energy efficiency

It’s hard to argue with the idea that energy efficiency is the most under-told part of America’s clean energy economy, despite the efforts to date of some pretty smart, committed people. We could go such a long way to cutting our use of the most destructive forms of energy and addressing global climate disruption if we just stopped wasting so much.

Richard Ford doesn’t like the term smart grid.

“It means different things to different people,” says the manager of grid solutions at Toronto Hydro. “The term has become overused. It gets in the way.”

In its annual progress report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) unsurprisingly called for more urgency and action from nations across the globe in the development and deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

Over the last year, green jobs have become a political punching bag. But in many states throughout the country the industry is gaining traction. In Massachusetts, more than 64,000 engineers, construction workers and entrepreneurs have found jobs in the sector. The Center for American Progress went to Massachusetts to learn how they're doing it, and to tell the real story about the clean energy economy.

To the casual observer, energy efficiency means very little, that is until they see the cost savings associated with making tweaks to their homes and businesses.  According to a new report, one energy retrofit may be more efficient than the rest.

Brookhaven National Laboratory, one of 12 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories vested in energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development, has announced it will take part in a pioneering effort to make its research facilities and expertise more readily available to private companies trying to move newly developed technologies from the drawing board to the marketplace.

Apple, Inc. plans to build the biggest privately owned solar farm in the United States according to its latest facilities report released earlier this week.

Swedish furniture manufacturer IKEA has released its 2011 Sustainability Report, which reaffirms the company's status as a global leader in the increasingly important area of corporate sustainability.

German automaker Volkswagen's newest United States manufacturing facility has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) as the first LEED Platinum automotive manufacturing plant in the world.

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Solid-State Lighting Program, which operates under the auspices of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, or EERE, released its second report on the country’s logistical fixed lighting architecture this January, updating the industry from its previous report in 2002.