Follow this tag to curate your own personalized Activity Stream and email alerts.
Spanish utility company Iberdrola has announced that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) has been signed, with signatories including AECOM, for a project to convert Italy’s historic Apennine railway into one powered by green hydrogen. Other members of the agreement include Italian... View full entry
After years of playing third fiddle to solar and wind power, geothermal energy is poised to start growing again in California. [...]
The new plants will be the first geothermal facilities built in California in nearly a decade — potentially marking a long-awaited turning point for a technology that could play a critical role in the state’s transition to cleaner energy sources.
— Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times on California's efforts to increase, potentially double, the share geothermal energy contributes to the state's electricity mix by adding new plants. Traditionally, the much higher upfront cost of geothermal plants (compared to solar or wind farms of comparable capacity)... View full entry
A Vinci-led consortium [...] completed civil engineering works on the high-spec building that will house the world’s largest fusion machine, called a “tokamak”, which scientists hope will start replicating the sun’s energy by the middle of the next decade. [...]
The 73-metre-high, 120-metre-wide structure required highly specific concretes. Teams developed about 10 formulations to shield staff and the environment from fusion-generated radiation.
— Global Construction Review
Building a tokamak machine to exploit fusion energy similar to our sun is no simple engineering feat: the building will house reactions that happen at extremely high temperatures, around 150 million degrees Celsius, fusing hydrogen nuclei when they reach the plasma state, thus releasing... View full entry
[Dr. Raman's] prototype device employs radiative cooling, the phenomenon that makes buildings and parks feel cooler than the surrounding air after sunset. As Dr. Raman’s device releases heat, it does so unevenly, the top side cooling more than the bottom. It then converts the difference in heat into electricity. — The New York Times
After driving through a dark village in Sierra Leone, UCLA electrical engineer Aaswath Raman got the idea of building a device that didn't have to rely on solar power or wind to generate electricity after dark. Dr. Raman and his research team did just that, and built a prototype thermoelectric... View full entry
New Jersey's largest and oldest power company is pledging to deliver carbon-free electricity to fight climate change. To get there, the power company is shutting down its coal plants, betting big on offshore wind and working hard to keep its existing nuclear plant alive. PSEG said it won't build or acquire any new fossil-fueled power plants, including those running on dirt-cheap natural gas. — CNN Business
Announced in July, one of the oldest power companies in the U.S. is taking the next step towards addressing their involvement in battling climate change. The New Jersey power company PSEG has used fossil fuels to power their plants for the last 116 years. As the oldest power company in America... View full entry
On Tuesday, the Warren campaign released its most comprehensive climate plan yet, a $2 trillion package that commits the federal government to spend $150 billion a year over the next decade on low-carbon technology, increases energy research funding tenfold and funds a $100 billion Green Marshall Plan to aid the poorer countries projected to suffer the worst as global temperatures rise. — The Huffington Post
In specifically identifying a post-World War II-style Marshall Plan-like aid package aimed at assisting international countries lower their carbon emissions, Warren's plan seeks to go further than the other Green New Deal-style visions put forward by competing presidential candidates. In a... View full entry
Georgetown (pop. 67,000) last year became the largest city in the United States to be powered entirely by renewable energy.
Previously, the largest U.S. city fully powered by renewables was Burlington, Vermont (pop. 42,000), home to Senator Bernie Sanders, the jam band Phish and the original Ben & Jerry’s. Georgetown’s feat is all the more dramatic because it demolishes the notion that sustainability is synonymous with socialism and GMO-free ice cream.
— Smithsonian.com
In his piece for Smithsonian Magazine, Dan Solomon tells the story of Georgetown, TX's green energy transformation and its unexpected champion, Republican mayor Dale Ross—who is now friends with Al Gore and was even featured in his An Inconvenient Sequel documentary. View full entry
The dream of nuclear fusion is on the brink of being realised, according to a major new US initiative that says it will put fusion power on the grid within 15 years.
The project, a collaboration between scientists at MIT and a private company, will take a radically different approach to other efforts to transform fusion from an expensive science experiment into a viable commercial energy source.
— The Guardian
Potentially an inexhaustible and carbon-free source of energy, the dream of making fusion power commercially viable appears to be getting a lot closer, according to a new announcement from researchers at MIT this morning. "Fusion is the true energy source of the future, as it is completely... View full entry
Apple expects to invest over $30 billion in capital expenditures in the US over the next five years and create over 20,000 new jobs through hiring at existing campuses and opening a new one. Apple already employs 84,000 people in all 50 states.
The company plans to establish an Apple campus in a new location, which will initially house technical support for customers. The location of this new facility will be announced later in the year.
— apple.com
Apple recently released plans to invest $350 billion in the US economy and create 20,000 jobs over the next 5 years. The company is also planning on building a new campus at a currently unknown location. Adding to the suspense of Amazon's new headquarters, US cities will now have a chance at... View full entry
In March, Tesla cut the ribbon on this groundbreaking grid-scale battery installation, a key test of the viability of energy storage in making renewable energy a more reliable part of the grid. With 50,000 solar panels and 272 batteries, the combined solar-and-storage plant provides enough energy to power 4,500 homes for four hours.
If Tesla can help keep Kauai solar-powered around the clock with its batteries, then it can apply what it has learned elsewhere in the country, and around the world
— grist.org
In her Longreads/Grist piece, author Amelia Urry explains the changing nature of solar power challenges that off-grid dwellers as well as smaller, geographically isolated microgrids face now that battery storage on an industrial scale is becoming more lucrative. The article tells the story of a... View full entry
Tesla revealed today that it created what it calls the ‘Tesla Tiny House’ to feature its energy products, like solar panels and Powerwall.
The company is bringing the house on tour using a Model X “to educate the public on how to generate, store and use renewable energy for their home.”
The tiny house contains a Tesla mobile design studio and configurator to help home owners configure a solar plus energy storage system for their home.
— electrek.co
Needless to add that the Tesla Tiny House itself gains all its electricity via a solar installation on the tiny roof. The exhibition tour is limited to four major Australian cities for now, but the economic gain could be far from tiny — as the world's leader in capita penetration of rooftop... View full entry
Ikea is now offering solar panels and home batteries to its customers in the UK. The Scandinavian furniture chain is partnering with solar firm Solarcentury for the venture, with prices for solar battery storage starting at £3,000 (about $3,970 USD).
The home batteries are designed to work with existing solar panels, or as part of a new combined home solar panel / battery storage system that Ikea is selling.
— theverge.com
The Swedish furniture retail giant first starting solar panels in the UK back in 2013 to grow on a (then) heavily subsidized green energy market but ceased sales in 2015 when the British government announced its plans of cutting solar subsidies by up to 90%. Just a few months later, IKEA returned... View full entry
Google parent Alphabet is spinning off a little-known unit working on geothermal power called Dandelion, which will begin offering residential energy services. [...]
Dandelion chief executive Kathy Hannun said her team had been working for several years "to make it easier and more affordable to heat and cool homes with the clean, free, abundant, and renewable energy source right under our feet," and that the efforts culminated with the creation of an independent company outside of Alphabet.
— phys.org
"In the U.S., buildings account for 39% of all carbon emissions, mostly from the combustion of fossil fuels for heating and cooling," Dandelion CEO Kathy Hannun explains on the company's blog. "In the Northeast, heating and cooling is particularly carbon-intensive due to the relatively high use of... View full entry
Vancouver has become the latest city to commit to running on 100% renewable energy...The city’s ambition is to be the world’s greenest city by 2020 despite the fact Canada has had one of 'the most environmentally irresponsible national governments' for the last 10 years, [said Vancouver deputy mayor Andrea Reimer.] — The Guardian
Which city will be next? Which will pull through? According to The Guardian, Vancouver is one of the latest to join the more than 50 cities that have already announced their plans to run on 100% renewable energy, including San Diego, San Francisco, Sydney, and Copenhagen.Related:First Texas town... View full entry
Because of its size and intense radiation, Texas leads the nation in solar energy potential, but the solar industry has long struggled to get a foothold in the state... and solar energy currently makes up a tiny percentage of the state’s energy portfolio. That’s beginning to change. Improving technology has driven down the price of solar power, making it more competitive with other resources — even without incentives, developers say. — The Texas Tribune
The municipal utility of Georgetown, a Texan city of about 55,000, recently signed a 25-year contract with SunEdison to buy 150 megawatts of solar power as well as 144 megawatts of wind power from the EDF Renewables wind farm through 2039 -- reportedly being the first city-owned utility to take... View full entry
