DOE Backs Hawaiian Wind Power Project
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced that the Department of Energy (DOE) has finalized a $117 million loan guarantee for the Kahuku Wind Power project. The 30-megawatt (MW) project is located in Kahuku, Hawaii and will create over 200 jobs on the island of Oahu, according to DOE.
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DOE Backs Hawaiian Wind Power Project
Heard on the Street
The Center for Market Innovation (CMI) at NRDC has one very clear goal: to make financial markets work for both investors and the environment. To do that, NRDC has brought together a team of more than a dozen financial analysts, policy makers, and energy specialists. Meet five of them. PETER MALIK Malik grew up in what is now the Czech Republic, spending summers at his family’s cottage near the Polish border — an "environmental disaster zone" rife with power plants and industrial pollution. "I remember the dying forests and the polluted creeks and lakes without fish," he says. "Seeing that really stoked the fire in me to do something about it." The former Wall Street investment banker joined CMI as its director in December 2009 and has since been busy "shaping a group focused on getting things done," seeking out projects that have measurable outcomes. "Green should be green — as in the color of money," Malik says. "It’s not going to happen just because of government or philanthropy; the market has to want it. Our job is to create the right incentives." YERINA MUGICA Mugica was one of the founding members of the CMI team, and over the past three years, she has worked to develop market incentives that promote energy efficiency. "Efficiency is a win-win issue," she says. "But it takes coordinated action on many levels to overcome obstacles like split incentives — for example, when a building owner pays for efficiency retrofits but tenants cash in on the savings." Mugica grew up in a thrifty household; water and electricity were not wasted. It took her a while to realize "that the whole world doesn’t have that focus," she says. Her style is not to tell people what to do. "We set up incentives to do the right thing," she says, "then let market creativity figure out the best way to do it." JENNIFER HENRY Henry’s expertise in urban planning makes her CMI’s transportation and land use guru. Based in NRDC’s Chicago office, she recently analyzed how urban design — how walkable a city is, how car-dependent its residents are — affects home foreclosure rates. The more people spend on cars and fuel, the less they have to cover costs at home. "Americans devote nearly one-fifth of their income to transportation," she says. "The benefits of location efficiency and good planning are many. People want the things that smart growth can deliver." SAMIR SUCCAR Succar puts his background in electrical engineering to good use trying to find ways to integrate renewable energy into the country’s power grid. "We need a different tool set, a different infrastructure to accommodate wind and solar power," he says. "Think of it as the transition from horse and buggy to cars. You can develop the best automobile, but if you have to drive it on roads that were built for horses, it won’t work." Succar began his doctoral work researching semiconductors, but he wasn’t satisfied. "The problems that I was solving weren’t the problems that mattered to me," he says. He went on to study wind power storage, eventually joining CMI to work on energy transmission solutions. ANDY STEVENSON Stevenson is a former hedge fund manager who now works to craft effective carbon-market legislation. "If we try to regulate carbon the wrong way, we risk the integrity of the entire effort," he says. "But if we do it right, it will work for the market, the investors, and the environment." Stevenson also works to devise legislation to promote energy efficiency. "Industry wants to reduce energy consumption but lacks the capital to make the necessary investments," he says. "Good policy allows businesses to profit by reducing their carbon footprints."
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Heard on the Street
Ocean Power Technologies Wins PowerBuoy Development Grant
Wave energy hydropower developer Ocean Power Technologies Inc. has won a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy for the development of the next generation of OPT’s PowerBuoy ocean energy hydropower device.
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Ocean Power Technologies Wins PowerBuoy Development Grant