energy

The Internet is immensely huge; it's 2.4 billion users strong, in fact. And it's still growing extremely fast. By 2016, the Internet will contain 4 times as much data as it does today. Now the internet uses 30 billion watts per year. What will it need tomorrow?[read more]

Conversations on the vision, challenges, and benefits of the smart grid with Sonita Lontoh of Trilliant and Christine Hertzog of the Smart Grid Library. A TV interview archive.[read more]

In the coming years, renewable energy resources are going to play a much bigger role in the energy mix – especially in Germany, but also in Europe and worldwide. However, when it comes to harvesting renewable sources, fluctuations in their availability pose some challenges. These can be overcome.[read more]

Today,  Steve Lacey at the Center for American Progress published 20 Ideas for Job Creation: Keep Focused on Clean Energy. To build on the many good (or even excellent) ideas in that list (repeated below the fold), here are ideas 21-30 of places to go for Clean Energy Jobs: Go to your mortgage broker:  Ed Mazria/Architecture...[read more]

Before adjourning to watch yule logs and eat holiday hams, Congress actually managed to pass a 2012 budget bill. ITIF's Matthew Stepp provided us with an early analysis of the bill's impact on energy innovation funding. Funding for key Department of Energy (DOE) innovation offices are up by a modest 2.5 percent relative to the 2011...[read more]

The oil price has rarely fallen below $100 a barrel since the Arab Spring threatened supplies at the start of 2011. Libya is now nearly back at full-scale production post-war, which some suggest could increase global supply and theoretically lead to price falls. But other analysts believe other Opec powers such as Saudi ...[read more]

 Robert Solow, Nobel laureate and father of neoclassical economic growth theory, says that policymakers’ current economic solutions are nothing more than “drivel” and that spurring innovation – especially energy innovation – must be a central goal of public policy moving forward.   As ITIF and the Breakthrough Institute...[read more]

Thank you so much for a terrific webinar! In a few days, we'll have an audio recording of this amazing presentiation up in this post's slot. We kept a fast pace to get to all the speakers in the 3 hour time slot, and we know we didn't get a chance to get to everyone's questions. Please post your unanswered or unasked questions in the...[read more]

It’s no secret that at the core of the Supercommittee’s failure earlier this week is the increasing polarization of American politics. Huffington Post contributor and law professor June Carbone illustrates this transition over the past half-century: “A half century ago, neither political party disproportionately consisted of those who...[read more]

“Understanding the Nexus”, Water Energy Food Nexus, Bonn 2011: Background paper for the Bonn2011 Nexus Conference is now available This paper for the Bonn 2011 Conference presents initial evidence for how a nexus approach can enhance water, energy and food security in a green economy by increasing efficiency, reducing trade-offs, and...[read more]

Uranium: War, Energy, and the Rock that Shaped the World, by Tom ZoellnerI recently have had a bit of down time in the transition to my new career (having finished my Ph.D. and waiting to begin my new job at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in October), so while perusing the library this weekend, Zoellner's popular history of Uranium...[read more]

Bay Area locals may recognize this ad, which I found on BART. I thought it was hilarious, though you may not unless you share my appreciation for energy/power errors in your sense of humor.I've taken better pictures in my life. The caption reads: "Power from the sun: 400,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilowatts per second." This of course makes...[read more]

There were several energy stories of note in the Energy Ticker last week that could have been fodder for a column. Instead, I will just highlight them here with some brief commentary.[read more]

On 16 August President Obama announced that the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy and Navy will invest up to $510 million by 2014 in partnership with the private sector to produce advanced “drop-in” aviation and maritime biofuels for military and commercial use. This builds on a directive Obama issued five months ago as part of his...[read more]

As the US heads into the process of electing its next President, many subjects and issues will be debated. While climate change may not be the defining issue of the moment in the USA, given the long term importance of the subject it would be useful to understand how the various candidates for office might seek to shape the energy and climate policy landscape through this decade.[read more]