01/29/2010

Exciting news from my home town: U.S. Windblade of Bath, Maine is unveiling the first composite underwater turbines built in the U.S. Designed by Portland-based Ocean Renewable Power, two turbines are linked to a 60 kW generator. These first turbines will be installed in downeast Maine (Cobscook Bay) to demonstrate and evaluate the potential for tide/current generation.

Massachusetts has issued its triennial plan for energy efficiency measures. The plans set an electric energy savings target of 2.4 percent of sales in 2012 -- several times more than the 0.8 percent savings through previous measures, and on the opposite side of zero from the about 1% annual load growth of recent years. If Massachusetts utilities pull it off, they anticipate saving 2,600 gigawatt-hours of electricity. Massachusetts anticipates that it could meet nearly 30 percent of its electricity needs by 2020 through energy efficiency measures alone. On the gas side, the plans set a savings target of 1.15 percent of natural gas sales in 2012.

Meanwhile, is cap-and-trade going down in flames? Reports from the World Economic Forum in Davos indicate a business-leader consensus that stimulus, not cap-and-trade, is the more efficient way to change behavior.

And from the Bangor Daily news: