September 16, 2009

Solar panels have never been cheaper. But that development may not be welcome news for the industry unless it is able to sell more units.

While it's all generally good for consumers who will see the cost of installing solar at their homes fall dramatically, it's potentially troubling for solar manufacturers that have excess inventories. Altogether, solar system installation prices have dropped by 50 percent from a year ago and mostly because of unsold systems.

September 14, 2009

With the prevailing emphasis on reducing carbon emissions, natural gas producers could become more instrumental in developing national energy policy. But the industry must still demonstrate that it can safely produce and deliver its product.

For starters, natural gas developers have been fighting for increased access to natural gas deposits that have long been off-limits to production. Getting newfound rights remains tough and especially in today's economy, particularly as the nation's natural gas storage limits are getting maxed out and the product is literally getting dumped onto markets at the cheapest prices in a decade.

Beyond that, the coal industry has a ton of political power, as evidenced by the waivers -- and federal dollars -- it received in the recently passed House energy bill. In the area of power plant generation, coal is still king and natural gas must compete with it.

September 11, 2009

A new government study is likely to give the Obama administration more fire power when it comes to enacting tougher mercury emission controls. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have found the toxic substance in every one of the 291 fish they analyzed with more than a quarter of those having dangerous contamination levels.

The survey, which has been underway for about 10 years and before the Obamas moved to Washington, has been released by the new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would consider enacting mandatory, drastic mercury cuts. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has started the regulatory process whereby mercury releases from some coal-fired power plants would have to be reduced by as much as 90 percent.

Michigan GREEN (Group for a Renewable Energy Efficient Nation) and Dell, Inc. announce a tree planting event to complement the recent sale of 4,000 Dell computers to the state of Michigan.  Students from Alto, Bushnell, Cherry Creek, and Murray Lake Elementary Schools will vie for the honor of planting 1,000 red and white oak and sugar maple saplings at the Wittenbach/Wege Agriscience and Environmental Education Center  and the adjacent Wege Natural Area in Lowell.

September 09, 2009

Wind power's potential could be improved if developers had better forecasting tools. Knowing about when, where and how fast the wind blows is one thing. But being able to more accurately make those assessments is clearly a cut above.

As it stands now, if the estimates are off and the wind takes a hiatus, utilities must crank up their backup generation and their production costs will rise as a result. The issue will invariably compound itself as state mandates force power companies to provide more wind power. By taking years of real weather data and modeling it to fit a specific location, however, forecasters say that they can come within a few percentage points of what the actual results will be -- even years down the road.