Did CSU Name Their New 'Clean Energy Supercluster' Biz After an Oilfield Logistics Company?

One of my almae matres, Colorado State University has finally launched the business-end of its long-awaited renewable energy "supercluster." The supercluster will serve as a clean tech incubator, moving research and development of clean energy and energy efficiency from the lab to the marketplace. CSU President Larry Penley joined Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter and Colorado Senators Wayne Allard and Ken Salazar to make the announcement Thursday at the state Capitol.

"CSU is home to the world's finest faculty and student brain trust in the environmental sciences, in the development of alternative energy technology and biofuels and in the management of state forest lands," said CSU President Penley. "In the long run, all these achievements are insufficient if we can't get our research to market rapidly and in ways that are sustainable from a business perspective," Penley said.


The university's new business arm of the Clean Energy Supercluster took the painfully ironic name, Cenergy. Not to be confused with the large corporation of the same name, that provides logistical support for onshore and offshore oilfields worldwide. You'd think that someone at the university would have done a Google search on the name 'Cenergy' before getting the new stationery printed!

These are supposed to be researchers we're talking about, right?

Photo: Tim Hurst
Press Release
Colorado State University Clean Energy Supercluster

Call for Papers: Ecopolitics Online Journal

Dr. Liam Leonard, a faculty member in the Dep't of Political Science and Sociology at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and editor at Ecopolitics Online has announced a call for papers for the inaugural edition of the new online peer-reviewed journal. The theme of the first edition is, “Utopias, ecotopias and green communities: Exploring the patterns of resettlement and living of green idealists.”


According to the announcement on their website: Twice yearly, Ecopolitics Online will publish a collection of peer-reviewed papers from an international pool of environmental academics and researchers. The intent of the journal is to address environmental issues with a multidisciplinary approach, "which incorporates politics, sociology, geography, globalisation, development, economics, philosophy, ecology, law and science." The call for papers suggests that:

"Contributors should explore case studies from a broad and international range of community idealism and cooperative building. Rural resettlement, communes, syndicates, workers’ co ops, environmental communities and educational institutions are included within this broad thematic area of focus."

So even though this is an Irish publication, international scholarship is not only welcome but it seems as though it is encouraged. For more information about submissions, follow this link.

Photo Credits: 1. The Derrybrien Windfarm in County Galway is comprised of 71 Vestas V52 wind turbines and is currently the largest terrestrial wind farm in Ireland (source: galway.net)

Survey Finds Overwhelming Support for Wind

New and Improved! Now with Even More Empirics!

The political back-and-forth in the Cape Wind debate rolls on. Renewable Energy Access has just shed some light on a new iteration of a Massachusetts energy survey.The Opinion Research Corporation poll for the Civil Society Institute has found that Massachusetts citizens are, perhaps, not as divided over wind energy development as they have been portrayed by the media and opposition groups.

From ecopolitology

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Two-strokes to Get Worked Over by Envirofit

One of the more influential green technologies coming out of Colorado State University was given some props by Treehugger today:

Envirofit, an independent, non-profit company established at Colorado State University in 2003, is now working to develop and distribute affordable retrofit kits that will improve the fuel efficiency of two-stroke engines, commonly used in many of the two-wheeler taxis and three-wheeler auto-rickshaws in the Philippines, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other parts of South Asia.