Siltronic Samsung Wafer Pte. Ltd., a joint venture of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Siltronic AG — part of Wacker Chemie AG — has commissioned a new fabrication plant in Singapore.

The UK government has set out a national renewable energy blueprint designed to slash carbon emissions and reduce dependency on oil and gas. UK Business Secretary John Hutton outlined the proposals that are likely to include up to a third of electricity coming from renewable sources as well as significant increases in the use of renewable forms of heat and transport fuels last week. The blueprint is designed to help meet the UK’s anticipated 15% renewable energy target by 2020, an increase of 1000% on current levels.

Ormat Technologies Inc. announced that one of its subsidiaries has entered into a supply contract for a new geothermal power plant to be constructed in Turkey. The contract is valued at approximately US $16 million and delivery of the equipment is expected to be completed within 16 months from the contract date.

Central and Southeastern Minnesota landowners now have an opportunity to participate in two large-scale, community-owned wind projects. National Wind LLC announced its partnership with local landowners to form two Minnesota wind development companies, Root River Energy LLC and Lake Country Wind Energy LLC. Over the next five years the two projects plan to develop close to 500 megawatts (MW) of wind energy.

Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm and Mascoma Corporation CEO Bruce Jamerson announced that Mascoma has entered into a series of key strategic relationships to further its efforts to build its first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Mascoma’s single-step cellulose-to-ethanol method, called consolidated bioprocessing, or CBP, uses advanced technologies to make ethanol from non-food based renewable sources such as wood chips and other biomass.

Cottage Living’s first “green” Idea Home opens its doors to the public this week. Among the home’s many green features, the cottage boasts a 2.88 kilowatt Mitsubishi Electric solar system installed by industry leader REC Solar, Inc.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently publicized practices that it claims are illegal under its complex system for documenting compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard. The system requires obligated parties to establish that they have purchased sufficient Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which are generated by the sale of renewable fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol. The EPA notice suggests that some RIN market participants’ efforts to correct clerical errors in their RIN transactions may be creating additional civil exposure. Properly documenting RIN transactions has been a source of substantial concern to producers, marketers and purchasers of renewable fuels. The EPA’s recent notice probably exacerbates those concerns for past transactions but does provide some useful guidance for future transactions.

Extreme Weather More Common
500-year floods and microbursts have only recently entered my vocabulary. Extreme weather events have entered our national consciousness, altered our landscape, and are currently changing our thinking about global warming. The U.S. Climate Change Science Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research recently released a scientific analysis of the extreme weather changes we can expect in the future. The study…