2016-03-03 Energy Week

Thursday, February 25:

NASA is studying greenhouse gas emissions. NASA/GSFC image.

• Methane emissions from the oil and gas industry are significantly higher than previous official estimates, according to draft revisions of the US greenhouse gas emissions inventory from the EPA. Revised estimates of 2013 emissions are 27% percent higher than the previous tally. [CleanTechnica]
• To an oil and gas industry already beaten down by a price crash, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy added this message Wednesday: The world is switching to renewable sources such as wind and solar. “The clean energy train has left the station, folks,” McCarthy 2,800 at IHS CERAWeek. [expressnews.com] (The last article in this post also relates to this conference.)
• Developers are proposing the second-largest solar array in Windham County, Vermont, and the Vermont Army National Guard appears to be an enthusiastic partner in the project. The state Public Service Board will consider the application for the 1.8-MW net-metered project in Westminster. [vtdigger.org]

Friday, February 26:

Bridgeport Harbor station power plant. Photo courtesy of PSEG

• Owners of the last coal-fired power plant in Connecticut, Public Service Enterprise Group, have announced plans to replace the Bridgeport Harbor Station power plant with a natural gas-fired facility by the end of the decade. It has provided electricity for over 50 years. [Westfair Online]
• Up to 175,000 annual pollution-related deaths, and $250 billion in health costs, could be prevented by 2030 by implementing “low carbon” policies in the US to prevent a 2° C rise in temperature, according to analysis from Duke University and the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. [CleanTechnica]

Left axis and grey area: UK coal use since the industrial revolution, millions of tonnes. Right axis and red bars: year-on-year change in coal use, %. Sources: DECC Energy Trends table 2.6, historical data and Carbon Brief analysis. Chart by Carbon Brief.

• The UK’s CO2 emissions fell by 4.3% in 2015 on the back of the largest recorded annual drop in coal use, outside of a miners’ strike, Carbon Brief analysis shows. This leaves UK CO2 emissions 31.5% below 1990 levels and at its lowest level since the start of the industrial revolution. [Carbon Brief]

Saturday, February 27:

• New legislation would require all new construction in San Francisco, both residential and commercial, to have solar panels installed. The renewable energy ordinance would make San Francisco the first and only major city in the country to require solar panels on new buildings. [KRON4.com]
• Anyone who sees Vermont’s renewable energy installations may be surprised to learn that the state’s utilities get 0% of their power from wind and solar energy. That is the number cited in a report on allowing renewable energy credits to be sold to utilities in southern New England. [Valley News]

One day, cars will be powered by the sun. Image via Paleofuture / Arthur Radebaugh

• Opinion: Sooner than you think? A prediction that electric cars will cause the next oil crisis • There used to be a cartoon series called Closer than We Think. Now Bloomberg Business has a video series, Sooner Than You Think. The first episode suggests the electric car could cause the next oil crisis. [Treehugger]
• Corn and soybean fields in Somerset County, Maryland, formerly ticketed for wind turbines may now become home to one of the largest solar power plants in the eastern US. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp of Canada has plans to collect up to 150 MW of power from the area. [Delmarva Daily Times]

Sunday, February 28:

• Investment in forestry over the next five years will have a big impact on the environment, as it will result in the planting of 600,000 hectares (1.5 million acres) in Europe, according to Dermot Ryan, Senior Advisor to European Commissioner Phil Hogan. [Agriland]

Monday, February 29:

Turbines going in at Gemini (Gemini)

• The first electricity has been generated and delivered to the grid from the 600-MW Gemini wind farm in the Dutch North Sea. Two 110-km cables relay power from the wind park to the shore, where electricity is distributed through the TenneT high voltage grid from Eemshaven. [reNews]
• BioMason is a North Carolina startup company that makes bricks without heat or clay. About 8% of global carbon emissions come from making bricks, according to the company’s co-founder, citing information from the EPA. The BioMason process creates no carbon emissions. [CleanTechnica]

Thousands of residents of Porter Ranch were evacuated in the wake of the methane leak. (Ted Soqui / Ted Soqui Photography / Corbis)

• Opinion: The Size of the California Methane Leak Isn’t the Scariest Part of the Story • Though methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and the Aliso Canyon event was huge, we see an even bigger problem. There are hundreds of similar gas storage facilities, and nothing is monitoring them. [Smithsonian.com]
• The UK’s biggest energy lobbying group has shifted its position on green energy and will start campaigning for low-carbon alternatives for the first time, in what environmental campaigners are describing as a watershed moment. The chief executive of Energy UK said the shift is urgent. [The Guardian]

Tuesday, March 1:

Divers fix anchors onto the bed of the reservoir. Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

• Work is nearing completion on what will soon be Europe’s largest floating solar power farm. But few are likely to see the 23,000 solar panels on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near London. It is invisible to all but Heathrow passengers and a few flats in neighbouring estates. [The Guardian]
• The New York State Common Retirement Fund lost at least $5.3 billion over the last three years by remaining invested in fossil fuel holdings, instead of reinvesting in green companies. These are the findings according to a new report from Corporate Knights, an investment research company. [CleanTechnica]

Source: American Wind Energy Association

• The US produced over 190 million MWh of wind power in 2015, more than any other country in the world, even as China has nearly double the capacity, the American Wind Energy Association said. More than 31% of Iowa’s in-state electricity generation came from wind. [SeeNews Renewables]

Wednesday, March 2:

After seven months, Solar Impulse 2 has returned to the sky as it prepares to resume its record-setting round-the-world flight.

• After seven months, Solar Impulse 2 has returned to the sky as it prepares to resume its record-setting round-the-world flight. The huge, sun-powered plane, which smashed the longest solo record last summer from Japan to Hawaii, flew a 90-minute maintenance and equipment-checking flight. [ABC 57 News]
• Opinion: “Base load” power: a myth used to defend the fossil fuel industry • At a conference in Houston, leaders of the global fossil power industry were shocked to hear the chairman of the biggest network owner in China dismiss the importance of coal, oil, and “base load” power. [RenewEconomy]

 

2016-02-25 Energy Week

Thursday, February 18:

Construction at Block Island (Deepwater Wind photo)

• Deepwater Wind’s 30-MW Block Island offshore wind project was selected in a 34-GW New England capacity auction. The wind farm committed to supply 6.8 MW. The auction was to cover projected demand starting in 2019-20. It closed at $7.03/kW after four rounds of competitive bidding. [reNews]
• Peru awarded 185 MW of solar PV projects at an average price of $48/MWh in a renewable energy solicitation. Bloomberg New Energy Finance Head of Solar Analysis Jenny Chase says that she has never seen a contract for power from solar PV this cheap in any nation that does not offer tax breaks. [pv magazine]
• About a third of the world’s publicly traded oil companies are at high risk of going bankrupt this year, according to a report from consulting and audit firm Deloitte. The firm put out its findings after closely examining 500 publicly traded oil and natural gas exploration and production companies worldwide. [Greentech Media]

Friday, February 19:

Built in 1843, this Austrian weir became a 15-kW hydroelectric power station. Photo by Herzi Pinki. CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

• Austria’s biggest utility is seeking to expand a network of “virtual power plants” where energy flows from customers with their own generators. Purchases from solar, wind, biomass and hydro plants, often located at the premises of existing power customers, rose to 100 MW last year from 4 MW in 2014. [Bloomberg]
• A leaking gas well near the US city of Los Angeles which has been polluting the air for four months has been “permanently sealed,” officials say. The Southern California Gas Company had been pumping in heavy fluids and cement to seal the well. The natural gas leak has caused thousands to relocate. [BBC]

The top 10 hottest years on record. Temperatures are in Fahrenheit.

• It’s official: 2015 was the hottest year on record, beating out 2014 by the widest margin in 136 years of record keeping, US government agencies announced Wednesday. The last globally record cold year was 1911, while 15 of the 16 hottest years on record have occurred since 2001, according to NASA. [Climate Central]

Saturday, February 20:

Al Gore struck a note of optimism during his TED2016 talk in Vancouver. “Change can happen faster than we think,” he argued.

• 6 Reasons Al Gore Believes ‘We Will Prevail’ in Climate Fight • Al Gore admitted to the TED2016 audience in Vancouver on Wednesday, “every night on the news is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelation.” But he maintained, “I am extremely optimistic. We are going to win this. We will prevail.” [EcoWatch]
• Smart microgrids provide higher reliability and more efficient operation of distributed generation assets than conventional systems. Siemens is participating in a community energy resiliency grant program in New York State and optimizing electrical generation at a Native American reservation in California. [Justmeans]

NASA’s plot of global temperature anomalies for January 2016. Credit: NASA GISS

• After record heat in 2015, January 2016 is continuing the trend. It was the hottest January on record and Arctic sea ice extent was at a record low level for the third time this year. El Niño has certainly played a role in this latest record, but scientists have concluded that this effect was fairly minor overall. [The Weather Network]

Sunday, February 21:

Credit: Riversimple

• Welsh startup Riversimple unveiled its prototype car. Four in-hub motors use recovery braking to charge supercapacitors that then release electricity back for acceleration. The hydrogen fuel cells don’t power acceleration; they just maintain the car’s speed. As a result, its 1.5-kg tank of hydrogen can carry it 300 miles. [BBC]
• At an event in Colchester, Vermont, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich was asked about climate change. He said, “I know that human beings affect the climate. I know it’s an apostasy in the Republican Party to say that. I guess that’s what I’ve always been – being able to challenge some of the status quo.” [BurlingtonFreePress.com]
• Ford Motor Co dropped its membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In leaving ALEC, Ford joins companies such as Google, Microsoft and others that have concerns about the group’s position denying climate change and other stances they deem to be anti-environmental. [Bloomberg BNA]

Monday, February 22:

New US solar installations by year. GTM graph.

• Figures released by GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association ahead of their scheduled US Solar Market Insight report, which is due out March 9, say the US solar PV industry installed a record 7,286 MW of solar PV in 2015. This was 29.5% of all new capacity, and beat out natural gas. [CleanTechnica]
• Bernie Sanders hasn’t proposed eliminating conventional oil and gas drilling or coal mining on private land, but he believes that fracking, is especially problematic. He wants to halt fracking not just on public land but on private land too. How would he actually do that? He has a list of six things that he could do to stop it. [Grist]
• Americana “big box” stores could host around 62.3 GW of rooftop solar PV capacity, enough to generate enough electricity to provide for the equivalent needs of roughly 7 million US households, according to a report. The stores have about 4.5 billion square feet of space that can be developed. [CleanTechnica]

Tuesday, February 23:

 

Proterra electric bus

• A new analysis of a recent 12-vehicle Proterra electric bus demonstration (put on by Foothill Transit in California) by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory has found that these buses possess an average fuel economy roughly 4 times higher than that of baseline compressed natural gas buses. [CleanTechnica]
• A study published in Nature Climate Change suggests that if the United States reduces emissions from the transportation and electricity sectors in order to meet those targets, 295,000 American lives could be saved by 2030. The study also estimated the near-term economic benefits could be over three times the cost. [IEEE Spectrum]
• The capacity of wind power generation worldwide reached 432.42 GW at the end of 2015, up 17% from a year earlier and surpassing nuclear energy for the first time, according to data released by global industry bodies. The generation capacity of wind farms newly built in 2015 was a record 63.01 GW. [The Japan Times]

Wednesday, February 24:

Chimneys spew pollution in an ailing industrial city in China’s northeast. Mark Henley / Ropi / Zuma Press

• The world’s top coal producer, and the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, will shut down 1,000 coal-fired power plants this year. It’s a move that will simultaneously cool off China’s over-supply of dirty coal and help tackle the country’s air pollution crisis. Deeper cuts are to come. [Mother Jones]

The Crescent Dunes solar project outside of Tonopah, Nevada. Photo: SolarReserve

• SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, which began testing operations last fall, has reached full production. The complex is the first utility-scale project with an integrated energy storage system allowing it to continue generating 24 hours a day. [CanadianManufacturing.com]
• New York’s Public Service Commission said it is speeding up a “rescue plan” to keep the FitzPatrick nuclear complex in upstate New York running, after the power generator said a proposal made last month wouldn’t come in time to save it. The agency said it would offer “expedited financial support.” [Daily News]

2016-02-18 Energy Week

Thursday, February 11:

A coal train enters the Craig Station power plant near Craig, Colo. on Tuesday, June 16, 2015.

• Opinion: Why Colorado Requested A Pause On The Clean Power Plan, But Isn’t Taking It • Colorado regulators say they will press forward on President Barack Obama’s plan to curtail emissions from coal-fired power plants, despite a temporary pause issued by the U.S. Supreme Court for the Clean Power Plan this week. [Colorado Public Radio]
• The Brattle Group study says that the America’s 50 million residential electric water heaters can address bigger challenges such as storing energy from wind farms and solar arrays. The study examined smart technologies focused on water heaters, which use 9% of US household electricity. [Minneapolis Star Tribune]
• A leading source of solar analysis, IHS, published the latest edition of its Solar Deal Tracker this week, in which it finds that the global solar PV pipeline has now exceeded 200 GW, thanks in large part to the extension of the US Investment Tax Credit. Of the PV projects 110 GW are in the US, China, or Brazil. [CleanTechnica]

Friday, February 12:

Golden Eagle. (photo credit: Dave Taylor via Flickr)

• To Minimize Wind Power’s Impact on Birds & Bats, The Dept. of Energy Can Use AWWI As A Model • The Audubon Society says climate change threatens over half of American bird species. The American Wind Wildlife Institute has studied ways to protect wildlife and can be a model. [Natural Resources Defense Council]
• China installed half of all new wind capacity worldwide last year, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. The country added an “astonishing” 30.5 GW to boost installations to 145.1 GW. It overtook the EU, which added a record 6 GW to increase its capacity to 141.6 GW, for the first time. [The Guardian]

Wind farm. Image Credit: Depositphotos

• Nearly three-quarters of major US energy deals made in 2015 were for renewables assets, and nearly three-quarters of the new generation capacity built in 2016 will be renewables, according to a study newly released by the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions. Here are eight trends shaping the change. [Utility Dive]

Saturday, February 13:

Image courtesy of the Earth Policy Institute/Bloomberg

• Opinion: Is This The Best Solar Chart Yet? • Solar energy has been in a boom of late (one that will arguably continue for a long while). One might ask why the technology has found increasing footholds in the global marketplace? Well, the graph below puts it more succinctly than I could, so have a gander. [CleanTechnica]
• In what could reflect a paradigm shift in power generation in India, officials of the state-owned utility NTPC said one reason for low plant load factor at their thermal power stations is due to increased share of clean energy. The plant load factor has declined to 77.8% in 2015 from 79.3% in 2014 and 85% in 2012-13. [Business Standard]
• Infrared video taken Friday confirmed that the Southern California Gas Company has stopped the flow of natural gas leaking from a well at a facility near Los Angeles. SoCalGas said a relief well had “intercepted the base of the leaking well” and operators were pumping fluids to temporarily keep the gas from leaking. [CNN]

Farmer and sons in a dust storm, Oklahoma, 1936. Photo by Arthur Rothstein, 1915-1985. US Farm Security Administration photo. Wikimedia Commons.

• US scientists have modelled how a 1930s-like dustbowl drought might impact agriculture today, and found it to be just as damaging. But the research shows the effects to be very sensitive to temperature, meaning the potential losses would be far worse later this century if Earth’s climate heats up as expected. [BBC]

Sunday, February 14:

Renewable energy is becoming increasingly viable, a trend that could potentially be a game-changer for investors pulling away from fossil fuels. Photograph: Alamy

• Have we reached the tipping point for investing in renewable energy? • Between 2014 and 2015, New York City’s biggest pension fund lost $135 million on fossil fuel holdings. Fossil fuel investments have cost 15 of Australia’s top funds an estimated $5.6 billion. Profitable sustainability is coming of age. [The Guardian]

Monday, February 15:

Increase in earthquakes in Oklahoma to April, 2015, projected through the end of the year. USGS data.

• According to the US Geological Survey, three earthquakes were recorded along the Kansas-Oklahoma border just a day after a 5.1 magnitude earthquake shook northwest Oklahoma. The state’s stronger and more frequent earthquakes have been linked to wastewater disposal associated with fracking. [KSAL]

India and China are cutting coal imports. India’s fell 34%
last year and Chin’a declined 31%. Image: Shutterstock

• Investors in fossil fuels are being warned that they may risk losing their money, because the markets for coal and liquefied natural gas are disappearing. In both cases it is competition from renewables as their costs fall, principally wind and solar power, that is being blamed for the threat. [eco-business.com]
• The Supreme Court put a hold on the Clean Power Plan, but many states are engaged. Colorado, New York, California, Virginia and Washington, and, at least, a dozen more have pledged to continue the work they have already started to come into compliance with the Clean Power plan to combat global warming. [Digital Journal]

Tuesday, February 16:

Installing solar panels in Oregon. Credit Oregon Department of Transportation

• The Oregon House approved a bill that would eliminate the use of coal power in Oregon by 2030 and double the state’s renewable energy standard goal for 2040. The bill was passed, with utility support, under pressure as they are trying to head off ballot measures in the general election in November. [KLCC FM Public Radio]

Whitelee wind farm in Scotland. Author: ms.akr.
License: Creative Commons, Attribution 2.0 Generic

• British demand response specialist Flexitricity Ltd said National Grid has adopted its Footroom service, which can make use of excess wind power. The service will have industrial, commercial and public-sector sites paid to adjust generation or consumption on request, so wind farms need not be shut down. [SeeNews Renewables]
• GTM Research has released its latest solar report, which found that 20 US states are at grid parity today, with 42 expected to reach that milestone by 2020. With a decline in costs of solar PVs and increases in retail electricity rates, the economics of home solar systems have become increasingly attractive. [CleanTechnica]
• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker issued an executive order that prohibits state agencies or departments from developing plans to comply with the Clean Power Plan. Walker argued that the effects of the EPA’s plan would fall heavily on coal-dependent manufacturing states like Wisconsin. [The Daily Cardinal]

Wednesday, February 17:

Colorado solar plant

• Opinion: Clean Power Doesn’t Need a Federal Plan • Last week, the Supreme Court put a stopper on the US Clean Power Plan. From the get-go, the CPP was criticized for being unconstitutional and unnecessary. Well, barring the legal applications of the plan, at least one of those accusations may turn out to be true… [Energy and Capital]
• In Germany and Portugal, a new drop-in biofuel process has emerged which is cost competitive with $30 oil, according to the inventors. The process breaks even with crude oil, on an 10-year amortized basis for capex, at roughly $20.30 per barrel of crude oil (assuming refining costs of $8.66 per barrel). [biofuelsdigest.com]
• Oil prices fell on Tuesday despite Saudi Arabia and Russia agreeing to freeze oil output at January levels if other producers follow suit. The announcement came after ministers from the two nations met in Doha along with their counterparts from Venezuela and Qatar. Brent crude fell 2% to $32.77 a barrel. [BBC]
• A bipartisan group of 17 governors announced a new initiative by their states to advance clean energy, encourage clean transportation, and modernize energy infrastructure. The Governors Accord for a New Energy Future follows a Supreme Court ruling last week to temporarily block the Clean Power Plan. [Environment America]

2016-02-11 Energy Week

Thursday, February 4:

Image via Armando Maynez / Flickr

• According to a statement released by the government-run Costa Rican Institute of Electricity, the country used renewable sources for 99% of its energy in 2015. The small Central American nation used a mix of geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, solar, and biomass energy. That’s fantastic news! [Unicorn Booty]
• Seemingly unrelated events in the last few weeks suggest that coal’s role in India’s future may be far more tenuous than widely portrayed. Courts ruled on pollution, private power companies are dumping coal projects in favour of solar, and Coal India doesn’t know what to do about huge stockpiles of unwanted coal. [End Coal]
• A report from research and consulting firm Synapse Energy Economics examines state-by-state impacts of Clean Power Plan options and found that using strong energy efficiency policies in state plans can produce significant electricity bill savings for consumers while reducing carbon pollution. [Biomass Magazine]
• The Georgia Mountain Community Wind farm announced that its annual energy production exceeded expectations by more than 22%, producing more than 33,000,000 kWh of Vermont-made renewable energy in 2015. This represents enough renewable energy to power more than 5,500 Vermont households. [vtdigger.org]

Friday, February 5:

Our economy is growing; our energy consumption is not.
We can have a healthy economy and consume less at the same time. Credit BNEF

• In a stunning trend with broad implications, the economy has grown significantly since 2007, while electricity consumption has been flat, and total energy demand dropped. The economy has grown 10% since 2007, while primary energy consumption has fallen by 2.4%, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. [ThinkProgress]
• County prosecutors filed a criminal misdemeanor charge against Southern California Gas Co. According to the District Attorney’s Office, SoCalGas is being charged because they allegedly failed to report the leak at Porter Ranch immediately. Meanwhile, the company now also faces a wrongful death lawsuit. [Lawyer Herald]
• According to data just released in the 2016 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook – a project of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, produced for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy – the shift to renewables may be happening a lot faster than the EPA thought that it would less than a year ago. [HeraldNet]

Saturday, February 6:

• Global energy efficiency investment will reach $5.8 trillion by the year 2030, according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Authority. By 2030, yearly energy efficiency investment will total around $385 billion, the report says. The focus will be buildings, manufacturing, and transportation. [Sustainnovate]
• ISO New England’s chief operating officer reported that total capacity is projected to decrease by 396 MW in 2016, but then increase by almost 9.8 GW in the following three years. About 4.1 GW of that total is wind and other renewables. ISO New England’s peak load in January was 19,412 MW. [Platts]

Sunday, February 7:

2015 September Arctic sea extent compared to 1981-2000 average portrayed by yellow line (NASA)

• The ice cover across the Arctic hit a new low throughout January. The Colorado-based National Snow and Ice Data Center tracked the lowest ice extent ever for January. The record-low ice extent was driven by unusually high air temperatures over the Arctic Ocean – more than 6° C (10.8° F) above average. [Nunatsiaq News]
• Does shrinking ice in the Arctic lead to worse snow storms along the East Coast? It’s very possible says leading Arctic researcher Judah Cohen. In Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City, and Boston, at least five of the top 10 snow storms on record have occurred since 1990. [Washington Post]

US Oil Inventories. Source EIA

• The US now has nearly 503 million barrels of commercial crude oil stockpiled, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. It’s the highest level of supply for this time of the year in at least 80 years. Certain key storage locations are now “bumping up against storage and logistical constraints.” [CNN]

Monday, February 8:

Whitelee windfarm in Eaglesham is the UK’s largest onshore windfarm. Picture: John Devlin/TSPL

• Wind power provided almost half of Scotland’s entire energy needs last month, According to WWF Scotland. January had 22 days when the wind generated sufficient power for every home in the country. Wind turbines supplied a total of 1,125,544 MWh to the national grid. [Scotsman]
• The combination of hydropower, wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy will generate more electricity than coal by 2030, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency. Of the renewables the agency predicts will grow, wind power is the largest segment. [Wheeling Intelligencer]

Tuesday, February 9:

Texas wind farm.

• The fourth annual Sustainable Energy in America Factbook highlights the record year for utility-scale and distributed low-carbon electric generation. One of the most significant pieces of the report is the data on prices and decarbonization, which shows that decarbonizing has not led to higher prices. [Greentech Media]
• Green power is cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels and will buck the trend of falling investment in oil and gas as it can offer long-term returns sheltered from political risk, industry analysts say. Oil prices have dropped 75% since mid-2014, leading to predictions of falling petro-chemical investment. [Reuters UK]

Wind power silhouette

• The wind industry has surpassed the hydro industry as the third largest player in the European electricity grid in terms of capacity, and is fast closing the gap on the coal and gas sectors that continue to dominate the continent’s power mix. Wind energy now provides a total of 142 GW of capacity in Europe. [Business Green]
• President Obama said the US would tax each barrel of oil imported or exported, with some of that revenue can be used for transportation. He said, “Some of that revenue can be used for the investments in basic research and technology that’s going to be needed for the energy sources of the future.” [CNSNews.com]

Wednesday, February 10:

The wind is always blowing somewhere. Photo: Andrei Mayatnik via Shutterstock

• A new study suggests we don’t actually need to store power from the wind and sun. Because the wind is always blowing somewhere in the US, and a cloudy day in one city will be sunny elsewhere, researchers suggest we just need a bigger grid, and better power lines that could send energy wherever it’s needed. [Co.Exist]
• Obama’s clean power plan may be on hold, Coal’s fate is not • The US Supreme Court may have put President Barack Obama’s most aggressive plan to curb power-plant emissions on hold, but that’s not going to save coal from a shrinking market, or stop some states and utilities from moving on their own. [Energy Voice]
• The Union of Concerned Scientists released a report giving the history of an Eastern Interconnect working group in 2010 to 2012, which developed research showing the eastern US could cut carbon by 42% and reach 30% renewable energy by 2030. The numbers exceed those required under the Clean Power Plan. [Utility Dive]