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Predicting the Top Sustainability Stories of 2012

February 3, 2012 by Gil Friend
with 167 views
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Last month I offered my picks for the Top Sustainability Stories of 2011. Here are my predictions for the Top Sustainability Stories of 2012. (It's a rugged mix of bad news and good.) Climate heats up and hides out The sheer pressure of the hard-to... [read more]

Painkillers – the Real Drivers of Innovation for the Electricity Value Chain

February 2, 2012 by Christine Hertzog
with 154 views
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One of the largest US-based industry conferences for electricity, gas, and water utilities just wrapped up in San Antonio, Texas.  The entire value chain for electricity was well-represented there – you could find products for generation,... [read more]

Black Swan theory and the anti-nuclear sentiment

February 1, 2012 by Barry Brook
with 346 views
1

Black Swan Theory, as explained by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his 2007/2010 book, The Black Swan, describes an event which is a disproportionally-rare occurrence, is unpredictable, but has a high-impact when it does occur. According to Taleb, Black... [read more]

Are Republicans Turning Congress Into A Permitting Body?

February 1, 2012 by Frances Beinecke
with 116 views
3

House Republicans are once again talking about weighing down the tax relief bill with riders designed to force the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline and block clean air standards. But, even these lawmakers seem to recognize the public won’t like... [read more]

D.C. Auto Show Focused on Efficiency

February 1, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 218 views
2

Last week I attended the media preview of the Washington Auto Show. With its dual focus on cars and energy policy, this is always a high point of the winter for me, even if this year's display lacked a draw of the magnitude of the pre-production... [read more]

Why Google invests in clean energy

February 1, 2012 by Marc Gunther
with 392 views
0

 Last year, Google invested more than $915 million in clean energy projects–solar, wind and transmission. That’s a lot of money, even for Google, which had $38 billion in revenues in 2011. The investments don’t appear to be core to the company’... [read more]

Raising the Efficiency of Solar Cells

February 3, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 112 views
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There’s a cottage industry in solar research involving the manipulation of quantum dots. Solar cells using these tiny particles of semiconductors are much less expensive to produce than traditional ones, because they can be made using simple chemical reactions. And scientists for a number of years now have been drawn to their ability to... [read more]

India’s Solar Power Revolution Could Have Global Effect

February 3, 2012 by Antonio Pasolini
with 115 views
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   Photo: Ashden Awards/FlickrIndia has a Solar Mission to install 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022. Solar electricity is already cheaper than electricity produced with diesel generators.   These optimistic figures from India, the second most populated country in the world, has led the New Scientist magazine to write an in... [read more]

How to Go Green Without Going Crazy

February 3, 2012 by Benjamin Lack
with 106 views
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Utilities worry about a lot of things, such as keeping the lights on, earning a return for investors, and making regulators and customers happy with their service.Now there is a new worry: How can they protect customers from what one utility refers to as “mental fatigue?”In this particular case, the utility raises the issue as it... [read more]

Detangling two fast moving stories about nuclear

February 3, 2012 by Dan Yurman
with 170 views
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A series of breaking news reports, followed by energetic denials, create confusion about the status of two new nuclear reactor projects Two fast moving stories caught people by surprise this week.  First, the Salt Lake City Tribune reported that a key investor in the privately-held Blue Castle nuclear reactor project was being... [read more]

Cleantech Firms Paying the Price for Subsidies

February 2, 2012 by Geoffrey Styles
with 178 views
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In observing the recent struggles of various segments of the global cleantech industry, including renewable energy and advanced energy technology firms, a pattern is emerging. Today's Wall St. Journal reports "Wind Power Firms on Edge," as the US wind industry hunkers down pending the renewal or expiration of a key subsidy at the end of... [read more]

Solar Energy Trade Battle Heats Up Again

February 2, 2012 by Christina Nunez
with 129 views
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The group fighting SolarWorld’s bid for duties on Chinese-manufactured crystalline photovoltaic cells and modules on Monday released a report that claims protectionist measures would result in between 14,000 and 60,000 fewer American jobs than would otherwise exist by the end of 2014—but that wasn’t the only news in the solar trade... [read more]

Who to trust about climate change

February 2, 2012 by Simon Donner
with 285 views
1

My sister is a neurologist. She's highly active in her field and is often asked by the media to comment about her particular area of expertise within the field of neurology. It is great having a sibling who is a medical doctor. Though she and I do technically both have the title "Doctor", I have zero medical expertise, outside of some... [read more]

Carbon Capture Takes Center Stage In 2012

February 2, 2012 by Nino Marchetti
with 162 views
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For two reasons, 2012 will be a milestone for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technologies, marking the beginning of its practical utilization.In December, the next step of the ongoing international climate change talks will be hosted by Qatar, which, with Saudi Arabia, has long pushed to have CCS included among approved... [read more]

Electric Cars & Overpopulation — R-Squared Energy TV Ep. 10

February 2, 2012 by Robert Rapier
with 46 views
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In this week’s episode of R-Squared Energy TV, I answer questions on the future of electric cars, and the global population, which many feel is the root of so many problems. Some of the topics discussed are: When electric cars might be expected to make significant inroads in the auto market Why some people will continue to be tentative... [read more]

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The Value of Government Involvement in Standards Development

February 1, 2012 by Dick DeBlasio
with 69 views
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Very early on, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) recognized the direct, cause-and-effect linkages among consensus-based standards development, seamless interoperability across the interstate electricity grid and the historic, far-ranging potential benefits of the Smart Grid: By enabling two-way power flow and communications and control... [read more]

PACE Solar Financing Shows Signs of Life

January 31, 2012 by Chip Gaul
with 168 views
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 Communities and homeowners have more reason to be optimistic about solar financing. In the summer of 2010, the Federal Housing Financial Authority (FHFA), which is the regulatory arm of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unilaterally wiped out PACE financing programs that were just gaining fruition in communities (... [read more]

Smart Grid 2012 - Making Sense of All the Predictions

January 31, 2012 by Gerry Runte
with 190 views
0

Over the last few days I collected 8 different sets of predictions for the smart grid market in 2012.  No doubt there are more out there.  These sets incorporate 51 different trends, some similar and some unique.  I’ve identified the various authors at the bottom of this piece.  Distilling these entries into more... [read more]

The Electric Car and the New Normal

January 31, 2012 by Rocky Kistner
with 268 views
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About halfway between St. Louis and Chicago, nestled in the fertile corn and soybean fields of Illinois, a quiet electric car revolution is sprouting up in the town of Normal, a town that in some ways is anything but. That’s because this vibrant, forward-looking community of 50,000—along with its adjacent sister city... [read more]

Why the Clean Energy Sector Has “Rolling Uncertainty”

January 31, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 370 views
0

If the 2008 financial crisis was a swift punch to the face for the clean energy industry — and for the whole energy sector — the global uncertainty of 2011/2012 is more like a rolling series of blows to the body. In both cases, the sector continues to stand back on its feet. But it’s still going to be a hard fight to the top. [read more]

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