Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Thanks, again, to Sipa in DC

For sending us more material for the blog.  Keep up the good work, Sipa, and we encourage everyone to contribute, as you contribute, we hope, to a cleaner, more efficient world:

First story and link:  


Carbon War Room-Brokered Consortium Set to Unlock Multi-Billion Dollar Global Commercial Property Retrofit Market
Ygrene Energy Fund-led PACE Commercial Consortium launches first $650 million retrofit package for commercial property in Miami-Dade County, Florida and Sacramento, California
Sept. 19, 2011, 7:00 p.m. EDT
MarketWatch

Part of the story:

"NEW YORK, Sep 19, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The Carbon War Room, an independent non-profit, founded by Sir Richard Branson, that harnesses the power of entrepreneurs to unlock gigaton solutions to climate change, announced today the launch of a new consortium that will unlock billions of dollars of investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies for US commercial real estate.

The PACE Commercial Consortium (PCC) integrates the program management and engineering best practices of Lockheed Martin, the financial sophistication of Barclays Capital and the pioneering insurance partnership of Energi and HannoverRe in an end-to-end solution administered by the team's leader, Ygrene Energy Fund."

In today's business world, how often do you hear "unlocking billions of dollars of investment"?  Personally, I have not heard that in a long time, but I applaud The Carbon War Room for leading the commercial real estate market into a sustainable future.  Wonderful investment.

Also, take a look at this:


New Report Shows U.S. Solar Outpaces Global Market: PV Demand Grows 69 Percent Year-Over-Year
September 20, 2011
Solar Energy Industries Association

Part of the story:

"BOSTON and WASHINGTON - The U.S. solar energy industry continued its rapid growth through the second quarter of this year, gaining a greater share of the total global market according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)'s latest quarterly U.S. Solar Market Insight report.


Leading the way was the U.S. solar photovoltaics (PV) market, which installed 314 megawatts in the second quarter, 69 percent more than the same period last year and 17 percent more than the first quarter of 2011. The U.S. remains poised to install 1,750 megawatts of PV in 2011, double last year's total and enough to power 350,000 homes.


"The second quarter data illustrates that the U.S. solar industry continues to be one of the fastest growing in America," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. "More than 100,000 Americans are employed in solar, twice as many as in 2009. They work at more than 5,000 companies - the vast majority being small businesses - across all 50 states"


How is it, then, that some of the major solar providers in the US, with great technology and backing from the US Government, fail and collapse into bankruptcy?  Great news on the expansion of our use of solar--very bad news on the business side of manufacturers being much less sustainable than their products.  Why?

We will be looking more closely at both stories on future shows very soon.

Send us your comments, though, in the meantime.

No comments:

Post a Comment