The GVC Center conducted a number of studies that focused on reducing environmental impacts.
The U.S. coal industry is coping with declining consumption as the nation burns less coal to generate electricity. The electric power sector drives coal demand and consumes over 90% of coal production. The coal industry is facing a number of challenges that include increasing production costs and competition from natural gas in the electric power market. The decreasing share of coal in power generation implies that the future of coal depends on technologies that change the way we manage and use coal such as carbon capture and utilization, coal gasification and coal liquefaction technologies. This report was prepared for the Bank of America partnership.
Coastal management projects to restore the Gulf Coast nearly all use geosynthetics-polymer-based materials that can improve structure performance, reduce project time and cost, and lessen environmental impact. This study for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) analyzes 84 firms linked to geosynthetics and coastal management, providing jobs in the five Gulf Coast states and 31 others.
View EDF’s press release from July 26, 2012 regarding the report.
Several natural and man-made stressors are destroying Gulf Coast oyster reefs, jeopardizing a resource that protects the shore, filters water, and increases marine fisheries production. Restoring oyster reefs will maintain these valuable ecosystem services, and support a network of 132 innovative small and medium sized businesses across 22 states. View EDF page on Restoring the Mississippi River Delta.
Natural and human activities have damaged the Gulf Coast, threatening a valuable ecosystem vital to several billion-dollar industries such as seafood and tourism. Restoring the Gulf Coast can protect these assets while creating much-needed U.S. jobs, by engaging at least 140 firms across nearly 400 locations.
The Research Triangle is a smart grid hotspot, with specialized R&D centers, supportive government policies, and roughly 60 core firms whose capabilities stretch across the entire value chain. Research for this report was funded by NC State University’s Institute for Emerging Issues faculty fellows program, and prepared for the Research Triangle Regional Partnership.
Lowe gave a presentation on the report to the Research Triangle Clean Tech Cluster on April 8, 2011 in Durham, NC. She also presented for the NC Smart Grid Technical Forum, Charlotte, NC on May 1-2, 2012. She also presented “Smart Grid in the Research Triangle: the Who and the What” for the Triangle J Council of Governments Board of Delegates Meeting on September 28, 2011 in Durham, NC.
CleanTechnica published an article related to the report on March 14, 2012 entitled “Is North Carolina’s Research Triangle the Smart Grid’s Silicon Valley?”
Turning the electric power system into an “energy internet” can reduce CO2 emissions, stimulate technology innovation, expand the use of renewable energy, and create tens of thousands of U.S. jobs.
In most companies, significant opportunities exist to improve energy efficiency, and many of them pay for themselves. However, organizational and financial barriers often prevent companies from capturing these savings. Closing this “efficiency gap” can have a big payoff for companies and society as a whole. To understand these barriers and identify strategies to overcome them, the report examines why and how product manufacturers adopt energy-efficiency improvements in their internal operations and supply chains. This report was sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Energy Program.
After years of manufacturing in China, advanced battery maker A123 Systems is also aggressively adding jobs in the United States, responding to federal incentives and a promising U.S. market for electric vehicle batteries. This case study was prepared for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF).
