Visitors Please Note: This blog is maintained to assist in developing a TV show, Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell. The post is put up in incomplete form, and is updated with news until it is completed, usually on Wednesday. The source is geoharvey.wordpress.com.
Within a few days of the last update, the show may be seen, along with older shows, at this link on the BCTV website: Energy Week Series.
Thursday, December 7:
Storage at the Imperial Irrigation District
- Pacific Gas & Electric submitted six energy storage contracts, totaling 165 MW, to the California Public Utilities Commission for approval as part of its efforts to meet the state-mandated goal of adding 580 MW of storage by 2020. If these contracts are approved, PG&E will have already reached 42% of its energy-storage goal. [pv magazine International]
- General Electric Co is planning to cut 12,000 jobs in its power business, with most of the cuts happening outside the US, a person familiar with the matter said. The manufacturer has been hit hard by flagging demand for electricity generated with natural gas, in part due to a shift toward power from renewable sources. [BloombergQuint]
- The Moray Council has backed a development that could transform an abandoned airfield in northern Scotland into one of Europe’s biggest solar farms. Elgin Energy wants to cover the Milltown Airfield with about 200,000 solar panels. Moray’s attraction is due to its long summer days, the result of its being so far north. [Energy Voice]
Friday, December 8:
Early morning commute in California (Rick Patrick, Twitter)
- Wildfires are raging just north of Los Angeles, destroying whole communities just a short drive from the city’s downtown area. The fires consume everything in their path and only go out when they reach the Pacific Ocean. Commuters accustomed to massive traffic jams on the Highway 101 are now forced to run a gauntlet of flames. [CleanTechnica]
- The latest confirmed initiative for power restoration in Puerto Rico is a donation of 6 MW of batteries from AES, which has suggested microgrids and large-scale solar could be the answer to long term stability issues. Other companies including Tesla, Sonnen, and Tabuchi America have made equipment and labor donations. [Energy Storage News]
Coal-fired plant in Germany (Photo: Sascha Steinbach | EPA)
- More than half of the European Union’s 619 coal-fired power stations are losing money, according to a new report from the analysts Carbon Tracker. As a result, the industry’s slow plans for shutdowns will lead to €22 billion ($25.8 billion) in losses by 2030 if the EU fulfills its pledge to tackle climate change, the report warns. [The Guardian]
- Coal accounts for nearly 80% of the power generated by PPL Corp, based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company has issued a climate assessment saying that coal will provide about 10% by mid-century. The decline will be caused by market forces. The company now vows to use more distributed energy and cleaner-burning fuels. [Forbes]
Saturday, December 9:
- Eighteen-year-old Ethan Novek has invented a CO2 capture technology that could capture CO2 at about $10 per metric ton – around 85% less than the industry standard. It works by reacting the exhaust gases at a fossil fuel plant with ammonia. Water and CO2 react with the ammonia to form a salt, which can the be used industrially. [Inhabitat]
Ethan Novek
- Eurelectric represents the interests of 3,500 electric companies all across the European continent on major issues. Its members create more than €200 billion in revenue each year. Its members agreed unanimously to commit to an ambitious program of making all electricity generated in Europe carbon neutral by 2050. It will save them money. [CleanTechnica]
Sunday, December 10:
Thomas fire in Ventura County (Photo: AFP | Getty Images)
- Devastating wildfires fueled by climate change are “the new normal,” California Governor Jerry Brown said. He continued, “We’re facing a new reality in this state,” and said they could happen “every year or every few years.” He made the comments after surveying damage from a 180-square mile fire in Ventura County, north of Los Angeles. [BBC News]
- Energy Secretary Rick Perry proposed subsidizing coal-fired and nuclear power plants to compensate them for the reliable energy they provide to the nation’s grid. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which Perry directed to study the issue, is scheduled to deliver a decision on the proposed rule on Monday, but asked for more time. [Financial Tribune]
Pollution (AP Photo | Andy Wong, File | for the AJC)
- The worst-case predictions regarding the effects of global warming are the most likely to be true, a new study published in Nature has warned. It said that if emissions follow a commonly used business-as-usual scenario, there is a 93% per cent chance that global warming will exceed 4°C by the end of this century. [Atlanta Journal Constitution]
Monday, December 11:
- Months after putting the project on hold, the backers of the Vermont Green Line have pulled the plug on their proposal for a power cable under Lake Champlain. The estimated $650 million project ran afoul of concerns that Vermont’s grid wasn’t prepared to handle the quantity of electricity the cable was slated to carry. [vtdigger.org]
Moraine Lake
- Canada Is Ready To Be a Global Environmental Leader Using Blockchain” • Blockchain technology could not have arrived at a better time. It can enable developing nations to leapfrog developed nations and with the recent quickly falling prices in solar and wind power, a future of renewable power grids is coming fast. [Coinsquare Discover]
- A call to action, signed by some of the world’s most prominent economists, urges wealth fund managers, professional financiers, and all investors to stop investing in businesses that extract, process, distribute, manufacture, and sell fossil fuel products, including any form of oil, gas, or coal, to generate power. [Sputnik International]
Tuesday, December 12:
Black-legged kittiwake (Photo: Ed Marshall)
- Birds are increasingly threatened. Overfishing and changing sea temperatures are pushing seabirds to the brink of extinction, new data on the world’s birds shows. Birds that are now globally threatened include the kittiwake and the Atlantic puffin. And on land, the Snowy Owl is struggling to find prey as Arctic ice melts, say conservation groups. [BBC]
- Here’s another good news item that will certainly bother EV critics. Though most people seem not to know it, the batteries that power EVs keep getting cheaper. The average price of a lithium-ion battery pack is down to $209/kWh and the prices are set to fall below $100/kWh by 2025, according to a Bloomberg New Energy Finance survey. [CleanTechnica]
Wednesday, December 13:
World’s biggest floating solar project
- The world is quickly abandoning coal. But that’s not the end of the road for coal mines. In many countries they’re coming back to life as solar farms. The world’s biggest floating solar project began operating in the eastern Chinese city of Huainan, which accounted for nearly 20% of the country’s coal reserves in a 2008 estimate. [Quartz]
- In what amounts to the largest order yet for the Tesla Semi Truck, PepsiCo has placed a pre-order for 100 units. The order is twice as exactly large as the previous largest order, in which Sysco ordered 50 units. The number of reservations taken to date, according to a tally that Reuters is maintaining, is now at least 276. [CleanTechnica]
Belshazzar’s Feast (Rembrandt, 1635)
- “A Hand Writing on the Wall for Natural Gas” • September of 2016 was the last month in which US natural gas generation exceeded what it had been for the same month of the previous year. Since September 2016, every single month has seen a decline for electricity generation from natural gas, which has dropped 10% overall. [CleanTechnica]
Energy Week with George Harvey and Tom Finnell 