The inevitability of a solar powered future
There are few more important questions for the 21st century than how we will power our electric grids. Literally trillions of dollars and are at stake, and possibly even the future of the planet. It’s a good bet that wind and solar will make up the majority of the future grid. But, wind and solar are not the same. Wind turbines benefit from economies of scale. As they get bigger, their costs go down; but only up to a point. By comparison, solar’s cost declines are driven by something even more powerful, economies of volume – the more you make of something, the cheaper it gets.
What are the biggest trends threatening to disrupt the power industry?
Nussey moderated a panel at the Center for Distributed Energy’s Leaders Symposium called Disruptions in the Energy Industry.
Nuclear power and the environment: carbon-free electricity vs the impact of nuclear waste (Part 4)
Nuclear power plants produce almost no greenhouse gases. If you want a huge amount of steady 24/7/365 electricity that has minimal impact on climate change, nuclear is your go-to option. But the environmental promise of minimal greenhouse gas emissions comes with an environmental cost: nuclear waste. Decades of nuclear power has resulted in 250,000 tons of accumulated waste.
Clean Energy Headlines for September 2018
* Utilities have a problem. The public wants clean energy and quick.
* New battery promises cost-competitive grid-level storage.
* Solar farms across North Carolina were unscathed by Hurricane Florence.
* ARPE-E goes on a quest for the holy grail of the grid – long-term energy storage.
What are the risks of radiation from nuclear power plants? Part 3
Radioactivity triggers a deep dread in most people. It is invisible and hard to detect. It is associated with birth defects. It can lie dormant in adults only to emerge as cancer decades later. But just how dangerous is it really? How harmful is the radiation from nuclear accidents?
Just how dangerous are nuclear power plants? Part 2
Nuclear power has a unique challenge. While it’s much safer than most people realize, it easily conjures up thoughts of meltdowns, sickness, and bombs. Decades of movies and the occasional nuclear disasters have kept these fears at the forefront of people’s minds. Up until recently, the future of nuclear power looked grim. However, the growing concern over greenhouse gases has put nuclear back in the spotlight as a possible source of carbon-free electricity.
Is nuclear power the climate’s salvation or a radioactive nightmare? (part 1)
While nuclear may be a greenhouse gas-free source of energy, it is far from the most cost-effective way of generating electricity.
What is the best way to make electricity?
Coal, nuclear, wind, solar, or natural gas? What criteria should we use when comparing various types of electricity generation, and which one comes out on top?
Clean Energy Headlines for August 2018
* Freeing Energy is on Facebook!
* The world reaches 1,000 gigawatts of wind and solar power.
* California is about to commit to 100% clean energy by 2045.
* “Big oil asks the government to protect it from climate change.”
* Wind energy is now at 2 cents per kilowatt-hour
* Facebook commits to 100% clean energy by 2020
A battle for clean energy: the Kit Carson coop story
That outdated business models, conflicting interests, and aging technologies hogtie today’s behemoth electric utilities is no more evident than in the picturesque rural community of Taos, New Mexico. It is there that an inspired and tenacious collection of local energy champions have upended the sluggish pace of change that is the “business as usual” of many utilities.
Help wanted: the clean energy industry could really use the skills of tech executives
I was recently invited to speak a group of Georgia-based technology executives. I’ve included some excerpts from the slides and a list of some of the more exciting clean energy companies in the region.
Puerto Rico shines a bright light on the shortcomings of the world’s electricity infrastructure
On August 7, 2018, an untrimmed tree fell on an electrical transmission line in Puerto Rico, leaving 130,000 people in San Juan without power for an hour and a half. Big deal, right? When compared to the immense and long-lasting damage done to the island’s grid by Hurricane Maria the year before, a brief power […]
Microgrid powered neighborhoods are a real thing – how can we get more of them?
Imagine a neighborhood powered entirely by local energy. Shared solar panels, energy efficient homes, and community batteries to power houses at night. Even when the grid is down, lights and air conditioning will keep running without a hitch. While this vision remains a rarity, it is starting to happen. The Reynolds Landing Smart Neighborhood in […]
Clean Energy Headlines for July 2018
* Embattled EPA head, Scott Pruitt, resigns
* Does nuclear power help or hurt U.S. national security?
* Hoover Dam as a giant battery?
* First glimpse of Tesla’s grid controller
* The hottest recorded month on earth
An interview with Susan Kennedy, CEO of Advanced Microgrid Solutions (AMS)
I first saw Susan Kennedy speak at Solar Power International in 2017. Susan is the CEO of Advanced Microgrid Solutions, one of the most visible leaders in the rapidly growing microgrid industry. Susan’s resume is a decades-long testament to her legislative prowess and dedication to clean energy. She has served as a high-ranking aide to […]
The military is pioneering Local Energy to save money and save lives
In the late morning of April 9, 2004, 17 tanker trucks, and 5 armored escort vehicles left a logistics support area near Baghdad to resupply an army division fighting insurgents in Sadr City. At 12:30, only two kilometers from the convoy’s destination, the lead vehicle suddenly met a hail of small arms fire. In this […]
The U.S. government is really bad at predicting the growth in solar
It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future. — Yogi Berra At last week’s Intersolar conference in San Francisco, keynote speaker Tony Seba made a compelling case for near-term disruptions in energy and transportation. In particular, his slide on solar projections really caught my attention. It turns out that government solar predictions have consistently […]
How much solar would it take to power the U.S.?
Critics claim that there simply isn’t enough land in the U.S. to power the country with solar. We dig through the numbers to reveal an answer that might surprise you.
Clean energy headlines for June 2018
Solar prices poised to take another huge plunge – China dropped a bombshell by reducing its financial support for solar deployments across the country. As the largest buyer of solar in the world, China’s reduced demand will create excess capacity in Chinese solar factories, which in turn will almost certainly plummet worldwide prices another 20-30% […]
Hawaii is a postcard from our electric future (Part 2)
Island power grids are a microcosm of the vastly larger grids that criss-cross the planet. In Part 1 of this series, we looked at how small islands are pioneering the path to clean energy. They are disproving conventional wisdom by showing that intermittent power from the sun and wind can successfully provide affordable and reliable […]