2016-01-07 Energy Week

This edition of Energy Week covers a little over two weeks because of studio scheduling.

Tuesday, December 22:

• Beothuk Energy Inc unveiled a plan for a $4-billion project to build a 1000-MW wind farm off the coast of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, to supply power to New England. The 120-turbine venture would be built about 20 km off the coast. Plans include a 200-km submarine line. [TheChronicleHerald.ca]

Beothuk Energy Announces Offshore Wind Farm, Offshore Nova Scotia

Wednesday, December 23:

• A social enterprise formed by local residents in New South Wales, has become Australia’s first community-owned electricity supplier after raising the $3 million of capital required for it to list on the Australian stock exchange. Enova will get its energy entirely from renewable resources. [eco-business.com]

Australian community-owned electricity provider Enova will begin operating in early 2016, and will buy renewable energy from the grid and from renewable energy generators to sell to customers. Image: Shutterstock

Note: This is the Windorah solar farm in Queensland, Australia. The site is owned by Ergon, which has a brochure describing it HERE.

Thursday, December 24:

• Opinion: Did Woodland, North Carolina really ban solar farms because they “suck up the sun?” • A closer look shows rational reasons why Woodland residents opposed a solar farm. But there are also kooky beliefs, misinformation, and opposition to anything that weans us off fossil fuels. [Treehugger]

Screen capture Google Street View/ Woodland

Friday, December 25:

• The small Alpine town of Albertville, which is best known for having hosted the 1992 Winter Olympics, has recently become home to a new type of power plant. Bacteria bred in whey are hard at work generating biogas, a clean, renewable energy source that can also be used to produce electricity. [VICE News]

Beaufort Cheese Cave. Photo by Florian Pépellin. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons

• Opinion: WOW! UK power stations slash CO2 emissions 23% in just two years • There have been lots of interesting energy-related headlines coming out of Britain recently: Renewables beat coal for an entire quarter, Britain pledged to end coal use by 2025, and most major cities are going to 100% renewable energy. [Treehugger] (NOTE: The cuts in emissions resulted from policies of the previous government, not this one.)
• China realized universal power access when power was brought to a remote group of 39,800 people without electricity. The light came on Wednesday in the last two villages in the country without power. Two thirds of households are connected to the national grid while the rest use PV devices. [ecns]

Saturday, December 26:

• Hydropower plants have operated on five of the 23 locks and dams on the three major rivers in the Army Corps of Engineers’ Pittsburgh District since the 1980s. Right now, 13 hydropower projects at some stage of federal permitting review. If all are built, they would have a combined capacity of 212 MW. [PowerSource]

Locks and dams on the Monongahela River. Bill Wade / Post-Gazette

Sunday, December 27:

• Africa could be the first region in the world to power its economic development on renewable energy rather than fossil fuels, according to the head of the International Energy Agency. He said government pushes to get electricity to Africans without access will help support this, as will falling costs of renewable energy. [Climate Central]

Wind farm in Cape Town, South Africa. Credit: jbdodane/flickr

Monday, December 28:

• Two similar stories: Scotland met its target for community or local ownership of renewables five years early. Capacity of 508 MW is now operational; the target was 500 MW by 2020. Energy Minister Fergus Ewing foresees continued growth. Last year, renewables returned over £10 million to communities. [The Edinburgh Reporter] and
  Wind power output in Estonia hit 5,210.47 MWh on December 25 and 4,925.12 MWh on December 26. Estonia has long surpassed its renewable energy target for 2020. The country reached a 25.6% renewables share in gross final consumption of energy in 2013; its goal was 25% by 2020. [SeeNews Renewables]
• The Nigerian Minister of Environment, said the government is planning to develop about 13,000 MW of off-grid electricity from solar energy. She said the government was working on the possibility of diversifying the country’s energy mix and laid emphases on renewable energy and efficient gas power. [NAIJ.COM]

Tuesday, December 29:

• Scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory developed an organic aqueous flow battery expected to cost $180 per kWh, a projected savings of about 60% as compared to standard flow batteries. The electrolytes can be a drop-in replacement for those in existing batteries. [IHS Electronics360]

PNNL researcher Xiaoliang Wei prepares a small demonstration organic flow battery. (Source: PNNL)

• There was no white Christmas for the eastern half of the US this year. Instead, there are record-highs: 86° in Tampa, 83° in Houston, 67° in Boston, 68° in Burlington, Vermont, and 66° in New York City, just to name a few. They end the globe’s hottest year with an exclamation point. [Greentech Media]

Wednesday, December 30:

• Martin Luther King III: How the polluter-backed National Black Chamber misleads minorities • The National Black Chamber of Commerce has been warning communities of color that the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan will cause job losses and generate higher energy bills. Neither is true. [Washington Post]

Thursday, December 31:

• Battery storage is already showing itself as a hotly contested race in the US, even before the 2016 expected retail launch of the Tesla Powerwall. This storage race has been fueled by German-based Sonnenbatterie launching its plug-and-play home battery system in the US prior to Christmas. [CleanTechnica]

Image via Sonnenbatterie

Friday, January 1:

• Dr Gavin Schmidt, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute of Space Studies, recently tweeted some charts about CO2 and global temperatures. They tell a compelling story. Climate change has not slowed down; it has been unrelenting. The result, unless we act vigorously, is disaster on many fronts. [CleanTechnica]

Corelation of global temperature and atmospheric CO2 content.

Saturday, January 2:

• Wind and solar power are set for a construction boom in spite of a glut of cheap fossil fuels. Orders for 2016 solar and wind are up sharply, from the United States to China to the developing economies of Africa and Latin America, all in defiance of stubbornly low prices for coal and natural gas. [Dallas Morning News]

Photovoltaic power panels stand at Abaste’s El Bonillo Solar Plant while wind turbines spin at a wind farm on the background in El Bonillo, Albacete province, Spain.

Sunday, January 3:

• WindStream Energy Technologies (India) Private limited, in collaboration with the US company, has started assembling small vertical turbines with imported parts in Hyderabad. The silent turbines can be installed on any rooftop along with solar panels, to produce a hybrid home energy system. [The Hindu]

Hybrid renewable home power generation using solar panels and wind turbines. Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

Monday, January 4:

• Wärtsilä will supply a 47-MW Smart Power Generation power plant to Rochester Public Utilities in Minnesota. Five Wärtsilä 34SG natural gas engines will replace aged coal and gas turbine-based capacity. Efficiency will be nearly doubled, and hourly carbon emissions are reduced by 50%. [Industrial PRIME]

Wärtsilä 34SG engines at Pearsall Power Plant, located in Texas (Image: Wärtsilä)

Note: The Wärtsilä RT-flex96C is the world’s largest diesel engine.

Tuesday, January 5:

• A natural gas leak in California is a problem for the industry, and so is the latest news from Oklahoma, which has been dealing with its own natural gas issues in the form of unprecedented swarms of earthquakes. Just last Tuesday a big one hit the town of Edmund, measuring 4.3 on the Richter scale. [CleanTechnica]

Seismicity Map – 1970 to May 27, 2015

Wednesday, January 6:

• On January 1, strict rules for construction came into effect in Germany. Heating new buildings without using renewable energy is no longer permitted. Oil heaters cannot be used at all anymore. A new primary energy requirement that is 25% lower than the previous threshold. [Sun & Wind Energy]

Heating systems that use fossil fuels will have a hard time complying to new regulations in Germany. (Photo: dpa)

• Western Australia would not be able to privatize its electricity assets even if they were given away, because the popularity of rooftop solar panels has made state-owned power stations unprofitable, a renewable energy expert has said. The grid is over capacity and solar power is growing. [The Guardian]
• Vermont regulators granted permission for a 154-mile power transmission line, known as the New England Clean Power Link, designed to bring hydroelectric power from Canada to southern New England. The power line, which has not yet received federal approval, uses Vermont as a corridor. [Vermont Public Radio]

Top Stories of 2015

1-10 In April we reported that seismologists were hot on the trail of a “smoking gun” that would link fracking to earthquakes on Ohio. At the time the experts were a bit cautious, but earlier this week the Seismological Society of America came out with a definitive statement: yes, fracking earthquakes are real. [CleanTechnica]

1-14 Analysis of the impact US tight oil has on global oil markets shows that only around one quarter of the drop in US imports of 1.7 million barrels per day since 2005 to 2006 can be explained by the tight oil boom. Oil imports dropped by about 1 million barrels per day before the tight oil boom even began. [Resilience]

2-14 New York ratepayers will subsidize operation of the Ginna nuclear facility near Rochester, under terms of an agreement with the plant’s operators, Exelon. The Ginna Nuclear Generating Station will be allowed to charge customers above-market rates until 2018, because the plant has been losing money. [Capital New York]

Ginna Nuclear Power Plant. (Entergy Nuclear—R.E. Ginna Nuclear Power Plant)

2-19 Rolling Stone published a blockbuster climate change article complete with the incendiary title, “The Pentagon & Climate Change: How Deniers Put National Security at Risk.” Now, the US Navy has posted a response with a forceful declaration of support for the Rolling Stone article. [CleanTechnica]

3-9 If the “true costs” of emissions — increased rates of premature death, illness, increased loads on the healthcare system, lowered crop yields, missed work days, etc — are factored in, a gallon of gasoline would cost you roughly $3.80 more at the pump than it currently does, according to Duke University research. [CleanTechnica]

Image Credit: Duke University

5-1 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]

5-26 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]

6-3 Lights flick on across a sleepy hamlet in Kenya, thanks to the efforts of more than 200 Maasai women at the frontline of a solar power revolution. Trained in solar panel installation, they use donkeys to haul their solar wares from home to home in the remote region, giving families their first access to clean and reliable power. [TODAYonline]

Massai village in Tanzania. Photo by David Berkowitz. Wikimedia Commons.

6-18 Pope Francis has clearly embraced what he calls a “very solid scientific consensus” that humans are causing cataclysmic climate change that is endangering the planet. The pope has also lambasted global political leaders for their “weak responses” and lack of will over decades to address the issue. [National Catholic Reporter]

7-1 A statewide ban on fracking is now official in New York State, nearly a year after communities won the right to ban oil and gas development locally. This action concluded New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s comprehensive, seven-year review and completely prohibits fracking. [Environment News Service]

7-14 ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change, seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years on climate denying research. [The Guardian] (7-8 article)

Tugboats tow the oil tanker Exxon Valdez off Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound 5 April 1989. Exxon became aware of climate change as early as 1981, according to a newly discovered email. Photograph: Chris Wilkins/AFP/Getty Images

7-11 World seabird populations have suffered a staggering 70% drop over the last 60 years, according to new international research. This means around 230 million seabirds have disappeared across the globe since the 1950s. Climate change, overfishing, and pollution from plastics and oil have been blamed. [Scotsman]

Numbers of black-legged kittiwakes have plunged by 77 per cent since the 1980s. Factors including climate change are blamed. Picture: RSPB

8-1 Dr James L Powell, director of the National Physical Sciences Consortium, examined titles and abstracts of more than 24,000 peer-reviewed scientific articles on climate change published during the past couple of years. He identified 69,406 authors named in the articles. Only four of them rejected the fact that human emissions cause climate change. [CleanTechnica]

8-10 Anaerobic digesters capture both the smell and the greenhouse gases of manure, providing fuel in the process. The EPA estimates that more than 3 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were eliminated last year by 247 US livestock farms with biogas recovery systems. There are about 8,000 farms in the US large enough to make a biogas recovery system viable. [Capital FM Kenya]

8-18 A new study has found that China’s air pollution is linked to the death of over 1.6 million people a year or 4,400 people a day. The study was carried out by Richard Muller and Robert Rohde, researchers at Berkeley Earth. They mapped the concentrations of six major pollutants across eastern China, using data from China’s national air quality reporting system. [The Next Digit]

8-21 A new report published by Trillium Asset Management has found that California’s two public pension funds lost over $5 billion over the last year due to investments in the top 200 fossil fuel companies. Interestingly, this report comes at the same time that SB 185 is awaiting vote in the California State Assembly, a bill that would divest the same pension funds from coal. [CleanTechnica]

8-27 A new Citigroup report values the fossil fuel reserves that need to be left in the ground if the world is to meet its targets of trying to limit global warming to 2° C at $100 trillion. But 2° C is a target that, according to a new Climate Council report, is actually a lot less “safe” for humankind than the science thought it was just 10 years ago. [CleanTechnica]

8-28 One of Britain’s most controversial energy projects for decades, the £24.5 billion nuclear power development at Hinkley Point in Somerset, is poised to get the green light. The Government and EDF have agreed a deal that would guarantee EDF a price of £92.50 per MWh, up to 2061. That’s nearly three times the current price. [The Independent]

Power and the glory? An artist’s impression of Hinkley Point C, which it is envisaged will start generating in 2026 and account for 7 per cent of British consumption PA

8-31 The government wants to slash by 87% subsidies for householders who install solar panels on their rooftops, in a move that renewable energy experts warn could kill off a promising industry. The assault on solar power comes after ministerial decisions to remove financial aid from new onshore wind farms and slash home energy efficiency measures. [The Guardian]

9-15 Malcolm Turnbull has replaced climate change doubter and coal industry booster Tony Abbott as Australian Prime Minister. This means that one of the world’s least enthusiastic backers of a new climate treaty has just been removed from the global stage. While Abbot’s views were not aligned with mainstream science, Turnbull’s are. [Mashable]

9-16 A relatively cheap and environmentally friendly battery that uses salt water and other commonly available materials to store electric energy has been awarded the Lemelson-MIT Prize. The head of the company making the battery, Aquion, said batteries capable of powering a typical single family home should cost between $1,000 and $3,000. [CNBC]

Source: Aquion Energy
Aquion M100 Battery Module

9-20 It didn’t add up. VW diesel cars were spewing harmful exhaust when testers drove them on the road. In the lab, they were fine. Discrepancies in the European tests on the diesel models of the VW Passat, the VW Jetta and the BMW X5 last year gave Peter Mock an idea. He checked the cars. VW had a cheat device on them. [Bloomberg]

9-26 The overall collective risk of cancer via exposure to 7 toxic air contaminants in California has declined by an incredible 76% since comprehensive air quality regulations went into effect there back into 1990, according to a new study from the California Air Resources Board. The worst offender is said to be diesel particulates. [CleanTechnica]

9-27 A study prepared by DIW Econ, a German institute for economic research, found that, as a whole, countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have already decoupled their economic growth from emissions. This means they can grow without increasing greenhouse gas emissions. [The Guardian]

9-30 Solar energy pricing is at an all-time low, according to a report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Driven by lower installed costs, improved project performance, and a race to build projects ahead of a reduction in a key federal incentive, utility-scale solar PV power sales agreements are averaging just 5¢/kWh. [solarserver.com]

11-14 Texas wind farms are generating so much energy that some utilities are giving power away. One example is TXU Energy, which offers a free overnight plan to encourage customers to use less energy when wholesale prices are highest and use more when prices are lowest, 9 pm to 6 am. The plan has slightly higher daytime rates. [HPPR]

Part of the Desert Sky Wind Farm in Texas. Photo by Pismo. Placed in the public domain by the author. Wikimedia Commons.

10-7 Here is an article geoharvey missed, but the photo is too telling to pass up. The article is all photos relating to the current conditions in the Fukushima exclusion zone (which is why it was missed). The photo shows abandoned cars of people trying to flee a nuclear disaster. Now, after four years, the cars are being overrun by plants. [The Mirror]

Aerial photo of abandoned cars

11-26 This year will be the hottest on record and 2016 could be even hotter due to the El Niño weather pattern, the World Meteorological Organization said. WMO director-general Michel Jarraud rejected climate sceptics’ arguments, saying, “It’s not about believing or not. It’s a matter of seeing the facts. The facts are there.” [Free Malaysia Today]

Effects of El Niño

12-12 The world now has its first universally accepted plan to limit climate change! The agreement will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from human activities to curtail dangerous atmospheric warming and related climate changes, BBC News reported at 3:40 am. [CleanTechnica]

Laurence Tubiana, Christiana Figueres, and Laurent Fabius applaud the Paris Agreement

2015-12-22 Energy Week

Thursday, December 17:

• More than 200‚000 homes in South Africa are receiving power from the world’s largest storage solar farm near Upington in the Northern Cape. Just two years after the start of construction‚ the ACWA Solafrica Bokpoort CSP Power Plant is now operating at full capacity‚ ahead of schedule. [Times LIVE]

An array of solar panels at the Bokpoort plant. The power captured by day is used after sunset. Image by Ramón Vidal

• China is missing no opportunity to build a future without fossil fuels, abroad as well as at home. It is investing in the construction of the UK’s first new nuclear power station in 20 years. But most Chinese energy investment is in renewables, and it has decided to support developing solar power in France. [eco-business.com]

Solar power is not widely used in France. Collector dish of a solar oven at Font Romeu, France. Image: Shutterstock

• In a major boost to the wind and solar industries, Congressional leaders agreed on a multiyear extension of renewable energy tax credits, which could provide several years of predictable policies, encouraging investment in new projects. The tax credits are part of a 2,009-page omnibus-spending bill. [POWER magazine]
• Green Mountain Power says it is not supporting plans by a New York company to build a giant solar farm in the town of Ludlow, Vermont. The 20-MW Coolidge Project would be by far the largest solar farm in the state. GMP, the governor, and others, think the project is out of scale with Vermont’s energy needs. [WCAX]

Friday, December 18:

• After many long months of deliberations and lobbying, the US Congress has approved five-year extensions to the hugely successful Investment Tax Credit, which has given incentives for solar power projects, and to the Production Tax Credit, which has similarly supported for the country’s wind energy industry. [CleanTechnica]
• German wind power is at record levels. Its production tied with lignite-burning power plants in the month of November. Both were reported to have generated 11.4 TWh, though the final official stats won’t be published until 2016. For the month, wind generated about 23% of Germany’s electricity. [CleanTechnica]

German wind farm via Shutterstock

• New York state regulators approved upgrades to 156 miles of high-voltage transmission lines running from Utica to New York City via the Capital Region, part of the governor’s Energy Highway program. Bidding for contracts will be overseen by the New York Independent System Operator. [Albany Times Union]

Saturday, December 19:

• On Friday, workers at Britain’s last operating deep coal mine finished their final shift, emerging, soot-blackened and live on television news channels, to cheers, applause and tears. The last haul of coal from the pit is destined for a mining museum as a once-mighty industry fades into history. [Tampabay.com]

Britain’s last coal miners. Photo by John Giles / PA via AP.

• Energy analysts from the UK-based investment bank Barclays gave quick analysis of the results of COP21. Lead analyst Mark Lewis says the implications for the fossil fuel industry are profound, and will likely cause it to suffer a loss in revenue of around $33 trillion (US) out to 2040 over business as usual. [CleanTechnica]
• According to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, wind turbines in Texas set a state-record for wind generated electricity of 12.97 GW on the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving Day itself, wind power in Texas provided 43.55% of the state’s total electricity demand. [CleanTechnica]
• The US lifted a 40-year-old ban on the export of oil, paving the way for energy deficient countries to import oil. The ban was lifted when President Barack Obama on Saturday signed into law the Omnibus US$1.8 trillion spending package and tax bill for the current fiscal ending September 30, 2016. [The Malaysian Insider]

A worker walks past oil pipes at a refinery in China. Reuters / Stringer / Files The Asia File – Nov 11 2015

• Vermont Technical College in Randolph, Vermont, will use more renewable energy to reduce its operating costs while providing new educational opportunities with the installation of a 500-kW solar farm. The solar farm has its Certificate of Public Good and may be complete by February. [Solar Novus Today]

Sunday, December 20:

• With the big animals gone forever, climate change could get worse, according to a study. University of East Anglia research says a decline in fruit-eating animals such as large primates, tapirs and toucans could have a knock-on effect for tree species because they disperse seeds. [Financial Express]
• Delhi has been shrouded in a toxic soup in recent weeks, pushing PM 2.5 levels more than 10 times over the WHO’s recommended safe limit. These fine particles less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter are linked to higher rates of chronic bronchitis, lung cancer and heart disease. [Yahoo7 News]

Anger, fear at Delhi’s pollution ground zero

• The governor of Massachusetts is launching a $30-million residential solar loan program. The program is tuned for loans between $3,000 and $60,000 with low, fixed interest rates and should help the state reach its goal of 1,600 MW by 2020. The state currently has 985 MW. [WLNE-TV (ABC6)]
• In Minnesota, a three-year, $260 million emissions-reduction project for the Boswell Energy Center’s 585-MW Unit 4, Minnesota Power’s largest coal-fired generating unit is complete. The upgrade will reduce mercury emissions by 90% and reduce the emission of sulfur dioxide and particulates. [Grand Forks Herald]

Large cranes were used to install new equipment at Minnesota Power’s Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset as part of a three-year, $260 million emissions-reduction project. (Photo courtesy of Minnesota Power)

Monday, December 21:

• Opinion: Boom Times Ahead For US Clean Power, Thanks To Oil Lobby • The Intertubes have been buzzing with news of the new US federal budget deal, which basically gave away the store to the clean power industry by including a 5-year extension of key tax credits for wind and solar power. [CleanTechnica]
• A new solid-state sodium battery development project being researched at Iowa State University was awarded $3 million in new funding via ARPA-E’s 2015 OPEN funding initiative, according to recent reports. (ARPA-E stands for Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy.) [CleanTechnica]
• The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has provided $4 million support toward a feasibility study for a pumped storage plant at the disused Kidston Gold Mine in North Queensland. Genex Power Limited plans to use the existing mining pits as water storage reservoirs. [International Business Times AU]

Solar PV will provide th majority of the daytime electricity requirements of Australia’s largest renewables mine. Image from ARENA.

• A survey in South Carolina conducted by Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions says voters not only expect renewable energy support from elected officials, they now demand it. 80% of S.C. Republican primary voters think renewable-energy sources should be a priority. [The State]

2015-12-17 Energy Week

Thursday, December 10,

• In the last meeting of December 9, the Comité de Paris of COP21 reconvened to register the reactions of conference parties to the draft agreement. The meeting closed at 11:28 pm. Sub-groups started meeting at midnight. One overnight consultation covers treaty sections on loss and damage, mechanisms, forest, and preamble, but there are others. [CleanTechnica]

COP21 Facilitators – Meeting go on around the clock.

• Vermont’s main utility is going to be providing Tesla Powerwall home battery systems to customers who want them. If the utility’s customer agrees to allow the utility to use electricity stored in a Powerwall at home, the customer will also get paid for its use. One of the three ways a customer can pay for the Powerwall is $0 down. [CleanTechnica]
• American Electric Power, one of the largest utilities, made waves when it confirmed it has dropped membership from the American Legislative Exchange Council, a prominent climate denial front group. AEP was the chair of ALEC’s environmental task force, which produces all of ALEC’s anti-environmental model bills. [Natural Resources Defense Council]

Friday, December 11,

• France and nine other partners renewed commitment to mobilize a cumulative $10 billion between 2015 and 2020 to boost access to energy in Africa. The costs are to be offset by repealing all subsidies for fossil fuels and ending the tax breaks that encourage corporate inversions. [The Election Central]

Wind farm in Tunisia. Photo by Citizen59. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

• Negotiators at COP21 aim to wrap up a global agreement to curb global warming on Saturday, a day later than expected. “Things are moving in the right direction,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is chairing the summit. But more compromise is needed if an agreement is to be reached. [BBC]
• The fourth quarter of 2015 is shaping up to be the United States solar market’s biggest quarter on record, according to a new projection. The current utility-scale solar PV pipeline stands at 18.7 GW. This is greater than all US solar PV installations brought online through to the end of 2014. [CleanTechnica]

Saturday, December 12,

Adieu Fossil Fuels

• The world now has its first universally accepted plan to limit climate change! The agreement will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from human activities to curtail dangerous atmospheric warming and related climate changes, BBC News reported at 3:40 am. [CleanTechnica]

Eiffel Tower light show

• The Philippines announced at COP21 that it will launch an investigation into whether fossil fuel companies are to be held responsible for the impacts of climate change. This follows a petition was made by Greenpeace Southeast Asia, which had over 100,000 signatures. [CleanTechnica]
• Just in time to undercut the threat of an “affordable” Tesla EV, the Ford Motor Company has pledged a massive five year, $4.5 billion investment including 13 new EVs and plugin hybrids, bringing its electrified vehicle portfolio up to more than 40% of its global nameplates. [CleanTechnica]

Ford Focus charging in Germany. © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas / CC-BY-SA-3.0. Wikimedia Commons

• A former coal-burning power plant in western Massachusetts, is being considered as a site to produce renewable energy. A year-long study into redeveloping the Mount Tom Power Station has come up with three reuse options for the 128-acre property. Each includes solar power. [WAMC]

Sunday, December 13,

• A draft of the COP21 agreement was released in the afternoon for delegates to review. Following a break for last-minute corrections from the legal and linguistic group and the Deputy Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, the body adopted it “with legal force” by acclamation. [CleanTechnica]

Laurence Tubiana, Christiana Figueres, and Laurent Fabius applaud the Paris Agreement

 

• In a major shift in government policy, Australia’s prime minister lifted a ban on investing public funds in wind power. The sails of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation are back in motion as a new mandate reversed Tony Abbot’s restrictive practices. [9news.com.au]
• “This is the end of fossil fuels” • For Selina Leem, an 18-year-old from a tiny part of the Marshall Islands in the middle of the Pacific, the adoption of Saturday’s “Paris Agreement” on climate change wasn’t about wonky diplomacy. It was about the survival of her country. [CNN]

Most of the land in the Marshall Islands is no more than three feet above the high tide mark. Photo by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons

Monday, December 14,

• Indian and Japanese scientists have found that Indian citizens living downstream from an enormous uranium mining and processing complex are routinely exposed to exceptionally high levels of radiation. The Indian government insists that any illnesses are caused by poverty, not radiation. [Center for Public Integrity]

Villagers drink, bathe and wash themselves in the waters found to have alpha radiation 192% higher than safe limits set by the WHO. Ashish Birulee

• Availon, a leading multi-brand independent service provider for wind turbines, announced that the company kept the US wind farms it has under contract at historical levels of availability. The most challenging site is running at above 98.4% availability, and other wind farms between 99.4 % and 99.8%. [Your Renewable News]

Tuesday, December 15,

• A town council in North Carolina rejected plans to rezone land for a solar farm after residents voiced fears it would cause cancer, stop plants from growing, and suck up all the energy from the sun. The council later voted to put a moratorium on future solar farms in the area, according to the local newspaper. [Huffington Post]
• Lifting the 40-year ban on oil exports is the top priority in a $1.15 trillion spending bill for many Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, because it would offer new markets to drillers suffering from a glut of crude. A trade to extend renewable support may be in the works. [Dickinson Press]

The crude oil tanker Omala moored in Rotterdam. Photo by Danny Cornelissen.

Wednesday, December 16,

• Green Mountain Power was joined today with Franklin County leaders and champions of Lake Champlain to announce an innovative new project called Clean Power, Cleaner Lake. Working with area dairy farms, the effort will significantly reduce phosphorus runoff while generating clean, local baseload power. [Vermont Biz]

Green Mountain Power will help reduce pollution in Lake Champlain. St Albans Bay is seen here. GMP photo.

• Nassau, New York, a town of 5,000 people just outside of Albany, plans to disconnect from the electrical grid. Last week, the town board voted to get 100% of its power from renewables by 2020. The town is making the move as a way to increase its reliance on renewable energy and to gain some energy independence. [EcoWatch]
• Donald Trump’s legal challenge to a planned offshore wind farm has been rejected by the UK’s Supreme Court. Developers intend to site 11 turbines off Aberdeen, close to Mr Trump’s golfing development on the Aberdeenshire coast. The Trump Organisation said would “continue to fight” the proposal. [BBC]
• The Indian Point 3 plant automatically shut down because of an electrical disturbance, owner Entergy Corp said in a statement late Monday. The last time that happened, spot power more than doubled. This time, however, wind turbines in the state came to the rescue, compensating for the loss of the reactor. [Bloomberg]

The Turkey Point Generating Station. Photo by Acroterion. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

 

2015-12-10 Energy Week

Thursday, December 3:

• With COP21 underway in Paris, a conference in Rome on Thursday reflected on Pope Francis’s social encyclical Laudato Si’: On Care For Our Common Home. Hosted by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, the meeting examined what role free markets can play in helping to protect the environment. [Vatican Radio]

A power-generating wind turbine is seen on the Champs Elysees avenue with the Arc de Triomphe in background as part of COP21. – AP

• In the wake of yet another bout of devastating smog, China announced today that it plans cut its power sector emissions 60% by 2020, a promise that puts the US Clean Power Plan to shame. If fulfilled, the pledge would make a major dent in global carbon pollution. China’s cabinet made the announcement at COP21. [Gizmodo India]

China’s pollution.

• 21st Century Fox, the parent company of Fox News Channel, is first on the list of 73 major companies that have just signed on to President Obama’s “American Business Act on Climate Pledge.” A total of 154 major US and global companies have signed in support of a strong outcome for this week’s COP21 Paris climate talks. [CleanTechnica]

Friday, December 4:

• In the first 10 months of 2015 the US installed 4.18 GW of wind and 1.4 GW of solar power generation capacity. Renewables accounted for 63% of all the new power capacity. In October, 200 MW of wind, 33 MW of solar and 10 MW of biomass power generation capacity went online. [SeeNews Renewables]

Wind farm in New Jersey, US. Author: nosha. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

• Google has purchased the output of renewable energy generation facilities around the world totalling 841 MW. The company has to date invested in more than 2 GW of renewable energy facilities and claimed the 841 MW of deals is the “biggest ever non-utility purchase” of renewable energy. [PV-Tech]

Google’s infographic of the latest procurements. Image: Google company blog.

• The sustained rise in power bills over the past several years has prompted a surge in Australian households wanting to “do-it-yourself” by unplugging from the power grid, which may result in further declines in carbon emissions. As much as 90% of households are looking to renewable energy. [Sydney Morning Herald]

Ninety percent of households are looking to solar panels. Photo: Matt Bedford

Saturday, December 5:

• In an announcement made at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Paris, Monsanto will stand trial for ecocide and crimes against humanity and nature at the International Court of Justice. An umbrella group of over 800 organizations in 100 countries is involved in the action. [Care2.com]

March Against Monsanto in Eugene, Oregon, 2014. Photo by Visitor7. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

• A senior Indian negotiator says his country will cut back its use of coal, if it gets sufficient cash from a Paris deal. The country believes rich nations responsible for the bulk greenhouse gas emissions released so far must provide cash if they want developing countries to cut their emissions. [TV Newsroom]

Sunday, December 6:

• As renewable technologies become more cost-effective, investors are now waking up to opportunities in the previously unattractive green sector. Climate change is a reality and we appear to be in the middle of an energy revolution. Environmental investments are both right and smart. [Irish Independent]

Climate change is a reality, and so is the revolution that has emerged to tackle it.

• Delegates at a UN climate conference in Paris have approved a draft text they hope will form the basis of an agreement to curb global carbon emissions. The 48-page document will be discussed by ministers on Monday. They will try to arrive at a comprehensive settlement by the end of next week. [BBC News]

BBC News

• The Paris climate conference today published a draft treaty that sets out a warming limit of 1.5° C above pre-industrial levels as its long term temperature goal. Seen as a victory for poor countries, it reduces limit of 2° C warming that had previosly been agreed to as a safe level warming. [The Ecologist]
• The US, Japan, European and other developed nations are poised to consider boosting their annual financial assistance for developing nations to over $100 billion in 2020 and beyond in a bid to break a COP21 deadlock. The money would include both public and private-sector funds. [Nikkei Asian Review]

Monday, December 7:

• Australia agreed to support the push to lower the global warming goal to 1.5° in a Paris deal in exchange for more favorable carbon emissions rules. With this, the New Zealand Youth Delegation dared Prime Minister John Key to follow Canberra’s example and also for Wellington to back a more ambitious global climate target. [International Business Times AU]

Indonesia could lose about 2,000 islands by 2030 due to climate change, the country’s environment minister said on Monday. Reuters/Beaawiharta

• The company responsible for more than one-third of Germany’s electricity grid says there is no issue absorbing high levels of variable renewable energy such as wind and solar, and grids could absorb up to 70% penetration without the need for storage. The CEO of 50 Hertz says industry views on renewable energy integration have evolved. [RenewEconomy]
• China’s capital issued its first ever “red alert” for pollution, the Beijing city government said on Monday, warning that the city would be shrouded in heavy smog from Tuesday until Thursday. China’s leadership has vowed to crack down on environmental degradation, including the air pollution now covering many major cities. [Thomson Reuters Foundation]

Tuesday, December 8:

• After lower-level negotiators at the Paris climate talks delivered a drafted agreement that left all crunch issues unsolved, foreign and environmental ministers stepped in. Warning that “the clock is ticking towards climate catastrophe,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon told ministers the world expects more than “half-measures.” [The Weather Channel]

Demonstrator at the Global Climate March on Nov. 29, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images)

• Senator Bernie Sanders released his ambitious plan for climate change, a problem he pointedly says is being perpetuated by the “billionaire fossil fuel lobby.” The plan reads like an ecological wish list. It would US carbon pollution by 40% by 2030 by such measures as putting a tax on carbon and cutting subsidies for fossil fuels. [Washington Post]

Bernie Sanders. Photo by Gage Skidmore. Public Domain Pictures

• Michigan’s two biggest power companies are up against both lliberal Democrats and conservative Republicans over what they pay customers for electricity from solar panels. Environmental Democrats and Tea Party Republicans have joined forces to promote choices for customers and alternative energy. [The Detroit News]
• Every year, Lazard Associates publishes its Levelized Cost of Energy Analysis on different types of power plants including wind, solar, natural gas, coal, nuclear and other technologies. Their analysis shows that wind energy and solar power are more affordable than ever. In fact, they beat fossil fuels, even without federal incentives. [Clean Energy News]

Wednesday, December 9:

• Rising global temperatures are helping to speed up slow moving landslides across Alaska. Known as frozen debris lobes, they are threatening a major highway. The warming climate is said to have hastened some of them to a heady speed of five meters a year. Engineers believe that they must either keep the ground frozen or move the roadway. [BBC]

Alaska’s famous Dalton Highway runs through the valley of the slow moving landslides. UAF

Alaska’s highways department is set to move a section of roadway under greatest threat from the landslide. UAF

• Alaska is suffering significant climate impacts from rising seas forcing the relocation of remote villages. Governor Bill Walker says that coping with these changes is hugely expensive. He wants to “urgently” drill in the protected lands of the Arctic National Wilderness Refuge to fund them. The state gets 90% of its revenues from oil and gas. [BBC]
• New figures from researchers at the University of East Anglia and the Global Carbon Project suggest that global carbon emissions would stall in 2015. The researchers predict that not only might the growth of CO2 emissions slow or stall this year, but that there might even be a chance emissions growth would decline by 0.6% in 2015. [CleanTechnica]