Clean Energy

The talk was of job opportunities, worker training programs, and a flourishing state economy. One manager from a Kennett Square firm said her clean-energy company was hiring - and expanding - throughout the United States. What recession? Though another dose of dismal unemployment data came from the Labor Department yesterday, optimism was in great supply in a ballroom at West Chester University on Thursday night. Why? The potential of Pennsylvania's green economy - assuming a major infusion through the latest stimulus measure now before Congress.

Pennsylvania messed with Texas, and won. Specifically, Kathleen A. McGinty, secretary of environmental protection, engineered an economic coup, winning a Spanish company's agreement last month to set up a wind turbine blade factory in the state and its U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia. Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica S.A.'s move could bring 1,000 jobs and an initial $25 million in investment to the state. Texas had been a leading contender. Though wind-generating capacity is only about 6,000 megawatts in the United States, less than 1 percent of the nation's electricity generation, wind power's attraction is growing as governments look to increase their use of clean alternative energy sources.

It is midafternoon on a hot and lazy weekday. Boston native Jim Gordon is standing on a cobblestone street, talking in low and measured tones about the crisp, clean beauty of wind. The dream, he says, is to power this wealthy island, along with Martha's Vineyard and Cape Cod, almost exclusively with wind-generated electricity. There will be a wind farm, he says, with tall, graceful turbines. A well-dressed older man strolling by slows down to listen - and in a booming voice offers Gordon this unsolicited advice: "Go to New York and sell your fans!

SEVERE flooding, heat-related deaths, unhealthy air, loss of species and damage to agriculture and industry are some of the threats we face as a result of global warming. PennEnvironment reports that this state is a leading contributor to global warming in the U.S., responsible for 1 percent of total global emissions. But there's hope. Congress can tackle global warming through clean-energy solutions and capping global warming pollution. It's called the American Clean Energy & Security Act. Without serious action, Pennsylvania will continue to be affected by global warming.

Clean Energy Fuels Corp. on Thursday will open the region's latest compressed-natural-gas refueling station in Bucks County, part of a growing infrastructure that natural-gas advocates hope will broaden the market for the fuel. The station at 451 Tyburn Rd. in Fairless Hills will be the first public station in Southeastern Pennsylvania, though Peco Energy Co. has five private locations around Philadelphia and South Jersey has four stations, including a Clean Energy public station in Camden.

Our nation's clean-energy future has been one of the most debated issues in Washington in recent months. As Congress works to pass a landmark energy and climate bill, the conversation has often fallen into a familiar pattern of right against left, and Democrats against Republicans - partisan divides that threaten to hold back necessary change. But when I travel beyond the environs of Washington, I hear a different discussion. People across the nation ask me about clean-energy jobs in their communities.

TRENTON - Gov. Christie signed legislation Monday aimed at encouraging the continued growth of New Jersey's solar industry while protecting ratepayers from increased costs. The measure, which had strong bipartisan support in the Legislature, increases the percentage of the total that power utilities must derive from solar energy from about 2 percent a year to more than 4 percent by 2028. The state goal overall is to generate 23.5 percent of New Jersey's energy from solar. Proponents said the law should help increase prices for the solar-subsidy credits, which utilities buy from solar producers and should keep the solar industry healthy by saving thousands of jobs and making it a more attractive venture.

Even on a dismal, overcast day, Stargazers Vineyard in Unionville still generates enough electricity with its 54 solar panels to sustain the 29-acre farm and the house where owners Alice and John Weygandt live. "Our electric bill is zip. We make enough for the whole year," Alice Weygandt, 65, said. Renewable energy is slowly making inroads in Chester County, even though it is more expensive than conventional power if you buy it from a utility instead of generating it yourself, as the Weygandts do. Building a solar-energy system isn't cheap though; the Weygandts spent about $70,000.

In the Region       Pew calls for clean-energy standard   In a report that asserts America's competitive position in clean energy is lagging, the Pew Charitable Trusts advocated the adoption of a national clean-energy standard that sets milestones for deployment of renewable power. The Pew Clean Energy Program said the green-power industry would benefit from the adoption of a national standard similar to those adopted by 29 states, including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

At the same time Gov. Rendell was celebrating Pennsylvania's success in luring a Greek solar-cell manufacturer to the Navy Yard in Philadelphia, proposed legislation he calls critical to helping the state become a major alternative-energy player was languishing. Advocates had hoped House Bill 80 - which would significantly boost Pennsylvania's clean-energy standards and its commitment to alternative energy - would be passed by year's end. But those hopes faded last week, when the legislature exhausted the rest of its 2009 working calendar mired in debate over whether to allow poker, roulette, and other games at the state's casinos.