Unleashing Solar Power’s Bright Future
Co-written by Fatih Birol and Ajay Mathur PARIS – Solar power has been the star of the clean-energy transition, delivering major benefits for the climate, the cost of living, and…
Alternative Energy
Goodbye Oil & Gas – Hello Thermal Bricks
The world of energy struggles with the nearly impossible task of getting off fossil fuels. This requires thinking outside of the box, something revolutionary bustling with energy that bails us…
Eco-Camouflage and the Fossil Fuel Lobby: The War against Wind Farms
The fossil fuel lobby has had a busy year on the eco-camouflage front. Earlier this year, interest started to rumble and rage against the stranding of humpback whales on the…
The Dirty Secret Behind the Hydrogen Hype
Despite promises of economic opportunity and jobs, communities slated for hydrogen projects see them for what they are: A handout for the fossil fuel industry. As our planet's temperature rises,…
If High Gas Prices Are So Painful, Shouldn’t We Move Away From Fossil Fuels?
Not only is it possible to switch to renewables, but it’s also cheaper and would make economies less vulnerable. Yet, bizarrely, politicians and the fossil fuel industry, who are using…
Sustaining the Unsustainable: Why Renewable Energy Companies Are Not Climate Warriors
In the fight to address climate change, renewable energy companies are often assumed to be Jedi Knights. Valiantly struggling to save the planet, wind and solar interests are thought to…
The Gritty Reality of Solar Power
by Priti Gulati Cox and Stan Cox Time is fast running out. The world’s affluent nations, with their abundant greenhouse emissions, have to finally drag themselves across the starting line…
Against Overproduction
[This is the final part of an exchange between Robert Pollin and Don Fitz carried in Green Social Thought (GST) and ZNet. The first portion consisted of two articles by…
Response to Don Fitz
[This is the third part of an exchange between Robert Pollin and Don Fitz carried in Green Social Thought (GST) and ZNet. The first portion consisted of two articles by…
Be Careful What Energy You Wish For
[This is the second part of an exchange between Robert Pollin and Don Fitz carried in Green Social Thought and ZNet. The first portion consisted of two articles by Pollin…
Questions to Richard Heinberg from a 15-Year-Old Student
Callum Alexander from Scotland recently contacted me with a few queries about renewable energy. I thought they were interesting questions that might occur to others, so I asked his permission…
Is AltE Truly the Best Solution to Climate Catastrophe?
“Accumulate, accumulate! That is Moses and the prophets!... Accumulation for the sake of accumulation, production for the sake of production: this was the historical mission of the bourgeoisie in the…
Solidarity with Resistance to Extraction
by Don Fitz and the Green Party of St. Louis People the world over are opposing fossil fuel extraction in an incalculable number of ways. It is now clear that…
What Would a Deep Green New Deal Look Like?
The Green New Deal has attracted perhaps the greatest attention of any proposal for decades. It would guarantee Medicare-for-All, Housing-for-All, student loan forgiveness and propose the largest economic growth in…
Why EROEI Matters: The Role Of Net Energy In The Survival Of Civilization
A lively debate is ongoing on what should be the minimum energy return for energy invested (EROEI) in order to sustain a civilization. Clearly, one always wants the best returns…
Renewables Just Passed Coal As The Largest Source Of New Electricity Worldwide
It’s been a long run, coal, but your reign is over. Renewable energy sources have passed coal as the largest new source of electricity in the world, according data released…
An AWEsome Energy Source: Where Do We Stand With Airborne Wind Energy?
I have been following the development of airborne wind energy (AWE) for more than 10 years and I keep following it. This summer, I visited the campus of the Technical…
The Solar Transition
Although futurists aren’t supposed to make predictions, the notion that our energy system is switching much more quickly than expected from fossil fuels to renewables, and that solar energy will…
Clean Energy Revolution In Philadelphia: A Photo Essay
On Sunday, July 24, a day before the opening of the Democratic National Convention amid turmoil in Philadelphia, the U.S. climate justice movement seized the moment to convene and march…
Clean Solar Energy, Brings Light To Kenya’s Villages
Picture a small village somewhere in rural Kenya. Darkness has fallen and there is no light to even go to the fields to relieve yourself. The only succour are kerosene…
Hooked! The Unyielding Grip Of Fossil Fuels On Global Life
Here’s the good news: wind power, solar power, and other renewable forms of energy are expanding far more quickly than anyone expected, ensuring that these systems will provide an ever-increasing…
Lessons Along The Path To 100 Percent Clean Energy
In early May of this year, Portugal ran on renewable electricity alone for four consecutive days. And later that same month, on May 15, Germany filled almost all its electricity needs with solar, wind,…
Renewable Electricity: Falling Costs, Variability, And Scaling Challenges
Costs to utility companies from the introduction of distributed solar PV are somewhat balanced by the fact that added solar capacity helps reduce the strain on electric grids on summer…
Photo-Voltaics Is Not An Energy Sink In Switzerland
Energy Policy recently published a study conducted on the EROEI of Photo-Voltaics (PV) technologies installed in Switzerland. The end result is a remarkably low figure of 0.8:1, well below any…
The Real EROI Of Photovoltaic Systems: Professor Charles Hall Weighs In
Charles Hall is known for his multiple and important contributions in the field of sustainability, and in particular for having introduced the concept of Energy Return on Energy Investment, EROI…
A 100% Renewable World Is Possible? A Poll Among Experts
I am reporting here the results of a small survey that I carried out last week among the members of a discussion forum; mainly experts in renewable energy (*). It…
Why Joe The Plumber Doesn’t Want Renewable Energy
Joe the plumber is a real person, but also an abstraction for the troubled American blue collar worker. In a previous post, I argued that a global transition to 100%…
Our Renewable Future
Ed. note: This is the introduction to Richard Heinberg's and David Fridley's new book, Our Renewable Future, now available from Island Press. Post Carbon Institute's companion website, ourrenewablefuture.org has also…
Tiptoeing Through The Renewable Energy Minefield
I spent the last year working with co-author David Fridley and Post Carbon Institute staff on a just-published book, Our Renewable Future. The process was a pleasure: everyone involved (including…
But What’s The REAL Energy Return Of Photovoltaic Energy?
Some time ago, a colleague of mine told me the story of when he had been in charge of the installation ofone of the first photovoltaic plants in Italy, in…
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