By John Jimison, Executive Director of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid September 4th marked a barely noticed anniversary of one of the most significant achievements in human history: the birth of the modern electric grid. In 1882, Thomas Edison started generating electricity at Pearl Street Station to power 400 “electric lamps” for 82 Manhattan
Texas as a National Model for Bringing Clean Energy to the Grid
Texas has a remarkable approach for bringing clean energy to the grid that should serve as a model for other jurisdictions around the nation. Their approach to transmission system planning was recently outlined during a Clean Energy Solutions Center webinar, Transmission Planning for a High Renewable Energy Future: Lessons from the Texas Competitive Renewable Energy
Making Way for Wind Power
This article was originally published by the New York Times Editorial Board on April 5, 2016. If the United States is going to get serious about cutting carbon emissions from oil and gas, it will have to find ways to scale up its use of renewable energy. Converting wind and solar power into electricity is,
The main reason wind energy output appears lower in 2015? 2014 was a record high wind year
This article was originally published on September 2, 2015 on the AWEA Blog and written by Michael Googin 2014 saw record high wind output in the U.S., most notably when wind energy provided large amounts of extremely valuable power that helped keep the lights on during extreme cold in January 2014. However, the downside of
Wind Energy Is Having a Railroad Moment
This article was originally published in SLATE and written by Daniel Gross. One of the raps on big renewable energy projects, such as solar plants and wind farms, is that they rely on federal subsidies and tax credits to get off the ground. That’s obvious. Here’s something less obvious: Taxpayers may have subsidized the boom
Cross-post: How new transmission will bring Wyoming wind to California
This piece was originally posted in Utility Dive on September 10, 2014, written by Herman K. Trabish. The national energy mix is changing and new transmission is helping make it all possible. Utilities from National Grid to Arizona Public Service are proposing renewables projects made increasingly practical and cost effective by affordable and flexible U.S. natural
Cross-post: What happened to that national high voltage transmission system?
This is a cross-post of an article written on 9/2/14 by Herman K. Trabish in Utility Dive. Once-bold calls for national high-capacity transmission to harvest abundant but remote U.S. wind, solar, and geothermal resources are now a distant whisper. But some developers are still pioneering upgrades for a fragile, somewhat balkanized electricity delivery system. “You
Transmission Lines to Transport Texas Wind Power to Other States
This post was contributed by Stephanie Dula, Community Manager at SaveOnEnergy. June 10, 2014 For more than a century, Texas has practically had its own energy infrastructure. In fact, it’s the only state that has its own power grid, the Texas Interconnected System. The rest of the country shares power resources on two different power