Articles by John Farrell
John Farrell is the author of Energy Self-Reliant States and a senior researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, where he focuses on renewable energy policy.
All Articles
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Gas is greener? Smearing renewables over land use exposes ignorance of fossil fuel lovers
Oregon’s solar highway. Photo: Oregon Department of TransportationA recent column in the New York Times suggested that land use is the greatest environmental problem facing new renewable energy. While getting the facts terribly wrong, it opens a door to talk about the advantages of distributed generation rather than large, central-station power generation. A prime example […]
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Solving wind power's variability with more wind power
Any single wind turbine's output varies as winds go from gusty to calm. But we can outsmart nature by adding more wind sites.
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Utilities cash in when you go solar
Net metering offers a lot to utilities and very little to ratepayers and solar array owners.
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Concentrated solar power plants are all wet
Concentrating solar has promised big additions to renewable energy production with the additional benefit of energy storage -- but there's a catch.
