Alternate Energy Blog

Remember the good old days…about a year and a half ago? Prices at the pumps were hovering below one dollar per litre and they stayed the same for weeks. Well the good old days are gone forever and today we live in a world where fuel prices seem to go up by the hour. Now pundits speculate on living with oil prices running up to $200 US per barrel. As consumers many of us have adjusted our lifestyles. We try to drive less. Some have chosen to car pool, while others get rid of their Read More

Japan’s Panasonic Corp plans to buy out subsidiaries Sanyo Electric and Panasonic Electric Works for up to 818.4 billion yen to strengthen its push into greener businesses. Read More

In this Feb. 7, 1969, file photo, workmen using pitchforks, rakes and shovels attempt to clean up oil-soaked straw from the beach at Santa Barbara Harbor, Calif. Read More

Ottawa-based Plasco Energy Group says its energy-from-waste technology is now proven and it’s time to move to commercial delivery. To help in that effort, it announced today a $110 million private equity placement led largely by Ares Management LLC of Los Angeles. Since 2005 Plasco had already managed to raise $135 million in equity, so this latest haul bring the total to $245 million — not bad in today’s markets. Another $25 million in government grants rounds out the Read More

One of the world’s largest wind farms is being unveiled on a gusty ridge in the Mojave Desert. Read More

Vodafone Essar Ltd. has unveiled a solar-powered mobile handset in India to better serve the nation’s energy-starved rural masses. Read More

My Clean  Break column today looks at the role that natural gas will play as we move toward lower-carbon sources of energy, but it also warns of relying too much on shale gas. Here’s the issue: shale gas is not just a water pig and a potential threat to water aquifers and lakes, it is extracted in a way that may release more greenouse-gas emissions than we bargained for. Sure, burn it in a power plant and, just like conventional natural gas, it emits as much as half the emissions of a Read More

Britain’s biggest arms manufacturer will contribute its marine engineering expertise to a wave-power project off Orkney Marine engineering for an innovative wave-power project off Orkney is to be provided by Britain’s biggest arms manufacturer, BAE Systems . Read More

The Global Warming Alarmists believe the increase in CO2 results in increased surface temperatures and directly affects all aspects of our weather. Read More

This summer brings a new regional bike-sharing system, Metroraruhr, to ten industrial Ruhr valley cities. Starting on June 18th in Dortmund, Germany the system has now reached five of the cities. Bikes are now or soon will be available in Bochum, Bottrop, Dortmund, Duisburg (site of this week’s horrific music festival stampede), Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Hamm, Herne, Mülheim an der Ruhr and Oberhausen. This is not just a series of suburban satellite additions to a larger city system, but a Read More

Like pork-barrel spending, however, the value of subsidies depends on where one stands. Read More

Without enough votes, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been forced to abandon a comprehensive energy bill. Read More

The first photos of Capital Bikeshare are in! The prototype bikes look great. Branded to match the D.C. Circulator bus, Capital Bikeshare bikes are red with the Capital Bikeshare logo in yellow on the downtube. Similar to other bikes in the Bixi Community, your bikes have flashing front and rear LED lights, reflective sidewall tires, adjustable seat post with marked numbers (to help you remember your seat height), and a carrier with bungee cord on the front. The rear fenders are to be Read More

The Plaza Hotel Corp., operator of the Radisson Hotel & Conference Center and Longmont Suites, formerly Hawthorn Suites, will soon be announcing a rebranding of the Longmont Suites, 2000 Sunset Way. Read More

Indiana is eyeing the state’s wind-swept slice of Lake Michigan as a possible location for wind farms, including turbines that would be erected offshore. Read More