Lynne Kiesling There are a couple of very interesting recent solar developments that have substantial economic implications. First, the blue sky stuff: courtesy of Slashdot, a team of researchers in the Netherlands have demonstrated avalanche effects in semiconductors that can be used in solar cells (here’s the original article). Avalanche effects mean that instead of …
Michael Giberson Tom Igoe, a physical-computing researcher at New York University, said the Prius mpg display is one of the best examples of technology “where green meets information systems.” “For a long time,” he said, “we have known that people will change their habits if they are exposed to feedback in real time.” From “For …
Real-time Feedback Promotes Efficient Use of Energy Read More »
Lynne Kiesling Google’s blog has a post describing their new investment in BrightSource Energy and linking to lots of background information on their renewable investments. BrightSource does large-scale solar. This is part of Google’s RE < C initiative, through which they channel their investments with an objective of making renewable energy cheaper than coal-fueled energy. …
Lynne Kiesling The WSJ Environmental Capital blog has been doing a great job of keeping up with the wind power industry in the U.S. lately. Today’s post about Iberdrola’s planned investment in wind power in the U.S. is a good summary, with links to some of their other recent posts on the subject. How to …
Michael Giberson While Lynne was visiting Maryland in search of the perfect yarn score, I was in New Orleans for the Jazz and Heritage festival. I’ll share a photo or two once I have a chance to sort through them myself. In the meantime, I’ll share this article from the Monday morning Times-Picayune, which reveals …
Fishing for Red Snapper in the Gulf: Quotas and Derbies Read More »
Lynne Kiesling I handed out the Washington Post story on biofuels that Mike posted on Wednesday in one of my classes, and it was very timely, as they were presenting case studies of proposed biofuels investments. The one thing I went out of my way to point out to them was an appalling, shocking example …
Lynne Kiesling I’m taking a little time this morning to catch up on the reading I’ve missed over the past month, while I’ve been focused elsewhere. One worthwhile observation, with which I agree, comes from Virginia Postrel’s note about carbon policy positions of Presidential candidates, among other things: It’s infuriating how all three presidential candidates …
Michael Giberson In an op-ed in the Washington Post, Lester Brown and Jonathan Lewis seem overly generous in their interpretation of the motivations for the now-obvious-failure of ethanol policy in the United States: Food-to-fuel mandates were created for the right reasons. The hope of using American-grown crops to fuel our cars seemed like a win-win-win …
Lynne Kiesling We’ve been talking about the interaction of biofuels subsidies and food markets here at KP for at least the past year. The interaction is reaching a crescendo, as seen in the increased media coverage of the increased food prices, riots in poor communities, and impending increased hunger and starvation. See, for example, the …
Michael Giberson Tom Weber said that neither word in the phrase “congestion pricing” is too upbeat, and strung together “the combination evokes thoughts of opening one’s wallet while suffering a sinus headache.” He suggests that the unappealing phrase may have had something to do with the failure of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan for …
EZ-Zone? Freeflow? Would Congestion Pricing by Another Name, Smell Sweeter? Read More »
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