United States Needs to Put Green Tech Stimulus Money to Use

With everybody going green, almost half of the money that global governments dedicated to stimulus spending on green technology since 2008 – almost $200 billion – has been spent, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

Since 2008, $94.8 billion has been spent, with a little more than $74 billion expended in 2010 alone. About $99.5 billion is available for the rest of the year. The money can be used to fund programs ranging from “small-scale energy efficiency schemes to public support for large-scale projects in renewable energy and carbon capture and storage,” according to the report.

While Europe and the United States remain on track with green technology spending, the reason more than half of the funds have been exhausted is because China and Japan are leading the green tech race.

According to a Reuters article, the United States has spent only 36 percent of its $65.1 billion in green stimulus; China has spent 69 percent of its $46.1 billion, and Japan has spent 80 percent of $10.4 billion.

Green technology can play as big a role as ever in today’s trying economic times as green technology provides solutions to rising energy costs and threats of global warming. Businesses have noted how green technology can help reduce their carbon footprint and to minimize waste as well.

Most recently, AT&T reaped the benefits of green technology as it saved $44 million in energy savings after introducing 4,200 energy efficiency projects at AT&T (News - Alert) facilities in 2010. The AT&T empire employed many types of green technology in 2010, such as using 498 kWh per terabyte of data carried on their network. That plan resulted in a 23.8 percent decrease in energy intensity in 2009. As compared with 2009’s KWh per terabyte of data figure, AT&T set a goal to further reduce energy intensity by an additional 15 percent for 2010, the company stated.

We are just three months into 2011, and times are still trying. Companies are looking for cost savings anywhere they can find and energy consumption is one of the first places they turn. The United States is already losing the tech race as China surpasses the United States with regards to science and math aptitude but the green race is still very much underway.

It is time for the U.S. to step up, in my opinion. All around the U.S., students are enrolling in environmental schools, getting LEED certified and receiving training to become the next project managers who will make the world a more eco-friendly, greener place. One of the best places to deploy some of the remaining stimulus money in the U.S. is in the hands of those that will change the future –the teachers, students, construction companies and architects. These people have the capacity and knowledge of how to change the world and a little bit of stimulus money can go a long way.