EGEB: US Climate Alliance – 9 states in, 100% renewable grid possible today, $10M to kill Paris, more

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Sempra VP surprises, says 100 percent renewable grid is possible now – “We have a solution now to adjust the intermittency of solar and wind energy that is no longer a technology challenge. Now it is an economic decision,” said Patrick Lee, Sempra Energy vice president for major project controls. “So installing a base load power plant is no longer your only option. You can now look at solar, wind and storage as alternatives, and still be able to manage the reliability of the grid.But today my answer is: The technology has been resolved. How fast do you want to get to 100 percent? That can be done today.”  The gentlemen followed up in a later tweet saying, for now though – we are still dependent on gas until wind/solar/storage scales. Yes, we have the technology – economics will drive our decisions now.

US Climate Alliance – 9 US states have stated that they will meet their requirements of the Paris Agreement, despite pulling the US out of the international agreement. These states represent 14% of US emissions. Of course, California, New York and Washington State were founding members. Citizens – might you consider calling your local representative to let them know of this group? That’d be you doing your civic duty, if you agree of course.

The Republicans who urged Trump to pull out of Paris deal are big oil darlings – Twenty-two senators wrote a letter to the president when he was said to be on the fence about backing out. They received more than $10m from oil, gas and coal companies the past three election cycles – James Inhofe, Oklahoma – John Barrasso, Wyoming – Mitch McConnell, Kentucky – John Cornyn, Texas – Roy Blunt, Missouri – Roger Wicker, Mississippi – Michael Enzi, Wyoming – Mike Crapo, Idaho – Jim Risch, Idaho – Thad Cochran, Mississippi – Mike Rounds, South Dakota – Rand Paul, Kentucky – John Boozman, Arkansas -Richard Shelby, Alabama – Luther Strange, Alabama -Orrin Hatch, Utah – Mike Lee, Utah -Ted Cruz, Texas – David Perdue, Georgia – Thom Tillis, North Carolina – Tim Scott, South Carolina – Pat Roberts, Kansas – These 22 men take money that leads to the death of humans.

Solar energy boom turns to bust for Indian manufacturers – (link via twitter so you can access article) – Chinese companies have gained the most from that increase, accounting for around 85 percent of India’s solar module demand and earning around $2 billion, according to industry data – I get it, the Chinese are pushing so damn hard to dominate the solar industry that their companies are taking over global markets. On the one hand – down with China! Up with Capitalism! on the other hand…Capitalism’s flaw’s are the reason we need China and solar power. As a person who has lost a job once due to the company not being able to compete with Chinese solar panels – long live Chinese solar panels.

Dubai set for world’s cheapest night-time solar power – The lowest bid for the concentrated solar power (CSP) project came in at 9.45 US cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), nearly 40 per cent below the previous world-record low price for electricity generated from this technology – Solar thermal dropping in price like this is amazing. Under 10¢/kWh to deliver clean, renewable, fuel free power 24/7. Some of the solar thermal plants located in the Mojave Desert, USA have been running since the early 1980s.

Published writing from one of our readers – Ryan Trahan – Regulating Toward (In)Security in the U.S. Electricity System – The high level (its a long document) – The US grid has a fundamental responsibility to deliver electricity to all participants in the USA market at a reasonable price. The base benefit that the US gains from a well design grid is security. And a centralized grid – is not secure in time of warfare. (author’s comment –  Electricity delivery on the centralized grids could be interrupted by cyber-hack, akin to the Russian hacks of the 2016 election, without any “warfare” involved at all.  Or, as nearly happened with the shooting of the Metcalfe substation in south San Jose in 2013, a single random shooter could black out Silicon Valley). The policy suggestion that all system should have to include proof that they’re increasing the security of the broader grid led to an interesting phrase: Once market price reflect security externalities, deployment of air-gapped or islanded distributed energy sources… – What would the proper $/kWh cost be of ‘security’ versus the benefit of a broader interconnected grid?

India no new coal for a decade – Experts now say that India not only has no need of any new coal-fired plants for at least a decade, given that existing plants are running below 60 percent of capacity, but that after that it could rely on renewable sources for all its additional power needs – If solar power can be smartly integrated into India’s grid at tens of gigawatts per year for the next decade, and storage can start to take its part, then there might not be a reason to build another coal plant in the soon to be largest country on the planet.

In the UK when solar power peaks in the midday – its natural gas that you see going low. Nuclear stays flat. That’s how a system should be run.

https://twitter.com/BMatB/status/871671088157265923

Header photo of the new Apple Mothership – shot by Dan Winters

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