Monster Day for Renewables in California
Yesterday, May 14th, was a windy, sunny, fairly cool day in California. As a result, records were set for the proportion of California electricity produced by renewables.
Renewable Energy
The Peak Oil Dilemma
Peak oil, as a theory, has been downplayed, because models predicted that we’d hit peak oil production between 2000 and 2010, and we didn’t–instead, we plateaued.
How Much for the Sustainable Energy Transition? A “Back of the Envelope” Calculation
"Back of the Envelope" calculations are a tradition in science and often turn out to be able to provide plenty of useful information, at the same time avoiding the common pitfall of complex models, that of being able to fit anything provided that one has enough adjustable parameters.
State of The Transition: Unfolding like the plot of an epic novel
In my book, given the stakes, no novel can rival this epic real-life drama.
Slow Electricity: The Return of DC Power?
In today’s solar photovoltaic systems, direct current power coming from solar panels is converted to alternating current power, making it compatible with a building’s electrical distribution.
Can the Climate Movement Break Free from the ‘Jobs vs. Environment’ Debate?
Where unions and greens coalesced around confronting rampant workplace safety issues in refineries — the kind that caused disasters like the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010 — the former see cutting off fossil fuel supplies as an existential threat.
San Francisco Becomes First Major City to Require Solar Panels on New Buildings
San Francisco is one step closer to its goal of transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy after the city’s Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on Tuesday to mandate solar installations on new buildings.
The Outlook for Electric Vehicles
Electric vehicles are all the rage right now, and hopes are high that we might finally be able to transition off of oil and on to electric cars…preferably, cars powered by clean renewable electricity and not by coal-fired grid power.
We Could Be Witnessing the Death of the Fossil Fuel Industry—Will It Take the Rest of the Economy Down With It?
It’s not looking good for the global fossil fuel industry. Although the world remains heavily dependent on oil, coal and natural gas—which today supply around 80 percent of our primary energy needs—the industry is rapidly crumbling.
Energy at any cost?
If all else is uncertain, how can growing demand for energy be guaranteed? A review of Vaclav Smil’s Natural Gas.
An Energy Diet for a Healthy Planet – Part II
Now one might think with all these heat losses that going all-electric isn’t a good idea until all our electricity is produced by hydro and renewables. One would be wrong.
How big is that hectare? It depends.
It’s not always simple to calculate how much area is occupied by an energy installation – especially if the effects of the facility are dispersed in space and in time. Can Power Density account for the afterlife of technologies?
