July 11, 2008

America's energy policy is at the center of the presidential contest. The debate has escalated into a war of words now that President Bush is pushing Congress to pass recently introduced legislation that would lift the ban on offshore drilling.

The comments have ignited a long-standing feud between conservatives and liberals who generally hold different views on how to end this country's dependence on foreign oil as well as how to approach environmental policies. Republicans want to work with those states that favor increased oil and gas production to enact policies that would allow drilling in areas that are at least 100 miles offshore - a cause repubiated by leading Democrats who say that such policies capitulate to big industry.

Posted: Tuesday, 08 July 2008 3:21PM

Rochester Hills-based Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: ENER) said Tuesday that its Uni-Solar thin-film flexible solar laminates will power the world's largest rooftop solar power system.

The 12-megawatt system is being installed on GM's assembly plant in Zaragoza, Spain and will become operational in the fall of 2008. ECD will supply the solar laminates through its subsidiary United Solar Ovonic LLC.

July 9, 2008

Summer is here and the mercury is rising. It's not just the heat. It's also the level of harmful pollutants and specifically mercury.

Mercury is an insidious villain, creating dangers for local ecosystems and any small children and pregnant women who might eat contaminated fish. Technologies will improve and utilities will respond. But the attention given to mercury emissions now has prompted many such companies to implement best available technologies at their power plants - tools that have the potential to cut such pollutants by 50-90 percent.

July 7, 2008

Energy prices may be going through the roof. But some plans to add capacity by building liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities are being driven under.

Will those efforts thwart America's attempt to expand its energy arsenal? Global markets for LNG are escalating, necessitating more investment in production, transportation and re-gasification. The industry is attracting billions from top tier players that weigh their investment decisions. Risks abound. But the overwhelming demand for new natural gas supplies appears to trump other considerations.

July 3, 2008

Below are a few letters we received on topics that appeared in the past few weeks. They capture the essence of how many readers say they feel.

July 2, 2008

Utilities are now in the heat of battle. While they would like to maximize their sales, they must now persuade their customers to save energy. It's a quest that will help defer investments in expensive and contentious infrastructure and in doing so, prevent the release of some harmful emissions.

Instead of investing millions in power plants to meet the 100 or so hours a year when energy demand is highest, utilities are turning to their customers to reduce energy usage during these peak hours. Demand response is giving commercial and industrial concerns more insight into the energy that their facilities consume. By knowing this, they can consume power during those times that are most favorable to the utilities' rate structure.

Energy Efficiency Boom Makes Big Impact on U.S. Efficiency and Creates Jobs, But Remains a Relatively Untapped Resource

It's the U.S. energy boom that no one knows about: Energy efficiency may be the farthest-reaching, least-polluting, and fastest-growing energy success story of the last 50 years. But it also is the most invisible, the least understood, and in serious danger of missing out on needed future investments.

In the first attempt to quantify the overall impact of the hidden U.S. energy efficiency boom, a major new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) shows that U.S. energy consumption (as measured per dollar of economic output) will have been slashed by the end of 2008 to half of what it was in 1970.