The energy under our feet may prove to be the answer to producing a reliable 24 x 7 source of power for now and the future. Unlike wind and solar, geothermal energy is never interrupted. That’s because the Earth’s heat, whether in an area of active vulcanism or not, is ubi

On Saturday afternoon after a long walk with my dog Maya I returned home to settle down to read a mystery novel when the doorbell rang. A young man with clipboard in hand stood on my front patio patiently waiting for me to open the door. Now normally I ignore unsolicited calls to my f

Photovoltaic panels are noted for their ability to convert sunlight into electricity. But for a long time passive solar collectors have been used to provide hot water and heated air to residences and commercial businesses. Now a company in California is using the heat from solar to co

Panasonic is the first company out of the gate to begin mass producing home energy storage systems. For those of you who have a desktop PC you may already have a sense of what uninterruptible power supplies can do in the event of a power failure. Others may have invested in home gener

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant meltdown the government of Germany pledged to eliminate nuclear from its energy mix by shutting down 8 plants immediately and the remaining 9 by 2022. Did this Germany would go back to coal-fired or natural gas power plants? Not so. Germ

The proposal is called “trigeneration.” The city is Sydney, Australia. The plan is to use city roofs and basements to become local sources of power generation to supplement and eventually replace coal-fired power responsible for 80% of Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissio