Pike Research predicts the building energy efficiency market will soar more than 50 percent between now and 2017 to $103.5 billion. Among the leading factors: an active stable of energy service companies (ESCOs) and aggressive efficiency policies being enacted around the world. High-efficiency equipment, such as HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and lighting, will become more desirable in the coming years, according to the Pike report, “Energy Efficient Buildings: Global Outlook.” The market for high-efficiency HVAC systems, for example, will more than double to $6.4 billion between 2011 and 2017. ESCOs will see their fortunes rise handsomely as well, with global revenues more than doubling to $66 billion in 2017. A major player in the commercial buildings space, often using energy performance contracts (ESC) to finance projects using the expected savings, they will account for the largest segment in the energy efficient buildings industry. [Read this article]

A new report reveals that median income families are installing the bulk of California’s solar and that the industry depends little on the wealthiest residents. Two thirds of California’s solar installations in 2009, 2010 and 2011 were made in median income ZIP codes where homeowners made an average of $85,000 a year or less, according to data analysis from PV Solar Report and SunRun. SunRun spokeswoman Susan Wise said employees continuously heard criticism of the solar industry that it catered to the wealthy because only the richest homeowners could afford to go solar. But that wasn’t what employees saw in the field, Wise said. They saw average people installing solar on average budgets. PV Solar Report published a list of the top 10 solar cities in October that was consistent with SunRun’s theory that it wasn’t the wealthiest Californians who were deciding to install solar. Bakersfield and Fresno were among the state’s top five solar cities with average annual incomes of about $50,000 and $43,000. [Read this article]

Americans are finally showing significant awareness of the impending phaseout of commonly used incandescent bulbs in a move toward more energy efficient lighting. Fifty-five percent of the people responding to the latest Socket Survey by Osram Sylvania said they knew that most traditional incandescent lightbulbs would be eliminated over the next three years. It was the first time in the history of the poll that more than half were aware of the policy resulting from the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. Nevertheless, U.S. consumers remain hazy about the specifics of the policy and the legislation behind it. Just 29 percent knew that the gradual phaseout begins this coming January 1, when traditional 100-watt lightbulbs will no longer be made. And despite greater general awareness of the policy and its aim to increase energy efficiency, more people have been using incandescent bulbs lately. [Read this article]

Of course, for much of the nation, rain falls through most of the year. To say the least, we need the rain. But it also comes with increased water pollution. Because of all of the paved and otherwise impervious surfaces in our cities, rain mixes with the pollutants that fall onto our city driveways, sidewalks, parking lots, and streets, creating a witches’ brew of polluted runoff. Across the nation, an estimated 10 trillion gallons a year of untreated stormwater runs off roofs, roads, parking lots, and other paved surfaces, often through our cities’ sewage systems, into rivers and waterways that serve as drinking water supplies and flow to our beaches, increasing health risks, degrading ecosystems, and damaging tourist economies. But it doesn’t have to be that way. A major report released by the NRDC, Rooftops to Rivers II, profiles 14 cities of all sizes using “green infrastructure” – a set of design strategies that mimic nature’s own hydrology and allow rain to filter back into the ground right where it falls – to tackle stormwater pollution and sewage overflows. [Read this article]

Ever wonder what good recycling all those cans, bottles and newspapers does? A new report says that increasing the nation’s recycling rate from 33% to 75% by 2030 would reduce pollution and create an extra 1.5 million jobs. The “Less Pollution, More Jobs” report, prepared by the nonprofit research group Tellus Institute, finds that waste diversion, unlike disposal, is more labor intensive and thus 85 % of the new jobs result from collecting, processing, and composting trash as well as making new products with recycled materials. It says a 75% recycling or diversion rate would generate 2.3 million jobs by 2030 – 1.1 million more jobs than would occur if the United States kept on it current recycling pace and nearly 1.5 million more jobs than existed in 2008. [Read this article]