Electricity
Heat Pumps: Good Enough for Queen Elizabeth so Why Not for the Northeast?
George W. Bush, the Queen of England, Sir Elton John, and Sir Richard Branson probably don’t have much in common, but they all have installed ground source heat pumps. And it’s not just a technology for the rich and famous. Habitat for Humanity installed heat pumps...
Distributed Energy Resources as a Solution to the San Onofre Outage
In 2011, the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station supplied nearly 20 percent of Southern California's electricity. This year, the plant has generated almost nothing. Since early January, the plant has sat idle after the plant's operators discovered leaks in the steam generator.
Lovins On How To End Blackouts Forever
Come hell or high water—and Sandy brought both to many Americans—most of us can’t get the electricity we need. More than two weeks after the storm’s departure, 25,000 homes were still without power. We live high in the Rockies and were unaffected, but a couple of Februaries ago snowstorms knocked…
Breaking Down the Buzz about Big Data
“Big data” is the buzzword du jour in the energy efficiency world. That’s right, “smart grid” is losing its title as the little understood, least agreed upon term that everyone loves to use. But that is not to say that such concepts are without merit. In fact, one would be foolish to discount their importance.
Price, Risk Standards Required for Scaling U.S. Commercial & Industrial Solar
By most measures, the U.S. solar industry is doing very well with gross installation rates, growing by at least 2x per year for the past several years. Yet, sustaining recent growth rates—or even accelerating the market’s pace—is far from guaranteed.