QUICK NEWS, January 30: Energy Dept’s Solar Program Gagged; New Energy Is Red, Blue, And Green In Texas; The New Energy In The Oceans

Energy Dept’s Solar Program Gagged The White House Silences the DOE Solar Energy Team on Twitter; SunShot has been shut out.

Mike Brown, January 27, 2017 (Inverse)

“…[An internal email to the Department of Energy’s SunShot solar program is telling employees to not post anything to Twitter or Facebook about work ‘until further notice.’ The note, sent to the 50 staff members working on the project, relayed an order given by Steven Chalk, deputy assistant secretary for renewable energy…[He writes: ‘…we are PROHIBITED from any social media post (from personal or business handles) regarding your work, attendance at any meeting, etc until further notice…’ SunShot is an initiative [launched in 2011] aimed at driving down the cost of solar energy and offering grants for research and development…[and getting] solar cost-competitive with traditional energy by the year 2020…[It helped drive the cost of residential solar photovoltaics (PV) from $0.42/kWh in 2011 to ,$0.18 in 2016 and was targeting $0.09 by 2020…The EPA, National Park Service, and Forest Service have been given orders by the new administration to stop tweeting…[There are now a] number of unofficial accounts claiming to be employees from these agencies tweeting…” click here for more

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Wind Is Red, Blue, And Green In Texas Why a red state is the No. 1 wind energy producer in America; Lone Star state wind boom: Energy generation can be an economic issue, as much as a partisan one.

Charlie Wood, January 27, 2017 (Christian Science Monitor)

“…In 2013, the Lone Star state produced 36 million megawatt hours, more than twice that of runner up Iowa, although Iowans can still brag that wind satisfies almost a third of their state’s energy needs. California came in third…Texas is a big producer of energy in general: number one overall in 2014, pumping out a whopping one fifth of the country’s energy…[In 2005,] then-Gov. Rick Perry signed on for a goal of generating 10,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2025…[upping] a previous target of 2,000 megawatts set by George W. Bush as part of a 1999 deregulation of the power market. In April of last year, the state was already making 19,000…[The growth drivers have been its competitive rate and…[reducing the risk in the natural gas price volatility…Bush’s 1999 deregulation paved the way…Texas also invested heavily in energy infrastructure, connecting the windy and sunny western panhandle with cities with a higher demand…” click here for more

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The New Energy In The Oceans Green Energy from the Blue Ocean

24 January 2017 (Military Technologies)

“…There is vast potential for using [the energy in waves, tides, and currents in the ocean] to provide clean, renewable energy to…the nearly half of the U.S. population that lives within 50 miles of the coastlines…[Estimates suggest that the amount of energy that could feasibly be captured from U.S. waves, tides and river currents is enough to power over 67 million homes and the country could be producing 13,000 MW of power from hydrokinetic energy by 2025, which would be equivalent to displacing 22 new dirty coal-fired power plants, according to the Union of Concerned Scienists]…The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies program recently announced $20 million in funding for projects…[Its $2.25 million, 20-month Wave Energy Prize challenge was won by AquaHarmonics, CalWave Power Technologies, Waveswing America…” click here for more

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