smart grid
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Hurricanes keep bringing blackouts. Clean energy could keep the lights on.
Irma and Maria are the latest reminders that we really need a new electricity grid
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Critical List: Canada will fall short of emissions goal; people hate smart meters
Props to Canada for setting an actual carbon emissions goal. Too bad there’s almost no way they’re going to meet it. The World Bank is pushing countries to put a monetary value on the resources their ecosystems provide. A new study shows that monkeys who were exposed to BPA in utero developed unusually dense mammary […]
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The White House’s secret plan to make American households more energy-efficient
In the spirit of keeping a positive, bright outlook on life and politics (ha), we’re going to ignore for the moment the Obama administration’s embrace of the Cushing-to-Texas branch of Keystone XL. Instead, let’s talk about another announcement the White House made today, this one about how they’re going to convince Americans to use less […]
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Batteries could make power grid unnecessary in some countries
Aquion specializes in making large batteries, cheaply. They don’t look like much -- they live in a former TV factory outside Pittsburgh, and you'll probably never buy any of their products.
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A battery large enough to power the U.S. would be the size of 2,200 Walmart SuperCenters
Renewables are intermittent, so they'd have to be backed up by about 80 gigawatts worth of batteries.
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Map shows when rooftop solar will be cheaper than grid electricity
What happens if and when current subsidies for solar panels are phased out? Doesn't matter — the cost of solar photovoltaics continues to fall even as the cost of grid electricity continues to rise, which means eventually the two trends will meet and it will make more sense to put panels on your roof than […]
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Hybrid power plant turns wind directly into automotive fuel
Enertrag is a new hybrid power plant whose parent company invites you to "drive to [your] local petrol station and fill up with 50 litres of wind … !!!" Three exclamation points! Renewable energy has made Germans so adorable. Their website even has a picture of German chancellor Angela Merkel showing off a tank of […]
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iPod inventor’s next trick: a smart thermostat
I've said before that the next Steve Jobs would be in energy, not in information technology, but I had no idea that day would arrive quite so soon. As filmmaker and design critic John Pavlus reports at Fast Company, Tony Fadell, who invented the iPod, is working on a thermostat as intuitive and potentially revolutionary as … […]
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China pours money into smart grid technology
Cross-posted from Center for American Progress. There is no way to get around this fact — China aims to modernize its energy infrastructure at home and dominate clean energy technology markets abroad. At the 2011 Smart Grid World Forum in Beijing late last month, China’s State Grid Corporation announced plans to invest $250 billion in […]