Southern California Edison is asking regulators for approval of 75 new PV contracts, totaling 105.53 MW. All priced at the cost of building a new natural gas plant. Now can we stop saying that solar is too expensive?

Details in their Advice Letter, here (pdf). (more…)

Extraction of natural gas from the deep soil in a region of the Netherlands has triggered an increase in minor earthquakes, similar to seismic effects that have raised concerns about drilling operations, including hydraulic fracturing, in other countries.

While the extraction of gas has occurred for decades (more…)

Netflix’s ‘House of Cards’ is the latest ‘Downton Abbey.’ Or for us older folks, it is the latest who-shot-JR Ewing – a television series that lots of people are talking about.

A story of Congressional intrigue, the 13-part series has caught the attention of not only the viewing public, but also Washington insiders, who are having (more…)

One of the U.S.’s largest electric utilities has agreed to close three coal-fired power plants in the Midwest, the latest sign of how the U.S.’s electricity supply is shifting away from coal to natural gas and renewable energy.

American Electric Power (AEP) will shut down the three plants in Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky by 2015 — retiring a total of 2,011 megawatts of coal-burning (more…)

Unsubsidized wind power is now cheaper than electricity produced from new coal- and natural gas-fired power stations in Australia, according to an analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

The study said that electricity can be supplied from a new wind farm at a cost of 80 Australian dollars per (more…)

Water is always precious. Increased natural gas production is happening ion the US. But natural gas wells have problems: Large volumes of deep water, often heavily laden with salts and minerals, flow out along with the gas. That so-called produced water must be disposed of, or cleaned. Once cleaned it has beneficial reuse in often arid regions. (more…)

A pair of ongoing studies show unexpectedly high methane leakage from some oil and gas fields in the U.S., findings that underscore concerns that the climate benefits of the natural gas boom may be overstated.

Researchers from the University of Colorado at (more…)

In a recently released report, the Annual Energy Outlook 2013 (AEO2013), the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) projected the US energy markets through 2040. Their projections only take into account the effects of policies that have already been implemented in law or final regulations. The EIA found that the growth in energy production has (more…)

A U.S.-based company has developed a sophisticated sensing technology capable of detecting and pinpointing the source of even minor natural gas leaks from great distances, an innovation that could provide critical insights into the still largely unknown climate (more…)

Australian scientists have developed a method for trapping carbon dioxide that they say could ultimately reduce the costs of separating and storing carbon from fossil fuel emissions.

Writing in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from the University (more…)