Category: power grid
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How has the work-from-home world affected the environment?
Photo: Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden, summer 2022. The net impact of work-from-home on the environment is actually quite complex, and depends on a number of factors such as commuting patterns and energy consumption at home and at workplace, both before and after the switch. But let’s first discuss where the potential positive and…
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The Dawn of the Modern Power Grid Started Right Here in Massachusetts (and It was Clean Energy!)
Electrification is indeed the single great achievement of our society. And yet, I was delighted to find out the modern power grid actually started in Massachusetts, a state I live currently. In the late 1800s, technologies started to converge to build an electrified society. In 1882, Edison’s direct current (DC) system was built in Manhattan.…
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More power lines, or rooftop solar panels? There is no easy answer (but here is a way to think about it)
New York Times recently had an article by Ivan Penn titled “More power lines, or rooftop solar panels?” which poses an important question: Should we rely on large-scale power grid to deliver clean energy, or bet our future on distributed energy resources (DER) such as rooftop solar panels? First of all, let me say Penn’s…