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© 2011 By Constance R. Barnhart
Some energy experts have recently predicted that renewable sources (including wind, solar and hydroelectric) could provide up to 43% of the world’s energy supply by 2030, according to recent trends. However, the pace of renewable energy development is most rapid in those countries with national energy policies and incentives favoring renewable energy, which presently do not include the United States.
According to an October 10 report in the RenewablesBiz Daily, China leads the world in renewable energy development. Fueled by China’s aggressive government support for renewable energy development, RenewablesBiz reports that: Chinese companies control half the $45 billion global
Read more…Experts Predict Continued Expansion of Renewable Energy Globally, But Depends on Government Policies
© 2011 By Constance R. Barnhart
Florida Power & Light’s new Martin Next Generation Solar Energy Center, the world’s first and largest hybrid solar-thermal and natural gas power plant, which went online in December, 2010, typifies a growing trend toward combining renewable energy sources with natural gas technologies.
Recent commentary has drawn attention to an evolving trend toward construction of hybrid power plants utilizing clean renewable technologies such as wind or solar energy, combined with natural gas, an inexpensive and plentiful energy source. When the sun is not shining or the wind not blowing, the natural gas combustion engines kick in, allowing the plant
Read more…New Trend: Hybrid Solar & Natural Gas Power Plants
© 2011 By Constance R. Barnhart B-Lab, an organization in Pennsylvania and New York that promotes the establishment of for-profit “Benefit Corporations” which serve social and public benefit purposes, has established a Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS), which B-Lab says, “aims to drive investment capital toward impactful businesses.”
“GIIRS ratings provide investors with standardized impact metrics for an emerging asset class, helping fund the world’s leading social entrepreneurs. GIIRS ratings are like S&P ratings but for [social] impact instead of risk,” www.giirs.org.”
After a successful Beta launch in the Spring of 2011 with approximately 200 companies and 25 funds, according to the B-Lab Annual Report,
Read more…Global Impact Investing Rating System (GIIRS) Promotes Impact Investing in Socially Responsible Companies
© 2011 By Constance R. Barnhart
A movement has been building for more than 15 years, both in the U.S. and internationally, to establish and recognize in law a type of hybrid private, for-profit entity organized to serve a public or social benefit.
Entities of this type are referred to variously as a “Benefit Corporation,” “B Corp.,” “Social Enterprise,” “Social Business,” emerging “FourthSector” entity, or in the UK, a “Community Interest Corporation (CIC)”.
This movement has recently gained momentum in the U.S. with the passage of legislation in seven states specifically authorizing the creation of a new, separate form of corporate entity called
Read more…Social Enterprise/ Public Benefit Corporation Movement Gaining Momentum in the U.S.
© 2011 By Constance R. Barnhart On June 17, 2011, New York’s Legislature became the fifth state legislature in the nation to pass a bill authorizing a new type of corporate entity called a “Benefit Corporation.”
Under the bill, a private, for-profit business would be permitted to incorporate as a “Benefit Corporation,” with the stated corporate purpose of serving a general or specific public benefit (as defined in the bill). The Benefit Corporation is essentially a hybrid form which permits a for-profit corporation to exist for primarily public or social benefit corporate purposes (previously reserved to non-profit entities), rather than exclusively for the purpose of
Read more…New York Becomes Fifth State to Pass Law Authorizing For-Profit Public Benefit Corporations
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