Tag archives for solar
U.N. Climate Talks Pick Back Up in Bonn
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on June 6, 2013 The next round of U.N. climate change talks began in Bonn, Germany—the final round of midyear negotiations before the 19th Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in November. The talks are, in part, focused on defining elements of a universal climate agreement by 2015, an agreement that would be enforced by 2020.…
Looming Sequester Has Implications for National Weather Forecasting, Energy
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on February 28, 2013 Unless Congress reaches a deal by Friday, a set of automatic spending cuts—known as the sequester—will take effect. According to the Obama Administration, this trigger, for $85 billion worth of across-the-board federal spending cuts, is expected to have significant implications for climate and energy. Newly released estimates by the White House detail how the cuts are projected to impact programs in each state. Decreases in environmental…
A Wind Tax Credit, Indefinitely?
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on February 21, 2013 In last week’s State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for doubling research and development funding for renewable energy. A policy document released by the White House following the State of the Union proposes making the wind production tax credit—which was renewed in January for one year as part of the deal to avert the fiscal cliff—permanent. “To once…
Federal Court Tosses EPA’s ‘Good Neighbor’ Pollution Rule
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on August 23, 2012 The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit this week threw out the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), which set stricter limits on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions from coal-burning power plants in 28 states and the District of Columbia. In a 2–1 ruling, the panel held the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority under the…
Harnessing Sun, Wave Power for Energy
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on July 26, 2012 Oceans, which cover more than two-thirds of the planet, hold a large amount of energy. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates ocean wave and tidal currents have the potential to account for 15 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2030. While technologies harnessing energy from tides and currents have been domestically discussed for decades, the…
North Carolina Legislature Mulls Ban on Sea Level Rise Projections
Posted by Tim Profeta of Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Duke University on June 7, 2012 The link between climate change and sea level rise, already well established, has been reinforced by recent studies. But sea level rise also made headlines in a more unusual way recently after some North Carolina legislators introduced a bill that would call into question some of the scientific projections related to sea level rise in the state. Specifically, their draft legislation would…
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(View infographic larger.) By Priyeshu Garg In a world where most energy production comes from non-renewable resources, people are trying to find efficient and price-effective ways to use renewable energy. One of the great leaps in renewable technology has been the solar panel, which is composed of several solar cells that convert light into electricity.…
More than 100 Coal Plants Shutting—But How Much Difference Will It Make?
Posted by Mason Inman on March 8, 2012 After public pressure, Chicago will shut two aging coal-fired power plants, and the owner of one of the power plants, Midwest Generation, may shut its other four coal plants in Illinois. Since the start of 2010, more than 100 coal plants have been slated for early retirement. A major reason for coal plants shutting has been public opposition to…
U.S. Rejects Tar Sands Pipeline from Canada—For Now
Posted by Mason Inman on January 19, 2012 Under pressure from Congress to make a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline, planned to connect Canada’s tar sands region with the U.S. Gulf Coast, the Obama administration has decided to reject the pipeline proposal. “This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline” that did not…
By Nadine Long The image that most often comes to mind when we think of self storage facilities is rows and rows of garage doors. But beneath that none-too-exciting exterior, storage facilities are the perfect incubators for new energy technologies. Green buildings can use one-third less energy and half the water of standard buildings,…
Oil, Gasoline Prices Hit All-Time Highs in 2011—and May Continue Rising
Posted by Mason Inman on January 12, 2012 Average prices of oil and gasoline at the pump reached an all-time high in 2011, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Brent crude oil, the global benchmark, averaged $111 a barrel—the first time it broke $100 for a whole year. In some ways, these records snuck up on Americans, since there was no extreme…
Now All GOP Presidential Candidates Express Climate Skepticism
Posted by Mason Inman on December 8, 2011 GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman expressed skepticism about the science on climate change, so now all GOP candidates are on the record as doubting either that the planet is clearly warming, or that people are responsible for most of the warming. Of all the GOP candidates, Huntsman had been the most supportive of action on climate…
By Ezra Drissman In a slow economy during a time when people are looking to save money, renewable energy can provide a dual solution. The two biggest expenses for most businesses are labor and utilities. What if a company could use clean energy technology to save on its second biggest cost? The logic in…
Only Five Years Left to Make Transition to Low-Carbon Infrastructure
Posted by Mason Inman on November 10, 2011 The infrastructure built over the next five years could “lock in” enough emissions to push the world past its target for limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest annual update of energy trends, World Energy Outlook. The Agency is “increasingly pessimistic” about the prospect for dealing with climate change, said deputy…
California Adopts Cap-and-Trade System, Serves as Greenhouse Guinea Pig
Posted by Mason Inman on October 27, 2011 After a unanimous vote by the California Air Resources Board, the state adopted the most comprehensive cap-and-trade system in the country, a key part of a 2006 global warming law that had yet to be implemented. The system will cover 85 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, and allows businesses to counterbalance up to…
By Ezra Drissman With so many people out of work, bold and creative ideas are needed to revive floundering economies. This is particularly true in Detroit, where recent figures show some areas suffer from 14 percent unemployment. As an engineering hub and manufacturing powerhouse, Detroit has a chance to develop a solution that could…
“Crony Capitalism” Alleged Behind Tar Sands Pipeline Review
Posted by Mason Inman on October 6, 2011 The proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which could carry a diluted form of tar sands from Canada to Texas, has attracted the ire of many environmentalists, including Bill McKibben, who spearheaded protests in front of the White House last month. This week, McKibben argued the Obama administration is practicing “crony capitalism” and that e-mails obtained through a Freedom of…
Ending Fossil Fuel Subsidies May Be the Way to Jumpstart Climate Finance
Posted by Mason Inman on September 22, 2011 A leaked World Bank document, due to be presented at the G20 meeting in November, proposes that rich countries eliminate their fossil fuel subsidies and instead contribute the money to climate aid for poor countries to help with green energy and adaptation measures. The paper also said donor countries are unlikely to come up with the…
Scrambling to Head Off Power Outages Caused by Heat Waves, Rapid Growth, and Disaster
Posted by Mason Inman on August 18, 2011 Texas has suffered through the worst drought and one of the worst heat waves on record, pushing electricity use to a record high in an attempt to cope. Texas is the state with the largest installed wind capacity, and recently installed wind farms came through to boost the state’s electricity generation just in time. However, even this jump was…
As Markets Dive, Clean Energy Stocks Hit by “Triple Whammy”
Posted by Mason Inman on August 11, 2011 The stock market took a beating this week, after the rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded U.S. bonds—but clean tech stocks have been falling even faster than the market as a whole. Shares in clean energy companies have been hit by a “triple whammy”—producing too much capacity for the demand, problems with government debt, and…
China Aims to Become Solar Powerhouse with New Subsidies
Posted by Mason Inman on August 4, 2011 China is already the world’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, but now it is making a move to become a major solar energy consumer as well, with a nationwide feed-in tariff to pay people or businesses a subsidy for electricity they produce with solar panels. This follows on the heels of the country’s wind energy feed-in tariff in…
Debt Ceiling Impasse Could Hit Clean Energy Hard
Posted by Mason Inman on July 28, 2011 Clean energy could be among the hardest-hit sectors if the U.S. government does not raise the debt ceiling and then defaults on the national debt. If there is a default, it could hurt in direct ways, by stopping payments for cash grants and loan guarantees that support many renewables projects. It could also hit innovation, by putting the Department…
Beleaguered EPA Must Take Charge of Greenhouse Gases, Supreme Court Rules
Posted by Mason Inman on June 23, 2011 In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court shot down a global warming lawsuit several states and environmental groups had brought against five of America’s biggest utilities, responsible for about one-tenth of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The case was aimed at getting the court to rule greenhouse gas emissions a public nuisance and order the defendants…
Posted by Yesterday—Superbowl *Sun*day—NASA released the first global view of our sun, courtesy of a pair of space probes collectively called Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory, or STEREO. Launched in October 2006, the two probes left Earth together but then separated and headed for opposite sides of the solar orb. On February 6, STEREO-A and STEREO-B finally reached…
Technically, everything within our solar system could be said to exist in the sun‘s atmosphere. In most cases we call the corona the sun’s upper atmosphere, because that’s the part we see as the faint, outermost halo stretching from the bright orb, usually visible from Earth only during a solar eclipse. (See eclipse pictures from…
