Editor’s note: For daily tips on saving money, check out the Centsible Saver blog on newsobserver.com. Amy Dunn writes every day about coupons, saving money and frugal living. Below are recent excerpts from her blog.
If you’ve been thinking about purchasing new appliances for your home, you might want to wait a few weeks and save yourself some money.
The weekend of Nov. 2 through Nov. 4 is North Carolina’s Energy Star sales tax holiday, the state’s fifth annual.
The City of Raleigh has released a YouTube video on their innovated stormwater management plan. To view the video, click here.
Prepared by: Donna-maria Harris, Office of Sustainability
For more information: Donna-maria Harris, 919-996-4256 or Donna-maria.Harris@raleighnc.gov
October 2, 2012
The City of Raleigh’s leadership role in the field of sustainability is now captured in the App Store. On October 1, JouleBug, a mobile smartphone application that makes it simple and fun to act more sustainably, introduced the “Sustainable Raleigh” badge.
JouleBug, developed by a team in Downtown Raleigh, designed the custom badge for the City of Raleigh, making it the first municipality in the nation with this distinction. Users can earn points, pins and badges by using the JouleBug app to learn new ways and track existing habits for improving their sustainable behavior.
Raleigh Assistant City Manager Julian Prosser has been named 2012 Green Public Official of the Year by the Triangle chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) in collaboration with the Triangle Business Journal. Mr. Prosser received the
honor for promoting environmentally sustainable practices in the Capital City’s communities and businesses.
Mr. Prosser was instrumental in the City of Raleigh’s establishment of an Office of Sustainability, which he helps oversee. In 2011, less than three years after the Office of Sustainability was started, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce named Raleigh the “Most
Sustainable Mid-sized City in the United States.” Mr. Prosser’s influence is behind most of the many strides that the City of Raleigh has made toward sustainability over the last decade. He has been involved in the City’s numerous green efforts, including
establishment of the Environmental Advisory Board, electric vehicle initiative, renewable energy initiative, Free Green Jobs Workforce training program, smart grid initiative, and the Upper Neuse Clean Water Initiative.
The 2012 NCSEA Annual Conference was a great success! Over 450 clean energy and energy efficiency supporters gathered in Charlotte on October 10 and 11 for NCSEA's Leadership Workshop, Annual Meeting, Reception and Conference. Many of the participants have asked for the presentations from the two day event.
Duke Energy Carolinas has decided to put off rate filings in the Carolinas until February or March. That would put the company about seven or eight months behind when it had expected to start collecting higher rates. Following a typical regulatory process, it is likely to be September or October before new rates take effect.
Duke already is deeply involved in major proceedings before the N.C. Utilities Commission. The most notable is the commission’s investigation into whether Duke intentionally misled regulators about who would run the company after its $32 billion purchase of Progress Energy Inc. The other major proceeding is a rate case filed by Duke’s Progress Energy Carolinas subsidiary in North Carolina.
Some observers believe Duke wants to give the commission time to complete the merger investigation before it seeks approval for a rate hike. Duke initially planned to file notice that it would seek a third rate case in four years in June or July.
Southern Co. (NYSE: SO) has announced the acquisition of the company's first solar installation in North Carolina – the 2.5 MW Granville Solar Facility – by subsidiary Southern Power and Turner Renewable Energy. The project represents the partnership's fourth joint solar acquisition.
The Granville Solar Facility is located on a 40-acre site in Granville County, N.C., near Oxford. It is being built and will be operated and maintained by SunEdison, a leading global provider of solar energy services and a subsidiary of MEMC Electronic Materials (NYSE: WFR). Construction is under way and the facility is expected to enter commercial operation later in October.
North Carolina took fifth place among the Top States for Doing Business, up from seventh place in 2011 and eighth in 2010. The state ranked second (tied) for its overall labor climate because of its availability of skilled labor, competitive labor costs, and leading work force development programs.
Stacks are beginning to rise. Generators sit under blue tarps.
But due to its out-of-the-way location, you might never know what's going on at the sprawling L.V. Sutton Plant site off U.S. 421 North and adjacent to the Cape Fear River.
What lays out, however, is Progress Energy's emerging new natural-gas-fired power plant, which will be a low-emission successor to the site's existing three old coal-fired units.
Oct. 16, 2012 7:30am Roy Roberson
SouthEast Farm Press
THIS SOLAR tobacco barn is keeping quality high and costs down in Clemson tests.
Using solar power to add more precision to the tobacco curing process has proven to be a time and money saver in tests at Virginia Tech University and at Clemson University’s PeeDee Agriculture Research and Extension Center in Florence, SC.
Modern tobacco production is often time and labor intensive. Tobacco curing can make or break both quality and profit in a tobacco crop.
Computer monitors require more power to display a light screen than a dark screen. NCSEA has chosen to use a dark background on our website to help your computer conserve energy.
