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3 articles from 2009

27 October 2009 5:00 PM, PDT | Fast Company | See recent Fast Company news »

Sun and wind vary throughout the day, and that means they'll have to be cleverly pieced together if we're going to get renewable energy, 24/7.

We hear a lot about renewable energy, and suite of energy sources that'll be required if we're ever to wean ourselves off of oil and coal. But how, exactly, will all those energy sources fit together? How do you provide constant power, when the wind and sun are so unpredictable? And what mix of power will be economical, given the varying costs of each source?

Scientific American tackles that complex jigsaw in an essential story, "Powering a Green Planet."

Mark Jacobson, a professor at Stanford, studied exactly how much power might come from various renewables. But he also took the extra step, of figuring out exactly how they might work together. The graph, designed by the geniuses at CatalogTree, summarizes that work (look for the graph »

- Cliff Kuang

27 October 2009 2:00 PM, PDT | Fast Company | See recent Fast Company news »

Sun and wind vary throughout the day, and that means they'll have to be cleverly pieced together if we're going to get renewable energy, 24/7.

We hear a lot about renewable energy, and suite of energy sources that'll be required if we're ever to wean ourselves off of oil and coal. But how, exactly, will all those energy sources fit together? How do you provide constant power, when the wind and sun are so unpredictable? And what mix of power will be economical, given the varying costs of each source?

Scientific American tackles that complex jigsaw in an essential story, "Powering a Green Planet."

Mark Jacobson, a professor at Stanford, studied exactly how much power might come from various renewables. But he also took the extra step, of figuring out exactly how they might work together. The graph, designed by the geniuses at CatalogTree, summarizes that work (look for the graph »

- Cliff Kuang

22 October 2009 8:00 AM, PDT | Fast Company | See recent Fast Company news »

Ambitious clean energy goals abound--the Waxman-Markey climate change bill, for example, proposes the switch to 42% renewable energy in the U.S by 2030--but are we selling ourselves short? Stanford civil and environmental engineering professor Mark Jacobson and Uc Davis researcher Mark Delucchi think we are. The pair has created a plan to power the planet using only wind, water, and solar energy by 2030.

According to Jacobson and Delucchi, making the full switch to renewables could cut the world's power demand by 30%, making the transition more energy and cost-efficient than sticking with fossil fuels. That's because vehicles that use fossil fuels and biomass combustion are inefficient; they lose up to 80% of energy to heat (the rest is converted into motion). In comparison, energy produced by electricity loses only 20% to heat. So by transitioning to renewables, Jacobson and Delucchi claim we could eliminate the need for 13,000 coal plants and save enough cash to justify the switch. »

- Ariel Schwartz

3 articles from 2009