Putting This Week’s Fusion News in Context
By now you’ve probably seen dozens of headlines about scientists achieving a breakthrough in fusion energy this week. While the news is cause for celebration, expectations for an imminent supply of limitless clean energy should be tempered. On December 5th, the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory successfully achieved a net energy gain from […]
New DOE Study Finds 5 Coal Plant Sites in Colorado That Could Convert to Nuclear
A brand new study released today from the Department of Energy (DOE) finds multiple locations in Colorado that could benefit from a coal-to-nuclear power transition. The study authors examined both operational and recently retired (within the last 10 years) coal plants across the country to screen for siting characteristics deemed favorable for a nuclear conversion. […]
2017 Colorado Energy Outlook
In the wake of one of the most surprising electoral outcomes in recent memory, we here at the Independence Institute have been assessing what the next few months, the 2017 Colorado legislative session, and the general future of energy policy in Colorado will look like under a President-elect Trump administration and a split legislature with […]
Solar “Mega-trap” Kills Birds at California Power Plant
Solar power generating facilities in Southern California have been dubbed “mega-traps” for their ability to attract and kill multiple species in a variety of manners including solar flux injury, also known as “singeing,” according to a report from the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory issued in April. “At times birds flew into the solar […]
Solar "Mega-trap" Kills Birds at California Power Plant
Solar power generating facilities in Southern California have been dubbed “mega-traps” for their ability to attract and kill multiple species in a variety of manners including solar flux injury, also known as “singeing,” according to a report from the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory issued in April. “At times birds flew into the solar […]
Fried Birds: Green Energy Involves Tradeoffs Too
The Ivanpah solar plant went online last week, but the cost to wildlife–particularly birds–won’t be known for at least two more years. Reports that the giant solar thermal array featuring more than 300,000 reflective panels and steam-driven turbine towers have been “killing and singeing” birds by heating the air to around 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit near […]
Spookiness at the DOE
Instead of figuring out what happened to your tax dollars with the bankrupt Colorado-based Abound Solar (leaving that to Congress and the Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck), the Department of Energy continues to be the PR firm for the Big Green agenda by promoting energy themed pumpkin carving patterns. Give them credit for including nuclear, but […]
CO Solyndra: Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar Goes Bankrupt
Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar “will close its doors and file for bankruptcy” next week according to the Department of Energy (DOE) blog. Because the bankruptcy means roughly $70 million in lost taxpayer money, we take no joy in saying that “we told you so.” Back on January 11, 2012, we wrote: Unfortunately for taxpayers who […]
CO Solyndra: Pat Stryker's Abound Solar Goes Bankrupt
Pat Stryker’s Abound Solar “will close its doors and file for bankruptcy” next week according to the Department of Energy (DOE) blog. Because the bankruptcy means roughly $70 million in lost taxpayer money, we take no joy in saying that “we told you so.” Back on January 11, 2012, we wrote: Unfortunately for taxpayers who […]
Pat Stryker waiting for more taxpayer money to fund Abound
Leftist billionaire heiress Pat Stryker is waiting to see if taxpayers via the Department of Energy (DOE) will throw another $10 million at Stryker’s failed thin-filmed solar panel manufacturer Abound Solar before she puts any more of her own money into the Colorado-based company reports Eric Wesoff of GreenTech Media: The firm awaits $10 million from the […]
30 percent higher average electric rates in states with RPS
The average residential electric rate in states with a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) is nearly 30 percent higher than states without an RPS. An RPS is a state based policy that requires electric power “providers to supply a specified minimum amount of customer load with electricity from eligible renewable energy sources,” such as wind or […]
Is Colorado "addicted" to economic activity?
Part two of a series responding to a Denver Post guest column titled “Is Colorado addicted to oil?” from Gary Wockner of Clean Water Action. Gary Wockner’s editorial is long on conjecture and short on facts. It’s little more than 20 questions, which could be answered if Wockner bothered to do a modicum of research. […]
