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Energy | April 17, 2012 |
Lack of Sound U.S. Policies Threatens Clean Energy Lead, Report Says
A new report says that a surge in wind and solar power pushed the U.S. past China in renewable energy investment in 2011, but predicts that the U.S. edge could be short-lived in the absence of consistent, long-term policies to promote clean energy. According to the report published by the Pew Charitable Trusts, the U.S. invested more than $48 billion in clean energy sector last year — up from $34 billion in 2010 — to move past China, which invested about $45.5 billion. But that surge in U.S. investment was largely driven by developers racing to complete projects before renewable energy incentives expire, the authors of the report said. A U.S. tax break for wind energy projects will lapse in 2012. In China, meanwhile, government officials have set a target of installing 160 gigawatts of wind power and 50 gigawatts of solar power by 2020. “China is sending that important policy signal which the United States is failing to do to investors,” Phyllis Cuttino, Pew’s clean energy director told Bloomberg News. “Even though China has fallen to number two, it seems as thought investment there is going to continue at a very significant level for the foreseeable future.” The clean energy rankings were based on data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Photo by Russell Smith/flickr/Creative Commons
Reprinted with permission from Yale Environment 360
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The ONLY reason that green energy is even talked about is because of government subsidies.
Since the private sector sees no benefit or profit (government never has to be concerned with this little problem), no one is willing to put their dollars in to a losing product.
All the dollars (taxpayer dollars) that have been thrown at different companies has done what? Nothing, except to enrich Obama's friends. A nice little paycheck at the expense of the taxpayers.
From what I understand, Bermuda has done a lot of work using new and old towadrs sustainability on a resource limited island. You might want to look into what they do and then scratch the surface.Have you ever visited care2.com? It has a lot of info, numerous links, and then links to links. Don't forget to consider solar-thermal energy assistance and use; you pre-heat water or other materials stragetically placed and/or plumbed to reduce the solar power load. A lot of folks currently reducing thier grid use and/or going off the grid are returning to 12 volt systems or sub-systems. (It is my understanding that back in the day, obviously before my day, that 12 volt electricty arrived at homes long before the current 110/220.) Also, have you ever been to cityfarmer.org? It is out of Vancouver, BC and its goal is to promote city farming in the Vancouver area and world wide. Certainly at one time, it had a board for the posting of urban farming research, papers, and the more. It also had a posting of a guy who did a paper (thesis/thesis related I think) about establishing farming capabilities in poor, urban areas with limited water access and use. His area was some place in Africa. Posted were some dimensions and drawings of some raised beds using found scrap materials for the growing of lettuces and I think it was tomatoes. The beds included different levels and a slucing system that were arrived at. Included in the discussion were alternative material suggestions, critical technical aspects about the bed dimentions and slucing system, yield discussion, and future and alternative design considerations one could/should make. I'm not sure if this board or posting still exist but, the administrator can probably get you information from the archives. Certainly in the past, this was a good site for connecting to others doing urban and other food production exploration under different conditions.
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