The future of street lights – hybrid power with mini-wind turbines & solar panels

A friend recommended these to me after her company installed them. From UGE, they are streetlights combining solar panels with mini-wind turbines. They are quite amazing: From the brochure (pdf): Our hybrid model operates entirely off-grid. Can be installed in remote locations which are inaccessible to the electric grids. Lower utility costs – avoid the high …

American wind power reaches 50-gigawatt milestone

From the AWEA press release: The 50 gigawatts (GW) online today means that U.S. wind turbines now power the equivalent of nearly 13 million American homes, or as many as in Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia, Alabama, and Connecticut combined. In addition, 50 gigawatts (GW) of wind power capacity: Represents the generating power of 44 coal-fired …

8 clean energy predictions from a decade ago…that were way wrong

From the Fresh Energy blog and a good reminder that most experts have trouble thinking exponentially.   WIND In 2000, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published its World Energy Outlook, predicting that non-hydro renewable energy would comprise 3 percent of global energy by 2020. That benchmark was reached in 2008. In 2000, IEA projected that there would …

San Onofre Nuclear Plant shut down for the summer – does Southern California still need it?

This summer may be just a test run for operating Southern California’s electrical grid without a nuclear plant. The latest report on the outage at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station shows the replacement of four massive steam generators was accompanied by serious design flaws, with no clear solution in sight. Both stakeholders in San …

5 energy saving tips, what are yours?

Yesterday, Google released it’s electricity usage and the numbers are fantastical. The company uses 260 million watts which is the output of 1/4 of a nuclear power plant. For each google search we use 0.3 watt-hours of electricity. I’m not sure how much that is but I do like the idea of server firing up when …