Applied Materials, Inc., the global leader in Nanomanufacturing Technology™ solutions with a broad portfolio of innovative equipment, service and software products for the fabrication of semiconductor chips, flat panel displays, solar photovoltaic cells, flexible electronics and energy efficient glass, announced today that it has received a 2009 Green Power Leadership Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The annual awards recognize the country's leading green power purchasers for their commitment and contribution to helping advance the development of the nation's voluntary green power market. EPA presented Applied Materials with the award at an event held in conjunction with the 2009 Renewable Energy Markets Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

This is a NEWS PORTAL dedicated to experimental research on REVOLUTIONARY ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES. We propose to you to use this site as THE concentrator of choice for valuable news on the fascinating but still controversial subject of over-unity (O/U) fuel-less energetics (devices tapping the Zero Point Energy (ZPE)/ Vacuum/ Cosmic/ Ambient energy fields) and related. We want to let the general public know that this is an active field and good progress is made towards validating this technology and bringing the first commercial operational device to the market.

Wind power is coming of age as the U.S. becomes the global wind leader and probably the biggest source of new jobs in the energy industry.  I previously wrote about ITC Holdings’ plans to build a $10 to $12 billion power transmission network to move 12,000 megawatts of electricity from the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa to the Chicago area (see here, click on figure to enlarge).

Now this network has received a huge regulatory boost The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), as Energy Daily reports:
Turning aside concerns from several state regulators and utilities across the Midwest, FERC announced Monday it has approved all of the rate incentives requested by ITC Holdings Corp. for its massive Green Power Express transmission project, providing a solid financial underpinning for the 3,000-mile line meant to deliver wind power from the Dakotas to Chicago.

The unanimous order by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission means ITC affiliate Green Power Express LP can earn a relatively comfortable 12.38 percent return on equity (ROE) for the high-voltage line, which has a planned capacity of 12,000 megawatts.
FERC’s action also provides other key financial protections for the proposed line, including giving Green Power the right to bill ratepayers for development costs even if it has to abandon the project for reasons beyond its control.

The Green Power rate requests are not unusual, and in fact are similar to those requested of FERC by other utilities proposing major new interstate power lines that qualify for rate incentives authorized by Congress to expand the nation’s electricity grid.

But FERC’s decision Friday is important because it significantly improves the odds that Green Power—the largest new power line planned in the country—will get built…

FERC’s order is also notable because it was unanimous. In past transmission rate cases, Commissioner Suedeen Kelly and new FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff frequently parted ways with the commission’s three Republicans, saying the GOP commissioners were too generous in doling out higher rates for projects that were not big or important enough to the grid to deserve them.

Inventing Green is the project site for my forthcoming book, which is due out Fall 2010 from Da Capo Books, a subsidiary of the Perseus Book Group.

The site has two purposes. First, it serves as an open research platform, so you can follow my journey through the last 150 years of wind turbines, solar machines, and electric cars. I maintain a timeline, green tech history map, and resource list for myself, but I figured I might as well share it with the world, or at least that tiny slice of the world that’s interested in this stuff. The site will also serve up extra information from/about the book, lectures, and previews. Second, this site will provide some more standard posts when I can provide context from the history of green technology about the energy news of the day.

If you want to know more about me, here’s one of those strange third-person bios that I clearly wrote myself.

Alexis Madrigal is a leading green tech writer. Since joining Wired.com as a staff writer in 2007, he has helped build Wired Science into the largest science blog in the world, with millions of visitors per month. Wired Science was nominated for best magazine blog by the MPA and best science website in the 2009 Webby Awards. He was a major part of Wired.com’s 2008 Webby award win for “Best Writing” and hosts the popular Wired Science video podcast.

Madrigal is a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley’s Office for the History of Science and Technology. He’s been invited to speak at South by Southwest, Berkeley Journalism School, Stanford Law School, E3, and Webvisions, and is a regular guest on NPR.