2014-06-05 Energy Week

The following are the news items used in Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell, June 5, 2014:

5-30

¶   Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene, and the world is on the brink of a sixth great extinction, according to a new study published by the journal Science. [Huffington Post]

¶   Xcel Energy announced that, as of 2013, it had reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 20% since 2005, exceeding President Barack Obama’s announced goal of achieving a 17% reduction by 2020. [Boulder Daily Camera]

¶   The National Resources Defense Council says new federal standards that aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants would save the nation’s consumers $37.4 billion in 2020 via reduced electricity bills by the time the rules are fully implemented. [Denver Business Journal]

¶   Chevron’s renewable power group produced profits for 2013 that were nearly double what the company hoped for. Nevertheless, managers told the group that funding for the effort would dry up and encouraged staffers to find jobs elsewhere. [Businessweek]

5-31

¶   “How to Cut Power Plant Carbon by 50%: New EPA Climate Rules Can Create a Foundation for Real Global Warming Solutions” New UCS analysis shows that a strong standard provides an opportunity to cut our power sector emissions in half by 2030. [The Equation: Blog of the Union of Concerned Scientists]

¶   Everyone understood that solar power, as a promising renewable form of energy, needed to eventually compete with nuclear, oil, coal and gas — without any government subsidies. Much faster than anyone expected, we’re almost there. [NASDAQ]

¶   Green Mountain Power announced it has reached an agreement with the Vermont Department of Public Service and other stakeholders to decrease electric rates by 2.46%. The rate decrease will take effect on October 1, 2014. [Green Energy Times]

6-1

¶   Now that the age of fossil fuels and petrochemicals is winding down, sewage mining is obviously the Next Big Thing. The wastewater-to-biogas angle is already going strong and a number of companies are busily reclaiming other useful raw materials, too. [CleanTechnica]

¶   The idea of replacing America’s asphalt roads with solar panels apparently has plenty of appeal. The Solar Roadways IndieGoGo campaign has raised some $1.5 million to use towards research and development of this cutting-edge solution to our world’s environmental woes. [CleanTechnica]

6-2

¶   Denmark has given the green light to investment in the 700 MW Cobra interconnector with the Netherlands. Energy minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen issued the all-clear this morning. The 300 km subsea line will carry high voltage DC power from wind farms. [reNews]

¶   Lake Kivu lies on the border between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a relatively small body of water that poses a not-so-small problem: it’s filled with 60 billion cubic meters of methane gas. A project called Kivuwatt plans to use that problem for power. [RYOT]

¶   The Obama administration will seek to cut greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants 30% from 2005 levels by 2030, potentially one of the biggest steps any country has taken to confront climate change, people familiar with the plan said Sunday. [Los Angeles Times]

6-3

¶   Vermont is the only state not covered by the Obama administration’s sweeping new plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent over the next 15 years, but the state will still benefit by working with other states to meet the goals. [Greenfield Daily Reporter]

¶   US solar panel installations climbed to a record 1.3 GW in the first quarter of 2014, according the SEIA quarterly report. Solar PV installations jumped 79% from the first quarter of 2013, with 744 MW added. Only 2013 Q4 had more installations, with 2.1 GW. [CleanTechnica]

¶   A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency, the report says that proper investment in wind, solar, and other renewable energy generating technologies can lead to an economic boom. [Triple Pundit]

6-4

¶   The Guardian reported this morning that the Queen’s Speech is to contain a surprise measure designed to make it easier for local residents in the UK to invest in wind or solar farm projects near their properties. [Business Green]

¶   The world is not moving fast enough on investment in low carbon energy to tackle climate change, new research from the International Energy Agency has found. About $1.6 trillion is invested annually in the global energy supply, but amount needs to rise to $2 trillion. [The Guardian]

¶   The European Union’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to fall in 2012, as a 1.3% decrease meant emissions have now been cut to 19.2% below 1990 levels, according to official data from the European Environment Agency. [Click Green]

¶   Vernon, Vermont selectboard members are touting the potential benefits of new biomass power plant — with the possibility of a natural-gas component — that could be built at the Vermont Yankee site after the nuclear facility shuts.[Bennington Banner]

6-5

¶   “Obama Isn’t Killing Power Plants. The Sun Is.” Opponents to President Obama’ regulations for controlling carbon emissions are claiming the new rules are so onerous they will imperil the electric utility industry. Actually, it’s a little too late for that; solar power got there first. [Bloomberg View]

¶   The world needs to spend $48 trillion between now and 2035 to meet rising demand for energy, according to the International Energy Agency.  The good news is that for an extra $5 trillion, we can both meet demand and avoid dangerous climate change. [Business Spectator]

¶   It seems Australia’s greenhouse gas emission reduction targets more than tripled on the weekend, from a 5% cut by 2020 to a reduction of more than 18%. Surprised? The Abbott Government might be too. The new target is a default, automatically generated by law. [Energy Matters]

¶   An explosive new report from the US DOE makes clear that Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is likely a climate-destroying misallocation of resources. That is, if one uses estimates for methane leakage based on actual observations. [ThinkProgress]

2014-05-29 Energy Week

This is a collection of news items covered in Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell on May 29, 2014.

5-23

¶   EDP, a major European utility with equal exposure to fossil fuels, wind, and hydro, says that onshore wind is the cheapest of any new utility scale technology. The levelized cost of electricity of onshore wind in Europe is 20% cheaper than gas and 30% cheaper than coal. [RenewEconomy]

¶   The UK’s Prime Minister, an avid supporter of fracking for shale gas, is set to boost extra compensation offered to communities affected by controversial fracking to an average of £800,000 in a bid to bypass opposition in Tory heartlands. [Huffington Post]

¶   An environmental advocacy group backed by hedge fund tycoon Tom Steyer is set to unleash a seven-state, $100 million offensive against Republican “science deniers” this year that could help decide which party controls the Senate and key statehouses come November. [CNN]

¶   Wind is going head to head with natural gas at the heart of the fracking boom—and wind is winning. In 2003, wind made up less than 1% of the power supply. By 2013, that share had risen to roughly 10%. [National Journal]

5-24

¶   The US energy world was rocked by a new Energy Information Agency report that significantly cut the projection of recoverable oil from the massive Monterey Shale formation in California. The cut was 96%. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Writing on the NPD Solarbuzz blog, senior analyst Michael Barker has predicted that the US PV market is set to reach a cumulative total of 20 GW by the end of 2014, doubling capacity from 2013, thanks primarily to continuing declines in cost. [CleanTechnica]

5-25

¶   Replacing fossil fuels with renewables as the world’s primary source of energy will not only save the planet from dangerous levels of warming – it will also save the global economy $71 trillion by 2050, according to a report released by the International Energy Agency. [CounterCurrents.org]

¶   Because the current automotive industry is likely unsustainable, General Motors recently announced it is aiming to overhaul many of its operations. Now GM is more or less on track to achieve its goal of 500,000 electrified vehicles on the roads by 2017. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Construction of the world’s largest single-axis tracking solar PV plants – the 206 MW Mount Signal Solar farm in southeast California – has been completed and is ready to generate enough electricity to power 72,000 households in the San Diego area. [CleanTechnica]

5-26

¶   Close to half of the food that the world produces goes to waste, whether it’s on the farm, at the production or packaging plant, or from the dinner plate. A company in Israel has stepped up to the plate in America, aiming to transform food waste to biofuel. [ISRAEL21c]

¶   A Bloomberg report warns it would cost Australia billions of dollars and thousands of jobs if the Abbott government chooses to scrap the country’s renewable energy target. An expert panel is currently reviewing Australia’s goal of 20% renewable power by 2020. [International Business Times AU]

¶   Lawsuits filed in Illinois by Farmers Insurance claim the City of Chicago, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District, and other municiaplities knew their stormwater infrastructure was insufficient to deal with extreme precipitation brought on in part by climate change. [Energy Collective]

¶   Just two weeks after the US Navy announced a major research partnership to ramp up its solar power and other clean energy programs, Barclays has warned that the solar market is likely to “disrupt the status quo” for the electric utility industry sooner rather than later. [CleanTechnica]

5-27

¶   Russian authorities will continue to rely on nuclear power and drilling the Arctic shelf for a bright future, as Moscow continues to turn its back on the worldwide boom in the renewable energy sector and place its bets on nuclear power and fossil fuels. [Bellona]

¶   The Sun Day Campaign has just released a press release proclaiming the fact non-hydro renewables has outproduced hydropower for the first time. Also, for the first time, wind contributed 5% of the nation’s electricity. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Commercial buildings could cut their heating and cooling electricity use by an average of 57% with advanced energy-efficiency controls, according to a year-long trial of the controls at malls, grocery stores and other buildings across the country. [Daily Fusion]

5-28

¶   “Are Shales a Bubble?” Hype works. Hype has been the primary tool used by the oil and gas industry with regard to shales and it has worked brilliantly. There is just one problem. When considering shale economic viability, hype was the only aspect that actually existed. [Resilience]

¶   Large parts of the Southwest are drier than they were during the 1930s Dust Bowl. And the latest science says unrestricted carbon pollution will make this a near-permanent situation post-2050 in a growing portion of this country and around the world. [Energy Collective]

¶   President Barack Obama is about to unveil the centerpiece of his agenda to fight climate change, calling for each state to meet carbon emissions reductions and giving each state the job of deciding how they are met. Cap-and-trade is one option among many for states. [Times Record]

5-29

¶   A report by Goldman Sachs’ global commodities team said that Chinese demand for imported coal is past its peak, so demand for seaborne thermal coal will grow just 2% per year on average to 2018, leaving coal prices too weak to generate profits on new mines and infrastructure. [Courier Mail]

¶   Germany’s Energiewende is very much alive. The biggest “winners” in the first quarter were solar power, whose production was up 82.5%, and offshore wind, up 33%. Natural gas production was down 19.7%, hard coal down 17.4%, and nuclear energy down 4.6%. [CleanTechnica]

 

2014-05-22 Energy Week

These are the news items discussed in Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell on May 22, 2014:

5-16

¶   The Collaborative Commons is the first new economic paradigm to take root since the advents of capitalism and socialism. The Collaborative Commons is already transforming the way we organize economic life, with profound implications for the future of the market. [MarketWatch]

¶   The Global Sustainability Institute has done research indicating Britain has just 5.2 years of oil, 4.5 years of coal and three years of its own gas remaining. This would increase the UK’s dependency on countries like Russia, Norway and Qatar. [Fresh Business Thinking]

¶   The Obama administration is considering ways to cut greenhouse-gas emissions by as much as 25% by reaching beyond the power plants themselves and encouraging owners expand to renewable energy, improve the grid efficiency or encourage customers to use less power. [Businessweek]

5-17

¶   Last year Japan invested more than any other country in solar energy.  In 2013, 6.7 GW of solar capacity was approved for the feed-in-tariff scheme. Almost half of this was utility-scale solar. This year, it will be over 10 GW, with more than half of this being utility-scale solar. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Aberdeen-based Pilot Offshore Renewables aims to moor eight floating wind turbines ten miles off the Kincardineshire coast of Scotland. This would be the world’s first floating wind farm. Semi-submersible platforms would cut construction and installation costs. [Scotsman]

¶   An energy tax incentive bill, which failed to clear a procedural vote in the Senate May 15, may be revived. Largest among the energy tax credits in was an extension of the production tax credit of 2.3 ¢/kWh for generating new renewable electric power. [Bloomberg BNA]

5-18

¶   Ukrainian police stopped a group of armed men from entering Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, located in southeastern Ukraine. In video footage allegedly showing the attempted break-in, the men say they are members of the Right Sector group. [RT]

¶   Vermont Technical College will launch a bachelor’s degree program in renewable energy this fall. David Blittersdorf, renewable energy entrepreneur and president and CEO of Williston-based AllEarth Renewables, has committed $120,000 to support the new program. [Valley News]

5-19

¶   A NOAA-led study finds the location where tropical cyclones reach maximum intensity has been shifting toward the poles at roughly 35 miles per decade. Scientists attribute the shift to human-caused greenhouse gases, stratospheric ozone depletion, and increases in pollution. [Energy Collective]

¶   China intends to accelerate its deployment of solar power, after setting a new target to more than triple installed capacity to 70 GW by 2017 as part of its drive to cut its reliance on coal. The new solar target is double the previous one set for 2015. [Business Green]

¶   Global investment bank UBS says solar is likely to account for 10 per cent of global electricity capacity by 2020, as production costs continue to fall, and demand soars in the world’s major economies and in other markets. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Dutch trains will start running on wind energy from next year and the country’s entire rail network could be fully powered by green electricity by 2018. Wind farms in Holland, along with some in Belgium and Scandinavia, will supply 1.4 TWh for the trains. [Business Green]

5-20

¶   India will have to invest $834 billion in the two decades ending 2030 to reduce its emission intensity to gross domestic product by 42% over 2007 levels, according to a Planning Commission expert group. [Economic Times]

¶   US has announced charges against five Chinese military hackers for cyber espionage targeting the US private sector for commercial gain. The group allegedly conspired to target information in industries ranging from nuclear power, to renewable energy, to steel. [PennEnergy]

¶   Green Mountain Power has announced a new initiative called “eHome,” a first in the nation holistic home energy services program. The first home in the program is in Rutland and is called the Energy Home of the Future. GMP will establish 99 such homes as models. [Green Energy Times]

5-21

¶   Once again, the world hit record heat levels. The average global temperature last month tied the hottest April on record four years ago. It was 1.39° F (0.77° C) warmer than the average last century. [Huffington Post]

¶   Narendra Modi, India’s new prime minister, has promised to bring solar power to the 400 million Indians currently without electricity. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party – which swept to power on May 16 – has prioritized solar power in its energy strategy. [Blue & Green Tomorrow]

¶   Mexico announced a goal to increase its share of renewable energy to 32.9% of installed electricity generation capacity by 2018 at the Fifth Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM5) in Seoul. [solarserver.com]

¶   A regional Japanese court has ruled that two reactors of Ohi nuclear plant could not be restarted – at least for the time being. It’s the first time that a lawsuit brought by anti-nuclear plaintiffs has been successful in Japan’s forty-year history of nuclear power. [Deutsche Welle]

¶   New Mexico environment officials say more than 500 barrels of waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory were packed with kitty litter suspected of causing a chemical reaction and radiation release at the government’s underground nuclear waste dump. [El Paso Times]

5-22

¶   Good Energy released data showing that the UK now imports over 60% of the fuel it used to generate electricity in 2012, up by 12 percent since 2011. However, solar, wind, and other renewable technologies provided over a quarter of all the UK-based electric power in 2012. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

2014-05-15 Energy Week

Here is a list of the news items referenced in the May 15 edition of Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell:

5-9

¶   According to a spate of recent scientific studies from the United States and Australia, the shale gas industry has generated another formidable challenge: methane and radon leakage three times greater than expected. [Resilience]

¶   Grid managers want to know the power will be there when needed. Demand response provides a measure of security, as consumers can switch off power-using equipment, or even switch on generating stations to balance the grid. [The Economist]

¶   The share of renewable energy in German electricity consumption rose by 4 percentage points to 27% from a year earlier in the three months of January through March, industry group BDEW said. Windpower production was up 19%, and solar up 70%. [Economic Times]

¶   The off-grid solar market is booming, and investors are sitting up and taking notice. In just the past four months, almost $45 million has been invested in this fast-growing market — with plenty more in the pipeline. [Energy Collective]

5-10

¶    The UN’s top climate change official says it is critical for all political parties to put aside their differences and unite in the battle to prevent catastrophic climate change. She says the political right to see global warming as “a huge business opportunity.” [The Independent]

¶   According to tweets from the American Wind Energy Association conference in Las Vegas, prices for power purchace agreements for utility scale solar averaged just over 5 cents/kWh in 2013, and those for utility scale wind in US interior averaged 2.1 cents/kWh. [CleanTechnica]

¶   President Obama urged US businesses to curb emissions to reduce environmental threats that are causing climate change. He announced a series of carbon-reducing steps, which are designed for private companies to boost solar power and promote energy efficiency. [Industry Leaders Magazine]

5-11

¶   More than 10,000 protesters have taken to the streets in Berlin. Members of one of the largest environmental NGOs called B.U.N.D. said the German government is endangering the energy transition with their new policies. [Press TV]

¶   A Walgreens drug store in Evanston, Illinois is going totally off the power grid and generating its own energy. After installing 800 solar panels, two wind turbines and geothermal technology, the store will produce 28% more electricity than it needs. [Murfreesboro Post]

5-12

¶   Manufacture of a new black silicon wafer can reduce the cost of manufacture by 23.5%. The pilot manufacturing batches produced wafers of 15.7% efficiency, and this is expected to improved with mass production, becoming about the same as current production wafers. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Indoor vertical farms are on the rise, thanks partly to new high efficiency LED growing lights that cut electricity costs to the bone. LED farming translates into new opportunities for siting year-round hyperlocal, organic farm-to-table operations, sustainably powered. [CleanTechnica]

¶   A new study by ROAM consulting shows that future power prices will be lower with Australia’s Renewable Energy Target in place than they would be if it was removed. The RET is minimizing the costs of generating power with natural gas. [EcoGeneration]

¶   The last snow survey this year (taken just last week) showed that California snowpack was just 18% of normal. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, 100% of California is now in moderate to exceptional drought. The drought is expected to continue with climate change. [Energy Collective]

5-13

¶   The complete melting of a major section of West Antarctica’s ice sheet appears inevitable, and the process could lead to higher end-of-century global sea levels than previously anticipated, according to NASA researchers. [CNN]

¶   The International Energy Agency says $44 trillion will have to be spent through to 2050 in order to decarbonise the energy sector and keep the average temperature rise to 2° C. This is a 22% increase from the 2012 figure, with the difference due to increased use of coal. [PennEnergy]

5-14

¶   Germany has set yet another new record for itself. Last Sunday, renewable energy, including wind, solar, hydro, and biomass, accounted for 74% of national demand during the middle of the day (when the sun was at its peak), Renew Economy has reported. [The9Billion]

¶   Massachusetts is accepting applications for SREC II, the second phase of the commonwealth’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) program. SREC II is intended to meet the goal of reaching 1.6 GW of installed solar capacity by 2020. [Solar Industry]

¶   Florida Governor Rick Scott and his cabinet granted Florida Power & Light permission to build two nuclear generators and 88 miles of transmission lines in Miami Dade County. Various local governments and groups are expected to mound challenges. [Tampabay.com]

5-15

¶   Chinese consumption of coal increased for the 13th consecutive year in 2012. China is by far the world’s largest consumer of coal, accounting for 49% of global coal consumption—almost as much as the rest of the world combined. [EIA]

¶   Despite international efforts to shift to cleaner and safer fuels, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party government wants to almost double the share of domestic coal in energy generation. [Today’s Zaman]

2014-05-08 Energy Week

Here are the news items discussed in the May 8 edition of Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell:

5-2

¶   Green Mountain Power has announced it will use a planned solar farm at the former Rutland city landfill to test battery technology that would allow it to store power generated at peak times and release it into the grid as needed. [Barre Montpelier Times Argus]

¶   Unit 3 at the Boundary Dam Power Station in Saskatchewan will switch on later this year after a lengthy refit. It will be the first time that a commercial-scale plant supplying electricity to the grid captures and stores a large fraction of its carbon dioxide emissions. [Scientific American]

¶   Australian network operators have begun to accept that new technologies – mostly centred around localised renewable generation, energy storage, and some smart software – are a better and cheaper option than just adding more poles and wires. [RenewEconomy]

5-3

¶   According to the International Monetary Fund, when you factor in implicit subsidies from the failure to charge for pollution, climate change and other externalities, the post-tax cost of support for fossil fuels comes in at close to $2 trillion each year. [CleanTechnica]

¶   The global fossil fuel industry faces a loss of $28 trillion in revenues over the next two decades, if the world takes action to address climate change, cleans up pollution and moves to decarbonise the global energy system, according to European broking house Kepler Chevreux. [CleanTechnica]

5-4

¶   Nearly half, or 44%, of the Earth’s new electricity production comes from renewable sources, such as wind, solar and water power. With costs declining renewables grow, even though investments into renewable energy production decreased 14% in 2013. [Helsinki Times]

¶   A federal judge has ruled in favour of the 468 MW Cape Wind project following a legal challenge, the 26th failed legal challenge the project has faced. The judge said, “There comes a point at which the right to litigate can become a vexatious abuse of the democratic process.” [reNews]

¶   In 2007, solar panels throughout Massachusetts could generate a total of 3 MW, enough for a little less than 500 homes. Now, there’s a total capacity of 475 MW — enough for more than 230,000 homes. By 2020, state officials want to see 1,600 MW. [The Sun]

5-5

¶   For the first time in at least 800,000 years, the average level of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere exceeded 400 ppm for a full month in April. Measurements made at a NOAA observatory in Hawaii showed that the monthly average in April reached 401.33 ppm. [Blue & Green Tomorrow]

¶   New York State is proposing to turn its electric utilities into a new kind of entity that would buy electricity from hundreds or thousands of small generators and set prices for that electricity and for the costs of running the power grid. [New York Times]

¶   Young people across the country are suing several government agencies for failing to develop a climate change recovery plan, conduct that amounts to a violation of their constitutional rights, says their lawyer Julia Olson. [Al Jazeera America]

5-6

¶   “Revealed: ALEC’s 2014 Attacks on the Environment” An internal tracking document – obtained from ALEC by the Center for Media and Democracy/the Progressive Inc. under Texas public records law – reveals the scope of ALEC’s anti-environmental efforts in 2014. [Huffington Post]

¶   Mile for mile, there are almost as many earthquakes rattling Oklahoma as California this year. Many researchers suspect the deep injection wells used for the disposal of fracking wastewater could be causing the earthquake activity. [Huffington Post]

¶   Coal mining in Australia is entering a “structural decline”, with projects set to become unviable due to unrealistic expectations over the potential to export the fossil fuels to China and India, according to a new report. [The Guardian]

5-7

¶   Now, we are at another critical moment for agriculture. Climate change is bringing more frequent and severe weather challenges, unlike any that farmers have seen before, and already farmers are feeling the effects. [Energy Collective]

¶   Climate change is no longer a distant threat, but a real and present danger in the United States, according to a new US government report. The US Global Change Research Program says that climate change is already being felt across the country. [CNN]

5-8

¶   Investors could spend up to $1.1 trillion over the next decade on oil projects and assets that never reach production if governments enforce measures to curb climate change. The projects require a market price of at least $95 a barrel to break even. [MarineLink]

¶   A new study of South Australia’s electricity sector found that wind energy greatly reduced the state’s carbon emissions without increasing wholesale electricity prices or requiring back-up. In South Australia, wind energy now accounts for 28% per cent of electricity produced. [eco-business.com]

¶   A SkyPower Global and FAS Energy joint venture signed a deal to build 3 GW of solar projects in Nigeria at an estimated cost of $5 billion. SkyPower FAS Energy expects to build the projects in phases over five years with initial commercial operation to begin in 2015. [reNews]