The world's best thinkers on energy and climate
Highlights: Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) can be economically attractive as commuter cars in city traffic. Attractiveness fades for longer-distance travelling due to larger battery packs, a smaller efficiency advantage, and more fast charging at on-peak rates. … [Read more...]
Tesla is a company that’s gone out of its way to make sustainability and green energy practices cool and mainstream. Through their trend-setting electric cars (one of which was launched into space by Tesla owner Elon Musk’s other enterprise, SpaceX), record-setting installations of energy storage, or the residential and commercial solar rooftop panels they sell. … [Read more...]
One state surprisingly stands out for reducing carbon emissions from electricity. Ohio saw an impressive 37.7 percent drop in its power sector’s carbon emissions from 2005 to 2015. … [Read more...]
The European Commission’s “Clean Energy for All Europeans” package of legislation puts “Efficiency First.” Generally praised by energy efficiency advocates, this principle evokes fear in the renewable energy sector. Does Efficiency First mean that renewable energy takes the back seat? Will Efficiency First slow down the remarkable expansion of renewable energy in recent years? … [Read more...]
Recently a number of Politicians and Special Interests have advocated that the U.S. Power Sector’s ‘Baseload’ power generation capacity is outdated and rapidly becoming less important to maintaining Power Grids’ reliabilities and efficiencies. … [Read more...]
I have posted several blogs in the past few weeks, focused on the potential to improve the operation of the electric power grid, reducing losses, and driving the overall efficiency up. Some of the thoughtful comments that have been posted by readers have provided food for thought. … [Read more...]
This past week, I spoke at The Battery Show in Novi, Michigan on the subject of electricity stationary storage (ESS) safety. One of the panels on which I participated discussed the development of testing and certification procedures for ESS systems. My fellow panelists were Serena Lee of ConEdison, Ibrahim Jilani of UL LLC and Dan Gorham of the National Fire Protection Association. The consensus of the panel was that significant … [Read more...]
Deron Lovaas, Federal Transportation Policy Director, Washington, D.C.Note: This entry is cross-posted on the Transport Beyond Oil blog.Five years ago I was defending a new report sponsored by NRDC, EDF, various government agencies and foundations, as well as the American Public Transportation Association, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America, Shell Oil and the Urban Land Institute. This report – Moving Cooler: An Analysis of … [Read more...]
WeatherBug doesn’t want to just provide its weather data to energy management companies, it wants to be an energy management company.Last year, WeatherBug, which is owned by Earth Networks, launched its e5 program, which is similar to EcoFactor’s software-as-a-service offering. Like EcoFactor, WeatherBug is hardware agnostic and makes micro-adjustments to HVAC to save energy without homeonwers even noticing a difference.Earlier this year, e5 was … [Read more...]
The cornerstone appeal of carbon markets is their ability to cut emissions while creating clean energy investments – but it turns out they may be far more effective at the task than anyone could have ever imagined.Carbon markets reduce greenhouse gas emissions nearly 17 times cheaper than paying power generators renewable energy subsidies, according to new analysis of 15 nations by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development … [Read more...]
To transform the vehicle fleet, you need to work on both ends — accelerating the purchase of cleaner new vehicles and the retirement of old clunkers. The California legislature is sending a package of bills to Governor Brown’s desk that does just that. Taken as a whole, these policies will ensure Californians at all income levels enjoy the environmental, public health, and financial benefits of cleaner, more efficient vehicles.Assembly Bill 8, … [Read more...]
The next time you have a moment alone with the porcelain throne, think of this: toilets still take the cake for the most water use of any indoor water appliance, despite significant water efficiency gains in the past few decades.Toilets used to use multiple gallons of water for every flush, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has set the current limit at 1.6 gallons per flush (gpf).California, as usual, is already out in front of the … [Read more...]
Under current rules and assumptions, anyone who claims that they can design and build a power-producing nuclear reactor in less than 10-15 years is considered to be naive or hopelessly unrealistic. However, there is no reason to believe that everyone with the technical capacity for completing the task will follow the same rules. Even in the United States, there was a time in which nuclear technology development moved much more quickly.One of my … [Read more...]
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