Natural gas could reach the status of a globally priced and traded commodity within five years if sufficient shipping capacity is developed.
The use of natural gas in transport has the potential to change the role of energy infrastructure, politics and investing, but without the right mix of government policies and business commitment fuel consumption patterns will lag broader shifts that include a shift in consumption power to emerging economies. Keep reading →
How a quest for a ten-fold improvement in batteries promises to make electric vehicles deliver on their remarkable potential.
The din that accompanied the birth of modern electric vehicles has quieted, despite a steady parade of new models and the ascent of gas prices to worrisome highs. The relative quiet is good news though, a sign that electric vehicles (EVs) are entering a critical period when the technology must evolve from exotic to everyday. Keep reading →
The burgeoning US market for leased residential solar systems got some extra help on Thursday with the launch of a new fund to increase financing options for solar installers and their customers.
The fund, named MySolar, was created by Clean Power Finance, an online marketplace for solar financing; MS Solar Solutions Corp, a unit of the investment bank Morgan Stanley, and Main Street Power Company, a developer of solar systems and provider of power-purchase agreements. Keep reading →
A billion dollars of investment later, US engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney has begun flight testing its PurePower Geared Turbofan Engines. The new technology lowers fuel consumption, noise signature, greenhouse gas emissions and maintenance costs.
“The engine used a lot less fuel than we expected, we had to adjust the fuel load for the next flight,” Marc Kirner, Director of Flight Operations for Pratt & Whitney Canada told reporters at a recent media event in Hartford, Connecticut. Keep reading →
Natural gas exports are clearly in the US national interest, concludes a year-long Brookings Institution study, and the Department of Energy should approve the nine export applications now pending.
All the projects won’t get built because there’s not a big enough global market for all the liquefied natural gas they could produce, said Charles Ebinger, Director of the Brookings’ Energy Security Initiative, who led the study team. Keep reading →
It is adjustment time for the solar sector, and that is putting it mildly.
The scale, and more important, speed of changes taking place within the energy sector are truly unprecedented. And the resulting surprises, making winner and losers out of the stakeholders in unexpected ways, are equally stunning. Keep reading →
A plan by Delta Air Lines to buy a Pennsylvania refinery and save itself $300 million a year in jet fuel costs is an audacious move that may prompt its competitors to follow suit in a bid to control their biggest single expense, analysts said.
But the airline may also face bigger bills than it expects for restarting the currently idle plant and more than doubling its previous output of jet fuel. Keep reading →
A legal storm in the energy industry that has been rumbling in the distance for three years is likely to come to a head this summer as petroleum refiners, ethanol producers and Washington lobbyists pursue their battle with state agencies in Sacramento.
The latest flare in this clash between a powerful pantheon of US energy titans and federally influential regulators in California occurred last week, after a temporary injunction was lifted by a US court of appeals in San Francisco. Keep reading →
Who has the power in the power industry?
Minority communities for years have seen large industrial facilities as environmental justice issues, says CASEnergy’s Patrick Moore, with high-impact plants built in their midst because they’re powerless to stop it, but he insists nuclear is different. Keep reading →
March 2012 shattered US temperature records. What about the summer?
Electricity market operators are not generally fond of hot summers, when consumers turn up their air conditioners to stay cool, while straining the network, sometimes to the brink of disaster. This summer is no exception, especially in a few places where supplies are likely to be tight. Keep reading →
