Electricity Grid

Paris, city of (smart) lights?

Silver Spring Networks, the smart grid networking company that wants to expand its reach to streetlights, traffic signals and other “smart city” devices, will get a chance to try it out in a city famous for its lights, Paris.[read more]

electric car/shutterstock

Even if there is enough lithium to displace the 1 billion internal combustion engine cars that now pollute the earth with electric cars, it is the electronic waste problem that should dominate the question.[read more]

fat for energy?

Oil and fat accumulating under the streets of London is apparently causing a bit of an issue. However, the city is going to burn these fatbergs in order to create electricity — about 130 GWh of electricity per year.[read more]

solar vs nuclear energy costs

Germany’s solar program will generate electricity at quadruple the cost of one of the most expensive nuclear power plants in the world, raising serious questions about a renewable energy strategy widely heralded as a global model.[read more]

Nuclear energy costs

 

On Saturday, the Tampa Bay Times published a lengthy piece that argues the two reactor installation proposed for Levy County, Florida is a more expensive option than a natural gas power plant.[read more]

natural gas/shutterstock

Natural gas is a fuel for electricity generation that serves as a bridge to a Smart Grid that fully integrates renewables and energy storage into the energy portfolio.[read more]

solar energy investment

The solar energy investment attractiveness of a country is based on many factors. Some important ones are the overall investment attractiveness of a country, solar policies in the country, and natural solar power potential.[read more]

RGGI's new cap rules

RGGI’s new cap not only falls short of creating real price pressures due to its closeness to baseline emissions, its excessive compensatory measures, and its failure to deal with leakage, but also runs the risk of locking in emissions.[read more]

proposed Spectra natural gas pipeline

A new pipeline promises new natural gas supplies for New York City. Some tout the economic and environmental benefits that will come from it. Others decry the potential problems it brings.[read more]

shared renewables

Where California goes, so does the rest of the country. We don’t have enough shared renewables laws in the US. Passing these bills would set a great example and help spread renewables beyond just California.[read more]

Bloom Energy fuel cells

Fuel cell "startup" Bloom Energy just raised $130 million more in venture capital, taking total funding to beyond $1.1 billion for this firm and makes it one of the all-time leaders in venture capitalization.[read more]

Kewaunee nuclear power station

Shortly after 11 AM on Tuesday, May 8, 2013, the operators at Dominion Resources’ Kewaunee Nuclear Power Station opened the plant’s output breaker, disconnecting the turbine generator from the grid for the last time.[read more]

electricity prices

The US shale gas boom has increased the supply of natural gas, which in turn has brought gas prices way down. Since gas is a fuel that runs power plants, its price affects your electric bill – depending on your utility.[read more]

energy business leaders/shuterstock

This feels like the launch of an arms race in intelligent energy, in other words. And investors who are building and selling into it should be pretty excited right about now.[read more]

smart meter

A new report predicts that smart meter installations will drop more than 35 percent through 2014 in North America, due to the depletion of stimulus money granted by the first-term Obama administration.[read more]