Renewable Energy

SunTechnics Energy Systems Inc., a provider of renewable-energy systems, will base its East Coast headquarters in Malvern after acquiring Mesa Environmental Sciences Inc., which has offices in Malvern and Marlton. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, will allow the combined company, which will be named Mesa Energy L.L.C., to move forward on $50 million of potential projects, said Sarah Hetznecker, who founded Mesa five years ago with her husband, Gary Sheehan. Mesa's current staff of 16 will double within a year, she said, as the company hires engineers and installers.

Energy policy has a profound impact on nearly everything Americans hold important. The right policy can mean job creation, a thriving economy fueled by affordable energy and technological innovation, a cleaner environment, increased security, and a foreign policy liberated from energy dependence. Today, Americans are coping with the repercussions of the wrong national energy policy. Families struggle to pay the rising costs of heating their homes and fueling their cars. Businesses absorb the economic impact of poor electric reliability.

Pennsylvania is providing $2.9 billion a year in subsidies to fossil-fuel industries, but not offering similar government supports and incentives to cleaner renewable-energy development, according to a report released Tuesday by the PennFuture Energy Center for Enterprise and the Environment. The biggest state fossil-fuel subsidies listed in the report, based on the governor's 2011-12 executive budget, are: $1.14 billion for gasoline and diesel fuel, $435 million for electricity, $322 million for fuel oil and natural gas - all exempt from various sales and use taxes - and $477 million for oil and gas local property-tax exemptions.

We have heard the story of Paul Revere when he yelled, "The British are coming. " I am here today to tell you that the British are here and their company's name is Amergen. They are not dressed in red coats, but they are armed and dangerous, my fellow patriots. Amergen, a joint venture between British Energy Co. and Peco Energy Co., bought Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant in Ocean County last year for $10 million. That's cheaper than the salary of some baseball players. Amergen wants to store more radioactive waste.

LARGO, Md. - Vigorously defending his policies, President Obama ridiculed critics of renewable energy sources Thursday, calling them naysayers and comparing them to the flat-earthers of yesteryear. Obama did not mention his detractors by name, merely referring to them as "professional politicians. " But his targets were clear. "A lot of the folks who are running for a certain office who shall go unnamed, they've been talking down new sources of energy," Obama told a crowd of students at Prince George's Community College in Washington's Maryland suburbs.

The Philadelphia Water Department has hired Ameresco, Inc., a Framingham, Mass., renewable-energy company, to design, build and maintain a biogas-burning cogeneration plant at its Northeast Water Pollution Control Plant. The $47.5 million project will generate 5.6 megawatts of electricity and thermal energy for use at the treatment plant. Michael T. Bakas, Ameresco's senior vice president, said the project is sized based upon projections about how much biogas is produced from the decomposition of sewage in the plant's digesters.

To promote renewable energy, we need to put business, technology, and environmental protection in harness together. Green technologies are on the verge of becoming one of the next waves in the knowledge economy revolution. The global market for environmental goods and services is projected to rise to [approximately $630 billion] by 2010. Shell estimates that 50 percent of the world's energy needs could be met by renewables by 2050. Wind power is already a [profitable] industry. By 2010, the global solar market [should rise significantly]

TRENTON - Gov. Christie on Tuesday outlined a vision for New Jersey's energy future that focuses on nuclear, natural gas, and commercial solar power, and retreats from ambitious renewable energy goals. The governor introduced a long-awaited energy master plan at a news conference more than a year after his administration said it would revise the document developed under the previous administration to reflect the economic downturn. The release follows the governor's controversial announcement last week to pull New Jersey out of a multistate cap-and-trade agreement for greenhouse gas emissions, a key part of Gov. Jon S. Corzine's energy plan.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Monday nominated MIT professor Ernest Moniz as energy secretary, Environmental Protection Agency official Gina McCarthy as EPA administrator, and Wal-Mart executive Sylvia Mathews Burwell as White House budget director. In a ceremony at the White House with all three nominees, Obama hailed their predecessors and said he was confident that their successors would pursue his administration's goals of achieving energy independence, creating more clean-energy jobs, fighting climate change and reigniting economic growth.

Counting on shifting sentiments about climate change, a Democratic state legislator on Friday introduced legislation to force Pennsylvania utilities to generate more power from renewable sources such as wind and solar. State Rep. Greg Vitali (D., Delaware), whose recent efforts to boost renewable-energy mandates have failed to get sufficient support, said he hoped the political climate had changed in the aftermath of several destructive storms. "Superstorm Sandy was a reminder of the consequences we face if we ignore the climate change issue," said Vitali, who is the chairman of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee.

PALERMO, Italy - Inside a midnight-blue BMW, a Sicilian entrepreneur delivered his pitch to the accused mob boss. A new business was blowing into Italy that could spin wind and sunlight into gold, ensuring the future of Earth as well as the Cosa Nostra: renewable energy. "Uncle Vincenzo," implored the businessman, Angelo Salvatore, using a term of affection for the alleged head of Sicily's Gimbellina crime family, Vincenzo Funari, 79. According to a transcript of their wiretapped conversation, Salvatore continued: "For the love of our sons, renewable energy is important.

WASHINGTON - President Obama on Wednesday nominated Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) chief executive Sally Jewell to head the Interior Department, praising her as a leader who "knows the link between conservation and good jobs. " The choice of Jewell, who began her career as an engineer for Mobil Oil and worked as a commercial banker before heading a nearly $2 billion outdoors-equipment company, represents an unconventional choice for a post usually reserved for career politicians from the West.

S TEPHEN J. WEINBERG, 52, of West Mount Airy, is president of National Foundry Products, a company that serves as sales representative for overseas foundries and forging plants. He also has been a leader in fostering creation of B Corporations, which use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.   Q: Tell me about your business. A: Our clients are manufacturers in the metals industry and are looking for suppliers in North America.

The Pennsylvania House Democratic Policy Committee will conduct a hearing Jan. 29 in Bryn Mawr about two pieces of legislation that would promote the development of renewable power. The committee will hear testimony about H.B 100, which would increase the amount of power that utilities must obtain from renewable sources to 15 percent by 2023, up from the current requirement of 8 percent by 2021. The panel will also hear testimony about H.B. 200, which would provide $25 million per year to the PA Sunshine Solar program, which provides rebates to homeowners and small businesses that install solar systems.

CAIRO - Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's Islamist president, sought Wednesday to defuse Washington's anger over his past remarks urging hatred of Jews and calling Zionists "pigs" and "bloodsuckers," telling visiting U.S. senators that his comments were a denunciation of Israeli policies. Both sides appear to want to get beyond the flap: Morsi needs America's help in repairing a rapidly sliding economy, and Washington can't afford to shun a figure who has emerged as a model of an Islamist leader who maintains his country's ties with Israel.

WASHINGTON - Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who oversaw a moratorium on offshore drilling after the BP oil spill and promoted alternative energy sources throughout the nation, will step down in March. A former U.S. senator from Colorado, Salazar ran the Interior Department throughout President Obama's first term and pushed renewable power such as solar and wind and the settlement of a long-standing dispute with American Indians. With Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson also leaving the administration and Energy Secretary Steven Chu expected to depart, Obama will have a clean slate of top officials overseeing energy and environmental issues.

A group of faculty at Community College of Philadelphia staunchly oppose their campus accepting funds from the Marcellus Shale Coalition for a new Energy Training Center, announced Nov. 15. The center, which will launch in January, will receive $15,000 for student scholarships from the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the natural gas industry trade group. In a statement Wednesday, three faculty members called on the administration not to accept funds or collaborate with the shale gas industry in providing "career, certificate and academic programs in the energy field.