State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

microgrids

  • Building and Financing the Infrastructure of a Sustainable New York City

    Building and Financing the Infrastructure of a Sustainable New York City

    The city’s environmental sustainability effort spans many agencies and needs control and coordination by a senior official with experience and clout.

  • How to Build a More Resilient Energy Grid for the Future: Part 1

    How to Build a More Resilient Energy Grid for the Future: Part 1

    Microgrids can reduce vulnerabilities to climate change and related disasters, keeping the lights on when other parts of the grid experience power disruptions.

  • Forget Fossil Fuels and Focus on Renewables

    Forget Fossil Fuels and Focus on Renewables

    Instead of taxing fossil fuels we should subsidize and invest in renewable energy.

  • What it Will Take to Decarbonize the Economy

    What it Will Take to Decarbonize the Economy

    The transition to a renewable resource-based economy will be a massive and complex endeavor and its difficulty should not be underestimated. The transition depends on five key components.

  • Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids, networks of linked energy sources that are connected to the main grid, but are able to operate independently if power is lost, are the building blocks of the 21st century smart grid. Why aren’t there more of them?

  • The Small Steps That Will Lead to a Low-Carbon Economy

    The renewable energy tax credit, now in place, has been dramatically successful in seeding the solar energy industry. Currently 30% of the cost of the new technology is provided as a tax credit.

  • The Microgrid Solution

    The Microgrid Solution

    Last October, Superstorm Sandy provoked widespread frustration and fear after it left more than 7.5 million people in the New York Metro area without power. In the hardest hit areas, outages lasted two weeks or more. These failures led many observers to wonder if America’s aging electrical grid was up to dealing with emerging climate…

  • Building and Financing the Infrastructure of a Sustainable New York City

    Building and Financing the Infrastructure of a Sustainable New York City

    The city’s environmental sustainability effort spans many agencies and needs control and coordination by a senior official with experience and clout.

  • How to Build a More Resilient Energy Grid for the Future: Part 1

    How to Build a More Resilient Energy Grid for the Future: Part 1

    Microgrids can reduce vulnerabilities to climate change and related disasters, keeping the lights on when other parts of the grid experience power disruptions.

  • Forget Fossil Fuels and Focus on Renewables

    Forget Fossil Fuels and Focus on Renewables

    Instead of taxing fossil fuels we should subsidize and invest in renewable energy.

  • What it Will Take to Decarbonize the Economy

    What it Will Take to Decarbonize the Economy

    The transition to a renewable resource-based economy will be a massive and complex endeavor and its difficulty should not be underestimated. The transition depends on five key components.

  • Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids: Taking Steps Toward the 21st Century Smart Grid

    Microgrids, networks of linked energy sources that are connected to the main grid, but are able to operate independently if power is lost, are the building blocks of the 21st century smart grid. Why aren’t there more of them?

  • The Small Steps That Will Lead to a Low-Carbon Economy

    The renewable energy tax credit, now in place, has been dramatically successful in seeding the solar energy industry. Currently 30% of the cost of the new technology is provided as a tax credit.

  • The Microgrid Solution

    The Microgrid Solution

    Last October, Superstorm Sandy provoked widespread frustration and fear after it left more than 7.5 million people in the New York Metro area without power. In the hardest hit areas, outages lasted two weeks or more. These failures led many observers to wonder if America’s aging electrical grid was up to dealing with emerging climate…