Energy Report

The 140-turbine Macarthur Wind Farm site near Hamilton, 290 kilometers (180 miles) west of Melbourne, in the Shire of Moyne in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, sits not far from several state and national parks, and just a long stone's throw inland from the coast at Port Fairy.

On Feb. 20, Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) proposed to invest $3.9 billion during the next 10 years to proactively protect and strengthen its electric and gas systems against increasingly frequent severe weather conditions.

Last month, Texas-based Wilsonart, a manufacturer and distributor of High Pressure Laminates (HPL) and other engineered decorative surfacing materials and components, announced it had taken additional steps to improve its energy efficiency and reduce its carbon footprint by purchasing 35-percent Renewable Energy Credits backed by 100-percent Texas wind-fueled electricity.

One's called Bay City and one's called Baytown.

One month after calling the position of the United States in the clean energy industry “beset by uncertainty” and “less positive” than in many other countries, The Pew Charitable Trusts issued a report this week based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data declaring that U.S. companies enjoyed a $1.63-billion sales advantage over their Chinese counterparts in clean energy goods and services in 2011.

Between $45 billion and $65 billion.
That’s the attention-snaring amount BP, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil and TransCanada plan to invest in a comprehensive Alaska liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.

Meeting the electrical power needs of expanding Midwest companies is work that sometimes leads to expansion projects of its own.

"It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous State may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country." — Justice Louis Brandeis, 1932

Quick: Where is France's leading port for both ore and coal imports and containerized fruit?

Greater Philadelphia's refining industry is experiencing a rebirth. It’s a remarkable turnaround for an industry that seemed to be on the rocks only 18 months ago.

The shift away from the dependence on foreign oil has opened an opportunity for rapid growth in the cleantech industry.

Energy comes in many forms. It's not as simple as electricity or gas. It's electricity made from coal, nuclear, solar, biomass, hydro or wind. Vehicle fleets can be powered by electricity, gasoline, diesel or compressed natural gas. All of these energy forms provide communities and energy producers with options, and for many of these options site selection is the critical link from proposal to production.

More than half of the world’s known reserves of lithium are located in three countries. Argentina, Bolivia and Chile have the potential of living a modern-day manufacturing miracle if they take the right steps and harness their lithium potential.

Biomass projects — many of them expected to produce wood pellets for shipment to the U.K. and other European countries for power production — continue to dot the southeastern United States.

As the U.S. State Department works to conclude its review of TransCanada’s resubmitted Keystone XL pipeline permit application by the first quarter of 2013, it’s getting plenty of encouragement.

The newest figures from the Energy Information Administration say approximately one-third of total U.S. delivered energy — or 24 quadrillion Btu - was consumed in the industrial sector in 2011, led by the bulk chemicals sector at 5.7 quadrillion Btu.

With 160 years of acquired expertise in precious metals, glass and specialty light sources, it’s only natural that Germany’s Heraeus Group would pair that most special of light sources — the sun — with the world’s need for that most precious of resources: power. And all it takes to bond the two is a little silver paste.

From Tempe to Tucson, solar power investments are transforming the energy landscape of Arizona.

Where’s a biodiesel pump when you really need one? And what good’s an electric vehicle if you can’t find a place to plug in?

In major urban areas, nearly 80 percent of energy is consumed by buildings. Tenant spaces account for over half of a commercial office building’s total energy use, and building owners are starting to pay attention.

If you’ve just launched the nation's first specialized, bundled insurance program for commercial-scale solar installations, it only makes sense to try it out yourself first.

A nation that already gets 80 percent of its power from hydroelectric plants last week added another 1,087 megawatts - enough, say its builders, to supply the needs of a city of 4 million.

In August, one year after E.ON, RWE Innogy and WindMW announced plans for the construction of a base for the maintenance and operation of their offshore wind farms, RWE celebrated the topping-out ceremony for two apartment blocks near the inland port on the island of Heligoland that will accommodate service staff for the operation and maintenance of the Nordsee Ost offshore wind farm, a 295-MW installation being erected some 19 miles (30 km.) further out.

Frac sand is quarried in Wisconsin, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and Illinois, making the Mississippi River an important mode of transport by barge. The Port of Natchez has announced a US$34-million expansion for trans-loading and storing sand and resin-coated sand. Blain Sand and Gravel and Fores Frac Sand are investing $7 million and $27 million, respectively, to add new processing and handling facilities and upgrade the rail at the port, creating 60 jobs. The Port of Greater Baton Rouge is now home to GNS Frac’s new $10-million sand drying and sorting facility at the Inland Rivers Marine Terminal in Port Allen, La.