Midwest states form power group
Associated Press
4:46 PM CDT, September 18, 2008
MADISON, Wis. – Five Midwestern states have banded together to cooperate on building wind power and transmission capabilities.

Energy regulators in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota as well as utilities and transmission companies will make up the Upper Midwest Transmission Development Initiative. The coalition will study wind generation resources and transmission needs as well as coordinate state regulators, transmission companies and utilities.

The group will hold its first meeting in October to develop a scope statement, work plans and timelines

www.greenjobsnow.com

The crisis rocking the U.S. financial sector is rippling into the clean-energy business, bruising more mature industries like wind while leaving young start-ups relatively untouched so far.

The unraveling of debt-heavy investment banking firms–including the demise this week of Wall Street icons Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch–means that financing for large-scale renewable energy projects will get harder and more expensive, according to analysts.

“This isn’t good news for anybody–it’s going to have an impact economy-wide,” said Ethan Zindler, head of north American research at New Energy Finance.

New Energy Finance’s clean-energy stock index is down about one third so far this year–lower than the Dow–and the sector has been volatile, Zindler noted.

Lehman and Merrill Lynch were involving in financing clean-energy deals, but to a far lesser extent than Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and General Electric’s renewable-energy financing arm.

“If you look at the other investment banks, their survival is probably more critical to clean energy,” Zindler said.

Because it is the most mature, wind energy will likely get hit hardest by a squeeze on credit. Wind farms rely on project finance from banks or other institutions to fund construction and development.

But with fewer investment banks offering financing amid strong demand, wind project developers may get less favorable terms, ultimately making the energy from those projects more expensive.

you know Energy is serious when Google and GE announce a joint team to ”change” Energy needs

Google and GE Join Up to Tackle Energy Policy & Tech
Thursday, 18 September 2008 06:32 Earth2tech 3593 1 2 3 4 5 (1 vote, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Search engine giant Google and conglomerate GE have announced a partnership to collaborate on energy policy and technology, including pushing for a smarter electricity grid, cleaner power generation and greener transportation. GE’s CEO and Chairman Jeffrey Immelt and Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt made the announcement from Zeitgeist, an annual gathering at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, where Schmidt interviewed Immelt and applauded GE’s pioneering role in building energy technology.
The partnership between the two companies will focus on both technology and policy, because, as the companies wrote in a note, “the current regulatory and economic model is failing to drive the innovation and investment we need in today’s electric grid.” Immelt, a longtime Republican who advocates hands-off government and freedom of the market, said during the presentation that sometimes government needs to be “a catalyst for change.”

Initially, the companies will work on policy aimed at building out more electricity transmission lines, which will connect renewable energy to the grid, as well as implementing smart grid technology. Google and GE will jointly develop policy proposals, advocate and analyze policies, and develop media and information campaigns. During the presentation, both Schmidt and Immelt — as well as former Vice President Al Gore, who was in the audience — lamented the inability thus far of congress to renew the clean energy tax credits that will expire before the end of the year.