It’s a huge success. It hasn’t gone anywhere. Actually, it’s a little of both.

Fifty states and six territories have launched “Cash for Appliances” programs since late last year. Each one had the same amount of money – about a dollar per resident – but the results have been wildly different. Some states ran through their entire rebate budgets in hours; others can’t seem to give away their money. What’s been going on?

Cash for Appliances, modeled on (or at least nicknamed after) last year’s “Cash for Clunkers” program, was funded as part of the $787 billion stimulus bill. Unlike “Cash for Clunkers”, the appliance rebate program wasn’t designed and administered by the federal government. Instead, the government directed $300 million to the 50 states (plus DC and several American territories), at… [view entry]

Big news coming out of Boston this week. Last Friday, the Wattzy team had the opportunity to join Mayor Tom Menino and MIT Projessor Sanjay Sarma for an historic announcement – the entire City of Boston is to be scanned in infrared.

Infrared scanning is nothing new in the world of single-family homes, as any energy efficiency pro can tell you. Utilities like NStar even offer home infrared scans at free or discounted cost. They are highly effective at identifying areas of home heating inefficiency. Although commercial services have offered wide-area aerial scans for some time, this will be the first complete street-level scan of a major city.

If any place can use a city-wide scan, it certainly is Boston. Our housing stock is some of the oldest in the country,… [view entry]

Home energy efficiency retrofits in Boston have a 39 percent return over five years compared to Microsoft's 7 percent.

Times are tough. If you’ve been unemployed in the last few years, your savings have probably dwindled as you’ve struggled to make ends meet. If you haven’t lost your job, then you’ve hopefully been saving and investing small amounts. But the stock market has been a mess over the last five years, and interest rates for CD’s and treasury bonds are tiny.

If you’re fortunate enough to have money to invest, where should you put your money to guarantee a good return?

Here’s a new investment idea for you: a home energy retrofit. Make your home more energy efficient through low-tech and cost-effective measures like insulation, furnace replacement… [view entry]

On March 6th, 84 residents at Peabody Terrace participated in an incandescent light bulb swap for compact fluorescent bulbs. Residents received one free CFL for every incandescent bulb they turned in—over 200 efficient CFLs found homes. The CFLs were provided by the Cambridge Energy Alliance and Harvard Real Estate Services (HRES). HEET, CEA, and HRES organized the promotion and logistics of this successful competition.

During the swap, residents learned about other ways to cut their carbon emissions—seasonable tips also available—and many signed up for a two-month long competition to see who can reduce them the most.

The results are in!

Apartments reduced their electricity use by an average of 11%
The top six winners reduced their electricity use by 30%
And the first place prize winner reduced electricity

… [view entry]

China exceeded U.S. investment in clean energy for the first time last year with deployments totaling $34.6 billion. The country still has a long way to go to clean up it’s emissions—China surpassed the US as the global leader in C02 emissions several years ago—but they’re moving quickly to clean up their act.

Technology Review posted a slide show today profiling some of the new technology they’re committing to including offshore wind, utility-scale solar power, DC transmission lines, massive nuclear deployments, and coal with carbon capture and sequestration.

I was happy to see vacuum tube solar hot water included in Tech Review’s lineup. Not the most cutting edge technology, but one in ten Chinese people now use these highly efficient heaters for domestic hot water.

Energy planning ought to be about avoiding problems and seizing collective opportunities. Cities (and nations) have problems when there is not enough energy available at a reasonable price. And, if they could get their act together, cities, regions, states and countries could reduce wasteful patterns of energy use and take advantage of “greener” energy production technologies that reduce costs of all kinds—especially environmental cost—and increase energy independence (i.e. reducing our dependence on “foreign” oil). Energy planning is about figuring out the best way to match energy supply and energy demand in sustainable ways. It gets complicated, though, because different groups have their own ideas about (1) the desirability of relying on various sources of energy; (2) the desirability of relying primarily on markets to set prices, encourage technology innovation and meet long-term… [view entry]

After three community meetings, the Cambridge Climate Congress finalized its recommendations for an all-city awareness and response campaign, and for city responses to the Climate Emergency.  The City Council will receive the Climate Congress communication at the upcoming March 22nd City Council meeting.  This would be an opportunity for the public to provide additional comments on the Climate Congress report and activities.

It is time again for the city of Cambridge’s Go Green Awards, which recognizes businesses and organizations that take exceptional environmental actions in at least one of five areas—energy use, transportation, waste reduction, stormwater, and climate protection. Self nominations are accepted.

Last year’s 2009 award recipient’s included:

Transportation: The Charles Hotel and Irving House

Waste Reduction: Grendel’s Den and Volpe Center

Climate Protection: Genzyme and Citigate Cunningham

Energy: HRI and Cambridge Health Alliance

Stormwater Management: Forest City and Old Cambridge Baptist Church

Community Organization: HEET

The deadline for the 2010 GoGreen Awards nominations is April 5. Use the GoGreen nomination form and submit to: John Bolduc, jbolduc@cambridgema.gov, fax 617-349-4633. The nomination form can be found at:… [view entry]

On Sunday, February 21, eighteen volunteers participated in a community canvass campaign to spread awareness about simple home improvements to save money, energy, and the planet. The event organized by the Home Energy Efficiency Team and the Cambridge Energy Alliance sought to help cut carbon emissions in East Cambridge through a CFL light bulb exchange.

Exchanging incandescent light bulbs for compact fluorescents is one of the easiest and effective ways to reduce energy use at home. A compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb. If every Massachusetts household would exchange just one incandescent light bulb to an energy saving CFL,… [view entry]

The Cambridge Energy Alliance is debuting a poster art exhibit to inform the public about climate change and its impacts, the carbon emissions of Cambridge, and how local citizens can make a difference. Over 80% of Cambridge’s Climate emissions come from residential and commercial buildings, so eliminating wasted energy in our homes and workplaces is a priority.

To view the full CEA art poster exhibit visit:

http://cambridgeenergyalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/posters.pdf

The Cambridge Energy Alliance art exhibit displays many ways people can conserve energy and get connected to efficiency programs and resources. The Exhibit will be on display from Wednesday, February 16^th, 2010 through March 20^th, 2010 at the Clear Conscience Café (C3) located inside Harvest Coop‘s Central Square location.

Following the 4-week showing at C3, the CEA art exhibit will be rotated to… [view entry]