Pew Research Center has released the most recent results of their yearly survey asking Americans their opinions on energy development.  In it, a large majority of Americans – 65% – give priority to developing alternative energy over fossil fuels.  Less than half as many – 27% – think that we should be expanding production of oil, coal and natural gas. The number of Americans supporting alternative energy in the survey has been consistently high since Pew started asking this question, and has been increasing since 2013. expand full story

After seven years of development and more than a year of construction, energy development group DeepwaterWind announced that the United States’ very first offshore wind farm, the Block Island Wind Farm in Rhode Island, is fully operational, and is now supplying electricity to the New England region’s power grid. The activation of the wind farm marks the first time that Block Island will be connected to New England’s power grid, and the first time the island will have access to clean, renewable energy.

The Block Island Wind Farm, which consists of five 6-megawatt wind turbines, is located 3.8 miles offshore and is expected to produce a total of 125,000 megawatt hours annually. Though small compared to European projects, the wind farm represents an important milestone both for DeepwaterWind and for the US in general.

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As I reported on the new offshore wind strategy by the United States yesterday, Scotland was busy welcoming the beginning phase of the world’s first, and largest underwater tidal energy farm which will be placed off the north coast of Scotland. The first out of the four planned turbines sits at a height of 49 ft, 53 ft in diameter and over 40,000 lbs with a capacity of 1.5 megawatts (MW).

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The Obama administration unveiled their gargantuan National Offshore Wind Strategy last Friday.  If executed, this joint plan by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of the Interior (DOI) could possibly output 7,200 terawatt-hours a year, which would be enough to provide “nearly double the total electric generation of the United States in 2015.” expand full story

On Sunday, Scotland produced 106% of its electricity needs -over a 24 hour period – via wind farms. Scotland joins a select group of countries that have had peak moments (or days/months/forever) when their electricity needs comes from non-polluting renewable energy. Iceland runs completely on hydroelectric and geothermal, Costa Rica ran for 75 straight days in 2015, Portugal ran for four days, Denmark generated 140% of their demand, Germany broke 95% for a few moments and there are many other countries with wonderful clean energy achievements. With places like Hawaii aiming for 100%, Rhode Island building its first off shore wind farm and the US Department of energy readying the mainland’s grid to be able to handle 100% – we will see reports like this proliferate in the future.

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The wind is always blowing somewhere, and now Rhode Island – the smallest state, has become the first to install offshore wind power in the USA. Deepwater Wind is installing five 6-megawatt wind turbines built by GE that have 80 meter long blades.

The project was first proposed seven years ago – while nearby competing projects in Massachusetts, proposed 13 years ago, still haven’t gotten a start (though it looks hopeful something will happen). The project will deliver its electricity to Block Island, a popular vacation spot where homeowners sometimes pay greater than $0.40/kWh (over double the national average) or burn diesel fuel. Deepwater Wind received $290M in financing last year and signed a 20 year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with National Grid to purchase the wind energy, the power company that serves the entire state of Rhode Island (and Block Island). The coastline of Rhode Island and Massachusetts have some of the best wind resources in the USA.

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GreentechMedia did the work to determine “Solar Made Up 64% of New Electric Generating Capacity in the US in Q1 2016.” This first quarter is part a potential 119% growth in the solar industry in 2016 – greater than $30 billion in revenue. And these announcements are on top of many other recent solar proclamations – 1,000,000 rooftops, record low pricing, leadership in jobs count and growth, whole countries running on renewables and more. With the Earth setting record warm months, every single month, its good that solar power is becoming sexy – but can we keep up the pace long enough to win the war?

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According to Zero.ong, and brought to our attention by SolarCrunch, Portugal ran on renewable energy alone for 4 straight days last week. This 100% was preceded by more than 70 percent of its electricity from renewable sources of energy during the first quarter of 2013, and 63% for all of 2014. Portugal stopped burning coal in 1994.

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According to Agora-Energiewende, and brought to our attention by PV-Magazine.com, on Sunday at 11 AM, 95% of German electricity demand was being met by renewable energy. In one of the most advanced manufacturing countries on the planet – this is an amazing feat of engineering.

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