By:Rudolph Bell

U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett made it official Wednesday: He’s running for governor.

“It’s all about jobs,” Barrett said. “It’s all about economic development and bringing an economy to South Carolina that is second to none.”

Others considering bids to succeed term-limited Gov. Mark Sanford are Republicans Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer and Attorney General Henry McMaster.

A fourth Republican, Brent Nelsen, a political science professor at Furman University, said last week he plans to raise money for a possible campaign.

On the Democratic side, state Sen. Vincent Sheheen of Camden has also announced plans to raise money for a possible campaign.

Barrett, 48, graduated from The Citadel, the military college in Charleston, and served as a captain in the U.S. Army before returning to Westminster, his hometown in Oconee County, to run his family’s furniture store. He served three terms in the South Carolina House before being elected to Congress in 2002. Since then, he’s been re-elected three times to represent the 3rd Congressional District.

A pro-life Republican, Barrett supported George W. Bush for president and has advocated for a new nuclear reactor at the Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in his district. He and his wife, Natalie, have three children: Madison, 21; Jeb, 19; and Ross, 17.

Barrett told The Greenville News that economic development is his No. 1 issue and that he thinks South Carolina can become a national leader in the field of energy.

“If we are going to really turn this economy around, if we are going to empower people, one of the key factors has to be breaking our dependency on oil,” Barrett

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By: Ted Samson at infoworld
What’s the biggest power hog in the datacenter? Who urged the president to support green federal datacenters? Find out these answers and 23 more facts below
If you have a Facebook account, you’ve likely been tagged by a friend to share 25 random things about yourself. The trend has spread like wildfire; a lot of people evidently enjoy digesting bite-sized nuggets of titillating trivia about their peers. But why limit the “25 random things about …” format to people? Allow me to present 25 random facts that you should know about green IT. Don’t worry, though: I won’t tag you to come up with 25 of your own.

Green IT for the datacenter
1. Ninety percent of companies with large datacenters will need to add more power and cooling within the next two years.

2. A study by McKinsey found that among a total of 458 servers at four production datacenters, 32 percent (146 in all) were running at or below 3 percent peak and average utilization. These types of zombie servers are prime candidates for unplugging to free up space and power and reduce cooling needs.

3. Speaking of which, companies can reap a 65 percent reduction in server count through virtualization — though your mileage may vary.

4. Increasing the set point temperature in your datacenter by just one degree can reduce energy consumption by 4 to 5 percent.

5. Datacenters produce around 0.3 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions. The airline industry produces 0.6 percent, and the steel industry produces 1.0 percent.

6. According to a study conducted by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (PDF), DC (direct current) delivery systems can be 20 percent or more efficient than current AC (alternating current) delivery systems, be more reliable, and potentially cost less in the long run.

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By the staff out www.charlestonbusiness.com

Santee Cooper plans to spend more than $113 million on energy efficiency programs and promotions designed to encourage customers to save electricity.

On Monday, the utility’s board approved the initiative as a step toward achieving its goal of generating 40% of its energy from conservation and non-greenhouse gas emitting resources by 2020. This particular measure is designed to help the utility exceed the conservation and energy efficiency component of the goal.

If customer participation meets expectations, the initiatives will save more than 208 million kilowatt hours annually when the programs are fully launched, Santee Cooper estimates.

Specifically, the board approved plans to:

• Continue promoting energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs for residential customers and expand promotions to commercial customers;

• Encourage residential and commercial customers to replace older, inefficient refrigerators by offering rebates for Energy Star-rated models;

• Help residential customers improve the energy efficiency of their existing homes or construct new energy-efficient ones.

These new initiatives and savings are in addition to Santee Cooper’s current energy efficiency programs that include low-interest energy efficiency loans, free in-home energy audits, free on-line energy audits, commercial thermal energy storage and many other programs.

In a separate action, the board approved a $2 million increase to Santee Cooper’s Low-Interest Loan program, expanding it from its current limits of $3.5 million on loan to $5.5 million. This increase allows Santee Cooper to continue the popular program, which offers customers an affordable way to pay for energy efficient improvements such as installing energy efficient heat pumps, adding an optimum amount of insulation, and installing energy efficiency windows.

“We know the burden is on Santee Cooper to design programs that meet customers’ needs while also helping them save energy. These programs will help our customers change their habits and their energy infrastructure, resulting in long-term benefits for us all,” said Santee Cooper President and CEO Lonnie Carter.

Santee Cooper’s progress in developing renewable energy, conservation and energy efficiency programs is part of its long-term plan to meet South Carolina’s energy needs. That plan also includes the addition of new base load generation, such as the controversial $1.25 billion coal plant the utility plans to build in rural Florence County.

The state anticipates 1 million more residents by 2025.

“Our job is to make sure that the lights stay on across South Carolina, in a low cost, reliable, and environmentally friendly manner. These energy efficiency programs are one part of the overall solution,” Carter said.

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Already a big user of alternative energy, the BMW Manufacturing plant in Greer, S.C., is investigating whether wind turbines can help complete the cycle of self-sufficiency.

BMW is partnering with California-based Gold Ring Power LLC to study using wind energy, according to this GreenvilleOnline.com story.

A couple of 50-foot towers have been installed at the plant site to measure wind speed and direction. After two weeks they will be moved to other locations throughout the 1,100 acre-site, to determine areas that would maximize power production.

BMW’s Greer campus needs a peak of about 30 megawatts of energy per day, and that is expected to rise with a $750 million, 1.5 million square foot expansion, according to an article on Goupstate.com.

BMW already maintains a power station on-site, with four huge turbines fueled by methane gas siphoned from a nearby landfill. The plant generates nearly 63 percent of the plant’s electricity, according to the article, which indicated BMW has saved more than $1 million annually from the program.

BMW has employed an array of environmentally friendly features at the site, according to GreenvilleOnline.com. It put in a solar-powered trash compactor at the site, and a household waste container so far has generated three tons of waste. The plant also has been looking at adding solar.

In its data center, BMW is using energy saving techniques.

In Germany, BMW has been testing electric drivetrains on the Mini platform it owns.

This article comes from www.environmentalleader.com.  BMW logo by Scott Gable.

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