Tag Archives: New York Times

Sometimes we’re spot-on when we predict the future. Other times we blow it horribly. Take smart homes, the forerunner of today’s smart grid. Back in the 1980s, prognosticators thought we’d have millions of smart homes by now and that they would achieve remarkable feats. For example, a United Press International article from 1986 said that a child would be able to stick …

Energy efficiency’s largest players grew, even as the economy lagged in recent years. And they show no signs of slowing down, says a new report distributed by the National Association of Energy Service Companies. Revenue growth averaged nine percent annually from 2009 to 2011 for large energy efficiency service companies, or ESCOs, according to the report, prepared by the Department …

The energy efficiency  industry is mad for data, especially anything that will give insight into what spurs consumers to save energy or buy green products. But unfortunately, not all data is good data and some leads the industry astray. Take for example the oft-cited surveys that consumers are willing to pay more for green energy. This led several utilities to …

Been asking yourself that question? Then take a look at a report released this week by the Carbon War Room that honestly investigates what bolsters energy efficiency markets, what doesn’t and why. We all know that energy efficiency is one of the big business opportunities of our time. By 2020 it could become a $245 billion per year global market, …

Combined heat and power, or CHP, continues to be one of those great ideas that can’t seem to get traction. In fact, the technology has lost ground, according to a recent energy efficiency report. The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy found that CHP installations fell 1.5 percent at industrial facilities from 2010 to 2011 in the July 2, 2013 …

Electric cars have gotten all the attention lately, but they’re far from the only vehicles that run on electricity. In fact, the first electric motorcycle appeared in the pages of Popular Mechanics over 100 years ago. However, like early electric cars, they were basically forgotten once gasoline became cheap and easy to get. Now that gas is expensive and people …

A pretty big wad of money – $40 billion – is hiding somewhere inside the lights, AC, thermostats, furnaces and fans of our offices, stores, hospitals and schools. That’s the amount of money the federal government estimates we can save annually by reducing energy use in commercial buildings 20 percent by 2020. To achieve the goal, the Obama administration in …

Catching a nasty virus certainly isn’t on anyone’s holiday wish list, but for solar power it might be just what the doctor ordered. With the help of a genetically modified virus, materials researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to boost the efficiency of one type of thin-film photovoltaic cell by 30 percent. For years, engineers …

By Elisa Wood December 7, 2011 Electric utilities operated under a rarefied business model for decades. Their customers were captive so they rarely had to think about what motivated them to buy. New government energy efficiency mandates have changed that, and done so with an ironic twist. Now utilities must figure how to get their customers to refrain from buying. …

Sometimes you just have to scratch your head and wonder. We currently have a politico climate where there is great debate over the Solyndra bankruptcy and the money they got from the US in support of the solar energy products they were developing. While I am not one to sneeze at $500 million it just seems like we have gone …

By Elisa Wood September 21, 2011 Not so long ago the green energy movement celebrated because President Obama used words like ‘renewable energy’ and ‘climate change’ in his inaugural speech. It was a first for a US president. Now comes the downside of being a political darling. Opponents of green energy – or rather opponents of its proponents – are …

The horrific Japanese disaster and nuclear power plant failures have many of us around the world worried about fallout. Personally the more the TV commentators tells us there is nothing to worry about the more I worry because they are just regurgitating what they are fed by authorities. Let us see what really happens. So to that point we should …

If you want to look into the future of sustainable energy in the United States, look at solar power. If you want to look into the future of solar power, look at the prices for solar panels. If you want to look at the future of solar panels, look to China.

In his State of the union address President Bush included his new initiatives for reducing energy dependence on foreign oil. Now the row around the country is whether his plans can work. Democrats and environmentalists seem to think it will not.