Rebuild the U.S. manufacturing sector through green technology? If you’re a pessimist, you may immediately respond, “Yeah, tell that to the Chinese”… and use this month’s news of Evergreen Solar moving its factory from Massachusetts to China as evidence. Yes, China’s got a healthy lead on the renewable energy manufacturing front, but all’s not glum on this side of the Atlantic.
Just days after Illinois governor Patrick Quinn signed legislation to boost solar power in his state, New Jersey governor Chris Christie followed suit by signing the Offshore Wind Economic Development Act, a similar law aimed at boosting wind power capacity off New Jersey shores. The law will encourage the development of offshore wind through financial assistance, tax credits and utility energy mandates. (more…)
This spring we reported Google’s plans to help develop 169.5 megawatts of new wind power in North Dakota. The wind developer that received nearly $40 million to build two wind farms was NextEra Energy Resources. Now, while those projects stew, Google is taking more immediate steps by purchasing wind power from an existing NextEra wind project in Iowa.
