Menu Close

Articles on Power plants

Displaying 1 - 20 of 21 articles

A large-scale battery storage system in Long Beach, Calif., provides renewable electricity during peak demand periods. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images

What is a virtual power plant? An energy expert explains

Some power plants don’t have massive smokestacks or cooling towers – or even a central site.
Power plants contribute a quarter of the United States’ climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Howard C via Getty images

EPA’s crackdown on power plant emissions is a big first step – but without strong certification, it will be hard to ensure captured carbon stays put

Fossil fuel power plants can avoid most emissions by capturing carbon dioxide and pumping it underground. But to be a climate solution, that carbon has to stay stored for thousands of years.
The James H. Miller coal power plant in Alabama emitted as much carbon dioxide in 2021 as 4.6 million cars. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Biden’s strategy for cutting carbon emissions from electricity generation could extend the lives of fossil fuel power plants

After the Supreme Court overturned the Obama administration’s strategy for reducing power plant carbon emissions in 2022, the Biden administration is taking a narrower but still ambitious approach.
Hydrogen has potential, but it faces some big challenges, including a lack of pipeline infrastructure. Petmal/iStock/Getty Images Pluss plus

What is hydrogen, and can it really become a climate change solution?

Hydrogen is getting a lot of attention as the EPA prepares to propose new emissions rules for power plants. But it has a problem: almost all of it used today is made from fossil fuels.
Most carbon dioxide captured in the U.S. today is used to extract more oil. Citizens of the Planet/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Why the oil industry’s pivot to carbon capture and storage – while it keeps on drilling – isn’t a climate change solution

Most carbon dioxide captured in the U.S. today is used to extract more oil. Two scholars point to another way: biological sequestration.
Fire a set of high-power lasers at a tiny speck of hydrogen isotopes and you can initiate nuclear fusion, the process that powers the Sun. National Ignition Facility

How much energy can people create at one time without losing control?

Scientists are working on ways to make lots of energy by converting matter into energy. The trick is keeping the process under control. One possibility is nuclear fusion – the Sun’s power source.
The use of coal for electric power has been declining fast in the U.S. AP Photo/J. David Ake

What’s really driving coal power’s demise?

Contrary to popular belief, falling natural gas prices didn’t significantly accelerate coal power plant retirements. Here’s what did.

Top contributors

More