2015-05-28 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, May 21:

• Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest crude exporter, could phase out the use of fossil fuels by the middle of this century, according to the kingdom’s oil minister. He said the kingdom plans to become a “global power in solar and wind energy” and could start exporting electricity instead of fossil fuels in coming years. [The Australian Financial Review]
• Minnesota utility regulators approved lower electric rates for people who charge plug-in vehicles in their garages at night. The new rates, which take effect in about two months at Xcel Energy Inc. and two other utilities, could shave 40% or more off the already low cost of charging plug-in cars. [Minneapolis Star Tribune]
• Renewable energy development company SunEdison has received contracts to build 33 MW of DC rooftop solar with Southern California Edison in the utility’s most recent round of solar procurement. SCE will purchase the electricity from the 17 rooftop installations through 20-year power purchase agreements. [PV-Tech]

Friday, May 22:

• Despite burning more coal for energy than all other provinces combined, Alberta is set to ween itself off the black mineral, earning praise from a coalition of physicians. Canada has laws to close or upgrade coal plants, but its provinces have pushed through stricter, faster plans, and Alberta could be next. [Calgary Herald]
• AXA, one of the largest insurance companies in the world and the largest in France, announced this week that it will sell more than $550,000,000 in coal investments by the end of 2015. It will triple its investments in renewable energy, energy infrastructure and green bond to more than $3 billion by 2020. [PlanetSave.com]
• A new government analysis of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan shows that the proposal could further weaken an already battered coal industry. Electricity generation from the carbon-intensive fossil fuel would fall by 90 GW, more than twice the decline government analysts had predicted as recently as April. [Lexington Herald Leader]

Saturday, May 23:

• Australians in Melbourne have been negotiating for four years with various government bodies of the state of Victoria for an entirely solar-powered tram network in Melbourne. The network would be the world’s largest, and it would make the capital city of Victoria become a world environmental leader. [CleanTechnica]

• Ben van Beurden, the chief executive of Shell, has endorsed warnings that the world’s fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned unless some way is found to capture their carbon emissions. The oil boss has also predicted that the global energy system will become “zero carbon” by the end of the century. [The Guardian]
• Over 2,000 business leaders, political leaders, and senior climate negotiators at the Business & Climate Summit pledged to lead a global transition to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy. The question is “who will lead?” Policymakers call for business leadership, and business leaders call for well-founded policy. [CleanTechnica]
• According to a recently released report by the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, grid parity was coming much quicker than expected. It has already been met in six major cities, and in 2017 the population at parity is likely to be 71 million instead of the 51 million projected in 2012. [CleanTechnica]

Sunday, May 24:

• AXA, one of the largest insurance companies in the world and the largest in France, announced this week that it will sell more than $550,000,000 in coal investments by the end of 2015. It will triple its investments in renewable energy, energy infrastructure and green bond to more than $3 billion by 2020. [PlanetSave.com]
• A new government analysis of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan shows that the proposal could further weaken an already battered coal industry. Electricity generation from the carbon-intensive fossil fuel would fall by 90 GW, more than twice the decline government analysts had predicted as recently as April. [Lexington Herald Leader]

Monday, May 25:

• The construction on a 2.3-MW floating solar power plant has been completed in Hyogo prefecture, western Japan. It is the world’s largest floating solar power plant in terms of output. The plant is expected to generate 2,680 MWh every year. It is more efficient than land-based systems because the water cools the panels. [Xinhua]
• Roughly 1% of Australia’s geothermal energy, which is shallower than five kilometres, could supply the nation’s total energy requirements, government estimates reveal. In the state of Victoria, some of the best geothermal areas are below beds of brown coal. The state government seems to prefer the coal. [Sydney Morning Herald]
• Recent bids in Jordan confirmed last year’s results from Dubai: Solar is now cheaper than gas-fired power in this region, with major implications for energy strategies. Bids in Jordan’s recent solar auction were just over 6¢/kWh, slightly above the record 5.84¢ from Acwa Power last November in Dubai. [The National]

Tuesday, May 26:

• Just weeks after producing its first batch of synthetic diesel fuel made from carbon dioxide and water, Audi has laid claim to another synthetic, clean-burning and petroleum-free gasoline replacement fuel called “e-benzin.” The fuel was created by Audi’s project partner Global Bioenergies, in France. [Gizmag]
• The Government of Japan signed a contribution agreement on its pledge of $1.5 billion to the Green Climate Fund, bringing the total confirmed agreements since the GCF’s November 2014 Berlin meeting up to 58.5% of amounts pledged, and well over the 50% threshold required by its governing board. [CleanTechnica]
• Ceres’ Investor Network on Climate Risk has grown to include over 100 institutional investors with more than $24 trillion in collective assets. The network is actively calling for an end to global fossil fuel subsidies and a strong Paris climate agreement later this year. It is also moving the corporate world. [Communities Digital News]

Wednesday, May 27:

• According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, wind and solar accounted for all new generating capacity placed into service in April. Wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower combined have provided 84.1% of the new US electrical generating capacity placed into service so far in 2015. [North American Windpower]
• Clean energy employed more than 7.7 million people across the world last year, according the International Renewable Energy Agency. The number, which covers people employed directly by renewable energy firms and throughout the supply chain, marks an 18% rise on the 6.5 million jobs recorded in 2013. [GreenBiz]
• Ahead of the climate change Conference of the Parties in December, France’s lower house of parliament has approved a bill aimed at boosting renewable energy and reducing reliance on nuclear power, among other environment-friendly measures. There were 308 votes for the bill, and 217 against. [Jamaica Observer]

2015-05-21 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, May 14:

• “Let’s Get Straight: Tesla Powerwall DOES = $3,000″ – Something we’ve been assuming, and seen all over the interwebs, is apparently wrong. The assumption has been that the $3,000 price for a Powerwall is the wholesale price. It is the retail price. SolarCity’s higher prices we have seen include installation. [CleanTechnica]
• An interdisciplinary MIT study, The Future of Solar Energy, says today’s solar panels are all that is needed to supply the world with many TW of clean solar power by 2050 (1 TW is 1,000,000 MW). The other main point the study makes is that it will take political will to finally wean the world off of fossil fuels.[CleanTechnica]
• SolarCity says it is on track to install more than 1 gigawatt of rooftop solar in 2015. The company reported installations of 153 MW during the first quarter 2015, beating its own forecast of 145 MW. The company has set a target of 1,000,000 customers by the middle of 2018. It now has more than 218,000. [CleanTechnica]

Friday, May 15:

• Andrew Blakers, who is the director for Sustainable Energy Systems at the Australian National University, told the Australian Solar and Energy Storage conference in Melbourne that his conservative prediction was that Australia would reach 90% renewables by 2040 – just through natural attrition. [CleanTechnica]
• Lincoln Renewable Natural Gas has filed a petition to construct a renewable natural gas plant at a farm in Salisbury. Gas from a bio-digester would be processed to make purer bio-methane, some of which would be burned to make power and some piped to Middlebury College for use there for fuel. [Vermont Public Radio]

Saturday, May 16:

• The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded grants to scientists in five western states to do research in geothermal methods that can develop the region’s huge potential. It has been estimated that geothermal in this region could potentially generate enough electricity to power about 100 million homes. [CleanTechnica]

• Greenpeace Energy desk reported the figures from China’s National Energy Administration in October of 2014, revealing that China’s coal use dropped by 1.28% in 2014. However, in March of this year, new data from the National Bureau of Statistics of China indicates that coal consumption dropped by 2.9%. [CleanTechnica]
• The Energy Supply Association of Australia, representing the fossil fuel and renewable energy sector, has sourced data from around the world revealing household solar PV penetration in Australia is way out in front of any other nation. Almost 15% of Australian households have adopted the technology. [Daily News Biotech Wired]
• Virtual power plants for small, distributed power generation have become a fixture of Germany’s electrical grid. While their numbers remain in the low thousands, VPPs withstood a five-year trial period in the electricity market. Now, with falling battery prices, they are beginning to change the grid. [Environment & Energy Publishing]
• On Friday afternoon, the Vermont Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation that will encourage more renewable energy projects in the state. The bill passed by a vote of 22-6. Nevertheless, it has re-ignited a debate over the impact of solar and wind projects on the communities where they’re built. [Vermont Public Radio]

Sunday, May 17:

• After four years of drought, production at some California dams is expected to be less than 20% of normal because of low water levels. The shortfall should not cause brownouts because California relies on dams for power far less than it did in decades past, due in part to the emergence of solar and wind energy. [Los Angeles Times]
• Compressed air is being studied increasingly as a medium for storing electric energy. While it is not as efficient as many other storage systems, it has the advantage of providing storage over longer terms. It is also expected to be utilized at a fraction of the cost of other systems, possibly as low as 10%. [New Zealand Herald]

Monday, May 18:

• Giving local communities powers to stop onshore wind farms is one of the first things on the agenda of the new UK energy secretary, Amber Rudd. Personally, she enjoys the turbines, but her position is that they cannot be built on scale in places where people do not want them, she told The Sunday Times. [SeeNews Renewables]
• A deal has been reached to reduce Australia’s renewable energy target to 33,000 GWh after the government agreed to drop regular reviews of the scheme. The government and Labor reached an agreement during talks in Melbourne on Monday morning, ending more than 12 months of political deadlock. [The Age]

Tuesday, May 19:

• Greenhouse gas emissions from installations covered by the EU emissions trading scheme fell by about 4.5% last year, in part, due to the impact of renewables, according to the European Wind Energy Association. It is of interest that power sector emissions fell substantially more than industrial emissions. [reNews]
• A house in the hills above Stuttgart can theoretically generate enough energy to power itself and an electric car, with enough left over to feed back to into Germany’s national grid. The B10 house is designed to generate 200% energy, a target it hopes to hit within the next year. Almost the entire house is recyclable. [Wired.co.uk]
• SaskPower’s 140-MW Boundary Dam coal plant has an operating carbon capture and storage system (CSS), which captures 90% of carbon dioxide it produces. It sells most of it to a nearby oilfield for “enhanced oil recovery” and buries the rest. CSS reduces power output by 17% to 18%. [The Australian Financial Review]
• Unilever has saved 1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions since 2008 in its manufacturing network. Energy consumption has been reduced by 20%, the same energy used to run 40 factories or the carbon of over 800,000 acres of forest per year. This has also resulted in significant cost savings of €244 million. [New Food]

Wednesday, May 20 :

• The world’s first electrical car and passenger ferry powered by batteries has entered service in Norway. The ferry only uses 150 kWh per route, which corresponds to three days use of electricity in a standard Norwegian household. The ferry is powered by lithium-ion batteries charged by hydropower. [The Maritime Executive]

• German Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande jointly yesterday pledged to do their utmost to ensure an ambitious UN deal to combat climate change is reached this year. The EU’s two biggest economies also urged other countries to do their part in helping achieve a global push to cut emissions. [The Daily Star]
• In Alaska, faced with climate change and high electricity costs, the Kodiak Electric Association set a goal of producing 95% of the community’s electrical needs with renewable energy by 2020. They actually arrived there well ahead of time, and are now 99.7% renewably powered by wind and hydro. [Business Spectator]

2015-05-14 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, May 7:

• Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said countries were ahead of schedule in negotiating a global agreement on curbing greenhouse gases that can be adopted at a Paris summit in December. Technology has changed things since a similar effort failed in 2009. [Chippewa Herald]
• Hawaii looks set to be the first US state to put a firm use-by date on carbon intensive energy generation. The new compromise bill sets targets of 30% renewables in 2020, 70% by 2030 and 100% renewables by 2045. It has passed in the legislature, and is now just awaiting Governor David Ige’s signature. [Energy Matters]

Friday, May 8:

• For the first time, the global average concentration of CO2 has surpassed 400 ppm for an entire month. NOAA’s lead greenhouse gas scientist pointed out that humans burning fossil fuels have caused global carbon dioxide levels to rise more than 120 ppm since pre-industrial times, with half of that since 1980.” [CleanTechnica]

• Unconventional drilling (ie, fracking) creates a huge amount of waste, some of which is being sprayed onto farmer’s fields. The most economical disposal method is to dump the waste on agricultural land. This includes the grasslands, where animals graze, and crop lands. The waste also is spread into water. [CleanTechnica]
• Germany’s anticipated installation figures for offshore wind this year are 2071 MW, nearly four times the country’s 529 MW installed during 2014, according to GlobalData, a global research and consulting firm. The report details the global quarterly intake for wind turbines, both onshore and offshore. [CleanTechnica]
• Italy’s biggest utility will invest 27% more in renewable energy in the years ahead even as a slump in oil prices makes it more difficult for solar and wind power to compete with fossil fuels on price. Enel Green Power SpA plans to increase annual capital spending to €2.1 billion through 2017, up from €1.66 in 2014. [Bloomberg]

Saturday, May 9:

• A new study in Nature Climate Change says that utility-scale solar plants taking up massive amounts of open space in the countryside actually aren’t necessary: We can get more than enough solar power by building in cities instead. The study focuses on California because it is pursuing renewable goals. [Co.Exist]

• A “massive” global expansion of solar power, possibly enough to supply about a third or more of the world’s electricity, may be necessary by 2050 to reduce the impacts of fossil fuels on the climate, according to a report published by MIT. But that means increasing solar from today’s 20 GW to 400 GW in the US. [Kitsap Sun]
• UK Prime Minister Cameron’s 2014 commitment to go ‘all out for shale gas’ may have been controversial, but now he has secured power this could be huge news for the oil and gas industry in the UK. Estimates suggest up to £6 billion of shale gas annually could be produced in Lancashire for the next three decades. [OilVoice]

Sunday, May 10:

• The first renewable energy scheme in Scotland to draw heat from the sea could be installed in Shetland. The archipelago’s capital of Lerwick already has the largest district heating system in Scotland, heated by burning trash. But there is not enough trash, so they are considering an ocean source heat pump. [Herald Scotland]

• According to the US Geological Survey, the Dallas area has suffered almost 40 small earthquakes (magnitude 2.0 or higher) since the beginning of this year, the latest a magnitude-2.7 quake near Farmers Branch on Saturday. There was only one in the 58 years before 2008. The difference is probably due to fracking. [CNN]

Monday, May 11:

• Apple announced expansion of its renewable energy and environmental protection initiatives in China, including a new multi-year project with World Wildlife Fund to increase responsibly managed forests significantly. The new forestland program aims to protect as much as 1 million acres. [The FINANCIAL]

• The Swiss battery manufacturer Leclanché has received an order from Younicos AG to build a turnkey battery power plant on the Azores island Graciosa. The storage system is part of a micro-grid solution, which will increase the proportion of renewable energies used on the island from 15% to 65%. [Sun & Wind Energy]
• Building off of a strong January and February, new electricity generation capacity added in the USA in March brought the 1st quarter split to 84% for all renewables, 81% for solar + wind. Utility-scale solar power now accounts for 1% of total US electricity generation capacity, small-scale solar an estimated 0.7%. [CleanTechnica]

Tuesday, May 12:

• A race is on to harness the tides and waves for electrical power, with more than 100 different devices being tested by companies hoping to make a commercial breakthrough. The UK, Ireland, France, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, are all developing technologies to harvest the tide. [eco-business.com]

• Scotland renewables are important , but more are coming. By the middle of 2014, they were already greater than nuclear, the country’s second resource. Capacity was 7,112 MW by the end of the 3rd quarter. Wind alone has 8,161 MW of capacity in various stages of construction and another 3,765 MW in planning. [CleanTechnica]
• Iowa’s 5,688 MW of installed wind capacity uses only 1% of the state’s wind resources, according to a new report, Iowa’s Wind Potential for Addressing 111(d) Goals. The resources are more than adequate to meet the state’s Clean Power Plan requirements cost-effectively and help neighboring states, too. [Utility Dive]

Wednesday, May 13:

• The UK’s new Conservative minister for energy and climate change, Amber Rudd, has made clear her unequivocal backing for action to combat climate change and for the science behind it. This is vital in a year when a major international deal to combat global warming is expected in Paris in December. [New Scientist]

• Greenpeace has released a report naming the tech companies who make the best (and worst) use of renewable energy. The report grades companies on areas including renewable energy commitment, deployment and advocacy of green power, mitigation and the transparency of their energy policies. [The Register]
• The Board of Supervisors of Riverside County, California, signed off on a major solar plant, voting unanimously to approve a 485-MW, 3,600-acre project near Blythe. The project, on private, previously disturbed land, would power about 180,000 homes and add over $500,000 per year to the county’s revenues. [The Desert Sun]
• Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp, the agency redeveloping the Navy Yard, is installing a “smart-grid” system on the 1,200-acre campus in South Philadelphia. PIDC envisions an interconnected network of renewable power sources and storage devices in a self-supporting “community” microgrid. [Philly.com]

Slide Show for May 14

 

We would like to feel that things will go right. 

But sometimes things go really wrong.

You can lose your foundation – or your ground floor – in a hurricane.

Roads are destroyed, making it hard to move in repair vehicles.

Tornadoes put their own twist on things.

And winter storms, also. But storms also can come from outer space.

Solar storms can be huge.

Ejected matter from the sun reaches the Earth and can ruin infrastructure.

The aurora is one common, rather benign, manifestation of solar storms.

One solar mass that would have caused a multi-year grid outage barely missed us.

But transformers are especially vulnerable.

We could protect some things in Faraday cages, but not everything.

And then there is terrorism. FEMA said we could have the grid down for years in a worst case scenario.

And North Korea told us a single bomb could take down our grid for years.

So the question is:
Would you be willing to pay less for a more secure source of power?

Yes, that REALLY IS the question!
Would you be willing to pay LESS for a more secure source of power?

The people on the Pacific island nation of Tokelau saved money by switching to 100% solar power.

The people on the Danish island of Samsø saved by switching to wind.

The people of Güssing, in Austria, use many kinds of renewable power. They have had huge economic improvements.

The Brattleboro Retreat saves by powering its own numerous buildings on a microgrid with diesel generators.

A microgrid keeps money for power in the local economy. It can also power the community when the grid fails.

Components in a microgrid could include solar panels on a medieval building.

Or a solar farm in Tennessee.

Solar power can also be at the community scale.

There are many kinds of solar. Here is a solar dish with a Stirling engine.

Wind turbines of various sizes are also useful components of microgrids.

The hospital in Greensburg, Kansas, has its own turbine, one of fifteen in the city.

Not all wind turbines are alike. This is a Darrieus turbine.

This type of turbine is called a “twisted Savonius.”

Some are not efficient, but are very pretty. These are in Spain.

Old water wheels can be as picturesque as old wind mills.

Some hydropower does not use dams. This tiny weir could produce power. Fish can swim over it either way.

This is an intake for a small, high-head water turbine by Little Green Hydro.

And water from that intake drives this turbine to make a significant amount of electricity.

This is an Archimedes screw turbine. It has a very low head and uses a lot of water. But it kills few or no fish.

Biodigesters use household, farm, food, or municipal waste to make gas.

These two anaerobic digesters hold 3 million gallons of sludge each.

GE’s Jenbacher generator can use different types of gas, including syngas and biogas.

A microgrid has backup power. Familiar types of batteries store power. These date to 1901.

Tesla’s new Powerwall battery may change the way we make power.

Other batteries are not so familiar. This diagram shows the workings of a vanadium flow battery by Imergy.

This is what a household-scale flow battery from Imergy actually looks like.

There are other kinds of power storage. Hydrogen can be made in a fuel cell.

Hydrogen can be used as feedstock for other chemicals, such
as propanol, ammonia, and other fuels.

A flywheel can be used to store energy.

Turbines move water to the high reserviour when power prices are low, and make power when they are high.

Hopper cars loaded with stone can also be used for gravitational potential energy storage.

Cryogenic energy storage uses liquid nitrogen.

The Huntorf power plant in Germany has been powered by air for over thirty years.

Flat Holm, in Wales, has a microgrid with three solar arrays, a wind turbine, and two battery systems.

Insuring our way of life may be less expensive than taking a risk. And we can do that here.

 

2015-05-07 Energy Week

Please note that this post is being developed.

Thursday, April 30:

• Last week, representatives from China’s national Energy Research Institute, the State Grid Energy Research Institute, and others released a new study envisioning a nation powered by 57% renewables in 2030, growing to 86% renewables by 2050, all at the same time as China’s economy grows sevenfold. [CleanTechnica]

View from the Great Wall: Smog coming out off Beijing to the mountains. Photo by Daag. Wikimedia Commons.

• California Governor Jerry Brown launched an ambitious new effort to limit climate change Wednesday, calling for the state to cut its planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030, the toughest carbon goal adopted by any North American government for that time frame. [USA TODAY]
• Another large user of power is going to boycott the direct use of coal at the facilities it controls. But this time, it’s not a government or a do-good nonprofit institution. No, it is the largest manufacturer of vehicles, a profit-seeking behemoth that symbolizes the nation’s industrial strength: General Motors. [Slate Magazine]

Friday, May 1:

• Infratech Industries, Inc opened a solar plant at a wastewater treatment facility in South Australia, and it could potentially change the way we harvest solar energy. According to the company’s director, the panels are 57% more efficient than land-based systems because they’re kept cool by the water. [Grist]
• A new report from the banking and financial services company, HSBC, has warned of increasing risk of “stranded assets” in the fossil fuel industry. It raises questions that are going to need to be addressed in the coming years, if not sooner, as nations gear up for the United Nations Climate Change Conference. [CleanTechnica]
• Tesla unveiled a suite of energy products, including a wall-mounted battery for use in consumers’ homes. The Powerwall is a lithium-ion battery designed to be mounted on a wall, and connected to the local power grid. It will be sold to installers for $3,500 for 10 kWh, and $3,000 for 7 kWh, starting in late Summer. [CNN]

Saturday, May 2:

• A £70 million tidal project that was shelved last year could now be revived after a global leader in the industry bought up the scheme. The 10-MW Skerries Tidal Stream Array, which was to be Wales’s first commercial tidal energy farm, would see seven massive tidal generators located in up to 130 ft of water. [WalesOnline]

Artist’s impression of tidal stream turbines developed by Marine Current Turbines of Bristol

• Green Mountain Power is the first utility in the country to partner with Tesla to offer Tesla’s new home battery to customers. It says a radical change to the grid will begin in Rutland City. The batteries will become available in October, and GMP plans to offer incentives as well as in-bill financing to buyers. [Rutland Herald]
• Almost three hours before Tesla’s big announcement, inside a Northwestern University classroom near Chicago, famed nuclear critic Arnie Gundersen had the inside scoop: Elon Musk would announce an industrial-scale battery that would cost about 2¢ per kWh, putting the final nail in the coffin of nuclear power. [Forbes]
• Since 2005, Venezuela’s socialist government has sent $70 billion of subsidized oil to Nicaragua and other Caribbean area nations, according to Barclays Investment Bank. This secured political allies, countering US influence. Now, the US is encouraging a regional shift toward renewables and independence from oil. [Wall Street Journal]
• According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2015, electricity-generating companies will add 20 GW of capacity to the grid. Of that amount, about 68% will come from renewable energy sources. And this good news is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to renewable energy around the world. [Investing.com]

Sunday, May 3:

• “Is Solar Power About To Crush Big Oil, Big Coal And End Global Warming?” – Something amazing has happened in the energy market. The cost of solar power has fallen to the point where, in a growing number of places, it’s cheaper than the electricity that utilities deliver from their coal-fired power plants. [Investing.com]
• A new type of wind turbine from a startup company, Vortex Bladeless, relies on an aerodynamic phenomenon called vorticity, in which wind flowing around a structure creates a pattern of small vortices or whirlwinds called a Kármán vortex street. No problema as long as they are relatively small. [CleanTechnica]

Monday, May 4:

• E. coli exists in a wide variety of strains, some of which are beginning to pop up in renewable fuel and “green” chemical applications. One of these is involved in a new artificial photosynthesis study from UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The basic concept is to mimic natural photosynthesis. [CleanTechnica]

How the artificial leaf works.

Tuesday, May 5:

• Washington-based Solar Electric Power Association has released a report on the US solar power industry and utility rankings for 2014. The report says the US added 5.3 GW (182,000 new systems) of PV capacity last year, taking the total installed solar capacity nationwide to 16.3 GW (675,500 locations). [Greentech Lead]

Solar carport at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Photo from energy.gov.

• Solar energy is fast becoming a “least cost” option for US utilities. Declining technology costs, policy support and retail rate levels are cited as contributing factors. Issues, including rate restructuring and grid integration, need to be addressed; meanwhile community solar programs are getting strong interest. [pv magazine]
• A new study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change today, says that the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan will save over 3500 lives every year. The study by researchers at Harvard, Syracuse and Boston Universities and Resources for the Future finds a strategy to meet the plan. [News Every day]
• In 2015, a record 9.1 GW of solar and 8.9 GW of wind will be installed in the US, forecasts Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Wind has 13.6 GW under construction in 100 projects, says American Wind Energy Association. In Iowa, two projects by MidAmerican Energy costing $1.5 billion will add 922 MW. [SustainableBusiness.com]

Wednesday, May 6:

Flat Holm solar array, Cardiff, Wales. Photo by Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project. Wikimedia Commons.

• The UK’s largest operator and owner of solar PV assets, Lightsource Renewable Energy, has announced that it is offering up to £40,000 per MW for introduced sites. The developer is hoping to uncover new solar farm sites with suitable grid connections and a strong possibility of quick planning permission. [Solar Power Portal]
• “Why Tesla Batteries Are Cheap Enough To Prevent New Power Plants” Last year, analysts for Oncor Electric Delivery Company calculated the break-even point for utility-scale storage batteries at $350 per kWh. Tesla’s Powerpack, the big sister of the Powerwall home battery, will come at a cost of $250/kWh. [Forbes]