energy storage
-
Clean Energy: It’s Complicated
“American ingenuity” is the key to developing renewable energy resources, said President Obama last week, in his address on energy policy. That is surely true, and here in San Francisco, there are many examples of ingenuity being deployed to good effect. But ingenuity alone is not enough. Our electricity regulatory system is in need of […]
-
How can clean electrons compete with dirty electrons?
One of the most fundamental challenges facing clean power is that, to put it simply, electrons are electrons. Power from a solar power plant, once it enters the transmission system, is indistinguishable from coal, nuclear, or natural gas power. To the end consumer, it's all just electricity -- or rather, it's all just lights coming on and dishwashers running. Given that, how can consumers be sold on clean electricity?
-
California big solar binge continues with approval of more projects
Federal climate change legislation may be a distant dream, but California is bent on making renewable energy and solar power a reality in the state.
-
California Legislature passes energy storage bill
California now boasts the nation's first energy storage bill, AB 2514. It promises to cement Arnold Schwarzenegger's legacy as a green governor.
-
Obama’s ‘director of game changers’ talks energy breakthroughs
Arun Majumdar, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, spoke at the University of Washington last Friday on the need to fund ambitious energy research.Grist photo/Jonathan Hiskes When the Soviet Sputnik beat American satellites into space in 1957, the U.S. tried to reclaim its technological edge by creating the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which […]
-
Enabling wind, sun to be our main power supplies
As the world meets this December to set plans to halt global warming, it is expected America and other industrial nations will commit to a daunting task: reduce CO2 emissions 80% by 2050. In just 40 years, a complete revolution in how we use and supply our power must happen, or the world will face […]
-
EEStor CEO says game-changing energy storage device coming by 2010
If the Texas company EEStor is running a scam, it’s a frakking brilliant one. For years the otherwise tight-lipped outfit has been promising a capacitor that can quickly charge, quickly discharge, and hold enormous amounts of energy — on all accounts, performance far beyond any battery on the market, or even contemplated. If it performs […]
-
VRB Power accquired by Chinese Prudent Energy
Back in early January, I mentioned it was bad news that VRB, the makers of large-scale, long-lasting vanadium flow batteries for storing electricity, was going out of business. Well their assets have been acquired by Prudent Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese JD Holdings Inc. This is good news in the sense the Prudent […]
-
Time to get charged up about advances in smaller, faster lithium-ion batteries
Battery advances seems to be flowing as fast as electrons these days — and super fast charging batteries may hit the market in as little as 2 to 3 years. And that’s critical because the car of the very near future, plug in hybrids, are a core climate solution (see here). And electricity is the […]