BioEnergy Bytes

Joanna Schroeder

  • BioEnergyBytesDFThe Department of Energy (DOE) has posted resources about renewable energy for students and teachers. The Get Current coloring book introduces sources such as geothermal energy for young students. The Get Current activity book uses puzzles and games to teach energy efficiency and renewable energy concepts. Perfect for pre-K and kindergarten students, the coloring book takes the student through solar, wind, water, hydropower, bioenergy and geothermal before demonstrating ways to improve energy efficiency—like plug in electric vehicles. The activity book includes crosswords, word games, math puzzles and more challenging fun ways to help students, learn, understand, and internalize the principles of energy literacy, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.
  • The University of California, Davis and SunPower Corp. plan to build a 16-megawatt, ground-mounted solar power plant that is expected to generate 14 percent of UC Davis’ electricity needs. The university anticipates that, when the plant is completed in 2015, more than one-third of total electricity demand on campus will be served from carbon neutral energy sources. On completion, the project will be the largest solar power installation in the University of California system, and the largest solar power plant to offset the electricity demand of a U.S. university or college campus.
  • ECOHZ has a Call for Projects for landowners, project developers and cooperatives who have renewable energy projects that are close to being realized, but lack top financing. In phase I, ECOHZ is primarily looking at financing mature technology projects using solar, wind or hydropower. The scope is initially limited to projects in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg and Germany. The eligible projects need to have the required permits, access to the grid and project start-up planned within a year. The top financing ranges from EUR 50,000 to 500,000, and is limited to 15% of the total investment. In Phase II, ECOHZ will look to top finance projects with different technologies in more geographies.
  • Panasonic Enterprise Solutions Company and Coronal Group LLC has announced the completion of nine solar projects in Tulare and Kings Counties in Central California. The projects provide 16.2 MW of energy to Southern California Edison’s grid to power approximately 14,500 homes annually.
Bioenergy Bytes