Our editor sent me a link to a Time Magazine article titled “Asia Challenges the U.S. for Green Tech Supremacy”
I was enraged at the shallowness of this thought process. Having worked within global manufacturing for over fifteen years. I have seen the “new pink,” the buzz words that become the focus of corporations.

Spoken by the CEO’s to boards, stockholders and management; like “outsource,” ‘DIVERSITY,” “Supply Chain,” all of which have been great ideas that turned scapegoats; used for the purpose of getting a tax advantage, saving money, all about the stock price today. Nothing considered as to the long term ramifications. And this article is that one-dimensional.

With this knowledge, knowing others have similar insights I am throwing this out there to start a discussion. …read more of “Does Asia really challenge the U.S. for Green Tech Supremacy?!” here

During last year’s Earth Day the business community was just coming to grasp with the economic slowdown; there was a growing understanding of climate change issues and the need for clean energy solutions and responding to that growing interest, investors over the past year had opened the money valves to record levels. Global investments in clean energy reached $155 billion for the whole of 2008.

How things have changed. Months into a deep, global economic crisis, this year’s Earth Day is being celebrated amidst an investment drought — venture capital funds, which were early supporters of the clean energy sector — have all but pulled out of the sector. Banks are also not lending, despite unprecedented government support.

One report, released earlier this month, compiled by research firm New Energy Finance, showed that global investments in the clean energy sector plummeted to $13.3 billion in the first quarter of 2009, a 44% drop from the fourth quarter of 2008 and a 53% drop from the same time last year. …read more of Clean Energy Investments Key to Economic Recovery here

Royal Dutch Shell is the latest oil company that has opted to back away from green energy investments to instead focus on its traditional oil and gas business.

Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer made the announcement a couple of weeks ago at an investor conference in London, arguing that investment returns in the wind or solar business were too small.

Linda Cook, Shell’s executive director of gas and power also added: “If there aren’t investment opportunities which compete with other projects we won’t put money into it. We are businessmen and women. If there were renewable [which made money] we would put money into it.”

Overall the company said it was going to spend a staggering $32 billion, mostly to prop up oil and gas production but drop new investments in wind, solar and hydrogen energy. …read more of Shell Walks Away from Solar and Wind Investments here

Google has teamed up with GE to bring us up-close and personal to the smart grid. They’re developing a personal energy information application called the Google PowerMeter that will show us our energy consumption in near real-time.

We will know how much energy we’re using, which appliance is using more energy, and find out once-and-for-all just how much energy and money we save by unplugging all of those appliances not in use.

A leader in the Silicon Valley internet technology industry starting from modest beginnings with a well-designed search engine, Google is betting we’ll better understand our energy usage by the information we receive from the PowerMeter than what we currently find on our utility bills. …read more of Google and the Grid here

A recurring criticism about solar generation is its high cost, a factor that has slowed its deployment as a widely used source of energy compared to say, wind generation. But that could change.

First Solar, a photovoltaic cell maker based in Tempe, Arizona, said it reached an “industrial milestone,” when it reduced production costs. They say it now costs $1 to make solar cells that generate one watt of power – down from $3 four years ago.

“This achievement marks a milestone in the solar industry’s evolution toward providing truly sustainable energy solutions,” said Mike Ahearn, First Solar chief executive officer in a written statement.

“In order to address climate change in a meaningful way, we need energy technologies that are affordable, scalable and have a low environmental impact on a life-cycle basis,” added Ken Zweibel, a director at the Institute for the Analysis of Solar Energy at The George Washington University.

The company says it was able to achieve this milestone through economies of scale, including growing production capacity by 50 percent over the four year time period. …read more of First Solar Reaches Milestone for the Industry here