2014-05-01 Energy Week

These are news items covered in Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell – May 1:

4-25

¶   Africa’s largest wind farm, at Tarfaya in southwestern Morocco, has started generating electricity and will be capable of meeting the electricity needs of several hundred thousand people, officials say. It has a capacity of 300 MW. [Al-Arabiya]

¶   Solar power now accounts for about 1.1% of the total capacity of the US electrical grid, the US Energy Information Administration said in its monthly report on electricity generation in the US grid. Solar power has had a 418% increase in capacity since 2010. [UPI.com]

¶   ConEdison Solutions and the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey unveiled one of four new solar installations at Newark Liberty International Airport. It is a 633 kW solar system, the first at any airport buildings operated by The Port Authority. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

4-26

¶   “Rooftop Solar — Are The Grids Really Needed?” Being offgrid in the outback makes economic sense, but the bigger question for network operators around the world is whether those in more populated areas, even in the cities, will look to adopt similar measures. [CleanTechnica]

¶   In yet another signal that era of fossil fuels is drawing to a close, a jury has just awarded a whopping $3 million to a Texas family for health and property impacts linked to a nearby Aruba Petroleum fracking operation. [CleanTechnica]

¶   GE Energy Financial Services announced it has exceeded $10 billion in renewable energy investment commitments worldwide to become one of the industry’s leading investors. The projects avoid greenhouse gases equivalent to the annual car emissions in Massachusetts. [Today’s Energy Solutions]

4-27

¶   A new report from New York state, where a de facto shale drilling moratorium has persisted since 2008, concludes that unless natural gas prices double, much of the shale gas in the state cannot be profitably accessed by oil and gas companies.[CleanTechnica]

¶   There are choices for biogas projects about what to do with the gas. A developer may produce power for sale to the grid, but there is increasing appeal in using it to replace natural gas, offsetting fuel costs. New chemical processes make that conversion easier. [Biomass Magazine]

4-28

¶   In Australia, up to $4 billion worth of gas-fired power stations are in danger of being “stranded” as gas prices explode and the renewable energy target pushes extra generation into a grid already oversupplied with excess power, a new report has found. [The Australian]

¶   Officials in Taiwan say all construction will be halted at the island’s fourth nuclear power plant outside the capital, Taipei, after tens of thousands of anti-nuclear protesters marched through the city to demand the move. [Malaysia Sun]

4-29

¶   German and international researchers have succeeded in converting water, carbon dioxide and sunlight into kerosene, in a project that holds the possibility of producing completely renewable jet fuel. [The Local.de]

¶   Green Mountain Power has announced that under a revenue sharing agreement stemming from the sale of Vermont Yankee in 2002, GMP will receive as much as $17.8 million. That money will be directed to GMP customers in the form of lower rates. [Green Energy Times]

¶   Lower natural gas prices and stagnant growth in electric demand will lead to the loss of 10,800 megawatts of US nuclear generation, or around 10 percent of total capacity, by the end of the decade, according to the US Energy Information Administration. [Reuters]

4-30

¶   A key part of the Obama administration’s green policies received surprisingly strong Supreme Court support over efforts to curb air pollution. A 6-2 majority of justices issued a decision upholding federal agency rules to control coal-fired power plant emissions from 28 states. [CNN]

¶   The American wind industry continues the construction boom that started 2014, with more than 13,000 MW of wind energy projects under construction at the end of the first quarter [AltEnergyMag]

¶   A new report from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory estimates that there is potential for over 65 GW of new hydropower development across more than three million rivers and streams in the United States. [International Water Power and Dam Construction]

5-1

¶   China added nearly 40% less coal- and gas-fired power capacity in the first quarter than it did a year ago mainly due to stronger pollution controls and slower economic growth, according to a senior government advisor. [The Canberra Times]

¶   Platts confirmed CSX Corporation’s train that exploded in Lynchburg, Virginia was carrying sweet crude obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale basin. CSX CEO Michael Ward has also confirmed this to Bloomberg. [De Smog Blog]

 

2014-04-24 Energy Week

First, apologies that this was not included earlier. It is sufficiently important to talk about, even though it is late. It is an entry from 4-9.

¶   Unilever, Shell, BT, and EDF Energy are among 70 leading companies today calling on governments across the globe to step up efforts to tackle climate change. The companies say the world needs a “rapid and focused response” to the threat of rising global carbon emissions. [The Guardian]

4-18

¶   Tackling climate change is the only way to grow the economy in the 21st century, according to Unilever CEO Paul Polman. He says businesses are starting to understand climate risks, but governments are failing to respond. [RTCC.org]

¶   Greenpeace has just put out an optimistic new report suggesting that China’s decade-long coal boom might soon come to a close, due to slowing economic growth and new crackdowns on air pollution. Citigroup and others have been making similar predictions of late. [Vox]

¶   The manager of the stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant has admitted not having full control of the facility. Contrary to the statements of the Japanese PM, TEPCO’s Akira Ono said attempts to plug the leaks of radioactive water had failed. [RT]

¶   A small county in Northern California has become the first county government in the state to become grid energy positive. Yolo County (population 200,000), just west of Sacramento County, now produces 152 percent more energy from solar panels than it uses. [Christian Science Monitor]

4-19

¶   According to the latest “Energy Infrastructure Update” report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office (FERC), 92.1% of new electricity generation capacity in the US in January through March of 2014 came from renewable energy sources. [Treehugger]

¶   According to a new analysis by SNL Financial, more than half of all new energy generation infrastructure planned for the next few years is renewable energy, with renewable power plants replacing retiring coal. [Smithsonian]

¶   Reports released by the NRC show dozens of reactors that reassessed their vulnerability to earthquakes in the wake of the March 2011 meltdowns at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are at greater risk than they were originally licensed to withstand. [Environment News Service]

4-20

¶   Opinion: “Onsite Generation: Can Utilities Rethink Their Business Proposition?” Can utilities adapt to emerging innovations that allow customers to “bypass” their services? Or, will power companies become the modern-day dinosaur? [Forbes]

¶   The South Korean Finance Ministry says it plans to recommend easing unnecessary rules to fuel innovation and investment in technologies that can allow growth in such areas as wind, solar and geothermal power generation. [GlobalPost]

¶   Turkish Officials are examining plans to build the country’s first ecological city, with buildings heated by burning biogas produced from pistachio shells. The pistachio-heated city would encompass 3,200 hectares, and house 200,000 people.[South China Morning Post]

4-21

¶   Chinese Premier Li Keqiang reiterated plans to boost construction of solar and wind power plants along with projects to transmit electricity from the clean sources. The nation will also start construction of some key nuclear power projects in eastern coastal areas. [Bloomberg]

¶   The site of Britain’s nuclear dump at Sellafield was poorly chosen. It is virtually certain to be eroded by rising sea levels and to contaminate the Cumbrian coast with large amounts of radioactive waste, according to an internal document released by the Environment Agency. [The Guardian]

¶   Around 1 billion people live in areas at risk of sea-level rise and coastal flooding. The US East Coast has a rate of sea level rise three or four times faster than the global average, with cities, beaches and wetlands exposed to flooding, according to the new IPCC report. [Climate Central]

4-22

¶   HELMETH EU is an power-to-gas process that can be more than 85% efficient. First, power from solar or wind turns water into oxygen and hydrogen. Then, hydrogen reacts with carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide to methane, the main constituent of natural gas. [Nanowerk]

¶   Something rare and extraordinarily positive occurred on American television. Fortunately, through YouTube and 350.org, the rest of the world got to see it too.  A new cable TV series, “Years of Living Dangerously,” is about climate change in the 21st century. [CleanTechnica]

¶   The US DOE released its comprehensive, Strategic Plan 2014. The Plan provides a roadmap for the DOE’s work over the next four years and highlights its major priorities. The Plan promises to halve the county’s net oil imports by 2020. [CleanTechnica]

4-23

¶   Scientists at Harvard and MIT announced something extraordinary: they had found a way to create solar cells that can store accumulated energy from sunlight, and then, with no more than a burst of a few photons, release that energy in a steady and continuous form. [Echonetdaily]

¶   By using computers to analyze data continuously from wind turbines, wind power forecasts of unprecedented accuracy are making it possible for Colorado to use far more renewable energy, at lower cost, than utilities ever thought possible. [MIT Technology Review]

¶   The UK is set to become the largest market for solar PV in Europe during 2014, confirming its status as the hottest market across the region. This is the first time that the UK will have been at the lead for installed PV in Europe, which is nearly always taken by Germany. [Solar Power Portal]

4-24

¶   Kenya’s economy could be boosted by as much as $45 billion by the year 2030 with a switch to a ‘green’ economy, according to a new joint study from the UN Environment Programme and the Government of Kenya. [CleanTechnica]

¶   China will allow private investment in 80 projects spanning the energy, information and infrastructure sectors as part of reforms to increase privatisation. The 80 involve solar energy, hydro power, wind power, and oil and gas pipelines, previously state monopolies. [Business Spectator]

¶   According to analysis, new wind and solar can provide power at up to 50% lower cost  than new nuclear and carbon capture and storage. A reliable generation system of wind, and solar with gas as backup is 20% cheaper than a system of new nuclear power combined with gas. [Energy Matters]

¶   The US EPA’s Green Power Partnership has released a new list of the top 100 organizations that use electricity from renewable sources, such as solar and wind power. Intel is at the top, meeting 100% of its electricity load with renewable resources. [Solar Industry]

 

2014-04-17 Energy Week

 Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell – April 17 (Video)

4-11

¶   The future for small-scale renewable power projects has been thrown into doubt by changes to European state aid rules, industry leaders have claimed. The European Commission changed its guidance on state aid for renewable energy. [Building.co.uk]

¶   Lord Nicholas Stern, author of a landmark 2006 study on climate change, says his conclusion that global output could dive 5% to 20% without action to curb greenhouse gases was an underestimate. [Sydney Morning Herald]

¶   The UK has successfully lobbied to have an article containing the phrase, “the measure should in principle not reward investments in generation from fossil fuel plants,” removed from the new EU state aid guidelines. [Solar Power Portal]

4-12

¶   Eminent bishop and Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu has called on businesses to cut ties with the fossil fuels industry, in the same way as they did with South African companies during apartheid. [Blue & Green Tomorrow]

¶   “Are We Halfway to Market Dominance for Solar?” Electricity output from solar PVs is approaching 1% of total global electricity production, according to the IEA. That may not seem like much, but that 1% is actually halfway to the goal of market dominance. [Greentech Media]

¶   A radical shift from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy would slow world economic growth by only a tiny fraction every year, a new draft U.N. report on tackling global warming said on Friday. [The Japan Times]

4-13

¶   The IPCC report says greenhouse gases need to be cut 70% before 2050 to control climate change, and the job will become harder and more expensive unless the transformation is made within 15 years. [Daily Mail]

¶   The IPCC report says catastrophic climate change can be averted without sacrificing living standards. It concludes the transformation to a world of clean energy, ditching dirty fossil fuels, is eminently affordable. [Business Green]

¶   Geologists in Ohio have for the first time linked earthquakes in a geologic formation deep under the Appalachians to hydraulic fracturing, leading the state to issue new permit conditions Friday in certain areas that are among the nation’s strictest. [Huffington Post]

¶   More than 7,000 MW of new wind turbines are scheduled to be built by the end of next year, potentially increasing Texas’ wind power capacity by almost 60%. The amount being installed is greater than any other state already has in place. [Dallas Morning News]

4-14

¶   Negotiations between London and Dublin over cross-border trading of onshore wind power have failed, according to the Irish Energy Minister. The breakdown leaves gigawatt-scale ambitions of various organizations unlikely to progress before 2020, if at all. [reNews]

¶   The United States DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory has warned that failing to renew the production tax credit could cause growth in the wind sector to fall from 8.7 GW per year in 2008-2012 to between 3 GW and 5 GW per year. [Tax-news.com]

4-15

¶   The Czech state-run power utility says it has canceled a tender to build two more nuclear reactors because falling electricity prices have made the multi-billion dollar project less feasible. Westinghouse and a Russian consortium were bidding to build the reactors.  [Utility Products]

¶   About 75% of New Zealand’s electricity comes from renewable sources, and the Government has pledged to raise that to 90% by 2025. But a senior executive from Citigroup told a conference audience the percentage could be greater. [Radio New Zealand]

4-16

¶   First quarter clean energy investment rose 9% from last year on surging demand for rooftop solar panels. New investment in renewable power and energy efficiency rose to $47.7 billion, up from $43.6 billion, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. [Bloomberg]

¶   Former Prime Ministers Junichiro Koizumi and Morihiro Hosokawa will establish an anti-nuclear power forum in May to promote research into renewable energy and support anti-nuclear candidates in elections, sources said Tuesday. [The Japan Times]

¶   ISO New England reported today that the volatile natural gas market in this region pushed wholesale electric prices up by 55% last year. We’re already seeing some of this at the retail level, but the real impact will likely be seen in our monthly bills next winter. [Boston Business Journal]

¶   California’s recent revisions to Title 24 put in place ambitious performance goals: all new residential buildings must be Zero Net Energy by 2020, and commercial buildings by 2030. This is likely to have ripple effects through the whole nation’s construction industry. [CleanTechnica]

4-17

¶   When the wind blows and the sun shines in Germany, electricity prices in the country plummet. Natural gas peaker plants are not needed, as the peaks are erased and they cannot compete with renewables. But the grid still needs balancing resources like demand response. [Energy Collective]

¶   The IPCC report is positive on renewables’ ability to deal with carbon emissions. It addresses nuclear power as a possible solution, but also underscores considerable barriers for it. The combination illustrates the conclusion that nuclear is largely irrelevant. [Scoop.co.nz]

¶   “No, the IPCC climate report doesn’t call for a fracking boom” Interpretations of the report saying it endorses fracking, urging a “dash for gas” as a bridge fuel to put us on a path to a more renewable energy future are exaggerated, lack context, and are just plain wrong. [Grist]

¶   Over the past months, there has been a bit of a selling spree of Entergy stock. But this sell-off isn’t coming from just anybody: these sales are by corporate top executives. Between December and early April, five Entergy execs sold off large portions of their Entergy stock. [GreenWorld]

2014-04-10 Energy Week

4-4

¶   The UN IPCC report said that during the next 100 years, bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration could pull 125 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide from the sky, while biochar energy systems could draw down 130 billion tonnes. There were 40 billion tonnes emitted in 2013. [Environment & Energy Publishing]

¶   A report released by Exxon Mobil about how greenhouse gas emissions and climate change factor into its business model found that climate change, and specifically global climate policies, are “highly unlikely” to stop it from selling fossil fuels for decades to come. [Resilience]

4-5

¶   Energy efficiency contributed 63 exajoules (EJ) of avoided energy use in 2010 – that’s larger than the supply of oil (43 EJ), electricity or natural gas (22 EJ each), said a first- ever “Energy Efficiency Market report.” [CleanTechnica]

¶   Three major atomic accidents in 35 years are forcing the world’s nuclear industry to stop imagining it can prevent more catastrophes and to focus instead on how to contain them. When the next nuclear accident occurs, we to need to know how to limit damage. [Bloomberg]

4-6

¶   Owners of at least two dozen nuclear reactors across the US will be required to undertake extensive analyses of their structures and components because they cannot show that their reactors would withstand the most severe earthquake revised estimates say they might face. [Indiana Gazette]

¶   Two studies released by the Alberta government separately show that the incidence of cancer downstream of tar sands development is higher than expected and that air emissions from a certain type of drilling tar sands operation is likely causing health problems. [Energy Collective]

4-7

¶   In many parts of the U.S., wind energy is now the cheapest form of electricity generation – cheaper than natural gas and even coal, NextEra chief financial office Moray P. Dewhurst recently stated on an earnings call. [Triple Pundit]

¶   The new solar strategy from the UK’s Department of Energy & Climate Change envisions building a vast distributed network of “solar hubs” on buildings and brownfield sites. Unfortunately, it additionally envisions building new nuclear power plants. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Nations are running out of time to cut their use of fossil fuels and stay below agreed limits on global warming, according to a draft UN study to be approved this week. Temperatures have already risen by about 0.8° since 1900 and are set to go past 2° in coming decades. [Business Spectator]

¶   “Exxon’s Climate Response ‘Consummate Arrogance’” After Exxon Mobil’s uncharacteristically public response to shareholder requests for information about the company’s climate change mitigation efforts, climate activist Bill McKibben denounced its report as arrogant provocations. [Energy Collective]

4-8

¶   Renewables, excluding hydropower, accounted for 8.5% of global electricity generation, up from 7.8% in 2012, according to research by the United Nations’ Environment Programme and Bloomberg New Energy Finance. [Thomson Reuters Foundation]

¶   Global investments in renewable energy slumped 14% last year, with China pouring more money into the sector than Europe for the first time on record. Investments in non-hydro renewables fell $35.1 billion to $214.4 billion in 2013, according to a report from the UN. [Rappler]

¶   Almost half of new electricity generation is now renewable, and the costs of wind and solar power are falling sharply. It “should give governments confidence to forge a robust climate agreement” next year, says the director of the United Nations Environment Program. [New Scientist]

¶   A recent study from NREL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory specifically addresses the value of demand response [adjusting customer demand during peak times] by putting demand response resources into a commercial production cost model. [Energy Collective]

4-9

¶   Of the decline in investment in renewable power capacity, 80% resulted from falling cost of renewable energy technology, primarily solar panels. The remaining 20% a drop in actual construction activity, thanks largely to the uncertain fate of government subsidies. [Mother Jones]

¶   Oregon State University chemists have found that cellulose — the most abundant organic polymer on Earth and a key component of trees — can be heated in a furnace in the presence of ammonia, and turned into the building blocks for supercapacitors. [Science Daily]

¶   The role of utilities is being questioned as technology changes. Dominion Virginia Power is establishing microgrids, which can be separated and provide power to communities without any support from the bulk power grid, as pilot projects. [Platts]

¶   The German government approved a reform of their energy transformation to reduce subsidies for renewables and stem rising electricity prices. The reform plan is still designed to meet 80% of its energy needs with renewables by 2050. [The Local.de]

4-10

¶   Emissions from transportation may rise at the fastest rate of all major sources through 2050, the United Nations will say in a report due April 13. Heat-trapping gases from vehicles may surge 71 percent from 2010 levels, mainly from emerging economies. [Businessweek]

¶   Entergy is asking federal regulators for permission to end off-site emergency planning 16 months after the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant shuts down. NRC staffers are evaluating Entergy’s request. [vtdigger.org]

¶   Disagreements between Entergy Nuclear and the Agency of Natural Resources surfaced this week in an exchange of letters over the proposed draft permit for Vermont Yankee’s continuing thermal discharge into the Connecticut River. [Barre Montpelier Times Argus]

2014-04-03 Energy Week

3-28

¶   Scotland generated a record 17,011 GWh of electricity in 2013, a rise of 16.4% on the previous year, according to the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change. That means about 46.5% of Scotland’s energy needs came from sources such as wind or hydro power. [Glasgow South and Eastwood Extra]

¶   Analysts Frost & Sullivan expect the global market for micro-grids to accelerate rapidly from next year as a thirst for renewable energy – driven by solar PV – prompts greater demand for power in off-grid locations. [eco-business.com]

3-29

¶   Wind generation in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas on Thursday set a record for power production at one time for the second time this month. Wind generators met 10,296 MW, or nearly 29% of ERCOT’s demand. ERCOT manages power for 23 million customers. [Platts]

¶   German utility E.ON said Friday it plans to retire its 1.3 GW Grafenrheinfeld nuclear reactor in May 2015, seven months ahead of the planned shutdown under Germany’s nuclear phase-out law. [Platts]

¶   Climate change has already left its mark “on all continents and across the oceans”, damaging food crops, spreading disease, and melting glaciers, according to the leaked text of a blockbuster UN climate science report due out on Monday.[The Guardian]

3-30

¶   The Vermont Public Service Board on Friday said it reluctantly approved letting the Vermont Yankee nuclear power station operate through the end of this year. The board also approved a deal between Entergy and the Shumlin administration. [Barre Montpelier Times Argus]

¶   The 8-MW co-generation plant at the Marine Corps base in Twentynine Palms, California will be one of the lynchpins of a computerized microgrid the base is developing to manage its energy as efficiently as possible, save taxpayer dollars and operate off grid in an emergency. [The Desert Sun]

¶   Signs are increasingly pointing to the formation of an El Niño in the next few months, possibly a very strong one. When combined with the long-term global warming trend, a strong El Niño would mean 2015 is very likely to become the hottest year on record by far. [Energy Collective]

3-31

¶   Up to 24% of all coal-fired electric power plants in the United States may shut down because of EPA regulations, according to a new “Today in Energy” report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). [DigiNews]

¶   Altaeros Energie says it is set to break the world record for the highest wind turbine ever deployed. The next generation BAT (Buoyant Airborne Turbine) will be the first long-term demonstration of such a device. [Energy Matters]

4-1

¶   Vermont’s “net metering” bill that nearly quadruples the amount of power that utilities can buy from renewable energy projects is becoming law, raising  that amount to 15% of peak load. Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin will sign the bill into law on April 1. [WPTZ The Champlain Valley]

¶   The state of New Jersey is trying to flesh out details of a proposed $200 million Energy Resiliency Bank that would dole out federal funds to projects aimed at curtailing outages during extreme weather. [NJ Spotlight]

4-2

¶   In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, states in the Northeast have been putting the weight of government policy and budgets behind microgrids, self-sustaining islands of electric power to keep critical services running in the midst of broader grid blackouts. [Greentech Media]

¶   Northern Ireland’s biggest power generator plans to build a huge battery facility that can store energy produced by wind farms. AES, owner of Kilroot and Ballylumford power stations, plans to build the 100 MW facility at Kilroot. [BBC News]

¶   West Lindsey District Council has granted planning permission for a 50 MW solar park on the site of a former RAF base in Lincolnshire. When completed, the project is anticipated to share the title of the largest solar farm development in the UK. [Solar Power Portal]

4-3

¶   The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has issued its second of four planned reports examining the state of climate science. This one summarizes what the scientific literature says about “Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability” [Energy Collective]

¶   American-made wind power has long enjoyed popular support across the country. There’s even evidence to suggest that the more wind power there is in a state, the more support wind power receives. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Noting that electricity rates from Hawaii Electric Light Co. are consistently more than 37¢ per kWh despite nearly half of the island’s power being renewable, Parker Ranch announced it has created a new subsidiary aimed at providing electricity on its own microgrid. [Big Island Now]