After hearing about 70 speakers support or oppose nuclear power and the completion of the half-finished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, the TVA board voted unanimously on Thursday to restart construction. The nine-member Tennessee Valley Authority board also authorized paying for Bellefonte’s completion by selling the nearly complete Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear reactor in Rhea County…
Clean energy stocks are approaching a floor after European austerity measures and cheap U.S. natural- gas pushed wind and solar companies lower, Impax Asset Management Ltd. said. The industry offers value for investors after the WilderHill New Energy Index fell 20 percent this year, investment manager Lee Clements said. Vestas Wind Systems A/S, the world’s…
Now that declining budgets have reduced the outlook for federal largesse, what big ideas might help to continue growth among solar, wind and other clean energy industries? With the help of his sources in the “the renewables and efficiency space,” Climate Progress’ Stephen Lacey came up with five priorities for “business-oriented” policies that could keep…
The amount of venture capital put into green-tech companies plummeted in the second quarter amid talk of investors leaving the sector and the need for start-ups to rework their financing plans. Ernst & Young earlier [last week] released the latest venture capital investment dollars, which showed a 44 percent decline compared to the same period…
U.S. government support for renewable energy may plunge from record levels, setting back the use of wind and solar power before they can compete on their own with oil, gas and coal. Direct spending, tax breaks and research funding pushed federal renewable-energy subsidies to $14.7 billion in 2010, according to Alan Beamon, director of the…
States across the country are gradually forcing or cajoling their electric companies into buying renewable energy, but the trend has fallen flat in the Southeast. The map is striking. Of the 11 states that haven’t set even voluntary targets on how much alternative energy utilities must buy, eight of them are Southern states — Alabama, Arkansas,…
Southern Co., the largest U.S. power company, would need to spend $13 billion to $18 billion through 2020 upgrading its coal-fired plants if U.S. EPA goes ahead with new and proposed rules for the power sector, the utility said yesterday. [Thursday] was the deadline to comment on a high-profile proposal from the Obama administration, known…
The concept of a net-zero energy building isn’t exactly new. Over the past 10 years several examples have been developed around the U.S., many of which come in at well under 10,000 square feet. But, the opening of the 220,000-sq.-ft. National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Research Support Facility in Golden, Colo., earlier this year is showing…
Longtime environmental leader John Sibley III is joining Southface Energy Institute as a senior policy fellow, I learned today at the Sustainable Atlanta Roundtable. An Atlanta native and Yale-educated lawyer, Sibley has a long track record of playing at the highest levels in Georgia environmental politics and policy. He’s a former president of the Georgia…
Early indications show that the renewable energy industry stands to lose some serious ground in the debt ceiling deal that has gripped Washington for the better part of a month. The first warning sirens sounded as July came to an end and House Republicans unveiled their wish list for environmental cuts. But as July turned…
