Environment Killer Hiding in Our Buildings

Every morning you are the first to arrive to work.  You unlock the doors, shut off the alarm, turn on the lights and start the coffee maker.  As you make your way to your desk you haven't a clue that you have just enabled one of the biggest polluters of the planet.  I am talking about your lights. 

True, your lights don't have a tailpipe and they don't emit exhaust but they consume electrical energy in order to produce light.  It is the electrical consumption of the buildings lighting system that is causing environmental pollution.  The lights use electricity at a rate far greater than you could guess.  Current figures from the EPA show that a buildings lighting system accounts for approximately 30% of a buildings total energy consumption.

October 29, 2007

Violent lunatics bent on the destruction of western civilization are one thing. Silent computer hackers who can whittle away at the nation's infrastructure are another.

Federal and industry experts say that the technology that allows utilities to run their operations is more vulnerable now than ever before. Because those networks are becoming increasingly standardized and linked to other centralized systems, they can be more easily breached and the resulting disturbances can be enormous.

DTE Energy and Ann Arbor's music venue The Ark Thursday announced a  partnership to promote renewable energy in Michigan.

November will be Green Energy month at The Ark. During the month, all electricity used at the concert venue will be offset by renewable power provided under DTE Energy's GreenCurrents renewable energy program.

Additionally, anyone who enrolls in GreenCurrents at The Ark in November will receive a free music CD or a ticket to an upcoming Ark performance.

Investor confidence in clean technologies is on the rise, according to the latest quarterly venture capital investment report from the Ann Arbor-based Cleantech Network.

Investment in cleantech reached an all-time high as venture capitalists in North America and Europe invested a record $1.74 billion in the third quarter.

This brings the year-to-date level of investment in cleantech to $3.64 billion, a 13 percent increase over the same period in 2006. Cleantech Network will discuss more details at Cleantech Forum XIV now under way in Toronto.

October 26, 2007

Electricity is the invisible commodity. But it's now in the limelight. Energy infrastructure has been labeled inadequate and ill-prepared to enable American businesses to compete in a global economy. While it may be an eye-opening idea, the difficulties in pushing ahead remain formidable.

A new report by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) discusses at length why the bulk power system is stretched thin and why it is operating closer to its limits than ever before. Its message is that the nation is still short generation and transmission. Improvements, no doubt, have occurred in some regions, but in others the problems are real and will ripple through their local economies.