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Potential Solutions


Wind Power

Wind Power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines. At the end of 2007, worldwide capacity of wind-powered generators was 94.1 GW, about 1% of world-wide electricity use, though this level is much higher in areas such as Europe







Bio-Fuels

Bio-energy is created by the treatment of biomass, which includes any fuel of recent biological origin that can be burnt as an alternative to gasoline or diesel oil





Solar Power

Solar Power is the conversion of sunlight into electricity, either by photovoltaic's and concentrating solar thermal devices. Higher coal & uranium prices coupled with improving technology such as thin film solar are making the economics of solar energy more attractive (aka grid parity)




Tidal & Geo-Thermal

Tidal and Geothermal technologies allow the conversion of underground thermal heat and tidal currents into electricity




Other, sometimes under-appreciated, solutions in Socially Responsible Investing

Energy Conservation & Efficiency

-Industrial & Utility:  Companies like ABB and General Electric are developing innovations such as variable speed motors that greatly reduce the amount of energy consumed by heavy industry

-Commercial Buildings – HVAC & Lighting:  Companies like Seimens, United Technologies have segments of their business that  develop technologies that allow commericial buildings (which consume 40% of electricity consumed) to reduce energy costs

-Metering - Many companies such as Echelon and Enernoc are highly involved in technologies that allow consumer and companies to more closely monitor their energy use, and more efficiently and economically consume energy from the power grid

Transportation

-Railroads - Moving freight by rail is 4 times more fuel-efficient than moving freight on the highway. Trains can move a ton of freight more than 400 miles on a single gallon of fuel. Efficient use of fuel means less greenhouse gas emissions for our world.

-Natural Gas - Clean Energy (CLNE) is the largest provider of vehicular natural gas (CNG and LNG) in North America with a broad
customer base in the refuse, transit, shuttle, taxi, intrastate and interstate trucking, airport and municipal fleet markets with tens of

thousands of vehicles fueling at strategic locations in the United States

-Fuel Cells -Fuel cells are electrochemical devices that convert the energy of a chemical reaction directly into electricity, and in the process creating heat as hydrogen and oxygen combine exothermically to produce water. Because they have no moving parts and

do not involve combustion they are highly reliable and better for the environment.

Clean Air & Carbon Neutrality
-Carbon Capture
-Clean Coal
-Coal Gasification
-Natural Gas

Water Shortages

-Desalinization

-Infrastructure & Filtration


Sustainable Agriculture & Adequate Food Supply

-Organic farming

-Agricultural seed biotechnology 





    

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  • ABB.pdf - on Sep 4, 2009 10:15 AM by Jonathan Callahan (version 1)
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