Why Is a Solar Panel in New Jersey 15 Times More Valuable Than One in Arizona?
Where renewables do the most good isn’t necessarily where they are the most productive.
Renewable Energy
Energy transitions – headlines
•The global outlook for renewable power in one graph •US joins elite 10GW solar club •Behind the Tea Party Push For Solar in Georgia •China Raises Target for 2015 Solar Power Capacity •Delivering Stability in the Renewable Energy Transition •U.S. court says biofuel producers must face carbon emissions rules •MEPs deal a blow to crop-based biofuels •Re-Engineering Energy: A Dutch Perspective •Geothermal Plants Can Cause Earthquakes, Say Scientists
Interview with Alisa Gravitz of Green America
Alex Wise chats with Alisa Gravitz about a number of Green America’s current initiatives.
Wind to Double and Solar to Triple in 6 Years, Says IEA
Renewables will surpass natural gas for electricity generation globally by 2016, doubling nuclear output and coming in second only to coal in power generation.
Beyond petroleum? – headlines
•Big Oil’s Big Lies About Alternative •Peak Oil and the New Carbon Boom •Did Global Oil Consumption Slow in 2012? •Elephant in the room: How OPEC sets oil prices and limits carbon emissions
Energy transitions – June 28
•Renewables to surpass gas by 2016 in the global power mix •More buybacks in Germany •Solar Cities’ insight into the electricity demand fall •Developing a Regional Renewable Energy Roadmap for Central America •Analysis: How energy efficiency firms are eating utilities’ lunch •’Solar sharing’ spreading among Fukushima farmers
Mixing renewables and back-up gas power is going to be wasteful
The purpose of this draft paper is to assess what will happen if, as expected, many gigawatts of intermittent renewables are added to the UK grid alongside large amounts of standby gas power.
Alternative Energy Challenges
The various obstacles to alternative energy compound the fundamental challenge of how to supplant a fossil fuel–based supply chain withone driven by alternative energy forms themselves.
The Microgrid Solution
“The move to the smart grid is impossible to achieve in one big operational mass,”…“Breaking it into bite-sized pieces — this is the future of the microgrid market.”
Energy transitions – June 14
•Community Solar Concept A Big Hit At Michigan Energy Fair •A Secret Success Story •Generating interest in homegrown power •Power to the people – and to their homes •Brittany villages blazing a trail in energy self-sufficiency •Four German words
Watts Up, Vaclav? Putting Peak Oil and the Renewables Transition in Context
Smil’s mantra is this: "All of the past shifts to new sources of primary energy have been gradual, prolonged affairs, with new sources taking decades from the beginning of production to become more than insignificant contributors, and then another two to three decades before capturing a quarter or a third of their respective markets."
Distributed Renewable Generation
Industrial-scale wind and solar power projects can produce significant quantities of renewable energy,but distributed renewable energy generation–particularly rooftop photovoltaic installations–can achieve the same objective much faster without the environmental harm and at lower cost.
