Solar power is increasingly available around the clock as energy storage become more affordable. Todd Karin was prepared when California’s largest utility shut off power to millions of people to avoid the risk of wildfires last month. He’s got rooftop solar panels connected to a single Tesla Powerwall in his rural home near Fairfield,
It depends, experts say. Just expect to make a few sacrifices. Even by the standards of the generally well-informed clean-energy customers in California's Bay Area, Todd Karin is a savvy one. Karin works as a postdoctoral researcher in the energy storage and distributed resources division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Last year, he chose
The Liberal Democrats party has released its manifesto for the upcoming general election, promising to ramp up support for renewables. Under a Lib Dem leadership, community and decentralised energy would be expanded, with a requirement for all new homes to be fitted with solar panels, and support for councils to develop local electricity generation.
You can hear—and smell—them everywhere you go in the world’s poorest countries. Diesel-burning back-up generators wail through neighborhoods at all hours, cough noxious pollutants into the air, and account for a disproportionate amount of consumers’ spending on electricity. For decades, back-up generators have been the only real alternative to unreliable electric grids. But what
The U.K. government was the first major economy in the world to pass laws to end its contribution to global warming by 2050. But to achieve this ambition is going to take some major changes – not least of which to the U.K.’s power network. According to energy market analyst, Aurora Energy Research for
Australians are embracing the ‘virtual power plant’, which advocates say can protect the grid, save money and combat the climate crisis Power to the people might remain a political pipe dream, but changes taking place in the energy market across Australia are making suburban homeowners the unlikely disruptors in an Uber-style revolution that promises
Batteries are having a moment. In early October, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three scientists for their research on lithium-ion batteries. Their work decades ago led to batteries becoming smaller, more powerful, more portable, and rechargeable, all of which have transformed our laptops, our phones,
What are the different backup options with a home battery.
Solar has continued to be the most popular renewable technology with the public as of September 2019, a factor which must be considered by any prospective government the industry has said. Statistics released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) shows solar has an 85% approval rate with the public. The
The Green Party today launched its manifesto for the 12 December election, which hinges on its Green New Deal. This builds on the party’s previous pledges to reduce emissions, making the UK carbon neutral by 2030 and invest £100 billion a year for the next decade in climate action. This will form the basis