Solar- and Wind- based electricity is clean and renewable, offering a great solution for both Climate and Fossil Fuel Availability problems. But both sources are intermittent, meaning they don’t provide 24 hours a day, and therefore adopting renewable electricity in a big way requires changes in the electricity production/consumption system.…
I think there may be overly high expectations of what solar panels can do. I came across a project idea to develop a product that can be added to any car, using solar panels to somehow reduce gasoline consumption. The project write-up did not propose a given solution, but instead asked…
In a letter to the Department of Energy, Secretary Perry describes having attended the G7 Energy Ministerial, and his reaction to discussion of “the need for an energy transition utilizing greater efficiency and fuel diversity.” That transition is necessary because the prevailing electric energy paradigm is based in fossil…
The electricity grid is facing an interesting challenge: Solar and Wind energy is catching on faster than expected, forcing a rapid change change in how the grid operates. It’s extremely excellent that renewable electricity is growing so quickly, and in many places is directly cost competitive with fossil fuel electricity. The problem…
Last year when I was covering the Dieselgate problem (the Volkswagen committing fraud by finagling emissions testing protocols) I had a haunting thought — in how many industries are the manufacturers pulling similar tricks? Our society has caused governments to enact emissions controls, energy efficiency measures, and more, in the name…
Yesterday the Solar Impulse 2 (HB-SIB) finished its around-the-world journey when pilot Bertrand Piccard flew it from Cairo to Abu Dhabi. This is certifiably a big historical achievement ranking up there with Lindbergh’s first flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Where Lindbergh’s flight opened the door to what’s now routine, taking airplanes…
Every day the trees wake up, watch the sunrise, and spread their leaves to capture the energy needed to live another day while storing excess energy away so the tree makes it through the winter. Trees, and other plants, have done this for millions of years. It is a natural…
At The Long Tail Pipe, we’re all about clean energy stuff and getting into the middle of technology to understand how to improve all our lives. With that in mind the last couple months I’ve been studying how to do solar design, and recently wrote a resource page on…
Next week is the 8th edition of Sen. Harry Reid’s National Clean Energy Conference (NCES 8.0). This year the Keynote will be delivered by none other than President Obama. The agenda is a whats-what of great clean energy ideas – rooftop solar – clean energy investment ideas – the advantages…
The recently unveiled Clean Power Plan is way cool – it mandates replacing coal power plants with solar and wind based power systems. Supplanting the dirtiest of fossil fuels with the cleanest of renewable is a big move in the right direction. It won’t be easy, but it’s eminently doable.…
Remember a few years ago the “debate” over whether CO2 is pollution? With its announcement today of the “Clean Power Plan” the Obama Administration makes it clear that debate is over, and that action is required now rather than later. The plan calls for strict rules over CO2 emissions, and…
From http://energycrisis.biz/hubbert/
In the iPhone age we’re not repairing things or building things from scratch any longer. Manufacturers build us preconfigured gizmos and do their best to make them opaque boxes we can’t open or hack on. That would put us at the mercy of the manufacturers, and leave dumbing down society to…
I’m excited that the solar power field is moving towards mass scale adoption. The cost for solar power is falling rapidly, and the installation rate is rising quickly. The quicker this happens the more likely it is to change the energy mix enough to change the path of climate change. However,…
Whether Tesla Motors will fly or flail has always seemed to me uncertain. The goals Tesla Motors is out to achieve are big, very big, nothing shorter than ending fossil fuel consumption. Which of course will be incredibly hard, and has meant a chorus of naysayers singing about the impossibility of…
