Greentech Media · Page 21

Solistice is a community solar company trying to make PV accessible to everyone. And that mission is influenced by CEO Steph Speirs' background. Steph grew up one of three kids, first generation, in Hawaii. Her mom had immigrated from Korea. She knows what…

Long duration storage occupies an enviable position in the cleantech hype cycle. Its allure has proven more durable than energy blockchain, and its commercialization is further along than super-buzzy green hydrogen. Depending on who you talk to, long duration…

Amidst massive wildfires, rolling blackouts and the continued threat of large-scale grid outages, California is shifting more than $100 million of its $1.2 billion Self Generation Incentive Program budget to help low-income communities install about 100…

The U.S. offshore wind map may be dominated by European developers, but the industry is steadily taking on a local flavor. On Thursday, market leader Ørsted announced that Thomas Brostrøm, long-standing CEO of the Danish developer’s U.S. offshore wind…

We live in an increasingly virtual world. You can hold virtual meetings with virtual friends using virtual reality systems hosted on virtual servers. And in energy circles, one of the biggest buzzwords in recent years is the virtual power plant, or VPP.  …

When we talk about climate change on this podcast, and what causes it, we are usually talking about gases that come from vehicles or from the electricity sector.  But what about the built environment? This week: we’re talking about the embedded emissions in…

At least 40 million Americans have already cast a ballot in early voting, with still more than a week until Election Day.   In this episode of Political Climate, we examine if environmental issues are mobilizing voters the way that analysts anticipated. Who…

Cities are playing a noticeable role in cutting U.S. carbon emissions, but their overall performance is mixed. Since the Trump administration pulled back from national climate leadership, more local actors have taken the initiative. Eight states and several…

Most U.S. voters now favor action on climate change. But even if November brings a win for Joe Biden, who has vowed to transition the country’s electricity system to carbon-free sources by 2035, significant policy changes are far from a given. Enacting…

After years in which making money seemed largely beside the point, electric car leader Tesla showed investors Wednesday that it can make substantial quarterly profits. The company delivered a record number of cars in the third quarter, created a record $1.4…

Iberdrola’s Avangrid has agreed to acquire PNM Resources, owner of regulated utilities in New Mexico and Texas, enlarging what is already one of the largest U.S. utility groups — and one with an aggressive focus on renewable energy. The combined company…

Blockchain’s energy sector uses range from the highly speculative—think peer-to-peer energy trading using cryptocurrency raised in initial coin offerings (ICOs)—to more incremental efforts, grounded in real-world challenges of operating an increasingly…

The utilities of yesteryear had an obvious answer whenever they needed more power: simply build a new coal or gas-fired plant. But with carbon emissions out of fashion, and growing levels of demand response and distributed renewables on the grid, virtual power…

Over the past half-decade, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has consistently won court battles upholding its authority over states to set the rules for how distributed energy resources (DERs) can play in wholesale energy markets.  Now FERC is being…

A proposed fusion reactor design by Commonwealth Fusion Systems has received a boost after its underlying scientific principles were validated by peer review.  CFS, one of two fusion hopefuls that have attracted oil industry interest, published seven papers…

New York City may be weeks away from seeing tidal power injected onto the local grid. Verdant Power, a 20-year-old tidal energy startup, plans to install a half-scale generator in the East River tidal strait this autumn, adding a small but novel source of…

Barry Cinnamon is CEO of California's Cinnamon Energy Systems. I’m writing this in San Jose during a Mars-like red sky, light ash occasionally falling, and a faint smell of smoke in the air. Solar output has been down by 60 percent even though the fires are…

Onshore wind turbines can be found everywhere from the tropics to the Arctic. Three decades ago, developers started putting them on fixed foundations out at sea, sparking the rise of the offshore wind market, which built 6.1 gigawatts of new capacity in 2019.…

U.S. homes and commercial buildings consume roughly two-fifths of the country’s overall energy, three-fourths of all electricity, and account for most of the peak electricity demand that drives generation and power grid infrastructure costs. Each of these…

California regulators said this year that the state will need 1 gigawatt of long duration storage by 2026. But the technologies that can cost-effectively meet that need have so far attracted more attention from white paper authors than paying customers. That…