 | UW-Madison Named Top 10 Cleantech University |
The University of Wisconsin at Madison has been named the 7th highest ranking “Cleantech” University for 2010. This distinction was awarded to the university based on “a pipeline of collaboration of businesses, universities, state initiatives, investors and research dollars.” Read more at Cleantech Group’s Webpage.
| Madisonians Give Activists’ Account of U.N. Climate Talks |
by Daniel Spitzberg, Energy Institute Writer
An ice sculpture of a polar bear outside the conference center in Copenhagen Photo: REUTERS
What exactly happened at the U.N. climate talks last December? While countless commentators have weighed in on international politicking, only a few individuals have discussed the on-the-ground activities and activism.
Speaking before a crowd last Wednesday on UW-Madison campus, two Madison locals shared their first-hand account of their recent excursion to Copenhagen. Molly Stentz of WORT and Free Speech Radio News and John Peck of Family Farm Defenders and La Via Campesina narrated the story alongside dozens of photographs they took both inside and outside the 15th annual U.N. summit.
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| The ongoing battle over nuclear power in Wisconsin |
Rachel Slaybaugh, a PhD student in Engineering Physics at UW-Madison and a founding member of Energy Hub, published an editorial in Wednesday’s Daily Cardinal (12/15/09) on the rules governing the construction of new nuclear power plants in Wisconsin.
Link to the article
Rachel argues that nuclear power should not be singled-out with nuclear-specific legal hurdles to new power generation construction. Read the rest of this entry →
| Chevy Volt Test-Drive |
Lots of people (including the Obama administration) are banking on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles as a major factor in reducing our dependence on oil and greenhouse gas emissions.
Autoblog has a thorough profile of probably the most anticipated plug-in hybrid to date, the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt doesn’t hit retailers until late next year, but Autoblog did a test-drive with a pre-production Volt and has a lot of interesting tidbits about the technology involved. Check it out for yourself.
| Neighborhood designer promotes needs-focused approach to sustainability |
By Claudia Hartley, Energy Institute Writer
“Sustainability starts with people and their needs, not technology,” said Steve Steinhoff while speaking at a Student Bus Advocates meeting on Thursday in the Memorial Union. Addressing an audience largely populated by Urban and Regional Planning graduate students, Steinhoff used his expertise as the Executive Director of the Neighborhood Design Center to lead an informed discussion of what is sustainable neighborhood design and how it can be applied to communities, including Madison.
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| State regulators preparing for risks of climate change |
by Michelle Hu, Energy Institute Writer
Carbon restrictions are inevitable and will require significant changes to the state’s energy mix—that’s the message from Commissioner Lauren Azar of the Wisconsin Public Service Commission. Azar spoke Tuesday night with Wisconsin Commissioner of Insurance Sean Dilweg about making critical decisions in preparing for the uncertainties of climate change. The lecture was a part of the Nelson Institute’s Community Environmental Forum.
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| Madison March for Green Solutions 11/13/09 |
This information is forwarded by friend of Energy Hub,
Niels Ole Holck, who works with WISPIRG, www.wispirgstudents.org:
We are marching because energy consumption, depletion of natural resources, local pollution, and green house gas emissions all are rising. This is a completely unsustainable path and cannot be continued!
| Xcel Energy to Build Largest Biomass Plant in the Midwest |
Xcel Energy Press Release Monday, Nov. 2nd, 2009:
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) has unanimously approved Xcel Energy’s application to install biomass gasification technology at its Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland, Wis. When completed, the project will convert the plant’s remaining coal-fired unit to biomass gasification technology, allowing it to use 100 percent biomass in all three boilers and making it the largest biomass plant in the Midwest. Currently, two of the three operating units at Bay Front use biomass as their primary fuel to generate electricity.
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| Researchers discuss who’s most likely to pursue “the bomb” |
by Michelle Hu, Energy Institute Writer
Nuclear energy and political science modelers gathered together last Tuesday at the UW campus to discuss models that predict how likely a nation is to pursue nuclear weapons. Dr. Clifford Singer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Dr. Andrew Kydd of University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Dr. Man-Sung Yim of North Carolina State University each presented in the public panel discussion titled, “Who Will be the Next to Pursue the Nuclear Bomb?”
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| Bold, Transformational Energy Research Projects Win $151 Million in Funding |
DOE Press Release Monday, October 26, 2009:
(San Francisco, Calif.) The Department of Energy today announced major funding for 37 ambitious research projects – including some that could allow intermittent energy sources like wind and solar to provide a steady flow of power, or use bacteria to produce automotive fuel from sunlight, water and carbon dioxide.
The $151 million in funding is being awarded through the Department’s recently-formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (“ARPA-E”). ARPA-E’s mission is to develop nimble, creative and inventive approaches to transform the global energy landscape while advancing America’s technology leadership. This is the first round of projects funded under ARPA-E, which is receiving total of $400 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
In announcing the selections, Secretary Chu said: “After World War II, America was the unrivaled leader in basic and applied sciences. It was this leadership that led to enormous technological advances. ARPA-E is a crucial part of the new effort by the U.S. to spur the next Industrial Revolution in clean energy technologies, creating thousands of new jobs and helping cut carbon pollution.”
The grants will go to projects with lead researchers in 17 states. Of the lead recipients, 43% are small businesses, 35% are educational institutions, and 19% are large corporations. In supporting these teams, ARPA-E seeks to bring together America’s brightest energy innovators to pioneer a low cost, secure, and low carbon energy future for the nation.
