To those in the climate change field the name Mark Z. Jacobson needs no introduction. The director of the Atmosphere and Energy Program at Stanford University is credited with having written the book on computer modeling for atmospheric changes, as well as being a recognized expert in the impacts of energy production and a staunch supporter of renewables.

It's been a busy six weeks since I last updated readers on the news events driving my Ten Clean Energy Stocks for 2013 and six alternative picks. I looked into the performance of the portfolio as a whole at the start of the month, along with some comments about the four renewable energy developers. I thought at the time we might be seeing a bottom for these beleaguered stocks, but if I was right, we have yet to see the upturn. Nevertheless, the fundamental factors I discussed are still in place.

Walk into any panel discussion at a geothermal power event and you will often hear about barriers hindering geothermal development. In spite of the obstacles, the geothermal industry has grown and adapted to adversity, and it is unfortunate when more attention is not given to geothermal power’s technological accomplishments and the long-term potential. Today, 73 countries across the globe are actively engaged with the geothermal energy sector, showing that more governments, utilities, and industry stakeholders are recognizing the long-term value geothermal power can bring to their power systems.

In early 2013, a group of women, dubbed the Women in Power committee, assembled in Orlando, Florida to figure out how to honor women who have dedicated their careers to the power industry. The industry is male-dominated with men making up more than 75 percent of the workforce, according to some estimates. The Women in Power committee believed that it was time to give recognition to the pioneering women who have worked to advance the power industry. To do this, the committee decided to allow anyone in the industry to nominate a woman for a Woman of the Year Award, which would be given out at POWER-GEN International. To judge the nominees, the committee came up with three focus areas.

StatWeather Founder and President Ria Persad was announced as the recipient of Renewable Energy World and Power Engineering’s first POWER-GEN Woman of the Year Award last Monday during the Annual Awards Gala at POWER-GEN International.

Brazil's latest A-3 auction, matching up developers and power purchasers to prepare renewable energy projects to meet the nation's electricity demand by 2016, was a landslide win for wind energy -- but a shutout for solar, which was included in the process for the first time.

In the global competition for appealing clean energy solutions, a leading entry is the new West Village at the University of California at Davis (UC Davis), which today celebrated significant progress toward its goal of becoming the largest planned “zero-net energy” community in the United States.

There are no plans for new coal plants to be built in the United States. This opens doors for the geothermal industry possibly more than ever before in U.S. history. In an Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecast to 2018, coal was one of the top-cost commissioning technology options; geothermal was one of the lowest.

The geothermal heat pump (GHP) industry prides itself on offering an efficient, environmentally friendly technology for satisfying the thermal loads of buildings. To do so, a GHP system relies on circulating water through pipes placed underground (either vertically or horizontally) to tap the natural heat retained by the earth.

Talks between Germany and Norway about how to boost the trading of electricity from renewable sources are being held up by concerns that the power cable running under the North Sea won’t ever make money.

What’s a beleaguered utility to do when forced by the government to close its profitable nuclear power plants?

Clean energy investment rose by 9 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier on surging demand for rooftop solar panels from the U.S. to Japan.

The Obama administration is considering cutting greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants by reaching beyond the plants themselves — an unusual approach that could run afoul of anti-pollution laws.

The top hydroelectric power news for May 2014

Iceland is moving closer to plugging European homes into the volcanic island nation’s geothermal and hydropower reserves via what would be the world’s longest power cable, according to the country’s largest energy producer.

Renewable energy may reap as much as two-thirds of the $7.7 trillion in investment forecast for building new power plants by 2030 as declining costs make it more competitive with fossil fuels.

Turbine rehabilitation at the 112 MW Ohakuri Hydro Power Station in New Zealand was owner Mighty River Power's most complex program of works of any it had previously performed.

Kenya Electricity Generating Co., the East African nation’s biggest power producer, plans joint ventures to complete its geothermal projects in Olkaria, Chief Executive Officer Albert Mugo said.

Peru’s government is set to announce plans for a renewable-energy auction during a global climate conference to be held next month in Lima.

The Brazilian government is seeking to award contracts in an auction tomorrow for natural gas- and coal-fueled power plants, reversing a drive that previously favored renewable-energy projects. It would lead to the first new thermal plants in three years, after the government scaled back such projects and awarded wind contracts starting in 2009 and solar energy earlier this year.

The advice that Pennwell’s 2014 Woman of the Year, Mary Powell, gave to women in the power industry during Tuesday’s Women in Power Luncheon might come as a surprise to some. It was this: Stop undercutting each other. Powell said the most difficult obstacles she has encountered in her various leadership roles have not come from men, but rather from other women. Small comments like “I don’t know how you do it [being a mom and holding a high-level job]”, serve to bring doubt and uncertainty to high achieving women in any industry, and ultimately can lead to women exiting their careers in order to fit what they perceive is the societal norm.

Germany’s utilities, battered by the country’s shift to wind turbines and solar panels, would be glad to sell you a power plant on the cheap. They’ll even pack it up and ship it to another country.

Actress Natalie Portman, environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and other high-profile Harvard University alumni are calling for demonstrations to urge divestment from fossil fuels.

Sweden and Norway agreed to boost their target for renewable energy production amid concerns the additional capacity will exacerbate a power glut and strain the region’s electricity grid.

Beijing, where pollution averaged more than twice China’s national standard last year, will close the last of its four major coal-fired power plants next year.

U.K. electricity from low-carbon sources accounted for almost a quarter of the country’s generation in the fourth quarter as Drax Group Plc converted a second coal-power plant to burn wood.

Global investment in clean energy slumped 15 percent in the first quarter to the lowest level in two years because of a decline in wind and utility-scale projects.

Australia’s largest electricity producer committed to close its coal-fired power plants within 35 years as part of an effort to cut the nation’s dependence on the fossil fuel.

A $2 trillion push in the U.S. to blend renewable energy into the power supply and fortify transmission lines against extreme weather means that Americans must act more like Europeans to keep their power costs down.

Japan anticipates that by 2030 clean energy such as solar and hydro will generate slightly more of the nation’s electricity than nuclear power plants.

The secretary general of the United Nations is frustrated with the pace of negotiations for what’s intended to be a crucial agreement limiting global warming.

Climate change pledges submitted so far from the world’s leading economies won’t be enough to keep the planet from warming dangerously, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday in New York.

Proposals to reduce heat-trapping emissions need to be “a floor, not a ceiling,” he said.

The global increase in temperatures will exceed 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) under the national pledges already submitted to UN, Ban said. That’s the goal scientists and the UN have set to avoid the worst effects due to global warming.

The proposals submitted to date “will not be enough to place us on a 2-degree pathway,” Ban said.

Without any changes to global emissions, the world is on track to warm by 4 degrees Celsius or more, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change Janos Pasztor said earlier this month.

World leaders have five months to go before a meeting of almost 200 nations in Paris that’s intended to seal a new global pact to cut planet-warming carbon emissions. If successful, the agreement would be the first ever to require both developed nations like the US and growing economies like China to address climate change.

“The pace of UN negotiations are far too slow,” Ban said. “It’s like a snail’s pace.”

The U.S., the world’s biggest historic source of greenhouse gases, pledged earlier this year to cut its emissions by as much as 28 percent by 2025. The European Union has promised a 40 percent cut by 2030. Several other major economies, including Australia and Japan, have yet to submit climate plans to the UN.

In the case of the Fossil Fuel Industry, et. al. VS Earth, et. al., I find myself asking—not for the first time—is justice delayed, justice denied? It should come as no surprise that I am convinced it is.

By the time this column is published, oral arguments in the legal challenge to the Clean Power Plan will have already been made. The en banc panel of 10 appeals court judges is not likely to render its decision before the New Year.  No matter the opinion, it will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

A trade agreement with China will give European companies the opportunity to compete in the Chinese solar power market, the EU's trade commissioner said.

We have been through a very significant period of change for Employment Tribunals over the past two years: with the introduction of fees, pre-claim conciliation and new Tribunal Rules, all of which are likely to reduce the number of Tribunal claims ...

In August the Government announced plans for new laws to ensure all public sector workers in public-facing roles speak fluent English (or, in Welsh authorities, English or Welsh). Further details of the proposals have now been revealed in the Immigr...

A recent Employment Appeal Tribunal decision (The Mayor and Burgess of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets v Mr J Wooster) has found a local authority liable for unfair dismissal and age discrimination where it made insufficient effort to redeploy a...

The Welsh Ministers have recently issued The Welsh Authorities Staff Transfers (Pensions) Direction 2012, under powers contained in Section 101 of the Local Government Act 2003 (the “2012 Direction”).  The 2012 Direction came into f...

Realisation of security by mortgagees is a hot topic in current economic circumstances, and Horsham Properties Group Ltd v Clark is a case that underlines that mortgagees' powers can sometimes appear draconian. In this case, the mortgagee appointed...

Boko Haram: Brigadier General Idris Dambazzau (ret.), in this interview, reviews war against insurgency, saying expansion of manpower, overhauling of the Defence Ministry and robust intelligence community would make a difference.

The post Our troops are using Shagari era weapons to fight Boko Haram – Dambazzau appeared first on Vanguard News.

Johannesburg - At least 500 000 people took advantage of the inter-province travel window period and returned to Gauteng by Thursday, as the country’s economy began opening, said premier David Makhura. Throughout the seven-day interval that began on May 1, meant for the return of individuals who left the province before the lockdown kicked off on March 26, officials set up various roadblocks on provincial border roads to screen and also test those suspected for having Covid-19. “More than half a million people moved into Gauteng. In those roadblocks,...

The former Buccaneers assistant coach feels that his boss at the Chilli Boys doesn’t get the credit he deserves for the financial support he provides ......

Cape Town - Health Minister Zweli Mkhize on Saturday descended on the Western Cape as pressure mounted on the national government to intervene in the coastal province that has recorded more than half of the country’s Covid-19 infections. This after health portfolio committee chairperson Sibongiseni Dhlomo had called for urgent intervention in the spread of the virus while the ANC wanted a return to level 5 of lockdown. Speaking at a press briefing in Cape Town on Saturday, Mkhize said the spread of the virus in the Western Cape was not different from other provinces. He said that the national government would provide more support, such as further training of health-care workers and...

Lucas Leiva can recall a 16-year-old Trent Alexander-Arnold on a 'different level' and his belief early on that the full-back would become one of the best in the world. Lucas was an important member of the Reds squad around the time Alexander-Arnold started to gain a taste of life in first-team football in the 2015-16 and...

The Plateau State Government on Saturday disclosed that most of the cases of COVID-19, which led to the number rising to 15 in state were all imported from outside the state, particularly from Kano and Lagos States. The State Government equally stated that out of the 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the State, 7 […]

COVID-19: Most cases were imported from Kano, Lagos – Plateau Health Commissioner decries

Former Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, has identified Paris Saint-Germain forwards, Kylian Mbappe and Neymar as the natural successor of Barcelona captain, Lionel Messi, and Juventus superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo for the Ballon d’Or (World Best Player award). Messi and Ronaldo are two of the best players in the history of the game. The pair had won […]

Wenger reveals two players to take over from Messi, Ronaldo