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A closer look at wind energy
Wind energy is a very attractive energy source with very low emissions and low space requirements (especially when compared to biomass crops). My colleague, Mark Jacobson, has done extensive research...
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Mark Jacobson: The Truth About Ethanol
Mark Jacobson is a leading expert in wind energy and the atmosphere. He hears some of the claims being made on behalf of E85 — that it’s supposed to be cleaner, that it will reduce ozone-forming...
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Alternative Energy Options
Mark Jacobson is a world expert in wind energy and air pollution. He sees wind and solar power — not biomass — as the most optimal energy sources. He says that the increased use of ethanol will not...
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Ethanol: Irrational Exuberance?
There’s a lot of enthusiasm right now around ethanol as a potential solution to our oil addiction. Not everyone shares that enthusiasm, though. Margot Gerritsen speaks with UC Berkeley Professor Tad...
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Geothermal energy: The little known resource
In Iceland and a few other countries, geothermal energy delivers a large part of the energy used for heating or cooling, through geothermal heat pumps. You may be surprised to hear that there are...
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Choosing Renewables: Wind and Solar
Alternatives can help create a sustainable energy future. The most promising long-term alternative energy sources are wind and solar: there is plenty of it, greenhouse gas emissions are low, and the...
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Changing the world’s energy systems
Global warming is happening, and one of the culprits is likely increased emission levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as a result of our energy usage. Lynn Orr is director of the Global...
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Are nuclear power plants economically feasible?
You may like them or you may not, but nuclear power plants will no doubt be proposed as alternatives to coal-fired power plants. Yes, the nuclear waste problem is significant, but nuclear plants emit...
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There’s energy in Silicon Valley: VCs jump on green energy investments
Silicon Valley is buzzing, but not just because of software and hardware investments. The new boom is in green energy technologies. James Horn is an investment manager for Noventi, one of the many...
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Check out the future: student Adam Kreek designs biodiesel plant
It’s exciting to see young engineers excited about designing new green energy technologies. Meet one of them: Adam Kreek. Adam designed and built a (small scale!) biodiesel plant in the basement of my...
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Forget alternative energies in the short term: we need to save, save, save
Forget alternative energies: in the short term the only feasible solution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum dependencies is energy efficiency. There is much to be gained, especially in...
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Green energy is the new flower of Scotland
Professor Patrick Corbett, from Heriot-Watt’s energy institute, knows that oil companies like BP and Shell are serious about their investments in green energy technologies. He has tracked their...
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The state-of-the-art of fuel cell technology
When you hear “fuel cells” you may, first and foremost, think about hydrogen fuel cells for vehicle transport. But fuel cells are not at all limited to hydrogen, and are attractive energy suppliers for...
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More future talent: what drives these students to study energy engineering?
We’ll meet four aspiring energy engineers, businessmen and policy makers. Each student has his/her own reasons to study energy: Heather is determined to bring green energy technology to Anchorage,...
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Will China’s growing demand for energy lead to an environmental disaster?
China’s economy is growing fast, and China’s demand for energy is growing right along with it. To accommodate this growth in a sustainable manner, China must move away from a largely coal-based energy...
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Extinguish coal fires and reduce carbon emissions considerably
You may not be aware that coalfires, both natural and man-made, generate large amounts of carbon dioxide. In China alone, the estimated amount equals that of the U.S. transportation sector! Meet Taku...
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Biofuel feedstock: How efficiently can plants capture solar energy?
Plants are not as efficient as you might think in capturing solar energy. Current photovoltaic panels can capture more energy per square meter — quite a bit more in fact — than biomass crops that are...
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Does corporate backing taint universities’ energy resource studies?
Meet Professor Pam Matson, dean of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University and renowned scientist. Pam is super-excited about the opportunities that ever-increasing levels of private and...
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The Search for Renewable Energy Sources: Who Gets Hurt?
World corn prices have risen considerably in recent years because of corn ethanol production. If you are poor and rely on cheap corn as your staple food, such price increases are bad news. This is just...
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The search for renewable energy: Who gets hurt? (part two)
Roz Naylor explained to us in a previous podcast how energy decisions made in the U.S. or Europe can have unintended consequences for the rest of the world. Because of the importance of this topic, we...
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Meet an energetic energy investor
Erik Straser leads the cleantech investment of Mohr Davidow Ventures. It’s his job to seek out promising start-ups in solar energy, biofuels, energy storage, industrial biotech and clean coal. My...
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Erik Straser: An Energetic Energy Investor, Part 2
Everywhere you look, it seems, you’ll find another story on cleantech. If you’re curious about the investment community around this fast-growing (and increasingly-hyped) industry, you’ll want to hear...
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More on geothermal energy: The little known energy resource
Following up on his lecture on geothermal energy, Professor Roland Horne met with some of my students. Horne is an expert in extracting heat from the earth. Hear more about the engineering and science...
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View From the Top: Shell Oil President John Hofmeister
John Hofmeister, Shell Oil president, sees an important role for his company in supplying the world’s energy in the future. Petroleum (oil and gas) will remain, at least for the near to medium future,...
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Carbon sequestration: Can we bury just the harmful carbon dioxide?
In this first in a series of discussons on carbon sequestration, we meet Marc Hesse, an aspiring graduate student at Stanford, who studies the physical processes that govern the movement of carbon...
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Silicon Valley: the epicenter of solar power and clean technologies?
On June 1, Silicon Valley profiled itself as the future epicenter of solar power, energy efficiency and clean technologies at the Energy Summit 2007. Jacob and Desirae, two of my students at Stanford,...
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What’s driving an Olympic rower to flex his muscles in biofuel production?
Adam Kreek: olympic rower, Stanford graduate, former oilfield worker. After next year’s Olympics, he is determined to make his mark in the biofuel industry. Adam plans to start his own biodiesel...
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Are Carbon Credits Just a Clever Scheme to Make Money?
Meet Tom Arnold, chief environmental officer of Terrapass. The company sells TerraPasses. Buy one and sponsor renewable energy projects such as wind farms, thereby partly or fully counterbalancing your...
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Are Carbon Credits Just a Clever Scheme to Make Money? Part II
We continue our discussion on carbon credits with Tom Arnold, chief environmental officer of Terrapass.
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Stanford’s Green Dorm
A few facts: in the U.S., residential and commercial space accounts for 40 percent of our primary energy consumption and 38 percent of CO2 emissions are from operating buildings. Why, then, is so...
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Naturally Powered by Roz Savage
After rowing across the Atlantic in 2006, Roz Savage is leaving San Francisco (her Website has updated departure dates) to conquer her next ocean: the Pacific. Roz’s rowing vessel is fully...
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Experiments in DIY gasification: transforming waste biomass into fuel
I’m always excited to find creative, DIY, ways to generate energy from waste. Jim Mason gives a wonderful example. Check out his informative website and enjoy his interview with my students. You may...
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Focus on Nuclear Energy: Part I
I know: nuclear energy has long had a bad name in the US. I believe, however, that it is an essential part of our future energy portfolio. Nuclear energy is clean, its generation is efficient, its...
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A former student finds her way as energy consultant
Lauren Casey recently graduated from Stanford with a major in Earth Sciences. She is a wonderful example of young talent determined to make a positive contribution to the preservation of our...
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Nuclear Energy with Prof. Burton Richter: Part II
Listen to the second part of the interview with Burton Richter, Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, 1976 Nobel Prize winner and an expert on nuclear energy.
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Nuclear Energy with Prof. Burton Richter, Part III
The third installment of our interview with Burton Richter, professor emeritus at Stanford University, 1976 Nobel Prize winner and an expert on nuclear energy.
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Nuclear Energy with Prof. Burton Richter: Part IV
Part four of our interview with nuclear energy expert, Stanford University Professor Emeritus and 1976 Nobel Prize Winner Burton Richter.
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Nuclear Energy with Prof. Burton Richter, Part V
Burton Richter is professor emeritus at Stanford University, a 1976 Nobel Prize winner and an expert on nuclear energy. This is the last in our five-part series with Richter.
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PARC: From inkjets to Solar PV
I love this interview with Scott Elrod, manager of the hardware systems group at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC, for short). PARC, under the creative and enthusiastic leadership of Elrod, has...
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PARC and Solfocus’s new, concentrated solar PV system
We visit Scott Elrod (PARC) again to have a look at the new concentrated solar PV system designed at PARC with Solfocus, a start-up incubated at PARC. It’s a clever device that is designed to reduce...
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It’s a myth the US can be energy independent within the next several decades
The US imports 10 million barrels of oil per day. This is more than it is producing itself, and over half of its oil consumption. If the US keeps consuming oil as it is now, imports will make up an...
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The Truth About Reservoirs, Drilling and Cheap Oil
We’re not running out of oil, but we may be running out of the oil in easy-to-reach places. That’s because oil doesn’t sit in a big pool just below the surface — it’s always been hard to reach, but the...
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Alberta: the Saudi Arabia of the North?
Western Canada is very rich in heavy oils. These thick oils that have the consistency of molasses or even peanut butter are rather tricky to produce in an environmentally friendly manner. However, with...
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A Yorkshire hotel on the road to energy efficiency
If you’re looking for a nice hotel that’s keeping a sharp eye on its carbon footprint, you’ll want to check out the Crown Spa Hotel. It’s in Scarborough, on the Yorkshire coast, but if you can get...
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Water: We need it, the cows need it, the crops need it. Where do we get it from?
Think of Central Valley, California — an incredibly large agricultural area in the middle of a state, which is vital to the Calif. economy, but not exactly known for its regular and heavy rainfall. Our...
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And how much power do all these computer servers require?
It wasn’t that long ago that newspaper headlines began calling our attention to claims that large computer server systems like those used by companies like Amazon.com, Google, Yahoo, and EBay (to name...
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Can we blame the cows for pollutants in the groundwater?
Water. We use a lot of it in California, and especially in Central Valley, one of the largest agricultural areas in the world. This area is inhabited by many wonderful folks, including Bill and George...
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Water: Can we blame the cows for pollutants in the groundwater? Part I
Water. We use a lot of it in California, and especially in Central Valley, one of the largest agricultural areas in the world. This area is inhabited by many wonderful folks, including Bill and George...
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