wind power
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Cool energy-storage projects popping up; expect a lot more
Tracking the politics of clean energy can be a surreal and dispiriting experience. D.C. is so swamped in fossil-fuel money, fossil-fuel lobbyists, and fossil-fuel-owned pols that the conventional wisdom is absurdly pessimistic about clean energy: It’s unreliable, it costs too much, it can never work, blah blah. Meanwhile, out in the real world, costs are […]
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Wind turbine with Inspector Gadget arms makes twice the power
A simple new idea in wind turbines could increase their power production by 100 percent over the course of a year, and even make it possible to put turbines in places where they were uneconomical before. By giving turbines blades that extend — longer for lower speed winds, shorter for faster winds — researcher Rajnish […]
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Big wind farms cost more than small ones
You'd think the biggest wind power projects would be the most cost effective. But that's not the case.
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Critical List: Texas drought creating baby animal shortage; Keystone XL doc on Oscar shortlist
The Texas drought has meant fewer births of adorable baby animals. Maybe the new climate lobby can include all of the internet.
Also joining the climate fight: yuppies and freelancers. Starbucks is worried about the future of its business model, as rising temperatures threaten coffee crops.
Democrats aren't the only ones who back clean energy projects that don't end up saving the world. Orrin Hatch, for instance, backed a company trying to develop a hybrid Hummer, which collapsed under the weight of its own irony.
China wants to dominate the global wind-turbine market, as well as the solar market.
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Here's what wind power looked like in 1951
This video of vintage wind turbines is super cool. EnergyNOW reports that the U.K. started supplementing its energy needs with wind power during World War II, then kept using wind for daily needs — like shop window lighting — after the war was over.
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Utility fights dirty in city's battle for clean local energy
In just three weeks, citizens of Boulder, Colo., will vote on whether to begin a big, formal process to unplug from Xcel Energy’s system and plug into local energy self-reliance. The vote to form a municipal electric utility could set a precedent for communities across the United States to keep millions of dollars local instead […]
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Look! Up in the sky! It's an inflatable wind turbine!
In the department of cool inventions you'll probably never use, the inventor of the Segway has come up with an idea for an inflatable wind turbine.
Its main advantage is that it's mobile: imagine parking your EV and sending your inflatable wind turbine up into the sky to charge it while you're at work. It could be moved to take advantage of the best winds as they shift, and, more to the point, It could also be mounted on top of a building or on the side of the road in order to double as a billboard.
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Sen. Lamar Alexander on making bipartisan energy progress
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) tells Grist why he's crossing party lines to slash energy company subsidies and pour money into cleantech research.
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Wind power: a growing source of green manufacturing jobs the U.S. is trying to botch
Wind provides what everyone wants: high-skill, high-wage jobs with potential for huge growth. Why aren't U.S. policymakers doing more to support it?