Stanford

New Zealand's isolated geographical location has lead to an energy portfolio that contains a large renewable energy mix. Electricity is generated mostly from hydro and geothermal energy. Wind is a growing energy resource. For transport, New Zealand relies on oil imports. No wonder that the New Zealanders are interested in exploring electric or fuel cell vehicles, with the electricity and hydrogen generated in New Zealand in an environmentally friendly way.

Heavy oils, in abundant supply, are no doubt going to make up a large part of our oil consumption in the not so far future. They are very hard to produce, and generally require heat to mobilize the sticky, tar-like substance. The most commonly used method is steam flooding, where steam is injected into the oil reservoir. But it takes energy to create the steam, which is typically produced by burning gas. Voila: a large carbon footprint.

The US is not a small player in wind energy, but, to date, offshore wind farms have not been built. This is soon to end however with plans for offshore sites in Delaware, Massachusetts and Texas. And California? It may soon follow.

Margot Gerritsen visits the Palo Alto Research Center again to have a look at the new concentrated solar PV system designed at PARC with Solfocus, a start-up incubated at PARC. It's a clever device that is designed to reduce the amount of silicon needed in PV systems per Watt produced.

IPCC Climatologist Stephen Schneider talks about the need for government to restrict people's rights to make global warming worse IPCC Climatologist Stephen Schneider talks about the need for government to restrict people's rights to make global warming worse on a personal level, when better options are available.

A new survey of American attitudes toward combating global warming was released by New Scientist magazine, with support from Stanford University and RFF. The poll finds that most Americans want the government to establish regulatory mandates -- so long as they don"t hit consumer pocketbooks too hard.