As someone who has been exploring the world’s most isolated wilderness regions for nearly half a century, I have some insight into the state of the planet and the human race’s current environmental befuddlement. I’ve watched the condition of the earth plummet before my eyes within my own lifespan, to the extent that I
There is now enough installed solar energy capacity in the U.S. to power 13.5 million homes, and this amount is expected to double in the next five years. The solar energy industry is part of a very dynamic market. Many factors — including government policies, fossil fuel costs, solar energy technology advances, commodity prices,
In much of the discussion of renewables as part of the energy mix, the argument often focuses on the unreliable or intermittent nature of these different sources of energy. While at one stage it was true that renewables would not work as firm capacity, the landscape continues to change. With an increasing preponderance of
As with so many things, Californians are going first where the rest of us will follow Monday morning dawned smoky across much of California, and it dawned scary – over the weekend winds as high as a hundred miles an hour had whipped wildfires through forests and subdivisions. It wasn’t the first time this
More batteries installed. More markets opening up. And grid storage making itself indispensable in unanticipated ways. For too long, the rhetoric around what storage can do for the grid vastly outweighed the actual doing. This year, the industry closed that gap more than ever before. Exceedingly few batteries actually live up to the vision
Electric car, home solar installation and an energy storage system that all complement each other. Fully Charged's Robert Llewellyn, a well known electric cars enthusiast, from the beginning was also very interested in the electrification of homes, which means own electricity generation using solar and storing the energy using batteries. In one of the
California’s fire season is back. Yet if this past week is any indication, our emergency response remains woefully inadequate. When disaster strikes we are far from being energy resilient, ensuring reliable access to electricity for our most vulnerable communities. Climate fires are California’s new normal. Dangerous combinations of high (20-60 mph) sustained winds and
Energy storage is no longer an asset class that utilities can ignore. One of the biggest criticisms of renewable energy has been its inherently intermittent nature. Solar energy plants don't produce power at night, and wind turbines don't produce power without wind, so utilities need fossil-fuel or power plants to keep the grid running.
Introduction For nearly a decade I have been following the bad news on climate change and peak oil and become increasingly concerned by them. In recent years I have started to both reduce my personal carbon footprint and actively prepare for what looks like an uncertain and troubling future for us all. I have now
Smart Export Guarantee (SEG) tariffs have been unveiled after the legislation came into full effect yesterday (1 January 2020), with pricing ranging wildly from Social Energy's 5.6p per kWh down to the barely-compliant 0.001p per kWh that Shell Energy is offering. Under the SEG, suppliers with over 150,000 domestic customers were required to launch