Lux Research focuses on looking at "uncovering opportunities" in the green building market and feels that the growth will come from services, materials, and equipment that will be instrumental in creating energy efficiency or reducing the usage of materials in a building. They also state that the biggest growth can come from the energy service companies due to the huge demand that continues to grow at a fast pace.

Lux Research also states that technologies such as rooftop solar systems and and water heating systems will see immense growth with the implementation of new technologies that will create efficiencies.

All in all, sounds like the green building market is the right industry to be in for all of us so I'm for sure looking forward to the growth.

The largest winners of the grants were the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), the Utility Florida Power and Light and the Pennsylvania State University who each got approximately $5 million. General Electric also got over $600K to help develop a smart grid center where each year hundreds of engineers and software developers can receive training.

The most optimistic news of all?

Independent surveys that were conducted showed that abotu 47% of power engineers will either leave or be eligible for retirement within the next five years. That means that the demand is going to be high for people in those service areas. So this is a perfect opportunity for all of us who want to upgrade our skills or get advanced training to get paid more.

Look to the Department of Energy website to see who else won the grants and get ready to spruce up your skills. It's a win-win opportunity for all.
 

And best of all? It was installed FREE. Yes, FREE with the 25 year power purchase agreement with Pacific Power Management (PPM).

And the savings it will generate?

The port’s energy costs will be reduced by about $20,000 annually and in the next 25 years, this solar powered system is expected to eliminate over 34 million pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions.

The system consists of 3,536 solar panels covering 90,000 square feet on the rooftops of two rice warehouse buildings. With the 25-year power purchase agreement, it was installed at no cost to the port by Pacific Power Management (PPM).
 
So question is, why isn't this something that everyone is jumping on and doing? I mean if the initial cost is zero and the savings are apparent, and the environment is sure to get cleaner, what are people waiting for?

Well, here's a new program that is being proposed to help you get some federal money to finance those energy efficient projects.  Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is a new program which is designed to help us finance "energy" saving projects. With PACE not only can you save the earth so to speak, but also save your check book from a quick erosion of your hard-earned money.

PACE allows property owners to pay in increments for their energy efficient investments rather than spending all the money up front. This means that you can begin saving money on energy bills and begin seeing the return before paying for the total cost of implementing an energy savings program.

So how will PACE work?

S
Basically as a property owner, if you opt to use PACE, you would agree to an incremental cost to your property taxes for a period of up to 20 years. Property owners do not incur any upfront costs and they benefit from seeing a saving on their energy bill which may exceed the surcharge on their property tax. If a property owner sells the property, this additional cost is transferred to the new property owner.

If homeowners are able to undertake these energy efficiency renovations on a national scale, they could collectively save $21 billion by 2020, as outlined in the OnEarth article mentioned above.  Most residential energy efficiency upgrades can be done in less than a day – and can cut home energy usage by up to 40 percent. Because homes contribute about 20 percent of the country’s climate emissions, these retrofits represent a significant environmental impact in additional to the financial savings homeowners will enjoy.

But it appears that people seeking careers or jobs in the construction or building industry should find a way to get trained in green construction techniques because that market continues to grow and is expected to have eight million jobs by 2013, according a study published by the US Green Building Council. The study called "Green Jobs Study" shows that currently there are approximately two million "green" jobs and they predict that will be a 32% increase in annual growth in green construction between now until 2013 even though the overall construction market has declined.

So if green buildings will grow, so will the opportunity for people who have green construction experience or training. The facts are indisputable; there is a huge benefit from "building" green not only in energy savings that are quite substantial, but also in reduced operational and maintenance costs. The above study estimates that green construction will save approximately $6 billion in energy costs between now and 2013 but what's impressive is that the operational savings predicted are also significant at almost $4 billion.
 
So bottom line is this; if you are looking for a career in construction, your focus should be on going "green" and learning all that there is to learn in this industry. That's what we are doing here at Centrim Electric and we hope to grow our own expertise in this area with more and more "green" projects.

But legislators of one county to whom Kessel was appealing to couldn't be swayed although Kessel attempted to clear misconceptions and illustrate the benefits of an offshore wind farm.

And what was the reason that the legislators weren't convinced even though the creation of an offshore wind farm may create hundreds of jobs?

Legislators felt that the creation of  an offshore wind farm on Lake Ontario would cripple "tourism economy". Not to mention the loss of  "property value" on the waterfront!

Hmmm! Can't have the economy improve at the expense of the view can we???

A keynote address will be given by Thomas Smith, NBC Universal's senior vice president of West Coast real estate who will also accept the 2010 Visionary Award in recognition for NBC Universal's Evolution Plan. NBC's Universal Evolution Plan is a long-term development strategy for the company's Universal City property in California in which environmentally-sustainable practices will be employed. It is expected to create thousands of new jobs and revenue for the local economy.

Also speaking will be Mark Rios, founding principal of Rios Clementi Hale Studios. The 2010 Innovators Award will be given to Bloom Energy for its "Bloom Box," which is created to provide clean electricity to homes and businesses. Other speakers will cover topics in the sustainability arena and will discuss the impact of green construction, opportunities, technologies and risks.
 

The Public Service Electric and Gas (PSE&G) in New Jersey announced a program which would double New Jersey's solar output by 2013. This program is called the SOLAR 4 ALL program in which four solar farms will be built in New Jersey. These solar farms would be built in Trenton, Hamilton, Edison and Linden. The New Jersey PS&G also plans to install thousands of solar panels which will be on pole-mounted utilities.

How much solar power is this new program expected to generate? Over 80,000 kilowatts or enough to power 64,000 homes!

According to New Jersey officials, this may well be the largest installation of solar panels in the world.

Wouldn't it be great if every state implemented a SOLAR 4 ALL program? Think of all the energy we'd be able to save by utilizing earth's most renewable energy.

Anna Dyson, the head honcho at CASE states that tall buildings have windows with large surface areas which provide a lot of surface to generate power from captured sun's rays. By using a technology called ‘integrated concentrating dynamic solar façade’, a grid of clear pyramids are inserted on a window. These pyramids contain a lens which can focus sunlight onto a highly efficient solar cell by over 400 times intensity. What these pyramids do is they rotate to follow the sun throughout the day and generate the electricity to heat, cool, or light buildings. And these solar cells have a fluid around them to cool them off which also captures the heat that didn't convert into electricity which can also be used for heating or cooling a building.

Of course this technology is expensive and so its implementation may be cost-prohibitive. But someone out there will be sure to create a more cost-effective version of it not too long from now, I'm sure.
 

CNA has produced a three-minute video called  "The Unknown Hazard to Electricity" for electrical contractors. The video shows a CNA customer who suffered an arc blast but survived it.

CNA Video Arc Blast

CNA is a commercial insurance writer and CNA provides risk management services. By producing this educational video, CNA hopes that their customers can prevent accidents.