National Grid Renewables just brought South Dakota’s largest solar farm online in Pennington County. Wild Springs is a 128-megawatt (MW) solar farm in the Southwest Power Pool, which manages the central US’s electric grid and wholesale power market. The solar farm has a 114 MW power purchase agreement with the utility Basin Electric Power Cooperative. […]
Green Energy
A big boost for a climate solution: electricity made from the heat of the Earth
One method of making electricity cleanly to address climate change has been quietly advancing and on Tuesday it hit a milestone. A California utility is backing the largest new geothermal power development in the U.S. — 400 megawatts of clean electricity from the Earth’s heat — enough for some 400,000 homes. Southern California Edison will […]
Life cycle analysis reveals mixed CO₂ benefits from green hydrogen
Green hydrogen often, but certainly not always, leads to CO2 gains. This claim is based on research published in Nature Energy by Kiane de Kleijne from Radboud University and Eindhoven University of Technology. “If you calculate the entire life cycle of green hydrogen production and transport, CO2 gains may be disappointing. However, if green hydrogen is produced from […]
Australia needs large-scale energy production—three reasons why offshore wind is a good fit
On the weekend, an area 20km off the Illawarra coast south of Sydney became Australia’s fourth offshore wind energy zone. It’s the most controversial zone to date, with consultation attracting a record 14,211 submissions—of which 65% were opposed. The zone’s declaration has inflamed fierce debate over the pathway to decarbonization, particularly in industrial regions. The […]
Strategic dam placement can balance hydropower and fish preservation
Hydropower plants need not be disastrous for fishermen and nature. For that, we need to place new dams more strategically, but also modify or even remove some existing ones. Valerio Barbarossa and Rafael Schmitt showed that with a computer model of the Asian Mekong basin. A conflict between the sustainable development goals of affordable and clean energy on one […]
Bacterial batteries that harvest energy from soil
A U.K. university spin-out has developed a bacteria-powered battery that harvests energy from microorganisms in the soil to recharge itself, with a prototype already rolled out in Brazil. Data on conditions in the field are crucial to help farmers make informed decisions and achieve the best possible yields, but powering the sensors that provide such […]
Bringing GPT to the grid: The promise and limitations of large-language models in the energy sector
Much has been discussed about the promise and limitations of large-language models (LLMs) in industries such as education, health care and even manufacturing. But what about energy? Could LLMs, like those that power ChatGPT, help run and maintain the energy grid? New research, published in Joule, suggests that LLMs could play an important role in […]
A shift in energy planning—using models in a different way
To meet the complex requirements of future building and energy systems, Empa researcher Matthias Sulzer and Berkeley Lab researcher Michael Wetter are proposing a paradigm shift in planning of such systems: They call for a more automated and model-based planning process, as has long been common practice in the computer chip and automotive industries. Numerous […]
We are betting the bank on hydrogen. But are we ready for it?
Green hydrogen holds many promises: it can serve as a “battery” for energy storage, it can be used in the chemical industry, and its only emission will be water vapor. But, unfortunately, green hydrogen is not yet widely used, because the production of gray hydrogen from natural gas is much cheaper. Moreover, it’s not trivial […]
‘Moderate’ is the new ‘extreme’: Weather’s impact on growing renewable grid operations
From severe storms to recent unprecedented cold and heat waves, extreme weather events are impacting electric utilities, grid operators, and ultimately customers like never before. At the same time, the energy sources that power the grid are evolving, integrating higher percentages of renewable sources. This evolution in both weather and the power grid is raising […]
