News: NIREC in the News | Nevada News | Industry News
NIREC IN THE NEWS
NIREC RFP 1 awardee Dr. Mark Mascal explains the need to produce a Biofuel from a feedstock that is unrelated to the human food chain. He also explains a potential methodology he found that will increase the overall yield of fuel produced by oil crops.
New building code requires that all structures be wired for electric car chargers in preparation for the introduction of the first mass-market electric cars from U.S. Automakers. Utility companies are intently focusing on working with automakers to sort out coming issues like reinforcing electric grids and finding locations for charging stations.
A high education attainment-based economy and the concentration of a state's knowledge-based work force are more accurate predictors of a state's prosperity than tax rates. NIREC President and CEO Jim Croce explores recent studies supporting education and knowledge-based jobs as the answer for a sustainable economy.
Attracting renewable energy investment, which will support more knowledge-based jobs was a primary message NIREC's Li Han Chan sought to convey at a forum on job creation at Western Nevada College this week.
The White House organized job forums across the nation this month. The United State Department of Agriculture Rural Development staged one of those forums Thursday in Carson City inside a lecture hall at WNC. About 80 people attended.
NIREC President and CEO Jim Croce stressed the importance for Nevada to work collaboratively to create clean energy jobs to support a more sustainable economy for the state.
Join us on Tuesday, November 3, 2009, when NIREC CEO Jim Croce delivers the keynote at Re-energizing America: 2009 National SBIR / STTR Conference in Sparks, Nevada.
View Jim Croce's presentation at UNLV Renewable Energy Symposium.
Read about the inception of NIREC and how renewable energy research, business and funding are brought together. Get a peak at three of NIREC's projects.
There is a long overdue debate underway in industry and political circles regarding the merits of federal funding for renewable energy (RE) commercialization...
Waste biomass (newspaper, corn stover, straw, and wood) is converted into biofuel precursors and value-added products...
NEVADA NEWS
Adele Morris focuses on energy and natural resource policies related to economics of climate change, and is a fellow and policy director at the Brookings Institution which runs the Brookings Mountain West think tank in partnership with UNLV. In this interview, she examines the delayed effects of climate change and how choices we make today won't impact us for many years.
The Spanish Company that is expanding their Solar Plant in Boulder City, NV received a $2.9 million grant from the United States Government in lieu of a tax credit as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. The grant will allow developers to recoup 30 percent of the cost of building a renewable energy generator. The program allows the company to receive funds much earlier than if they were to wait for tax credits.
The Geothermal Energy Association reported that California currently has more geothermal energy production capacity than any other state in the union, but developers are looking to Nevada to roll out new projects. In the last six months, Nevada completed three new power plants and could add as much as 3,743 Megawatts of geothermal energy in the next decade. Nevada also has less regulation around the permitting process and more suitable locations for geothermal plants.
"Some of the growth that's taken place in our state has been with green jobs. Wind, sun and geothermal industries have the potential to produce thousands of new jobs for Nevadans," said Reid. The senator emphasized his focus on creating jobs by making Nevada the nation's clean energy leader through investments in Nevada’s vast solar, wind and geothermal resources.
The Center for Unique Business Enterprises, better known as CUBE is actively accepting proposals from local entrepreneurs to participate in a local business incubator. Entrepreneurs are methodically matched with mentors, financing, legal advice and other services that will lead to the creation of well-capitalized, well-managed companies. The organizers of CUBE want to develop renewable energy resources, create jobs in Northern Nevada, and spark investment in local companies.
Environmental analyses are being pushed by the Bureau of Land Management to be completed by the end of 2010, so many companies can take advantage of significant tax breaks provided by the American Investment and Recovery Act. These projects will bring many solar, geothermal, wind and transmission projects to Nevada, putting thousands of Nevada construction workers in jobs. The goal of fast tracking these projects is to expedite the process of environmental review process, and push through right-of-way grants for solar, wind and transmission projects.
Sensus, a technology and communications company that provides data collection and metering solutions, has been selected by NV Energy to deploy as many as 1.3 million electric and 155,000 gas meters beginning in 2010. The deployment will benefit 2.4 million customers in Nevada by providing a single smart grid solution that will allow the utility to become closer to the customer.
The Nevada Public Utilities Commission gave NV Energy approval to purchase three long-term agreements to provide the state with renewable energy for the next 25 years. The three agreements consist of a 20 Megawatt solar photovoltaic plant located in Searchlight, Nevada, a 26 megawatt solar photovoltaic plant located in Apex, Nevada, and an 11 megawatt landfill gas project built at the Apex, Nevada Regional Landfill. Each site is expected to be running by 2011.
Green technology is promising to speed economic recovery in the long run for Nevada because of the abundance of renewable resources in the form of geothermal, wind and solar. The state tops the charts in geothermal energy use, and has one of the most aggressive renewable energy portfolios in the nation, planning to have 20 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2015. Nevada is also a very friendly state for starting or expanding a business and has some tax credits for companies involved in producing renewable energy.
Senator Harry Reid announced more than $2.1 million of economic recovery money is headed to the City of Reno to help lower energy bills and create jobs. Funding will be allocated towards the installation of wind turbines on city hall and energy efficient lighting on Vaughn Middle School Park.
INDUSTRY NEWS
The gathering in National Harbor, MD hosted green tech investors, policy makers and scientists, all of whom are focused on hitting the next clean energy "home run". The government run Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) is focused on specific technology goals that could be accomplished within the next few years. The DOE has assembled a top notch team to vet applications, but has turned away around three quarters of applications due to extremely tight competition.
Using historical technology breakthroughs as the model for making new discoveries in clean tech, Secretary Chu delivered the opening key note speech at the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy conference. He announced that ARPA-E is taking solicitations for grid storage technologies, energy efficient air conditioners, and chips to power electronics efficiently. Chu also touched on focusing researchers in a specific area, but allowing them freedoms to work on cutting edge technology which advances innovation.
The Energy Innovation Network will provide links to technologies, entrepreneurs, financing, buyers and policymakers, allowing energy entrepreneurs access to much needed resources. The Network was announced at the Energy Innovation Summit which was co-hosted by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy.
President Obama gave his biggest backing of a renewable energy project yet to BrightSource Energy to build three solar thermal plants that are expected to generate around 400 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 140,000 homes. The company, which has investors such as Google and Silicon Valley fund VantagePoint Venture Partners among its investors, has contracts to deliver more than 2600 megawatts to California utilities PG&E and Southern California Edison.
At a meeting with a bipartisan group of Governors from around the country, President Obama announced a series of steps the Administration is taking to enhance American energy independence. The three measures the President laid out as part of his strategy are a Renewable Fuels Standard, Biomass Crop Assistance Program, and a Biofuels Working Group. The President also announced a Presidential Memorandum for a Comprehensive Strategy on Carbon Capture and Storage.
The $24.8 billion budget was detailed by U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, highlighting the Administration's commitment to provide clean energy jobs, invest in research and innovation, maintain nuclear security, and curb greenhouse gasses. The budget also requests the Department of Energy places more emphasis on fiscal reform.
Carl Schramm, president and CEO of the Kauffman Foundation, delivers the State of Entrepreneurship Address (Video).
Three California companies and one from North Carolina have been awarded funding to support early stage solar energy technologies and their advancement to full commercial scale. Up to $12 million will be invested into the companies by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Laboratory (NREL). The goal of this effort is to help further expand a clean energy economy and make solar energy more cost-competitive with conventional forms of electricity.
Senator Reid seemed to offer hope for the controversial climate sections in an energy bill presented by the Obama administration as he addressed the Geothermal Energy Association Geothermal Energy Finance Forum 2010. The senator also acknowledged that without the current legislation, growth in the geothermal energy sector would have been next to nothing. In addition to bolstering the development of the geothermal sector, the administration's agenda includes extension of tax credits, transmission build-outs, a national renewables mandate, less dependence on foreign oil, coal-generated electricity, and policies to spur private investment.
"America simply doesn't have an efficient system to take new ideas from government, academic and private-sector research labs and translate them into commercially-viable products and businesses," Secretary Gary Locke said.
Locke took part in a meeting of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) on January 7, 2010, pointing to severe weaknesses with the U.S. innovation system.
In terms of approaches to fixing these problems, Locke said that recent boosts to federal R&D spending by President Obama and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are not enough because much of the problem lies in inefficiencies in moving technologies from labs to the marketplace. Locke said the current attitude was: “If we fund it, the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will come.”
"We see billions of dollars flowing into clean-tech, but very few organizations working as effectively as NIREC to make sure that breakthrough products can 'cross the chasm' to commercialization."
- Jim Davis, President, Chevron Energy Solutions
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