AI will help improve energy markets in meaningful and unpredictable ways, but consumer-focused energy policies are essential to capitalize on America’s energy abundance and to drive energy innovation forward.
State and Local Permitting Restrictions on Solar Energy Development
"In our analysis of wind ordinances, we found that not only were there numerous county-level wind ordinances but that the rate of adoption for new ordinances was accelerating. While there are fewer solar ordinances, this trend is similar for PV solar, which also has an accelerating rate of adoption of new ordinances restricting siting. As a caveat, the NREL database does not have the adoption year for every ordinance, so this assessment is only using ordinances for which there is such data collected. And, similar to our finding with wind ordinances, as solar power becomes more common, so too do ordinances restricting it."
Activated Charcoal Could Be Used For Direct Air Capture
Scientists at the University of Cambridge have been testing ways to make activated charcoal absorb carbon dioxide.
Wall Street Wants In on America’s Battery Storage Boom
"Storage capacity in the U.S. has grown enough in recent years to be able to power many millions of homes, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. California and Texas dominate the industry, but projects are in the works in Nevada, Arizona and elsewhere to help meet growing power demand from artificial-intelligence data centers and manufacturing plants."
Anti-ESG Legislation is Unpopular and Costly
Rather than restricting certain investment strategies, policymakers should embrace policies that unlock investor freedom and leave politics out of it.
Solar panel waste makes EV batteries 99.9% efficient, retain 83.1% capacity
"The team used a 3M solution of LiPF6 electrolyte dissolved in a 1,3-dioxane and dimethoxyethane solution mixed with a volumetric ratio of 1:3. The unique chemical formulation helps form a solid-electrolyte interphase (SEI) that holds together silicon particles, even when they are fractured during charge-discharge cycles. This aids in maintaining the ionic conduction and keeping unnecessary reactions to a minimum."
Exclusive: Gulf state UAE considers a second nuclear power plant
"The UAE awarded Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) a $20 billion contract in 2009 to design, build and operate four reactors in Abu Dhabi towards the border with Saudi Arabia."
Growing Electricity Load, and a Growing Grid, Is Good for America
"There is a need to close regulatory gaps for local transmission planning. Customers are eager to collaborate with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, states, and regional partners to enhance transparency and review the prudency of local transmission projects."
Trade is key to countering China’s clean energy dominance
"Support for increased economic openness, new trade agreements and the World Trade Organization is already retreating in Washington. It would be a major policy error, however, to conflate concerns about imports from China with concerns about trade more broadly. Indeed, the only way to effectively counter China’s dominance in clean energy technologies is to embrace more, not less, trade with most other nations."
Concrete battery developed by MIT and Harvard researchers makes headlines again for its promising potential in powering devices
"The power-storing building material could also help to offset some of the air pollution generated by the cement industry, widely reported as spewing 5-8% of worldwide planet-warming gas pollution. Those harmful, heat-trapping fumes are contributing to a warmup that is impacting even classroom performance, according to the Environmental Protection Agency."