Verizon to invest $100 million in clean energy

Verizon Communications will spend $100 million to green up its facilities with solar panels and fuel cells, Alic writes, putting it in the big leagues with clean energy followers like Google and Yahoo.

|
Rick Wilking/Reuters/File
A sign hangs in the Verizon booth at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. A new $100 million spending plan would be Verizon’s largest investment in clean energy to date.

Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) will spend $100 million to green up its facilities with solar panels and fuel cells, putting it in the big leagues with clean energy followers like Google and Yahoo.

The announcement, on Tuesday, will benefit California-based solar panel developer SunPower Corp. (SPWR), which will supply and install solar panels in over a dozen Verizon facilities across five US states.

The clean energy spending spree will also benefit Oregon-based fuel cell maker ClearEdge Power, which will supply and install hydrogen fuel cells at Verizon facilities in California, New Jersey and New York. (Related article: Could MLP’s be Embraced by the Renewable Energy Sector)

Verizon says the $100 million price tag on its clean energy plan makes economic sense in the long run. 

"We drive shareholder value, but we're also a good corporate citizen," James Gowen, Verizon’s chief sustainability officer, told Fox News.

By 2014, Verizon is targeting a total of 15 megawatts of clean power a year operating its facilities—or the equivalent of the power necessary for 6,000 average residences. According to the math, this would reduce Verizon’s carbon footprint by about 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

While solar panels will reduce Verizon’s carbon footprint, fuel cells have another added benefit: They can serve as a back-up power plan during outages resulting from extreme weather conditions like Hurricane Sandy. (Related article: Clean Economy Doesn’t Mean Cleaner World)

Fuel cells use a chemical reaction to produce electricity and heat. The benefits of fuel cells are that the electricity can be created on site where it is used, and if biofuels are used, then the carbon footprint is further reduced.

This $100 million spending plan would be Verizon’s largest investment in clean energy to date.

Original article: http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Renewable-Energy/Verizon-Prepares-for-100m-Renewable-Energy-Investment.html

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Verizon to invest $100 million in clean energy
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy-Voices/2013/0502/Verizon-to-invest-100-million-in-clean-energy
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe