February 2013 Archives
Biomass:
About 10 years ago the fuel cell buzz started to die down a bit, but the technology hasn't gone anywhere
Commentary:
The McCoy Solar Energy Project in the California desert got a huge boost this week, as California Governor Jerry Brown certified the 750-megawatt NextEra solar development in Riverside County for expedited legal review under his recent, undemocratic reforms to the state's landmark environmental law.
Concentrating Solar:
A photo of the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System taken in late February by members of Basin and Range Watch points up a persistent problem with siting utility-scale solar facilities in the desert: once disturbed by construction, desert soils can loose huge amounts of particulate matter into the air.
Solar:
According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the California Solar Initiative (CSI) has officially run out of rebate funding in much of the state, a tribute to the interest in going solar among California utility customers.
Utilities:
About 39 percent of L.A.'s power now comes from coal-fired plants.
Technology:
Add another item to the growing buzz about graphene, which ReWire has covered quite recently: in addition to being a promising candidate for electrical power storage, the single-atom thin sheet form of carbon may offer a way to squeeze a whole lot more power out of photovoltaic cells.
Climate Change:
California's Air Resources Board has just released the results of its February auction of greenhouse gas emissions allowances, and it would seem the price of polluting isn't going up by much.
Utilities:
California leads the nation in distributed solar power generation (DG), but if the state wants to keep its rooftop and community solar lead it's going to have to get rid of limits on "net-metered" solar power.
Climate Change:
A rise in temperature of 1.5°C may well be enough to trigger widespread melting of the earth's permafrost, which holds twice the greenhouse gases already contained in the Earth's atmosphere. And we're already almost halfway there.
Biofuels:
The owner of Clean Green Fuel LLC is heading to prison after being convicted for selling more than 35 million renewable fuel credits despite his company having no means to create biodiesel.
News and analysis about renewable energy in California. Blog host Chris Clarke is an environmental writer of two decades standing. He currently lives in Joshua Tree and can be contacted at: rewire@kcet.org.
- Wind Power
- PV and Solar Thermal
- Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI)
- Watts and Watt-Hours, Kilo and Mega
- 'Enough To Power X Thousand Homes'
- The Grid
- Distributed Generation
- Conservation and 'Negawatts'
- Grid Storage
- PACE Loans, Feed In Tariffs and Net Metering
- Base Load and Peaking Power
- Capacity Factor
- Renewable Portfolio Standards
- Biomass
- Transportation and Renewable Energy
- Geothermal
