Our latest interactive spreadsheet “Cost to Mitigate CO2” is an attempt to present the financial implications of precipitously moving to a fossil fuel free world. We have provided only three variables - how many parts per million of increased atmospheric CO2 correspond to one degree centigrade higher global average temperature, how many gigatons of CO2 emissions correspond [...]

As the winds of change blow through America on this historic election day, here’s an update on wind energy. The last two years have seen an astonishing growth in wind capacity worldwide, particularly since the installed base of wind generating capacity now constitutes a substantial denominator over which to calculate percentage growth.  Sometime this year, [...]

RE Power’s “5M” offshore wind turbine is definitely the King of wind turbines - a single unit that generates 5.0 megawatts of electricity at full output.  With a rotor diameter of 126 meters (412 feet) and a hub height between 90 and 120 meters, RE Power’s 5M unit is the biggest wind turbine available in [...]

Even if California “only” ends up with 25% renewable electricity within the next decade or two, there is going to be a staggering amount of investment pouring into wind and solar power, and with intermittant sources of energy, massive storage infrastructure is just as necessary as the generating infrastructure. In our analysis of Prop. 7, [...]

There is nothing wrong with encouraging clean, renewable, domestically produced energy.  But California’s proposition 7 “would, if approved, require California utilities to procure half of their power from renewable resources by 2025″ (ref. Ballotpedia).  Currently California’s public utilities are mandated to generate 25% of their electricity by 2025, and this is an ambitious goal.  Just [...]

What if a wind turbine didn’t have a gearbox and electric generator in the nacelle, but instead a highly efficient air pump that sent compressed air down a pipe and into a storage network?  That is the vision of General Compression, a privately held Massachussetts company that raised $8.1 million from 70 investors in April [...]

Innovative business models and innovative technology are both necessary to usher in the electric age.  Imagine the gigawatt-hours we’ll need just to power the commuter miles for millions of new electric cars.  But along with new sources of electricity, we can increase the supply of electricity from existing sources by retrofitting our grid to the lighter and far more energy efficient [...]