If you listen to solar advocates in Europe, the upheavals on this side of the globe — revolutions in North Africa, debt misery in Greece — have only brightened the prospects for solar power. German plans to phase out nuclear power have put at least one large nation in the market for new sources of power, and two would-be providers have sworn that global crises won't hurt their ambitions. On the contrary — they'll help! (Just watch out for those other solar salesmen.) First there's Greece. Germany's perennial project to both aid Greece and save the euro might include a deal to buy ... Read More
The Greening of Angela Merkel
August 31, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Before Japan's Fukushima disaster, in any German debate on nuclear power, Chancellor Angela Merkel played the role of a cautious and conservative mother hen. We may not like it, she said, but nuclear energy is easy on the climate, and a national shift to solar and wind power would need a long and sturdy "bridge technology." A trained physicist, she seemed to speak from professional prudence. After Fukushima, she changed her mind with dizzying speed. The results are well known: German nuclear plants will go dark by 2022, and the nation will steer a hard course for renewable power by working ... Read More
Solar Entrepreneurs’ New Sales Pitch
August 19, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Solar power has taken root — not in the U.S. where it supplies but 1 percent of the power generated only from renewable sources — but in energy-deprived villages of the developing world. Because costs for electricity in the U.S. are already low, unlike in rural India and Africa, the incentive to turn over to solar is lower for American households. But in poor areas around the world, some communities have skipped an entire generation of coal-powered electricity. Despite the attractiveness of solar cells and solar concentrators lighting up and heating poor villages, solar brings its ... Read More
Is LEED the Gold Standard in Green?
June 13, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
It is telling that the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., wants the design of a biblical theme park that will showcase a 500-foot-long replica of Noah’s Ark to qualify for certification by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, an industry standard for sustainable buildings. Mike Zovath, senior vice president of Answers in Genesis, the “apologetics (i.e., Christianity-defending) ministry” that built the museum, is a climate change skeptic who told The Washington Post that he liked the idea of energy efficiency: “There is a pretty significant return on ... Read More
Plugging High-Speed Rail Into Germany’s Power Grid
May 18, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Germans, feeling the bite of necessity, have announced another use for their electrified rail network: It can carry green energy, too. The German rail system has several thousand miles of high-voltage transmission lines that can be modified to broaden the national energy grid. And because of a seismic shift in German policy, the government has to find a quick solution to a daunting problem, namely how to move large amounts of renewable energy from one region to another. Wind turbines spin in the northeast, for example; but cities are growing in the south and west. The German grid would need ... Read More
A Rising Green-Tech Tide Will Lift All Boats
March 19, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
As energy legislation stacks up in the U.S. Congress, those who would limit carbon emissions and boost green technology see a new line of attack. It's time to think in terms of an "Earth Race," they say, pointing to reports of large, targeted investments in green-tech by several Asian countries. Advocates of green-tech funding, including the Breakthrough Institute (see Miller-McCune.com Q&A with Teryn Norris), see a Chinese ascendancy in green tech. Losing confidence in the United Nations' efforts to curb carbon emissions on a global scale, these proponents frame the debate in ... Read More
Throwing the Race for Green Energy
March 18, 2010 • By • 1 Comment
A few years ago, the news was that China was adding two new coal plants a week to its energy grid. Last year the narrative shifted: China was erecting wind turbines at the rate of one turbine a week. In 2010, yet another narrative is at work: China, Japan and South Korea are pouring lots of money into research and development of green technologies (not that China has abandoned coal, which provides about 80 percent of its electricity). Because of these strategic investments, China is positioned to emerge as a global green tech leader, gaining first-mover advantage and diminishing the United ... Read More
Liquefied Manure’s Thomas Paine May Be German
July 8, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
A village in northern Germany called Jühnde has become famous in green-energy circles as one of the world's most successful "bio-villages." That means it heats the houses of some 75 percent of its citizens with both wood chips and methane gas produced from byproducts of local farms — fermented silage (sunflowers, maize, wheat and rye) or liquefied manure. "Seventy-five percent" of Jühnde is, admittedly, only about 200 people. But that hasn't kept the village from an unexpected level of international fame. Eckhard Fangmeier, the project manager in Jühnde, has traveled twice to ... Read More
