iPhones and Blackberries are becoming the gateway to the world for millions of people now. And of course these tech devices take a chunk of electricity to perform. So any chance to provide that power from solar electricity could be a big step in the Sustainable Energy Transition. Sharp just announced that its first solar-powered cell phone will be released (more…)
Archive for the ‘Coal’ Category
Transition from Coal- to Solar-powered cell phones this summer
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009New Report: US emissions to fall another 2.5+% in 2009
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
In February, I shared that the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) predicted lower greenhouse gas emissions from US energy consumption in 2009. Their earlier projection of ~2% lower emissions just shifted in their April report to a much lower (more…)
Report: NC Doesn’t Need More Coal Power
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
A new report by the NC Waste Awareness & Reduction Network (NC WARN) makes a strong case that my native state of North Carolina can manage its population growth without adding new coal-fired power plants like the 800 MW Cliffside project which just began construction. Report authors John Blackburn and John Runkle even suggest we can phase out many (more…)
US Govt Report: BAU Carbon Emissions Growth Much Slower to 2030
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released their Annual Energy Outlook (AEO2009) this week and their numbers are a lot better than last year when the climate is concerned. It’s exciting to see the progress. But reference scenarios still have emissions growing throughout the period, so we have plenty of work to do. For now, let’s look at the numbers they present… (more…)
Coal Share of US Electricity Falling
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
I’ve got some good news to share — coal is losing its market share in the US electricity mix to less carbon-intensive sources. In the late 1990s, coal-fired power plants produced almost 53% of total US electricity. And the US EIA just released in its estimate for 2008 electricity that coal’s share fell to (more…)
Natural Gas Price Falls with Economy
Wednesday, February 18th, 2009
This week’s economic news has been hard to swallow to say the least. Japan’s quarterly GDP plunge was followed by today’s news that home and apartment construction in January hit the lowest level ever recorded at an annual rate of only 466,000 units. These and other sobering reports sent natural gas prices down to their lowest intra-day level in (more…)
EIA predicts much lower carbon emissions
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009The continued economic struggles in 2009 are hitting carbon-intensive activity especially hard. So says the US Energy Information Agency (EIA) in its updated Short Term Energy Outlook released this afternoon. Global oil demand is now expected to fall by 1.2 million barrels per day (1.4%) and global GDP is expected to grow only (more…)
May not be sexy-tech, but it sure can help
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009
Oak Ridge National Laboratory put out an important report last Fall that you probably didn’t hear about. It’s not on solar, wind, or other sexy renewables technologies. But the technology can pack a great climate mitigation punch at a relatively low cost. It has been around over 100 years and is called co-generation or combined heat and power (CHP). (more…)
It’s Electric: US Emissions Drop Further
Sunday, January 25th, 2009
The EIA recently released estimates for US electricity consumption in Can the Current Cold Snap Raise Fuel Prices?
Thursday, January 15th, 2009
This week is a cold one in the Midwest and East. Here in New York City the high is below 20 degrees and we’ll see single digits at night. Luckily I’m headed South for the inauguration tomorrow, but temperatures will still be below freezing in DC. Can this cold snap raise oil and natural gas prices from their current lows? (more…)