Kohl’s: My New Favorite Chain

That is, it would be my favorite, if a single store were actually located close to my house. Via GreenerBuildings:

Kohl’s tally of Energy Star-labeled stores now stands at 219, the retailer’s design prototype for stores has been awarded initial LEED Silver certification and three other stores in the chain have attained LEED ratings.

The recognition of Kohl’s green building efforts followed news last week that the company is among the top three purchasers of renewable energy in the U.S., according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Green Power Partnership program.

Before the week closed, the company was pointing to further acknowledgment from the EPA, this time from the agency’s Energy Star program, which singles out commercial buildings and industrial plants in the U.S. with energy efficiency ratings that reach the top 25 percent.

Not Painful News on Clean Tech

Phew, and I thought today was just going to be a depressing one for clean energy. But Green, Inc. perks me right back up:

Secretary of Energy Stephen Chu announced $93 million in funding for American wind energy research and development on Wednesday, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“The goal is to set America on a course for a secure and sustainable energy future,” said Mr. Chu to a crowd assembled at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo. The secretary restated President Obama’s target of generating 10 percent (PDF) of the nation’s electricity from renewables by 2012.

According to energy department statistics, in 2008, wind energy accounted for 42 percent of all new energy generation capacity in the United States.

Of nearly $100 billion in stimulus funds for energy, $26 billion have been authorized for clean energy projects since mid-February, Mr. Chu said. The Department of Energy’s goal is to award 70 percent of this total by Labor Day.

In addition to increased funding, the secretary also pledged to speed up the the energy department’s loan-making process. He said in the past it was not unusual for loan approvals to take four years. “This is a very sick economy,” said Mr. Chu. “If it takes four years to get a new set of loans out, either the patient will have recovered by himself — or he will have died.”

The secretary said the new loan approval system will cut that time to a matter of months, and drastically reduce the amount of paperwork. “We want to launch projects quickly and logically that will provide enduring value,” said Mr. Chu.

Painful News on Clean Tech VC Funding

The financial crisis and subsequent recession has led to a sharp decrease in VC investment in technology. The New York Times reports that the clean tech sector–and solar in particular–has been the hardest hit:

During the first quarter of 2009, investment in green technologies by venture capitalists, who drive a disproportionate amount of financing in new technologies, shriveled.

In the first quarter of this year, they invested only $154 million in 33 young companies, a drop of 84 percent from the last quarter of 2008 when, despite the crumbling economy, they invested $971 million in 67 start-ups, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Investment in the first quarter of 2009 reached the lowest level since 2005, before clean technology became Silicon Valley’s newest new trend.

The story includes a graphic that almost made me lose my lunch:

100 Days of Greener Policy

In honor of the “Hallmark Holiday,” Earth2Tech has a great rundown of the greenest accomplishments of Obama’s first 100 days:

The Greenest Budget Ever – Obama’s $3.55 trillion budget proposal is a one-two punch for cleantech — it boosts funding for renewables while slashing tax breaks for fossil fuels. Obama’s wish list, which Climate Progress called “the first sustainable budget in U.S. history,” includes $15 billion per year for cleantech over a decade as well as an estimated $650 billion in revenue from his promised but yet-to-be-seen cap-and-trade program on greenhouse gas emissions.

The Green(er) Stimulus – Signed in February, the stimulus package is chock-full of cleantech goodies with $43 billion for grants for clean power, extensions on tax credits for solar, wind, geothermal and energy efficiency programs, smart grid funding, weatherization programs and a new tax credit for cleantech hardware manufacturing.

Regulating Carbon – The EPA’s historic finding last month that greenhouse gas emissions are a threat to public health and welfare, which paves the way for the agency to regulate them under the Clean Air Act, is the inconvenient truth that the Bush administration ignored for two years. If Congress doesn’t get its act together and legislate carbon regulation, new emissions rules will likely come from the administration.

Pricing Carbon – Giving industry a solid, long-term price on carbon is the most important thing government can do to ensure the private sector starts making big bets in cleantech. As Obama said in a recent speech on the economy: “If businesses and entrepreneurs know today that we are closing this carbon pollution loophole, they will start investing in clean energy now.” He gets it.

Green Collar Job Creation – In January, Obama raised his goal of creating green collar jobs to 3 million as part of his plan to double renewable energy production. The newly created Middle Class Task Force made green jobs the focus of its first meeting. The administration has brought on the green collar economy’s most fervent and eloquent advocate, Van Jones, as a special adviser at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Fighting Dirty Fossil Fuels – Obama’s proposed budget snips out $31.5 billion in “oil and gas company preferences.” Meanwhile, the reinvigorated EPA is using its newly realized regulatory power to put a hold on new coal-fired power plants. Now if Obama would just lend his voice to decrying the myth of “clean coal.”

Improving Fuel Efficiency – Obama ordered the EPA to grant California’s long-awaited emission waiver affirming the Golden State’s, and 13 fellow states’, power to enforce stricter automobile-emission standards. On the federal level, Obama had the Department of Transportation raise CAFE standards for the first time in nearly three decades, requiring new cars and trucks to have a fleet average fuel efficiency of 27.3 MPG by 2011 — an increase of 2 MPG over the 2010 standard.

Funding Hard Science – The surest way to get long-term, technological innovation is to fund basic science research in the lab. Obama’s stimulus plan includes $6.5 billion specifically for research and development in advanced energy efficiency, renewable energy, and low carbon technology, the largest investment in science and technology since the Space Race. With the former director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Steven Chu running the DOE we hope to see more money flowing into R&D soon so that in a few years entrepreneurs can start licensing it.

Jump Starting the Smart Grid – Programs created under the stimulus package jump-start what Obama calls a “nationwide transmission superhighway” with more than $4 billion specifically for smart grid tech. The newly appointed Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Jon Wellinghoff is a firm believer in the smart grid but is already dealing with utilities griping about the cap on stimulus spending as well as the pesky issue of eminent domain.

Engaging China – Truly global action on climate change will require negotiations with China, and already the Obama administration has been to Beijing. On the eve of Secretary of State Clinton’s first trip overseas she said, “[C]ollaboration on clean energy and greater efficiency offers a real opportunity to deepen the overall U.S.-Chinese relationship. So we will work hard with the Chinese to create partnerships that promote cleaner energy sources, greater energy efficiency, technology transfers that can benefit both countries, and other strategies that simultaneously protect the environment and promote economic growth.”

Spanish Company Builds Huge Solar Tower

Photo from Venture Beat

The Spaniards are not tilting at windmills when it comes to finding energy solutions. They know solar thermal will be a huge part of any carbon-free energy future. From Venture Beat:

Abengoa Solar has brought its massive PS20 solar tower in Seville, Spain online. The 20-megawatt plant is the largest of its kind in the world, delivering electricity to 10,000 homes. The development is yet another example of Spain’s growing influence in the solar sector — which now extends as far as the American southwest. …

Abengoa chose the tower model because solar thermal systems are actually cheaper to run that traditional photovoltaic arrays. They also generate more net power overall, giving the company a significant leg up.

The Holy See Sees the Power of Solar

Bloomberg reports:

The world’s smallest state now intends to build the biggest solar plant in Europe for 500 million euros ($660 million) on…740 acres near the medieval village of Santa Maria di Galeria, project engineer Mauro Villarini said …

Advised by German solar-panel maker Solarworld AG, the Holy See is running counter to many governments that say harnessing sunlight on a grand scale is too costly to help curb global warming, especially in the deepest recession since World War II.

“Now is the time to strike,” Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the Vatican City’s governor, said in an interview from his study overlooking the Michelangelo-designed Basilica of St. Peter’s. “One should take advantage of the crisis to try and develop these renewable-energy sources to the maximum, which in the long run will reap incomparable rewards.”

The Green Bank: A SUPER-Prime Investment

Investments in renewable energy–and particularly energy efficiency–pay for themselves over time. Unfortunately, many people don’t have the upfront capital to pay for solar panel installation or efficiency upgrades, and right now cheap loans are harder to find than Dick Cheney at a geothermal energy conference.

Rep. Van Hollen has a solution:

U.S. Representative Chris Van Hollen has introduced legislation to establish a Green Bank as a tax-exempt wholly owned corporation of the United States that would provide a range of financing support to clean energy and energy efficiency projects in the country.

“By creating the Green Bank, we will accelerate the development, deployment and production of clean energy and energy efficiency technologies across the country,” Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who is Assistant to the Speaker, said in a statement yesterday when introducing the legislation.

Crazy ol’ oilman-turned-windman T. Boone loves the idea:

“An alternative energy bank is a creative and needed way to jump start the private sector’s involvement in renewable and other alternative energy projects,” T. Boone Pickens said in a statement. “This money will be paid back and, at the same time, be a major down payment on our efforts to reduce our costly and dangerous dependence on foreign oil.”

The proposal is one of those rare win-win-win pieces of legislation: Deficit-neutral, good for the environment, and good for U.S. foreign policy.

MIT Prez Praises Clean Tech Innovation Funding

It’s no surprise MIT’s president understands the need for federally funded research, but it’s always nice to hear it in the context of clean tech. Via The Breakthrough Institute’s blog:

Investments in clean energy innovation offer the nation’s “best strategy” for economic recovery and “the only route to the breakthrough technologies we need” to tackle the nation’s pressing energy and climate challenge, said MIT President Susan Hockfield today at a speech delivered at the White House.

Hockfield, an outspoken champion of clean energy innovation, spoke at the invitation of President Obama, who followed Hockfield’s remarks with a speech outlining his plans to make unprecedented investments in clean energy technology and innovation.

“[S]ince World War II, by far the largest and most important source of US economic growth has been technological innovation, much of it springing from federally funded … research,” Hockfield said, echoing much of the work we’ve done at the Breakthrough Institute to advance public investments in clean energy innovation.

Shell Won’t Renew Renewable Investments

On the positive side, at least an oil company has the decency to stop greenwashing and admit they could care less about our energy future:

Shell will no longer invest in renewable technologies such as wind, solar and hydro power because they are not economic, the Anglo-Dutch oil company said today. It plans to invest more in biofuels which environmental groups blame for driving up food prices and deforestation.

The announcement won’t really change the company’s investment strategy, considering they’ve been putting next to nothing into zero-carbon energy sources:

The company has predicted that by 2025, 80% of energy will come from fossil fuels and 20% from alternative energy sources. Yet it is spending just over 1% of its budget on alternative technologies. Over the past five years, only $1.7bn of the $150bn it has invested has gone towards alternative energies.

MBA’s Want Greater Corporate Responsibility

Greenbiz reports:

The vast majority of business school students think the private sector should be using its position to address environmental and social issues.

Unfortunately, less than a third believe this is actually happening, according to a new survey (PDF) from Net Impact and the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education.

That presents a potential lost opportunity — 77 percent of MBA students view acting responsibly as a way to increase corporate profits, a figure that has grown since 2006, when 60 percent of students saw the correlation between CSR and profitability in Net Impact’s first study. …

It found that most students view health care costs and energy concerns as significant business issues for U.S. CEOs but their own exposure is lacking. Nearly 80 percent of MBA students are yearning for more sustainability and corporate responsibility content in their graduate programs but there’s a disconnect between what students want and what business schools are delivering, according to Net Impact Executive Director Liz Maw.