Hydropower

Many investors find the prospect of selecting individual stocks simply too daunting. For those investors interested in investing in peak oil, but uncomfortable with the risks and moral dilemmas inherent in oil company stocks, there is another option: Powershares Global Progressive Transportation Portfolio (PTRP).

The huge turbines at the Guanting Wind Farm are popular backdrops for photos of newly married couples who find the 60-meter-tall structures a symbol of modernity; an endearing addition to the distant mountains, corn fields and lake a few dozen kilometers outside bustling Beijing.

The Peace Corps announced late last month that the U.S. Department of State will provide $1 million to fund the program in support of the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas (ECPA). The money will help Peace Corps efforts that increase rural access to energy, mitigate the effects of climate change, and support the use of renewable energy and energy efficient technologies in Central and South American communities.

As policymakers consider energy and environmental goals, renewable portfolio standards (RPS) are one popular tool to encourage the development of renewable power resources. These regulations, also called renewable electricity standards, typically require utilities to source a specified percentage of their power from qualified renewable sources. States adopt RPS programs to incentivize the development of new capacity, reduce their carbon footprints and mitigate volatility in fossil fuel prices. While such regulations do have cost impacts to ratepayers, proponents argue that their benefits exceed their costs.

A new government study shows that Americans are using less energy overall and making more use of renewable energy resources.

When it comes to federal financial incentives, proper planning is essential for renewable energy project owners and developers who seek to maximize available incentives, avoid pitfalls and realize a quicker return on investment.

The Tyson Creek project is the third hydro system developed by Renewable Power Corporation, a British Columbia company. On the Sunshine Coast of BC, Tyson Creek went online in December 2009 and has a rated output of 9.3 MW based on 865 meters gross head and a flow of just 1.3 cubic meters per second.

Our cover notes the 100th anniversary of PennWell Corp., which publishes this magazine plus dozens of other business-to-business magazines across a range of industries.

Rwanda is looking to small hydropower to help meet growing demand for electricity in a sustainable, easily-deployable way.

We are living in a time when the theory of unlimited economic growth is running into the reality of limited energy sources. To solve the problem, it is commonly thought that renewables are simply a drop-in replacement for oil, gas and coal – but many experts are warning about the faultiness of that assumption.

The ocean-current technology developer Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) has been working on a pilot version of its cross-flow turbine since 2004. Over the last six years, the company has learned a number of important lessons about the difficulties of deploying energy technologies in the marine environment.

Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC), an industry leader in tidal, river and deep-water ocean current energy technology and projects, announced today that its Beta Power System, the largest ocean energy "power plant" ever installed in U.S. waters, has successfully generated grid-compatible power from tidal currents at its Cobscook Bay site in Eastport, Maine.

Coastal communities are increasingly expressing interest in developing ocean energy projects. The city of King Cove, Alaska, recently undertook work to identify sites suitable for further consideration for an ocean energy project. The investigative process used – a desktop analysis – proved to be an efficient and cost-effective way to objectively investigate many different sites and technologies.

All eyes are on the energy world with the recent catastrophe in the Gulf, a possible Energy bill in waiting and the increasingly global nature of clean technology. In addition to these market dynamics, there are significant movements in wind, solar, and the development of innovative business models.

Considering it was an outcome that I very much expected, I still found the U.S. Senate's complete abandonment of carbon cap legislation on July 27 pretty devastating. Beyond the negative effects on the U.S. clean-tech industry and its creation of much-needed jobs, it sends a terrible signal to the rest of the world, particularly China, about America's willingness to finally lead by example on greenhouse gas reduction. In the wake of the acknowledged failure of the global climate talks in Copenhagen last December, the outlook for a meaningful global climate-change agreement is grim indeed.