Help-to-Buy Scheme Shifts New Homes
The Government’s ‘Help to Buy’ Scheme was extended in the recent budget, and a package of measures designed at allowing young, first time buyers to get on the property ladder if they choose to invest in new homes has certainly been a roaring success. At the moment, first time buyers are able to purchase new homes with as little as a 5% deposit, as government are prepared to loan up to 20% of the value of a house and mortgage lenders...
Tesla’s Next Car: An Electric BMW 3-Series Fighter
by Christopher DeMorro Unlike many other also-rans, Tesla Motors is succeeding where other electric car companies have failed. And by succeeding, we mean Tesla is actually selling cars, with the Model S sedan reportedly receiving over 10,000 $5,000 deposits to date. At $50,000 after tax credits though, the Model S is still well beyond what most people can afford. So what is Tesla planning to build next? From the sounds of it, an...
Turbines Ready to Turn at First U.S. Commercial Tidal Energy Plant
The first commercial tidal energy project in the US was dedicated last week in Maine, and turbines will begin turning in mid-September. It’s the first grid-tied tidal project in the US and the first to sell the electricity through long term power purchase agreements. Portland, Maine-based Ocean Renewable Power Co. will soon lower a generator to the sea floor as part of a network of 20 underwater turbines. "Tidal energy has...
More Than $50 Million of New Investments in Renewable Energy
by Mathias Even though the Rio+20 Conference has been deemed a failure in the media the last few days it should be mentioned that some positive changes are happening. United Nations just announced on the conference this Thursday that more than $50 Million of new renewable energy investments from the private sector have been made. Maybe more importantly is the fact that 50 governments reported new energy strategies. Some of them...
Warmer Ocean Waters Lead to a Glut of Lobsters in Maine
Warmer Atlantic Ocean temperatures off the coast of Maine have caused the state’s bountiful supply of lobsters to shed their shells and come onto the market six weeks earlier than normal, The state’s 5,000 lobster fishermen are receiving less than $3-per-pound at the dock for their catch, which is below the $4-per-pound break-even point. As a result, many lobsterman have stopped fishing and are waiting for the oversupply...
Reasons For Optimism: Why Climate Change is not a Zero Sum Game
by Jonathan Koomey This blog post is the ninth of an eleven-part series on CSRwire that summarizes key lessons from the new book Cold Cash, Cool Climate: Science-based Advice for Ecological Entrepreneurs. “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”–Henry Ford The Pessimism Trap One of my students at Yale in Fall 2009 emerged from my lecture summarizing the climate problem and told me it...
