Energy & Sustainability

In the October edition of Energy Technology Connections, we’ve gathered recent information from a wide variety of sources in an effort to keep you abreast of what’s new in the world of clean energy.

California lawmakers passed the “California Global Warming Solutions Act,” AB32, which included regulations known as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard. 

In the September edition of Energy & Clean Technology Connections, we’ve gathered recent information from a wide variety of sources in an effort to keep you abreast of what’s new in the world of clean energy.

Administration officials used the week before the Labor Day holiday to undertake domestic public outreach events. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy hit the road to discuss the administration’s energy and environment priorities, often with other federal officials. 

Massachusetts’ clean energy sector is one of the strongest and fastest growing in the nation. With robust educational resources from numerous world class universities and a supportive political environment, Massachusetts’ clean energy technology companies have a healthy development system in place.

Ultra Light Startups Future Energy is currently accepting applications for its next startup-investor pitch event on Wednesday, September 25 in Boston. Future Energy, sponsored by Shell International’s GameChanger Program, is a series of pitch events that connects energy startups with venture capital and corporate investors in the energy and clean-tech industries.

In the United States’ first competitive lease auction for commercial offshore wind development, Deepwater Wind, a ML Strategies client, won the provisional rights to develop two lease blocks about 17 miles south of Rhode Island between Block Island and Martha’s Vineyard. 

On July 10, the SEC adopted a new rule that will permit many private equity funds, hedge funds and venture capital funds to use general advertising and solicitation when offering and selling interests in a fund. Effective in mid-September, this significant change in the law will permit private funds to advertise in any media.

Last night, SiNode Systems, representing the Western Southwest region of the country, was pronounced the winner of the this year’s Department of Energy National Clean Energy Business Plan Competition.

Though Congress is out for Memorial Day recess this week, we anticipate that a significant amount of work will be accomplished in the weeks to follow. Last week, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee held its final forums on natural gas, focusing on liquid natural gas (LNG) exports and hydraulic fracturing.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has launched an initiative to build an open-source database of real-world performance from solar facilities across the country. As part of DOE’s SunShot Initiative, the Open Solar Performance and Reliability Clearinghouse (O-SPaRC) goal is to provide the private market tools to develop investment vehicles to tap low-cost public capital.

Although the House and Senate are on recess, April promises to be a busy month—the nominees for the Interior and Energy Departments will have their confirmation hearings in Senate next week, and Congress is expected to consider important energy legislation later this month.

Ultra Light Startups recognizes that game-changing ideas in alternative and renewable energy require capital to develop. Ultra Light also knows that investors are looking for companies and ideas with breakthrough potential.

Mintz’s Energy & Clean Technology Practice was recently recognized by LMG Clean Technology and Renewable Energy, a Euromoney Institutional Investor publication, as one of the top ten firms in the clean technology industry.

The rapid progress of advanced energy technologies and energy efficiency in the “conventional” areas of oil and gas as well as in the “clean” sources of wind, solar, and geothermal energy is allowing countries to do more from less energy.

Greentech Media released their list of green technology’s largest venture capital deals for 2012, and GreatPoint Energy, a coal-to-natural-gas firm, is in first place.

In the wake of Storm Sandy, adaptation to climate change is emerging as a public policy priority.

Orlando Pacheco, the town administrator for Lancaster, Massachusetts, has something to boast about.

On December 12, 2012, the Defense Logistics Agency – Energy (DLA-E), in close coordination with the Army Energy Initiatives Task Force (EITF), released a Request for Proposal (RFP) for electrical power from a biomass generation facility for up to 28 megawatts located on or contiguous to Fort Drum in Watertown, New York. 

While completing his Ph.D. at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008, Anurag Bajpayee discovered a simple chemical trick with vast potential—he found that a certain class of oils can remove contaminants from water.