Grist | Topics | 21 Results

RESULTS		Results 1 – 21 of 21
Headline	Author	Published	Section
Reframing the energy debate, part 1 Time to stop using the phrase 'renewable energy'	Joseph Romm	21 Jul 2008	Gristmill
This is the first in an occasional series on reframing the energy and climate debate. I welcome all ideas on how we can improve our language in what is now the central front in the war to protect the health and well-being of American families and all future generations. The phrase 'renewable energy' is often used by the media and conservatives to give lip service to clean energy sources -- by lumping them all together in order to trivialize them or diminish their ind ...
Topics: energy, environmental movement, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Scenarios for a low carbon, no-nuke future Renewables and efficiency would provide more GDP than fossil fuels	Gar Lipow	14 Jul 2008	Gristmill
The attached Excel spreadsheet takes specific technologies, the known cost of implementing them, and various scenarios for responses to such implementation and technical improvements (including no technical improvement!) and calculates costs and benefits. This is intended to be an open source model. The comment section will be used to revise the spreadsheet with links to the old versions added to the bottom of this post as revisions are made (for the sake of transparency.) ...
Topics: energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power, wind power (all these topics)

Power from rooftops could replace coal More than half of today's electricity, more than 16 percent of today's energy	Gar Lipow	30 Jun 2008	Gristmill
Enough sunlight strikes unshaded U.S. rooftops to replace all the coal and some of the natural gas we use to make electricity. Backup via ground source heat pumps, and smart grid technology would allow this variable energy source to displace base-load coal with today's technology. Whether this is the most cost effective way to displace coal is another question. Also rooftop solar is a silver BB rather than a silver bullet: Even after massive efficiency improvements we wi ...
Topics: coal, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

McKinsey on the economics of solar Business consulting firm projects robust growth for solar and grid parity in many locations by 2020	David Roberts	24 Jun 2008	Gristmill
McKinsey has a great new analysis piece: 'The economics of solar power.' Overall it's extremely optimistic, saying that despite uncertainties around technology and policy, growth in the solar sector is all but certain to be robust. Here's a interesting chart. The size of the yellow ball is the size of the solar market in TWh. The upper right of the chart is 'grid parity' -- i.e., solar electricity selling for roughly the same price as fossil electricity. Notice tha ...
Topics: economy, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

Sustainable economy 101 Lessons from Europe and Japan	Jon Rynn	23 Jun 2008	Gristmill
The following article appeared in Foreign Policy in Focus, and was reposted at commondreams.org. When New York City wanted to make the biggest purchase of subway cars in U.S. history in the late 1990s -- more than $3 billion worth -- the only companies that were able to bid on the contract were foreign. The same problem applies to high-speed rail today: Only European or Japanese companies can build any of the proposed rail networks in the United States. The U.S. has als ...
Topics: business, economy, energy, greenish companies, renewable energy, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power, wind power (all these topics)

Transmission: Impracticable Huge Calif. solar plant would run transmission lines through state park		16 Jun 2008	News
Posted at 8:11 AM on 16 Jun 2008 A proposed solar power plant in Southern California is facing heavy opposition from some environmentalists as the plan also calls for high-voltage transmission lines to run through a popular state park. To move the power generated by 12,000 solar-thermal dishes near El Centro, Calif., to customers in San Diego, power company San Diego Gas & Electric wants to b ...
Topics: California, energy, news, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Entreprenews you can use: eSolar First deal inked for maker of modular, utility-scale solar thermal power plants	David Roberts	10 Jun 2008	Gristmill
In the transition to a clean, green economy, one milestone promises to be the most symbolically powerful. It's the one adopted as an official target by Google: renewable energy cheaper than coal, or RE<C. When it announced its campaign, Google also announced the recipients of its initial investments. One was eSolar, a Pasadena, Calif.-based company spun off from business incubator Idealab. "Our view of what it takes to make solar power viable and a widespread ...
Topics: business, energy, greenish companies, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Bright lights, big energy Hybrid solar lighting: a solar retrofit for hot climates	Gar Lipow	03 Jun 2008	Gristmill
A fascinating commercial application for solar energy in clear (or semi-clear) hot climates seems to not be getting the attention it deserves: hybrid solar lighting. You take a parabolic concentrator and focus some sunlight, optically split with plastic fiber into visible light and heat. Pipe the visible light through diffusers throughout the building. It saves lighting electricity, of course, but unlike skylights or conventional T8s, it adds almost no heat to the buil ...
Topics: energy, green building, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

The best technology to protect the earth Concentrated solar thermal power: a core climate solution	Joseph Romm	15 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Other than energy efficiency (see here), I don't believe any set of technologies will be more important to the climate fight than concentrated solar power (CSP). I have a long article on CSP in Salon: 'The technology that will save humanity: The solar energy you haven't heard of is the one best suited to generate clean electricity for generations to come.' OK, maybe 'will' should be 'may help' (I'm an optimist, sue me!) and readers have heard about CSP for a while. ...
Topics: climate, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Ausra	David Roberts	14 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Via Deathridesahorse, here's a video of Ausra ('utility-scale solar power') CEO David Mills explaining Ausra's solar thermal technology:
Topics: business, energy, energy at home, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Do we need a massive government program to generate breakthroughs to make solar energy cost-competitive? Concentrated solar power is already doing great; no breakthroughs needed	Joseph Romm	11 Apr 2008	Gristmill
Almost certainly not and absolutely not. I give two answers here because there are two very different types of solar energy: Solar photovoltaics, PV, which is direct conversion of sunlight to electricity. It is well known, high-tech, uneconomically expensive in most parts of this country (but poised to resume dropping sharply in price), and intermittent (power only when the sun shines). Solar thermal electric or concentrated solar power (CSP), which uses mi ...
Topics: business, Department of Energy, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power (all these topics)

Here comes the sun -- again Solar thermal plants make a comeback	Tia Ghose	06 Mar 2008	Gristmill
Photo: nrel.gov As part of the Back to the Future alternative energy series, The New York Times has an article today about the rising demand for solar thermal power plants, which use solar panels to heat water and operate a steam turbine. Among the advantages cited: On sunny afternoons, those 10 plants would produce as much electricity as three nuclear reactors, but they can be built in as little as two years, compared with a decade or longer for a nucl ...
Topics: energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Boogie Woogie Google Boy An interview with Google's green energy czar, Bill Weihl	Amanda Griscom Little	07 Feb 2008	Grist Feature
The phrase "to Google" has become synonymous with "to search." But soon it may connote something altogether different: "to green." That is, if the internet titan can successfully pull off its latest world-changing endeavor. Bill Weihl. In late 2007, the dot-com giant announced its intention to make renewable energy cheaper than coal. The RE<C pro ...
Topics: business, carbon neutral, carbon offsets, coal, energy, energy efficiency, greening biz operations, greenish companies, interview, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Coal is the enemy of the human race: Goliath, meet David edition Google invests in solar thermal company eSolar	David Roberts	18 Jan 2008	Gristmill
Today, Google announced it's investing $10 million in eSolar, a solar thermal company, as part of its RE<C project. (Speaking of the latter, we've got an excellent interview on it coming up soon.) Here's what esolar has to say about itself (PDF): To serve the renewable electricity needs of utility-scale energy providers, eSolar has developed a market disrupting solar thermal power plant technology. Generation can be scaled from 25 MW to over 500 MW at energy p ...
Topics: business, coal, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Mirror, Mirror, on the Sand Solar project in African desert could supply clean energy to Europe		04 Dec 2007	News
Posted at 1:12 PM on 04 Dec 2007 A string of gigantic solar generators in the northern African desert could cleanly supply one-sixth of Europe's electricity needs, say backers of a project called Desertec. The project relies on concentrated solar power, in which giant mirrors focus the sun's rays on pillars filled with water, creating steam, which drives turbines, which generate electricity. In the ...
Topics: Africa, energy, European Union, innovation, news, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

From Concentrated Advocates talk up concentrated solar power		13 Nov 2007	News
Posted at 3:13 PM on 13 Nov 2007 It would provide an endlessly renewable, carbon-free power supply, and be a means of bringing drinkable water to those who need it most -- on the cheap. An environmentalist's utopian imaginings? Advocates of concentrated solar power say it could be the future. From the Archives Not Behind My Farm. Farm Belt residents not gung-ho about ethanol plants. Junk the Bunker. Group urg ...
Topics: energy, news, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

The solar power you don't hear about Solar thermal power deserves more attention, due to its lower cost and relative ease of storage	Joseph Romm	30 Aug 2007	Gristmill
Solar thermal power is back! Solar thermal gets less attention than its sexier cousin -- high-tech photovoltaics -- but has two big advantages. First, it is much cheaper than PV. Second, it captures energy in a form that is much easier to store -- heat -- typically with mirrored surfaces that concentrate sunlight onto a receiver that heats a liquid (which is then used to make steam to drive a turbine). Back in the 1980s, Luz International was the sole commercia ...
Topics: California, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power, Spain (all these topics)

Twenty-two Hours of Darkness and Two of Light California utility commits to massive solar buy, B.C. deals with oil spill		25 Jul 2007	Daily Grist
Twenty-two Hours of Darkness and Two of Light California utility commits to massive solar buy, B.C. deals with oil spill Call it the light and dark sides of the energy industry: yesterday, as news spread that a major California utility will make a ginormous solar buy, a British Columbia neighborhood was drenched in crude oil spewing from a broken pipe. Related? Only ...
Topics: British Columbia, California, energy, news, oil, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

When it rains, it pours -- out the energy Using molten salt to store solar energy	JMG	16 Jul 2007	Gristmill
We've gone round and round on various ways to store energy from intermittent suppliers like solar and wind before ... The always excellent Robert Rapier has this interesting squib on using molten salt to store thermal energy from solar in his R-Squared Energy Blog.* (While you're there you should check out his terrific posts on ethanol and biodiesel. He is in the interesting position of being a real advocate who can't ignore how oversold they are.)Engineer 'humor' alert ...*
Topics: biofuels, energy, ethanol, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Yes, More Solar On passive solar	Umbra Fisk	18 Jun 2007	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, Not to belabor the home heating series, I'm considering installing a masonry stove. I've read that they're quite efficient, though costly to build. What's your take in relation to the other options you've discussed? What about other alternative heating methods like passive solar heating and radiant floor heating? John Logan, Utah P.S. I'm glad you mentioned insulation and glazing. We've been remodeling and recently upgraded ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, energy, green living, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

Something New Under the Sun On solar hot-water systems	Umbra Fisk	13 Jun 2007	Ask Umbra
Dear Umbra, I would like to change to solar heating for providing some of our electricity requirements, particularly for hot water. Can you advise me how to go about it? Leela Pienaar Grahamstown, South Africa Dearest Leela, I notice you're in South Africa. I can talk about solar equipment as found in the U.S., and perhaps these general thoughts will be useful to you. Since the web is worldwide, I was able to see a ...
Topics: advice, Ask Umbra, energy, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics)

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