Energy

The green road ahead

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(IN) The Indianapolis Star – In mid-August, President Barack Obama visited Northern Indiana to announce $2.4 billion in stimulus funds to benefit the green vehicle industry. The money will go to companies and institutions to develop advanced batteries and other components used to increase the number of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles. Our share, Obama announced, will include $416 million in grants to Hoosier companies and universities. Indiana is the second-largest recipient of funding for advanced vehicles; Michigan is the first. More

Echo

Five more solar job openings in Midland

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(MI) The Mudpuppy – A new Evergreen Solar facility in Midland is hiring, again.The company has posted openings for five jobs so far this month. The openings are for three process technicians and two production shift supervisors.  The plant will make a patented product called String Ribbon for use in photovoltaic panels. More

Energy

Grant would help Sterling Heights go green

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – City officials have applied for a $1.2-million federal grant to buy hybrid vehicles and cut energy costs. The funding, from the Department of Energy and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, could be approved this fall. More

Energy

Fuel-efficiency competition is today in Marshall

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(MI) Jackson Citizen Patriot – Eaton Corp. is hosting the 30th annual Society of Automotive Engineers Supermileage competition today in Marshall, where college teams from around the world will race for the best fuel economy. About 40 teams, including Central Michigan University and Michigan Tech, are charged with building a one-person, fuel-efficient vehicle, and the highest miles per gallon wins. More

Energy

Best spots in Michigan for wind turbines: Along Lake Michigan, atop Thumb

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – If you live at the tip of the Thumb or along three stretches of Lake Michigan shoreline, hang on to your hat.  Michigan has determined that the winds in those areas are the breeziest in the state. The Wind Energy Resource Zone Board, created by the Legislature in an energy package passed last year, has identified the four that would be best for wind farm development. More
 
 
 

 

Echo

Car Balk

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(NY) The New York Times – The idea was to nudge innovative retailers into putting enough clean-fuel pit stops in place to create the nation’s longest alternative energy road. On this highway, you could drive from British Columbia to Baja — the entire length — in a car powered by woodchips or algae, ethanol or electricity. West Coast governors, backed by federal officials, imagined a series of stations that would allow drivers to swap out a fresh battery in minutes for electric vehicles, which can go about 100 miles on a charge. And every 60 miles or so would be a station with biofuel of some sort. Much of this, they said over the last two years, could be in place now.

Energy

Toyota: hybrids best ‘green’ car for some time

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(MI) Booth Newspapers – A Toyota executive overseeing research said Thursday a battery breakthrough is needed for electric vehicles to become mainstream, and hybrids will remain the best “green” car choice for some time. His comments came just hours after the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said Toyota’s Prius hybrid was the No. 1 selling vehicle in Japan for May, clinching the top spot for the first time-even though the latest model had been on sale for only half the month. More

Echo

Bills to rise for wind power

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(MI) Detroit Free Press – Consumers Energy customers will begin paying more on their bills to help pay for the utility’s efforts to reach the state-mandated requirement of generating 10% of its power from renewable energy sources. Electricity customers will begin seeing a $2.50 monthly surcharge on their September bills to support Consumers’ Renewable Energy Plan, which calls for 900 megawatts of electricity coming from wind power by 2015. The utility plans to build between 250 and 500 wind turbines in Mason and Tuscola counties to generate 450 megawatts of power. The rest is to be purchased from contractors. More

Energy

Big Oil Warms to Ethanol

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(NY) The New York Times – For decades, the big oil companies and the farm lobby have been fighting about ethanol, with the farmers pushing to produce more of it and the refiners arguing it was a boondoggle that would do little to solve the country’s energy problems.

The erstwhile enemies, it turns out, are gradually learning to get along, as refiners increasingly see a need to get involved in ethanol production. Ethanol, made chiefly from corn, now represents about 9 percent of the country’s market for liquid fuels. And the percentage is growing year after year because of federal mandates. With the nation’s thirst for gasoline, and the ethanol that is blended into it, expected to revive when the economy does, the oil companies want to be in a position to take full advantage. More

Energy

Public invited to nuclear plant issues discussion

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(MI) The Herald Palladium – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold an open house this week to discuss nuclear power issues and answer questions about the 2008 safety assessment for the Cook Nuclear Power Plant. The NRC found the Cook plant near Bridgman met all the agency’s safety objectives in 2008, and its performance was at a level that resulted in no additional NRC oversight. “This meeting allows us to discuss our annual assessment of safety performance with the company and members of the local community,” said Mark Satorius, the NRC’s Region III administrator, in a news release. More