Energy Basics: The Electricity Business and Power Markets
We hope these episodes will give you a bit more familiarity with the terms and concepts of energy, and help to fill in some of the knowledge that you were never offered in school.
Electricity
Energy Basics: Electricity, Generation and Grid Management
If you have found yourself occasionally challenged to follow some of the more technical conversations we have here, or even if you just want to brush up on the fundamentals, this mini-series is for you! We hope these episodes will give you a bit more familiarity with the terms and concepts of energy, and help to fill in some of the knowledge that you were never offered in school.
How We Cut Our Electricity Usage by 85%
You read that right: 85%. My family of four uses, on average, 4.7 kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity per day. Our electric bill never tops $32 per month. In the past we used just over 30 kWh/day, which is about average in the U.S., although there is huge variation. In our state, the average is over 36 kWh/day.
How Advance Cost Recovery Swindled the South
How did the legal innovation of “advance cost recovery” allow utilities in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi to torch more than $40 billion on nuclear and coal plants that went way over budget or never produced a single kilowatt-hour of electricity?
Mapped: How the US Generates Electricity
The US electricity system is often described as the world’s largest machine. It is also incredibly diverse, reflecting the policy preferences, needs and available natural resources of each state. Carbon Brief has plotted the nation’s power stations in an interactive map (above) to show how and where the US generates electricity.
Puerto Rico: When the electricity stops
When the electricity stops in modern civilization, pretty much everything else stops. Not even gasoline-powered vehicles can get far before they are obliged to seek a fill-up—which they cannot get because gas pumps rely on electricity to operate.
Legal Challenges of PURPA and FERC
In addition to our deep dive on PURPA and around-market reforms, we’ll also discuss some of the likely implications of Trump’s new direction in energy policy, implications for the Clean Power Plan, and how the federal government’s leadership role on climate might be changing.
Renewable Electricity: Falling Costs, Variability, and Scaling Challenges
The universal availability and use of electricity has come to define modern life, at least for the vast majority of North Americans and western Europeans.
Electricity For All: Daniel Kammen – Part 1
Daniel Kammen paints a hopeful picture of a future where affordable renewable energy reaches the 1.2 billion people who currently live without access to electricity, with an overall positive impact on the environment.
How Solar Can Help Nepal’s Relief Efforts
Following the earthquake, Gham Power provided lights and mobile charging stations for relief workers and the displaced.
Energy Crunch: Losing power?
Should we be worried about the threat of a cold dark winter?
Could BC Become a 100% Renewable Energy Region?: Electricity and Heat
Would the transition away from fossil fuels fatally weaken BC’s economy, as some conservative thinkers fear? Worse yet, would it drag us back to the dark ages? Are the fear-mongers right?