Idaho

Boston-based Atlantic Power Corporation (NYSE: AT) has acquired a 51% stake in a wind power project in Oklahoma.

The Obama Administration has announced a group of pilot projects selected for a newly formed team charged with expediting and simplifying the building of transmission lines in the United States.

Southern Company (NYSE:SO) has taken a significant step towards constructing two new nuclear units in Georgia.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, or NREL, one of more than a dozen national laboratories vested in renewable energy research under the auspices of the U.S.

Siemens AG (NYSE: SI) said this week its U.S. division Siemens Energy will supply power equipment and long-term service to PacifiCorp’s proposed 637-megawatt (MW) Lake Side 2 combined-cycle gas-fired power plant at Vineyard, Utah, 30 miles south of Salt Lake City. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Texas retains its huge lead as the largest generator of electricity in the U.S., including the largest total amount of renewable energy generation and the largest year-over-year additions of renewable energy, according to EnergyBoom’s analysis of the latest U.S. Energy Information Agency data for January and February 2011 released May 13. Renewable energy in this data is defined as wind, solar, wood-derived fuels and biomass, and geothermal.

It’s a bit early to declare that Pacific Ethanol Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX) is “back”, but it seems to be headed in the right direction. The company’s shares are up 84 percent over the past six months, and its 19.6 percent increase last week was the fourth best performance among companies in the EnergyBoom Clean 100 Index (E•B Clean 100).

Pacific Ethanol shares were up another 8 percent in early trading today.

The economic recession has hit renewable energy industries in the United States hard, and the effects have been accentuated by the country's lack of national renewable energy policy.

Now that the climate bill is in hibernation, it would be easy to despair that the US power sector will resume its tradition of burning high-polluting coal to sell increasing amounts of electricity.

While the big publicly traded wind power companies are chasing the “bigger” wind turbine strategy, a few small private companies are pursuing the “better” wind turbine technology that will be needed if the industry is to meet the U.S.