Renewables – Aug 30
The new energy companies
Giant turbines bring winds of change
to W. Texas
Alternative energy without being too green
Engineers race to steal nature’s secrets
Electricity
U.S. energy policy – Aug 29
Iraq commanders want renewable power
Californians weigh new tax on oil companies
Lugar: U.S. must break oil habit
Bush courts oil-rich Kazakhstan
The strategy of salvage
The humble alternator, junkyard fodder in an industrial society but a valuable resource in a deindustrial one, offers a snapshot of the possibilities for action in a post-peak society.
The peak oil crisis: conserving light
When peak oil forces the world to power down, much more efficient use of our existing electricity supply is likely to be the only readily available source of additional energy for a while.
Wind – Aug 24
– Whither wind?
A journey through the heated debate over wind power
– Wind power, downsized
– Wind power’s gusty forecast
Energy policy – Aug 24
– Actor/environmental activist Ed Begley, Jr., on environmental and energy issues
– Alternative energy gets mainstream treatment
– Letter from Sweden: fossil fuel-free by 2020, maybe
The new age of sail
…Let us drop the conceit that these are “problems,” and that they can be “fixed.” Let us instead try an experiment: let us dissociate from human history, and free-associate our way into the next chapter of natural history, which, let us bravely assume, a member of our ecologically challenged species will still be on hand to narrate.
Renewables – Aug 15
Prof. Paul Alivisatos on nanotechnology and renewable energy / Boatload of biodiesel shipping today / San Francisco’s clean energy revolution is here
Biofuels or Biofools?
Biofuels could only play a meaningful role in a society that lived with some ecological modesty argues Dana Visalli
Solar cells change electricity distribution
In separate announcements over the past few months, researchers at the University of Johannesburg and at Nanosolar, a private company in Palo Alto, have announced major breakthroughs in reducing the cost of solar electric cells. While trade journals are abuzz with the news, analysis of the potential implications has been sparse.
Why renewable energy matters
Investing a portion of today’s relatively abundant energy resources into technologies that will yield energy later on, when fossil fuels are scarce, will make it a good deal easier to provide that little when it’s most needed, and cushion at least some of the impacts of the Deindustrial Revolution.
Other energy – Aug 9
How power-hungry cities drive projects like NYRI (electric grid) /
A power grid for the hydrogen economy / Energy experts working on oil-shale projects / Russian researchers say “hydrocarbons may take only decades to be formed”