Algae biofuel development crashed and burned in a spectacular manner, taking hundreds of millions, maybe billions in VC money with it. In 2009, the buzz was algae biofuel could scale, and be produced at commercial-scale for a reasonable price. It…
A major problem with solar power has been the duck curve. Demand increases when the sun goes down, just when solar plants stop producing energy. One answer is huge batteries that store excess solar power to be used later. However,…
The Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island nears completion and will be the first ever offshore wind farm in the U.S. Essentially, it’s a test site, just 30 MW. However, if all goes well – and let’s hope it…
The US, despite its bleating about the wonderfulness of its renewable energy, still has no offshore wind farms. AÂ little dinky 30 MW wind farm off Rhode Island may be operational next year. Meanwhile, Britain and Europe have huge offshore wind…
The pine bark beetle has killed millions of trees in California. These dead trees are now a fire hazard. Hauling the trees to biomass plants to be burned to produce electricity will lessen the fire hazard. However, transporting the trees…
Faraday Future plans to build a $1 bn electric car plant in North Las Vegas. However, Nevada Treasurer Dan Schwartz says the state will not issue $120 mn in bonds to pay for supporting power lines, water mains, and roads…
Cox Communication in Las Vegas now powers much of their downtown data center with solar power, ditto for an auto auction subsidiary. In addition, MGM has 20 acres of solar photovoltaic panels of the roof of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.…
It generally surprises people when they learn Texas is the biggest producer of wind power. I mean, don’t Texans bathe in crude oil while foaming at the mouth about renewable energy? Well, actually, no. Texas has always been smart about…
The ability to store power so it can be instantly converted to electricity is essential to the stability of the grid. Pumped hydro, using excess energy to pump water uphill into a storage lake where it can be released to…
The biggest problem renewable energy faces is greedhead, reckless management taking on huge debt for the company in a delusional attempt to grow-or-die. This is aided and abetted by Wall Street and hedge funds who, at least initially, profit handsomely…
