On Denmark’s Road To Renewable Power

Renewable energy seems to be taking off in the US, but there are serious challenges—both technological and social—that come along with adding more solar and wind to the grid. Denmark has faced similar challenges as it has transitioned from almost no renewables in the mid-90s to almost half of its power supply today.

Why Smart Meters Don’t Make A Smart Grid

In 2009, President Obama promised to modernize the electric grid, using stimulus money. The new power grid would be smart and efficient, bringing the tech revolution to electricity. It would incorporate more renewable energy. It would have the ability to fix blackouts more quickly. And, it would save customers a whole lot of money. So whatever happened to that plan? (Blackout: Reinventing the Grid #3)

When The Largest Machine In The World Fails

If you could peer behind an electrical plug in your house, you’d find a massive network of transmission lines and power plants and a whole army of people bringing power to the socket in real-time, 24 hours a day. It’s the largest machine in the world: the power grid. Most of the time it operates invisibly, in the background, but when it fails, it often does so memorably. To most people, those outages seem like isolated events, but when you look at the trend, they’re not. (Blackout: Reinventing the Grid #1)