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It’s been widely noted that the passage of the financial bailout bill included $150 billion in additional “sweeteners” to gain passage in the House of Representatives. It’s true that only in Washington could the solution to an overly expensive bill be an even more expensive bill, but it’s also true that one of the provisions - energy efficiency and renewable energy tax credits - was among the important sweeteners to win passage.

The tax bill is filled with important incentives that will keep the solar and wind power industries competitive, and that means they should continue to innovate, producing more power at ever more affordable prices. That’s critical for the U.S., and the world, as we confront the challenge of global warming.

But what about homeowners and other regular taxpayers? There are several important provisions anyone can take advantage of:

1. $500 for energy efficiency
If you can, wait until Jan. 1 to install new insulation, energy-efficient windows or an energy-efficient furnace, boiler or air conditioner.

A tax credit of up to $500 that expired in 2007 has been renewed for 2009. It covers up to 10% of the cost of a range of projects that meet certain specifications. Do $5,000 worth of qualifying work, and you not only get a $500 rebate, but also savings on energy bills for years to come.

Why wait? Of course, the heating season begins before Jan. 1, giving homeowners facing a northern winter reason to invest now - but because Congress let the tax credit lapse, work done in 2008 doesn’t qualify.
Also note these important limits, which cap the amount you can claim for any particular project:

- Windows: $200
- Exterior doors, roofing or insulation: $500
- Most heating, ventilation and air-conditioning improvements: $300
- Furnaces or hot water heaters: $150

Remember, your overall tax credit is capped at $500, so if you install $5,000 worth of exterior doors and $2,000 worth of new windows, for a total of $7,000, you can still only claim $500 - even though 10 percent of all qualifying work equals $700. Also, the tax credit applies only to equipment, not labor.

Find more information at the Alliance to Save Energy or Energy Star or Department of Energy Web sites. Note that much of this information reflects the tax incentives in place in 2006 and 2007; for the most part, the 2009 tax credits are identical, but updated criteria for which products qualify, for instance, will be published soon.

2. $2,000 for geothermal
The new tax breaks include a new incentive to install ground-source heat pumps, according to Ronnie Kweller, spokeswoman for the Alliance to Save Energy.
The old credits had been capped at $300 and were included under the overall energy efficiency improvement cap of $500. No longer. Now you can claim up to $2,000 of the cost of installing a geothermal heating and cooling system, and the cost is separated completely from other energy-efficiency improvements you might claim. Like the energy-efficient tax breaks, however, this incentives doesn’t apply to work done in 2008.

Ground-source heat pumps are installed underground and use the constant 50-degree subsurface temperature to cool air or water in the summer, and heat it in the winter - both of which reduce the cost of heating or cooling year round.

3. $2,000 or more for solar power systems
The bill extends for another eight years a tax credit that covers 30 percent of the cost of new photovoltaic solar power systems on homes.

The existing tax credit, which was capped at $2,000, would have expired at the end of 2008. Now, it’s good through 2016 - and there’s no longer a dollar cap on the 30 percent rebate.

4. $500 or more for a fuel cell or microturbine
The tax incentive that had covered 30 percent of the cost of fuel cell or microturbine systems in homes, which lapsed in 2008, has been restored for 2009 and through 2016. It covers up to $500 per 0.5 kw of capacity.

5. $7,500 for plug-in hybrid cars
The first 250,000 buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles now qualify for a $7,500 tax rebate.

A similar tax credit for hybrid vehicles had been capped at $3,500.

6. Wildcard
Keep an eye out for new incentives from your state, since the bill also authorizes an $800 million government bond program that encourages states to create incentives for new and existing energy conservation and related programs. Some of that money is likely to be used toward state tax breaks and other incentives that will vary by location

The Swamp School Meetup Group:

Join us for an fun evening discussing the green job market in South Carolina. Green jobs are more than just wind turbines and bio-diesel. Topics that we will cover are sustainable design, wetlands management, natural resources conservation, and more. This is an open discussion group working to find innovative and entrepreneurial solutions for both the job market and the environment.

Columbia, SC 29201 – USA

Tuesday, February 23 at 7:00 PM

For more information, check out http://swampschool.org/.

Lowcountry Earth Force has been working for the past eleven years to support youth driven, service-learning initiatives that are designed to engage South Carolina’s youth in both environmental and community problem solving activities. As a member of the Lowcountry, their work is deeply connected to the local educators, youth and South Carolina’s unique and beautiful environment. They strive to provide year-long, one-on-one support for our educators and their students with trainings, field trips, and other professional development and networking opportunities.

LEF assists educators throughout the Lowcountry area implement the Earth Force six step Community Action and Problem Solving (CAPS) model in their classes and after school programs. They offer extensive trainings and on-going support to educators, as well as others who work with youth. In addition to the professional development opportunities, they bring the following options for support to educators:
Co-teaching and assistance facilitating the Earth Force six step process. This includes regular phone calls, emails, personal visits, and any other help an educator may need.

Assistance meeting South Carolina education standards though Earth Force projects. Their staff will plan with you to ensure that the hands-on learning your students will undertake will allow you to meet content standards. They will help to make the process both academically rewarding and fun for both the educators and students.

Mini-Grants for students and educators. Earth Force classes can write grants to Lowcountry Earth Force to help them carry out their well researched and carefully planned service projects. They typically offer 5, $100 grants to help with materials and supplies.

Earth Force materials. They furnish you with a Teacher Manual, Student Manuals and Student Tip Cards for your class.

An invitation to our Annual Youth Summit. This is an opportunity for all of our educators, students, and community partners to meet and share project stories as well as celebrate our successes. This event is typically held in April of each year.

Assist in securing expert speakers and guests to visit the classroom. Their extensive community partnerships also allow us to offer educators excellent community resources to bring into their classrooms. Once a class selects an issue, students can invite guest speakers and experts from the community to teach the students what they may know about the particular issue, and in the process, the students become experts themselves.

For more information, check out http://www.earthforce.org/section/offices/lowcountry/.

• Always use a reusable shopping bag.
• Use reusable coffee cups and water bottles.
• Buy items made from recycled materials.
• Change all bulbs to compact fluorescent light bulbs.
• Turn off the lights and unplug all appliances and gadgets when not in use.
• Walk or bike whenever possible.
• Eat meat free at least once a week.
• Buy local as often as possible.
• Cancel your in mail catalogs and switch to e-catalogs.
• Refuse the plastic food utensils with carry out and delivery orders and use silverware instead.

What’s the biggest power hog in the datacenter? Who urged the president to support green federal datacenters? Find out these answers and 23 more facts below

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The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Tuesday, a partnership with the state’s hospitality industry, to go green.

South Carolina’s hotels, motels, restaurants and other hospitality facilities now have the opportunity to show how green they are, and what they are doing to help protect and preserve the state’s environment.

The program is called the S.C. Green Hospitality Alliance. It’s a free program, and is voluntary.

In a news release Tuedsay, DHEC Commissioner Earl Hunter said, “The program, developed in partnership between DHEC and the S.C. Hospitality Association, recognizes and certifies facilities for environmentally friendly efforts with an annual certification. Each of us - government, business, industry and individuals - must do our part to help protect South Carolina’s environment.”

According to Hunter, DHEC’s role in the partnership is to offer free, confidential assistance on a variety of issues such as waste reduction, recycling, composting, conserving energy and water, green cleaning, and environmentally preferred purchasing.

DHEC’s assistance also includes site visits, workshops and a comprehensive series of best management practices fact sheets.

>For more information, including a program application and a listing of certified facilities, see DHEC’s Web site at: www.scdhec.gov/greenhospitality

After the pink slip, it’s time for downsized workers go into extreme savings mode, which means that being green is probably the last thing on their mind. Can’t blame ‘em - after the severance package runs out, expensive organic food will drop off of the grocery list, and the new Energy Star appliances you were planning to buy for your house become a distant dream. But a lot of the actions that unemployed workers take to cut costs and help them find their next job are eco-friendly, both intentionally and inadvertently. Here are a few:

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Spartanburg-based BMW Manufacturing Co. said Wednesday it will invest $12 million to expand its landfill methane gas-to-energy program.

The program, which was implemented in early 2003, collects methane gas at The Palmetto Landfill in Wellford and transports it more than nine miles via pipeline to BMW’s production plant near Greer.

More than 60 percent of the plant’s total energy requirements are met by burning methane gas, and Bobby Hitt, department manager of media and public affairs for BMW Manufacturing Co., said the expansion will help the company more efficiently use the gas siphoned from the landfill.

“We’re all about innovation and improving our sustainability at BMW,” he said. “We’re happy to be able to add on to this program.”

Hitt said the new system will include two gas turbine generators capable of producing 11,000 kilowatts of electricity. The two new turbines will replace four older ones — improving output from 14 percent to nearly 30 percent while using the same amount of methane.

The landfill project has saved the automaker about $5 million in energy costs annually. The new turbines are expected to increase those savings by up to $2 million a year while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 92,000 tons per year.

“BMW’s landfill gas program has been a tremendous initiative for the plant,” BMW Manufacturing President Josef Kerscher said in a statement. “Using methane gas to power our plant is one example of our focus on environmentally-friendly production processes.”

The German automaker has undertaken a $750 million expansion to add 1.5 million square feet of production space and 500 jobs as it seeks to ramp up annual vehicle production from 160,000 units to 240,000 units by 2012.

Once the additions go online, BMW’s X3, X5 and X6 models, and their respective variants, will be produced exclusively in Spartanburg for more than 120 markets around the globe.

But Hitt said the expansion of the gas-to-energy program had less to do with increased energy needs and more to do with improving the plant’s ability to collect and use methane.

“It’s a great project for us,” he said. “The new turbines are highly efficient and that’s really what this is all about.”

Methane, which is produced as landfill waste decomposes, is considered to be a very potent greenhouse gas.

Data provided by BMW said the new landfill gas program will reduce CO2 emissions by 92,000 tons per year, up from 65,000 tons previously reported for the four turbines operating 85 percent of the time.

Via GoUpstate.com

When the U.S. market for General Electric’s giant gas turbine electric power generators collapsed a few years ago, GE Energy’s engineers quickly regrouped and developed a major business line in wind turbine generators.

Today, the company’s Greenville plant on Garlington Road is again humming with activity, building these 60-ton engines of renewable energy.

GE also has been driving new activity at the Port of Charleston. S.C. State Ports Authority officials recently announced that the National Shipping Co. of Saudi Arabia has added Charleston to its East Coast ports rotation. The decision was driven in part by the port’s proximity to General Electric’s gas turbine manufacturing plant in Greenville.

John Krenicki, vice chairman of GE and president and CEO of GE Energy Infrastructure, met recently with Greenville-area government officials and business leaders to update them on GE Energy’s Greenville operations.

He indicated that the future is bright for the company’s varied energy products, which include gas turbines, wind turbines and nuclear plants, so long as protectionist laws do not ignite a worldwide trade war that could cripple the Greenville operation’s ability to sell its products abroad.

Half the wind turbines in use in the United States today are made by GE, he said. And the company sees an equally positive outlook for the giant, new-technology windmills abroad.

“This is an export-oriented facility,” Krenicki said. “Our 1.5-megawatt engine is very competitive. We just shipped unit No. 10,000 last year. This is a winner. It is what is going to a lot of our U.S. customers.”

And General Electric engineers are working on a new, 2.5-MW machine, he said.

Meanwhile, Krenicki said GE Energy continues to find a strong market for its gas turbines in the Middle East, where 60% of electricity generated is on General Electric equipment.

More than 20 gas turbines have been ordered for new power generation in Iraq.

“Iraq for us is the next Saudi Arabia,” he said. “This $3 billion transaction for us is just the beginning.”

GE Energy had almost $39 billion in revenue in 2008, up from about $25 billion in 2006, and one of its biggest customers is Saudi Arabia.

“One reason we’ve done so well in Saudi Arabia is because we’ve been there for 50 years. We never left,” Krenicki said.

The Greenville plant has diversified to meet the growing demand for renewable energy sources.

“This business in 2002 manufactured more than 300 gas turbines, the bulk of which were manufactured in Greenville, and 200 of which went to U.S. customers,” Krenicki said. “That business was more than $20 billion in 2002. That business collapsed on us.”

Last year, GE manufactured 116 gas turbines in Greenville.

“But we offset it with our wind business, renewables,” Krenicki said. “The Greenville team re-engineered the business, entered a new space.”

The financial crisis is impacting GE Energy’s business, he said. He expects 2009 to be a down year for GE Energy products, but there’s still growth in the Middle East, China and India.

Jobs in South Carolina’s clean energy economy grew more than 16 times faster than overall jobs between 1998 and 2009, according to a report by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

In “The Clean Energy Economy: Repowering Jobs, Businesses and Investments Across America,” Pew developed a data-driven definition of the clean energy economy and conducted the first-ever hard count across all 50 states of the actual jobs, companies and venture capital investments that are supplying the market for environmentally friendly products and services.

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