National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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

Military Fostering Wide Range of Innovative Energy Solutions

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A House Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, on March 22, 2012 in Washington, DC.

The U.S. military can jump-start commercialization of energy innovations by serving as a test bed for new ideas, top Department of Defense officials say. Keep reading →

 /  Published March 26, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Wind Resource Does Not Necessarily Mean Wind Power

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The wind energy industry was abuzz last week with the release of a map from the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory showing the extent of wind resources in the US.

The map represents the result of the first comprehensive update of potential wind power resources since the early 1990s, with the important addition of new technology and scale in the wind sector making the potential even greater. Keep reading →

 /  Published January 31, 2012 at 6:00 AM

Dodd Frank ‘Biggest Threat’ To Renewables Industry

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The Dodd-Frank Act, introduced to clamp down on the high-risk transactions that brought the financial system to its knees in 2008, could reduce capital funding for renewable energy projects and hit environmental commodity trading, leading industry experts said last week.

“There was a perception that bankers were ripping off Main Street folks and that needed to be changed. If you look at these causes and say what does this have to do with renewable energy … this has very little to do with renewable energy,” said Steve Michelson, counsel at environmental commodities specialist 3Degrees. “Our [environmental] markets and the energy industry did not cause the financial crisis. But if you look at Congress’s solutions to these problems we are implicated in some ways.” Keep reading →

 /  Published November 21, 2011 at 11:10 AM

Cutting Carbon Translated: Natural Gas

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Switching electric generation from coal to natural gas is the only way the US can meet carbon-reduction goals, says a new Deutsche Bank analysis.

Mark Fulton, managing director and global head of research for Deutsche Bank Climate Change Advisors, told the US Association of Energy Economists conference in Washington DC on October 11 that “renewables alone cannot do the job,” though the study indicates wind and solar will play important roles. The October 2011 report, titled “Natural Gas and Renewables: The Coal to Gas and Renewables Switch is on!” can be downloaded here. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 12, 2011 at 10:00 AM

Solar Panels Don’t Work. And No One Knows.

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Solar panels do not work that well. Often far below expectations.

And few know it. Not the owners who depend on power. Not the bankers who finance it. Not the brokers who insure it. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 7, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Grid Renewal Could Boost Economy

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Renewal and expansion of North America’s electric transmission grid has the potential to create hundreds of thousands of jobs and spur development of wind and solar energy sources if sufficient private investment is made in coming decades, industry experts said.

A study for the Working Group for Investment in Reliable and Economic Electric Systems (WIRES) has estimated US investment in the grid could be made at some $12 to $16 billion a year until 2030 if planning, permitting and cost-recovery challenges can be overcome. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 18, 2011 at 6:00 AM
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