Before NASA went to space, it focused on flying on Earth.
With oil prices rising, and some calling for global tariffs on jet fuel, NASA is leading the way on alternative fuels for airplanes and other vehicles. In this podcast, AOL Energy’s Felicity Carus discusses NASA’s recent OMEGA project-aimed at creating fuel from algae-with bioengineer Jonathan Trent in this AOL Energy podcast. Keep reading →
Nuclear power regulators are rethinking their approach to safety after recent data releases showed that post-9/11 measures were often insufficient.
Implementing a “safety culture” of constant measurement and improvement has been central to the industry’s safety progress since the now minor-seeming accident at Three Mile Island, which resulted in a rule-making binge. Keep reading →
Fail fast.
It is the mantra of the new economy, as acknowledgment spreads that invaluable lessons and unanticipated knowledge gains can occur even when projects don’t work. That lesson is much easier to learn when starting up a new networking site with a handful of employees than it is in the energy business, where research that ends in failure can cost millions of dollars at least. Keep reading →
The presence of Canadian electricity in the Northeastern US is often a surprise to consumers. If a number of developers, bankers and regulators get their way, more of that power will flow south.
Here, Breaking Energy correspondent Janet Whitman discusses her story “Northern Star” and the opportunities and challenges that stem from new energy projects proposed for Eastern Canada. Keep reading →
The only way for utilities to meet demand as they retire coal-fired power plants will be to build a host of new natural-gas fired units, Deutsche Bank Vice President and Climate Change Research Analyst Nils Mellquist says in this Breaking Energy podcast.
Mellquist speaks here with Breaking Energy’s Felicity Carus after a presentation at the Ceres conference in California where he said the US had the potential to become the “Saudi Arabia of gas.” Keep reading →
Tendril is that rare beast, a successful smart grid start-up.
Based in Boulder, Colorado, Tendril specializes in the software component of the smart grid, helping larger firms gather, manage and understand the huge amounts of data they need to implement and then understand their own customers. Keep reading →
Washington is full of regulators who remain mysterious entities to those outside the small circle of industry executives, lawyers and lobbyists whose work is impacted by its decisions. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is one of those regulatory bodies, which operates over much longer planning cycles than the election-oriented policymaking set out on Capitol Hill and in the White House’s West Wing.
Politicians pass and sign laws that, years later, are implemented by groups like FERC. The organization has its own lingo and its own priorities, and few understand them better than Breaking Energy correspondent Dipka Bhambhani. Here she discusses the commission’s efforts to establish a price for a “negawatt,” essentially a unit of electricity that goes unused. Keep reading →
The announcement of the Google deal with Kansas City’s electric utilities made the timing of this Breaking Energy webcast particularly serendipitous. Correspondent Margaret Ryan and Managing Editor Peter Gardett discussed the range of technologies electricity firms will be using in their smart grid efforts, and the challenges they face.
We discussed the failed effort of electric utilities to go into broadband a little more than a decade ago, and also mentioned my favorite word of the week: synchrophasor. Keep reading →
Breaking Energy spoke with Director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Program Office Jonathan Silver recently, and he had some fascinating things to say about the future of the enormous effort, which helps bring innovative energy ideas through to large-scale development.
Few people realize the size of the DOE Loan Program Office; while listening to this discussion the Breaking Energy staff noted that the scale of its funding would, if set out independently, make Jonathan Silver the head of one of the world’s largest financial institutions. Keep reading →
