Sempra Generation has conjured up a market plan for producing merchant photovoltaic (PV) power that is inspired. Working with First Solar, Sempra has developed a finely tuned and standardized 1-MW PV power block that can be replicated as needed. Sempra built the modular PV plant on land adjacent to an existing gas-fired plant to shorten the development period, piggyback the power directly to the grid, and enable existing staff to manage the combined plants’ operation.

By Kennedy Maize WASHINGTON, Nov. 19, 2009 — This blog has highlighted my concerns about the security of the smart grid for many months. Now, there’s a new potential problem with the smart grid: privacy. Washington Post technology security writer Brian Krebs, in a recent posting, notes that “privacy experts are warning that the so-called […]

On Monday, a number of leading U.S. business executives ─ including Carlos Ghosn, president and CEO of Nissan Motor Company; David W. Crane, president and CEO of NRG Energy; and Frederick W. Smith, chairman, president, and CEO of FedEx Corporation ─ convened to announce the formation of the Electrification Coalition. The coalition describes itself as  a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization committed to promoting policies and actions that will facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale in order to combat the economic, environmental, and national security vulnerabilities caused by our nation’s dependence on petroleum.

Senators Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Jim Webb (D-Va.) on Monday introduced a climate and energy bill that proposes to spend $20 billion over the next 20 years to fund a series of nuclear-oriented provisions. These include nuclear loan guarantees, workforce development, and reactor-lifetime extensions.

The current sluggish U.S. economy is now being reflected in the country’s overall production of electricity. On Nov. 13, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report that concludes net generation of electricity in the U.S. was down for the 13th consecutive month compared to the same calendar month in the prior year.

On Monday in his speech at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ annual convention, Exelon Chairman and CEO John W. Rowe said that current legislative proposals on climate will minimize costs to consumers while addressing the looming threat of global warming.

Held in New Orleans from Monday through Wednesday, the Brownfields 2009 Conference is the largest conference in the U.S. focused on environmental revitalization and economic redevelopment of contaminated land, which are known as brownfields. This year’s conference focused several sessions on the topic of placing renewable energy projects such as wind farms and solar energy facilities on brownfields and old mining sites in order to make these sites productive again.

On Nov. 12, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced projects selected for more than $24 million in grants to research and develop technologies to produce biofuels, bioenergy, and high-value bio-based products. For this program, the DOE plans to invest up to $4.9 million and the USDA intends to contribute up to $19.5 million. Advanced biofuels produced through this funding are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% compared to fossil fuels.

On Friday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) cleared 564 enforcement cases submitted in an omnibus filing by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Commission-approved reliability organization.

Several clean energy and climate change–related agreements resulted from President Barack Obama’s trip to China. The three main areas addressed by the agreements are coal, energy efficiency, and electric vehicles.