2014-10-02 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Friday, September 26:

¶   A new report from Navigant Research examines the global demand response market with a focus on two key sectors: commercial/industrial and residential. The report says the total worldwide capacity of demand response programs is expected to grow from 30.8 GW in 2014 to more than 196.6 GW by 2023. [Transmission and Distribution World]

¶   The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) paper predicts an “auspicious future” for sustainable biomass, outlining that total biomass demand could reach 108 exajoules worldwide by 2030, which would represent 60% of total global renewable energy use, if its full potential is realized. [Business Green]

¶   Following Google, Facebook has cut ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, bringing the number of corporations that have done so to at least 87. Facebook and Google’s high-profile departure from ALEC will likely put pressure on corporations still sending funds to the conservative group, such as Yahoo and eBay. [Business Spectator]

Saturday, September 27:

¶   Fresh statistics from the Department of Energy and Climate Change estimate renewables met a record-breaking 46.4% of electricity use in 2013, up from 39.9% in 2012. The Scottish government says this indicates Scotland is on track to meet its targets of 50% by 2015, and 100% by 2020. [Utility Products]

¶   As increasing levels of solar, wind, geothermal and biomass are integrated onto the grid, utility hiring is impacted. Solar, however, has the most employment, averaging 41 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees per 100 MW of PV interconnections vs. 12 FTEs per 100 MW of total renewable capacity. [Fierce Energy]

¶   In the State of New York, a looming power supply shortage is spurring regulatory action to support a smarter, less centralized and more robust power grid. The initiative could revolutionize the utility industry in that state, while solving the supply problem — in both a functional and business sense. [Energy Collective]

¶   Entergy expects to complete a detailed decommissioning site assessment for the Vermont Yankee plant in the next 30 days. Also, Entergy has slightly revised its schedule for moving the plant’s spent fuel into more-stable dry cask storage, saying it will be done by 2020. [Brattleboro Reformer]

Sunday, September 28:

¶   Elon Musk will soon be building what amounts, essentially, to being another “Gigafactory”, in New York State as per a recent agreement with the government there. This time it is a manufacturing plant that will produce more than a gigawatt of solar panels a year. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Federal energy regulators have given final approval for construction of a 330-mile electric transmission line to carry lower-cost Canadian hydroelectric power to New York City. Supporters say the line will make the state less bound to the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Westchester County. [Oneida Dispatch]

Monday, September 29:

¶   Saskatchewan’s government-owned power utility is set to launch a carbon-capture-and-storage project this week. SaskPower says it is the world’s first and largest commercial-scale, carbon-capture operation of its kind. It will capture carbon dioxide emissions from burning coal to store them deep underground. [Financial Post]

¶   Carbon emissions in the US are higher than expected for 2014. Carbon dioxide emissions due to the consumption of coal were more than 12% higher during the first half of 2014 than during the first six months of 2012, while those from natural gas and petroleum rose by 7.3% and 0.8% respectively. [Business Green]

¶   Unsatisfied with the pace at which the federal government is acting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, several US states are forging ahead with their own initiatives. The first year of the California program was a resounding success, with the state’s economy expanding while at the same time adding renewable energy. [OilPrice.com]

Tuesday, September 30:

¶   Modern lithium batteries come with their own environmental baggage. Scientists at Sweden’s Uppsala University, seeking a more eco-friendly alternative, have created a new smart battery made from organic materials that they say produces just as much power as its lithium counterpart. Plus, it’s recyclable. [Big Think]

¶   “ALEC feigns leap off faltering climate denial bandwagon; Fools no one.” The American Legislative Exchange Council had a really bad week. Coming under fire for its climate denial, the typically secretive ALEC answered with a cringe-inducing position statement on climate and renewable energy. [Natural Resources Defense Council]

¶   The Tehachapi Energy Storage Project — the biggest battery energy storage project to date in North America — has now opened. The 32 MWh battery energy storage system built by Southern California Edison has lithium-ion batteries stationed in a special 6,300 square-foot facility in a substation in Tehachapi, California. [CleanTechnica]

Wednesday, October 1:

¶    Synthetically produced hydrogen can store huge amounts of power. Germany will require about 30 TWh of storage capacity, when the nation is 100% renewably powered. Existing gas infrastructure can store up to 200 TWh in gas generated. Wind plants with the ability to store energy as hydrogen are already starting up. [Business Spectator]

¶   A long-term plan to eliminate dependence on fossil fuels in Vermont’s capital of Montpelier is getting a boost from two new projects: one to install more solar panels at an insurance company and another to meet more heating needs with a new biomass heating facility. [BurlingtonFreePress.com]

¶   Michael Renner, senior researcher with Worldwatch Institute writes that nuclear energy’s share of global power production has declined steadily from a peak of 17.6% in 1996 to 10.8% in 2013. Renewables increased their share from 18.7% in 2000 to 22.7% in 2012. [Domestic Fuel]

¶   California Governor Jerry Brown has signed an Environmental Defense Fund-sponsored bill that accelerates the use of demand response, a voluntary, cost-effective tool that relies on people and technology, not polluting, water-intensive power plants, to meet the state’s rising electricity needs. [RenewablesBiz]

Thursday, October 2:

¶   SunEdison announced that its advanced polysilicon technology is now in production and on target to produce solar material at low cost. The company claims this development is a step-change in technology and will it enable it to deliver a 400 watt peak solar panel at a cost of $0.40 per watt peak by 2016. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

 

2014-09-25 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Friday, September 19:

¶   The decision by the Scottish electorate to remain within the UK leaves the way open for a number of projects that are dependent on UK subsidies to proceed. Independence would have required negotiation on energy with the remainder of the UK, creating market uncertainty. [Windpower Monthly]

¶   Ahead of a UN climate summit, institutional investors managing £15 trillion ($24.6 trillion) of assets are also calling on governments to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, an estimated £370 billion ($606 billion) worldwide a year, five times the £60 billion paid in renewables subsidies. [The Guardian]

¶   According to the CEO of SolarCity, within ten years every set of solar panels sold by that company will come with a battery backup system, and the energy produced will be less expensive that grid power. [Treehugger]

Saturday, September 20:

¶   Rocky Mountain Institute’s Micropower Database documents the global progress of distributed, rapidly scalable, and no- or low-carbon generators. Its most astonishing finding: micropower now produces about one-fourth of the world’s total electricity. [Forbes]

¶   French investment bank Kepler Chevreux analysis says $100 billion invested in either wind energy or solar energy – and deployed as energy for light and commercial vehicles – will produce significantly more energy than that same $100 billion invested in oil. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Work on Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant will not begin at the end of this year as originally planned, Deputy Trade Minister Cao Quoc Hung said Thursday. Construction was pushed back until 2020 or 2022 to ensure the highest safety precautions. [Thanh Nien Daily]

Sunday, September 21:

¶   “Errors and Emissions – Could Fighting Global Warming Be Cheap and Free?” Two reports both claim strong measures to limit carbon emissions would have hardly any negative effect on economic growth, and might even lead to faster growth. But will anyone believe the good news? [New York Times]

¶   Last month was the warmest August since records began being kept in 1880, according to NOAA. They also projected out scenarios for the rest of the year making clear that 2014 is going to be one of the very hottest years on record — and possibly the hottest. [Energy Collective]

¶   A march in London today to demand urgent action on climate change is one of 2,000 events taking place in 150 countries around the world ahead of a United Nations climate summit next week. Some 100,000 people are expected to get involved in New York City. [Daily Mail]

¶   On the eve of the UN Climate Summit, Desmond Tutu argues that tactics used against firms who did business with South Africa must now be applied to fossil fuels to prevent human suffering. [The Guardian]

Monday, September 22:

¶   In the past few years, to the surprise of many, both China and the US have taken major steps away from coal. This opens up a crucial window of opportunity to achieve what many thought was a lost cause – a peak in global emissions of heat-trapping gases well before 2020. [RenewEconomy]

¶   With the UN Climate Summit coming up, major companies, including Big Oil, will make pledges to help fight global warming by cutting their heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions, protecting the world’s forests and reducing methane leakage from fossil fuel production. [Pensacola News Journal]

Tuesday, September 23:

¶   At the United Nations Climate Summit, which begins today, the European Commission will formally recommend a 40% cut in heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 for its 28 member countries, its president said on Monday. Now, the US, China, and India need to step up. [Tribune-Review]

¶   Australia’s Federal Government says coal will serve as an affordable, dependable energy source for decades to come, but the UN’s climate chief has questioned whether that is in Australia’s best interests long term and says that coal has no future in the world’s energy mix. [ABC Online]

¶   Google’s controversial decision to fund the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) was a “mistake,” company chairman Eric Schmidt admitted on Monday, saying the group is spreading lies about global warming and “making the world a much worse place.” [ThinkProgress]

¶   In a highly symbolic gesture with real bottom line impact, the Rockefeller family, whose fortune came from oil, has announced that its eight hundred sixty million dollar philanthropic organization will sell off its assets linked to fossil fuel companies and invest in renewable energy. [3BL Media]

Wednesday, September 24:

¶   David Cameron announced at the Climate Summit that shale gas is part of Britain’s solution to tackling global climate change. Friends of the Earth however slammed Mr Cameron’s speech saying promoting fracking at a climate change summit “is liking trying to sell cigarettes at a hospital.” [Energy Live News]

¶   In New Zealand, the new chief executive of the country’s Petroleum Exploration and Production Association told Radio New Zealand this morning that his industry is ready and willing to adapt to “the transition that we know will ultimately occur.” This leaves political climate change deniers out in the cold. [Scoop.co.nz]

¶   An alliance of four companies say they have found an answer to an energy storage problem in an underground salt formation. The group proposes an $8 billion power project that would store power from a huge wind farm in Wyoming and deliver it to over 1 million households in Southern California. [NEWS.GNOM.ES]

Thursday, September 25:

¶   Major new analysis produced by Australia’s ClimateWorks, along with Australian National University, shows that 15 of the world’s biggest economies can move to “net carbon zero” by 2050, and it need impose no extra costs over business as usual. In fact, electricity bills will be lower than what they are now. [CleanTechnica]

 

2014-09-18 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Friday, September 12

¶   What will the world look like in 2025? Expect a lot more solar power. In fact, according to a report by Thomson Reuters, in 2025, solar will be the primary source of energy on our planet. 2025 may sound a ways off, but it’s only 11 years away. [Energy Collective]

¶   The cost of solar electricity generation will decline to half of the current level by 2020 in China, an important technological breakthrough in raising the use of the clean energy, making it the same as the cost of coal generated electricity. [ecns]

Saturday, September 13

¶    Recently published analysis shows Chinese coal consumption fell for the first time this century in the first half of this year. Even more striking, China’s gross domestic product growth and coal consumption have decoupled, suggesting a structural shift in the Chinese economy. [Energy Collective]

¶   Chile’s Environmental Assessment Service has approved a 698-MW solar power development. The ‘South Campos Sol project’ will require $1.6 billion in investment and will be built over more than 2,000 acres in the Copiapó province, in the Atacama Region. [PV-Tech]

Sunday, September 14

¶   The six Central American countries had a total solar capacity of 6 MW in 2013. The total is expected to reach 22 MW by the end of 2014. However, market researcher IHS believes it can reach up to 243 MW in 2015 and continue growing rapidly from there. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Electric utility executives around the world are watching developments in Germany nervously as renewable technologies they once thought irrelevant begin to threaten established business plans. Many in poor countries are considering skipping the fossil age altogether. [New York Times]

¶   After a seven-year-long investigation, scientists at the National Audubon Society issued a grim report finding that more than half of the 650 or so bird species in North America may be threatened by global warming. [Canada News]

Monday, September 15

¶   “Happy nuclear free birthday to the people of Japan” Every birthday is special – but today Japan is celebrating something unique. Japan has been nuclear-free for one year. One year ago today, the last commercial nuclear reactor operating in Japan was shutdown. [Greenpeace International]

¶   At least 150 major companies worldwide – including ExxonMobil, Google, Microsoft and 26 others in the United States – are already making business plans that assume they will be taxed on their carbon pollution, a report today says. [USA TODAY]

¶   Leading environmentalists from 44 countries have teamed up to call on foundations and philanthropists around the world to use endowments worth billions of dollars to turn the tide on global warming. [reNews]

Tuesday, September 16

¶   This past August was the warmest since records began in 1881, according to new data released by NASA. The latest readings continue a series of record or near-record breaking months. May of this year was also the warmest in recorded history. [Huffington Post]

¶   Demonstration systems from Hawaii to the eastern banks of Canada are showing that a “fleet” of water or space heaters can act as a sort of fast-acting sponge that absorbs extra electricity on the grid, especially wind power, making the grid more stable and storing energy. [Environment & Energy Publishing]

¶   A week before heads of state meet at the United Nations to discuss climate change, a major report on Tuesday from global political, environmental, and industry leaders says it’s possible to grow the world economy while tackling global warming. [National Geographic]

Wednesday, September 17

¶   For renewables power sources, nearly all energy inputs are original production and mitigating the waste from that production. More energy is produced than the fossil fuels used. Wind is the most efficient fuel for electricity, creating 1164% of its original energy inputs. [Wall Street Journal]

¶   The Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant has begun a gradual reduction of the electricity it generates that will end with the plant shutting down in December. The coast-down period will end the plant’s operating cycle as the nuclear fuel in the reactor is depleted. [WAMC]

¶   A recent study by GE and NREL shows that the entire eastern US grid could achieve a dramatic increase in wind penetration without suffering any major destabilizing effects, without threatening electric reliability, and without installing any costly energy storage. [Scientific American]

¶   Australia’s coal industry is in a flap after an announcement from the Chinese government it would ban the import of certain types of coal. According to the Wall Street Journal, the directive is primarily aimed at low-grade coal mainly coming from Indonesia and Australia. [Energy Matters]

Thursday, September 18

¶   On Sept. 21, a huge crowd will march through the middle of Manhattan in a loud and pointed reminder to our leaders, gathering that week at the UN to discuss global warming, that the next great movement of the planet’s citizens centers on our survival and their pathetic inaction. [Monterey County Weekly]

¶   A UN summit on climate change will see the world begin to seriously tackle global warming, UN climate envoy Mary Robinson said. “The message from the climate summit and the message going forward to Paris is that it’s not business as usual with a little bit of green attached.” [Tengrinews]

¶   Clearly, politicians across the ideological spectrum are realizing that voters like clean energy. And for good reason, as wind and solar are big-time job creators and economic drivers, making them not just good politics but smart policy investments for any state’s future. [CleanTechnica]

2014-09-11 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Friday, September 5

¶   German federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern produced enough power from renewable sources last year to satisfy its entire demand, a direct consequence of the country’s ambitious shift toward green power and away from nuclear. [Reuters]

¶   The number of Australian houses adding rooftop solar continues to surprise the network operators, with another 2,794 systems of 5 kW or less added during the month of August. The total new capacity is 11.5 MW. [CleanTechnica]

¶   An estimated 600,000 cubic kilometres of water is trapped in mines beneath Glasgow, Scotland. A pilot project has been using the water to heat apartments for ten years. The water is drawn, its heat extracted, and it is returned to the mines where it absorbs heat from the earth. [Business Reporter]

¶   The city of Burlington, Vermont now owns or has enough contracts with renewable energy facilities to provide 100% of the city’s electric needs, as the city’s municipal electric utility has completed the $16.3 million purchase of the 7.4-MW Winooski One Hydroelectric Facility. [Barre Montpelier Times Argus]

Saturday, September 6

¶   In a research paper released by the journal Nature Communications, Dr Patrik Jones of Imperial College London and the University of Turku in Finland and his colleagues have reported, for the first time, a synthetic metabolic pathway for producing renewable propane. [Sci-News.com]

¶   A national study, conducted throughout the month of August, surveyed approximately 1000 Australians and found that 82% of respondents believe the Renewable Energy Target should definitely or probably be kept in place, with only 17% taking the opposing side of the argument. [CleanTechnica]

Sunday, September 7

¶   The transition to a global renewable energy economy could save $71 trillion by the year 2050, according to an IEA report. Put another way, $44 trillion in investment by the year 2050 would translate to about $115 trillion in energy savings ($71 trillion in net savings). [CleanTechnica]

¶   Long stymied by high costs and local opposition, offshore wind is finally nearing takeoff in the Untied States as 14 projects enter “advanced stages” of development, the Energy Department reports. These projects represent about 4.9 GW of capacity. [Pensacola News Journal]

Monday, September 8

¶   “Fusion Power: The Case of the Wrong Competitors” Startups hoping to bring fusion power to the market will fail for a simple economic reason. While their power plants may be competitive with traditional nuclear or fossil fuel plants, they will not be competitive with wind or solar. [Forbes]

¶   The Australian Industry Minister Macfarlane and others within the Coalition are now publicly disowning the recommendations of the Warburton Review. Macfarlane told The Australian: “No one’s talking about scrapping the Renewable Energy Target – no one.” [Business Spectator]

¶   Renewable energy is the most competitive source of power, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency. The report highlights the energy landscape and analyses major dynamics under way. It is the product of four years of research. [The National]

Tuesday, September 9

¶   The assessment of AGL Energy, Australia’s largest privately-owned power generation company, is that Australia has too many dirty coal-fired power stations that have operated way beyond their working life, and their owners are refusing to shut them down. [RenewEconomy]

¶   San Diego Gas & Electric announced Monday that it is looking to buy 500-800 MW of electricity from local producers to replace what had flowed from the San Onofre power plant. At least 200 megawatts would need to come from renewable sources, according to SDG&E. [Seaside Courier]

¶   This week Denmark and Sweden hit major milestones in wind energy and waste management, respectively. Denmark has got 41.2% of its energy from wind so far this year. Sweden is sending only 1% of its waste to landfills, and actually imports waste to convert it to energy. [Energy Digital]

¶   Seven million people die due to air pollution across the world every year but deployment of renewable energy can check this trend, according to senior officials in Abu Dhabi. It can also have very positive socio-economic benefits. [gulfnews.com]

Wednesday, September 10

¶   The global shift to a world powered predominately by decentralised renewable energy is happening, whether we are ready for it or not. This is the main takeaway message from the latest report from the International Renewable Energy Agency. [RenewEconomy]

¶   New figures from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Q2 2014 U.S. Solar Market Insight report show that the US installed 1,133 MW of new solar PV capacity in the second quarter, pushing the cumulative operating capacity for solar power to 15.9 GW. [CleanTechnica]

Thursday, September 11

¶   A group of Australian solar power experts known as the Victorian Organic Solar Cell Consortium has been working on printable solar cells over the past seven years. And they’re finally just about ready to hit the market. [ScienceAlert]