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Solar panels do not work that well. Often far below expectations.

And few know it. Not the owners who depend on power. Not the bankers who finance it. Not the brokers who insure it. Keep reading →


Still producing half of the United States’ electricity, the coal industry has been quietly watching as new types of generation join the fray; some say natural gas may be far less of a threat to coal than many would think.

The natural gas industry is going to have to start to deal with the same issues that coal has had to.

Director at American Coal Council Jason Hayes told Breaking Energy that despite the recent rush to natural gas and renewables, he is confident the coal industry will continue to generate at least 40% of the country’s power in the coming decades.

“The fact that we still have over two centuries of coal in the ground in the US,” he said, means the country has many years of reliable coal generation ahead.

“It’s a domestic resource that provides American jobs and still provides about 44% of our electricity. It’s not going anywhere and will be here producing clean, affordable, abundant energy certainly for decades,” Hayes said.

Natural Gas Faces Fracking Debate

Though natural gas has been presented as the clean alternative to coal for baseload power, concerns with possible groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking” may soon have natural gas facing the same amount of regulatory yellow lights as coal, Hayes said.


“The natural gas industry is going to have to start to deal with the same issues that coal has had to,” said Hayes. “They may become a victim of their own success.”


Windy Days Still Ahead

Though wind power currently produces under 3% of the country’s electricity, on and offshore installations have been increasing.

Google has been investing in a 250-mile long offshore transmission line for wind turbines. Watch a video about the project: The Promise Of Offshore Wind.

Hayes said it is unlike the wind industry will reach its target of 20% by 2030. The number he said is based primarily on assumptions, one of which is that the smart meter will be fully implemented by the target date.

“Twenty percent is based on huge number of assumptions which may not all come true,” he said. “If any one of them doesn’t come true, than you can’t run that number of renewables.”

But in a recent Energy Collective webinar titled “Growing Wind Power: The Future of Wind and the Quest for Cleaner Energy,” four wind advocates said they were confidence in the industry’s ability to reach its target and level the playing field in terms of renewable energy sources.

Of the four, VP for Public Affairs for the American Wind Energy Association Peter L. Kelly expressed the greatest support for the industry claiming that if anything, 20% may be too small a target.

Read more about the webinar and the other opinions offered by the experts: Talking Twenty In Wind Power. Keep reading →


Wind turbines could be out in the middle of the ocean producing electricity and no one on shore would know.

Offshore wind turbines can be placed “beyond visual range,” according to Google’s Director of Green Business, Rick Needham, who is featured in this video. He says turbines farther out at sea can also capture stronger winds. Keep reading →


A recent study by Stanford professor Jonathan Koomey claims that internet-giant Google uses about .01% of the world’s energy. However impressive, the number could be much higher.

Google–which now hosts billions of internet pages, maps, books, images and videos–has been trying to find novel approaches to data storage that will save money and energy. Data centers eat up an incredible amount of energy mostly because they require constant cooling to prevent the servers from overheating. Keep reading →


The addition of Belgian transmission company Elia to investors in the proposed Atlantic Wind Connection undersea grid is a significant endorsement for the project, the project’s principal Bob Mitchell said.

Atlantic Wind Connection, which wants to build a 350-mile submarine cable between Virginia and New Jersey to transmit power from offshore wind farms to the onshore grid, said on Friday that Elia would take a 10 percent equity stake in the venture. The announcement was official confirmation of involvement by the Belgian company, which has extensive experience in the European offshore wind industry. Keep reading →


A growing number of communication firms are looking towards fuel cell technology as a reliable source of energy generation, providing potential backup in case of transmission interruptions.

AT&T has joined Google and Cox Enterprises as one of the communication companies that will utilize Bloom Energy’s fuel-cell technology to power their operations. AT&T plans to install Bloom Energy Servers, known as Bloom Boxes, at 11 sites in California providing the company with 7.5 MW of reliable onsite power and also reduce carbon emissions by approximately 50% compared to the grid. Keep reading →


Last month, both Google and Microsoft announced the retirement of their home energy management applications.

The loss of Google’s PowerMeter and Microsoft’s Hohm has led to commentary about the difficulty of engaging energy consumers, and specifically about the fact that simply presenting energy use data seems to have little effect on consumer behavior. Google in particular has been faulted for devoting too much real estate in PowerMeter to displaying customers’ energy use throughout the day. Keep reading →

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