A recent Leadership Conference hosted by eMeter (a smart meter company purchased by industrial giant Siemens in December 2011) in south San Francisco, revealed how entrepreneurs are trying to bring the staid electric utility industry into the 21st century. Under the theme of “disruptive technology,” six different companies were featured in an eye-opening panel on (more…)

Fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus (in contrast with fission power which breaks up a heavier nucleus to release power). In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force (more…)

Planning a solar PV power plant to make them efficient is a complex task, but German researchers have developed a software that makes conceptual design simpler.

Researchers at the Fraunhoger Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM in Kaiserslautern, in conjunction with Siemens Energy Photovoltaics, have a (more…)

I recently wrote a post critical of radical environmentalists who take rigid positions and refuse to make the tough choices that confront us all in the real world. In particular, I stand in disagreement with people’s unwillingness to exile the tortoises from 4613 acres (about five square miles) in the California desert that would have been used for a gigawatt of solar photovoltaics, an almost (more…)

On Dec. 16, the Obama administration is expected to finally release new standards for protecting us from mercury and other toxic heavy metals from power plant emissions. All of us have reason to be glad, but parents (and anyone who might ever want to be a parent) should especially welcome this long (more…)

The World Bank’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, or MIGA, has allocated $110 million to Kenya to finance increased production of geothermal power.

The World Bank released a statement commenting, “MIGA has increased its coverage against the risks of transfer restriction, expropriation, and war and civil (more…)

The Andalucia region of Spain has developed many solar firsts: the world’s first commercial solar power tower (PS10), the largest (PS20), as well as the world’s first solar power plant that generates solar electricity past midnight.  Andalucia will soon add another first to that shiny list: the world’s first commercial baseload solar power plant. (more…)

As a country with enormous potential for both wind power and solar energy, India has been steadily working towards building up the respective technologies to establish their renewable energy reputation. One of the areas they have yet to consider, however, is tidal and wave based energies and India is about to make a change for the better in that department. With plans to (more…)

Singer Bjork Iceland’s most famous export, joined her fellow countrymen and women last week as part of a three-day karaoke marathon protest against Canadian firm Magma Energy’s growing stake in Iceland’s HS Orka power plant.

Magma Energy is a geothermal exploration power company founded in 2008. It says on (more…)

We think we know how smart grid technology will change the utility industry. But do we really?

Take a look at this documentary made in 1969. It’s a view of how the world perceived the coming Internet (It’s also a pretty amusing look at how sexist our society still was at that point.) (more…)