News & Articles on Renewable Energy
My specialty is wind energy, but I have worked with all forms of renewable energy. Over the years I’ve written about a number of renewable technologies, including solar and geothermal energy. In recent years I’ve focused on comprehensive renewable energy policies that develop a mix of renewable resources. I’ve also written about our use of fossil fuels and nuclear power.
Major New Study Criticizes Auctions: Recommends More Equitable Policies to Spur Rapid Renewable Energy Development
By
Paul Gipe
In a sign that Feed-in Tariffs as a policy mechanism for the rapid—and equitable—development of renewable energy are not dead and that their proponents have not given up the hope of a brighter post Covid-19 future, the Energy Watch Group has released a major new report.
The lazy (and incorrect) use of the word “subsidy”
By
Jérôme Guillet
A “subsidy” is a straightforward allocation of taxpayer money by a public authority to prop up the production of a good or service by the private sector, used to offset market failures and externalities for a greater good. A CfD, however, is a contract whereby one party (public or private) trades a volatile price for a good against a fixed price for the same good, and another party takes the symmetrical position. They are obviously different things.
What Does Bill Gates’ Favorite Energy Guru, Vaclav Smil, Get Wrong?
By
Michael Barnard
And as a result, people like Bill Gates throw away their money on the wrong investments: small nuclear, air carbon capture, and solar geoengineering. Gates and others should listen to Mark Z. Jacobson more, and Smil less.
2020 Democratic Party Platform on Renewable Energy
By
Paul Gipe
The campaign for President of the United States is in full swing. We’ve endured two–mostly virtual–national party conventions. (Full disclosure: I didn’t watch either.) And the parties have issued the platforms on which they will campaign.
Emerald City 100% Renewable Energy Plan for Traverse City, Michigan
By
Steve Smiley
Paper by energy economist Steve Smiley for the American Solar Energy Society’s “Solar 2020” virtual conference on how to move Traverse City, Michigan to 100% renewable energy. The proposes a mix of solar, wind and bioenergy systems–with energy storage, energy efficiency, demand management, mini-district heat, and optimal control strategies. Site specific renewable energy, efficiency and storage projects are outlined, an abundance of choices for citizens and stakeholders working together, or as autonomous actors. The author, the developer of the first green pricing program in the USA, argues that green pricing programs are no longer appropriate, and should be replaced.
A Series of Disasters Shows How Renewable Energy Helps Us
By
What’s most important is a medium/long-term policy that clearly steers phasing out of fossil fuels (particularly coal) and nuclear power. What is needed is a Japanese ‘Green New Deal’ that would grow new industries centering on renewable energy to every part of the country.
