Because of the nature of baseload power plants, only supplying enough to cover the base load, other plants have to be put online to cover any demand above the base load. These include load-following plants, which are more costly to run. In the old days, many of these ran on oil. Nowadays, the fuel of choice is natural gas, though the design of the plant is a different from that of a gas-fired baseload plant.
A common theme off and on for years regarding Tesla is subsidies, and it’s a popular one again. The idea from critics is that Tesla is getting billions of dollars of subsidies and that’s why it’s a viable company. Let’s hone in on that thought and see how accurate it really is.
There is a saying, “United we stand, divided we fall.” It comes in many forms, in many languages, including Abraham Lincoln’s “A house divided against itself, cannot stand,” a fairly close restatement from the Bible.
Are we close to the end of fossil fuels? Has peak oil arrived and what are the impact and opportunities for cleantech? It’s been a topic of heated conversation for decades.
Two pipelines bit the dust this week, and it’s only Monday.
Formosa Plastics is going to be our shiny new petrochemical plant that will provide jobs for Louisiana citizens. However, the company’s lovely image of being a job-provider and great company that will support the state economy is marred with its history of dumping plastic waste into waterways and its cruelty to the descendants of the slaves buried on the company’s land. Yes, you read that right: Formosa is building on a burial ground.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Energy Infrastructure Update for April is out, and it shows that all new electricity generation capacity in the US in April came from renewable sources. Despite the switch to clean power, many members of the boards of directors at the 20 largest banks have ties to high-emission industries.
Two recent surveys show Americans are concerned about climate change even in the midst of a pandemic, and prefer economic assistance for clean energy rather than fossil fuels.
The latest Outlook report from IRENA claims investing in renewable energy can result in returns of 3 to 8 times.
The coronavirus may become the inflection point when renewable energy begins to surpass fossil fuels. We better hope so.
