energy efficient Articles
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Business Intelligence for utilities: Five planning strategies
Guest Blogger, Energy Efficiency Markets Business Intelligence is not a new concept to utilities, as the analysis of data is as entrenched in every utility as the concept of providing safe, reliable and affordable power. However, the unique challenge facing utilities today is that there is exponentially more data, from more advanced sources, and dispersed to many more functional areas of the ...
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Efficiency left out of cap and trade
Waxman/Markey’s climate change bill is about 1,400 pages. Its length and complexity, alone, provides fuel for its opponents. Would it stand a better chance of enactment if it encompassed less?For example, would it have been wiser if Congress pursued cap and trade one year and a renewable energy standard another? I’ve asked this question a lot during interviews the past few weeks, and received a ...
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Energy research and the cobbler’s children
Scientific research has brought us products that offer greater energy efficiency. But is research, itself, energy efficient? Evan Mills, staff scientist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, raises this question and points out what may be a largely untapped market for energy efficiency companies: research labs. (See Environmental Science & Technology, ...
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Ghost in green building
In midtown Manhattan, home of the nation’s priciest office space, the equivalent of 16 office towers, each 40 stories high, now stand empty. This statistic, from the Wall Street Journal, underscores the vast damage inflicted on commercial real estate by the economic downturn. Given the ailing market, this hardly seems the time to invest in expensive green upgrades. But a recent report suggests ...
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Next, the air car?
Vehicles account for 26% of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, and 51% of the average household’s daily CO2 output (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/climate.shtml), according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. So, clearly fuel economy is critical to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Big car manufacturers, like GM, Ford and Toyota, have seen a dramatic drop in recent sales. In response, ...
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Light-bulb Liars II: Mercury and CFLs
The Washington Times ran a commentary July 11 that took a swipe at compact fluorescent lights. Titled “Light-bulb liars,” the article warns that broken CFLs are an “environment disaster in your family room” that “could poison the dog, the kid and the wall-to-wall rug.”To underscore the gravity of CFL dangers, the article then takes us through the Environmental Protection Agency’s step-by-step ...
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Golf carts on interstate highways?
If you trust the television images, it appears that soon we will all drive cars the size of golf carts because of Obama’s new fuel standards. Newscast after newscast illustrated the new 35.5 CAFÉ (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standard with a two-seater microcar. In some cases the image was juxtaposed with a threatening-looking SUV, usually black — Darth Vader on his way to crush the ...
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Data center energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon offset investment best practices
Learn how to green your organization’s energy consumption, and achieve both energy savings and public relations benefits with this comprehensive guide. Get actionable advice on energy sustainability from green pioneers in IT. Many IT firms with large data centers and other energy intensive operations are adopting cutting-edge strategies to reduce their substantial energy costs and ...
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Eastern states ready for big EE boost
Several eastern states will see a large injection of cash for energy efficiency after the nation’s first mandatory auction of carbon dioxide allowances September 25.The auction marks the United States entry into the world of capping and trading carbon dioxide emissions. Ten states are participating in the program, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), or more commonly called ...
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Smartest smart meter: The gasoline pump?
Americans do many things well. These things do not include sacrifice of creature comforts. So it came as a surprise to see US Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash) suggest we can avert 20% of our energy use if we take short “military showers” over 20 weeks. Who the heck is going to do that? We already know from Jimmy Carter-era energy policies that lecturing Americans does not result in sustained ...
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Smart meters: Truly a cure for energy blindness?
And now for a dose of reality. No doubt smart meters are a good thing, but even their most ardent fans must admit that a degree of hoopla surrounds these little digital boxes. We hear that if consumers can just see how much power they use in real time, and what it costs, our energy woes will be no more. Smart meters will even cure the blind. The energy blind that is. “It can be ...
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What`s cool about air conditioning
Conservationists often mock Americans for their love affair with the car. But the air conditioner appears to be a growing rival for our affection. Twenty years ago only about one-quarter of US residences had central air conditioning; by 2005 it was up to 62%, according to the United States Census Bureau. http://www.ahrinet.org/ARI/util/showdoc.aspx?doc=703.As a result, for a handful of hot days, ...
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Efficiency’s role in carbon cap-and-trade
We hear a lot about how efficiency will play an increasingly important role as the United States undertakes efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But how does that play out in a practical sense under cap-and-trade programs?The Offset Quality Initiative provides insight in a new white paper on greenhouse gas ...
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Efficiency and the jobs argument
How will the recent bad economic news affect energy efficiency efforts? Will state lawmakers retreat from the many financial commitments made over the last year?It is too soon to know the answer. But one thing is for sure, the industry may have to shift its marketing message. Consumers and politicians typically are keener on protecting the environment in good times than they are in bad.The fact ...
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Why Isn`t the Deep South Green? Or is it?
Everyone is seeking the elusive killer app that will revolutionize energy. Most expect it to be a high tech gadget, or new form of generation or a way to finally store mass quantities of electricity. Not anthropologist Susan Mazur-Stommen. She’s looking in a completely different place: inside our heads, or more specifically inside the heads of those who live in the Deep South. ...
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Energy Star failings: Much ado about something
As suspected, Energy Star appliances do not always live up to their energy savings claims, according to preliminary results of laboratory tests reported his week by the US Department of Energy (DOE). The DOE began testing the appliances after watchdogs raised serious questions about the federal labeling program. The Energy Star seal appears on hundreds of models of refrigerators, air ...
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Electric vehicles: A win for Detroit and EE
At this week’s Detroit Auto Show, electric vehicles are on top. Two of the year’s highest-rated cars are electric. The plug-in hybrid electric Chevy Volt was awarded this year’s “Car of the Year,” just beating out the all-electric Nissan LEAF. But regardless of which car wins, the message is clear: electric cars are generating a lot of excitement. It’s not ...
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All sustainability is local
“All politics is local.” This quote from the late US Congressman Tip O’Neill continues to frame political strategies today. It turns out his premise also applies to environmentalism. All sustainability is local, as a Massachusetts software company reveals in a new application that takes on the complicated task of quantifying the green efforts of corporations. ...
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Energy efficiency in membrane bioreactors
Energy consumption remains the key factor for the optimisation of the performance of membrane bioreactors (MBRs). This paper presents the results of the detailed energy audits of six full-scale MBRs operated by Suez Environnement in France, Spain and the USA based on on-site energy measurement and analysis of plant operation parameters and treatment performance. Specific energy consumption is ...
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Project - Camden Library, Australia
Notice the difference in VLT between In'Flector and the old style totally inefficient blockout shades above that simply heat up and then re-radiate that heat into the building adding to HVAC demands and doing nothing for occupant ...
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