The World

The Latest in Power Plants

The Southwest is slated to host two of the newest ideas in commercial electricity — turbines fired by solar heat to light up 50 thousand homes, and burning hydrogen and burying the waste product — CO2 — underground.

By far, the majority of America’s electricity comes from burning coal, splitting atoms and burning natural gas. But partly through federal subsidies, renewable energy is getting more commercially competitive. As Living on Earth’s Ingrid Lobet reports, 350 thousand homes in Nevada and California may get their juice from the sun and from hydrogen