According to a new study from NYU, it would take about three billion dollars of DOE investment to get the costs of geothermal down to the cost of coal. That does seem like a fairly steep price when geothermal power seems so very free. But getting enough heat out of the ground to power turbines is no simple affair.

The study also found that previous DOE investments in geothermal provided higher returns in price drops and efficiency increases than investment in any other renewable resource.

There's a sense in the energy industry that geothermal is already a mature technology and that, unfortunately, it's never going to be practical on a large scale. However, the NYU study is pointing out that this is simply not true. New techniques are hitting geothermal from every angle. Some people are working on getting more heat out of geothermal wells, others are making electricity with cooler rocks while a third group of people are creating new ways to reach hot rocks with less money.

The study also determined (though we're not quite clear on how) that geothermal could get down to four cents per kilowatt hour with only $3 B of investment from the DOE. This seems rather fishy to me. But whether or not it will get down to grid parity, more focus on geothermal is definitely needed.

Via GreenCarCongress

Had a great first day at San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival. The weather was absolutely gorgeous providing the perfect background to some great music. I spent my festival time cautiously today. Since it is my first time here, I chose to acquaint myself slowly on day one and hit things with more gusto over the next two days.

We started our day with a set from Los Campesinos! who Madison fans will remember and who provided just the right amount of energy for an early afternoon. We stuck around and caught The Dodos whose new material was a welcomed soundtrack to the afternoon. Speaking of new material, The National continue to roll out new tunes in concert. I think there were a total of three new ones played yesterday if my memory serves me correctly. The set ending “Mr. November” has become a guarantee lately, but that bother me one bit nor did the rest of the packed crowd.

Pearl Jam closed this down the first night in proper fashion. I had a feeling we might get a special guest appearance by Neil Young last night, but that didn’t happen. Instead, the band channeled Shakey via his catalog with covers of “Throw Your Hatred Down” and the night’s final tune “Rockin In The Free World.” Having seen Pearl Jam plenty of times this one ranks up there in terms of favorites. It was the first time I’d heard them play “Crazy Mary” and The Who’s “Real Me” was the ultimate highlight for me.

Please follow @Muzzleofbees for frequent updates of our festival coverage. Not here, but want to be? YouTube is providing a webcast for the entire festival weekend.

Day two of the Outside Lands Music Festival was a hot one. Despite the heat we managed to see a number of great bands including the resounding favorite amongst out group, Bat For Lashes.

We started our day with Raphael Saadiq who was great when he got around to playing music. Unfortunately, he filled a third of his set with stage banter and unengaged storytelling. All was forgiven with his cover of Iggy & The Stooges “Search & Destroy.”

Photos proved to be impossible by the time we made it over to see Portugal. The Man. As I said on Twitter yesterday, this band has become one of my favorite live bands this year. I think the festival organizers here and at Lollapalooza earlier this month underestimated the group’s rising popularity because their crowds were massive and packed. Not a bad problem for those guys.

I wasn’t expecting Mastodon to convert me to fandom yesterday, but I definitely did want to give them the opportunity to try. I stayed for about half their set before departing for a an up close spot for Bat For Lashes. My traveling companion joked that he thought the souls of all Mastodon attendees would be sucked into some demonic vortex once the lead singer opened his mouth. Thankfully that didn’t happen.

I haven’t spent enough time with the new Bat For Lashes. In fact, I’ve been racking my brain to wonder if I even own it. Having been a fan of Natasha’s first record, I can’t think of any reason why I’ve let her most recent offering pass me by. That will change when I find a record store. Her set was so fun and the band’s enjoyment was also visible the entire time. It was delicate and electronic in some parts and the drummer was out of this world good. I’m not sure if there are more Bat For Lashes tour dates out there this year, but if they swing through your town do check them out.

A wave of skepticism fell over me as I watched TV On The Radio trot out the horn section at the beginning of their set. After yesterday’s set I don’t know if I could ever enjoy the band without them in the future. It was that great. Seriously. Playing what they described from the stage as “their last show for a long time,” TV On The Radio brought lots of energy as the temperatures began to cool down. I don’t know if I could ever tire of “Staring at the Sun.”

That was it for us yesterday. We wanted to take some of the city and we weren’t really feeling the headliners. About to head back for the third and final day. Follow @Muzzleofbees for frequent updates on the festival and our last day in town.

I don’t think it’s an understatement to say that this is my most requested post ever. Ever since I started these silly little contests pitting two bad bands against each other it’s been requested, nay begged, that the wretchedly horrible nu-metal rockers Nickelback get their due.

The only problem I could see is that there is literally no other band that are as bad as Nickelback. It’s a simple fact. They even make Creed and Hinder look good in comparison. Additionally, since Nickelback have actually ripped off their own songs (as the mash-up below proves), it only makes sense that they are pitted against themselves in this contest.

MP3 Nickelback - How You Remind Me of Someday (Mash-up)

So you know the drill from here. Put your vote for whose worse in the comments (should be an easy decision) and make sure you add some explanation of why you think they are the worst. Don’t hold back in your criticism, because Lord knows, Nickelback haven’t held back in creating the most repulsive, god-awful music known to man.

If you’re looking for some new jams to soundtrack your lazy fall evenings, you’re not going to do much better than The Twin Atlas. The duo’s new record Good Light sounds like it was tailor made for drives at dusk or just sitting around the house with the windows open. Adjectives like “hazy,” “lush,” and “dreamy” keep popping up in my head as I listen to the band’s music, and it only takes approximately two seconds into “Versions” to understand why. The band’s wonderful harmonies combine with a galloping beat to form the perfect music for squeezing the last bit out of the days before hoodie weather starts.

The Twin Atlas resides somewhere in-between genres; the music is too urgent to be called folk, but too laid back to be called pop. The band doesn’t so much play songs as they conjure up little vignettes that stick around just long enough to make an impression before fading away. The songs on the album are all fairly similar to each other, but criticism here kind of misses the point. This isn’t a record to sit around and analyze, the songs are great and these guys know what they’re doing. This is music made for being contentedly lazy and watching the clouds roll by. At least until winter gets here.

MP3 The Twin Atlas - Versions
MP3 The Twin Atlas - Double Shot

Am I the only one who’s getting a Magic Eye vibe from the cover for Ghostface’s forthcoming The Wizard Of Poetry (which, yes, the allusions are obvious)? The lighter bits of the GHOSTFACE in flowing script glow and catch shadows off the tennis-ball sky of Ghostface’s Emerald City—yeah, they’re all Oz allusions, and not signs that this is going to be the Wu-Tang member’s long-awaited grunge album—and they kind of give me a Merriweather Post Pavilion-ish headache.

Instead, it’s a very R & B-heavy record: “You can’t talk about slinging crack on an R&B album. Unless you get caught — it depends on how you say it — and your girl is gonna leave you, and she never came back, cause you were doing whatever you were doing,” Ghost told New York back in July.) (And I’ve heard “Baby,” the lead single, a bunch—or at least heard its Raheem DeVaughn-through-Autotune hook, since it didn’t register that said song was a Ghostface tune until I pulled it up for the purposes of linking in this post. Hmm.)

[HT: Pitchfork]