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Original post by pfairley

Original post by pfairley

It was probably my greatest embarrassement as a journalist. Within weeks of publishing a major feature on energy storage in Technology Review (see “Recharging the Power Grid”), the half-completed demonstration project we profiled — a giant battery to stabilize the power grid in eastern Mississippi — was scrapped by its developer. The corporate parent of the battery […]

Original post by pfairley

Solar proponents love to run the math on how much (or how little) Southwestern desert one would need to cover with solar energy installations to power the United States. David Mills, founder and chairman of Palo Alto, CA solar startup Ausra, has his own estimate: 145 kilometers. Mills’ estimate is more credible than most, and not […]

Original post by pfairley

The European Commission proposed new rules today to break up Europe’s energy monopolies and I must say it makes me wonder whether they aren’t trying to fix something that isn’t broken–at least as far as the environment is concerned.
Commission President José Manuel Barroso told reporters today that: “We need a common European response to combat climate […]

Original post by pfairley

One month ago (a thoroughly inexcusable gap for a webjournal) I began my annual migration to an island-bound off-grid retreat, promising to make up for my absence by bringing Carbon-Nation fresh insights on low-energy living.
First realization: Energy efficiency is a loser. People want energy. Fellow islanders, suddenly attuned to energy like the rest of North America, had trouble […]

Original post by pfairley

This weekend I begin my annual migration to an off-grid cottage whose most advanced technological feature is a rain-fed cistern connected to a hand pump. I’m planning to do my best to resist the urge to use the Internet (which is not easy but possible). I look forward to returning to Carbon-Nation with fresh insights […]

Original post by pfairley

For several years now the American Wind Energy Association has been telling anyone who’d listen that access to power transmission lines was quickly emerging as the greatest impediment to continued expansion of wind farms — renewable energy’s biggest success story of the decade. This puts wind power in a very uncomfortable place given the cost […]

Original post by pfairley

People around the world answered a call today to “fire the grid” this morning at 11:11am Greenwich Mean Time (7:11am EST). Unfortunately they’re not firing the grid that concerns me — the power grid — but rather the ‘earth grid’. Seems a near-death experience followed by other-worldly “light beings” inspired the organizer to call for a global spiritual embrace of […]

Original post by pfairley