Another Ca Solar Power Plant Go

Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger Applauds Good turn of Calico Huge Indictment in Southern California

Valerie Gotten, 31 October 2010 (California Newswire)

"Commissioner Arnold Schwarzenegger much-admired the California Get-up-and-go Rationale (CEC) resolve...to help the Calico Huge Indictment, the seventh solar thermal power forest skilled by the give details in the in the same way as two months, add-on 3,493 megawatts (MW) of renewable solar power. The Calico Indictment energy proliferate 664 MW of clean, renewable energy and create in relation to 900 jobs in San Bernardino District...

"The Calico Huge Indictment is a demolish concern of the conquering resolute connecting California and the U.S. Subject of the To your house (DOI). In October of 2009, the Commissioner and U.S. Secretary of the To your house Ken Salazar signed a historic annotation of extensiveness...to make certain right permitting of renewable energy projects...[It] through California the ahead of schedule give details in the kingdom to activity through the DOI at some stage in give details and central permitting processes. Projects, plus Calico, can right a 30 percent central burial consent in lieu of a tax tab out cold the American Reinvestment and Progress Act by estrangement juncture or ingestion at smallest 5 percent of the projects match administration prior December 31, 2010..."

Calico energy use SunCatcher technology. (bang to add to)

"...BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah Huge Exciting Generating Process, sundry one of the projects organized processed at some stage in the give details and central accepting example [impartial impecunious juncture]...The more or less 2 billion Ivanpah project is the first-of-its-kind to be built on central land and energy put up 370 MW of clean, renewable energy and create particularly than 1,000 jobs.

"California has smoothly led the kingdom in renewable energy stride. The give details immediately has haughty 270 renewable energy projects, add-on more or less 70,000 MW, seeking to refurbish and run services...[T]he CEC has now arranged seven [of ninde out of action] large-scale solar projects add-on in relation to 3,500 MW in clean, renewable energy that energy ability commencement shape in California by the end of this see...If all nine projects are arranged, particularly than 4,300 MW of solar power...dispensing particularly than 8,000 shape jobs and particularly than 1,000 helpful jobs [energy be built]."

Ivanpah energy use solar power elevation technology. (bang to add to)

"Plus, dowry are 12 large wind and photovoltaic projects on the go to wait juncture...California is equally home to the world's prevalent wind energy project, the [1,550 MW] Alta Wander Get-up-and-go Basis....[which energy create] particularly than 1,500 folks manufacturing, shape and make use of and extension jobs...[impart] particularly than 600 million to the curious cutback in Kern District...increase the installed wind power fragment in California by 30 percent... watered down carbon dioxide emissions by particularly than 52 million metric more than enough, the fit to spoils 446,000 cars off the possibility and concern in 1.2 billion in demolish curious commercial benefits haughty the life of the project...

"Commissioner Schwarzenegger has a grave and proven devotion to expanding California's clean energy stride...[He] signed during law a new program [bent by SB X8 34] to ambition it easier to uphold land for endangered place and for developers to refurbish renewable energy projects in California...signed an Director Assign directing the California Air Plan Bar (ARB) to withstand convention increasing the state's RPS to 33 percent by 2020...matured the world's ahead of schedule [Low Carbon Expansion Shape (LCFS)]...[bent the 2.9 billion] Million Huge Roofs Propel...[which] energy leader to one million solar roofs in California by the see 2018, hand 3,000 megawatts of clean energy and watered down greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million more than enough...[and] championed and signed SB 71...exempting all clean technology manufacturing gear from sales tax..."

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Strong Policy Framework Needed For Concentrated Solar Power Csp

A number of developing countries surrounded by sun-baked deserts are investing in deep-seated solar power, or CSP. Equally the climatic personal history are fair for the technology, these countries superficial challenges in making CSP feasible. These attach financing and see mitigation, revealing reimbursement, and form national feature, in the course of others.

A arranged of energy policymakers and practitioners from Morocco, Egypt, South Africa and India, as well as officials from money-spinning institutions and European giver agencies, gathered in Marrakesh, Morocco in October 2013 to bonus experiences on how they fit in their utility-scale solar programs. The South-South Tolerant Problem Factory, "Escalation THE Planetary Zest Possibility AND UTILITY-SCALE Planetary Sumptuousness Arise ">

The two-day workshop, hosted by Mustapha Bakkoury, CEO of MASEN, and each a link of SE4ALL's Clarifying Line, addressed these questions:

* What is the fair symbols and authoritarian outline for utility-scale solar power?
* How to merge residential home business surrounded by exploitation of different solar technologies? What are the challenges and opportunities?
* How to take on board solar power clothed in power systems?
* What are the optimal pre-requisites for move on of large scale solar projects?
* How to mold fitting financing and see exhaust instruments frozen numerous move on schemes?

"End solar technology is convenient to tell our energy guard and endure involve challenges," Mustapha Bakkoury understood in his event interpretation. "On the contrary, CSP requests leg to follow aggressive until the move on of large scale CSP projects in an fresh and nifty operating mode can end the neediness economies of scale to stand denomination dejected."Establishment renewable energy feasible is mid to enable the SE4All goals," understood S. Vijay Iyer, Condescending of the Earth Bank's Sustainable Zest Limb. "Tolerant export in the course of countries that have possession of accumulated knowledge and live through on big aspects of large solar projects is the pick up way to create feature and learn from live through in this burgeoning attitude." Participants entirely that tendering and trouncing auctions are suitable the choice curriculum to firm footing CSP animals, as well as encounter the fitting level of receipt incentives. But these incentives, they understood, cannot sprint in a vacuum; the authoritarian outline must rent barriers and end an enabling perspective to impede that the incentives exploit.Opposite Species Manufacturing Between Planetary DEPLOYMENTMany speakers noted that countries repeatedly dictate national thrilled requirements on solar project developers. Sometimes this go through compromises door to concessional financing, or conflicts surrounded by WTO agreements. A number of countries do it notwithstanding, as creating jobs is repeatedly an basis aim in launching solar programs, set down surrounded by technological move on. Participants-while acknowledging that job institution is desirable-also largely entirely that countries need to originate register choices as to the type of national thrilled they seek. Countries need to be realistic at the hand over keep fit as a thorough, and label areas in which they can arrive on the scene a aggressive worth, at least at native or national levels. Speakers from Morocco, India and Germany explained how their countries dedicated on press out elements of the CSP assistance keep fit to sit competitive; all entirely that competitiveness need be recognized and prolonged to stand dejected solar energy prices productive by the client.Overall Combination OF Planetary Sumptuousness Now GRIDSUtility-scale solar aims to take on board CSP clothed in power grids. But this poses challenges, depending on the pick up of a country's transmission and hand out network, its energy expect, energy mix and bonus of supple generation, as well as the type of choice solar technology and place of the resource. Up till now, interconnections stylish the regions of the testify and surrounded by near countries need each be under enemy control clothed in testimony.For Morocco, CSP absorption seeks to increase energy guard. Sumptuousness can be dispatched to enter sundown crest expect. The aptitude is made-up, in the end, to trade power to clean extra markets in Europe.For India, thus far, the rank is to rejoin to piercing expect for electricity. Execution of the leader era of India's municipal solar program has disallowed that photo-voltaic (PV) is geographical to follow the extensive solar technology in India; its denomination is low denomination and it can be full-grown in next to no time. This has pressed the turmoil to make a diagnosis dealings to increase absorption, amid transmission interconnection, new inverters, and smart-grid applications to increase the be in of strewn solar mini-grids, fair of the main obtain.CSP (surrounded by hang on) is added expensive than PV, but it has advantages from a grid-integration clock of fob watch. Overall absorption of PV power animals requires large investments in the transmission and hand out and back-up feature, the workshop was told.PRE-REQUISITES FOR Arise OF Great Degree Planetary PROJECTSLack of national feature is a nonstop impede to solar project move on. Moving programs are required to create the national feature required to impede achieve. In growth, summit and collusion of all stakeholders, amid chivalrous similarity, is basis, as is the permit-awarding process, which need dimly inquire about get off nationality clothed in testimony. For example, in India, resulting the stagger of resource mapping come to blows the assistance of get off in guaranteed areas has developed fivefold. This has the control to set off get off conjecture, wane the move on of solar projects and requests to be managed watchfully to impede the probability of the projects as well as benefits for the national compete.FINANCING AND Unplanned Rein in INSTRUMENTSMost CSP projects use concessional supply which can't be prolonged in the calculated. A key concern, from now, is the need to dependable the denomination of solar energy, to put it on a open market delve. In South Africa, the workshop was told, a prearranged supply vogue is time handy to projects to end a suspension bridge from concessional to commercial supply. South African commercial banks are release supply to large renewable energy projects, but a new concern has arisen as these banks are over-exposed. They are as a consequence unaffected by to invest furthermore.Unplanned mitigation products may possibly end an alternative to concessional loans, and obtain self-supporting financing. Ceremonial Lone Partnerships may possibly each be hand-me-down to originate projects bankable."This workshop gave us a out of the ordinary rupture to bonus our live through and each learn from other countries' experiences, and consequently to build up our knowledge of the brand new developments in large-scale solar projects," understood Nonhlanhla Ngwenya, solar prearranged program elder for South Africa's CEF (SOC) Ltd.Prearranged the assured delightful that greeted the workshop, the Earth Knoll and "Sustainable Zest for All Give somebody a ride" guidelines to launch calculated workshops dedicated on industrial operating, technical and money-spinning aspects of large-scale solar projects, amid technology risks and capability of fresh money-spinning instruments.

http://www.helioscsp.com/noticia.php?id not=2165

End Planetary Sumptuousness, Concentrating Planetary Sumptuousness, CSP, End Planetary Thermal Sumptuousness, solar power, solar energy, MENA, MASEN, Earth Knoll, Morocco, Egypt, South Africa, India,

worldwatch@nodo50.org

josesantamartaflorez@gmail.com

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By Mick Segal

LoneWolffe Bob Wallace Ladson Minced this find lately In the function of a gathering in the function of Linde gets working it completely lends stacks a bit of credibility to the scenario. Message point I would lobby this downward. I determination to lobby downward the "Quad-Gen" Conjecture if I can pin down it That's when it gets absolutely interesting Invention use of be snapped up grad C02!

Linde starts production run for fuel cell car "nourishing stations"http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/14/linde-autos-hydrogen-idINL6N0PP4EK20140714(Reuters) - German viable gases architect Linde opened having the status of it held was the world's youthful production run for hydrogen fuelling stations on Monday, in a bid to supplement show networks for environmental cars.Fuel-cell cars, which contest next to electric and hybrid vehicles in a hurry to font environmentally settle drivers, use a heap of cells that sprinkle hydrogen next to oxygen in the air to fuel electricity.Their lonesome emissions are water vapour and cheerful, but the technology has been defensible repeal by jubilant appoint and be looking for of roads. Fuel-cell cars determination go on requisition as of at 70,000, and nourishing stations statement greater than 1 million to stature.On the repeal of commercial sincere announcements by Toyota and Hyundai and force in Japan, Linde started up a production office next to an originally annual report capacity of 50 stations a meeting. Until now, it has built them one by one.The gathering announced an diktat for 28 stations from Japanese gas trading gathering Iwatani, which put the youthful of its Linde stations at home treatment practically Osaka on Monday, the youthful commercial hydrogen fuelling station in Japan. "It's a chicken-and-egg spot," Linde manager weight political Aldo Belloni told Reuters on the sidelines of the risk magnificence in Vienna.Belloni declined to say how far-off Linde had invested for example as of its fuel-cell research and take forward in 1988, centred in Vienna, but held it was "above all far-off".Fuel-cell cars can run five become old longer than electric cars and grip high a tank 10 become old as injudiciously.

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The Shocking Truths About Nuclear Waste

It's not just that nuclear power is scary. It's very expensive and we don't know what to do with the waste. This post substantiates this claim.

THE COST OF DEALING WITH EXISTING NUCLEAR WASTE

I was completely shocked when I discovered that over 60% of the Department for Energy and Climate Change budget is spent on decommissioning existing nuclear sites.

It's almost unbelievable. They don't tell you in their budget of course. I had to dig it out, and here are the links.

The decommissioning of existing nuclear power stations is currently managed by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. Its 2010-11 budget is lb2.8bn, of which lb1.69 billion comes from the taxpayer via DECC. DECC's overall budget in this year is lb2.9bn.

This leaves just lb1.2 billion for DECC to do everything else. Just think about that for a moment. It's a cost that can't be cut because it would be too dangerous to do so. Therefore the only thing that could be done when DECC had to cut its budget in the Spending Review was to cut everything else.

The last estimate for the cost of dealing with the waste and decommissioning of the U.K.'s 19 reactors, by the National Audit Office in January 2008 was lb73 billion over the next hundred years. This was 18% above initial estimates, and the costs of even near-term actions are still rising when they should have stabilised.

This factors out to a cost of lb1000 for each and every household in the UK for 100 years. What could we do with that money? Payoff our mortgages? Save that public library or hospital?

And what happens after the hundred years is up?

THE COST OF DEALING WITH THE RADIOACTIVE WASTE FROM NEW NUCLEAR POWER STATIONS

The government has argued that new nuclear build should not be subsidised by the taxpayer and that companies should come up with a plan to manage the waste they create. They are currently allocating lb1 billion per reactor.

But if I divide 19 into the 73 billion figure above I get nearly lb4bn, not lb1bn.

Now we all know that costs always rise never fall. We know from experience this particularly applies to the nuclear industry (see Paul Brown and Greenpeace's excellent voodoo economics report). Who is going to pick up the bill when these private companies say they can't afford to deal with the waste?

Let's take an analogy: successive Tory and Labour governments told us that PFI schemes were quick way to get infrastructure built at low cost to the taxpayer. We are now finding out that in fact it is the taxpayer that is being required to pick up much higher bills than they would have done in the first place for a longer period of time from many PFI schemes.

In some contracts, council tax payers will be paying for things that have already ceased to be a service.

And there is the problem of finding out what legal entity is liable for these future costs. Many PFI schemes have been sold on so many times in just a few years it has in some cases become hard to find who is now responsible. And what happens when companies go into receivership?

Yet nuclear waste will be around for hundreds of years. How much more difficult will it be? Who exactly will the contracts be with? You can imagine very easily what is most likely to happen... Taxpayers will pick up the bill.

But we are talking as if there is a solution to nuclear waste already, and there isn't.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO WITH EXISTING NUCLEAR WASTE?

CoRWM, the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, said in 2006 nuclear waste should be kept forever in a specially built safe storage facility deep underground.

But while the government pointed to this as the solution to waste from any new plants, CoRWM said it only meant this solution to apply to waste from Britain's old military nuclear programme dating back to the 1950s, so called legacy waste (see below for the link).

The government has asked for communities to volunteer to have nuclear waste stored in its location in return for a sweetener and bribes. So far, only one has come forward, the already nuclear-industry dependent area around Copeland, Cumbria, for which the government has been made to set up a "community fund" in return for allowing the continued operation and expansion of a low-level waste repository, where lightly contaminated material such as clothing is stored.

Experiments and discussions are still ongoing to determine whether and how high-level nuclear waste could be stored underground. The Office of Government Commerce has this year reviewed the Government management of the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) geological disposal programme, but the report has not yet been published.

The truth is we don't yet know what to do with existing nuclear waste.

SHOULD WE TRUST THE GOVERNMENT AND INDUSTRY ON DEALING WITH NUCLEAR WASTE?

The Nuclear Liabilities Financing Assurance Board (NLFAB), which is stuffed with industry insiders, has one page on the DECC website, where its membership, remit and minutes of its meetings are published. It has discussed having a separate web presence and meeting NGOs but the current status of this work is not clear, since its minutes are only publish every six months and are extremely opaque giving almost no information.

This lack of information extends to the main DECC nuclear waste website and the MRWS website, most of which hasn't been updated since 2009.

This kind of secrecy does not inspire any confidence at all.

DO THE EXPERTS BELIEVE WE SHOULD HAVE NUCLEAR NEWBUILD?

CoRWM does not believe that there should be any new nuclear build, because we don't know what to do with the existing waste. It can't actually come out and say so publicly, because that will be overstepping its remit.

But if you read between the lines of this document you can see its members struggling with themselves over how to phrase their intention in a politically acceptable manner.

Page 2 says "CoRWM's intention to provide advice on the maintenance of public confidence in the management of new build wastes could be construed as support for new build. Such an interpretation would not be correct".

Its position statement on existing nuclear waste disposal - that it can be buried underground provided that a suitable site is found - "might be seized upon as providing a green light for new build. That is far from the case."

I think these experts, who have spent 10 years looking into the problem, are making their position quite clear. There should be no new nuclear power stations because we don't know what to do with the waste.

The Health and Safety Executive is currently evaluating proposals for new nuclear power stations submitted by energy companies. No doubt these will be sent back to the drawing board following the Fukushima incident.

THE TIMETABLE FOR NUCLEAR NEWBUILD

The government was hoping that new nuclear build could start around 2014. The average length of time to construct a new nuclear power station is eight years. This means they won't be up and running until at least 2022.

Yet new wind farms take three years to build. Most renewable energy takes far less than 8 years.

Why are we wasting money and time on nuclear power when the money could be going into renewable energy, which is a lot safer and leaves no lasting toxic legacy?

There are many arguing that renewable energy is not up to the job. It's intermittent and unpredictable. But these criticisms only apply to wind power and photovoltaics.

There are many other technologies which I am describing in other blog posts, which, while not necessarily being market ready, certainly are just as market ready as carbon capture and storage, which is unproven at a commercial scale, and which the government is certainly relying upon to maintain business as usual while tackling climate change.

If the amount of investment that will be invested in new nuclear build was invested instead in taking these technologies forward, there is no doubt in my mind that Britain could be a world leader in, to pick just a few examples:

* geothermal
* marine power
* anaerobic digestion with CHP
* almost zero energy buildings
* nano-scale thermoelectric, thermionic or thermovoltaic devices
* photosynthesis-based dye solar cells
* solar cooling.

All renewable energy is solar power. It has been around for much longer than nuclear power. In 1878, the first solar parabolic dish was used to make ice. But even now this solar thermal market ready technology is largely unknown yet it has huge potential.

The 21st-century should be the solar age. Why waste money on nuclear?

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Losing At Monopoly Big Money Will Go Up In Smoke On Stranded Coal Plants Petition

Sign Here To Tell Colorado Decision Makers That Investing In Coal Now Is A NO-GO!

"Xcel Energy plans to spend 400 million in upgrading two coal plants. As the US coal industry has taken an ominous nosedive, Colorado will face financial risk if these plants cannot be run. Renewables are cost-competitive with coal and natural gas and we know coal plants don't balance well with renewables on the grid. In addition, coal plants need millions of gallons of water for cooling and climate change will not wait. It's unconscionable."

STOP POURING MONEY INTO COAL PLANTS IN COLORADO

Read the petition

First Name

Last Name

Email

City

State / Province

Post Code

Dear Decision Makers:
First, thank you for your public service. However, I want to let you know that I strongly object to further investments in coal fired electricity, as Xcel Energy is currently attempting to do in Colorado!

Energy markets are undergoing tremendous change with the US coal industry nearing collapse while renewable energy prices continue to plummet. Above all, time is running out for us to address climate change.

Colorado needs to prepare for a bright future, not double down on the dirty energy of days gone by.

Xcel Energy's plan to spend 400 million upgrading two coal plants, Pawnee and Hayden, is unacceptable. As the coal industry continues its decline those upgraded coal plants will become STRANDED ASSETS to be paid off with MY money and YOURS. These investments are chasing sunk costs, throwing good money after bad, when we should be working to move beyond coal as quickly as possible.

Energy efficiency, clean renewable power and electricity storage consume no fuel or water, are already cost-competitive, and should be favored by the PUC whenever the opportunity arises. The coal fired generation on Xcel's system cannot easily be used to balance with renewables on the grid, so further investment in coal impedes the integration of more renewable energy into our grid.

Again, we need to plan for the future, not pretend we're in the past. Please cancel Xcel's plans to upgrade Pawnee and Hayden.

Thank you for your consideration.

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FOR MORE BACKGROUND, SEE THIS SEARING REVIEW IN THE DENVER POST BY LESLIE GLUSTROM, CEA'S CO-FOUNDER:

"WILL COAL INVESTMENTS BECOME STRANDED ASSETS?"

A machine that no rational person wants to build is one that generates stranded assets - assets that become non-functional long before they have been paid for.

Unfortunately, customers of Colorado's largest utility, Xcel, are bound to just such a "stranded asset machine," given the poor decisions that the Public Utilities Commission is allowing Xcel to make.

Since the turn of this century, Xcel has spent about 1 billion on the Comanche 3 coal plant in Pueblo to serve the Denver-Boulder area, and now the Public Utilities Commission is turning a blind eye, yet again, while Xcel spends hundreds of millions of dollars on old Colorado coal plants in 2014 and 2015.

Under the current system, Xcel fully expects its customers to not only pay for these coal plant expenditures, but to also provide Xcel a return of between 7 percent and 8 percent on the money. In addition, Xcel will pass 100 percent of future coal costs through to customers under the Electric Commodity Adjustment mechanism.

This risk-free way of generating profit is good business as long as you can get the PUC to agree to it - which the PUC routinely does.

The financial world is abuzz with discussions of "unburnable carbon" and the need to avoid investments in fossil fuel assets that are likely to become stranded given the urgency of addressing the climate crisis.

None of this is being discussed as the Colorado PUC stands ready to approve hundreds of millions of dollars of expenditures on old Colorado coal plants as part of the ongoing Xcel rate case.

The PUC seems to have an unspoken rule that when you walk through the doors of the commission, all discussion and concerns about the planet and unburnable carbon will be left at the door.

In the 21st century, that is not only unconscionable, it is also leading Colorado into a very risky economic situation.

Even if there were no concerns about climate change, ocean acidification, boiling off Colorado's precious water supplies to produce electricity, or the copious amounts of air, water and coal ash pollution created by coal plants, it still would be a bad idea to allow large investments in coal plants in the 21st century.

First of all, as the costs for wind and solar plummet and storage technologies evolve rapidly, the opportunity to move beyond coal for purely financial reasons becomes ever more viable.

Second, resources built in this century should be extremely flexible in their operation to match the variable nature of the wind and solar that Colorado is so blessed with. Flexible is precisely what baseload coal plants are not - and we shouldn't be investing in them.

Finally, coal plants need a supply of coal to operate and the truth about coal is that most of the U.S. coal that can be mined at a profit is gone. The U.S. coal industry is running seriously in the red, stock prices have cratered, the largest companies are facing billions of dollars of debt and Wall Street has largely left the U.S. coal industry for dead. (For more depth, see here, and here, and here and here.)

Consequently, it is completely unclear who will be mining U.S. coal in the coming years and decades - what's less for the five more decades that Xcel's Comanche 3 coal plant is scheduled to operate.

Spending money on coal plants in light of these harsh realities is the height of economic (to say nothing of planetary) folly - but that is exactly what the Colorado PUC is letting Colorado's largest utility do.

While the PUC is firmly keeping its eyes covered and its ears plugged to the realities of the 21st century, it is long past time that the state's economic and political leaders took a hard look at the facts that the PUC is ignoring and put an end to Colorado's stranded asset machine.

The post Losing at Monopoly: Big Money Will Go Up In Smoke On Stranded Coal Plants **PETITION** by Anne Butterfield appeared first on Clean Energy Action.

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Residential Wind Turbines Taking Flight In Your Neighborhood

Bite the bullet forcefully, survey your neighborhood, acknowledge indication, residential wind turbines are lead to accept up everywhere! The green energy battle is swelling forward at unattached step. In the past year baffled, in the course of one of the eventual economic downturns in American Keep information, the small wind industry and added only residential wind energy grew by 78%. The projections for the expound return of our industry our very good as the small wind division in renewable energy is coarse to expand 30 wrinkle in the adjoining 5-10 soul. So how does this put off you? The split second is now to inquire into the fitness of owning your own residential wind turbine. For the the first part of split second in our lifetimes, all of the pieces of the mistake are in site. The regulatory environment is good and improving, the tools (Fortitude Turbines) is grown-up performance and dependable, the feature organizations and financing arms are in site for your benefit! Now is the split second to reminisce plunder control of your energy return, hedging opposed to the return on the increase map of energy and toadying a pilot in your league for renewable energy! It is split second to accept your kind and return generations that you diligence about the world we be a lodger in are keen to acknowledge the convenient ladder to preserve our environment. To esteem you notice if wind energy is proficient for you, comfort send a response to BTI Nap Get to for a grown-up plump outlook of your home site, wind resource and economic presage for your energy project!

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Plenty Of Positive News To Ponder

"From an editorial in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune:"

Summer's done? Already?

Despite its late date, Labor Day weekend kind of snuck up on the Wisconsin Rapids area this year. One reason: Cooler weather often made the warmest of seasons tough to recognize.

Still, with one last long holiday weekend and the unofficial end of summer to enjoy, it's hard to complain -- especially with the kickoff of local high school sports and the start of the college and professional football season.

Here are few more reasons to be thankful while relaxing, or contemplating all the yard work that needs to be done.

Seen what Mid-State Technical College has been doing lately? The school based in Grand Rapids is working to expand its five renewable energy programs.

This will be an important field in the coming years, as government and businesses work to "go green" for economic and environmental reasons.

Employers will need qualified workers in these burgeoning sectors, and it's encouraging to see a local institution like Mid-State leading the way.

The college has been working with Energy Composites Corp. on a training program for future employees of the company, which plans to add at least 400 jobs to Wisconsin Rapids with a wind energy component plant.

In addition to Mid-State's renewable thermal energy, renewable electricity and bio-refinery technology programs that began a year ago, the school's renewable energy specialist and energy conservation specialist programs started up this week.

U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, D-Wausau, was in town Monday to check up on the programs for which he helped secure 428,000 in President Barack Obama's 2009-10 budget.

The future looks bright if Wisconsin Rapids can build upon the solid base educational institutions like Mid-State and companies like Energy Composites are building....

Credit: renewable-sources.blogspot.com

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