Distributed Energy

In his final State of the Union (SOTU) address on January 12, and arguably less so than in any other address he has given over the last seven years, President Obama made sparse mention of energy and climate change. The president dedicated most of the energy references in his address to “clean” energy, encapsulating wind […]

The autonomous region of Xinjiang has a strategic position in China’s economy, yet several conditions limit the most effective use of its fuels. This article provides an overview of the situation. A more detailed version, with maps and tables, appears here under the same title. Since ancient times, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang) has held […]

In mid-November, current members of POWER’ s Generating Company Advisory Team responded by email to a set of questions about their concerns, challenges, and new initiatives as they plan for the year ahead

From issuance of the final Clean Power Plan to mammoth mergers, 2015 will be remembered as a tumultuous year. Twelve months ago, as folks were emerging from an eventful 2014, POWER made some bold predictions, including that fuel economics will drive 2015 U.S. power markets, and the labor crunch will complicate the gas turbine arms […]

North America’s reserve margins are trending downward, even though electricity demand has generally fallen, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned in a new report. The international regulatory authority established to gauge and improve the reliability of North America’s bulk power system (BPS) said in its annual long-term report that electricity demand has dropped […]

The world has a problem. According to the World Bank, 1.1 billion people lack access to any form of modern energy service, and more than double that number lack access to adequate, reliable, affordable, and

Solar power has taken off the training wheels. Once an afterthought, solar photovoltaic (PV) generation has been one of the major sources of new capacity for several years. According to statistics from the

Largely dependent on imported fuel oil, many island systems must grapple with soaring electricity costs and reliability issues, in part because they are isolated and they don’t benefit from economies of scale. But some nations are seeking alternatives. It’s the same story all over the world. To fuel their economies and support growing populations, geographically […]

Will rooftop solar photovoltaics be the most economical way to deploy today’s hottest new generating technology, or will central utility solar PV systems be the best economic bet? Is there a third way? The answer appears to be “yes.” Solar photovoltaic (PV) power has emerged as the hottest new trend in renewable energy generation, primarily […]

Battery energy storage has exploded in deployment over the past several years, but the majority of it by capacity, especially in North America, is deployed at grid scale. That may be a problem, because a new study from the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) suggests the greatest value to the system lies with behind-the-meter batteries—distributing battery […]