Scott scharin's Blog (19)

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Senator Mark Udall showing great leadership standing with Mr. Pickens and we applaud his effort here in western Colorado



Natural gas should be the vehicle fuel of the immediate future

By Sen. Mark Udall and T. Boone Pickens



Friday, November 06, 2009



Too often in Congress, and in our political debate, people stake out a position and, in the course of defending that position, refuse to credit anything their opponent is saying. We’ve all seen… Continue

Secretary Chu Announces Nearly $300 Million for Clean Cities Grants

August 26, 2009



U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu today announced the selection of 25 cost-share projects under the Clean Cities program that will be funded with nearly $300 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These projects will speed the transformation of the nation's vehicle fleet, putting more than 9,000 alternative fuel and energy efficient vehicles on the road, and… Continue

GOLDEN, Colo. — The primary U.S. lab for renewable energy will receive $110 million in federal stimulus money and another $83 million will go toward wind energy efficiency and other alternative power projects, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday.



"Wind energy will be one of the most important contributors to meeting President Obama's target of generating 10 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2012," Chu said.



The National Renewable Energy Laboratory… Continue

Sandy Shore

The Associated Press

Aspen, CO Colorado

DENVER — SunPower Corp. said Tuesday it will build a 17-megawatt solar plant in southern Colorado and sell the power generated to Xcel Energy Inc.

It is the latest in a handful of agreements announced by solar energy manufacturers and utilities as more states adopt standards requiring a percentage of electricity to be produced from renewable resources.

The plant will be built on a parcel near a SunEdison 8.2-megawatt… Continue

Data supports goal of wind turbines at S’mass

by Brent Gardner-Smith, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer

Friday, April 10, 2009



SNOWMASS VILLAGE — Wind data collected this winter at the Snowmass Ski Area on the upper slopes of Baldy Mountain show that electricity-generating wind turbines would work there, at least in the winter. Now it remains to be seen how the wind blows the rest of the year.



“So far the data looks very promising for this project to be a success,”… Continue

Ken Salazar: Wind power can replace 3,000 coal plants



Wayne Parry

The Associated Press

Aspen, CO Colorado

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J — Windmills off the East Coast could generate enough electricity to replace most, if not all, the coal-fired power plants in the United States, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday.

But those numbers were challenged as "overly optimistic" by a coal industry group, which noted that half the nation's electricity currently comes from… Continue

GOV. RITTER HELPS BREAK GROUND ON TWO VESTAS MANUFACTURING FACILITIES, 1,350 JOBS



BRIGHTON - Gov. Bill Ritter today joined Vestas executives, the crown prince and princess of Denmark and local leaders at a ground-breaking ceremony for two Vestas manufacturing facilities here that will create 1,350 new jobs.



"Today marks the third straight day of new-job announcements this week, resulting in 1,650 new jobs for Colorado," Gov. Ritter said. "Vestas was one of Colorado's… Continue

A great Article regarding work/training in the wind fields, from California City, Calif. -- One man in the classroom earned more than $100,000 framing tract homes during the building heyday. Another installed pools and piloted a backhoe. Behind him sat a young father who made a good living swinging a hammer in southern Utah.



But that was before construction jobs vanished like a fast-moving dust storm in this blustery high desert. Hard times have brought them to a classroom in rural… Continue

The Associated Press

Aspen, CO Colorado

DENVER — Federal researchers are developing pinpoint forecasts to help utilities predict which way the wind blows — and how strong — so they'll know how much electricity their wind turbines will generate.



The National Center for Atmospheric Research and Xcel Energy said Wednesday the new, advanced forecasts could cut consumers' costs and reduce pollution.



"Currently, if (utilities) don't trust the forecasts for wind, they… Continue

HANCOCK, Mass. — Brian Fairbank had tried just about everything to cut the costs of running his Jiminy Peak ski resort: he used recycled motor oil to heat its mountain operations center, developed more efficient snow guns, captured heat generated by snowmaking machines, even installed waterless toilets.



Still his annual electric bill hit $635,000.



So Fairbank decided to do what no ski resort owner had done: install a giant windmill to make his own power.



Other… Continue

Some interesting news on the merging of wind power and ski lift technology. Leintner Technologies, parent company of chairlift manufacturer Leitner-Poma of America, Grand Junction Co., applied its proprietary direct-drive design used in ski lifts in its development of a gearless wind turbine. The LeitWind turbine installed at Salzstiegl,Austria has been in operation since september 2007. In British Columbia, Canada, the Grouse Mountain Leitwind turbine is in the early stages of construction,… Continue

The Associated Press

Aspen, CO Colorado

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DENVER — A group that promotes solar energy research says the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries provided more than 91,000 jobs — from janitors to engineers — in Colorado in 2007.



The American Solar Energy Society released a report Thursday that said "green" industries generated $10.3 billion in sales and accounted for more than 4 percent of the gross state product in… Continue

The new Obama administration has begun the task of transition as such they have launched a website Change.gov, i would urge all in the new energy army to visit this site and express our options. The president elect has spoken often about a new energy future and we must keep up the pressure so the policies that are being shaped will take us in the right direction.

Well in the spirit of the non partisan high road that Pickensplan has taken, i have just a quick prediction about the upcoming vote, i feel that two states,North Carolina and Colorado two emerging regional powers will decide the election. Both states represent the paradigm shift that is under way. That being said the new leadership in Washington must move quickly and those of us here in the trenches have to keep the pressure on!

The First 100 days! we've heard the talk now let's see… Continue

More good news from here in Colorado,Vestas the turbine manufacturing company held a job fair today in Brighton Colorado, w/ 1400 jobs in a couple of plants coming to Colorado in the very near future more than 2000 people showed up. This is the kind of Action that will take us past the tipping point! The New Energy Frontier is all about good and important jobs.

A very interesting idea that could have some real traction is getting walmart on board as the CNG filling centers. the meeting T.B. Pickens had with walmart bosses got their attention for their own fleet and with walmart stores coast to coast cng cars would never be far from a pump.In addition walmart suffers from a bit of creditability problem at times and with this one move they would be able to create life long costumers and be a huge part of the solution.

Two interesting articles in the newspapers today 8-27-8, Matt Wald N.Y. times wrote about transmission lines and grid issues in N.Y. state and Matthew Brown from AP wrote about the" Wyoming/Colorado Interie" and the need for transmission lines to both coast to bring renewable energy to the masses, two large players Greenhunter energy of Texas and Duke energy of Ohio got mention as future builders of much needed infrastructure, stay tune as this is a very important piece of this puzzle!

Boone Pickens came to the old mining town today and was ever bit as impressive as you might imagine. Mr. Pickens spoke about his morning meeting w/ Senator McCain and that Mr. McCain told Boone that his plan is connecting w/ the people, something that we all know. Boone spoke about meeting w/ Senator Obama on sunday and how urgent that the "crowd in washington" hear from us on the need for Leadership to bring this plan forward. Awesome to see T.Boone Pickens in live action,the real deal, as he… Continue