Government and Alternative Energy

[Nik]

Article on the US ARPA-E initiative, co-inciding with the launch of a UK initiative to boost clean energy investment:

If there's a great woman behind every successful man, then there's a shrewd investor behind every cutting-edge technology. And if you're working within the American scientific community, that investor is likely to be Dr Arun Majumdar, head of the Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, otherwise known as Arpa-E.

Born in Calcutta and educated in Mumbai, the former Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of California, Berkeley, has been at the helm of Arpa-E since it was created by the US Congress in 2009 to "enhance the economic and energy security of the United States".

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/dr-arun-majumdar-americas-green-power-broker-2288117.html

 

[vfx]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20111030,0,245833.column

Reinventing Fire Executive Summary

Digging up and burning the deposits of ancient sunlight stored eons ago in primeval swamps has transformed human existence and made industrial and urban civilization possible. However, those roughly four cubic miles of fossil fuels every year are no longer the only, best, or even cheapest way to sustain and expand the global economy—whether or not we count fossil fuels’ hidden costs.


Those “external” costs, paid not at the fuel pump or electric meter but in our taxes, wealth, and health, are not counted in the Reinventing Fire analysis, but are disturbingly large. Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars each year subsidize America’s fossil fuels, and even more flow to the systems that burn those fuels, distorting market choices by making the fuels look far cheaper than they really are. But the biggest hidden costs are economic and military.


....

 

[VolkerP]

BBC article on the "Energiewende" in Germany.
BBC News - Who pays for the greening of Germany?
I find it factual, informative, no obvious bias. Might give English readers some insight.

At the moment, renewable sources provide about a quarter of Germany's electricity supply but the aim is to raise it to 80% by 2050 - truly a green revolution.

"The largest amount that goes on investment in renewable energy comes from private households," says one of the country's leading energy economists, Professor Claudia Kemfert.