Solar was the second-biggest source of new electricity generation capacity in 2013. A trade war between the U.S. and China, …
renewable energy
Germany’s Clean Energy Revolution Hits Speed Bumps
Shifting to a grid powered by mostly by renewable sources proves an expensive, and environmentally dirty, project.
Pro Sports Go Green. Do Fans Care?
Pro sports teams around the country are hyping their renewable energy use and promising to become more efficient. Will that help make their fans greener?
Bright Times: Ranking the G20 Nations By Renewable Energy
A report grades the G20 nations on renewable energy. It’s depressing.
Going Green: Why 2012 Will Be a Bad Year for Renewable Energy
My weekly Going Green column is up on the Time.com mainpage, and I take on the worrying state of the U.S. renewable energy industry. It’s not worrying now—2011, like the last few years, has been great for the wind and solar …
The China-U.S. Solar War Heats Up
You might remember that a few weeks ago the U.S. Commerce Department opened up an investigation into alleged unfair trade practices by Chinese solar manufacturers. The investigation — instigated at the behest of some, though …
Putting a Brand Label on Wind Power
Consumerism—perhaps more than any other factor—has driven the growth of green ideas and policies over the past decade. (Which, if you think about it, is a little ironic, but never mind that for now.) Whether it’s the near-vertical growth of the organic food movement, the spread of BPA-free bottles and other products for the concerned …
Beyond Petroleum. Or Not.
I made my writing debut over at Foreign Policy this past weekend, writing a piece on Big Oil’s checkered attempts to fund clean energy. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I conclude that the major oil companies—while they may make some smart investments, especially in biofuels—will never be a revolutionary force for clean energy:
What
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Why Does the IPCC Want Us to Cut Down Trees?
Yesterday the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) came out with an early summary of a new report projecting the future of renewable energy. As with many international studies of the sort, readers were free to use parts of the results towards whichever conclusion they’d already reached on alternative power and climate …
Big Oil Invests in Small Renewables
With major oil players enjoying eye-popping profits on the back of high gas prices, there’s a growing political push to eliminate tax incentives for the petroleum industry. Senate Democrats and President Obama are behind a plan to strips billions in subsidies for the five biggest oil companies, with the money going either to clean …