wind energy

  • 2020 Toyota Highlander teaser

    Tesla CEO Elon Musk reaches a new settlement with the SEC to avoid contempt charges. We sat down with the chief engineer of the new 2020 Toyota Highlander Hybrid to learn how it reaches fuel-economy estimates similar to the compact Corolla. Some new infrastructure could help boost wind power in California. And New York puts its public transportation to work delivering solar power. All this and more on Green Car Reports. Following a second run-in with the Securities and Exchange Commission in February, in which agency lawyers threatened to hold him in contempt of an earlier agreement, Musk...

  • Wind farm outside Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada   [photographer: Joel Bennett]
    Powerline approval could bring EV drivers more wind power

    A new transmission line between Wyoming and the Hoover Dam could help solve some of the issues regarding renewable energy production and demand.

  • 2019 Ford F-150
    Ford Mustang Hybrid, wind power, EPA holdups, American electrics: Today's Car News

    Wind power is expected become America's top renewable energy source in 2019. The recent government shutdown may have held up the sale of some new fuel-efficient cars—and another one may hold up even more. Our latest Twitter poll asks how important it is to our readers for electric cars to be...

  • Mulan wind farm [CREDIT: Global Climate Budget 2018]
    Blowing away dirty energy: Wind to pass hydro as top renewable in 2019

    For electric-car drivers looking to emit less pollution as the drive, 2019 could be a banner year. The U.S. electric grid has been getting gradually greener as utilities replace coal fired powerplants with primarily wind and natural gas. That trend is due to reach a tipping point in 2019, according...

  • Tesla and SolarCity solar farm on Ta'u, American Samoa
    Solar investment falls in midst of erupting trade war

    Electric cars and solar power fit together like a hand in a glove. Charging with solar power, electric cars can drive using almost no non-renewable energy. Now according to a report in Bloomberg New Energy Finance last week, solar investment has dropped by 19 percent worldwide in the second quarter...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Renewables to generate half of worldwide electricity by 2050: report

    Falling prices for lithium-ion batteries will enable half the world's electricity to come from renewable solar and wind by 2050. That still won't be enough to meet global climate targets, however. Those are the conclusions of a new report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), released today...

  • Wind farm outside Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada   [photographer: Joel Bennett]

    Renewable-energy generation costs are falling like photons onto a solar panel. By 2020, it's expected all types of renewable-energy generation will be able to compete with fossil fuels on cost. That's right: saving our environment will actually save electric utilities some money, too. DON'T MISS: Two-thirds of world's new energy capacity in 2016 was renewable: IEA The cost of generating electricity with onshore wind has fallen by about 25 percent since 2010, according to a new cost analysis from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena) During that same period, solar power generation...

  • U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry in 2008, when he was governor of Texas
    U.S. regulator rejects coal, nuclear bailout, says renewable energy may double by 2020

    For much of last year, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry pursued a plan that, in essence, would prop up the financially challenged U.S. coal and nuclear industries. His proposal, submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last fall, provided financial subsidies to electric-generation...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Soaring growth of solar power demonstrated in one chart (updated)

    Sometimes a picture is truly worth a thousand words. In the case of the rapidly rising rate of solar installations for electricity generation, numerous forecasts by internationally respected bodies have proven woefully conservative. The chart in the tweet below, created by Auke Hoekstra at the...

  • Tesla Kauai solar-energy generation and storage project  [photo: The Verge]
    Two-thirds of world's new energy capacity in 2016 was renewable: IEA

    For years, renewable energy has been cast as the most expensive option to reduce emissions and the world's reliance on fossil fuels. But 2016 may have marked a turn for the renewable energy sector, with solar energy in particular rising significantly in output. For the first time in history...

  • California state capitol, Sacramento
    California plans for its post-fossil-fuel future in electricity, cars

    For 50 years, the state of California has led the United States when it comes to renewable energy and electric cars. The state features many programs to incentivize electric-car ownership, and 29 percent of the state's 2016 energy production came from solar, wind, and other renewable power sources...

  • Solar farm used by West Hill House B&B
    Can we have fully carbon-free electricity by 2100? Predictions vary

    The future of energy production remains in considerable debate, but some new research provides a more optimistic view for a lower-carbon future. Sources for new and replacement energy production remain uncertain, especially the degree to which renewable sources can replace those based on fossil...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee

    Scientists generally debate their studies and projections in relatively civil language, but perhaps the currently adversarial tenor of U.S. politics has spilled over into science. A 2015 study on the potential for renewable energy use in the U.S. has now produced not only a stringent attack, but a harsh rebuttal to that attack in language rarely seen among academics. The debate erupted in the pages of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DON'T MISS: Renewable energy to hit 9 percent of U.S. total in 2017 Two years ago, Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Solar jobs have grown 20 percent a year since 2012; coal, not so much

    Here's a little quiz on a topic much discussed over the past couple of years: jobs. How many people work in the U.S. coal industry? Not just miners, but office staff, too. And, how many people work for solar-energy companies in the U.S.? DON'T MISS: Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than...

  • Offshore wind farm
    From coal miner to wind-farm worker: Wyoming retraining program

    President Donald Trump has announced his intention to pull the United States from the Paris Climate Pact, but private companies and other entities are taking on the challenge of clean energy themselves. Goldwind Americas, a subsidiary of a leading Chinese wind-turbine manufacturer, continues to...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than fossil fuels: analysis

    Yesterday, U.S. president Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to begin the process of rolling back pretty much every vestige of U.S. efforts to address climate change. In both his campaigning and since his inauguration, Trump has claimed that his government and its actions focus on creating...

  • wind farm
    Bipartisan governors' group urges Trump to back solar, wind power

    The new presidential administration seems poised to take a radically different approach to energy policy than its predecessor. That approach is founded on denial of accepted climate science, and an expressed desire to promote the fossil-fuel industry, including the so-called revival of coal. But...

  • wind farm
    Wind energy capacity in Europe now exceeds total coal output

    While homeowners are more familiar with photovoltaic solar panels, large-scale wind power is an increasingly important part of the growth in renewable energy. For the first time, the total installed capacity of wind energy in Europe now exceeds the total output of electric powerplants fueled with...

  • Offshore wind farm

    The winds of change are blowing harder in the U.K. The price of energy generated by offshore wind farms has been falling steadily, and ahead of schedule too. Costs have fallen 32 percent since 2012, bringing them below a target of £100 per megawatt-hour previously set by the U.K. government and utilities. DON'T MISS: When lauding renewables, look at utilization, not just capacity Wind energy wasn't expected to reach that threshold until 2020, according to the annual Cost Reduction Monitoring Framework report issued by the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapault advocacy group. Set in 2012...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    When lauding renewables, look at utilization, not just capacity

    The news on the renewable energy front continues to be good, with the costs of wind and solar generation falling steadily. By some measures, large-scale renewable energy is now cost-competitive (or close) with the most efficient natural-gas electric plants. Moreover, the amounts of clean generating...

  • Dutch NS Sprinter electric train by Flickr user kismihok (Used under CC License)
    All Dutch electric trains now running on 100-percent renewable energy

    While modern electric cars have only been available in large numbers for a few years, electric trains have been commonplace for some time. As with electric cars, the source of the electricity used to power these trains impacts their overall carbon footprint. The cleaner an energy source, the...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    More solar energy was added in 2016 than natural gas or wind

    Renewable-energy growth has accelerated in 2016, but this may go down as a milestone year for one renewable-energy source in particular. Together, all renewable-energy sources are expected to account for 8 percent of U.S. electricity-generation capacity in 2017, according to the Department of...

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    We're there! Renewables now cheapest unsubsidized electricity in U.S.

    Unsubsidized utility-scale solar power is now cheaper than natural gas, according to new analysis.

  • Photovoltaic solar power field at Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee
    Renewable energy to hit 9 percent of U.S. total in 2017

    Renewable energy will hit 9 percent of the total U.S. generating mix in 2017, according to the Department of Energy.

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