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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Global warming is Earth's way of sending out a May Day distress call, many experts say, and bit by bit, communities and businesses across Chester County are responding to the plea for help. London Grove, for example, is the latest Chester County township to sign up for the Pennsylvania Clean Energy Communities Campaign. This month, the township will making a big push to enroll residents. "May is a big month for us for environmental awareness," said Rhona Klein, township recycling coordinator and open-space manager.

Two years after it was created by City Council, the Philadelphia Energy Authority hits the public stage on Wednesday looking for a few good ideas about saving energy. The five-member authority is holding a public hearing to gather suggestions on ways to fulfill its mission of reducing city government's energy consumption and to facilitate the development of renewable energy projects. "We're looking for great ideas," said Christopher A. Lewis, a Blank Rome law partner who is the authority's chairman.

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.

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.

WASHINGTON - Newly released e-mails show that, contrary to White House assertions, a major donor to President Obama pushed for a loan to a solar-energy company that later went bankrupt. The donor, George Kaiser, pushed White House and Energy Department officials for a second loan for Solyndra Inc. last year, after the California company had already received a $528 million loan in 2009, the e-mails show. The second loan was not approved. Instead, an investment venture Kaiser controlled made a private loan that resulted in the firm and other investors moving ahead of taxpayers in line for repayment if Solyndra defaulted.

BALTIMORE - Exelon's proposed $7.9 billion takeover of Constellation Energy would lead to about 600 redundant positions, but the two companies are working to ease the impact in Maryland, two top executives told state regulators Wednesday. In their third straight day of testimony, Exelon president and chief operating officer Christopher Crane noted that 200 positions are being moved from Pennsylvania to Maryland under the proposed merger. The deal also includes a $100 credit for each residential customer of Constellation's regulated utility, Baltimore Gas and Electric, as well as a promise to build 25 megawatts of renewable energy in the state and a new headquarters in Baltimore.

Looking back, Swarthmore's leaders are a tad foggy on how the borough came to far outpace other communities in the use of alternative energy. Maybe it stemmed from the borough's long history of environmental activism. Or the nature of a town founded by Quakers that is host to a celebrated liberal-arts college. In any event, Swarthmore has achieved a level of green that most towns would envy. In the last year, more than a quarter of the energy needed to power its homes, buildings, and schools - 27.9 percent - came from renewable sources.

Kevin Brown is cofounder of Cleantech Alliance Mid-Atlantic (cleantechma.org) Philadelphia identifies with underdogs: Rocky, the Eagles, and now energy. When business people or policymakers think of Philly, they naturally jump to the Big Five: pharmaceuticals, higher education, legal, finance, and technology. Clean tech, or renewable energy, rarely makes the list. But that's about to change. We have the potential to be a full-fledged front-runner in one of the hottest growth industries.

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - Environmental advocates hoping to influence New Jersey's energy policy told a legislative panel reviewing energy use Thursday that conservation and use of renewable sources should play bigger roles in the state's future. Gov. Christie's proposed energy master plan calls for a 17 percent reduction in energy use by 2021. Environmental advocates believe the target should be at least 20 percent. Janet Tauro of the New Jersey Environmental Federation said conservation and clean energy should be at the forefront of the state's revised, 10-year energy plan.

A bill in the New Jersey Legislature would revise standards for wind-generation facilities and permit commercial-scale wind turbines of any size on preserved farmland. But the bill makes no provision for environmental review, public input, or municipal or State Agricultural Development Committee oversight. It would essentially transfer the powers of community self-determination and home rule to powerful special interests that have no connection to the land or the affected communities.