January 15, 2010

With global climate change talks in the hot seat, lots of attention is now on China. But what most don't know is that the country has become a world leader with respect to the development of renewable power.

The nation has just surpassed Spain and become the globe's third leading producer of wind energy behind the United States and Germany. And despite the perception that China was an obstacle at the recent Copenhagen talks, the reality is that it is moving forcefully ahead to produce 15 percent of its energy from green sources by 2020 and 30 percent by 2050. To get there it must attract hundreds of billions in foreign capital.

January 13, 2010

Restructuring of the electricity sector has gotten lost in the national energy debate. But the matter is still important in many states and especially Pennsylvania and Texas.

The freeing of wholesale energy markets to allow generators to sell their power to other utilities or other industrial sites has borne fruit but the success of competition in the retail sector has been an ongoing question. Advocates say that open access has brought down prices and given consumers more choices. But critics say that it has only benefited a few well-healed energy marketers while raising rates for most.

January 11, 2010

Round One of the Copenhagen Accord is now finished. And so the real work must be done -- to hammer out the details on just how global temperatures can be kept in check. One issue that must be resolved is that of nuclear energy and the role it will play.

Decision-makers are now challenged with how to cut the rate of greenhouse gas emissions while also becoming more self-reliant. As they gather in the coming months they will take into account that nuclear power has relatively few such releases associated with it while the uranium used to create the electricity is plentiful.

January 08, 2010

Oncor is building intelligence across its network -- from synchrophasors on its transmission networks to advanced metering on homes and businesses. Mark Carpenter, Oncor's vice president and CIO, noted that the utility's smart grid "is not any one thing, but is essentially spreading intelligent devices throughout the utility system, building a communications network to support these devices, bringing the data back and converting it into useful information."

Below are a few letters received at EnergyBiz Insider on topics that appeared in the past few weeks. They capture the essence of how many readers say they feel.
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