Renewable Energy
What we can learn from Japan's nuclear disaster
Amory Lovins, Chairman and Chief Scientist of Rocky Mountain Institute, highlights why efficiency and renewables such as wind and solar will better meet the world’s energy needs than nuclear power.
Read MoreWind power on BPA system sets new record
Wind turbines in the Bonneville Power Administration’s transmission grid generated over 3,000 megawatts for the first time yesterday, producing enough electricity to serve a city three times the size of Seattle for an hour…
Read MoreNPR Posts Positive Poll for Clean Energy in Northwest
Wind farm developers may be cheered by the results from a new public radio poll. It found broad support for wind energy among both urban and rural Northwest residents. The finding comes amidst nagging opposition to some new wind farms from upset neighbors. The opinion survey was a collaboration of the Northwest Health Foundation, the polling firm Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall and public radio stations across the Northwest.
Read MoreThe New York Times: Integrating Wind and Water Power, an Increasingly Tough Balancing Act
Coalition Senior Policy Associate Steve Weiss is quoted in today’s New York Times article on the challenges of using smart grid technology to balance the Northwest’s huge base of hydroelectric power with its fast-expanding collection of wind farms.
Read the full article at The New York Times
Read MoreMissoulian Op-Ed: Renewable energy works for Montana
Complaints about the supposedly high costs of renewable energy by political pundits and candidates around the state are vastly misleading and need correction. In an Oct. 11 Missoulian story, Public Service Commission candidate Bill Gallagher is quoted as saying that renewable energy in Montana has raised electricity rates “without generating any real benefits.” Meanwhile, PSC candidate Travis Kavulla claims that renewable energy requirements for our utilities are “going to add costs to the consumer without adding any real value for them.” Let’s set the record straight…
Read the full Op-Ed online at The Missoulian.
Read MoreFirst solar projects approved for public land
The Interior Department approved the first solar projects on public land Tuesday, a move aimed at shifting the type of energy development on federal property in the years to come.
The two ventures greenlighted in the California desert — the Imperial Valley and Chevron Lucerne Valley solar projects — could provide energy for hundreds of thousands of homes, though neither would start generating electricity for more than a year, at the earliest…
Read MoreUS energy use is dropping and shifting to renewables
A new report shows that the US energy economy has shifted away from coal over the last year at a pace faster than the declining economy would predict.
Read MoreReal-time NW wind display courtesy of BPA
The public can now view a new online display of wind and other data the Bonneville Power Administration uses to monitor weather conditions that drive the growing amount of wind energy generated in the Northwest.
Read MorePortland getting solarized
Several companies have been working with the Energy Trust of Oregon and the city of Portland to solarize the city. The project goes from neighborhood to neighborhood, with hundreds of customers signing for installation of photovoltaic cells. So Portland is experiencing a huge penetration of solar power at very reasonable costs thanks to economies of scale…
Read MoreWashington state Rep. John McCoy honored for protecting I-937
Washington State Rep. John McCoy (D-Tulalip) has been honored by the NW Energy Coalition Friday for his successful efforts to maintain the integrity of the state’s voter-approved Clean Energy Initiative, I-937, particularly during the 2009 state legislative session. Coalition policy director Nancy Hirsh (left side of photo) and former Coalition policy associate and lobbyist Carrie Dolwick (right) presented the award to Rep. McCoy during a brief ceremony in the Coalition’s Seattle office June 18.
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