June 24th, 2023
Via Inside Climate News, a look at how networks of thousands of home-based batteries could be key to a cleaner, more reliable electricity system: This summer could be the first one in which virtual power plants—networks of small batteries that work in tandem to function like power plants—are large enough to make their presence felt […]
Read more »Railways: Potential To Be A Key ‘Utility Player’ For Backup Power
June 15th, 2023
Via Energy Daily, a report on how railways could be a key ‘utility player’ for backup power: The U.S. electric grid faces simultaneous, evolving pressures. Demand for power from the grid is increasing as people adopt electric cars and building energy is transitioned from gas to electricity. At the same time, climate change is driving […]
Read more »May 16th, 2023
Via Environmental + Energy Leader, a look at virtual power plants: According to the Brattle Group, which prepared a study for Google, a virtual power plant (VPP) is as reliable as a conventional one, costing 40% to 60% of alternatives. It notes that 60 gigawatts of VPP add $20 billion in societal benefits over 10 […]
Read more »Hug Pylons, Not Trees
April 30th, 2023
Via The Economist, an interesting article examining the idea that economic growth should help – not hinder – the fight against climate change: The sheer majesty of a five-megawatt wind turbine, its central support the height of a skyscraper, its airliner-wingspan rotors tilling the sky, is hard to deny. The solid-state remorselessness with which a […]
Read more »April 30th, 2023
Via HeatMap, some optimism that America is quietly making progress on one of the biggest challenges to the renewable energy rollout: New England is about to get a big infusion of carbon-free energy. On Thursday, a Maine jury ruled that a 145-mile power line connecting hydroelectric dams in Canada with the New England grid via […]
Read more »The U.S. Is Laying New Power Lines Too Slowly For Its Renewables Transition
April 16th, 2023
Via Quartz, an article on how growth in US power transmission lines has dropped from an already meager 1.5% to 1% over the last five years: Renewables are having a bumper run, according to JP Morgan’s annual assessment (pdf) of the energy market. More money is being invested into clean tech than fossil fuels—and this was true […]
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