The city of Cambridge is home to 33 solar electric (PV) systems that provide 267 kilowatts of clean, renewable energy generating capacity. Assuming ideal conditions of 12 hours of cloudless bright sunlight per day, they could generate 1.2 megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity per year. A little less than what a typical wind turbine is capable of producing in an hour. Of course, this is a hypothetical maximum.

There’s no way that Cambridge’s 267 KW of PV could generate 1.2 MWh/yr of electricity because the sun don’t always shine! Especially here in New England… but if we assume the sun shines for an average of 3 hours each day, the existing PV installations would produce 292 MkWh of electricity per year. This is still a substantial amount of power. The Energy Information Agency reports… [view entry]

In Last October’s issue of Scientific American, authors Mark Z. Jacobson and Mark A. Delucchi plan how the world could derive all of its energy through a combination of renewable wind, water, and solar resources, by 2030.

But what does this report add to the discussion on how to make real increases in world-wide renewable energy production? I think that scientists and a large portion of the energy-investment community realize there’s a lot of wind and water in the world, and that the sun shines a lot; the real questions is how to increase the replacement-rate of traditional power systems with renewable power systems. A plan to power the world with 100% renewable energy by 2030 is a nice thought experiment, but it would be nearly impossible to complete in… [view entry]

OurEnergyPolicy.org is a relatively new and really neat website.  The purpose of this website is to establish an open dialogue between all energy experts, including policy-makers, businessmen, and academics, on our country’s most pressing energy issues.

The website sets up a series of straw-man arguments that all registered experts are free to comment on.  The really cool part about this website is that it provides a wide array of commentary, on a wide array of issues, from lots of different experts.  From quickly perusing the website, I found comments from Professor Daniel Kammen from UC Berkeley, David Goldstein, President of the Electric Vehicle Association, and Gal Luft, Executive Director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, on issues ranging from electricity transmission planning to nuclear energy policy.… [view entry]

The U.S. electric grid–the wires that connect power-plants to homes and businesses–could use a major facelift. In general, control over the flow of electricity on the grid has not kept pace with burgeoning communication improvements made in other areas of the economy, and the National Academies of Science and Engineering have characterized the U.S. grid as an “amalgamation of outdated technologies“  (America’s Energy Future: Technology and Transformation).

Implementation of “Smart Grid” technology at the distribution level could provide real-time information on electricity pricing to customers, who could then adjust electricity consumption patterns according to a varying price for electricity. On the long-distance electricity transmission end, the Co-chairs of the National Commission on Energy Policy, in an open letter to Senator Harry Reid, affirm that modernization of the long-distance electricity transmission system… [view entry]

Yesterday, December 7th, the EPA formally declared that greenhouse gases threaten public health and the environment.  In its news release, the EPA stated that greenhouse gases are “the primary driver of climate change, which can lead to hotter, longer heat waves that threaten the health of the sick, poor or elderly; increases in ground-level ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses; as well as other threats to the health and welfare of Americans.”

The EPA’s finding of “endangerment” opens the possibility for the EPA to limit the output of carbon dioxide and other pollutants produced by large-emitters such as power plants, oil refineries, chemical plants and metal smelters.

According to Jeff Holmstead, a former EPA air administrator under the George W. Bush administration, this is the first time… [view entry]

Cambridge’s Climate Emergency Congress is quickly approaching, and the deadline to to sign-up to participate in this open congress is Friday, December 4th.  This public meeting will give Cambridge organizations, businesses, and individuals a voice on what to do about mounting concerns regarding climate-change and its consequences.  While world leaders are set to meet in Copenhagen to debate global strategies to reduce climate-change this December, Cambridge community members can make a real impact in our own city, and we strongly encourage all groups and individuals interested in this important cause to join us in this open discussion.

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In honor of the upcoming climate change conference in Copenhagen, I have decided to write a bit about the highly-evolved Danish wind-generation network.  Danes – it’s OK if you thank me later.

The Danes generate a higher percentage of their electricity from wind than any other nation. Currently, wind supplies 20% of electricity in Denmark.  Spain comes in second, and generates 12% of electricity from wind¹. The U.S. generates 1% of its electricity from wind.

So what’s the deal? Why do the Danes have such a large lead in wind? There are two main reasons:

Denmark is a small, geographically homogenous country with substantial wind resources and very limited solar and hydroelectric resources.
As the video below explains, the Danes have chosen to design an electricity system that favors wind generation.

… [view entry]

On January 16, 2009, Governor Patrick announced his goal for 2,000 MW of wind-powered electricity generating capacity to be installed in Massachusetts by 2020.  To put that number in perspective, the commonwealth currently houses about 13,500 MW of electricity generating capacity – of which wind makes-up a negligible amount.  Assuming that the installation of 2,000 MW of wind-powered electricity would be completely additional, i.e., no plant was retired, wind-turbines would account for about 13% of total generating capacity in Massachusetts.

The installation of such a large amount of wind-power, in such a public and popular location, would attract substantial international attention.  Currently, the world’s two largest wind farms, Denmark’s Horns Rev 2 and England’s Lynn and Inner Dowsing plant, are capable of generating 209 MW and 194 MW… [view entry]

If you’ve tried all of the of the recent tips on how to keep warm while saving energy, but are still shivering in your boots (you may or may not be wearing boots), then here are some more resources to check out:

Nuclear power has elicited strong controversy since its beginnings.  The public first learned of the power of splitting an atom when the U.S. military devastated targets in Japan during World War II.  In the midst of the nuclear power era, the public was shocked again in 1979 by the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, in Middleton Pennsylvania, and the 1985 Chernobyl Disaster in Ukraine, which caused immediate deaths and has been linked to cancers found in local residents.

Although nuclear technology has an infamous history, today, nuclear power plants generate 20% of the the electricity produced by the U.S. electric power industry.  There are currently 104 licensed to operate nuclear power plants in the United States, and the electricity sold by these reactors accounts for billions… [view entry]