Comments by Veronique Bugnion Subscribe

On Wind Energy and the Myth of Widespread Negative Pricing

I agree that negative pricing is a bit of a red herring, but I think the impact of wind in displacing other generation and hence lowering the marginal cost of power which is mentionned in the beginning of the piece is worth a follow-up. Lower marginal costs (as great as that is for consumers, don't get me wrong about that) mean that the economics of putting new renewable ressources in the ground don't look as good, especially without PTC type programs. Other types of generation might be compensated by capacity or other ancillary type payments, but wind and solar doesn't typically do very well with those. How can policy deal with that, or does that mean with we are stuck with every increasing PTC type payments or feed-in tariffs to compensate?

On Energy Price Volatility and the Energy Security Trust

Thanks for the post! I'd love to see a companion post on the role of correlation between markets and energy security. One benefit of the US' shale gas boom is that it has decoupled the gas market from oil, making it (and the electricity markets it drives) less sensitive to global oil market vagaries, so at least transport fuels, natural gas and electricity now don't necessarily move in the same direction at the same time.

On Secretary Kerry: Secure Global Agreement to Reduce Aviation Pollution

If the US believes in Boeing and the Dreamliner (which is of course grounded but remains nonetheless by far the most fuel efficient long-haul aircraft around), it should support a scheme that coves all flights, including trans-Alantic and trans-Pacific. It feels like pragmatic business interests are missing from this whole discussion?

On Which Costs More: A Load of Laundry or a Cup of Coffee?

Hi Adam,

The table formatting isn't the clearest, I've tried to pasted just NY below. Non-Energy Star is $1.13/load, Energy Star is $0.71 and Energy Star Most Efficient is $0.41. Or you can check out the original post at: http://www.clearlyenergy.com/blog/posts/what-is-the-cost-of-a-load-of-laundry-in-the-us. The formatting is a little easier.

New YorkNon-EnergyStar$0.69$0.43$1.13$0.7264%Energy Star$0.44$0.27$0.71Most Efficient$0.27$0.14$0.41

On Which Costs More: A Load of Laundry or a Cup of Coffee?

Hi Thomas and thanks for your comment!

Some of the fine print of the post got buried in the table description, but the energy cost calculations are based on the Dept. of Energy's "Modified Energy Factor" which has three components: energy to heat the water, energy to operate the washer & energy to dry the clothes, so the drying energy is included (that is also how many front loaders get batter MEF ratings than top loaders, they spin faster, leave less water in the clothes and reduce drying energy), so drying costs are in fact included in the calculation. I probably should have added that most of the energy cost component can be eliminated by air drying clothes and washing cold ... it's much harder to reduce the water costs.

That doesn't take anyting away from your argument about the source of air for drying the clothes!