Sustainable Industries Daily Update

Looks like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac killed their first PACE program. Boulder, Colo. cancelled the last round of funding for it's popular program. The two home-loan giants sent a letter earlier this year to lenders tell them that mortgages with PACE loans attached could not be purchased by Fannie and Freddie, throwing the industry into a tailspin.

In Oregon, a pilot program to test paying residents above-market rates for solar power they produce launched on July 1. The program is, many hope, the first iteration of a feed-in tariff. Currently, it's a somewhat flawed model that doesn't necessarily reduce consumption.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) announced that HP joined the Eco-Patent Commons. HP has contributed three patents to the Eco-Patent Commons which aims at making patents freely available to enable the development of products that protect the environment. The patents are a self-contained battery recycling station to encourage consumers to exchange their used batteries for new ones or for credit; a weld process monitoring system to reduce the resource and energy consumption associated with bad welds on assembly lines; a process that eliminates the need for anti-oxidant metal coatings (such as gold) during certain stages of microchip and circuit board assembly.

Vu1 Corporation, a Seattle-based developer and manufacturer of mercury-free, energy-efficient, light bulbs announced its first sale. One of the Pacific Northwest's leading electrical distribution companies, placed a preliminary order for  Vu1's R30 Electron Stimulated Luminescence™ (ESL™) reflector energy-efficient light bulbs. The order will be confirmed on completion of external lab performance tests and UL certification, which the company anticipates receiving in August of this year.