Friday, June 6, 2008 |
Editors: R.J. Levangie / K.S. Robinson epoeditor@epoverviews.com Intel Capital pours money into Energy-Efficient Smart-Grid startup (Funding) Intel Capital has joined GE and Catamount Ventures by investing in Grid Net, a San Francisco smart-grid, energy-efficiency software developer founded in 2006. Grid Net has been creating a program that manages the power grid that is based on open source protocols that are often used in the telecom networking worlds. Financial terms on this particular deal were not released, but the Intel investment was part of a $60,000,000 US package that was divvie up among eight companies. Editor's Note: Grid infrastructure in the US is hopelessly outdated, wasting a huge amount of energy and billions of dollars each year, while creating uncounted tons of CO2 emissions. We expect to see many more such investments in technology that allows utilities - and their customers - reduce their carbon footprint. (Source: Earth2Tech, June 4, 2008).
JCPenney cuts GHG and saves energy (Ind. Report) JCPenney has reached the end of the first year of their four-year energy awareness program, and in the past 12 months the company has saved enough energy to power 55 JCPenney stores for a month. The company is investing more than $30,000,000 US in various efficiency efforts for in-store environmental controls and lighting. This follows a $75,000,000 investment to install energy management technology and high-efficiency HVAC technology. In 2006 alone, these efforts saved 31,000 tons of CO2 and other GHG. (Source: Environmental Leade, June 4, 2008)
Terra Pass offers customizable Carbon Offsets (New Prod. & Tech) In what may be an industry first, carbon offset retailer Terra Pass has begun allowing its customers to choose where their offsets come from. In increments of 1,000 pounds, customers can individualize their offset portfolio with a mix of clean energy, farm power, and landfill gas capture. (Source: Environmental Leader, June 4, 2008)
Carbon Solutions America; First independent Climate-Change focused consulting firm in Florida and the Gulf South (New Subscriber Profile) Carbon Solutions America (CSA) is a minority-owned company which provides unbiased and independent consulting services with an open architecture platform with access to best-of-breed service providers. CSA specializes in calculating carbon footprints, implementing reduction/sustainability plans, and providing advisory services to US-based firms looking either to navigate the voluntary carbon markets or adopt greenhouse gas reduction policies in the interest of their business. CSA helps companies and government entties create value by helping them reduce their impact on climate change.
As partner Alex Hernandez says, we like to call it, "Creating Value, Footprinting your Future."
CSA has offices in Florida and Louisiana and has forged a corporate partnership with the Florida Center for Environmental Studies. CSA is also a founding reporter with the Climate Registry and they are registered with The World Bank, Carbon Finance Unit.
Rising sea levels from Climate Change already destroying some nations (Ind. Report) The president of Kiribati believes that the bell has already tolled for his Pacific atoll nation, and global warming is to blame. Speaking at World Environment Day conference in Wellington, New Zealand, President Anote Tong said that whole communities are being resettled and farmland and crops are being destroyed by sea water as it slowly submerges parts of Kiribati, comprised of 33 coral atolls, and home to almost 100,000 people. Villages that have been inhabited for four or five generations are disappearing beneath the relentless Pacific. He believes that it's just a matter of time before the island nation disappears.
He said at international meetings that other leaders have argued that measures to combat climate change would hurt their countries' economic development. "In frustration, I said, 'No, it's not an issue of economic growth, it's an issue of human survival.'"
Scientists suggest that global emissions will have to be capped by 2015 if we are to keep global temperatures from rising by more than two degrees, but United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner said even that will be too late for many nations. "At two degrees of global warming, we are already destroying the places that people have called their homes for hundreds, sometimes thousands of years," he said. "Unless we get back to the levels of public engagement this year we had last year, I worry that we will not have the political will in the international community to reach an agreement." (Source: AFP, June 5, 2008).
Slovenian accident might slow Nuclear Power renaissance (Int'l Ind. Report) Slovenia shut down the reactor at its only nuclear power plant this week after a water leak, but the company's atomic watchdog says that there was no danger to people or the environment. The reactor is still cooling, and the neighboring Austrian Environment Ministry also said that radioactive levels are within the normal range.
The Krsko plant generates five billion kilowatts of electricity each year, roughly 40 percent of the country's needs. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN body that oversees nuclear safety, indicated that its Incident and Emergency Center "is gathering information and there will be a better assessment when we have facts in our hand."
But for many, this tale is cautionary. Nuclear power is enjoying something of a renaissance, as the technology is viewed as a low-carbon option for producing energy in a world trying to come to grips with global warming. But how long that renaissance will continue if more accidents like the one in Slovenia make headlines is harder to gauge. It's probably true that today's nuclear plants are safer than plants built 20 years ago - as the Krsko plant was - but it's also true that wind, wave and solar power aren't as dangerous when something goes wrong. (Source: International Herald Tribune, June 4, 2008).
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