Clean Energy Transition

I agree with that logic, though from my perspective "mp$" could be even more useful as we enter a world in which the gallons we're using aren't directly comparable, and as electricity enters the transportation mainstream, resisting easy conversion to gallons without heroic assumptions and creating potentially over-optimistic assessments of the overall efficiency of plug-in hybrid cars.

Miles per dollar has much to recommend it, particularly for its simplicity and alignment with the priority consumers put on value. However, it also has two key disadvantages. Unlike mpg, it changes every time fuel prices do, so any comparisons based on mp$ are only snapshots at a point in time. Nor does it address the emissions associated with that dollar's worth of energy, though mpg doesn't do that, either.

Conventional internal combustion engines waste a lot of energy in creating heat, but by applying a ‘Rankine cycle,’ a process where hot exhaust gases are used to heat up a water reservoir and create steam to spin a turbine, electricity can be generated. This electricity can then be used to charge up an array of batteries and help power a hybrid-electric powertrain.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and the SAM Group chose Endesa as the most sustainable electricity company in their Sustainability Yearbook, based on the company's economic, environmental and social responsibility. Endesa scored 78%, compared to an average for the sector of 60%.

This exciting and innovative showcase tidal farm scheme would be capable of generating 10.5 megawatts (MW) of clean, green power, drawn entirely from the sea’s major tidal currents.

Subject to successful planning consent and financing, the tidal farm could be commissioned as early as 2011 or 2012.

How bad is the situation? Well, BERR handed out grants for part of the cost of fitting solar photovoltaic systems covering only 270 houses last year. The Germans fitted 130,000. We have a total installed capacity (including commercial) of 16 Megawatt peak (Mwp). They have 3,800 Mwp.

Jonathan Manson presents the results of a survey conducted by the European Copper Institute (ECI) into the consequences for EU industry of poor power quality. These add up to €150bn annually, are mainly experienced by industry and caused by power interruptions (dips, surges, transients and short interruptions). Call for action is made to use of the significant and disturbing conclusions drawn from the analysis that has been carried out.

On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES’s “Serial #3” solar dish Stirling system at Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility.

Distributed generation (DG) and renewable energy sources (RES) are attracting special attention. Both are seen as important in achieving two key goals:Increasing the security of energy supplies by reducing the dependency on imported fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coalReducing the emission of greenhouse gases, specifically carbon dioxide, from the burning of fossil fuels.

COAL-FIRED power stations should not be privatised but bulldozed over the next 20 years to curb greenhouse gas emissions, one of the state's leading energy academics has told the Iemma Government.

New findings by the mission to Titan, reported on Wednesday by the European Space Agency (ESA), say Saturn's orange moon has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.

the European Union (EU) falling far short of its goal to use renewable energy for 12% of its energy needs by the end of 2010. As of the end of 2006, the EU is at 6.92% renewable energy, having posted an impressive 0.46% gain relative to 2005

reason for the shortfall is that the growth in renewable energy is struggling to compete with a growth in energy demand

"the efforts being made for (renewable energy) development ... are not accompanied by any real effort to conserve energy."

it plans to install a 2.7-megawatt wave energy project off the northeast coast of Maui

oscillating water column technology

which aims to meet 70% of the state's energy needs with renewable energy by 2030

The stars of the show were diesels, and 2009 will see a raft of them launched into the U.S. market—not just from German diesel stalwart Mercedes-Benz but also Audi, BMW, and Volkswagen. Audi showed its stunning R8 supercar with a turbocharged V12 diesel, similar to one that won LeMans, making it undoubtedly the fastest and sexiest diesel in the world.

natural gas is okay but it's not ideal. It still emits greenhouse gases and NOx. It's also becoming more volatile and is likely to become much more expensive over the coming years. Also, the power mix in Ontario will become cleaner over the next decade -- no coal, more nuclear, hydroelectric, wind and natural gas. So there's an argument that heating your home with electricity could be cleaner than using natural gas, if you can do it efficiently -- in other words, if you can find a better way than using resistance heating.

a 34-year-old engineer who was a cryogenics expert with the U.S. Navy, realized that conventional air-source heat pumps that are popular in the U.S. south do not perform well in cold climates and are therefore not economical. So he went ahead and built his own, called Acadia, and it can operate efficiently down to minus 30 degrees C.

program that provides financial rewards to utilities based on the performance of their energy efficiency programs.

mirrored solar dish that looks like a home satellite receiver, and produces 3.5 kilowatts of energy

Using its Stirling engine technology, Inifnia thinks it can eventually produce electricity 20 to 30 percent cheaper than today’s existing solar panels. And in times of peak energy demand—on a hot summer day, for instance—it could even be competitive with electricity from gas-powered or coal-fired plants.

Renewables now accounts for about  8% of Lithuania’s energy consumption (see the Commission’s DG Energy’s fact sheet on Lithuania’s renewable energy situation of 2007). In its latest renewable energy proposal of 23 January 2008, the Commission has set a very ambitious target of 23% of renewables to be reached by Lithuania in 2020.

EfficienCity is a virtual town, but pioneering, real world communities around the UK are using similar systems. As a result, they're enjoying lower greenhouse gas emissions, a more secure energy supply, cheaper electricity and heating bills and a whole new attitude towards energy.