Headline: http://koha.net/?page=1%2C3%2C76949
350.org link to the subject: http://www.350.org/
RAEL Projects
Sustainable Energy Options for Kosovo: An analysis of resource availability and cost
Berkeley Rural Energy Group (BREG)
About BREG
The Berkeley Rural Energy Group (BREG) is a network of more than 45 NGO, private sector, and university experts located in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA. The mission of the Berkeley Rural Energy Group is two-fold. First, to better network the intellectual community in the Bay Area who are working on remote energy access in developing countries. Second, to provide expertise in energy development to outside foundations, NGOs and companies who are interested in enabling remote energy access in developing country communities.
Links:
Clean Energy Financing
A number of cities and counties across the U.S. are launching programs to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades for homes and businesses. RAEL is supporting these efforts through research, consulting, and the creation of educational tools. This project focuses on what we call Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) which covers the up-front costs for energy efficiency improvements and installation of solar energy systems for residential and commercial properties within a city or county. The property owner then repays the cost of these installations over 20 years through a special fee on their property tax bill.
Check out our summary proposal for privately-managed PACE here: http://rael.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/2011_RAEL_PACESummary.pdf
Replacing coal with renewables in Malaysia
Malaysian locals, environmentalists, and RAEL Director Dan Kammen have won the battle against a controversial coal plant in the Malaysian state of Sabah in northern Borneo. The Malaysian State and Federal government finally announced after a long struggle that they would "pursue other alternative sources of energy, namely gas, to meet Sabah's power supply needs." Proposed for an undeveloped beach on the north-eastern coast of Borneo, the coal plant, according to critics, would have threatened the Coral Triangle, one of the world's most biodiverse marine ecosystems, and Tabin Wildlife Reserve, home to Critically Endangered Sumatran rhinos and Bornean orangutans. Local fishermen feared that discharges from the plant would have imperiled their livelihood.
CoolClimate Carbon Footprint Calculator
The CoolClimate Calculator has been designed to help US households evaluate their complete climate footprints, including all direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation, household energy, food, goods and services. See the calculator
Coverage in the news:
ABC News: Here's how you can reduce your carbon footprint
Treehugger: Yet another study confirms that transportation and location matter most
Berkeleyside: Measuring a Berkeleyan carbon footprint
California Watch: Carbon footprint varies by location, income
Green Jobs
How many jobs can renewable energy sources and energy efficiency generate as a function of RPS and demand scenarios to 2030? In this project, we synthesize data from 15 jobs studies to build an analytical job calculator for the U.S. power sector. We also include low carbon sources such as nuclear power and carbon capture and storage.
NEW! The Green Jobs Report published in the Energy Policy is available for download below: "Putting Renewables and Energy Efficiency To Work: How Many Jobs Can The Clean Energy Industry Generate in the U.S.?"
Copenhagen Climate Council Report and Green Jobs Calculator also available for download below.
Contacts:
Max Wei (maxcjwei @ gmail . com)
Prof. Dan Kammen (kammen @ berkeley . edu)
Shana Patadia (shanapat10 @ gmail. com)
Links:
The Energy-Poverty-Climate Nexus
Close to two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas. Eradication of rural poverty depends on increased access to goods, services, and information, targets detailed in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. However, alleviating poverty is hindered by two interlinked phenomena: lack of access to improved energy services and worsening environmental shocks due to climate change
Mitigating climate change, increasing energy access, and alleviating rural poverty can all be complementary, their overlap defi ning an energy-poverty-climate nexus. We describe interventions in a rural Nicaraguan community to show that energy services can be provided in cost-effective manners, offering potential to address aspects of rural poverty while also transitioning away from fossil fuel dependence.
Recent Press Coverage:
Revenue Investment of California’s GHG Emissions Trading Program
In anticipation of the California Air Resources Board (CARB)’s upcoming decision over a greenhouse gas emissions trading program, Next 10, a nonprofit nonpartisan research organization, commissioned five research papers from leading academic experts to address the multibillion dollar issue of how California should distribute greenhouse gas allowances and the resulting revenue.
RAEL Researcher Jamil Farbes and Lab Director Dan Kammen produced in this context a study entitled "Government Investment in a Clean Energy Future".
Key findings include:
Virtual Electric Vehicle (EV) Test Drive
WANT TO SIGN UP TO BETA TEST THE VIRTUAL EV TEST DRIVE? SEND AN EMAIL TO BETA@VEVDRIVE.COM
Now is the time for a surge in EV education and ‘success stories’ from early adopters
In just six months, major automakers will initiate one of the greatest experiments in modern automotive history: the roll-out of the mainstream electrified vehicle (EV). Over 30 models of EV are expected by 2013. The Virtual EV Test Drive project addresses three major education-based barriers which confront a consumer’s decision to buy an EV:
Switch
Planning low-cost, high-penetration renewable energy investments through application of the Switch computational model.
With Switch (a loose acronym for Solar, Wind, Hydro and Conventional generators and Transmission), one can explore development options for the future electricity grid throughout the United States. The model identifies cost-effective investment decisions for meeting future electricity demand, taking into account the existing grid as well as projections of future fuel costs, technological developments, renewable energy potential, and proposed policies. Early results for California indicate the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard can be met with no additional cost to consumers. We are actively expanding the model to the rest of the United States as well as gathering data for China.
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