I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Over the past year, a revolt against the rollout of utility Pacific Gas & Electric’s smart meters has swept through Northern California as some customers claimed the devices’ wireless transmission of electricity data was harming their health. In response, city councils in a number of [...]
Archive for the ‘PG&E’ Category
PG&E to let customers disable their smart meters
Posted in green policy, PG&E, smart grid, smart meters on March 28, 2011 | 3 Comments »
California utilities (just) miss renewable energy deadline
Posted in energy, PG&E, renewable energy, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on March 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »
photo: Todd Woody I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The California Legislature is moving to put into law a regulation requiring the state’s utilities to obtain a third of their electricity from renewable energy by 2020. But how did California’s three big investor-owned utilities do in meeting a previous mandate to [...]
Report: Californians paying too high a price for green energy
Posted in alternative energy, green policy, PG&E, San Diego Gas & Electric, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison on February 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. Are Californians forking over too much green for green energy? A new report from a ratepayers advocacy group found that the price of electricity in 59 percent of renewable energy contracts signed by the state’s three big utilities exceeded the market price referent, or MPR [...]
Report: PG&E smart meters not to blame for high bills
Posted in energy, green grid, green policy, green tech, PG&E, smart grid, smart meters, tagged PG&E, smart meters, Structure Group on September 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
On Thursday in The New York Times, I write about an independent report that finds that PG&E’s smart meters are not responsible for higher utility bills incurred by some customers: After Pacific Gas & Electric, the giant California utility, began installing smart meters in the state’s Central Valley, the company was swamped with complaints from [...]
California Legislature passes energy storage bill
Posted in energy, environment, green policy, green tech, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged California, energy storage, PG&E on September 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. The California Legislature has passed the nation’s first energy storage bill, which could result in the state’s utilities being required to bank a portion of the electricity they generate. Assembly Bill 2514 now heads to the desk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has made climate [...]
California’s smart meter fears
Posted in energy, environment, green policy, PG&E, smart grid, tagged California, PG&E, smart grid, smart meters on August 30, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
I wrote this story for Grist, where it first appeared. No one said transforming the century-old power system into a state of-the-art digital smart grid was going to be easy. But California already is getting bogged down in a growing fight over installing smart utility meters in homes. The wireless devices are a linchpin in [...]
California farmers want to grow electrons to save water
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, global warming, green policy, green tech, Natural Resources Defense Council, PG&E, renewable energy, Sierra Club, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, solar energy, solar power plants, Westlands Solar Park, Westlands Water District on August 12, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In a followup to my story in Wednesday’s New York Times about recycling farmland and toxic waste sites for renewable energy projects, I take a deeper dive into why some farmers in the California’s San Joaquin Valley want to stop raising crops and start growing electrons: In an article in The New [...]
Recycling farmland, toxic waste sites for solar energy
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, First Solar, global warming, green policy, green tech, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, SunPower, the green economy, tagged First Solar, Natural Resources Defense Council, PG&E, Sierra Club, solar energy, solar power plants, SunPower, water, Westlands Solar Park, Westlands Water District, Westside Holdings on August 10, 2010 | 1 Comment »
photo: Todd Woody In Wednesday’s New York Times, I write about a growing movement to repurpose farmland and toxic waste sites for big renewable energy projects: LEMOORE, Calif. — Thousands of acres of farmland here in the San Joaquin Valley have been removed from agricultural production, largely because the once fertile land is contaminated by [...]
California’s photovoltaic push
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, green policy, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, Southern California Edison, tagged distributed generation, PG&E, photovoltaics, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, SMUD, solar energy, Southern California Edison on July 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »
photo: PG&E I wrote this post for Grist, where it first appeared. Amid the hullabaloo over government-chartered mortgage giants derailing the green financing program known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, the march toward distributed generation of renewable energy – that is, generating electricity from decentralized sources such as rooftop solar panels or backyard [...]
California biomass-solar power plant project abandoned
Posted in alternative energy, energy, environment, green policy, PG&E, renewable energy, solar energy, solar power plants, tagged California Energy Commission, Martifer Renewables, PG&E, San Joaquin Solar 1 and 2 on July 2, 2010 | 1 Comment »
image: California Energy Commission In The New York Times on Friday, I write about another setback in California’s scramble to meet its renewable energy targets: The developer of a hybrid biomass solar power plant to be built in California has abruptly canceled the project, underscoring the challenges the state faces in meeting its ambitious renewable [...]
