Reposted from RenewEconomy: On May 17, 2010, E.ON, the biggest electricity utility in Germany, opened a brand new 860 MW combined cycle gas-fired power station in Bavaria, which it had built at a cost of $520 million. Less than three years later, having hardly been used and losing money, the … [continued]
For an insane number of solar & wind stories CleanTechnica hasn’t covered, check out this Google Doc. If you’re somewhere in between being as cleantech-obsessed as me and feeling sad when you get to the end of our daily posts on solar and wind power, simply check out these top … [continued]
Intermittency may be the Achilles Heel of solar energy. Since the Sun doesn’t always shine and utility-scale energy storage isn’t available yet, grid operators have to rely on dispatchable generation like natural gas or when clouds cover up solar farms. But that may be about to change in a big way…
Yara International is a Norway-based company focused on sustainable environmental and agricultural solutions. The company recently made an announcement about a breakthrough technology used in concentrated solar power. Below is an interview with Emilio Iglesias Sola, a Yara business manager. What about your use of potassium calcium nitrate is … [continued]
There isn’t much of a need for power storage in Germany even if it increases the share of its electricity that is generated by renewable sources by around 50%, according to a new study by the German engineering association VDE. Importantly, the study has shown that “baseload power – … [continued]
Geothermal energy certainly doesn’t have the popularity of wind and solar power, but it is another great, cheap, renewable energy option that deserves a lot of support. The Geothermal Energy Agency (GEA) recently released a document on 10 reasons to support geothermal energy [PDF]. The full document includes a lot … [continued]
The following is just a small excerpt of an interesting piece by Australia’s Climate Spectator on why Australia doesn’t need coal. It was shared with me by a reader awhile back. It offers a particularly well-noted summary of why we don’t need baseload power, and why it can even “get … [continued]
The following is a great post by Tuan Pham of PowerFin Partners on the often discounted economic benefits of solar. I ran across it on Greentech Media, where it was a featured guest post. Several points echo the benefits of solar that utility company CEOs mentioned in a round-table discussion … [continued]
Below is a wonderful video of Amory Lovins explaining the energy subsidy inequality (favoring fossil fuels) in the U.S. today, renewable energy costs, and the myths of baseload power. But first, Peter Sinclair’s apt comments on the interview, which doesn’t only include Lovins: The video above from Bloomberg shows the best … [continued]
