Blowing in the Wind

Finland's wind power industry aimed year 2008 to find specialist niches in the booming global market.

The sector includes about twenty companies with an annual turnover of 500 million euros, according to information two years ago.

Today, some reports say that the windmill components suppliers are making about one billion euros annually and employing four thousand people.

Can anyone confirm this numbers?

Most of these companies are specialist components suppliers. Networking and co-operation  appears vital.

The major turbine producer Winwind is particularly 3 MW windmills. The industry is planning even bigger ones.

The demand for larger than usual turbines is increasing. Finnish components markers are especially designing products that can withstand cold and icy conditions and the physical challenges faced by the offshore wind parks springing up around the world's coasts.

Energiprojekt LTD - Powerplants, CHP, heat, steam,

Energiprojekt LTD - Powerplants, CHP, heat, steam,: "We Manufacture and Sell Bio-Mass Power Plants for Production of Electricity, Steam and Hot Water."

Got this link through a Google ad. Need to read more about Energiprojekt Ab in a short while. Learning more from their website.

Energiprojekt i Sverige AB is a Turn-Key Producer of Steam Power Plants.

Our company is based in Sweden and has sales agents in a number of countries.

During our 25 years in business, we have built and delivered power plants based Steam Power.

Our focus is to build hot water Power Plants, CHP Plants and Steam Power Plants for Process Industries, Saw Mills, District Heating Systems or Rural Electrification Systems etc.

The electric output is in the range of up to 3MW. Multiple units can be installed next to each others if the need of power is more than 3 MW.

Our CHP Plants are typically up to 3 MW of electric power and up to 10 MW of heat power.




Helge: What's your technology for electricity generation?

Together with our main partner Peder Halvorsen Industrier AS we offer the most flexible power-generating solution on the market today.

Outotec ostaa Laroxin - Tekniikka&Talous

Helge: Juttelin aiheesta tänä aamuna. Ratkaisu kuulosta molempien kannalta järkevältä.

Outotec ostaa Laroxin - Tekniikka&Talous: "Mineraaleihin ja metalleihin liittyvän tekniikan toimittaja Outotec hankkii määräysvallan teollisuussuodattimia valmistavasta Laroxista. Outotec tekee myös pakollisen julkisen ostotarjouksen kaikista lopuista Laroxin osakkeista.

Outotec on sopinut joidenkin Laroxin pääomistajien kanssa osakekaupoista, joilla nämä myyvät Outotecille kaikki omistamansa Laroxin A- ja B-sarjan osakkeet.

Osakkeiden kauppahinta maksetaan Outotecin uusilla osakkeilla.

'Tavoittelemamme teknologiavalikoiman täydentäminen tuli mahdolliseksi tällä osakevaihdon kautta tapahtuvalla järjestelyllä. Laroxin tuotteet ja palvelut liittyvät saumattomasti Outotecin tarjoamiin teknologioihin. Transaktio tukee myös kannattavan kasvun tavoitettamme', Outotecin toimitusjohtaja Tapani Järvinen sanoo tiedotteessa.

'Yhdistämällä myynti- ja palveluverkostomme sekä tuotevalikoimamme voimme tarjota entistä kattavampia ratkaisuja ja palveluja mineraalirikastamoille ja metallurgisille laitoksille sekä tuottaa aikaisempaa enemmän lisäarvoa yhteiselle asiakaskunnallemme', Järvinen jatkaa.

Outotec arvioi, että yhtiöiden maailmanlaajuisten myynti- ja palveluverkostojen sekä hallinnon yhdistämisestä ja suuremman yksikkökoon tuomista volyymieduista syntyy vuositasolla vähintään 7 miljoonan euron synergiaedut.

Helge: Säästöt saavutetaan suhteellisen helposti.

'Uskon, että tämä järjestely antaa Laroxin henkilöstölle monipuolisempia mahdollisuuksia kehittää uraansa ja kaikille osakkeenomistajille annetaan mahdollisuus sijoittaa jatkossakin alan vahvaan toimijaan. Myös asiakkaat hyötyvät lisääntyneistä resursseista, joiden ansiosta Laroxin on mahdollista pitkäjänteisesti kehittää ja kasvattaa suodatinliiketoimintaa', Laroxin hallituksen puheenjohtaja Timo Vartiainen sanoo."

Russia!

In 2007, Russia strongly encouraged its companies to buy assets around the world. The idea suited Vladimir Putin's philosophy of restoring Russia's international position.

He is eager to see his country regaining its close partnership with Africa.

Russia is the world's largest energy exporter, and has plenty of its own metals and minerals.

Still in 2007, rich Russian companies wanted to expand their global reach while they had plenty of money in their pockets. At that time, the price of oil was topping 80 dollars per barrel.

The companies also wanted to use their foreign investments as insurance against eventual future changes in Russia.

The Russians see the changes in Africa and Near East, and are fast expanding from oil into financial services, telecommunications and retail.

• Growth expected in Africa
• Injection of capital and expertise is needed

Biofuel from forests

In 2007, most of the world's palm oil came from Southeast Asia, and at that time the demand was skyrocketing - thanks to the increasing use of biofuels.

But will this trend continue?

According to Newsweek, global production went from 4,5 million tons in 1980 to 20,9 million tons in 2000, and is expected to rise to 30,4 million tons by 2010.

The Finnish Neste Oil has invested a lot money in the production of biofuels and biodiesel.

Today, with low priceo oil, Neste and others are eagerly waiting for price increases for oil.

Biofuel production 'starves the poor' - MSN Environment UK

I've to activate this blog about biofuels and bioenergy. The summer is over and it's time to think about the plus and minuses about biofuel programs. Below is a point of view from UK.

Biofuel production 'starves the poor' - MSN Environment UK: "Biofuel production is fuelling poverty, human rights abuses and damage to the environment, Christian Aid has warned.

The charity said huge subsidies and targets in developed countries for boosting the production of fuels from plants such as maize and oil palm are exacerbating environmental and social problems in poor nations.

Helge: USA is using corn and the Finnish Neste Oil imports palm oil for biodiesel production in Finland.

And rather than being a 'silver bullet' to tackle climate change, the carbon emissions of some of the fuels are higher than fossil fuels because of deforestation driven by the need for land for them to grow.

Helge: There isn't enough space available...

According to a report, Growing Pains, by Christian Aid, industrial scale production of biofuels is worsening problems such as food price hikes in central America, forced displacement of small farmers for plantations and pollution of local water sources.

Helge: Food price rises in Mexico.

But with 2.4 billion people worldwide currently without secure sources of energy for cooking and heating, Christian Aid believes the renewable fuels do have the potential to help the poor.

The charity highlights schemes such as the growing of jatropha in Mali, where the plant is raised between food crops and the oil from the seeds is used to run village generators which can power appliances such as stoves and lights.

The report argues that talking about 'good' or 'bad' biofuels is oversimplifying the situation, and the problem is not with the crop or fuel - but the policies surrounding them.

Developed countries have poured subsidies into biofuel production - for example in the US where between 9.2 billion dollars and 11 billion dollars went to supporting maize-based ethanol in 2008 - when there are cheaper and more effective ways to cut emissions from transport, the report said.

The charity said biofuels production needed a 'new vision' - a switch from supplying significant quantities of transport fuel for industrial markets to helping poor people have access to clean energy.

The report's author Eliot Whittington, climate advocacy specialist for Christian Aid, said: 'Vast sums of European and American taxpayers' money are being used to prop up industries which are fuelling hunger, severe human rights abuses and environmental destruction - and failing to deliver the benefits claimed for them."

Biopower investments take off

I was looking for more background about the Amel project and stumbled upon this one.

1. High electricity price in Belgium, UK and Spain
   

Biopower investments take off: "To fulfill Kyoto commitments the European Union Member States have taken in use several measures of support to promote renewable energy production, especially electricity.

Tougher emission limits, emissions trading, new laws in force and subsidies are raising the feed-in price of green electricity. The higher price shortens the payback period of small-scale cogeneration and electricity only plants investments and makes it more profitable and commercially attractive.

As a consequence, the investment scene is changing. Besides utilities also private persons, SMEs and associations are interested in investing in small-scale CHP using biofuels. There are clear signs that the investments take off.

Helge: This is an interesting market scene development. The customer base is expanding.

The threshold price for competitive electricity production in small-scale CHP is 100 €/MWh. Today the price in Austria is about 150 €/MWh, in Germany 130 €/MWh and in Portugal 110 €/MWh. The prices are feed-in or price per unit of electricity that a utility or supplier has to pay for renewable electricity from private generators.

In Belgium and in the UK the price of electricity has also become so high that investments are competitive. Spain has an ambitious program for increasing production of bioelectricity six-fold from the current 500 MW. France and Italy are expected to take notable steps towards higher feed-in prices."

4Energy Invest, Belgium

Here is an example I came across yesterday at the Helsinki ChemBio exhibition where the New Wallon Cluster participated with their own booth.

"4Energy Invest is a Belgian based renewable energy company that aims at creating and managing a portfolio of small to middle-sized locally embedded projects that valorise biomass, directly or indirectly, into energy," their Website tells.

Take a look at the Shareholder Notification!

Here is some information about problems a public company has to disclose. Managing a full CHP-service cluster includes possibilities and threats.

A complete service model

More information About the company can be found here. The business model is defined here: "4Energy Invest identifies potential biomass projects, performs a feasibility study and then takes responsibility for developing, financing, constructing and operating the project, in close cooperation with carefully selected suppliers and partners."

The Amel project

Currently, 4Energy Invest is operating two cogeneration projects located in Amel (Wallonia, Belgium) which are fully operational. 4Energy Invest starts building in Amel a large scale torrefaction unit to produce biocoal or torrified wood pellets with minimum CO2 footprint.

Biomass cogeneration

The project presented in my previous posting - the biomass cogeneration plant in Amel, Belgium - is an initiative by the company 4Energy Invest.

This company, listed on the stock exchange since June 2008, has new projects in the pipeline.

4Energy Invest has been created by three experts who have vast know-how in the energy sector and more particularly in the field of the

• design
• financing
• realization
• entry into operations of pilot plant completed within two years
  
• management and operation of national and international projects

Collaborating with companies such as Tractebel, Dynegy, Nuon, SPE, Datkia and Indaver.

This Belgian cluster focuses that often are too modest to be of interest to the main energy producers and too complex to be directly carried out by the industrial clients themselves.

4Energy Invest aims to establish and manage a portfolio of small and medium-sized local projects focusing on the the conversion of biomass waste into energy, whether directly or indirectly.

This team is now moving around to identify a number of sites that offer opportunities to build and operate cogeneration projects similar to the one in Amel.

Currently, other projects are under development, in particular in Ham in Flanders but also in Pontrilas of England and in Germany.

Cogeneration through network organization

A very interesting project has been developed in the field of cogeneration in Belgium. I learned about this while visiting the ChemBio exhibition Finland 09 that took place in Helsinki, and was focusing on:

• Networking
• Innovation
• Business

Let's move back to Belgium. The Kaserbacke industrial estate is located within the commune of Amel. When its expansion became necessary in 2004, the decision was taken to develop a cogeneration system.

The project emerged as the solution to the technical problems arising from the site's development: on the one hand the industrial estate was not connected to natural gas network. On the other hand, it was at the end of the power line.

The cogeneration project was the solution that made it possible to overcome these power supply problems.

Companies involved:

1. timber sorting center
2. sawmill
3. production of wood shavings and pellets
4. project management

The products used in the cogeneration process are supplied by the three production companies. The biomass consists of barks and timber related products that were not previously recovered (log stocks, rotten wood). In return, they pay attractive prices for the heat generated.

Cooperation for cogeneration

1. This is a cooperation between companies within the same industrial estate
2. In the field of energy, this seems to rare enough to be worthy of comment
3. The project is hinged on the recovery of materials previously considered as waste

Financial benefits

From the financial point of view, the heating costs of the partner companies are cut threefold. Cogeneration makes it possible to replace over 10 million liters of heating fuel a year for the production of the useful heat alone.

The project started January 2006

Work of this project started in January 2006 and the installation is up and running since November 2007. On the strength of this success 4Energy Invest has built an extension that makes it possible to practically double the site's capacity an that was brought into commercial operation May 2008.

We can do it mobile

Mobile collaboration ideas started to surface 15 years ago.

• We selected ideas that could have a meaning in the market
  

We did ground work in different European markets and Northern Europe.

• New logistic tools were emerging
• Technology was new
• People were not used with mobile apps.
• The 3G was still a promise only
• No mobile user examples
• No applications knowledge ecosystem
  

Today, most of those visions can be realized with a reasonable budget.

• Fast Fresh Flow
• Mobile CRM
  
• Cross-border collaboration
  
• Video on-demand
  
• Positioning with GPS
  
• Your computing power in your pocket

Fast Fresh Flow in France 1994

Considering a heating plant?

28032009243
Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

When you are considering to have a heating or HCP for your home town, municipality or sawmill, it might be a good idea to drop me a line.

A talk with OK is also an excellent choice.

- ask for a design concept for the building
- let's think together where it should be located

The technical part of a biopower plant is a pretty proved concept, but the plant isn't just a square box but an utility delivering a valuable service to multiple users.

Open Innovation and Process Automation

15032009042
Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

“Open Innovation” Key to Tackling Global Challenges | ControlGlobal.com

How Does Technology Help You Run Your Plants More Profitably and Safely and in a Way That Is Sustainable for the Environment?

Raj Batra, vice president of Siemens Energy & Automation’s Automation and Motion Division, discussed the global trends driving industry in his keynote address to assembled users and guests at the Siemens Automation Summit and Users Conference this week in Chicago.

Helge: Is there a connection to this speak? Open innovation evokes more interest at left and right...

Batra called the current era one of “open innovation,” calling out Wikipedia, Mozilla and the Siemens User Advisory Board as agents of what he called “distributed co-creation.”

Helge: UCC and unified communication and collaboration tools are made available by big hightech companies: Cisco, IBM, HP, etc.

“At a time of expensive power and global pressures, how does technology help you run your plants more profitably and safely and in a way that is sustainable for the environment?” Siemens’ Raj Batra called on Automation Summit attendees to network with peers from other industries to gather fresh perspectives.

Helge: Fresh perspective is a good point.

“The industry diversity of this conference is so important to us because it lets us explore and get fresh perspectives on creative solutions and alternatives at the intersections of these industrial landscapes,” he said. That, he added, brings us to the theme of this year’s conference: Expand your world of automation during a time of great global change.

Helge: Creative solutions from a broader knowledge base.

“The price of energy is making us rethink our relationship with fuel and power in our daily lives and our work,” he said. “Self-sustaining offices and homes and systems that can sell power back into the grid truly are within reach. Even glass and cement production now can make great strides with waste-heat-recovery systems.”

The pace of globalization is absolutely incredible, marveled Batra, noting another key influence. “China and India, the bogeymen of U.S. manufacturing barely a year ago, now are themselves being challenged by lower-cost countries such as Vietnam.”

Helge: The challenge is real and concerns all industries.

The safety and security of our plants is certainly at the forefront of these trends, “and many of you are under mounting pressure to ensure your plants are safe and your products meet the necessary standards for quality and purity,” continued Batra.

Batra identified asset management as another huge trend that touches everything from lowering operating costs and maintaining uptime to integrating systems and networks from different vendors and even different eras, all to achieve increases in productivity.

Helge: Asset management and maintenance...

“So at a time of expensive power and global pressures, how does technology help you run your plants more profitably and safely and in a way that is sustainable for the environment?” asked Batra. “These are topics that stand out in the daily news and confront you every day, but they’re also driving our agendas and priorities and forcing us to take a hard look at how we run our plants and decide on the technologies that are in them.”

Helge: How to run your plants more profitably... I agree with his thoughts.

A showroom for timber products 14032009

14032009031
Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

Selling timber is a challenging task at this time with the building sector in deep recession.

We've discussed the need to change the way timber trading is taking place.

How would you make the selling process more interesting both for the seller and business to business clients?

* A modern showroom with large screen displays
* Showing the end-results of wooden constructions
* Telling stories about the value of wood
* Talking walls and touchscreen devices to learn more about wood
* Reshaping the showroom / shop to a learning environment
* Direct contact with the sawmills
* Expert talking to you from a distance

I'm reading the weak signals in a new way. Market expansion has been replaced by a remarkable global contraction. Timber producers have to adpat to changing market conditions.

We've an intelligent solution for that. Small and flexible is becoming beutiful again. Disruptive innovation provides a road to better times.

Metso pulping technology for Aracruz in Brazil

JYVASKYLA, Finland, Aug. 21, 2008 (Press Release) - Metso will supply the main technology for Aracruz's new 1.5-million-tons/year bleached hardwood kraft (BHK) pulp line, to be built at their Guaíba mill in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The expansion will raise the mill's total annual capacity to almost 2 million tons. The new pulp line is scheduled to start up during the second half of 2010. The order is valued at close to Euro 400 million.

Helge: I've visited Aracruz when it started its operation.

The EPC (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) contract with Metso additionally covers the procurement of complementary equipment and services from other suppliers and partners.

The order emphasizes Metso's strong capabilities as a full-scope supplier for the pulp industry, which were further strengthened by the 2006 acquisition of Aker Kvaerner's Pulping and Power businesses. For Aracruz, Metso's scope of supply covers the entire fiber line comprising pulp cooking, screening and washing, bleaching, drying and baling, as well as the recovery boiler and white liquor preparation systems. Metso will also provide process control systems, including the necessary analyzers and special equipment for quality and runnability management. Furthermore, Metso's control and on-off valves were selected as standard for the entire mill.

The fiber line process features the latest evolution of cooking and washing technologies. The continuous Compact Cooking G2 digester is designed for a daily capacity of 5,030 tons. TwinRoll wash presses will be installed for each stage of washing in the fiber line. The brown stock side wash presses will be the largest ever built.

For pulp drying and baling, Metso's DryWay drying machine followed by four Robobaling lines will be installed. The drying machine will have a trim width of 9.99 m and is designed for 4,970 tons' daily production. The Aracruz pulp drying machine will be the second DryWay dryer of this size supplied by Metso.

The RECOX recovery boiler Metso will supply for black liquor burning will be one of the largest in the world. The design capacity of the boiler is 6,130 tons dry solids per day. The boiler employs High Power technology to maximize power generation from bioenergy.

The nominal capacity of the white liquor plant will be 14,300 m3 of white liquor per day. Latest generation disc filters will be installed for filtration of green and white liquor, as well as lime mud. They will process all the necessary white liquor for the new line and will also have surplus for the existing line.

Aracruz is the world's leading producer of bleached eucalyptus pulp. Total production today is the equivalent of 3.2 million tons a year, produced by three pulp mills: Barra do Riacho (2.3 million tons), Guaíba (450,000 tons) and Veracel (450,000 tons, or 50 % of the unit's total capacity). The company employs 12,000 persons and its gross sales in 2007 was $2.14 billion.

Metso - leading supplier of technology and services for pulp and paper industry.

I've been talking with a Chinese supplier about disc filters for a 500 000 tpa mill. Let's see what we can do together.

Metso - leading supplier of technology and services for pulp and paper industry.: "Washing and thickening...The production of secondary fiber for high quality tissue and graphic papers, today requires good control over the ash and fines level in the pulp. The paper machine runnability can also be improved when the recycled fibers are cleaned of sticky material, non-usable fines and ash.

Washing

The compact OptiThick GapWasher is a twin-wire dewatering unit for controlled washing of pulp. The two-sided dewatering and strong turbulence of the GapWasher facilitate two to three times higher capacities per unit of width than conventional washer technologies. An additional main feature of the GapWasher technology is that the ash and fines removal can be controlled depending on the targeted levels.

Thickening

The Hedemora VDF disc filters are designed to thicken low to medium freeness pulp, especially where high discharge consistency is needed. The Centerdisc CDI disc filters are insensitive to concentration and freeness variations and suit most recycled fiber applications.
The advantages of disc-filter technology are filtrate quality and the possibility for different water fractions.

The OptiThick GT gravity thickeners deliver high capacity for dewatering in a compact and cost-efficient process. OptiThick GT is used for recycled fiber pulp, especially in..."

Read more at the official web page!

Wetend Technologies Ltd.

We spoke about this company today. Do you know TrumpJet valves by WetEnd, Finland? They can dose 1 to several additives just before the headbox and spare a lot of water & energy. Juha Veikko Mentu (paper industry microbiologist) says, This company got a National Award in China a couple of years ago.

Wetend Technologies Ltd.: "Wetend Technologies Ltd operates globally serving the paper industry worldwide through own resources and locally together with agents and representatives. Home and technology base are in Finland.

Wetend Technologies Ltd is located in the city of Savonlinna in eastern part of Finland where the company holds office, research and development facilities and assembly shop premises.
New FiberLaboratory for process and development has been recently opened to support our technology and product development operations."

BBC NEWS | Business | Timeline: Global credit crunch

The credit crunch has turned into a real economical crisis. It took a long time to build up. How many years are we going to suffer? Barack Obama will start as a president on Tuesday 20. January 2009. People hope he'll get US on the right track again. He'll have a few years to find a way out. What should he and we all do to get the business world moving again?

BBC NEWS | Business | Timeline: Global credit crunch: "Most analysts link the current credit crisis to the sub-prime mortgage business, in which US banks give high-risk loans to people with poor credit histories. These and other loans, bonds or assets are bundled into portfolios - or Collateralised Debt Obligations (CDOs) - and sold on to investors globally."

Energy Intesive Firms and Climate Change

Energy intensive firms and enterprises are in collaboration with research institutes finding ways to exploit new business opportunities related to the global challenge of climate change.

The need to produce large quantities of biomass based fuels is a key challenge facing Finland, Scandinavia, and many other countries, especially considering the EU's target that 10 per cent of transport fuels should be carbon neutral biofuels by 2020.

Almost a quarter of the energy used in Finland comes from renewable resources, and much of this wood energy in various forms, used particularly within the pulp and paper industry.

New types of biodiesel can potentially be made from a wide range of vegetable oils or even animal fats, in addition to the imported palm oil used so far.

Another focus is the potential of using wood chips to make liquid biofuels.

In the field of wood energy Finland is a major technology provider in global terms. The country of green gold is a world leader in technologies used in harvesting wood for energy use.

Three-quarters of all the forestry machines used around the world are made in Finland.

Climate & Energy Change and Facebook

I got t a new Twitter friend. Amr El Beleidy (beleidy) is now following my updates on Twitter. I got a quick look at his blog and this was his latest posting. Read more on his blog.

• Name Amr El Beleidy
• Location London
• Web http://www.amrelb...
• Bio Sustainable Energy Post Grad Student, Self appointed CEO, Thinker, Traveler, Dreamer and sometimes very Random

Climate & Energy Change: "How much carbon do you emit through Facebook?

3% of the electricity produced by the US goes into its computers. We tend to think of computers as a low energy consumption devices, and they are. But without much notice they have crept into every aspect of our life. And now the computers in the US use 3% of its electricity. I wonder how much kettles use.

And some of those computers are housed in massive data centres such as those that are running Facebook. As Facebook adds 600,000 new users every day and as their monthly electricity bill passes $1,000,000 (see here), a lot of carbon is being emitted. We don’t really see it but every time we click on a Facebook link, some computer starts processing and some hard disk starts turning (if it wasn’t already) and some network card starts sending, all contributing to the electricity usage and thus the carbon emissions. But how much is all of this really.

My [Amr El Beleidy] suggestion to Facebook, which any reasonable person in Facebook would strongly reject, is to put a small counter somewhere on the screen that measures your contribution to Facebook’s carbon emissions. Let’s find out how much carbon we emitted just by browsing through our friend’s photos because we are bored at work."

The Energy Challenge - No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in Innovative ‘Passive Houses’ - Series - NYTimes.com

The Energy Challenge - No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in Innovative ‘Passive Houses’ - Series - NYTimes.com: "DARMSTADT, Germany — From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the stylish new gray and orange row houses in the Kranichstein District, with wreaths on the doors and Christmas lights twinkling through a freezing drizzle. But these houses are part of a revolution in building design: There are no drafts, no cold tile floors, no snuggling under blankets until the furnace kicks in. There is, in fact, no furnace."

Helge: Is this the new trend in building technique and design?

Ottawa / Eastern Ontario Full Circles

I got a new Twitter friend today and would like to invite him to the kknetwork.

• Name Eric Snyder
• Location 45.289212,-75.74577
• Web http://ottawa.ful...
• Bio Interested in diversity, calendars, freecycling, peak oil, environment, genealogy, fungi!

Ottawa / Eastern Ontario Full Circles: "To reduce our individual and collective environmental footprints on our home, the Earth by actively, energetically and positively promoting values of sustainability and conservation of resources. FULL CIRCLES offers education, opportunity, and venues for individuals and communities to learn, to interact, to collaborate, and to take action."

With Obama a Green Economy is Possible

Twitter search is a good manual news aggregator. I found this on Way to Go Green dot org. Take a look at what that blog is all about.

About

Way To Go Green (dot org) is where you will find news, tips, and ideas about greening your environment.

We offer information to help you save money, be kind to your earth, and enjoy life.

Bookmark this site, subscribe with the RSS feed button, or subscribe with email notification. That way you will be notified when ever new content is posted on this website.

Thanks for visiting. Come back often.

Cato

With Obama a Green Economy is Possible: "With Obama a Green Economy is Possible," written by admincato on December 5th, 2008.

America was built on a dream for a more perfect union. Over the years, we have taken that dream to new heights, but at a cost. Because of our demand for bigger and better things, we have become a nation of polluted air, clogged landfills, and an ever-plummeting economy. However, President-elect Barack Obama has come up with a plan that could turn things around. With Obama-A Green Economy is a possibility.

Stimulate the Economy:
Mr. Obama has set up a plan to stimulate the economy, while saving the environment. He has stated that he would like to create 5 million new jobs over a period of about 10 years. He wants to help train people to work with green technologies, allowing them to gain high-paying jobs that will create an overall better environment to live in.

Green Manufacturing:
He has also stated that he would like to see manufacturing plants create plans to work more efficiently, using less energy, and less waste. He has offered to invest in companies that create plans that will work toward a better future for the entire nation, and has even stated that within a year of taking over as President, the federal government will also begin working toward saving energy and increase the use of hybrid plug-in cars that use less fuel.

Greener Way of Life:
Through President-elect Obama-A Green Economy is a dream that could become a reality. It gives the American people new hope in a brighter future, and a greener way of life. Through this plan, the economy could make a comeback and set new standards for the way the rest of the world does business. And once again, we could become a more perfect union.

Please Leave a Reply on the original page.

Virgance: Activism 2.0

Learned about this company through Jaiku. Who knows more about 1BOG?

Virgance: Activism 2.0: "1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG) is a novel model of community purchasing focused on driving widespread adoption of clean energy solutions and sustainable lifestyles using education, logistical support, social networking and group pricing. 1BOG started as a consumer-based initiative in San Francisco and rapidly became the largest group purchasing program for green products in the country.

1BOG addresses the three principal barriers to ‘clean-energy-living’, which we call the Clean Living Trifecta. These are Cost, Complexity and Community. To address Cost, we leverage the group’s bargaining power to negotiate large discounts for our members.

We are able to drive down cost by aggregating large numbers of buyers, and by streamlining the sales process for vendors. Our highly educated, well-qualified members allow the vendors to focus on providing the best solution at the lowest cost. That brings us to the second barrier, Complexity. There are two aspects of Complexity, the technology (what’s available) and the process (how do I get it) – 1BOG addresses both.

For example, on the technology front we sort through all the available information about residential solar energy, process that information and make it available to 1BOG members in an accessible, easy-to-digest format so buyers can easily get the facts and decide if this solution is right for them.

The second aspect of Complexity lies in the process of acquiring the solution. In the case of residential solar, there are a myriad of factors to take into account. Members need to determine how many panels they’ll need, which rebates exist in their area, which ones they are eligible for, how to apply for incentives, etc. 1BOG provides assistance all the way through the process."

Hmmm. Need to read more about 1BOG.