Blog

03Mar

Dispatchable Fuel Diversity is Invaluable 

Does fuel diversity matter? Or, to put a finer point on it, does dispatchable fuel diversity matter? If February taught us anything, the answer is a resounding yes. Along with the Texas grid disaster, there were two neighboring grids pushed to the brink by the same unrelenting cold but both fared much better. The Southwest […]
24Feb

The Texas Grid Crisis is a National Crisis

Think the Texas electricity crisis can’t happen where you live? Think again. Up and down the country, electricity markets – with very different designs – have fielded warnings that the right storm, with the right conditions could cause the same chaos or worse. Much of the blame in Texas has fallen on the Electric Reliability […]
15Feb

A Fuel Security Crisis in Texas

The Texas grid is hanging on by a thread. Historic, freezing temperatures are wreaking havoc across the state. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has initiated rolling outages to keep the grid from collapsing. Without a hint of hyperbole, this is a full-blown reliability crisis that appears to be a fuel security crisis. There’s […]
10Feb

Coal to the Rescue Again

The polar vortex is back in all of its frigid fury. On Tuesday, the majority of 10 states woke to temperatures below zero and the bitter cold is here to stay through at least the middle of the month. Surprise, surprise it’s not solar and wind power keeping the lights on and homes warm in […]
04Feb

Dr. Birol’s Most Vital, Most Critical Technology

For any “Groundhog Day” fans, watching Dr. Fatih Birol testify before Congress catches us all in a Bill Murray moment. For the last three years, the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Executive Director, Dr. Fatih Birol, has testified in front of Congress on energy issues and the climate challenge. Each time he testifies he is as […]
27Jan

The Coal Fleet Remains Essential

A new report from the Sierra Club finds that dozens of the nation’s utilities plan on running their existing coal plants well beyond 2030. This is apparently devastating news for the Sierra Club’s “beyond coal” crowd, but for most Americans it should be a reminder of the incredibly important role coal continues to play in […]
13Jan

The Grids Are Not OK

Despite ongoing insistence that the fuel security, balance and reliability offered by coal can be easily replaced, mounting evidence points to just the opposite. In states and grids across the U.S., blackouts, near-misses and troubling warnings have become all too common. California suffered rolling blackouts this summer, Texas has stumbled from one near-miss and capacity […]
07Jan

Addressing the 95% Challenge

Over the next 80 years, the U.S. is likely to account for just 5% of global emissions. That’s the finding of Varun Sivaram, an expert at Columbia University’s Center for Global Energy Policy. As he recently told Axios, while reducing U.S. emissions is important, tackling the 95% percent challenge – rising global emissions – should be […]
16Dec

Modelling the Impossible

“It’s technically possible,” is not the type of a response you want to hear from any expert. It’s the kind of response you get when something is brutally impossible but the person delivering the news wants to soften the blow. A new study from researchers at Princeton charting what’s needed to achieve net-zero U.S. emissions […]
09Dec

Coal’s Time Remains Now

The Economist has decided that it’s time for the world to stop using coal. The magazine argues that based on falling coal demand in Europe and the U.S., it’s not only possible for the world to turn its back on the leading fuel for electricity generation but it’s what responsible nations must do. Perhaps it’s […]