2016-05-05 Energy Week

Thursday, April 28:

Wind turbine in Hull, Massachusetts. Photo by Fish Cop, placed in the public domain by the author. Wikimedia Commons.

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its monthly Energy Infrastructure Update yesterday, April 27. In the first quarter of this year, 98.6% of all new electric capacity additions in the US have been renewable. This does not include small solar power additions. [Green Energy Times]
• The Vermont House gave unanimous approval to S230, a bill that aims to give towns a say over where renewable energy projects are sited. While some Vermonters hoped the Legislature would let towns make siting decisions, the bill involves local, regional and state planners. [Vermont Biz]
• With solar power to equal the output of the Seabrook nuclear plant, along with sufficient efficiency programs and demand response, New England should have more than enough electricity resources to meet demand this summer, even during a heat wave, according to ISO New England. [Concord Monitor]

Friday, April 29:

A small producer in Germany. Photo by Molgreen. CC BY-SA 4.0 international. Wikimedia Commons.

• Next Kraftwerke, a German virtual power plant operator, aggregates small producers and sells their output in lucrative “balancing” markets. The firm stands to place more than 10 TWh on power exchanges this year, up from 9 TWh in 2015 and 5.3 TWh in 2014. [Reuters]
• “The Untold Grassroots History of Iowa’s Clean Energy Transformation” • In 2006, 75% of Iowa’s electricity already came from coal and more coal was planned. Now, Iowa-based utility MidAmerican says it will be 85% wind power by 2020, without raising electricity rates. [Huffington Post]

Canberra Lake George wind farm

• The Australian Capital Territory government, which had a 90% renewable energy target by 2020, said it will in fact get 100% of its electricity from renewable energy by that date. ACT’s climate change minister said the switch to 100% renewables is achievable and affordable. [RenewEconomy]

Saturday, April 30:

A burned out house after a natural gas explosion in Salem Township, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

• A 36-inch natural gas pipeline 30 miles east of Pittsburgh exploded. One man got burns as he ran for his life. Towering trees were reduced to blackened poles and siding melted off buildings. A quarter-mile evacuation zone was established. The cause is unknown. [Staunton News Leader]
• At present, 47% of conservative Republicans now believe climate change is happening. That’s according to a national survey released this week by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication. [CNN]

Wind power plants. Credit Wikimedia Commons.

• If Nebraska switches from coal to wind energy, it would save the state almost two billion gallons of water a year, according to the Center for Rural Affairs. Nebraska currently ranks fourth in the nation for wind energy potential and 13th for solar power potential, but relies heavily on coal. [HPPR]

Sunday, May 1:

Offshore wind

• Global wind power installations are estimated to more than double in the next five years according to a new study, which also spotlights the record global wind growth in 2015, led by China and Germany. Prices continue to decrease and renewable energy is a priority for many countries. [The Climate Group]
• Greentech Media notes that an average gross cost of a solar energy system in Texas is the lowest in the country, down to $3.21 per watt, while the national average cost is $3.69 per watt. This is based on data in EnergySage’s Second Solar Marketplace Intel Report. [CleanTechnica]

Monday, May 2:

Tesla Model 3

• “Tesla Model 3 Is Changing Auto History” • In its first week alone, the Tesla had amassed, “about $14 billion in implied future sales, making this the single biggest one-week launch of any product ever.” And it’s growing. Last week, Tesla had almost 400,000 orders for the Model 3. [CleanTechnica]

Offshore oil. Nexen image.

• The price per barrel of global benchmark Brent Crude ended April just above $47. Since dipping briefly below $30 in January, it has risen by nearly two-thirds. That sounds a lot. And it is. But it’s worth remembering that the price is still down by 30% on this time last year, and 60% on June 2014. [BBC News]
• Dubai’s tender for the right to build the 800-MW phase III of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar complex has attracted a bid of just $29.90 (€26) per MWh. The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority is now evaluating a total of five bids. The winner is to be announced in June. [SeeNews Renewables]

Tuesday, May 3:

A pre-dawn take-off for Solar Impulse from Moffett Airfield. Solar Impulse photo.

• Solar Impulse, the zero-fuel airplane, has flown the first leg across the continental US in its attempt to fly around the world. It left Mountain View, California, at dawn on Monday and landed 16 hours later in Goodyear, Arizona. It was the 10th leg of its round the world quest. [BBC]
• Solar power in New Hampshire cleared a major hurdle Monday after Governor Maggie Hassan signed a bill into law that doubles the state cap for net metering from 50 MW to 100 MW. Net metering is an incentive that lets people sell their excess solar energy back into the grid. [Concord Monitor]

Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg

• Lawmakers in Massachusetts are drafting a bill that would jump-start the offshore wind industry. The energy bill is expected to require utilities to purchase power from offshore wind farms, according to Representative Thomas Golden, a Democrat, whose party controls the legislature. [Bloomberg]

Wind turbines in Oklahoma. Photo by the US Geological Survey. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

• Oklahoma is the latest state to get into the game on community solar. Tri-County Electric Co-op, headquartered in Hooker, dedicated the first community solar project in the state on April 26. TCEC members pay a one-time subscription fee of $340 per share to buy into the project. [Electric Co-op Today]

Wednesday, May 4:

• According to new information from IHS Inc of Englewood, Colorado, Europe recently reached an important solar energy milestone, installing 100 GW of grid-connected PV power. PV is one of the most competitive forms of energy generation in Europe today. [solarserver.com]

The Farr wind farm in Scotland (Siemens photo)

• Scottish wind power jumped 15% in April 2016 from April 2015, putting nearly 700,000 MWh onto the national grid. Figures highlighted by WWF Scotland showed that the country’s turbines generated enough to meet, on average, the electrical needs of 79% of Scottish households. [reNews]
• “Largest Civil Disobedience in History of the Environmental Movement Begins Today” • Starting today, a global wave of peaceful direct actions lasting for 12 days will take place across six continents targeting the world’s most dangerous fossil fuel projects, under the banner of Break Free. [EcoWatch]

2016-04-28 Energy Week

Thursday, April 21:

• Work on the controversial Northeast Energy Direct pipeline has been suspended by energy giant Kinder Morgan. A company statement blamed the suspension on “inadequate capacity commitments from prospective customers.” The project’s cost was estimated at $3.3 billion. [The Recorder]

A wind farm in Marshalltown, Iowa. Photographer: Timothy Fadek/Bloomberg

• When world leaders gather in New York on Friday to sign the Paris climate accord, they will do so against a changing backdrop. As the cost of wind and solar power has plummeted, the solid consensus against alternative energy in the US Republican Party has begun to crack. [Bloomberg]
• The Senate passed a far-reaching energy bill Wednesday that reflects significant changes in US oil and natural gas production and boosts alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power. The Senate passed its first ambitious energy bill in nearly a decade on a vote of 85-12. [Farmington Daily Times]

San Francisco. CC BY 2.0 Germán Poo-Caamaño

• San Francisco just took a big step toward its goal of powering the city with 100% renewable electricity by 2025 with the passage of a bill that will require new residential and commercial buildings to include rooftop solar, either solar electric or solar water heating. [Treehugger]
• Over half of all Americans are exposed to unhealthy levels of either ozone or particulate pollution, putting them at risk for premature death and other serious health effects, including lung cancer, asthma attacks and developmental harm, according to the American Lung Association. [InsideClimate News]

Baseload power plant. National Park Service photo. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

• Opinion: Inflexible baseload power is just what we don’t need • Amory Lovins is absolutely right. It is time to recognize that inflexible baseload power is a dinosaur and a fallacy. We are quickly moving to a more democratic system involving small-scale generators and thousands of individuals. [Financial Times]

Friday, April 22:

• SunEdison, once the fastest-growing US renewable energy company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after a short-lived but unsustainable binge of debt-fueled acquisitions. The company said it had assets of $20.7 billion and liabilities of $16.1 billion as of September 30. [Yahoo News]

Deforested landscape for tea cultivation in Malaysia. Photo by Myloismylife – Loke Seng Hon. CC BY-SA 3.o unported. Wikimedia Commons

• “Earth Day: We’re not as doomed as you think” • There are plenty of reasons to be scared about the future: melting glaciers, intensifying heat waves, vanishing rainforests, falling temperature records, bleached out coral, and kids in China don’t know the sky is blue. But it’s not the full picture. [CNN]

Saturday, April 23:

Signing the Paris Agreement is a critical step toward saving the environment. Mokhammad Edliadi CIFOR

• More than 170 nations attended the signing ceremony of the Paris Climate Agreement at the UN. For the Agreement to enter into full force, at least 55 nations comprising 55% of man-made greenhouse gas emissions must ratify it. [Forests News, Center for International Forestry Research]

Lawrence Orsini, founder the company installing the Brooklyn Microgrid project. Credit: Image courtesy of Sasha Santiago

• The Brooklyn Microgrid will operate as a backup option during storms, cyber attacks and other disruptions. But in the long term the infrastructure being installed could set participants on a path to fully owning the electricity their community generates, giving them their own power. [Scientific American]
• There’s some great news out of the Energy Information Administration: carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity sector – our country’s largest source of the pollution that’s driving climate change – fell significantly in 2015, to their lowest levels since 1993. [Natural Resources Defense Council]
• The Hinkley Point C nuclear plant has been hit by more delays. EDF, the French energy company promoting the £18-billion reactor scheme, said there would be no final investment decision at least till the summer. Greenpeace said the project is “coming to a grinding halt.” [The Guardian]

Sunday, April 24:

Solar Impulse 2 flew holding patterns for some hours above San Francisco before landing.

• Operating entirely on solar power and batteries in a flight from Hawaii, Solar Impulse 2 touched down in Mountain View, California, on April 23, just before midnight. The plane had taken off on April 21, resuming a journey that had stalled on the island of Oahu for almost 10 months. [CNN]
• Jeremy Buckingham, a member of the New South Wales parliament’s upper house, lit the surface of the Condamine River with a barbecue lighter to demonstrate the dangers of fracking. He posted a video on his Facebook page on Friday. By Sunday it had 2.2 million views. [The Guardian]

Monday, April 25:

• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recently announced that the amount of solar power installed across the city has tripled since the beginning of 2014. Now, he has launched Solarize NYC, a new citywide program designed to further increase access to solar through community group purchasing campaigns over the next nine years. [Solar Industry]
• An extensive new scientific analysis published in Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Energy & Environment says that proved conventional oil reserves as detailed in industry sources are likely “overstated” by half. The author is a former chief economist at Royal Dutch/Shell Group. [Middle East Eye]

Indian transmission lines. Photo: Indranil Bhoumik/Mint

• India’s Union power ministry estimates India’s electricity demand in the 2017-22 period to be 20% less than what was originally estimated, thanks to new energy efficiency targets and power-saving devices. Estimates demand in 2022 have been reduced from 298 GW to 239 GW. [Livemint]

Tuesday, April 26:

Candles were lit at a ceremony in Slavutych, a town built to re-house workers who lived near the nuclear plant.

• Ukraine is holding commemorations to mark the 30th anniversary of the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl. The UN-backed Chernobyl Forum estimated up to 9,000 people could eventually die from radiation exposure, although Greenpeace claims the figure could be as high as 93,000. [BBC]
• EDF has again pushed back the date for making a decision on the 3,200-MW Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project. The decision at this point will not be made earlier than September, according to French media reports. [Nuclear Street – Nuclear Power Plant News, Jobs, and Careers]

Wednesday, April 27:

Electricity Minister Luis Motta looks at the massive Guri Dam, virtually dry because of the drought. Reuters photo.

Venezuela’s government has imposed a two-day working week for public sector workers as a temporary measure to help it overcome a serious energy crisis. Venezuela is in the middle of a major drought, which has dramatically reduced water levels at its main hydroelectric dam. [BBC]

“Coal for water: crisis incoming”• The world’s rapidly dwindling freshwater resources could be further depleted if plans for hundreds of new coal power plants worldwide go ahead, threatening severe drought and competition, according to a new Greenpeace International report. [The Phuket News]

 

2016-04-21 Energy Week

Thursday, April 14:

Wind turbine in Toksook Bay, Alaska. Photo by energy.gov. Public domain. Wikimedia Commons.

• The University of Guam and University of Alaska Fairbanks announced a broad partnership for climate change and energy generation. This took place at a collaborative energy workshop at the 7th Regional Island Sustainability Conference at the Lotte Hotel Guam in Tumon. [The Guam Daily Post]
• The UK’s solar panels have generated more electricity than coal in a full day for the first time ever, Carbon Brief analysis shows. On Saturday 9 April, solar generated 29 GWh of electricity, 4% of the total used that day. Coal generated 21 GWh, which was 3% of demand. [Carbon Brief]
• Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private sector coal miner, announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Its entire industry is reeling from low production and demand, and facing an upsurge in both gas and renewable energy electricity generation. [CleanTechnica]

Friday, April 15:

The project would see a converter station built at Bicker in Lincolnshire. Geograph / Richard Humphrey

• Plans for a 472-mile (760 km) electricity cable between the UK and Denmark have gone out to public consultation. If approved, the €2-billion ($2.25-billion) “Viking Link,” from Bicker Fen, Lincolnshire to Revsing, would enable import and export of power with mainland Europe. [BBC News]
• MidAmerican Energy Company, based in Des Moines, announced plans to spend $3.6 billion on a wind turbine operation that would generate enough energy to power about 800,000 Iowa homes. Officials called the effort the largest economic development project in state history. [The Daily Nonpareil]
• Entergy will refuel its 728-MW Pilgrim nuclear reactor in 2017 and shut it down on May 31, 2019. Entergy had been considering shutting the unit as early as the spring of 2017, because the unit is losing about $40 million annually, but it has power contracts through May 31, 2019. [Platts]

Saturday, April 16:

Franz Josef Fjord, glacier, Greenland. Jerzy Strzelecki. CC BY-SA 3.0 unported. Wikimedia Commons

• Greenland’s massive ice sheet has started its annual summer melt earlier than ever before, according to stunned scientists who said they had to recheck their calculations before releasing the results. The previous earliest dates were all later by weeks, in May. [CNN]

Many of those who came here to work in North Dakota’s oil industry have now gone home.

• With the development of fracking, the former backwater of Williston, North Dakota was transformed into the unofficial capital of the energy renaissance. Its economic growth was staggering. Now, many workers have packed their bags and gone home. Williston has become a ghost town. [BBC]
• Fifteen years after blackouts swept the state, a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission judge has found that a division of Shell Oil engaged in fraud and market manipulation during California’s energy crisis. The tentative decision holds Shell and Iberdrola liable for $1.1 billion. [SFGate]

Sunday, April 17:

A Great Northern Loon on a nest in Maine. Photo by Dana Moos. CC BY-SA 2.o generic. Wikimedia Commons.

• Last summer, researchers found the first ever case of a loon that died of avian malaria in New England, on Umbagog Lake on the border of New Hampshire and Maine. Other birds in the area are infected. With climate change, the parasite appears to be moving north. [Barre Montpelier Times Argus]

Monday, April 18:

Santa Ana, Costa-Rica Wind Turbines. Photo sites.psu.edu

• Costa Rica got 97.14% of it electricity from renewable sources in the first quarter of the year, according to the Central Nacional de Control de Energia (National Energy Control Centre). Hydro electric produced 65.2%, followed by wind with 15.6% and geothermal with 13.7% [Q Costa Rica News]
• The world can wean itself from fossil fuels in as little as a decade, with effort. Europe moved from wood to coal in Europe in 96 to 160 years, electricity took 47 to 69 years to become mainstream. But Ontario completed a shift away from coal between 2003 and 2014. [International Business Times]
• A meeting of the world’s leading oil exporters to discuss capping production has ended without agreement. Members wanted a deal that would freeze output and help stem the plunge in crude prices over the past 18 months, but they concluded that they need more time to consult. [BBC]

Tuesday, April 19:

The battery system in Salinas would consist of about 6400 Aquion batteries. Each occupies slightly more than one square foot of floor space. Image credit Aquion

• A 1.25-MWh Aquion aqueous hybrid-ion battery has just been commissioned to support a 16-MW Puerto Rican solar power installation. The 16-MW solar power plant is located in Salinas, and the Aquion battery will generate 100% of the electricity used to operate it at night. [CleanTechnica]
• The Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law says it can show the petroleum industry has been obscuring data on climate change for seventy years. By combing through documents, it traced the industry’s coordinated deception back to a 1946 meeting in Los Angeles. [CleanTechnica]
• The lower house of the Dutch parliament passed a motion that would ban the sales of non-electric cars by 2025. The motion still needs to pass the Senate to become binding, but if it does, it would mean that anyone in the country looking to buy a new car would have to buy electric. [ThinkProgress]

Wednesday, April 20:

 

Sandbank substation. Bladt Industries photo

• Bladt Industries has loaded out the offshore substation for the 288-MW Sandbank offshore wind farm in the German North Sea. The substation and its jacket foundation are in Aalborg on the barge AMT Commander, ready to sail to the construction site some 90 km west of the island of Sylt. [reNews]
• Siemens AG is building a plant near Oxford, England, that makes ammonia by electrolysis instead of through the traditional reaction fed by fossil fuels. If fed by idled renewable power plants, the process would make emissions-free fertilizer used by farmers everywhere. [Bloomberg]
• Mitsubishi Motors has admitted falsifying fuel economy test data for more than 600,000 vehicles. The inaccurate tests involved 157,000 of its own brand light passenger cars and 468,000 vehicles produced for Nissan. The problem was uncovered after Nissan pointed out inconsistencies in emissions data. [BBC]

2016-04-14 Energy Week

Thursday, April 7:

Solar panels on the roof of Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Headquarters, San Diego. US Navy photo by Rick Naystatt. Public Domain. Wikimedia Commons.

• Sixty-four major American cities are now home to almost as much solar capacity as the entire country had at the end of 2010, according to analysis that ranks America’s major cities for their solar power. Los Angeles, San Diego, and Phoenix topped the list for most solar power. [Environment America]

Investment in renewables is outpacing fossil fuel investment by a significant margin. Photo: Supplied

• Opinion: Wind and solar are crushing fossil fuels • Recent auctions in Mexico and Morocco ended with winning bids that show solar and wind will soon be least expensive sources, worldwide, said Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board for Bloomberg New Energy Finance. [Sydney Morning Herald]
• Since 2000, more than 20 countries have successfully curbed greenhouse gas emissions while boosting their gross domestic product, according to World Resources Institute analyst Nate Aden. No single trend has driven GDP-GHG decoupling across all countries. [CleanTechnica]

Friday, April 8:

15 kW Solar array at Canterbury Municipal Building Canterbury New Hampshire. Photo by SayCheeeeeese. CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Wikimedia Commons.

• The New Hampshire Senate agreed to double the amount of electricity solar panel owners may sell to utilities while telling regulators to develop a system that stops cost-shifting to other electric customers. The bill increases a net metering cap from 50 to 100 MW. [The Union Leader]
• Uruguay reduced power generation costs by 52% between 2013 and this year, saving $500 million at a time when demand for electricity continued to grow. According to figures released last month, 56% of Uruguay’s electricity now comes from renewable sources. [Latin American Herald Tribune]

Saturday, April 9:

Ghost trees have fallen victim to salt water intrusion. Photo by William Widmer / Redux for CNN

• Opinion: ‘There’s no more land’ • A football field sized amount of land, on average, falls into the Gulf each hour. Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, was once about the size of Manhattan. Now, it’s about a third of Central Park. The coastal island has lost 98% of its land since 1955. [CNN]
• French energy minister Ségolène Royal said postponing the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project is still a possibility. She said the project must not be allowed to drain funds away from planned investments in renewable energy to bring France towards its 40% green power target. [The Ecologist]
• Analysis by Vote Solar and the US Solar Energy Industries Association shows that inaction on net metering caps and the Solar Renewable Energy Credit program in Massachusetts has halted construction on more than 500 separate solar projects valued at a total of $617 million. [CleanTechnica]

Sunday, April 10:

Wind turbines in Minnesota

• A report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says states with renewable portfolio standards have been highly successful at meeting their targets, with a handful of states setting higher targets within the past year while adding an average of 1.3% to customer bills. [Midwest Energy News]
• University of Washington researchers have developed technology that enables sensors and small electronics to be entirely powered wirelessly from TV, radio, cell phone, and Wi-Fi signals. The miniature devices don’t require a battery or any wiring because energy in the signals. [OilPrice.com]

Crews working to stop the natural gas leak in Aliso Canyon in December. Musgrove / AP

• Southern California’s reliance on natural gas has grown much more clear. Utilities are warning of possible blackouts this summer after the massive Aliso Canyon methane leak took the region’s largest gas storage field offline. Blackouts underscore the true meaning of fossil fuel dependence. [OCRegister]
• The Vermont Public Service Board is currently revising the net metering program. The PSB must design a revised program with input from impacted parties and the public. But the proposed revisions may make net metering much more difficult in Vermont. [Green Energy Times]

Monday, April 11:

Whalley Community Hydro, in Lancashire

• UK electricity customers are coming together to take control of how they use and pay for power. Energy Local clubs, set up as community benefit societies or community interest companies, aim to reduce bills for consumers and connect them with locally owned renewable generators. [Co-operative News]

Wind turbines on prairie, courtesy of Theodore Scott, via Flickr

• Opinion: The Mystery of Wind Energy in Texas • Texas politicians fiercely deny the scientific validity of climate change and the state is home to the headquarters of such companies as Exxon Mobile and ConocoPhillips. But Texas leads the US in installed wind capacity. How did this paradox occur? [Law Street Media]

The youth plaintiffs after the hearing on March 9 in Eugene, Oregon. Photo credit: Our Children’s Trust

• US Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin of the Federal District Court in Eugene, Oregon, ruled Friday against the motion to dismiss brought by the fossil fuel industry and federal government. Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein call the case the “most important lawsuit on the planet right now.” [EcoWatch]

Tuesday, April 12:

Changes attributable to more accurate roof surveys

• Earlier this year, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a new estimate of rooftop solar potential, updating the 2008 energy atlas, Energy Self-Reliant States. New maps show much more potential to get our electricity from solar on nearby buildings than we thought. [CleanTechnica]
• January 2016 was the most anomalously hot month on record, going by NASA’s temperature figures. Now it appears that February 2016 already beat the record, with an anomaly (over the pre-industrial average) of somewhere between 1.15° C and 1.4° C during the month. [CleanTechnica]
• Lawmakers will soon get a report on whether Vermont should purchase a series of hydroelectric dams along the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers. In the meantime, they’re discovering that the next owners of the dams will be under heavy pressure to address a range of environmental concerns. [Valley News]

Wednesday, April 13:

Giant Vestas wind turbine blades are loaded on a train awaiting delivery at the plant on Tuesday. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

• Colorado wind power is rising with 1,880 huge turbines erected across the prairie. It has reached the point where the wind turbines generated 67% of Xcel Energy’s Colorado-made electricity one morning in November and 54% for two 24-hour periods in October, feats that are unmatched. [The Denver Post]

Microgrid construction © Powerhive

• Opinion: Powerhive is delivering prepaid solar microgrids to rural villages • The next clean energy step for the developing world might be solar-powered microgrids, such as Powerhive is developing. These systems can deliver clean energy to remote villages of as few as 200 people. [Treehugger]
• Wondering how prepared your state is for upcoming changes in climate? If you’re in Texas, you might be in for trouble. This week, Climate Central unveiled the first-ever national analysis of state-level preparedness for climate change-driven, weather-related threats. [CleanTechnica]

2016-04-07 Energy Week

Thursday, March 31:

From the Environment America Research & Policy Center

• This chart shows the United States’ mind-blowing clean energy potential • The United States uses about 3.7 million GWh of electricity each year. The next time someone tries to make the argument that 100 percent renewable energy is out of reach for the U.S., show them this image: [Grist]
• Clear Skies From Wind Power • Over 17 million Americans have asthma. Every year it is responsible for more than 10 million doctor visits and 1.8 million trips to the emergency room. Health professionals tell us one of the biggest triggers for an asthma attack is air pollution. [Huffington Post]
• It might seem like a bad April Fool’s joke, but Plant Vogtle is no laughing matter to Georgia Power customers. They have already paid more than $1.4 billion for reactors that won’t be operational until 2020 or 2021. The first was supposed to be operational on April 1, 2016. [Creative Loafing Atlanta]

Friday, April 1:

• A total of 57.7% of electricity consumed in Scotland was renewably generated last year, up 7.9 percentage points on 2014, according to provisional UK government statistics. Scottish politicians and green groups hailed the figure, but warned further progress would be hindered by UK policy. [Energy Voice]
• According to new figures published by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change, 2015 saw renewable energy generate a record 24.7% of the country’s electricity, an increase of 5.6% on 2014 numbers. As a result, electricity bills across the country are falling. [CleanTechnica]
• Ohio state regulators approved a version of FirstEnergy’s request to have customers subsidize continued operations of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant and the coal-fired WH Sammis plant. Customers will be forced to buy power from the old plants even when cheaper power is available. [cleveland.com]

Saturday, April 2:

Tesla Motors unveils the Model 3 on Thursday at the Tesla Motors design studio in Hawthorne, Calif. (Justin Prichard, The Associated Press)

• Demand for the lower-priced electric Tesla Model 3 surprised even the company’s CEO Friday as 198,000 people plunked down $1,000 deposits. Tesla had secured about 135,000 reservations on Thursday, the first day of ordering. The car won’t go on sale for at least another year. [Denver Post]
• Technology companies Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon filed a joint amicus brief in a federal Court of Appeals to support the Environmental Protection Agency as it defends its signature Clean Power Plan against a challenge by industry groups and more than half of US states. [eNCA]
• The State Grid, the company running China’s power grid, is proposing a $50 trillion global electricity network to tackle pollution and climate change. If it goes ahead the network would use advanced renewable solar and wind technology and be operating by 2050. [RT]

Sunday, April 3:

Micro-CSP collectors on the Big Island of Hawaii. Photo by Xklaim. CC BY-SA 3.0 unported. Wikimedia Commons.

• Hawaiian Electric Companies submitted a revised power plan to the Hawai’i Public Utilities Commission to get to 100% renewable energy in 30 years. The company would use a broad mix of solar energy sources, onshore and offshore wind, hydropower, and geothermal. [Big Island Now]

Monday, April 4:

Plug’n Drive, Ontario. CC BY-SA 2.o. Wikimedia Commons

• Ontario’s challenge is to have enough power for all the new electric cars • When Ontario’s power planners look down the road, they see electric vehicles coming at them. They just might be coming a little faster now than even the forecasters imagined. [London Free Press]

A giant dredging machine at work in the brown coal mine at Loy Yang in the Latrobe Valley. Photo: John Woudstra

• More than 300 doctors and other medical professionals have signed an open letter demanding the government of the Australian state of Victoria develop a plan to retire the Latrobe Valley’s brown coal power plants because of the health damage they cause in the local community. [The Age]
• In the UK, g2 Energy completed work on 47 large scale solar farms totalling 356.4 MW in the six months leading up to closure of the Renewables Obligation on 31 March. The year is the fifth running that it has connected 100% of its contracted renewable energy projects on time. [Solar Power Portal]

Tuesday, April 5:

Solar PVs in Hawaii. Image: Renewable Energy Services Facebook page

• Hawaii’s main utility, HECO, says smart grid, demand response, and storage technologies will help Hawaii reach 100% renewables by 2045. A plan submitted to the regulator shows how the state can continue to steer a course to meet its ambitious “100% renewable energy-powered” target. [PV-Tech]
• Continued operation of the “decaying” 40-year-old Indian Point nuclear power plant up the Hudson River from New York City “makes no sense,” according to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. The plant is within 50 miles of the homes of 20 million residents. [RT]
• A report by the UK’s Intergenerational Foundation forecast that the country could save £39.9 billion ($56.7 billion) over the next 35 years if government steered the estimated £24 billion ($34 billion) required to build and run the Hinkley Point nuclear plant towards solar PV investment instead. [pv magazine]

Image: Wagenborg

• Dutch shipping company Wagenborg has set sail with the topside for the Horns Rev 3 offshore wind substation ahead of installation off Denmark. A pair of vessels left Schiedam with the HSM-built structure, which will export power from Vattenfall’s 400-MW offshore wind farm. [reNews]

Wednesday, April 6:

• Utility regulators announced that Southern California could face 14 days of rolling blackouts if the Southern California Gas Co’s Aliso Canyon energy facility above Porter Ranch remains depleted. The warning is the latest reverberation from the largest natural gas leak in US history. [Press-Enterprise]

Gov. Peter Shumlin speaks, flanked by (l-r) House Speaker Shap Smith, Senate Pro Tem John Campbell, and Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson. Nancy Remsen

• Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin and the leaders of the House and Senate agreed Tuesday that the state should consider purchasing the hydroelectric dams on the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers. Their owner, TransCanada, has announced it wants to sell 13 dams. [Seven Days]
• New York State’s first community choice aggregation under Governor Cuomo’s watch, is now expected to start supplying customers with electricity on May 1, 2016. Of the 20 participating Sustainable Westchester communities, 14 opted for 100% green energy as a default. [CleanTechnica]
• The Co-op Power renewable energy cooperative awaiting startup of its Northeast Biodiesel plant at the Greenfield Industrial Park has received a long-delayed interconnection agreement for another project at the same site, a 595-kW community-shared solar project. [The Recorder]