china

hydropower in China

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]

China’s new Premier, Li Keqiang

In his first speech as China’s new Premier, Li Keqiang spoke of putting environmental protection ahead of economic growth, and even encouraged both media and the public to hold him accountable.[read more]

carbon emissions

Carbon emissions stopped rising in 2008 and 2009, but rebounded so strongly in the past couple years, that emissions have reached the level to which they were headed before the crisis.[read more]

US coal consumption

Despite record amounts being spent to propagandize the coal industry and the ridiculous concept of “clean coal”, United States coal consumption has gone down.[read more]

US energy waste

The United States has taken the lead yet again, but this time, we may not be so proud. We have surpassed every nation, including China, in the category of energy waste.[read more]

image via shutterstock

One of the myths which we have to contend with as we create the post carbon era is that no single energy source will be so scalable as to be extremely helpful in solving the post carbon energy problem.[read more]

Photo by Nagyman via Flickr

Looking backward at oil prices over the last decade, how much of growing demand for oil has come from China?[read more]

  We’d like to start you off here with some statistics about China.  And H2O. China accounts for 30% of the world’s population but has only 7% of the world’s freshwater supply. Since 2008, China has added more than 50 million people.  Stop for a moment and think about that. That’s like adding two Australias.  Or ten...[read more]

Conversations with analysts and advocates on both sides of SolarWorld’s anti-dumping suit against China lead me believe the U.S. cannot beat its communist counterparts on cost. What it CAN do is set policies that convince U.S. financiers that solar energy is worth investing in. This way, fresh capital can flow to U.S. companies so they can better compete on their own.[read more]

Go ahead -- call me a hypocrite. I claim to be a cleantech venture capitalist yet I tell you here and now that I am not convinced of anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change (aka global warming). And I will audaciously tell you that my convictions on climate change in no way run contrary to my strong belief in the need for a cleantech revolution.[read more]

Happy New Year! And good riddance to 2011, a year during which we made little or no progress on some of the issues that I care most about: climate change, the long-term federal debt, social mobility (aka the American dream), and our dysfunctional Congress. Yet I remain an optimist. Texas drought 2011 I could write many words about our...[read more]

Almost 15 years ago, the world gathered in Japan to negotiate the Kyoto Protcol, a landmark international treaty to limit greenhouse gases. As the expiration date of the world’s first carbon cutting treaty draws closer, energyNOW! asks – was Kyoto a success or a failure?[read more]

Another fearless look ahead Each year this blog posts its fearless outlook for the coming year.  For 2012 I will add the caveat that while no one can predict the future, there are plenty of pointers to how things might work themselves out over time.  That's what this blog is reporting here.  Japan    A...[read more]

 In my list of Top 10 Energy Related Stories of 2010, I made three predictions for 2011. Those predictions were:  I believe high oil prices will continue to put a strain on the economies of oil-importing nations. I expect that we will see oil prices once again head above $100 per barrel, although I expect the annual average...[read more]

“Financially untenable” is how NRG Energy updates its outlook for what was a planned array of wind turbines offshore Delaware. And with that prognosis, the future of wind energy off the U.S. East Coast is very much in doubt. While the project’s fate may have been cast when the U.S. Department of Energy rejected its application for a...[read more]