News

Offshore Wind Energy

The Department of Interior announced this week the first-ever competitive offshore wind auction. Many policymakers and advocates are hailing it as a milestone moment.[read more]

Electric vs Gasoline Comparisons

The DOE has just launched a wonderful tool that some people will love and others will hate. Its new eGallon tool shows people how much it costs to fuel up on electricity versus gas.[read more]

New Solar Energy Record for California

Late last Friday, grid operator California ISO announced the state set an all-time solar record just before 1:00 pm when it registered 2,071 megawatts worth of solar electricity system-wide, shining new light on the role renewables can play in the state’s clean energy future.[read more]

US China Relations/shutterstock

After years of opposing international efforts to restrict hydrofluorocarbons China has now agreed to cooperate with the United States in moving forward to phase down the use of these chemicals under the Montreal Protocol.[read more]

Installed Solar Energy Capacity

A couple of big solar records were set in Q1 2013 in the US. For one, 49% of all new US electricity generation capacity came form solar, the most ever for a first quarter.[read more]

shared renewables

Momentum is building for shared renewable energy in California. Late last week the two bills we’ve been following there, SB 43 and AB 1014, passed with strong margins in their chambers of origin.[read more]

arctic drilling/shutterstock

Even the best-prepared, best-equipped, and most technologically advanced oil company has no business drilling for oil in the Arctic. It is simply not possible to do it safely here.[read more]

geothermal energy

Traveling through the complex system of federal and state regulations to secure project approvals is one of the biggest challenges facing geothermal power developers – but not if they’ve got a map outlining every twist and turn.[read more]

global carbon market

At the very end of May Carbon Expo was held in Barcelona. There were quite a few exhibitors at the Expo hoping for life in the project mechanism market of the current “global carbon market.”[read more]

California renewable energy

A just-proposed California law would do away with the state’s 33 percent renewables mandate in favor of a coherently procured greentech future. The plan is backed by renewables advocates and approved by grid operator leadership.[read more]

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station

Edison International, parent company of Southern California Edison, made an announcement that it had decided to permanently retire the two-unit San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California.[read more]

Google's Finnish Data Center

The renewable energy world was abuzz last week with news that Google has just nailed down an exclusive agreement with a Swedish wind farm developer to provide its Finnish data center with wind power for the next ten years.[read more]

fighter fuel?

National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced a switchgrass-based jet biofuel process that is expected to involve 95 percent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than conventional jet fuel production.[read more]

renewable energy in Colorado

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has signed legislation that will double the amount of energy that his state’s large rural electric coops and the utilities that provide them power must get from renewable sources to 20% by 2020.[read more]

carbon nanotubes

Researchers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have discovered a pathway for developing low cost electric vehicle batteries, which could lead to a new generation of affordable EVs.[read more]