» Cindy

Federal Tax Credits for Energy Efficiency

Cindy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:53:13 +0000

Have you done any Energy Efficient upgrades or installations in your home this year? Are you planning on doing any in 2010? Well if you have or are going to, take a look at the government’s Energy Star webpage! Your improvement may be worth up to $1,500 in tax credits.

Some examples would be windows and doors, insulation, wood or other biomass burning stoves and inserts. The improvement must meet certain criteria, so log on to the website and see how to save yourself some money, save energy and most importantly, cut down on Greenhouse Gas Emissions.

Find out more at energystar.com

Carbon Credits 101

Cindy — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:53:22 +0000

Unless the sea floods your dining room, or the coal-fired power plant next door belches out dirty smoke for you to inhale, it is difficult to appreciate what all the fuss is about regarding Green House Gases (GHG) and global warming. And, what is a carbon credit anyway? Let’s try a simple explanation.

Imagine you boil your jug to make a cup of tea. The energy used to boil the water – in this case electricity – has to be generated somewhere: let’s say in a coal-fired plant. Burning the coal to generate the electricity for your tea creates carbon emissions (dirty smoke), or a carbon deficit.

For arguments sake, let’s say the carbon emitted was 1 tonne. To balance the carbon ledger, these emissions have to be compensated for, or offset, by purchasing a carbon credit of 1 tonne.

How are these carbon credits created? Well, the electricity generator above decides to build a wind farm to mitigate emissions. Now, wind is used to generate electricity instead of coal. The power company applies to an international verifier that agrees – yes, you have reduced carbon emissions because instead of coal, you are now using wind to generate electricity.

The power company is awarded credits for completing this process which they can sell on the open market, making the wind farm project financially viable. Hence, when you buy a carbon credit you are actually helping to pay for projects like wind farms.

Read more on this article. It can be found on Celsias.com

U.S. Could Save $1.2 Trillion…

Cindy — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:56:54 +0000

A new report finds that the low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency is the “single most promising resource” in pursuing energy affordability and security.

In addition to the tremendous savings potential for consumers and businesses, the report, by the global consulting firm McKinsey and Company, finds that elevating energy efficiency to a national priority could also spur the creation of 600,000-900,000 long-term green jobs and reduce our overall energy consumption by 23 percent.

Energy efficiency is an enormous (and enormously cheap) energy resource for the U.S., “but only if the nation can craft a comprehensive and innovative approach to unlock it.”

The investment, according to the report’s authors, would be about $522 billion over the next ten years, not including program implementation. But an investment of that scale could slash energy consumption in 2020 by 9.1 quadrillion BTUs, or 23% of projected demand, potentially avoiding up to 1.1 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.

This article can be found on Celsias.com

Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs)

Cindy — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 14:52:06 +0000

Renewable energy certificates (RECs), also known as green certificates, green tags, or tradable renewable certificates, represent the environmental attributes of the power produced from renewable energy projects and are sold separate from commodity electricity. Customers can buy green certificates whether or not they have access to green power through their local utility or a competitive electricity marketer. And they can purchase green certificates without having to switch electricity suppliers.

More on this article can be found at: Renewable Energy Certificates