Spain’s recent history with solar power has been nothing if not tumultuous. Generous subsidies created a booming market in 2008, but the economic crisis brought a quick end to that. And now the country is pulling the rug out from under thousands of solar producers, many of them small, whose financing depended on the promise… Keep reading →
The March 2011 Fukushima accident destroyed four and shuttered most (currently all) of Japan’s 54 nuclear plants. Japan replaced nuclear energy with discomfort, sacrifice, and costly fossil fuels, because utility oligopolies suppressed renewable competitors and national energy efficiency languished. Two and a half years later, power reserves, though easing, remain tight, fuel bills exorbitant, and… Keep reading →
Much has been made about natural gas serving as a bridge fuel until more renewable energy can be fed into the US power grid. While that’s a somewhat controversial concept – with hard-core environmentalists preaching zero fossil fuels and hydrocarbon industry folks pooh-poohing renewables for multiple reasons – this National Journal piece explains the wind-to-gas… Keep reading →
Add Spain to the list of countries that have offshore wind power before the United States. And on this one the U.S. really missed an opportunity. (That’s right, cool though it is, I have decided not to count that scaled-down 20-kilowatt floating turbine demo off Maine as establishment of U.S. offshore wind power.) This is the real thing… Keep reading →
Mexico’s National Action Party (PAN) has outlined a proposal for energy market reform, which entails amendments to the constitution removing obstacles that have blocked private investment in the country’s oil and gas sector. “It is an unsustainable, non-viable model that needs to be thoroughly reformed in order to return to productivity,” PAN party chairman Gustavo… Keep reading →
Hope everyone had a nice 4th of July! Here’s what’s happening in energy news. West Texas Intermediate crude is trading near a 14-month high, spurred by unrest in Egypt and a sunny outlook for US economic growth. [Bloomberg] And Brent hit a three-month high today after Egypt’s army declared a state of emergency in areas… Keep reading →
