May 30, 2008

When Al Zeits started a wind energy technology program at an Iowa community college in 2004, he optimistically expected 12 to 15 students per year to supply trained workers for a burgeoning local industry. He was off. In the current term, 60 students are enrolled and for fall 2008, he's expecting 90 students in the two-year program. Even so, the wind industry is still wondering if it will have enough qualified workers to operate and maintain -- let alone build -- dozens of projects from coast to coast.

And that's just one sliver of the overall utility industry that many characterize as in crisis mode because of its rapidly aging workforce. Utilities are trying to replace a workforce that could shrink by half through retirements over the next decade while simultaneously entering a boom phase in building needed generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. The acute labor shortage is recognized throughout the industry, which has led to innovative training and recruitment programs that enlist not just utilities and community colleges, but labor unions, government agencies and community-based organizations from coast-to-coast.

May 28, 2008

Brenda Boultwood, the chief risk officer at Constellation Energy, had watched closely the Federal Reserve as it bailed out Bear Stearns by approving a $30 billion credit line to JPMorgan Chase. Prior to its collapse, Boultwood and the credit team at Constellation Energy, based in Baltimore, Md., had gotten reliable information that Bear Stearns was facing liquidity issues and it had therefore restricted its trades.

"We're looking more broadly at who could be next," says Boultwood. "Despite assurances from the head of the Federal Reserve Board that financial firms won't fail, Constellation must conduct due diligence and monitor its exposure to each financial service trader."

May 23, 2008

Some utilities are going full steam ahead. They are going after rail carriers, saying that those enterprises are exploiting their market power and causing captive shippers to pay inflated prices.

As such, utility associations and coal operators say that railroads' exemptions from federal antitrust laws must be deleted. While they have strong support, those interest groups face an uphill fight. Rail transportation is gaining appeal from those who say its energy and environmental advantages are the wave of the future.

May 21, 2008

California's dream is to host a carbon-free power plant. By 2011, the 50-megawatt facility would use natural gas or synthetic gas made from coal and subsequently re-inject all heat trapping emissions more than one mile underground.

It's all part of a new public-private initiative set forth by the Bush administration to reinvigorate its clean coal push -- especially in the wake of the demise of FutureGen, which was to be the world's first zero-emissions power plant that could bury carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. The U.S. Department of Energy has just said it will invest at least $1.3 billion in various carbon sequestration technologies.

May 19, 2008

One does not often feel present at the launch of something civilization changing. Electricity was in the air at the recent Washington International Renewable Energy Conference, which attracted a swarm of more than 8,600 energy entrepreneurs, government officials and academics from around the world. The first such gathering was a German government-sponsored meeting in Bonn four years ago that attracted 1,200. In late 2005, the Chinese government held an event that drew 800 people.

Washington's taxi drivers sensed something big was up. One asked me what I knew about wind turbines, since his brother in Kenya wants to sell them. Another cabby wanted to know if plug-in hybrid vehicles were on display at WIREC -- they were -- because he was tired of being mugged at the gas pump.