wind energy

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Six million workers are employed globally in the $217 billion green energy industry today. But in only 8 years, they will more than double to 14 million. Half of those jobs would be connected to “electric vehicles, solar PV, wind and heat pumps.” And the size of the industry will […]

Climate Crisis

Just How Big Can Wind Turbines get, as Some already Rival Skyscrapers?

The Conversation

By Simon Hogg, Durham University | – In 2023, some 100 miles off the coast of north-east England, the world’s largest wind turbines will start generating electricity. This first phase of the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm development uses General Electric’s Haliade X, a turbine that stands more than a quarter of a kilometre high […]

Batteries

Rapid Move to Wind and Solar Power would Save the world $12 Trillion: Oxford Study

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A transition away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of power by 2050 will save the world $12 trillion, according to a new study published in Joule by Oxford researchers Rupert Way, Matthew C. Ives, Penny Mealy, and J. Doyne Farmer. Oxford’s press release points out that the paper foresees […]

Climate Change

Russia’s Ukraine War and Energy Crisis have Scared the World into Turbocharging adoption of Wind, Solar for Power

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A new report by the International Energy Agency suggests that the 2022 global energy crisis, caused in part by Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, has had the effect of greatly accelerating the world’s rush to green energy. The IEA suggests that its estimates for the pace of the transition to […]

Climate Crisis

First US Leases to Build Wind Farms off California’s Coast are Let: The Amazing Technology

The Conversation

By Matthew Lackner, UMass Amherst | – (The Conversation) – Northern California has some of the strongest offshore winds in the U.S., with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible. Once […]

Climate Crisis

52% of S. Dakota’s Electricity comes from Wind Power and other Green Energy Triumphs even in Red States

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – About 10% of the electricity generated in the US comes from wind installations. It isn’t nearly enough, either to fight the climate crisis or just to improve people’s health. It has now become clear that the people who get lung cancer but do not smoke are living near coal-fired power […]

Climate Crisis

Tumultuous First Year for Germany’s Government may start Energy Transition Push

Benjamin Wehrmann

Benjamin Wehrmann | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – One year after taking over Germany’s government, chancellor Olaf Scholz’s “traffic light” coalition [so called because his Social Democratic Party (SPD) is symbolized by red, the center-right Free Democrats (FDP) are yellow, and the Green Party is, well, green], the looks back at some turbulent […]

China

What If the U.S. and China Really Cooperated on Climate Change? Imagining a Necessary Future

Michael T. Klare

( Tomdispatch.com) – As President Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping arrived on the resort island of Bali, Indonesia, for their November 14th “summit,” relations between their two countries were on a hair-raising downward spiral, with tensions over Taiwan nearing the boiling point. Diplomats hoped, at best, for a modest reduction in tensions, which, […]

Climate Crisis

Did the Ukraine War kill ‘Natural Gas?’ Solar Power is 10 times Cheaper over the long Term

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The independent energy research firm Rystad Energy, headquartered in Oslo, has found that it would be ten times less expensive over the long run to install solar farms than to continue to operate gas-fired electricity plants in Europe. Although the Ukraine War has been good for petroleum and fossil gas […]