Al Gore, self-appointed father of the climate change movement, astonished his most ardent supporters with a plan to produce 100% of the nation’s electricity from renewable energy and carbon-free sources within 10 years. “The quickest, cheapest, and best way to start using all this renewable energy is in the production of electricity. In fact, we […]

Cost hikes for all things nuclear in the U.S. and UK / North Americans plan liquid makeover for coal / California balloon bill deflates in legislative process / The Lego skyscraper / Of manure and methane / U.S. small wind turbine market moving slowly / Israeli desert center tests solar thermal tech for California desert / POWER digest / Correction

If you love irony, as I, then you will find this delicious. Hybrid electric vehicle enthusiasts are less than enthusiastic about the plan by natural gas empresario T. Boone Pickens to boost wind electric generation. Pickens has proposed a major expansion of wind power to back out gas generation in electricity markets. That, in turn, […]

My friends, John McCain’s pronouncements in his acceptance speech for the Republican nomination as president were entirely bogus when it comes to energy. Unfortunately, so were Barack Obama’s when he accepted the Democratic nomination. Both candidates tout plans for “energy independence,” while neither actually defines the term. What exactly is “energy independence?” Is it zero […]

More evidence that the globe is not catastrophically warming comes from the current issue of Science magazine. A research team led by W.T. Pfeffer of the University of Colorado at Boulder in the current issue of the magazine concludes that current global circulation models vastly overstate the possibilities of sea level rise as a result […]

Just when you thought coal was down for the count, here’s a report from London’s Financial Times. “British coal production looks set to grow for the first time since 2001, thanks to higher prices and power generators’ new-found appreciation of domestic coal supplies.” Coal production in the UK mostly has been falling since the 1950s. […]

Have you noticed that liquefied natural gas has dropped off the charts when it comes to U.S. energy supply projects? Just a few years ago, LNG was a very big deal. Today, new imported gas in liquid form from foreign countries has become a largely dead-end. Why? It’s mostly a matter of domestic gas technology, […]

I haven’t always been a supporter of former President Jimmy Carter’s politics, but I did vote for him, mainly because we shared the Navy experience and he was educated as an engineer. His later opposition to nuclear power surprised many of us in the power business at the time, and I found his suggestion to […]

Australia considers seabed sequestration legislation / ElectraTherm installs its first commercial waste-heat generator / Mass. researchers achieve dramatic increase in thermoelectric efficiency / Nuclear power option for developing nations gaining steam / The great green wall of China / POWER digest / Correction

Assess your cooling tower’s condition / Proper technique for vertical-up stick welding / Move material with a sonic horn