EGEB: ‘Carbon capture is total BS’, BEEEEESSS!!, Pension funds warming on solar, more

Global pension funds warm to India’s solar power ambitions – This is the best possible money that solar power can have access to. Trillions of investment dollars are available for long term time frames at agreeable rates due to solar’s average relatively stable returns on investment that pay cash (electricity). There is risk in the commodity price of electricity – but outside of that, once the solar plant is built – it’s going to be there pumping juice for a long time. Pensions and solar go together well.

“Carbon capture is total bullshit” – I’m with Bloomberg on this one. My logic – 1. We’ve been trying to clean coal for almost 200 years, and it is still expensive and we’re still terrible at it. 2. The same challenges that existed in the solar industry 15 years ago – the ability to scale and developing global pipelines on viable technologies – would exist in the carbon capture world. Why would we want to start over when wind/solar/energy storage are coming along so well? 3. I do not trust pumping carbon underground. Just like I am watching earthquakes occur all over the USA due to pumping fluids – when we start needing to maximize profits – we do dumb things. Human nature, let’s just keep the carbon it in the ground, shall we?

BEEEESSSS!! – Solar power with fish, flowers, farms, grazing, buildings, parking lots (above and below), and now with bee farming. A Minnesota county has laws on the books supporting infrastructure integrated phot0voltaics (IIPV) – specifically they want solar farms to plant native flowers and grasses to support declining bee populations. These builders figured out how to get two bee keepers and 15 hives in place – and the revenue from selling honey. I soon expect to see solar powered farming robots underneath solar farms.

Investors snapping up community energy projects, with some selling out in minutes – A smaller project with solar panels on top of a Sydney brewery sold out last year in just nine minutes, through community group Pingala – A long time I tried to get a crowd source solar funding site going, groups like Mosaic are still at it – and really – Community Solar is fundamentally crowd sourcing solar on multiple levels. Any community solar programs in your area?

NERC finds August solar eclipse not likely to affect bulk power system – In case anyone needs evidence of what happened when a solar eclipse marched across Europe – here’s some liveblogging of the event specifically watching the German grid from 2015. The scientists here in the US see no challenges either.

Suzlon Sees Wind Auctions Squeezing Margins as Indian Market Grows – “Due to aggressive auction prices there will be some initial impact on margins for a year but it will unlock a bigger market and I’m very much interested in this opportunity,” Suzlon Chairman Tulsi Tanti – Wind manufacturers see further price falls coming from scale in the Indian market. With China and India scaling up in wind we’re gong to add a lot of companies to the learning curve equation and the price falls that come with it.

China calls Suniva’s trade case an ‘abuse’ of the rules –  The US had already put in place anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures and that with this in mind, the launch of a safeguard investigation “will be [an] abuse of trade remedy measures and over-protection of domestic industries” – Still have no idea how this administration will act toward these types of events, but I do find it interesting that we now China speaking loudly about this action.

Live energy pricing in the tweet below coming from Germany (it was live Saturday night) – predictions of high wind/solar on Sunday drove energy prices below zero Saturday night. Please, in the comments below, give me some suggestions of industries that can benefit from ‘negative’ energy pricing so I know where to put some of my savings account.

Strong wind and solar forecast for Germany drives tomorrow's wholesale power price into negative territory. Buy 24 hrs of power at -€7/MWh. pic.twitter.com/uLiKoPD1YI

— Kees van der Leun  (@Sustainable2050) April 29, 2017

Header image – ‘Huawei 700MW Smart PV plant in Ningxia. 1 axis tracking, Chinese manufacturer.’ Anyone know what’s growing under there?

Considering residential solar? Understand Solar will connect you with local contractors. Tweet me to pick apart quote.

For more electric vehicle, autonomous transport and clean technology news, make sure to follow us on Twitter, Newsletter, RSS or Facebook to get our latest articles