UN Sustainable Development Goal 7 aspires to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all by 2030. But in Africa, around 600 million people continue to live without access to electricity. Seeking to reach as many of these people as quickly as possible, African governments are signing agreements with foreign firms to […]
President Joe Biden signed into law on Tuesday the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes roughly $370 billion in tax credits and other programs to expand clean energy and reduce planet-warming pollution. By Environment America The law invests in: Clean energy: The United States has enough wind and solar resources to power the country many times […]
Texas is known for fiercely promoting its oil and gas industries, but it’s also the No. 2 renewable energy producer in the country after California. In fact, more than a quarter of all the wind power produced in the United States in 2021 was generated in Texas. Nathan Jensen, The University of Texas at Austin […]
Recent extreme weather events have underscored the need to cut the CO₂ emissions that are driving up global temperatures. This requires a rapid transition of the energy economy to renewable energy sources, the cheapest being solar photovoltaics (PV). And our newly published research points to a way we can drive down costs of the shift […]
Curtailment has a special meaning in electric power systems. It describes any action that reduces the amount of electricity generated to maintain the balance between supply and demand – which is critical for avoiding blackouts. By Theodore J. Kury, University of Florida The Conversaiton Recently, curtailment has made news in states like California and Texas […]
Unprecedented forest fires in the drought-stricken western United States. Tropical storms and rising seas threatening the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. Sizzling heat across large swaths of the country. As climate change unfolds before our eyes, what can the U.S. do to sharply and rapidly reduce its share of the greenhouse gas emissions that are causing […]
America’s electric power system is undergoing radical change as it transitions from fossil fuels to renewable energy. While the first decade of the 2000s saw huge growth in natural gas generation, and the 2010s were the decade of wind and solar, early signs suggest the innovation of the 2020s may be a boom in “hybrid” […]
If you’d like to make a donation to a worthy cause on this 53rd Earth Day… For more than ten years, I’ve been editing and publishing RedGREENandBlue.org, a website that brings together progressive and conservative voices in favor of climate change action. Unfortunately, with the current coronavirus economic meltdown, we’ve lost our primary funding source. […]
It’s easy to feel pessimistic when scientists around the world are warning that climate change has advanced so far, it’s now inevitable that societies will either transform themselves or be transformed. But as two of the authors of a recent international climate report, we also see reason for optimism. Robert Lempert, Pardee RAND Graduate School […]
This week, joining me in conversation is solar agrivoltaics guru Byron Kominek. Chelsea Henderson EcoRight News/ RepublicEN As a boy, Byron spent summer vacations on his family’s farm visiting his grandmother. After graduate school, serving in the Peace Corps, and working as a U.S. diplomat for the U.S. Agency for International Development, he returned to […]
Hello! Happy Friday! Happy Easter! Happy Passover! By the way, what’s the consensus on deviled eggs? They are really my favorite part of an Easter feast but I just learned that most of my friends hate them. I’m astonished… is this common? Where do you fall? Do tell. Chelsea Henderson EcoRight News/ RepublicEN Okay, on […]
The latest reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change show that to avoid massive losses and damage from global warming, nations must act quickly to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The good news is that experts believe it’s possible to cut global greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 through steps such as using […]
Limiting global warming to 1.5C or 2C would mean “rapid and deep” emissions reductions in “all sectors” of the global economy, says the latest report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Instead, emissions have continued to rise – albeit at a slowing rate – and it will be “impossible” to stay below 1.5C with “no or […]
To most people, a solar farm or a geothermal plant is simply a power producer. Scientists and engineers see far more potential. They envision offshore wind turbines capturing and storing carbon beneath the sea, and geothermal plants producing essential metals for powering electric vehicles. Electric vehicle batteries, too, can be transformed to power homes, saving their […]
Since 2013, Minnesota’s long-running regulatory docket has carried a long-running debate: how can we calculate the value of solar energy to individuals, communities, and society? For this episode of the Local Energy Rules Podcast, host John Farrell speaks with Gabriel Chan, associate professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs in Science, Technology, and […]