Newton, Mass Signs Historic Green Energy Contract

Newton, Mass has signed an historic contract for all of the city’s electricity customers that is 60 percent from local renewable sources such as solar and wind, significantly reducing Newton’s carbon footprint while also cutting the price customers pay.

This is an additional 46 percent above the state mandate for renewables.

Today’s decision makes Newton the community with the highest percentage of additional local renewable electricity of any municipal aggregation program in Massachusetts. Of the 40 cities and towns with municipal aggregation programs, the closest to Newton’s 60 percent is Brookline’s 39 percent.

Senate Bill Aims to Turn Shumlin’s Green-Energy Goal into Mandate

Former Gov. Peter Shumlin envisioned that one day Vermont would get 90 percent of its energy from renewable sources while cutting consumption by a third. Now lawmakers in the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee want to make that vision the law.

In 2015, Vermont passed a renewable portfolio standard requiring utilities to get an increasing percentage of energy from renewable sources by 2032, with the eventual goal of reaching 90 percent renewable by 2050.

While the legislation required utilities to have 75 percent renewable energy in their portfolios by 2032, the 90 percent renewable target was kept as an aspirational goal only — not law.

Amid Budget Shortfalls, Kansas Legislature Considers Slashing Tax Incentives for Green Energy

Renewable energy groups say two proposals in the Kansas Legislature would threaten the young industry's existence by shortening a lifetime property tax exemption for wind and solar farms and imposing a 4.33 percent excise tax on ethanol fuel and renewable electricity.

The bills emerged in hearings Monday and Wednesday after a proposal to freeze requirements for the share of renewable electricity for the grid.

Bangladesh Must Exploit Green Energy Potential

Bangladesh has strong potential to exploit wind power and meet growing demand for green electricity, analysts said yesterday.

The 700km-long coastline in the coastal region of Bangladesh provides good prospects to develop offshore wind energy, said Anette Galskjøt, commercial counsellor of Danida Business Partnerships of Denmark in Bangladesh.  

Rooftops to Deserts: How Policy Directs the Growth of Renewables

Dropping costs and increasing consumer demand are expanding the market for renewable energy. Policy is shaping it.

Specific policies are designed to drive growth of particular types of renewable projects. This piece will provide an overview of the major policies that impact the three different types of grid-connected projects: retail distributed generation, wholesale distributed generation, and central generation.

Globally, the most effective market-based policy to bring cost-effective renewable energy online focuses on wholesale distributed generation. In the U.S., well-known federal tax credits, like the Investment Tax Credit (ITC), apply across these market segments. Most of our energy policies, however, focus either on retail distributed generation or central generation.

Bangladesh approves Clean Energy Act, 2012

The Cabinet on June 18 approved the draft of Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority Act, 2012 aiming to increase the production and use of green energy in the country.

The approval was given at the regular weekly meeting of the cabinet held at Bangladesh Secretariat with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the government has initiated the renewable energy law framing to bring use of the renewable energy under a legal framework as use of the renewable energy including biogas and solar energy have been increased in the country in recent years.

New tax break strategy for green energy

If you can't beat Big Oil, join 'em. That's part of a pragmatic new green energy strategy that seeks tax breaks for renewable power that were once limited to fossil fuels and biofuels.

Energy experts view the effort as a realistic approach to Congress' partisan gridlock. Demands to kill all tax subsidies for oil, gas and coal are out. Attempts to extend those subsidies throughout the entire energy industry are in.

Bill introduced to spur green energy

A freshman U.S. Democratic senator thinks he may have found a way to encourage investment in wind, solar and biofuel projects without sapping too many taxpayer dollars or injecting new venom into a bitter partisan battle over energy incentives.

Chris Coons introduced legislation on Thursday that would allow a broad range of renewable power generation and transmission projects to qualify for a tax structure used widely by pipeline and other energy-related companies.

Maine: Governor proposes energy package

Gov. Paul LePage has delivered his promised energy plan for Maine, in the form of four bills he wants approved before the session ends next month. As Mal Leary reports, the governor is touting the package as a way to lower the cost of power.

LePage has said repeatedly that he believes consumers in Maine, both commercial and residential users, are paying too much for their electricity. Since last fall he has been saying he would introduce a package of bills to address that issue this session. One would change the definition of a "renewable energy source" under state law.

Vermont: Committee starts over on renewable power bill

Legislation that would require utilities to purchase green energy will go back to the drawing board, according the chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources and Energy.

The bill, H.468, would have required utilities to purchase 80 percent of their power from qualifying renewable sources in 2025.

The bill set out ambitious goals for utilities, but after weeks of testimony, the second draft eased these qualifications by requiring 75 percent renewables by 2032. Thirty-five percent of those would have to come from “new” generation that came online after Dec. 31, 2004.

Bangladesh: New policy fires up solar energy business

A government policy to promote renewable energy has lured a large number of new entrants into the business, particularly for solar panel installations, sector people said.

In the last two years, nearly 100 firms and NGOs have appeared on the scene to sell technologies including solar home systems, irrigation pumps, water heaters, street lights and their accessories and batteries.

CA bill explores renewable energy via traffic

L.A.'s much-loathed, incessant traffic may actually benefit society and the environment should Governor Jerry Brown pass a renewable energy bill by Assemblyman Mike Gatto (D-Silver Lake). The bill would require the California Energy Commission - the state's primary energy policy and planning agency - to explore generating green electricity from passing cars, trucks and trains.

California adopts new green energy laws

California Gov. Jerry Brown signed three bills into law meant to encourage the use of solar energy and other renewable resources in the nation's most populated state.

The governor went to Marshall Elementary School in Fowler, Calif., on Thursday to showcase the beneficiaries of SB 585, which helps school districts finance solar installations on school buildings through a $200 million grant to the California Solar Initiative.

USA: SMUD push to change renewable energy law on hold until 2012

A last-minute push by Sacramento Municipal Utility District to change the state's green energy law has been put on hold until next year.

Assembly Bill 391, by Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, would help utilities comply with a law requiring all utilities to get one-third of the electricity from green sources by 2020 by giving them credit for renewable energy sources already acquired.

UK: Green energy policies could add £300 to household fuel bills

Downing Street advisers have warned that green energy policies could add £300 to annual household fuel bills, putting them on a collision course with the energy secretary, Chris Huhne.

Ben Moxham, David Cameron's senior policy adviser on energy and environment and a former BP employee, said claims by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that a 30% rise in fuel bills by 2020 would be offset by lower energy consumption through energy efficiency were "unconvincing".

Investors confused by new energy laws

The green energy law that will become effective in 10 months still has to clarify some important issues, such as the new rules for utilities that form monopolies and the prices paid for “clean” energy, in order to allow investors to make long-term plans, according to analysts.

“Though symbolically ground-breaking, there remain some unanswered questions regarding cost, surrounding infrastructure and regulation,” said a Japanese strategist in a report on the bill.