On Tuesday, President Obama unveiled a broad strategy for reducing the nation’s carbon emissions in a way that would move the United States toward a smarter energy future. Speaking at Georgetown University, he outlined a Climate Action Plan incorporating policies and programs to achieve significant economic and environmental benefits, including new energy efficiency standards, increased advanced energy deployment on public lands and in defense applications, and new performance standards for existing power plants and heavy-duty vehicles.
Topics: Federal Priorities
The incandescent bulb has had a good run and compact fluorescents (CFLs) have improved dramatically in cost and performance since I bought my first one in 1993. But bulbs using light emitting diode technology (LEDs) are currently transforming the lighting market. It is a classic example of a technology that started out in niche, high-value markets, and over time has improved in cost and performance to the point that it is now poised to take over in much larger markets.
In “Economic Impacts of Advanced Energy,” energy-efficient lighting was shown to be one of the fastest growing segments of the advanced energy market, driven in part by the dramatic improvements in LEDs. In their latest forecast, Navigant Research projects that annual worldwide revenue from LED lamps will grow from just over $1.5 billion in 2013, to more than $8.5 billion in 2021. That squares with a recent LinkedIn survey of energy professionals by AEE, in which LEDs ranked first as the technology people most expect to “take off” in 2013, with 28% of the vote, almost twice that of the next highest vote-getter. (Click below to get the full results of the survey.)
In Washington, DC, there is a talking-heads policy forum nearly every day, but few generate as much buzz, at least in energy circles, as the one held earlier this week by the New Republic (video here). There, White House advisor Heather Zichal said that the President’s much-anticipated climate plan could be announced “in the weeks ahead,” as other reports have hinted at July for a rollout. The plan, she said, would touch on three “key opportunities,” namely higher energy efficiency standards for appliances, accelerated development of renewable energy on federal lands, and greenhouse gas regulations on electric power plants – possibly including existing power plants, not just new ones, the regulations for which are already past due.
Topics: News Update
Guest post by Peter Rothstein, President of the New England Clean Energy Council, an AEE partner organization.
The recent passage of a bill updating Connecticut’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), S 1138, was the culmination of a protracted education, advocacy and negotiation effort, with significance for the entire New England region.
Topics: State Policy, Guest Post
This update is cross-posted from CPS Energy's blog Energized and is written by Tracy Idell Hamilton, a project manager with CPS Energy.
For more than a century, utilities have operated with one overarching goal: to provide reliable power to their customers.
That mission, by its very nature, has meant taking a conservative approach to innovation and technology.
But the energy industry is changing rapidly, and the old way of doing things — building centralized fossil fuel power plants that send power along a grid largely unchanged from Thomas Edison’s day — are no longer sufficient.
Topics: Guest Post