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Alternative Energy Blog

353 posts

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Power Blog

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Renewables Growing Faster than Expected over 10 years ago

Blog - Post List

Power Blog: Re-Visiting the Renewable Fuels Standard

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the alternative energy industry team, revisits the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and its impact on the industry. The Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), first signed into law as part of the Energy...
- 8 Jun 2012
Power Blog: Vibration Monitoring Improves Wind Turbine Availability

Jim Cahill

Rotating machinery including wind turbines are subject to wear and tear over time. Emerson’s Douglas Morris, a member of the alternative energy team, shares how vibration-monitoring equipment can help avoid unplanned downtime and costly maintenance. The...
- 25 May 2012
Power Blog: Another Bust in Solar Power

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, who leads the alternative energy industry team, describes the continued downward economic pressure on solar power panel manufacturers. In several previous posts, we’ve discussed the challenges facing solar panel manufacturers due...
- 11 May 2012
Power Blog: The Struggle of Alternative Fuel IPOs

Jim Cahill

Raising capital for biofuel producers is becoming more difficult as shared by Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy team in today’s guest post. Over the past couple of years, there have been a number of companies that have issued IPOs [initial...
- 4 May 2012
Power Blog: Improving Shale Gas Development

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the alternative energy industry team, highlights technology changes that may replace the need for water in hydraulic fracturing. In a previous post, we discussed the process of Hydraulic Fracturing, or “Fracking”, which...
- 27 Apr 2012
Power Blog: The Shakeout of Solar Power?

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team highlights the challenges facing solar power panel manufacturers. On a number of occasions, we’ve discussed issues facing renewable power, but the recent announcements about companies struggling...
- 20 Apr 2012
Power Blog: Another Alternative to Crude Oil

Jim Cahill

Gas-to-liquids technology continues to advance notes Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the alternative energy industry team, in today’s guest post. In previous posts we discussed the emerging technology of gas to liquids (GTL) driven by the vast shale gas...
- 13 Apr 2012
Power Blog: Asian Innovation in Energy

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s alternative energy industry expert, Douglas Morris, explores the innovations coming out of Asia in converting coal to other forms of energy and chemicals in today’s guest post. This March 24th issue of the Economist magazine published an article...
- 30 Mar 2012
Power Blog: Natural Gas as an Alternative Fuel

Jim Cahill

With the ever-increasing supply of natural gas in the U.S., Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the alternative energy industry team, highlights some activity on the demand side. In previous posts, we have examined the changing dynamics of the global energy...
- 23 Mar 2012
Power Blog: What is the Outlook for Global Renewables?

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team looks at the impact of governmental policies, shale gas, and technology challenges on the use of renewable fuels across the world. To answer this question, you really have to take a look...
- 16 Mar 2012
Power Blog: Global Energy Industry Leaders-CERAWeek 2012

Jim Cahill

Douglas Morris of Emerson’s alternative energy industry team shares some thoughts and experiences from the CERAWeek conference this week. CERAWeek, led by Daniel Yergin, is an annual meeting of global energy industry leaders that was held this week in...
- 9 Mar 2012
Power Blog: Impact of Energy Development on Local Populations

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris, a member of the alternative energy industry team, explores the impact on local inhabitants as the locations for energy development continue to fan out across the globe. Last year I had the opportunity to...
- 2 Mar 2012
Power Blog: Is Oil Shale the Next Big Thing?

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Alan Novak, director of the alternative energy team explores the future of oil shale. In spite of recent economic turmoil, global energy demand continues to increase and liquid fuels continue to be the major component...
- 24 Feb 2012
Power Blog: New Oil and Gas Technologies Leading the Way

Jim Cahill

Our regular Friday posts here on the blog feature the Emerson experts in alternative energy. Alan Novak, director of the alternative energy industry team, has an article just published in Forbes magazine. The article, The Tectonic Shift Of New Oil And...
- 17 Feb 2012
Alternative Energy Blog: Securing Ovation Systems per NERC CIP Standards

Jim Cahill

In the Emerson Exchange 365 community, I saw a post announcing a February 16-17, 2012 Regional Technical Forum for Ovation system users. I got my hands on a few of the presentations, which I hope to share with you over the next few weeks. Emerson’s Mike...
- 14 Feb 2012
Power Blog: Is Natural Gas the New Alternative Energy Source?

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team, explores how the abundance of natural gas is generating discussions around the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standards and alternative energy-based processes. About a month...
- 10 Feb 2012
Power Blog: More Efficient, Wood-Based Biomass Energy Production

Jim Cahill

Many power producers have goals to use renewable resources in their electrical energy mix—by either regulation or economic incentive. At the ARC Industry Forum this week in Orlando, Minnesota Power’s Luther Kemp presented the company’s plans to expand...
- 8 Feb 2012
Power Blog: The Boom and Bust Cycle in Renewable Energy

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Alan Novak, director of the alternative energy industry team, explores the role of government policy in renewable energy’s boom and bust cycles. As Doug Morris mentioned last week, the renewable fuels market is facing...
- 3 Feb 2012
Power Blog: US Energy Policy: What Happened to Advanced Biofuels?

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team highlights his impressions from this week’s U.S. State of the Union address as it applies to alternative energy: Being that it’s State of the Union time, I thought it would be curious to...
- 27 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Control Architecture for Solar Photovoltaic Plants

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Jim Cushman, a member of the Power & Water Solutions business, looks at the process control architecture requirements for solar photovoltaic-based power generation. Early developers of solar photovoltaic (PV) did not consider...
- 20 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Changes to the Ethanol Tax Structure

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris of the alternative energy industry team shares his thoughts on the impact on recently expired US ethanol tariffs. This just in, there is a budget battle going on in Washington, DC. Okay, so the budget disagreements...
- 13 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Impact of Shale Gas on Coal Conversion Technologies

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Alan Novak, leader of the Alternative Energy industry team, explores how the rapid increase in shale production has impacted coal conversion, liquefied natural gas (LNG), and Substitute Natural Gas (SNG) in today’s guest post. A few weeks ago...
- 6 Jan 2012
Power Blog: Solar Photovoltaic Growing Pains

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Jim Cushman, a member of the Power & Water Solutions team, describes the challenges utilities and independent system operators (ISOs) face in regulating power on the grid with the increasing number of solar photovoltaic...
- 16 Dec 2011
Power Blog: Plentiful Natural Gas—Impact on US Process Manufacturing

Jim Cahill

In today’s guest post, Emerson’s Alternative Energy industry group leader, Alan Novak, shares the opportunity that shale gas provides to the U.S. economy and the process manufacturing industries: A new energy source has emerged and is changing the shape...
- 9 Dec 2011
Power Blog: Inflation or Growth: A Crossroad in China

Jim Cahill

In this guest blog post, Emerson’s Douglas Morris addresses economic conditions in China and their impact on alternative energy investments, particularly coal to liquids processes. We’ve had a number of posts about the need for energy in emerging markets...
- 2 Dec 2011