From the truth is stranger than fiction dept, comes the news item in Washington Post today that says authorities have uncovered links between organized crime families and the renewable energy industry in Sicily, Italy. According to the article, about third of the wind and solar farms in Sicily - which happens to be the best locale for solar and wind in all of Italy and also, a major stronghold of Mafia - are controlled by Mafia families. Gives an entirely new meaning to renewable money launderin... [More]

When you see an article about energy efficient lighting in the main page of NYTime online, I think it's safe to assume that the product is ready to go mainstream. Today's NYT has a lead item on LED bulbs ready to take over as the replacement for incandescent bulbs and in the process, knocking out the CFLs. The main reasons are the prices have been dropping steadily due to increased marketing and higher awareness amongst consumers of the long life and power savings characteristics of the LEDs ove... [More]

We wanted to wish all the best to our clients and readers as we start the first full week of 2013.  As with any situation, one can look at the current state of affairs and see the glass as being half full or half empty. I was reminded of this looking at the comics page at today's paper. There was one strip that pointed out that we can look forward to 52 weeks with Friday 13th this year! On the other hand, my favorite comic strip - Classic Peanuts - captured the right spirt like show below ... [More]

As a provider of data tracking and analytics provider, i obviously have a positive bias towards the value of data analytics for achieving energy savings. Came across this article in MIT Technology Review - A Startup's Smart Batteries Reduce Buildings' Electric Bills, by Martin LaMonica. This article covers the technology from Stem [an analytics company in Silicon Valley] that combines energy analytics and battery storage to help commercial buildings use the lowest cost power at any time dur... [More]

John Hoffman, who was the driving force behind the EPA's Energy Star program has died - he was also the key person to get the Reagan administration to support the Montreal Protocol to protect the ozone layer. According to a post in NRDC:  As a young EPA staffer in the early 1980s, John headed a small team focused on “strategic studies.”  This was early in the Reagan administration, before Anne Gorsuch and James Watt had been disgraced and dismissed.   It was not ... [More]