Two bills are signed into law, aimed at encouraging greater development of renewable energy, eyeing solar storms and on-shore wind farms

 

June 4, 2010 —
According to the Wall Street Journal and certain research released Friday, more than three-quarters of private equity executives polled at a recent conference by KPMG said they planned to invest in renewable energy of some sort within the next year, with on-shore wind being the most popular technology, followed by off-shore wind and energy from waste.

 

 

One might question why this is, ProFightNetwork’s, Chris Greenman (Who is an accomplished author in many fields of scientific and website studies) was asked and he explained, ” a lot has to do with the genuine “Green” feel to it and the fact that the wind is always prominent in certain areas. Couple the cleanness of it and that it is a proven energy source that has been worth its investment and holds a pretty long track record”
Greenman said the recent U.S. buyout firm First Reserve Corp.–which focuses on energy–has just made its first substantial infrastructure commitment to support renewable energy projects. They did this through a joint venture totaling up to $1.5 billion, with solar developer SunEdison, a division of MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. (WFR). First Reserve said it plans more investment in renewable energy as well. This alone is promising and I congratulate them for leading this.

 

Renewable energy projects and assets promise huge returns because of the long-term predictable cash flow guaranteed by an increasing focus by governments worldwide on the sector, making business easier for renewable energy facilities. These types of energy sources that have the lowest risk will actually result in a double rewarding return
Like infrastructure assets, they have different risk and return profiles depending on the stage invested in and there is no such thing as easy money, but if you save the earth at the same time and use the earth’s energy, it makes things certainly seem like a jackpot.

 

“classified equity houses weighing up investments in the sector need to get comfortable with the large amount of capital required up front to fund renewable projects,” said Adrian Scholtz, energy director at KPMG. “Renewable assets which are already operational do not come with a heavy cash burden but they do not transport the kind of returns secretive equity demands,” he added. Many buyout firms are already active in the sector. London-based Hg Capital raised a fund dedicated to renewable energy three years ago and in February it announced three investments in wind and solar power projects totaling EUR300 million.
The cause for the increased attention is public money and prop up being made available for alternative energy technology and facilities. Alaska’s governor Wednesday signed two bills into law aimed at encouraging greater development of renewable energy including one law that exempts wind, solar and other renewable-energy facilities from having to comply with regulations that other wholesale power producers must adhere to.

 

Meanwhile the U.K. aims to cut emissions and increase the amount of renewable energy in the mix to 15% by 2020 from around 2% now spurring companies to invest billions in low-carbon electricity generation, such as nuclear power, offshore wind and clean coal.
References
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100603-71841.html?mod=WSJ_latestheadlines
http://www.benzinga.com/press-releases/10/05/e291690/earth-energy-exploration-investigates-solar-storms-as-a-possible-source
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/research/renewable_energy/ Office of the Director
NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory
325 Broadway
Boulder, CO 80305-3328

Alexander.E.MacDonald@noaa.gov
Phone: 303-497-6378
FAX: 303-497-6951

 

The power of The Sea Takes Claim As The Earth’s Energy Commander as it gulps a Energy Wave Generator

May 24, 2010 —
(International Journalism Review (IJR) May 23rd 2010) The U.N. had just recently named this one of the top ten renewable energy investments, does this still hold true? Mother nature might be a safer bet. International Journalism Review (IJR) and Earth Energy Exploration Beyond (EEEB) analyzed this alternative earth energy resource that is renewable to help shed light on what went wrong and what can be learned.

 

A massive swell at the Port Kembla site, 93 miles off the coast of Australia was able to drop the continent’s first wave power device to feed power to the Australian grid. The $5 million pre-commercial pilot project had just begun supplying power to the shore in February 2010, so in actuality it worked for two months. Although disappointing it still shows promise.

The wave earth energy industry is in its early years. Other than this, only half a dozen pilots are actually are delivering electricity to grids and which designs will do well remains to be seen. feels this is a promising renewable energy, that needs to focus more attention to structural engineering.

 

The US has tremendous potential off the Northwest coast from Oregon to Alaska to harness this somewhat proven earth energy resource. Because it is a completely new industry, wave power entrepreneurs are trying out various engineering designs to imprison the power of the ocean. Some are sited on the sea floor, some float, and some are moored to the sea floor.

 

According to Science daily, the Oceanlinx design was modeled on an off-shore oil rig and moored to the sea floor. Essentially it was a platform floating partly above the sea surface with turbines suspended above the water; inside a wind tunnel. These are designed to capture air pushed up and down as the waves beneath them swell and sink. The power generated by the spinning turbines is then fed to the coast to supply the grid. Initially, the powerful waves just ripped the device from its moorings. Efforts to capture and tow it back to safety had to be abandoned in high seas, and the next day, it sank.

Unlike the other deep-sea energy failure going on now as a real oil mage don gushes from the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico, there is no shocking environmental disaster associated with this hygienic energy failure. However, there does appear to be a need to get back to the drawing board and seek other ways to confine the ocean’s power. If anything, it just demonstrates the tremendous power of the sea. Engineers must focus on structurally designing these platforms for worse case scenarios.

 

Both IJR and EEEB applaud the efforts by engineers and entrepreneurs to date in the alternative energy resource, and see great things ahead.

Sources:
University of California – Davis (2007, November 13). Geothermal Energy Exploration: Deep Drilling For ‘Black Smoker’ Clues. ScienceDaily.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/05/17/2901059.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com

Julian Madera, Independent Journalist and subject specialist
International Journalism Review
Roxana Greenman, Engineering Expert PhD. Stanford University, Aeronautical and Astrological engineering
I nternationaljournalismReview@gmail.com

More information can be found online at http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Earth.Energy.Exploration.866-579-4333