March 10, 2010

Both the European Union and Russia are planning for more nuclear energy. It's part of their effort to reduce carbon emission levels. With the two powerhouses dependent on each other to accomplish their respective goals, they have agreed to enter into a "nuclear partnership agreement" to assist in nuclear trade and safety-oriented transactions.

Russian nuclear technology is now considered to be advanced. As such, it has become a leading global supplier of nuclear fuels as well as materials and equipment to Europe. With the exception of a few European nations such as Austria, Germany and Sweden that have expressed opposition to more internal nuclear development, the continent as a whole is working to expand the technology. Member states are free to pursue their own policy, although they are obligated to abide by international carbon treaties.

March 08, 2010

Money is tight. But not necessarily for projects involved with increasing energy efficiency. Some innovative financing techniques are emerging to allow customers to make improvements without incurring initial out-of-pocket costs.

Energy efficiency has emerged as the most palpable and least controversial way to make environmental changes. And even though time to earn a return-on-investment is often short, such projects are often sidelined until homeowners or companies figure out ways to pay for them. Policymakers and businesses are therefore joining forces so as to enable the cost-effective implementation of energy-saving techniques.

March 05, 2010

The economic rebound should correlate with that of the electricity sector and particularly the unregulated component of it. But despite months of uncertainty, those "merchant" utilities played it smart by locking in longer-term contracts prior to the downturn.

That's according to Standard & Poor's Rating Service, which took a detailed look at the nation's merchant generators that are unable to pass along their costs to ratepayers but which are able to charge customers based on market rates. The result of such a strategy is that those companies generally have "stable outlooks."

February 19, 2010

Advanced drilling and completion techniques are the critical means by which natural gas developers now hope to probe vast amounts of shale gas, considered by many to be able to fuel much of the country's electric generation for decades to come. But before that aspiration can be achieved, producers must solve the environmental complexities.

At issue is how to retrieve such vast resources without harming water quality. The problem is that the shale is a sedimentary rock that holds natural gas 2,000-12,000 feet deep in the earth. To get it out, developers use a process known as hydraulic fracturing whereby millions of gallons of water and chemicals are pumped into the ground, allowing the natural gas to flow to the wellbore.

February 15, 2010

A critical clean coal project could kick in early this year. FutureGen, which got its start in 2003 but which lost steam late in the Bush administration, purports to be a near zero-emissions power plant that seeks to capture and bury carbon dioxide.

While the Obama administration has been warm to the idea, the facility's odds of getting built are a lot greater now that the president has given it an official thumb's up in his state-of-the-union speech. The central drawback -- the one that caused the previous administration to pull the plug -- is the potential costs. That facet along with setting the criteria to evaluate performance is presently under discussion.