The Latest

Survey Surprises: Smart Grid Impediments, Electric Vehicle Roadblocks and More

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The greatest roadblock to developing smart grids in the US is not high up-front investment, good news when 65 million electric vehicles could be on the road by 2025, according to the results of a recent annual electric utility industry survey. Infrastructure firm Black & Veatch queried over 500 qualified industry participants about some of the most prescient issues of the day and the results may surprise you.

The top issues the industry is concerned about in 2012 are aging infrastructure, reliability and the environment. Aging infrastructure steadily crept to the top of the list over the past three years – in the 2009/2010 survey the issue ranked sixth in a list of the top ten. The importance of security has also gained importance according to the survey participants. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 4, 2012 at 10:00 AM

$336 Million Funding For Desertec’s Saharan Solar Dream

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Bankers met recently to give the go ahead for $336 million of funding for a massive solar project in the Moroccan desert, which the consortium behind it claim could one day supply power to all of North Africa and part of Europe. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 4, 2012 at 8:00 AM

Across the Pond, A Model for Reform?

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An ambitious plan by the UK government to replace aging power stations with low-carbon generation could be a model for other countries that are also searching for ways of hitting tough emissions targets while satisfying higher future demand for electricity.

On May 22, the government introduced its latest proposal for attracting the 110 billion pounds (roughly $171 billion) that it says is needed to build new generation including nuclear, offshore wind and carbon capture technology to take the place of the 20% of current capacity that will go off line over the next decade. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 1, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Airlines Seek to Slash Fuel Costs

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Few industries are hit as hard by high oil prices than the airlines, which can spend close to 40% of their budget on fuel. With jet fuel prices near record highs, the drive to conserve is stronger than ever. Delta recently made headlines with its novel bid to buy an oil refinery, taking a more direct role in procuring fuel. But Delta and other airlines are experimenting with a number of other ways to cut costs. The entire industry is hoping a switch from radar to GPS-based navigation will cut the time it takes both to reach cruising altitude and land a plane.

 /  Published June 1, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Smart Grid China: Latest Plan Shows Why China is Pulling Ahead

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A Chinese worker checking the power lines in Haikou, south China’s Hainan province.

China’s 12th Five Year Plan recently released by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is, as we would expect, an ambitious initiative that affects several major industries and includes a commitment to several breakthroughs in key core technologies. Actually, ambitious may be an understatement. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 1, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Social License Debate Divides US Natural Gas Sector

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International Energy Agency IEA Chief Economist Fatih Birol (C) talks as Brazil’s state-controlled energy giant Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo (R) and and Italian energy giant Enel CEO Fulvio Conti (L) listen at the end of a press briefing at the IEA ministerial meeting at the OECD headquarters in Paris on October 18, 2011.

Oil and gas industry advocacy groups differed in their reaction to a new unconventional gas development report, highlighting the importance of a major US election issue and the messaging that surrounds it. Keep reading →

 /  Published June 1, 2012 at 8:30 AM

The $100 Billion Question for the EPA

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Memo to EPA: Two more years and some flexibility on technology will make a $100 billion difference.

That’s the finding of multi-year Electric Power Research Institute study on the cumulative costs faced by coal generators to meet new Environmental Protection Agency requirements. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 31, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Are the tariffs on Chinese wind tower imports justified?

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 /  Published May 31, 2012 at 11:15 AM

As Summer Nears, New AC Technology Promises Energy Savings

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One of the US electricity sector’s founding pillars was the growth of air-conditioning demand across the country in the years after the Second World War. While electrification had grown to near-universal access in the preceding decades on industrial demand and huge Depression-era government programs, the boom in power plant construction was extended and broadened by the prospect of cooling millions of homes, office buildings and shopping centers and an extended demographic shift in people moving to the sunnier states of the South was boosted.

But air conditioning isn’t without cost, especially during temperatures spikes in the summer when blackout risks loom and prices for power skyrocket in a vise of massive demand and limited total power production. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 31, 2012 at 10:20 AM

BrightSource IPO: Second Time the Charm?

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An 11th hour withdrawal from a long-anticipated initial public offering could be a potentially damaging blow for a cleantech startup trying to raise additional capital from the public markets.

But BrightSource, the concentrating solar power startup with 9 GW of projects in the pipeline, has not ruled out another attempt at a public launch. Keep reading →

 /  Published May 31, 2012 at 8:30 AM
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