• Water

Drought Seriously Threatens Hydro-Electric Power in California

• California
• Drought
• energy
• hydropower

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer Ongoing heatwaves and mega-drought across the Western U.S. threatened residents with rolling blackouts and even buckling roads. Now, rapidly rising temperatures are taking their toll on renewable energy infrastructure as well. After suffering some of the lowest rainfall rates in 126 years, Northern California’s Edward Hyatt hydroelectric power plant is predicted to shut down for […]

• Water

Clean energy, justice, and salmon: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in the Northwest

• bipartisan
• Columbia River
• dams
• hydropower
• Infrastructure
• renewable energy
• restoration
• Salmon
• Snake River
• wilderness

By Bob Irvin, President and CEO, American Rivers A vision is emerging in the Pacific Northwest that would not only save iconic salmon, but boost clean energy and vital infrastructure, and honor treaties with Northwest tribes — revitalizing an entire region and building resilience in the face of climate change. Salmon in the Pacific Northwest […]

• Energy

Solar Innovations Offer New Inroads to Renewable Energy

• Department of Energy
• electric road
• electric vehicles
• hydropower
• renewable energy
• science
• solar panels
• solar power
• sustainable

A new study by the Department of Energy provides an interesting new concept for blending solar and hydropower.  The study found that by placing solar panels on reservoirs and feeding the solar power generated into the same substation, both the hydropower and solar power generated could be more inexpensive, more efficient, and more reliable.

Why This Matters:  It may be obvious, but we will need innovations like these to make the transformations needed to have a sustainable and feasible renewable power system. 

• Energy

DOE Predicts CO2 Emissions AND Renewables Increase by 2050

• China
• CO2 emissions
• coal
• energy
• hydropower
• natural gas
• renewable energy
• Solar
• wind

The Energy Department put out its 2019 International Energy Outlook and two big headlines emerged — first that CO2 emissions worldwide will increase by 20% overall through 2050 because of emissions from developing countries, and second that renewable sources will provide half of all electricity globally by midcentury.

Why This Matters:  CO2 emissions from developed nations decrease by -.2% annually for the next 30 years, while in developing countries CO2 emissions are expected to grow 1% a year.  Countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are growing in key respects — they collectively have more population, a larger gross domestic product, more energy consumption, and higher energy-related CO2 emissions.