It is now clear the utility business model is changing with the growth of distributed renewable energy sources, policies that support renewables, demand management technology and energy efficiency initiatives, but how these changes develop and how utilities adapt remain open questions. A new report from Black & Veatch sheds some light on these emerging trends.… Keep reading →
The US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has recently released a report – prepared by the Brattle Group – on how Germany’s policies to support solar PV have made the country a world leader in deploying solar PV over the last decade. Most recent data from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) show… Keep reading →
I had the pleasure a few weeks ago to lend a small helping hand to the good folks at Student Energy. They organized a series of regional summits and I helped provide some guidance to students who were engaged in an exercise to sharpen their blogging skills. Jared Anderson, the Managing Editor of Breaking Energy (and an alum of… Keep reading →
Morgan Stanley analysts floated the idea that Russia’s President Putin could order state-controlled natural gas export monopoly Gazprom to cut supplies to European firms in retaliation for western-imposed economic sanctions. It appears the incremental damage such a move would cause to Russia’s economy makes using the “gas weapon” unlikely, but the Putin regime is not… Keep reading →
Renewable energy companies in the United States might lose a friend in the coming months. Conservative Republicans are trying to kill the Export-Import Bank, the independent and self-sustaining federal agency founded during the Great Depression that helps finance the purchase of American-made goods and services by overseas buyers. The bank’s current authorization expires at the… Keep reading →
Thank your lucky stars, Australia. Ocean Power Technologies (OPT) left town before too much damage could be done. Meanwhile, a message to U.S. wave energy fans: Don’t lose faith. Oregon, which also suffered a big OPT disappointment, seems to be bouncing back just fine. First the Australia story: OPT last week pulled the plug on… Keep reading →
There’s an unlikely name among the usual suspects that populate a recently released list [PDF] of leading U.S. solar cities. There’s Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, San Jose, Honolulu, San Antonio and then … Indianapolis? Yep. And the city just got even more solar, with the official opening last week of a 9 megawatt array… Keep reading →
US oil producers are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to export light, sweet crude that has swelled to a glut overwhelming the country’s refineries. One option could be to swap US crude for grades produced overseas that are better suited to the US refining complex, but a host of regulatory and market-based obstacles… Keep reading →
First principles are important. Rooting New York Energy Week in the priorities established by a community of volunteers, participants, sponsors and advisors paid off in the second iteration of the event series last month, with panels of exceptional insight, unusually impactful networking and deserved attention for an industry that too often flies under the radar in… Keep reading →
In the past I have been extremely skeptical of carbon capture and sequestration, CCS, but recently my opinion has evolved based on the sober conclusion that hydrocarbon fuels simply are not going away. Both supply and demand for coal, oil and gas continue to grow globally along with their carbon emissions and dangerous impacts on… Keep reading →
