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.
Wind Power history blows away Ed Davey’s excuse for giving short contracts to renewables
By
Dave Toke
Ed Davey’s excuse for limiting wind power contracts to 15 years whilst Hinkley C gets a whopping 35 year contract is blown away by some elementary history checking. Lots of wind turbines in Altamont Pass – installed during the so-called Californian ‘windrush’ – are still turning after 31 years. Davey claims that the contracts he has awarded are in proportion to the technologies’ design life expectancy. Yet the Altamont turbines will be turning until 2015, a 33 year lifetime . . .
Hinkley- deal or no deal?
By
Dave Elliott
The UK government’s announcement of a preliminary deal with EDF and its financial partners on the Hinkley Point C European Pressurised-water Reactor (EPR) project, was met with a mixed response. While some welcomed it as long overdue, with a Telegraph headline saying that it ‘will avoid ‘blight’ of 30,000 wind turbines’, others saw it as a risky diversion from developing truly sustainable green energy options, and even many of those in favour worried about the costs, and the partial reliance on Chinese finance.
REW: Ontario Kills Coal, But Local Renewables Program Falters
By
John Farrell
It was one of the most ambitious renewable energy programs in the world when it launched in 2009, committing the Canadian province to buy power from thousands of new renewable energy systems. It was open and accessible to the average person, and it was committed to buying power only from projects that were “made in Ontario.” And it was part of a plan to kill off coal-fired power generation by the end of 2014.
SmartPlanet: Myth-busting Germany’s energy transition
By
Chris Nelder
Major English-language media have been propagating a false narrative about the stunning success of Germany’s transition to renewable energy: the Energiewende. To hear them tell it, the transition has been a massive failure, driving up power prices, putting Germany’s grid at risk of blackouts, and inspiring a mass revolt against renewables. . . Nothing could be further from the truth.
Renewables International: German coal in a downward spiral
By
Craig Morris
Over the past year, we have heard a lot of charges that Germany is switching to coal. Many of us have noted that this effect is quite temporary. Now, Germany’s most prominent coal field, Garzweiler, may be coming to a premature end.
Wind Action Group: NY’ State’s Unicorn Problem…
By
Dave Bradley
Japan’s electricity customers are seeing this electricity folded into their rates, and prices ARE rising. Of course, as the saying goes, necessity can be a real mother….. and no electricity, no civilization. So far, Japan is choosing both civilization and expensive electricity; I guess they don’t like unicorns very much.
