Saturday, February 10, 2007

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Ideas wanted; giant CO2 vacuum cleaner for the atmosphere!

LONDON (Reuters) - Airline tycoon Richard Branson announced on Friday a $25 million prize for the first person to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming.

Flanked by climate campaigners former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell, Branson said he hoped the prize would spur innovative and creative thought to save mankind from self-destruction.

"Man created the problem and therefore man should solve the problem," he told a news conference to reveal the Virgin Earth Challenge.

"Unless we can devise a way of removing CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the earth's atmosphere we will lose half of all species on earth, all the coral reefs, 100 million people will be displaced, farmlands will become deserts and rain forests wastelands."

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California Green Solutions for business

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Ideas wanted; giant CO2 vacuum cleaner for the atmosphere!

LONDON (Reuters) - Airline tycoon Richard Branson announced on Friday a $25 million prize for the first person to come up with a way of scrubbing greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere in the battle to beat global warming.

Flanked by climate campaigners former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and British ex-diplomat Crispin Tickell, Branson said he hoped the prize would spur innovative and creative thought to save mankind from self-destruction.

"Man created the problem and therefore man should solve the problem," he told a news conference to reveal the Virgin Earth Challenge.

"Unless we can devise a way of removing CO2 (carbon dioxide) from the earth's atmosphere we will lose half of all species on earth, all the coral reefs, 100 million people will be displaced, farmlands will become deserts and rain forests wastelands."

California Green Solutions for business

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Alt energy Players and Policies...to come!


In recent months, venture capitalists have met with most of the 2008 presidential candidates, members of Congress, and officials in the Bush administration and the Energy Department, pushing their ideas for things like tax subsidies and efficiency requirements.

PLAYERS:
Cleantech Group, a research and trade organization representing venture investors in alternative energy.

Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit organization, noting that the investors are also major potential donors: Ken Cook, president

In 2006, venture capitalists put $727 million into 39 alternative energy start-ups, compared with $195 million in 18 such firms for 2005, according to the National Venture Capital Association. More than a third of the 2006 investments went to technologies related to ethanol, a gasoline alternative that is made from corn and other plant material.

One venture-backed ethanol start-up is Altra, a 50-employee company based in Los Angeles. It offers a twist on ethanol production by making the fuel from nonedible plant matter, producing what is known as cellulosic ethanol....John Denniston, a partner at the Silicon Valley investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers invested in Altra.

Kleiner Perkins has formed the Greentech Innovation Network to bring together entrepreneurs, scientists, academics and policy makers.

The National Venture Capital Association has a committee focused on energy policies.

The most visible lone ranger and one of the most outspoken is Vinod Khosla, a founder of Sun Microsystems and now a partner at Khosla Ventures.


POTENTIAL GOVERNMENTAL POLICY CHANGES:

* Government could require that cars be able to run on either ethanol or gasoline, requiring that 70 percent of new cars sold in the United States by 2010 be able to use more than one type of fuel.

* Government could mandate that 10 percent of gas stations have at least one ethanol pump

* Government could set up a national carbon trading system that would increase demand for ethanol by forcing companies to find greener alternatives to oil and gas.

* Government could change the so-called blender’s credit, a 51-cents-a-gallon subsidy that goes to the company that mixes gasoline with ethanol, typically one of the major gas companies. This money could go to producers. The subsidy to rise when the price of oil falls, or drop when oil prices rise.

Friday, February 09, 2007

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Datacenter utility savings are being coordinated in California


PG&E Pushes for High-Tech Energy Savings
Source: GreenBiz.com

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 7, 2007 -- Pacific Gas and Electric Company announced today that it is leading the formation of a nationwide coalition of utilities to discuss and coordinate energy efficiency programs for the high tech sector, focusing on data centers.

"We have developed program and service offerings for the information technology industry, and sharing our knowledge with other utilities will drive energy savings and environmental benefits more widely in this rapidly expanding market," said Roland Risser, Director of Customer Energy Efficiency at PG&E.

PG&E offers a comprehensive portfolio of program and service offerings for the high tech sector, including financial incentives for customers who pursue energy efficiency projects in their data centers. The company was the first to offer incentives for virtualization and server consolidation, a program that is prompting customers to remove underutilized computing equipment using virtualization technology.

PG&E has already undertaken coordination efforts with Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric so that program offerings are consistent across the state, and is now reaching out to utilities in key markets across the country.

"The Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and Northeast are on the top of our list, because these areas have the greatest concentrations of data centers," said Mark Bramfitt, High Tech Segment Manager for PG&E.

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