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[Science News Home]
Energy News
Clean Energy: How Much Hot Air?
[3 Feb 2012 at 10:41am]
 NewScientist’s January 28 issue is likely to unsettle clean energy advocates — but it is worth the read.
The cover article, “Power paradox: Clean might not be green forever,” posits that even renewable energy can warm the planet, and eventually change climate, if we continue to ratchet up power production to serve our ever
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Suntech, DuPont to Collab on Solar Backsheets, Supply Chain
[3 Feb 2012 at 10:36am]
 It's easy to think about modules as singular units of power output, but the reality is that they are a collection of diverse components, each with influence over the end system's total cost and performance. For DuPont, its focus is of course on the materials side, from metallization pastes used to form contacts on the solar cell, to backsheet materials that protect the panels themselves.
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DOE's Untold Impact on Solar
[3 Feb 2012 at 8:30am]
 The Obama Administration's $60 billion Loan Guarantee Program (LGP) for renewable energy is considered a failure because of Solyndra, Beacon Power, and potential 2012 bankruptcies. What is not well known is that 75 percent of the program's deployed funds went to relatively low risk power plants that will catapult the U.S. to a leadership role in the utility-scale solar sector. This is hardly the hallmark of a "failed program." The program is akin to Shakespeare's King Henry V, who said as a delinquent Prince: "I'll so offend as to make offense a skill, redeeming time when men think least I will."
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Wind Power to the South: AEP Contracts to Lower Electricity Costs
[3 Feb 2012 at 8:01am]
 In a series of deals the investor-owned utility says is good for consumers' wallets, American Electric Power subsidiary Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) recently signed long-term power purchase agreements for a total of 358.65 MW of capacity from wind projects in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
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Offshore Wind One Step Closer to Reality in the Mid-Atlantic
[2 Feb 2012 at 1:11pm]
 Today the Obama administration moved forward with plans to develop the enormous offshore wind energy resources along the Mid-Atlantic coast, using a "Smart for the Start" approach designed to expedite the siting process while incorporating strong environmental protections.
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Experts Predict End of Month for Ontario FIT Review Update
[2 Feb 2012 at 9:02am]
 By late February the renewable energy industry should have direction from the Ontario government on some of the major changes ahead for the province’s landmark feed-in tariff program. “I am hoping we will have an announcement then with the megawatt (MW) targets and pricing, then new rules and contracts in March, and application processi
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If Solar is Contagious, Can Utilities Help Spread the Bug?
[2 Feb 2012 at 9:00am]
 You may have heard it before, but it is worth mentioning again: In residential communities, solar is contagious. But a recent study, "Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels," conducted by Bryan Bollinger of the NYU Stern School of Business and Kenneth Gillingham of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, published in December sheds some new light on the phenomenon.
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Executive Roundtable: The Future of Utility-Scale Renewables
[2 Feb 2012 at 8:37am]
 Renewable energy in the United States is at a crossroads. With several federal tax grants set to expire by the end of 2012, utilities are trying to decide if the falling prices of solar and wind technology makes renewable energy competitive enough to invest in despite vanishing federal aid.
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Understanding Wind Farm Exposures and Managing Risk
[2 Feb 2012 at 8:00am]
 Wind energy is becoming one of the most widely used sources of renewable energy. In fact, according to the American Wind Energy Association, the wind energy industry has added more than 35 percent of all the new power generating capacity since 2007. As the industry grows in popularity, new developers continue to enter the market, and existing developers may likely expand their investments in wind farms.
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Europe's 2011-2012 PV Installs: Two Tales of Growth
[1 Feb 2012 at 2:55pm]
 Two reports out in the past week examine Europe's solar PV market in 2011, indicating slowing growth in the flagship countries and promise in some smaller regions for 2012 and beyond. Note that the data that follows is preliminary; final 2011 numbers won't be known until later in the first quarter, including some likely revisions thanks to a stronger-than-expected fourth quarter in several key regions (more on that below).
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Solar Trade Dispute: Behind the Jobs Numbers
[1 Feb 2012 at 1:11pm]
 A recent report has generated lots of buzz by finding that as many as 50,000 jobs could be lost over the next three years if a 100 percent tariff is placed on Chinese solar panels. Yet from where I'm sitting, I see a far different number from the same report: The industry could add 15,000 jobs by 2014.
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Latin America Report: Energy Summit Headed to Rio
[1 Feb 2012 at 11:05am]
 Twenty years ago, international leaders descended on Brazil to lay the groundwork for what would eventually become the Kyoto Protocol. This summer, a 20-member United Nations panel will once again head to Rio de Janeiro with an even more ambitious agenda.
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China Set to Vigorously Develop Green Economy
[1 Feb 2012 at 10:51am]
 Due to growing urbanization and resulting environmental threats, China has invested nearly US$50 billion annually into its renewable energy sector since 2009. China's five-year investment in environmental protection is on track to reach 3.1 trillion yuan (US$454 billion). By 2015, its environmental protection industry is expected to top 2 trillion yuan (US$317 billion).
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Global Concentrated Photovoltaic Market Growth and Investments
[1 Feb 2012 at 8:00am]
 Concentrated photovoltaics (CPV) is an upcoming renewable market that promises to provide cost-effective power generation at high levels of efficiency. The performance of a CPV system is dependant on the direct normal irradiance (DNI). Because of this major performance parameter, the number of regions ideal for CPV system installations is limited. According to Prof. Humayun Mughal, the potential market destinations based on DNI for the CPV technology are Southwest US, Mexico, Chile, Southern Peru, Southwest Bolivia, Northwest Argentina, and Mediterranean countries, Australia, North Africa, Middle East, Western India and Western China.
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Project Roundup: Slew of Wind Projects Go Online
[31 Jan 2012 at 3:55pm]
 With developers having made their final end-of-year push through the last day of December, the January ritual of announcements concerning new projects entering commercial operation and new PPAs kicking in continued this week.
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Evaluating Institutional On-site Clean Energy
[31 Jan 2012 at 11:07am]
 Earlier this month, I attended EUCI’s Utilizing Clean Power Development Conference in Philadelphia. The conference attracted a variety of large institutions (hospitals, municipalities, universities, etc.), developers, and financers to discuss the opportunity and challenges surrounding deployment of on-site renewable energy. Instit
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Integrating Anaerobic Digestion Into Our Culture Part 2: Stats, Reality and t...
[31 Jan 2012 at 10:37am]
 North America is at an inflection point in managing organic materials. Just as paper, metal and plastics were the darlings of the recycling industry a couple decades ago, our society is defining a new relationship with organic materials: one that harnesses the full carbon, energy and nutrient potential of organics. In order to help shape that new relationship, industry leaders are cultivating North America's awareness and understanding of anaerobic digestion's features, benefits and potential role in society.
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Ashok Gadgil's Physics in Service to the World
[5 Feb 2012 at 12:30pm]
Ashok Gadgil, Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, already knew he wanted to be a scientist when he was nine years old.
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Fuel for fusion: Innovations support US ITER systems
[5 Feb 2012 at 12:30pm]
The Fusion Pellet Fueling Lab at DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been at the center of design and testing of plasma fueling systems for tokamak research applications for decades.
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SRNL research paves way for portable power systems
[5 Feb 2012 at 12:30pm]
Developments by hydrogen researchers at DOE's Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) are paving the way for the successful development of' portable power systems with capacities that far exceed the best batteries available today.' SRNL's advances in the use of alane, a lightweight material for storing hydrogen, may be the key that unlocks the development of portable fuel cell systems that meet the needs for both military and commercial portable power applications.
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Key atom could be secret behind nitrogenase
[5 Feb 2012 at 12:30pm]
If we could make plant food from nitrogen the way nature does, we'd have a much greener method for manufacturing fertilizer ' a process that requires such high temperatures and pressures that it consumes about 1.5 percent of the world's energy.
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President Obama's State of the Union Address Touts Clean Energy
[1 Feb 2012 at 1:00am]
President Obama's annual State of the Union address
included proposals for clean energy tax credits, a clean
energy standard, and energy efficiency assistance for
manufacturers and businesses. The president also announced
two initiatives to advance the deployment of clean energy
technologies.
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DOE Solar Decathlon 2013 Moves to California
[1 Feb 2012 at 1:00am]
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced the 20
teams, representing 13 states and Washington, D.C. plus 3
foreign countries, that will
compete U.S. Department of Energy Solar
Decathlon 2013, which will be held in California for the first
time.
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Why Did the LED Light Bulb Cross the Road?
[1 Feb 2012 at 1:00am]
DOE grant recipient Energy Impact Illinois is trying to find
the funny in energy efficiency with a series of videos
starring "Big Bill" and "Little Bill."
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Miasolé says it has created a 17.3 percent "champion" thin-film copper-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) solar photovoltaic device, results obtained in its own labs and not (yet) independently verified.
Nine years from now, in early 2022, the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard will have reached its intended target, 36 billion gallons of biofuel blended into the U.S. domestic auto and truck fuel supply.