Combined Heat and Power (CHP) is one of the most promising options in the U.S. energy efficiency portfolio. By combining environmental effectiveness with economic viability and improved competitiveness, CHP is deployable in the near term and can help address current and future U.S. energy needs.

The City Council of Hamilton, Ontario approved $35,000 for the creation of a Community Energy Collaborative to explore the city's energy supply vulnerabilities. The task force will look at economic, social and environmental sustainability and urban planning.

The City of El Paso is entering into a collaboration that will save the city $1.7 million each year in energy. They frame it as the a step toward a green collar economy as well as a way to address climate change.

A non-profit serving low income people in coastal Washington has received grants and the necessary permits to build a wind farm, and will be selling the energy to the local public utility district. The income will help fund the organization's social service mission. According to the organization's executive director, "this project is the first of its kind in the nation to use alternative energy to benefit low income housing."

A consortium of businesses, the city-owned utility and environmentalists said Wednesday they plan to make Austin’s power grid a model of “green” energy and a test bed for new and emerging technologies. They hope startup and established companies will come to Austin to develop technologies that will eventually be used in other cities to modernize the electric grid.

The final report of the Alachua County Energy Conservation Strategies Commission members delivers a list of recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners that would create an energy efficient and resource resilient community over the next 100 years.

Feed-in tariff policies have driven rapid renewable energy growth for electricity in Europe, but have not been widely adopted in North America to date. This paper reviews the experience of six US states which have introduced feed-in tariff legislation, surveys feed-in tariff proposals in eight other states, and discusses the outlook for Community-Based Energy Development policies, which have the potential to be implemented in a way that is similar to feed-in tariffs.

Los Angeles mayor Villaraigosa's proposal aims to have solar power meet one-tenth of L.A.'s energy needs by 2020. The move is meant to help L.A.'s Department of Water and Power (the largest municipal utility in the U.S.) wean itself off of fossil fuels as part of the effort to address global warming.

'Combined heat and power' (CHP) plants and 'district heating' systems have been around for well over a hundred years. And yet, only a handful of modern cities and towns have made use of these highly efficient technologies until very recently. Now that we've rediscovered CHP and district heating, what role will they play in retrofitting our economies to rely on local energy?

New ordinances clear the way for residents in some Texas towns to install small-scale wind generation facilities on their properties. The equipment may be expensive, but demand is growing, and city officials say they want to make sure rules are in place for the day when wind energy devices become more commonplace.