Home

RAEL in the Media

Dan Kammen: "Reward Energy and Technology Innovators"

Publication Date: 
January, 2012
Source: 
Diablo Magazine

Dan Kammen was interviewed in the article, "A Brighter Tomorrow" by Justin Goldman of Diablo Magazine:

If you want an authority on the future of energy policy, Dan Kammen is your man. He is the director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Lab at UC Berkeley, and he served as the first director of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency for the World Bank Group.
 

Given your expertise in energy, what do you believe our priorities should be moving forward?

Diablo Magazine

Solar opportunity or trade war with US

Publication Date: 
December, 2011
Source: 
The Hill

Daniel M. Kammen, University of California, Berkeley

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/200435-solar-opportu...

Dan Kammen: Time to Tackle Fossil Fuel Subsidies

Publication Date: 
November, 2011
Source: 
Clean Edge, Guest Blog by Dan Kammen
It is sadly no secret that progress has been slow to vanishing on reaching a meaningful deal on climate protection, which many had hoped would emerge from the 2009 Climate Convention in Copenhagen, or the 2010 meeting in Cancun, Mexico. As we approach Durban and the 2011 version there is virtually no talk of a “global deal,” but there is some hopeful talk of significant public sector and private sector funding for meaningful action on specific topics, including energy access for all, and advancing the business environment for clean energy.

For example, there have been a series of business-led discussions and proposals on how to develop energy-efficiency master plans at all levels—company, municipality, and country. An exciting aspect has been the presence of so many innovative industry partners and governments that have not only developed, but started practicing important renewable energy and energy-efficiency solutions.

At the World Bank and in my role as a professor of energy at the University of California, Berkeley, I have been in many exciting meetings where the “enabling environment” of clean energy versus fossil fuel costs comes to the forefront of the conversation.

Read the full article

Sustainable Hydropower: A New Flow of Ideas

Publication Date: 
October, 2011
Source: 
The Great Energy Challenge , National Geographic
What can be done to diversify our clean energy technology options?  In recent years we have seen a number of seemingly  “old” technologies undergo a reassessment, and a reinvention.  Geothermal power, once assessed as “an excellent source of baseload energy, but likely limited in commercially exploitable capacity” has undergone a renaissance.

Here’s the new view in the latest IPCC Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources:

In 2008, global geothermal energy use represented only about 0.1 percent of the global primary energy supply. However, by 2050, geothermal could meet roughly 3 percent of the global electricity demand and 5 percent of the global demand for heating and cooling.

That dramatic expansion of scope – a factor of 15 on a global scale – is a function of new technology options and forecasts for higher fossil fuel prices. But it is only one example.

Another technology undergoing a dramatic expansion of options is that of hydropower.  Conventional dams, large and small, use either a natural, or more commonly, an artificial “head” or drop to harness energy.

Read the article on the blog

Innovators that could light up Africa

Publication Date: 
September, 2011
Source: 
Development in a Changing Climate Blog
Everyone talks about the crisis of energy access – the 2.7 billion people who use wood and other solid fuels, and the 1.5 billion without access to electricity – but who is doing something about it?

At the African Energy Ministerial Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa, today, both high-level planning and on-the-ground energy projects were visible, and truly inspiring. In a five hour Green Household Energy Solutions Expo that I had the true pleasure to chair, the Minister of Economic Development for South Africa, Mr. Ebrahim Patel, kicked off the discussion by saying that South Africa was committed to growing nation’s clean energy generation capacity for both domestic use and for export and in the process create green jobs.

The meeting marks a key chance for integration and coordination as the last regional ministerial meeting before the COP17 Climate Conference in Durban, South Africa in December of this year. The room was packed, with over 15 ministers in attendance, and the discussion turned to the benefits of regional integration of transmission systems, building wind, geothermal, and large-scale solar energy projects.

However, the focus and the stars of the meeting were the innovators at the household and local community level who showed the possibilities that exist with a range of new approaches – some technological but many managerial and social as well.

Read the article on the blog

An Interview with Dan Kammen on Climate Spectator

Publication Date: 
September, 2011
Source: 
Climate Spectator
It all sounds a little utopian and improbable, but Dan Kammen, the chief technical specialist for renewable energy and energy efficiency for the World Bank, says island and remote communities, particularly in developing countries, are proving to be excellent testing grounds on how to achieve 100 per cent clean energy outcomes. The high price of fossil fuels in these countries allows the technology to be available sooner, and many have no other options.

“Getting to 10 and 20 per cent renewables has proved very doable, but how do you get to 80, 90, 100 per cent where you’ve really got to deal with integration issues? And what we’re seeing in many island communities, and also many isolated non islands that look like islands from a power perspective, is that good management of the system, integrating efficiency and renewables, finding ways to back up your clean generation; those lessons translate to countries rich and poor around the world.”

Here's what else Kammen had to say in an interview with Climate Spectator while in Australia for the Ecogen 2011 conference and for some work with the Climate Commission:

read the whole interview here

Read the full article

Dan Kammen highlights the value of renewable energies

Publication Date: 
September, 2011
Source: 
The Sydney Morning Herald
Dan Kammen presentation at Australia's Ecogen conference were reported by the Sydney Morning Herald:


"[...] World Bank renewable energy specialist Dan Kammen told the Ecogen conference there were major economic opportunities for developed economies to partner with China in building and selling renewable energy technology.

Mr Kammen said there had been too much focus on the “intense battle” being waged publicly by skeptics of human-caused climate change.

Even without helping to combat climate change, he said promoting renewable energy with policies including feed-in tariffs would increase energy security, business profitability and promote jobs growth.

Organisers said the conference, which ends tomorrow, was being held at a “critical time” for the clean energy industry."

Read the full article at the Sydney Morning Herald

Awards for Change: How prizes can help us achieve energy goals

Publication Date: 
September, 2011
Source: 
Development in a Changing Climate Blog
What will it take to foster and spread the ideas and practices needed for sustainable development? One thing that has stirred innovative thinking are the positive results of recent prize competitions.

Perhaps the most notable of these – so far – has been the Ansari X Prize. The Ansari X Prize was a space competition in which the X Prize Foundation offered a US$10 million reward for the first non-government organization to launch the same reusable manned spacecraft into space twice within two weeks. It was modeled after early 20th-century aviation prizes, and aimed to spur development of low-cost spaceflight. There is real brilliance in this idea, but in the specific terms of the prize, which prompted other competitors – each of whom spent far more than the prize money. The prize, claimed by Scaled Composites in 2004 for its Tier One project launched or accelerated a diverse portfolio of private space ventures, “spaceports”, and an industry now worth billions.

Read the article on the blog

More (and Targeted) Financing Needed to Expand Energy Access

Publication Date: 
July, 2011
Source: 
Development in a Changing Climate Blog
Energy poverty cripples development prospects. Where people don’t have access to modern energy services, like reliable electricity, their ability to earn a livelihood is sabotaged. That’s why UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called — admirably — for “a revolution that makes energy available and affordable for all” in 2012, designated the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All.
Read the article on the blog

Correcting Faulty Math on Renewable Energy

Publication Date: 
July, 2011
Source: 
The Great Energy Challenge
Renewable energy:  Scientists, governments, and significant elements of the business community now are in agreement that it is the basis around which we can build a low-carbon, sustainable, global energy economy. And yet, misinformation is being propagated by interests favoring the status quo.

A June 7 op-ed,  The Gas is Greener, by Robert Bryce in The New York Times is a sad example. Using rhetorical arguments and faulty calculations, Bryce argues that technologies such as wind and solar are somehow more environmentally destructive than natural gas and nuclear energy. This opinion is at odds with the findings of the several hundred analysts who developed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources released last month. It is also at odds with the community of nations who reviewed and endorsed the report and its finding that 17 to 77 percent of global energy needs could come from renewable energy by 2050.

So, what is the truth? Can we build this new energy economy?
   

Read the full article on National Geographic