Alternative Energy / Renewable Energy

• The Top 10 Green Energy Stories Today

  1. The Department of the Interior has given the green light to a power transmission line that is intended to bring power from Google, Inc.- backed offshore wind farms in the Northeast of the US to the mainland. Environmental impact studies will take 18 months to two years. The US, unlike Germany, so far has no offshore wind farms, and the US electricity grid needs to be re-done so as to bring power from such sources to consumers.2. Inexpensive natural gas is being preferred to coal in the US, so that coal electricity generation has fallen 19 percent in the…

• High Voltage Politics, Life and Times of the Electric Car

  Expensive to buy, cheaper to operate and of course friendlier to the environment, the electric car is traveling a bumpy road globally, with the added barrier of a bit of high-voltage politics Stateside – the toll it must pay for its bailout bounty. EVs (electric vehicles) and PHEVs (plug-in hybrid vehicles) are intended to help reduce fuel usage and CO2 emissions. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s energy watchdog, hopes to see widespread adoption of electric vehicles by 2050. The IAEA envisions sales of electric vehicles reaching 7 million per year globally by 2020 and 100 million by…

• The Un-Renewable Nature of Renewable Energy

  “Renewable energy” has two fundamental conceptual flaws. It’s not really renewable, and it’s not really energy.What is “Renewable”?“Renewable” in most definitions approximates to something like “naturally replenished” and it often contrasted with allegedly inferior, “finite” sources. It brings to mind the image of a pizza where a slice, once eaten, magically reappears. There is no such phenomenon in nature, though. Everything is finite. The sun and the photons and wind currents it generates are not infinite; they are just all part of a very large nuclear fusion reaction. True, that nuclear fusion reaction will last billions of years, but so…

• Clean Energy Investment Must Change - Reward Innovation not Production

  Over the last five years, the world's largest nations collectively engaged in a massive policy experiment: what happens when governments triple the historic rate of public investment in clean energy?In the U.S., taxpayers will have spent $150 billion between 2009 and 2014, three times more than we did between 2002 and 2007, according to a comprehensive new report, Beyond Boom and Bust, co-authored by Breakthrough Institute with scholars from World Resources Institute and the Brookings Institution.The U.S. wasn't alone. China increased its clean tech spending to $80 billion per year. Europe has had high levels of investment in clean energy…

• The UK will Trade Renewable Energy in order to Achieve 2020 Targets

  The UK government is looking at joint financing of renewable energy projects or trading with other EU countries to help meet its renewable energy targets.The government claims it can reach its 2020 target of meeting 15% of energy consumption from renewable sources through domestic action alone. However, for reasons of cost effectiveness, commercial opportunity and contingency, it could also make use of the ‘flexibility mechanisms’ in the EU’s renewable energy directive.A 2009 report from consultancy Pöyry and trade association Eurelectric said that using flexible mechanisms could save the EU €17 billion ($23 billion) by 2020.The UK’s Department of Energy and…

• Oilprice.com's 5 Most Influential Figures in U.S. Clean Energy

  As Oilprice.com embarks on its Top 5 series, we thought it expedient to begin with our take on the key figures shaping and influencing U.S. renewable energy efforts, not least because the issue of energy security is being prioritized in campaigning ahead of U.S. presidential elections. In considering from the numerous choices for these top five slots, we take into account a number of variables, including investment in renewable energy, the ability to influence policy and shape public opinion, and advocacy efforts. This goes well beyond simply counting coin – it is about innovation, imagination, vision, risk and patience. Arguably,…

• Scotland's SNP Embraces Renewable Energy

  While the European Union remains preoccupied with the slow unraveling of its economy, in Britain the conservative government of Prime Minister David Cameron is grappling with another political trauma closer to home.  Cameron’s nightmare?   An upcoming referendum on Scottish independence, which conceivably could end the United Kingdom in its present form by severing Scotland’s 305-year-old political union with England. After the Scottish National Party won an overall majority in the devolved parliament elections in May 2011, it was able to call for an independence referendum which Alex Salmond, the first minister and SNP leader, plans to hold in autumn 2014. Many aspects…

• Smart Grids, Stupid Public Relations

  Smart grids are not clean energy themselves, but they will play a significant role in how we manage changes to renewable energy – oddly enough, smart grids are also the stuff of conspiracy theories and ominous predictions of cyber attacks and full blackouts.  “Unless we wake up and realize what we're doing, there is 100% certainty of total catastrophic failure of the entire power infrastructure within 3 years,” is the extremely bleak prediction offered by well-known cyber security expert David Chalk in an online interview that is making its rounds and prompting smart grid advocates to cry foul play. But…

• Google: The Power to Influence Clean Energy

  Google may have a bad track record on privacy practices, but when it comes to green, the internet giant is clean, racking up over $850 million in investments to develop and deploy clean energy and earning the top spot on Greenpeace’s list of IT giants who are using and advocating for clean energy.  In February, Greenpeace ranked Google the best on its “Cool IT Leaderboard”, although it only scored 53 out of 100 points on the ranking system, still putting it ahead of Cisco, with 49 points. But it was a reluctant gift from Greenpeace, which has been hounding the…

• Clean Energy Investments Reduce Prices, Increase Policy Initiatives

  Global rankings place the United States in the top spot for investment in clean energy in 2011, with over $48 billion in energy sector investments, including solar, biofuels and wind energy, up from $34 billion the year before. The US now has a total installed renewable energy capacity of 93 GW, which includes the addition of 6.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind and more than 1 GW of solar energy – the equivalent necessary to power over 800,000 homes.  China, which was bumped to second place, saw investment in clean energy increase by $0.5 billion since 2010, for a total of…