In today’s EGEB:
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, MidAmerican claims it will be the first U.S. utility to offer 100% renewable energy to willing clients. Dandelion seeks to take a foothold in the heating and air conditioning market with a new geothermal unit. Foreign companies adapt to Trump’s tariffs by planning new U.S. factories.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, the U.S. East coast is about to become an offshore wind powerhouse with two projects totaling 1200 MW on the way. Canadian Solar is reeling under Trump administration’s protectionist policy. A new report by the consulting company ICF Inc underlines that now is the best time tax-wise to upgrade existing wind turbines.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, U.S. oceans are about to get a little more crowded by wind turbines. China and India are the main players behind the massive expansion of solar power production. Scientists publish a new study that rebukes a previous one that claimed that powering a country only with renewable energy is impossible.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, clean energy investment in the UK took a 56% drop in 2017 according to the Environmental Audit Committee. The Imperial College of London confirms that from January to March 2018, wind power outproduced for the first time ever nuclear power in the UK. As solar power grows, grid managers struggle to reconcile power production and the market’s need. A new study examines possible scenarios and their effects on consumers and grid managing.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, Japan updates its toothless energy plan. Oil-producing Alaska seeks carbon-free power to save itself from thawing permafrost. A new report shows how the 20 most water-stressed countries also have the most potential for solar energy and could thus alleviate their people’s thirst by going green.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, Apple, Alcoa, Rio Tinto and both Canadian federal and Quebec provincial governments invest to build the first zero-emission aluminum plant in the world. The U.S. Geological Survey publishes a map of every wind turbines in the country. German utility provider Uniper wants to produce green methane using wind power.
Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.
Today on EGEB, wind power producers are bound to be more competitive by using AI technology. Scientists want to create polymer that takes 10 times less energy to make. GE, in alliance with Arroyo Energy, has been awarded a new contract to build wind turbines for Chile.
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Tesla’s large-scale Powerpack energy storage projects have so far been mostly paired with solar farms, but the technology can also be useful for wind energy when the wind is not blowing.
The massive new 100 MW/129 MWh Powerpack system contract that Tesla won in Australia is the first step in that direction since it will be combined with Neoen’s Hornsdale Wind Farm.
Now the company is going deeper into the industry with a new partnership with Vestas, the world’s largest wind-turbine maker.
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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.
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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.
Massachusetts is taking aggressive steps toward cleaning electrical grid and in doing so is joining a select group of regions around the world. Of course Germany and California get all the headlines, but also deserving are Portugal, Scotland, Hawaii, Iceland, Costa Rica, Uruguay throwing down part of $285B worth in 2015. There are also the global giants China and India building massive amounts of infrastructure.
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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).
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.”
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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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Today is the 46th Earth Day. Though from the perspective of the earth, it’s probably closer to its 1.6 trillionth day. Nonetheless, Earth Day is supposed to be an occasion to demonstrate your support for environmental protection.
You can show your support in very simple ways like using less energy or finally recycling those dead batteries that have been piling up in your junk drawer, or you can try to pick up some new habits and initiate yourself to new and greener technologies.
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U.S. Democrats recently said they were open to a lift of the four-decade-old ban on crude oil exports, if Republicans would allow the bill to include an extension of the federal tax credit for solar installations, which is currently set to decrease from 30% to 10% in 2017.
Reports from earlier this week suggested that Democrats were looking for a 10-year extension, but today we learn that both parties have agreed to a 5-year extension.
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With the Paris climate talks taking place this week, I thought it fitting to share an idea I came up with a few years ago while visiting the French capital. ‘Moulin Eiffel’ is taking the 130-year old Eiffel Tower, the iconic symbol of Paris, and outfitting it with a vertical axis wind turbine. The idea is that the tower seen around the whole world would genuinely (not BS) become energy neutral and a symbol for a sustainable energy future.
I had originally considered the option of placing a traditional “windmill” on top of the tower like you increasingly see in farms around the world, but with all of the equipment located up there already plus factoring changing wind patterns and the all important aesthetics, the vertical model works the best. This is how:
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Google has announced its largest ever purchase of renewable energy to power data centers across the U.S., Sweden and Chile, reports The Washington Post. The new projects, mostly wind-powered, add a massive 842 megawatts of green energy, which Google claims is the largest investment ever by anyone other than a power company.
The investment brings Google’s total renewable energy capacity to 2 gigawatts, which is equivalent to the total energy output of the Hoover Dam. Google has pledged to power its entire operations from green energy by 2025, and Re/code reports it was 37% of the way there prior to this deal. That suggests this deal ought to take the company to around 60%.
There is a little small-print, however …
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZwguLJVxsM]
We’re mostly going to stay away from politics but this ad is very specifically on solar and renewables and it will hopefully kick off a debate on the energy sector that we’ll see in the run up to the 2015 elections. The 10 year goal of moving US residences to renewables is a worthy 1st step. More from her campaign page