Despite the recession, reports from U.S. renewable industry groups show that the nation’s solar energy industry enjoyed a 36% increase in revenue and overall 5% increase in installations in 2009, while geothermal projects under development grew more than 26%.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the 15th annual U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) inventory report, which shows a drop in overall emissions of 2.9% from 2007 to 2008. The downward trend is attributed to a decrease in carbon dioxide emissions associated with fuel and electricity consumption.

Three nations participating in the Nuclear Security Summit hosted by the Obama Administration in Washington, D.C. this week have agreed to turn over highly enriched uranium (HEU), likely to the U.S. As a result, Ukraine and Mexico will be switching from power plants fueled by HEU to ones fueled by low-enriched uranium (LEU). These commitments follow a secret and at times challenging effort to convey HEU from Chile to the U.S. that was complicated by the earthquake there in February.

The Electrification Coalition (EC) released on Thursday a long-term macroeconomic analysis of the policy proposals put forward in its November 2009 Electrification Roadmap. The paper finds that the U.S. economy would benefit substantially over the long term from implementation of the EC policy package.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy was awarding a total of nearly $100 million for 54 smart grid workforce training programs.

Nearly 90 business, labor, environmental, and government organizations urged Congress on Monday to adopt new tax policies to enhance industrial energy efficiency in order to simultaneously increase manufacturing competitiveness, create jobs, and reduce pollution.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced last Wednesday that it has asked the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to perform a state-of-the-art study on cancer risk for populations surrounding nuclear power facilities. The NRC and the NAS will finalize administrative details through the spring so that the study can begin this summer.

Power4Georgians LLC announced on Thursday that the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) has issued final permits for the operation of Plant Washington, an 850-MW coal-fired energy facility in Washington County, Georgia, in the eastern part of the state about halfway between Macon and Augusta, and approximately 125 miles southeast of Atlanta.

Green2V plans to manufacture solar cells and their frames as well as design, install, operate, and finance the systems, said company CEO Bill Sheppard last Wednesday. By controlling the entire value chain, the company expects to reduce the cost of solar energy.

By Kennedy Maize Washington, April 7, 2010 — The coal mine disaster at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia rips at my heart. The 25 miners who died, and that’s likely to be 29, are the kind of folks I grew up with and lived with a major portion of my life. […]