Can Solar Energy Keep the Lights On in the UK?
In last week’s Guardian Jeremy Leggett had a post that seems to argue that solar energy is the UK’s best option for keeping the lights on. Well, how about solar?[read more]
The Renewable Energy Reality Check
Renewable energy is ideologically very attractive. But such ideological perfection can easily switch off the critical thinking of environmentally-conscious individuals and this is exactly what we are seeing at the moment.[read more]
New DOE Secretary Moniz Stresses Energy Efficiency to Start
In his first official remarks as Energy Secretary Tuesday, Ernest Moniz focused on an aspect of energy policy that lends itself to consensus perhaps a bit more easily than others: the need for greater efficiency.[read more]
Bound by the Chains of Oil: The Need for Energy Innovation
So, when gas prices go up, we all suffer and our economy lags. What we really need are more choices to break the iron-clad grip that oil prices have on our lives and our economy.[read more]
Climate Change Math: More Carbon in Ground than Atmosphere Can Take
There is vastly more carbon in the ground than can safely be put into the atmosphere, whatever temperature limit you think there should be. Policy should seek to ensure the available carbon budget is used as wisely as possible.[read more]
Energy Storage, Meet Energy Markets
AES’s new software platform isn’t the first to address the energy storage and energy markets nexus. Projects around the globe are testing value propositions to be derived from storage, as stand-alone or linked to renewable power.[read more]
Sea to Shining Sea: Which US States Use the Most Fossil Fuels?
A lot of the debate over energy and climate change has focused on changing how people live. But in a lot of ways, where someone lives is as important as how they live.[read more]
China to Ramp Up Energy Efficiency Retrofits
China’s building sector accounts for more than 25 percent of China’s energy use. Improving the efficiency of its buildings, new and old, is a key part of China’s strategy to reduce energy demand.[read more]
New GridSTAR Center: Smart Grid Research, Energy Innovation
Philadelphia's new GridSTAR Center will serve as a "hub for workforce training, building performance testing, energy management research and ‘smart’ microgrid modernization deployments.”[read more]
Solar Energy Industries Association Responds to China Trade Dispute
There is clear evidence that disputes within one segment of the industry affect the entire solar supply chain. What’s more, they cause a ripple effect throughout the economies of the United States, Asia and Europe.[read more]
ExxonMobil’s Tentative Algae Biofuel Adventure
ExxonMobil has been quietly researching algae biofuel in partnership with California-based Synthetic Genomics Inc. for the past four years, and it just announced a new co-funding agreement last week.[read more]
Taking on the EPA and E15 Testing
EPA approved E15 for the marketplace knowing that automotive and fuels experts were still studying its impacts. Rather than acknowledge approval was premature, EPA and DOE instead attack the research and the researchers.[read more]
Wind Energy and the Myth of Widespread Negative Pricing
Wind only sets the market price if it is the most expensive resource on the system, and that almost never happens because wind has a zero fuel cost. If wind is setting the price, everything else in the area has been turned off.[read more]
Solar and Wind Energy: Value in Restating the Obvious about Renewables
This idea, that you build wind farms where it is windy and solar panels where it is sunny is a curiously controversial one. Some would even lobby accusations of you being “anti-renewables” if you put it forward.[read more]
Energy Efficiency Could Cut Wireless Power Demand 90 Percent By 2020
The GreenTouch consortium outlines energy efficiency measures that could reduce the net energy consumption of global data and communications networks up to 90% by 2020, compared to 2010 levels.[read more]
Transforming Buildings into Prosumers with the Smart Grid
The Smart Grid will transform roles from consumption to prosumption – producing electricity as well as consuming it. One of the most prominent enablers to engage as prosumers are the buildings where we live and work.[read more]
Nuclear Energy Industry Re-Energizing after Fukushima
Reconstructing nuclear confidence in a post-Fukushima world is a long and painful process. Russian experience in this field can offer some interesting solutions to decision-makers.[read more]
Energy Efficiency: In Praise of Waste
It’s time we stopped wasting time with brain dead energy saving mantras and got on with the real task of building a clean energy infrastructure so we can use far, far more electricity.[read more]
Grossly Incomplete: Redefining GDP for Climate Change
It isn’t about “Green GDP” or “green accounting.” It’s honest accounting. Every ton of coal, every barrel of oil causes more in external damages than it adds value to GDP. Properly measured GDP ought to reflect that fact.[read more]
Rising U.S. Oil Supply and the Impact on Global Markets
The recent growth in U.S. production has helped reduce the price of Brent crude, a leading global benchmark, by about $25 a barrel. That’s big, because the cost of crude oil is the single biggest factor in the price of gasoline.[read more]
Energy Innovation: “Artificial Leaf” Could Blow Up Fuel Cell Market
The idea of an “artificial leaf” sounds simple enough: Take a small, cheap, light-collecting device the size of a typical leaf, dunk it in a quart of water, and use solar energy to generate enough hydrogen gas for powering a small fuel cell.[read more]
Energy in China: Construction of Biggest Hydropower Dam Yet to Come
Reuters reports that China’s environmental ministry has okayed the construction of a new hydroelectric dam on the Dadu River in the Sichuan province, which when completed will be the country’s largest.[read more]
New Draft Fracking Rules Give Industry a Free Pass
Just released federal government draft rules for fracking fail to protect people from harm. Instead the rules protect the oil and gas industry from having to follow strong public health and environmental standards.[read more]
Scott Edward Anderson is a consultant, blogger, and media commentator who blogs at The Green Skeptic. More »
Christine Hertzog is a consultant, author, and a professional explainer focused on Smart Grid. More »
Gary Hunt Gary is an Executive-in-Residence at Deloitte Investments with extensive experience in the energy & utility industries. More »
Jesse Jenkins is a graduate student and researcher at MIT with expertise in energy technology, policy, and innovation. More »
Jim Pierobon helps trade associations/NGOs, government agencies and companies communicate about cleaner energy solutions. More »
Geoffrey Styles is Managing Director of GSW Strategy Group, LLC and an award-winning blogger. More »
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“It is going to take longer than 2 years to phase in any major extra supply to the grid.I'm sure in the longer term that solar, even by itself, could meet 100% of UK power. Several American company have started commercially converting sun light, water and CO2 into methanol with cyanobacterium, the methanol fuel can then be easily stored for use at 6PM on 12 of December.”
“I very much agree with you on the potential that computer driven cars afford, but I suspect they may be a slower sell here in the US. I've mentioned them to a good number of people and many react with something to the effect that they would never trust a computer to navigate their vehicle.I think the basis for this reaction is two-fold. First, they are reacting to their experience of ...”