The building of new renewable energy sources continued to outstrip new fossil fuel power plants in Europe and the US during 2009, a report has shown.

The UN-backed study said renewables accounted for 60% of new electricity generation capacity in Europe.

And in the US, green electricity accounted for more than half of the generation capacity built last year.

The authors added that renewables were set to outpace conventional energy sources across the globe next year.

The global status report, produced by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21), said green power had reached a “clear tipping point” during 2010.

New York City Revs Up for Plug-Ins – Green Blog – NYTimes.com

New York City has just unveiled the first of about 100 electric vehicle charging stations to be installed under a national program that aims to have nine metropolitan regions ready when automakers begin rolling out some electric vehicles later this year.
A charger for plug-in cars.Jason Post A new charger for plug-in cars.

The public car-charging station, at an Edison Properties parking facility on Ninth Avenue between 35th and 36th Streets in Manhattan, is part of ChargePoint America, a federally sponsored program that promotes the quick adoption of electric cars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and create jobs. The program envisions 4,600 public and home charging stations around the country by October 2011.

LABC Proposes Los Angeles Solar Feed-in Tariffs | Renewable Energy World

California, United States — The Los Angeles Business Council (LABC) today released a report calling for a modest solar photovoltaic (PV) feed-in tariff program in the City of Angels.

The second of two reports by UCLA’s Luskin Center lays out a detailed economic proposal for creating a multi-tiered system of feed-in tariffs (FIT) for solar PV that would result in 600 MW of solar PV within ten years.

The proposal’s limited objective will contribute to only 3% the city’s electricity supply in 2020. Further, LABC’s proposal considers only solar PV and not any other form of renewable energy.

However, the study itself, Bringing Solar Energy to Los Angeles: An Assessment of the Feasibility and Impacts of an In-basin Solar Feed-in Tariff Program weighs the costs and benefits of a program installing up to 1,000 MW of solar PV by 2020, the equivalent of 5% of electricity supply under conditions in southern California.

UK, France, Germany In New Push For EU To Cut Emissions 30%

LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The U.K., Germany and France Thursday launched a new push for the European Union to commit to a bigger reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 in a bid to help economic recovery and shore up energy security.

In articles published simultaneously in newspapers in three countries, U.K. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne, Jean-Louis Borloo and Norbert Roettgen, his counterparts in France and Germany respectively, set out the economic benefits for increasing the EU’s climate change targets to a 30% cut.

The current EU target is for a 20% reduction from 1990 levels by 2020.

“We’re determined to make the economic case for the EU to cut its emissions by 30% by 2020 as quickly as possible,” Huhne said.

“The current 20% target is not sufficient to encourage companies to make the necessary investment in green technologies and green jobs. The ‘wait and see’ policy of sticking to 20% risks putting Europe in the global slow lane of maximizing low carbon economic opportunities.”

Mass. House OKs streamlining wind power plants – Boston.com

BOSTON—Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a bill designed to streamline the permitting of new wind energy facilities.

The House voted 101-52 in favor of the bill after a debate that stretched over two days.

Opponents had gathered at the Statehouse to pressure lawmakers to reject the measure, which they said takes local control over the projects away from cities and towns.

Supporters defended the bill, saying it preserves local control.

They say it’s easier to permit a fossil fuel power plant in Massachusetts than wind turbines. Backers also said that making the permitting process more predictable will increase the use of renewable energy in Massachusetts.

Nebraska gets quick results with wind energy

Nebraska dropped its line in the water Thursday morning. By noon, on the very first day for its new wind energy program, it had hooked a very big fish.

Chicago-based Invenergy — described by a member of its management team as the largest independent, American-owned wind energy company in the United States — stepped up with plans for a $448 million wind farm in Antelope and Boone counties.

A project that includes 133 wind turbines spread over about 60 square miles –each turbine 400 feet tall and worth $2 million — is happening both because of Nebraska’s reputation as a windy state and because of the potential to export the harnessed energy.

Will ‘Solar Trees’ Sprout in Parking Lots? – Green Blog – NYTimes.com

Envision Solar, a San Diego company, has found a niche in the solar world by building shaded parking areas with solar panels fixed to the roofs. The panels do not track the sun, but they are angled to take advantage of it: they are usually tilted to the south.

But parking lot designers seldom take solar orientation into account when painting the stripes for the parking spaces; the company has sometimes had to realign the parking stalls so that the roofs will have good solar orientation, with the rows of cars running east-west. In the ideal configuration, said Robert Noble, an architect who founded the firm and is its chief executive, the sun rises in the windshield and sets in the back window, or vice versa.

Now Envision is trying out another idea. On Wednesday, it will announce that with financing from the state of Pennsylvania, it is trying out a “solar tree” mounted on a gimbal, a mechanical device with rings mounted on axes at right angles to each other.

Vt. company seeks to install solar power panels – Boston.com

SPRINGFIELD, Vt.—A Springfield manufacturer of precision pumping equipment wants to install what it says would be the largest solar power project in the state of Vermont.

Mark Tanny of IVEK Corp. says that if all goes well, the solar panels will be operational by the end of the year.

The plan calls for 936 photovoltaic panels to be installed on IVEK property. It would have a capacity of 2.4 megawatts of power and be able to produce 90 percent of the company’s electricity.