By BUSINESS.COM Editorial Staff Energy conservation isn’t a choice to consider – it’s a competitive advantage you can’t afford to ignore. “The slightest persistent waste...
Archive for category: energy solutions
Extravaganza Business Showcase Part 1: Recap
By Vishnu Babu Leaders in Energy is a nonpartisan group providing stewardship in energy and environment. Each year business panels present current work being done...
Purchasing Local Solar Power is a Win-Win for Cities
By Adam Agolloco Whether it’s Lancaster County produce or Kennett Square mushrooms, people in Philadelphia — and in many U.S. cities — recognize the benefits...
The Stories We Tell When We Talk About Carbon and Climate Change
ByShana Rappaport There’s nothing quite like a pre-caffeinated carpool with strangers to inspire a stroke of insight. For those less familiar with the “shared” route...
Knowledge As Power: Improving the Energy Industry with Artificial Intelligence and ‘Smart’ Systems
By MIRIAM ACZEL The global energy sector produces and uses massive amounts of data. To further enhance the power of this wealth of energy-related data, artificial...
Passive Housing: A Smarter Way of Living
My name is Helen O’Keeffe and I work for EZ Living Interiors – a home furnishings retailer based in Ireland and the UK. I enjoy...
Similarities between the Italian Hera Group and the Community Choice Energy programs in California
In the past three articles, I analyzed several aspects of the Hera Group, its strong dedication to sustainable development, and how the company is advancing energy efficiency in industry. There is one more thing I would like to mention and in particular Hera’s organizational structure and some common features with the Community Choice Energy (CCE) programs in California, also known as Community Choice Aggregation (CCA). For this purpose, I will explore data from Marin Clean Energy (MCE), which I introduced in previous articles as the subject of my research.
Virginia’s rural co-ops learning lessons with community solar
Last month, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) approved three-year pilot community solar programs for four distribution co-ops served by the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC), based in the Richmond suburb of Glen Allen. They are A&N, Mecklenburg, Northern Neck and Rappahannock. In addition, applications by two other distribution co-ops also served by Old Dominion — Shenandoah Valley and Southside — are pending before the SCC.
Cambodia’s Renewable Energy Prospects
Cambodia has made great strides in its efforts to develop its economy and improve the standard of living of its mostly rural population, with current GDP growth rate hovering around 7%. But a 2016 WWF report claimed that more than 6 million Cambodians still lacked access to energy, and Cambodia’s developing industries—particularly textiles—are energy-hungry. Cambodia developed a blueprint for development in 2013, Rectangular Strategy, Phase III, that identifies cheaper energy sources for households and business/industrial consumers as key to continuing development. The report says that while large-scale hydro and coal-fired plants have thus far been the preferred strategy due to their high generation potential and low production costs, diversifying energy sources to reduce fossil fuel reliance is also an important goal going forward.
Limitless: The Race to Create the Sun on Earth
A research group at MIT says nuclear fusion is within years of being commercially viable. And a European project, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is also aggressively moving toward development of nuclear fusion power. Is this the dawn of a new nuclear age—safe, sustainable energy from nuclear fusion?
The joke about energy from nuclear fusion is that it is always just 20 years away. In the 1950s, researchers hoped that they could solve our energy crisis by building a sun on earth. They predicted that it would be possible to harness the sun’s energy-making processes, known as nuclear fusion. If successful, this process would allow humans to use the abundant hydrogen on earth to provide limitless energy, while avoiding the potential catastrophic risks of nuclear fission reactions and generation of toxic nuclear waste.