About Elisa WoodElisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry's top magazines and newsletters. A correspondent for McGraw-Hill/Platts Energy for two decades, she writes for Electric Power Daily, the Energy Economist, Electric Utility Week and other Platts publications. Elisa serves as US correspondent for Renewable Energy World. Her work also is featured in several other magazines, among them Energy Risk, Environmental Risk and SolarPro. She is the author of PennWell's US Guide to Renewable Energy and the US Guide to Combined Heat & Power and co-author of The Rahus Institute's Customers Guide to Solar Power Purchase Agreements. Elisa also has contributed to several McGraw-Hill Inc. books about the generation and power marketing industries. Her blog appears in Energy Efficiency Markets, which she co-publishes with Lisa Cohn. (See www.realenergywriters.com for a free subscription.) Before beginning her freelance career, she was publications director for Emerson College in Boston and worked as a staff writer for daily newspapers in Colorado and Massachusetts. She has won awards from the New England Press Association, the Iowa Press Association, the National Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, and others. To read her articles, see below. Or email lisawood@aol.com or elisawood@gmail.com. You can follow what she's working on now at twitter.com. Go to ElisaWood. "Green Superhighway: Overhauling the Grid to Accommodate Renewables" US green energy advocates wasted no time. Just one day after President Barack Obama signed a bill giving the industry significant tax incentives, grants and loan support, they went to work on the next logical step: an overhaul of the transmission grid to accommodate a dramatic build-up of renewable energy. "An Energy Revolution by the People" High prices motivate consumers to reduce energy use more than any other factor. So how do you inspire them to conserve when they are not responsible for the bill? John Petersen, director of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College, faced this dilemma when he embarked on a project to reduce electricity use in the Ohio college's dormitories. He found the answer in a crystal ball. "Tough Times Ahead: Will the US Industry Need a New Story?"
The financial credit crunch has replaced global warming as the current cataclysmic worry among consumers. Certainly, at first blush, these latest findings from the Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates (PSB) 2008 Green Brand Survey appear to support the adage that US consumers are environmentalists only when the economy is strong. But this time, the shift in thinking comes with a new and more complicated twist, one that has particular significance for renewable energy. "US power: a cloudy crystal ball" Requires paid subscription. Click here for free trial. Or email lisawood@aol.com for copy of article.
Predicting future supply and demand for electricity is no mean feat. The US Energy Information Administration in its preliminary Annual Energy Outlook 2009 provides a benchmark projection for the business-as-usual case. But if one thing is certain, business is not its usual self. Demand will be hit by recession, while major policy changes appear certain, accelerating the adoption of new behaviors that could radically change the demand outlook for the US power industry.
"Strong prospects for CHP under new US President" The combined heat and power industry appeared poised for unprecedented support in the United States as the new Congress and President took office in January. President Barack Obama has vowed to make energy a foundation of his job-building platform, with efficiency and clean energy its basis. This boost comes after an encouraging 2008 for CHP, with new federal and state policies put in place that favor the resource. "Tax credits boost US solar" Requires paid subscription. Click here for free trial. Or email lisawood@aol.com for copy of article.
For most people in the US, October 3, 2008 will go down in history as the infamous day that Congress approved an unprecedented $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. But for concentrated solar power advocates, it will also be remembered as the day the door swung wide to opportunity. Attached to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 was an unrelated energy bill that included incentives for renewable energy, including an eight-year extension of the solar tax credit. "Reshaping US solar: Growth expected despite economy" Outside the doors of the San Diego Convention Hall the world economy was falling apart, inside Aaron Hall, chief executive of California-based Borrego Solar Systems, was describing the rapid growth of his solar electric contracting firm. Revenue was US$7 million in 2005, $12 million in 2006, $30 million in 2007. For 2008, Hall projected revenue of $60 million, but said it may hit $80 million. 'With the government passing the extension of the solar investment tax credits, we anticipate that 2009 will be another phenomenal year for Borrego and the entire solar industry,' he said. Hall's words - coming in October just after the stock market's record crash and the tumbling of major merchant banks - underscored the rarified business climate renewable energy currently enjoys in the United States. Attendance alone at Solar Power International 2008 spoke volumes about the perceived health of the industry. More than 22,000 people showed up at the California conference, at least twice as many as last year.
"High winds for Texas: Lone Star State is stepping up"
Randall Swisher, the executive director of the American Wind Energy Association, has been telling people for a long time that wind energy is a great idea. And he has seen his efforts help move US wind power, step by step, from a fringe alternative to a mainstream resource. This work took decades, but he suddenly has on his hands what feels like an 'overnight sensation', brought on by a succession of events over the summer that pushed the wind resource to the fore of the American psyche. 'It really does feel like just a huge wave of change is occurring,' he said. 'It was 25 to 30 years getting to this point, but people are waking up. People suddenly recognize that there may be something to this wind stuff.' "Making solar hot water count: Generating green tags with solar hot water"
Solar hot water heating is a bit like the brilliant actor who never wins a blockbuster movie deal. The technology receives great reviews, but has yet to hit the big time in the US energy market. Using the sun to heat water has taken a backseat, in particular, to its sister technology, photovoltaics, which uses sunlight to generate electricity. Indeed, if jobs are an indicator, the US solar electric industry is several times the size of the solar hot water sector. "Customer's Guide to Solar Power Purchase Agreements" The 40-page free guide explains the rapidly growing business model known as the solar power purchase agreement. Using a reader-friendly style and colorful graphics, the straightforward, easy-to-understand digital guide helps organizations throughout the United States understand whether a solar power purchase agreement is right for them. Blog: "Is there romance in energy efficiency?" My mother told me many good reasons why I should get married. She appears to have forgotten one. It's energy efficient. Single people - at least those without roommates - appear to be gobbling up a lot of our energy supply. In fact, one person households are a main cause of consumer energy waste, according to a recent study "Consumer Energy Spending and the Demographics of Over-Consumption" by SMR Research. "No turning back: The US is on the road toward mandatory carbon restrictions",
Clear state leadership from California and elsewhere, public pressure, an insurance industry reeling from the shock of Hurricane Katrina — the US has shifted its thinking on climate change. Elisa Wood examines some of the mechanisms that could restrict carbon emissions, and what they might mean for renewables. "Is wind a disruptive technology?" Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen coined the term "disruptive technology" to describe products that overturn the conventional way of solving problems and doing business. Disruptive technologies often reduce costs and increase efficiencies — but not without causing some pain to the status quo. The Internet was disruptive, as was the airplane, plastic, and probably the wheel. Lately the term has been associated with wind energy, as its robust growth forces a rethinking of grids, resource planning, and regulations Email lisawood@aol.com for a copy of this article "Success on the Horizon: US wind company goes from strength to strength" Horizon Wind Energy is a Cinderella story of the wind industry. Begun as a small family start-up, the company turned heads in March 2005 when it landed the glass slipper. Financial powerhouse Goldman Sachs purchased Horizon, a landmark event often cited by analysts to underscore wind's new standing as serious competition to oil, gas, coal and nuclear generation. Elisa Wood reports. "Tipping point: Is the US wind industry having its 'magic moment'?" Just five years ago, 1,000 people turned out for the American Wind Energy Association's annual conference; this year that figure reached 5,000. Wind is no longer a boutique industry; indeed, it is rapidly evolving into mainstream player, gaining recognition at the highest levels, writes Elisa Wood. "Liberalization under attack: what does it mean for on-site power in the US?" Grousing about restructuring rose to a bellow last year when consumers saw their electric rates double in some states. Critics of competition proclaimed deregulation a failure and went to work trying to persuade decision-makers to return the industry to a utility-centered model. Their arguments caught the attention of lawmakers in key Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern states, areas that along with California led the way restructuring the U.S. electric sector at the end of the last decade. Some state leaders now wonder if they moved too quickly to deregulate electricity markets, and they are taking a hard look at rolling back reforms. Elisa Wood looks at the likely impact on distributed energy. "Blackout threat creates opportunity for DE", New England is running short on power. With California-style blackouts possible within two years, no time exists to build large power plants. Will the region become the nation's next energy embarrassment? Elisa Wood explains why even top federal energy regulators are worried. Watch for these upcoming articles by Elisa Wood "Transmission planning: Caught between the lines" Four years after a cascading blackout shut down much of the Northeast US, affecting around 50 million people and 61,800 megawatts of electric load, discussion continues about how to improve the grid to prevent a repeat performance. Grid operators are no longer talking about just fixing infrastructure, however. Instead, they are laying out a revolutionary strategy known as 'economic transmission planning' to prepare the US for an uncertain energy future. Demand response provides training wheels for a new smart grid Demand response, the process of reducing power use when the grid is overtaxed, is experiencing meteoric growth in US electricity markets. Taking on the role of "virtual power plant", demand response is particularly popular in the current political climate where building the real thing often meets with public opposition. Googling for green energy The computer industry is now awake to world-changing potential of green energy. Elisa Wood writes about how Google, IBM and others are trying to bring the same kind of revolution to energy as they did information technology. "Budget solar: Making green building affordable in California" Raising four daughters on a carpenter's salary made it impossible for John and Robyn Crowhurst to buy a home in California's pricey wine country. Never mind that they'd lived in the area for most of their lives. They were destined to be renters and found themselves packing up their young children six times in seven years to keep ahead of rising housing costs. All that changed when John heard at church about Habitat for Humanity, a 31-year-old organization known worldwide for its push to make "decent shelter a matter of conscience and action." "Why the chase is on for US green tags" It wasn't easy for Brent Haddad to explain green tags, even to energy insiders when he helped conceive the notion back in the mid-1990s. So Haddad, then a college student, decided to create a visual aid. He designed a fake currency on his computer that looked like a dollar bill, but was denominated in megawatt hours. He would hand out the "dollars" at meetings; afterward, he'd collect them. One night, a tag was returned to him with a note scribbled on the back: "This is a stupid idea"! Today, the stupid idea accounts for hundreds of millions of dollars in trades by generators, utilities, wholesale suppliers and retail marketers. Even hedge funds and financial institutions have gotten into the act? "Beyond the PTC: What will drive future US wind development?" A combination of new technology and a changed attitude has the country looking at transmission wires, cars and coal in a whole new way — and the turnaround just might offer some surprising benefits for wind power. Elisa Wood reports. Also see...
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