automatically recovering energy that delivered to the batteries as electricity. Unique to the ELR extended range electric vehicle, Regen on Demand also allows a driver to instantaneously engage

This not only creates electricity on demand, but enhances driving dynamics by inducing regen drag that allows decelerating before turns and in other circumstances,

Mazda i-ELOOP brake energy regeneration system; Porsche plug-in hybrid powertrain; and Ram Truck 3. 0-liter Ecodiesel engine D

Network Rail said that at peak output the system could provide as much as half the station electricity needs

For comparison utility-scale solar arrays in the sun-drenched U s. Southwest deliver more than 25 percent capacity factors p

#MIT Turns Up The Heat On Solar PV You might think that fewer steps in the process of turning sunlight into electricity would be the most efficient way to go.

But that not the case with a new technique from MIT researchers, who added a layer of complexity to solar power

in order to make use of a wider range of the sun energy. The work here is in the solar realm known as thermophotovoltaics,

where PV cells are coupled with heat sources, seen as a possible path to bust through the efficiency limit inherent in photovoltaics,

generally thought to be 33.7 percent. In a new paper, the MIT researchers haven done that,

but they say theye made a breakthrough that could take thermophotovoltaics far beyond where it gone before. mit thermophotovoltaics MIT nanophotonic solar thermophotovoltaic device, with an array of multialled carbon nanotubes as the absorber, a oneimensional silicon/silicon dioxide photonic crystal as the emitter

, and a photovoltaic cell. image via MIT/John Freidah) Here how MIT outlines the development:(T) he team inserted a two-layer absorber-emitter device made of novel materials including carbon nanotubes and photonic crystals between the sunlight and the PV cell.

This intermediate material collects energy from a broad spectrum of sunlight, heating up in the process.

which very efficiently absorbs the light energy and turns it to heat. This layer is bonded tightly to a layer of a photonic crystal,

ensuring that most of the energy collected by the absorber is turned then into electricity. Now, the MIT device is only at about 3. 2 percent efficiency a big jump over the less than 1 percent STPV devices that have been seen before

and they point to advantages that thermophotovoltaics could have over PV: The new solar thermophotovoltaic systems, they say,

could provide efficiency because of their broadband absorption of sunlight; scalability and compactness, because they are based on existing chip-manufacturing technology;

and ease of energy storage, because of their reliance on heat. That last point is particularly fascinating,

on the idea that storing heat is a less tricky business than storing electricity. By the way, this isn the first foray into thermophotovoltaics at MIT that wee reported on.

See our earlier story on a technique that one expert said could lead to miniature power supplies and lighter portable electronics e

#Zero Net Energy Building Movement Is Taking Off Zero net energy, once a wild-eyed, seemingly unattainable vision, isn exactly mainstream,

Zero net energy buildings are defined as those that generate as much power from onsite energy sources as they consume,

as it had in 2012 the NBI also counted up zero net energy buildings that hadn yet put in the full year of performance required,

ZNE buildings use only a quarter of the energy of average buildings. Measured energy consumption of the ZNE buildings is only about one-quarter of the average commercial building energy use today.

The average verified Energy use Index (EUI) 4 of these buildings is 21 kbtu/sf/yr. Among other key findings in the NBI report:

ZNE districts are a growing trend, with 18 identified; private sector ZNE development is climbing,

and therefore conserve energy that is otherwise lost through internal friction which helps to reduce rolling resistance.

and the China Automotive technology and Research center will work together to help speed the commercialization of plug-in and fuel cell electric cars in China and the U s. under an agreement signed Sept. 6 in Tianjin, China.

Primary UC Davis partners are the Institute of Transportation Studies and the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy.

and energy companies will also be invited to participate. The memorandum of understanding was signed during the 2014 International Forum on Chinese Automotive industry Development. iven the great importance the Chinese government now attaches to the development and commercialization of new energy vehicles

the establishment of the Policy Lab is extremely timely, Gang Li, the department chief in charge of vehicles at NDRC said at the ceremony. s a platform for Sino-U s. exchanges and cooperation in the field of new energy vehicle policies,

I believe that the Policy Lab will play an important role in promoting EV-related policy design and EV development in both countries.

and policy initiatives that will bring new energy vehicles to market not only in China and the United states,

about the new initiative. e commend China for its commitment to further reduce emissions by greatly expanding the purchase of battery electric and fuel cell powered vehicles.

Yunshi Wang, director of the China Center for Energy and Transportation at ITS-Davis, signed the agreement in Tianjin on behalf of ITS-Davis, the UC Davis Policy Institute,

and the Plug-in Hybrid & Electric vehicle Research center at ITS-Davis. The lab will be led by ITS-Daviswang and CATARC executive in charge of new energy vehicles, Deputy Director Zhixin Wu.

ITS-Davis established the China Center for Energy and Transportation in partnership with leading Chinese universities.

and transportation sector energy issues and is the only Chinese research center on transportation and energy in North america.

C-CET is a two-way learning and research center facilitating study and research in China for U s. graduate students and faculty,

and timely information and analysis to inform better energy and environmental policy. The PH&EV Research center At ITS-Davis collaborates closely with California utilities, the Electric power Research Institute, automakers,

and other research institutions on research aimed at developing a sustainable market for plug-in vehicles.

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