Jim Brumm: Long-Term Thinking for a Short-Sighted World

The Government of the province of Neuquén, Argentina, through its Agency for Investment Promotion and Development (Agencia de Promocion y Desarrollo de Inversiones – ADI-Nqn), has launched a Public Call to Investors interested in developing proposals for the award of an exploration contract to discover and produce endogenous steam in the areas of "MARIA VICTORIA" and "MAITENA" mines in Domuyo, both of which are property of the Agency.

The Mantra of the wind industry during the recent downturn in the market has been "back to basics." That is, focus on R&D and drive down costs.

Two years ago, GW-scale production facilities were considered a big deal. With more companies reaching the GW range, the next step is to get to multi-GW capacities. That's exactly what Neo Solar Power Corp. is doing in Taiwan.

The energy developer and project owner NextEra Energy Resources got the green light from the California Energy Commission (CEC) this week to build a $1 billion, 250 MW concentrating solar power plant in the state. It's the first time in 20 years that a project of its kind has gotten approval.

As more wind projects are developed closer to communities in densely populated areas, a number of homeowners within close range are complaining about noise. This often raises the question: "When does wind become an unacceptable source of noise pollution?"

Sharp Electronics Corporation (SEC) today announced that Eric Hafter has been named Senior Vice President of Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group (SESG), a division of SEC and the U.S. solar arm of Sharp Corporation. In this position, Mr. Hafter is responsible for all U.S. sales and marketing of Sharp's solar energy products and solutions. Mr. Hafter reports to Mr. Kozo Takahashi, Chairman and CEO of Sharp Electronics Corporation.

KACO new energy is excited to announce that they have shipped over 650 MW of PV inverters within the first 6 months of 2010. This has pushed the company's overall production of PV inverters to over 2 GW of sold inverters worldwide. Market forecasts world wide confirm and KACO is expecting this exponential growth to continue throughout 2010 into 2011.

This week saw two major partnerships between large energy companies and smaller cellulosic biofuel producers.

On Tuesday the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision to launch a new renewable incentive program designed to drive mid-sized renewable energy development. This next-generation feed-in tariff program will require investor-owned California utilities to purchase electricity from renewable energy systems between 1 and 20 MW in size.

Stand and be counted! The Solar Foundation is putting together a census for the solar industry. The purpose is to get a good handle on how many jobs the U.S. have been created in solar PV, solar thermal and CSP. This is your last chance to get included in the count.

A new government study shows that Americans are using less energy overall and making more use of renewable energy resources.

In the wind-swept desert of northern Nevada, U.S. Geothermal Inc. has set out to rebuild and nearly triple the output of an obsolete 3.6 MW (net) binary power plant, then add a new facility that will increase total production to 35 MW.

Houston, TX – August 25, 2010 - The first Texas Offshore Wind Energy Roundtable (TOWER) Conference and the Offshore Wind Law (OWL) Conference have caught the attention of key offshore wind energy companies. E.ON Climate and Renewables Europe, SIEMENS, Hochtief and Siag have confirmed their participation in the conference.

An international wind consultancy and MEASNET accredited laboratory that played a major role in building Spain's vibrant renewable energy economy is using Second Wind's Triton® remote sensing systems to carry out wind resource assessment of sites in Spain and Romania.