Unlike many cities, Portland, Maine, has forged ahead with a significant energy efficiency plan without federal stimulus dollars. Simply borrowing money through bonding to investing...
In by far the most exhaustive and detailed study to date, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) found that solar homes sold 20% faster, for...
The death of German renewable energy advocate Hermann Scheer last week – dubbed the sun king or even the Stalin of renewables – is a...
It’s been a common argument against feed-in tariffs that federal law preempts states from establishing prices for renewable energy above the utility’s avoided cost (a...
This initiative was announced in September 2009 with the goal of using 100,000 household-sized combined-heat-and-power gas units to provide grid electricity and home heat. The...
Traditionally, the reliability of small PV systems’ power output has been a concern for utilities, project developers and grid operators, since all it takes is...
There’s been much discussion of whether state-based feed-in tariff policies comply with federal energy law, including PURPA and the Federal Power Act. Fortunately, the brilliant...
But what’s most interesting is the state’s desire to make sure that investment in smart grid technology will pay off not just for utilities, but...
When author Michael Pollan spoke at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in mid-October, it’s a safe bet his hosts didn’t offer fresh cherries to the...
As with almost all major reforms, the movement to more sustainable power has been the result of actions taken by individuals and by states —...
The boon of concentrating solar thermal power plants is their ability to deliver more consistent electricity, and to offer thermal storage (cheaper than batteries) to...
A nice, short comparison of the cost of electricity storage with pumped hydropower and batteries. Using pumped hydro to store electricity costs less than $100...
Distributed solar photovoltaic (PV) proponents have recognized that solar is not without economies of scale – larger installations generally have lower installed costs per Watt...
One of the keys to maximizing renewable energy production (decentralized or otherwise) is providing electricity storage to smooth out variabilities in wind and solar power...
We could explore the possibility of eliminating the need for long-transmission lines and utilize wind energy closer to the source (Minnesota and Iowa are two...