It’s that time of year when people look back at their behavior of the past year and wonder what they can change in the coming months. They set goals and try to put in place new practices as part of their New Year’s Resolutions. The energy industry has had a busy, transformative decade. Technology innovation… Keep reading →
The annual MIT Venture Capital conference is a summit where VCs from Menlo Park to Boston come together and present their views on the next hottest startup investments to eager MBA students, entrepreneurs, and fellow investors. As global leaders in engineering and technology, it’s no surprise that MIT has always been a pillar for energy industry development,… Keep reading →
The year 2013 marked a new era for sustainable energy and cleantech. Innovative sustainable technologies have started to mature and are getting closer to mainstream acceptance. Growing pains are over for many of these technologies and they can now simultaneously reduce cost and the energy intensity of products and production processes, while also improving the… Keep reading →
SolarCity has unveiled an energy storage system for businesses. The system includes software that determines when to charge and when to discharge so as to minimize the utility bill. They use batteries from sister company Tesla motors. Although SolarCity has previously teamed batteries with rooftop solar, the new DemandLogic systems are meant for peak shaving.… Keep reading →
In our recent interview with Solar Reserve CEO Kevin Smith, he filled us in on the company’s global ambitions, but was particularly proud of the Crescent Dunes concentrated solar power (CSP) project currently being constructed in the Nevada desert. This is the second video in a two-part series that provides an up-close look at the… Keep reading →
In our recent interview with Solar Reserve CEO Kevin Smith, he filled us in on the company’s global ambitions, but was particularly proud of the Crescent Dunes concentrated solar power (CSP) project currently being constructed in the Nevada desert. The project is unique because it’s being billed as the first CSP plant with integrated energy… Keep reading →
The oil production targets agreed to in Iraq’s service contracts with international oil companies in 2009 were unrealistic from the start for technical and political reasons, and it now appears output thresholds at several of the country’s largest fields will be scaled back. [Wall Street Journal] A small bankrupt energy company is seeking to force… Keep reading →
Quick Take: An excellent article in the Atlantic provides a valuable summary of solar’s existential threat to utilities. Team up rooftop solar with a Tesla battery unit and you can (theoretically) do away with your electric power utility. In reality of course, few homeowners will really want grid divorce. First, they will want to sell… Keep reading →
Companies and engineers worldwide are pursuing grid-scale energy storage technology that would allow distributed renewable energy sources to easily and efficiently feed electricity into centralized power grids. Once economically commercialized, such technology would find a gargantuan market. And a US-based company will jump ahead of the competition next year with its molten salt storage technique.… Keep reading →
This article is part of the Energy.gov series highlighting the “Top Things You Didn’t Know About…” Be sure to check back for more entries soon. 10. Modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) — the agency that brought us the GPS, the stealth fighter and computer networking — the Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) funds… Keep reading →
