QUICK NEWS, January 8: A TAX POLICY TO CUT EMISSIONS; LITTLE PROPERTY VALUE EFFECT FROM WIND TURBINES – STUDY; SIX FOLD GROWTH FOR MICROGRIDS BY 2020

A TAX POLICY TO CUT EMISSIONS Is Energy Tax Policy the Way to Drive the U.S. Climate Change Fight? No price on carbon? Nevermind. There are tax credits.

Herman K. Trabish, January 6, 2014 (The Energy Collective)

“Can a breakthrough in the U.S. climate change fight come from the energy tax policy reform proposed by outgoing Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT)? …Before stepping down to become U.S. Ambassador to China, Baucus suggested ‘dramatically simpler’ incentives that would…replace 42 inefficient and unnecessary incentives with two simple and transparent ones…drive domestic and clean energy production…be technology-neutral and reward all clean sources, and…give investors certainty about the benefits and their phase out…Baucus proposed replacing [all incentives] with a tax credit for clean electricity and a tax credit for clean transportation fuel…The cleaner the output [or fuel], as determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the more of the incentive it would earn...” click here for more

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LITTLE PROPERTY VALUE EFFECT FROM WIND TURBINES – STUDY URI economist: Wind turbines in Rhode Island have no effect on property values

December 23, 2013, (University of Rhode Island)

"A study conducted by a University of Rhode Island economist has concluded that the planning, construction and operation of wind turbines in Rhode Island does not depress nearby property values…Corey Lang, URI assistant professor of natural resource economics, analyzed the sale prices of 48,000 homes in Rhode Island over the last 15 years and compared homes near one of the state’s 12 wind turbines to homes far from the turbines. He found that the turbines may cause a drop in property values of 0.4 percent for those homes within a half mile of a turbine…” click here for more

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SIX FOLD GROWTH FOR MICROGRIDS BY 2020 Microgrids; Commercial/Industrial, Community/Utility, Campus/Institutional, Military, Remote, Grid-Tied Utility Distribution, and Direct Current Microgrids: Global Market Analysis and Forecasts

4Q 2013 (Navigant Research)

"The microgrid market is heating up quickly, with deployments occurring around the world in a variety of application segments. The industry is moving into the next phase of project development, focusing on how to develop projects on fully commercial terms…While North America leads the microgrid market…the Asia Pacific region will likely emerge as the global leader for microgrid deployments by 2030 or 2035 due to the huge need for power for growing populations not served by traditional grid infrastructure. Europe is, relatively speaking, a laggard…[because its] grid reliability is far superior to that in North America…Navigant Research forecasts that global annual microgrid capacity will increase from 685 megawatts in 2013 to more than 4 gigawatts by 2020 under a base scenario…” click here for more

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