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Need power generation plants always exist as hulking industrial behemoths? Wind and solar power growth is already shifting the generation of electricity from an eyesore to a new and necessary component of our 21st century landscape.
Now a British architectural design firm is giving the more conventional combustion power plant a much-needed makeover. Of course, this [...]

Whenever I start to feel like the challenge of preventing climate change might just be insurmountable — this happens often as I read reports at work on the scale of carbon reduction needed — it’s a welcome news to hear that some hair-brained scientist/engineer has broken assumed technical barriers by employing a completely novel method.
Well, [...]

As an energy analyst, I often see in my own work the drastic effect of scope on analysis results.
For example, take a simple-sounding question like, “How much energy is required to produce a ton of iron?”
This is a relatively straightforward analysis if the scope of energy usage includes only the iron plant. You count the [...]

Good news for the future of cap and trade — and our climate — from a couple researchers at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) probably won’t cost as much as previously thought, which will keep the overall price of carbon credits lower because the carbon dioxide emitted from coal power [...]

Say you’re an ambitious young engineer and you want to tackle some seriously challenging problems. The automotive industry has no money to hire you, and their work on battery-powered cars is mundane and rote anyway.  You could work in aerospace, designing the next satellite or Mars rover, but even those challenges are no longer brand [...]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is denying climate change and opposing the cap and trade bill with “disingenuous attempts to diminish or distort the reality,” according to PG&E Chairman and CEO Peter Darbee. PG&E recently pulled its membership from the Chamber, and now Exelon Corp. has done the same today.
Why is the Chamber so opposed [...]

This article on Steven Chu, the new Secretary of the Department of Energy (DOE) — note: I am a consultant for the DOE — provides an interesting perspective on China’s attitudes about climate change. Is it possible that, despite its rapid expansion of “dirty” coal power and its polluted cities, China is more serious about [...]

President Obama visited my home state of Iowa yesterday, on Earth Day, to highlight his administration’s energy agenda, including reduced greenhouse emissions, increased renewable energy production, a cap-and-trade emissions reduction program, and the creation of an advanced energy innovation industry as a pillar of the US economy. See the AP article.
Obama used the town of [...]