Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race?

The Pew Environment Group and Bloomberg New Energy Finance issued their annual report Who's Winning the Clean Energy Race. The report details the state of clean energy investments globally and identifies where key countries stand at the end of 2011. The report found that clean energy investments continue to increase, that Europe is still the hub of clean energy investment, and that the United States is surpassing China in renewables, and the trend is still heading upwards. 

Jake Schmidt outlines the key points from of the report in the Huffington Post. My favorite point? "Renewable energy is for real, so let's commit to more."

Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Possibilities in Italy

Nadia Ameli with the Fondazione Eni Enrico in Mattei, Italy and Daniel Kammen, of the Energy and Resources Group, University of California- Berkeley released a study at the end of 2011 analyzing the potential impact of a Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) policy in Italy: The Linkage between Income Distribution and Clean Energy Investments: Addressing Financing Costs

The study recognizes the key obstacles in project financing for renewable systems, including limited access to credit due to socio-economic status and the lack of loan guarantees. However, the study proposes the utilization of an innovative program like PACE, and then analyzes the potential impact it might have. This type of program would ameliorate the initial hurdle of up front costs for energy improvements, but allow these homeowners to benefit from the long term rewards of such an investment. Read the full study here.