Green Career Trends: DOE Announces $100 Million for Smart Grid Training, Cobalt Tech. Using Beetle-Killed Trees for Biobutanol, FedEx, UPS Adding Electric and Hybrid Vehicles to Their Fleets

In September the DOE indicated that $100 million would be invested in smart grid training programs. This month DOE announced which organizations would get that funding. In total 54 programs, developed by organizations including utilities, universities, and technical colleges, will use the funds to train workers to become system operators, transmission planners, electricians, engineers, power line technicians, and cyber security technicians.

Cobalt Technologies, based in Mountain View, CA, has found a way to create biobutanol from beetle-killed lodgepole pine trees common to Colorado and other western US states. Biobutanol is a biofuel that can be added to gasoline, diesel or jetfuel to reduce CO2 emissions.  2.3 million acres of pine forest in Colorado alone have been affected by the tree killing pine beetle.  Warmer winter temperatures have allowed the beetle to become more widespread and cause more damage in the western US. This project takes a readily available resource that must be removed to eliminate fire damage and turns it into energy and provides cash flow for the company.

Package delivery giant FedEx will begin testing electric delivery trucks in Los Angeles in May.  These made-in-the-USA, vehicles will have a range of 100 miles before needing to be recharged, however FedEx expects they will be driven approximately 50 miles before returning for a nightly recharge.  Worldwide, FedEx has about 40,000 trucks, 325 of them are hybrids.  UPS, the other package delivery giant, has announced it will begin using 200 hybrid delivery trucks this week in eight US cities.  Freightliner Chassis and Eaton Corp are building the chassis and drive train for the vehicles.   

Comments

[Steve Hendon]

Thanks for putting a face on green initiatives. These examples are interesting and helpful in understanding just how green can work.