Clean Energy Digest

The credit market freeze, stock market devaluations and commodities markets collapse are having a chilling effect on clean energy projects around the globe.
Pickens delays world’s biggest wind farm project
T Boone Pickens, a renowned Texan oilman who is raising the capital for the wind farm, told a US television station today that the twofold problem [...]

The San Jose Mercury News reports that the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in California has rejected a contract between PG&E and Finavera Renewables.
The chief reason given for the rejection was related to viability of the project. According to the story, “The commission noted that a prototype buoy deployed by Finavera off the Oregon coast [...]

The outlook for clean energy projects has started to change as a result of the current economic situation in the U.S. and around the world. A pair of news items underscore the wider issues that are likely to develop.
Wind-farm Workers Laid Off
Noble Environmental Power has stopped work at its Bellmont and Chateaugay wind-energy projects [...]

Here are some notable clean energy news items for the week of August 17, 2008.
GM set to bring Volt electric car to Europe “General Motors is planning to rebadge its Chevrolet Volt electric car as an Opel and bring it to Europe as part of the US carmaker’s plans to expand the model range of [...]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has offered up an ambitious plan for wind power development in and around New York City. A story in the New York Times today reports on the mayor speaking at a clean energy conference in Las Vegas yesterday.
“Mr. Bloomberg said he would ask private companies and investors to study how windmills can [...]

Leaders from the United Kingdom and France are working on a bold plan that would allow the EU to meet renewable energy targets by importing solar power generated in Africa.
According to a story on EurActiv.com, Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy are supporting a plan that would involve the construction of massive solar plants in North [...]

The much loved (just kidding) Internal Revenue Service issued a notice last week indicating that utilities are now able to benefit from production tax credits for renewable energy. The change to the code allows utilities who directly invest in or develop renewable power projects to be granted the 1.9 cent per kilowatt hour [...]

The Wall Street Journal recently published a special feature section on the topic of energy. A few of the stories focused on clean energy issues including the ones listed below.
The Case For and Against Nuclear Power “Proponents insist that nuclear is a necessary alternative in an energy-constrained world, while opponents are convinced that the costs [...]

The New York Times reported yesterday that was putting a freeze on solar esolar nergy projects. The story was titled Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects. While the title plays up the very popular theory that the Bush administration is against new clean energy sources, the facts of the story fail to [...]

Here are some notable clean energy news items for the week of June 8, 2008.
Duke Energy to invest $100 million in solar power “Duke Energy Corp said on Monday it plans to spend $100 million to install solar panels at up to 850 homes, schools, stores and factories in North Carolina.”
New solar farm goes [...]