Relevant

Scott Sheely, liaison from the Workforce Investment Board to the Center for Excellence in Renewable Energy also spoke about training funds the Board recently received.  Sheely asked the fifty-six attendees to suggest topics for training that could be subsidized, and the audience suggested  energy audits, use of sensors, behavioral aspects of conservation, planning around sustainable communities, credentialed training for trades people, best practices tours, and youth programming.  The WIB staff will be working on a schedule for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011.

This breakfast series invites people representing area businesses working in renewable energy as well as local, county, state and federal agencies and elected officials, educational institutions, financial institutions and representatives of business associations.  The primary mission of the Center involves supporting education regarding energy conservation and energy options; encouraging collaboration among area companies to conserve, buy, and sell energy; and sponsoring technology transfer to encourage renewable energy generation projects. 

The next Renewable Energy Breakfast will be on October 19, 2010 at 7:30am at the Farm and Home Center and will be followed with a tour of renewable energy sites. 

Freeing our economy from its dangerous addiction to fossil fuels and averting the calamitous risks of climate change will require a major technological transformation in the way we produce, transmit, and consume energy. Inventing, developing, building, and deploying these new technologies will require a new era of American technological innovation. The result will be new industries and jobs, along with more clean energy and less pollution.

The good news is that we know that innovation is a fundamental driver of economic growth, and America has led the world in innovation for the past two centuries—from the mechanization of textile manufacturing in the late 18th century to the invention of the Internet in the late 20th century. Innovation is America’s first and greatest competitive advantage—or, as President Obama said “it’s in our DNA.” Twenty-first century clean energy technologies are already being designed, built, marketed, and installed to replace more than a century’s worth of entrenched fossil fuel infrastructure, and a recent report by the Department of Commerce indicates that there are nearly 2 million clean energy jobs in our economy today, with more on the way.

(In NewNet on June 9, 2010): Hydropower is the world’s largest renewable source of power generation, accounting for around 20 per cent of global electricity supply, a new report said.  The world’s installed capacity of hydropower increased to 888.8GW in 2009 from 695.8GW in 2001, registering a compound annual growth rate of 3.1 per cent, new figures in Global Data’s Global Small Hydro Power Market Analysis and Forecasts to 2020 showed.  Cumulative additional installed capacity of small hydropower is expected to reach 140GW in 2015 and 201GW in 2020, it forecasted.

Annual installed capacity surged during 2004 mainly due to the rise in new installations in China. In addition, rising interest in the sector has led to increased government support policies which will derive installations in many countries.