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Author Topic: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth  (Read 36415 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
« Reply #30 on: January 20, 2014, 04:15:02 pm »
19 Countries Form Africa Clean Energy Corridor

SustainableBusiness.com News


19 countries have committed to developing an Africa Clean Energy Corridor to help the continent leap frog to renewable energy in the face of rising energy demand.

 Led by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), stakeholders believe a regional approach can attract the most investment and optimize the renewable energy mix.

 The corridor will span eastern Africa, from Cairo to Capetown, where transmission infrastructure is being built to meet growing energy demand.

 Currently, Ethiopia hosts the continent's biggest wind farm and has plans for 800 megawatts of wind and 1 gigawatt of geothermal. The Corbetti Project is a new model for developing large scale power projects in Africa and is part of the Power Africa initiative that President Obama announced last summer.



IRENA
   
 IRENA will facilitate the large-scale, transborder initiative by: 
•identifying renewable energy development zones - areas of high potential - where solar, wind, geothermal or biomass projects would be clustered;


•facilitating government planning so that renewable energy has bigger share of the energy mix;


•fostering new financing models and investment frameworks that can rapidly get projects on the ground;


•building the local knowledge base and leading public information campaigns.

 

Demand for electricity is expected to triple in Southern Africa, and quadruple in Eastern Africa over the 25 years, making the region’s current dependence on fossil fuels increasingly unsustainable both economically and environmentally, says IRENA.

 80% of Southern Africa's energy comes from coal, which will need to expand without the growth of renewables because demand is growing at 4% a year. East Africa relies on natural gas for 60% of electricity, with demand rising 6% a year.

 “Lifting the African population out of energy poverty cannot be fulfilled if a business-as-usual approach is followed,” says Mosad Elmissiry, Head of Energy at the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, an African Union implementing body. “We need a drastic transformation in our approach to developing renewable energy, to be sure renewables are fully utilised. The Clean Energy Corridor can support and further advance the implementation of the regional and continental initiatives already on the ground for further utilisation of renewable energy in Africa.”
 
Environmental ministers and delegates endorsed this action plan this week.   
 
Established in 2009, IRENA is the global hub for renewable energy cooperation, supported by 123 countries and the European Union. Headquartered in Masdar City, United Arab Emirates, it supports countries in their transition to sustainable energy, and serves as the principal platform for international cooperation, a center of excellence, and repository of policy, technology, resource and financial knowledge on renewable energy.  The inter-governmental organization promotes widespread adoption of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind.


 Last year, South Africa was one of 10 countries that formed the Renewable Energy Club, which is managed by IRENA. The US did not joing the Club! The idea is to break the logjam on confronting climate change by reframing the focus from the negative - cutting emissions - to the positive - rapidly ramping up renewable energy.


 Also last year, IRENA unveiled the first world atlas that shows every country's renewable energy potential.

 Here's a brief video from IRENA on the Africa Clean Energy Corridor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kbD5g3x52Y&feature=player_embedded

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25446
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AGelbert

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Powering the US with Renewables: A State-By-State Roadmap

 James Montgomery, Associate Editor, RenewableEnergyWorld.com 
 February 24, 2014

New Hampshire, USA -- What does it take to convert a city, a state, a nation, to 100 percent renewable energy? Many countries are giving it a go with very ambitious goals to be 100-percent powered by renewable energy (islands seem to have a leg up). But what about right here in the U.S., how could that be achieved for this nation? And since all politics is local (and most especially true for renewable energy policies), how could it be done by individual states?



Back in 2011 Stanford professor Mark Jacobsen envisioned what that might require, and followed that up with an analysis of how to accomplish it in New York State. (Our coverage of that, by the way, was by far our most commented story in recent memory.) Now he's extended his analysis to all 50 U.S. states, laying out a resource roadmap to how each of them could meet 100 percent of their energy needs (electricity, transportation, heating) through renewable sources by 2050 — excluding nuclear, ethanol and other biofuels. Note that none of these calculations are geared to optimize for the least-cost mix to get to 100 percent renewables usage. Levelized electricity costs from that renewables mix by 2030 are projected to be 4-11 cents/kWh (including local transmission), compared with 20-25 cents/kWh from fossil-fuel energy with added health and climate costs.

His latest results include two more deep-dives as he did for New York, showing how they could achieve all new energy capacity powered by renewables (under the aforementioned definition) by 2020, 80-85 percent of existing energy converted by 2030, and 100 percent by 2050. California, he finds, can get to a 100-percent renewables footprint with the following portfolio: 55 percent solar (both distributed and large-scale, including a lot of CSP), 35 percent wind (both on- and offshore), 5 percent geothermal, and 4 percent hydroelectric, plus a big contribution from energy efficiency. (Blending wind with solar, and combining that with hydro and CSP with storage, will largely smooth out intermittency problems, he concludes.) Ultimately that will create a net 178,000 permanent jobs, avoid $131 billion in annual healthcare costs, and pay off the 631 GW of new installed power within six years.

In Washington State, Jacobson et al calculate a 2050 fully-renewables mix as: 43 percent wind, 28 percent solar PV, 26 percent hydro, 2 percent geothermal, and half a percent each of wave and tidal. New capacity additions of 137 GW would cost $228 billion but be paid off in 13 years. Note that Washington has an abundance of hydro power, and thus has a head-start for built-in storage to match up with energy demand; no new hydro will be necessary (more on that later) but he assumes existing hydro capacity will be updated to improve efficiency.



Change in percent distribution of California energy supply for all purposes (electricity, transportation, heating/cooling, industry) among conventional fuels and WWS energy over time based on the roadmap proposed. Credit: Stanford/Jacobson

Overall the methodologies were pretty much the same: "look at the footprints and areas, and how many devices of each type we would need," Jacobson explains. Compared to his previous calculations, these new findings extend the timeframe out to 2050, instead of just 2030. They're also more updated to account for current installations, such as an extensive wind energy buildout since his 2011 study, and the most recent insight into job creation.

He is also struck by the addition of mortality calculations, based on air quality data for each state spanning three years in every county, and illustrating how renewables will reduce air pollution and its direct connection to mortality. Around three percent of the U.S. GDP goes into health costs due to air pollution he says (quick math: the U.S. GDP is roughly $17 trillion, so that's $500 billion in health costs). Quantifying that at the state level with concrete numbers proves how renewable energy could address and reduce "a significant burden on society."

So which states have the smoothest pathway, relatively speaking, to achieving 100 percent renewables? The key, he says, is tapping and improving existing large-scale hydro, without adding any new ones. "Any state with hydro is amenable to making this easier," he says. Washington State would lead this pack due to its abundant hydro resources — up to 30 percent of what they'd need — plus a small but growing amount of wind and solar. He also notes the state has policies and leadership that are "very supportive of changing things." Other states that could best leverage hydro include Idaho and New York. The growing influence of wind energy in some states (Iowa, South Dakota) will help, too.

On the other hand, it won't be as easy a journey in the southeastern states, which have fewer renewables to tap into and must rely more on interconnection. (Note that his estimates don't restrict states from obtaining renewables outside their borders; this brings things like Canadian hydro into play for some northern states, as well.)

Maybe the biggest takeaway from Jacobson's updates is that broadly speaking none of it is new. "We don't have to invent a new technology to get this to work," he says. "We have to get more efficient from a cost point of view."



http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/02/powering-the-u-s-with-renewables-a-state-by-state-roadmap
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AGelbert

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The Power Grid Might Become The ‘Alternative’ — Off-Grid The Norm  ;D



For years, low-cost solar-plus-battery systems were seen as a distant possibility at best, a fringe technology not likely to be a threat to mainstream electricity delivery any time soon. By far, the limiting factor has been battery costs. But thanks to a confluence of factors playing out across the energy industry, the reality is that affordable battery storage is coming much sooner than most people realize. That approaching day of cheaper battery storage, when combined with solar PV, has the potential to fundamentally alter the electricity landscape.

While grid-tied solar has seen dramatic recent cost declines, until recently, solar-plus-battery systems have not been considered economically viable. However, concurrent declining costs of batteries, growing maturity of solar-plus-battery systems, and increasing adoption rates for these technologies are changing that. Recent media coverage, market analysis, and industry discussions—including the Edison Electric Institute’s January 2013 Disruptive Challenges—have gone so far as to suggest that low-cost solar-plus-battery systems could one day enable customers to cut the cord with their utility and go from grid connected to grid defected.

But while more and more people are discussing solar-plus-battery systems as a potential option at some point in the distant future, there has been a scarcity of detailed analysis to quantify when and where. Until now.

THE ECONOMICS OF GRID DEFECTION

Today, Rocky Mountain Institute, HOMER Energy, and CohnReznick Think Energy released The Economics of Grid Defection: When and where distributed solar generation plus storage competes with traditional utility service. Seeking to illustrate where grid parity will happen both first and last, the report considers five representative U.S. geographies (NY, KY, TX, CA, and HI). These geographies cover a range of solar resource potential, retail utility electricity prices, and solar PV penetration rates, considered across both commercial and residential regionally specific load profiles.

The report analyzes four possible scenarios: a more conservative base case plus more aggressive cases that consider technology improvements with accelerated cost declines, investments in energy efficiency coupled with load management, and the combination of technology-driven cost declines, energy efficiency, and load management. Even our base case results are compelling, but the combined improvements scenario is especially so, since efficiency and load management reduce the required size of the system while technology improvements reduce the cost of that system, compounding cost declines and greatly accelerating grid parity.








 The results of the report show:

Solar-plus-battery grid parity is here already or coming soon for a rapidly growing minority of utility customers. Grid parity exists today in Hawaii for commercial customers, and will rapidly expand to reach residential customers as early as 2022. Grid parity will reach millions of additional residential and commercial customers in places like New York and California within a decade (see Figures 3 and 4 above).

Even before total grid defection becomes widely economic, utilities will see solar-plus-battery systems eat into their revenues.  ;D Factors such as customer desires for increased power reliability and low-carbon electricity generation are driving early adopters ahead of grid parity, including those installing smaller grid-dependent solar-plus-battery systems to help reduce demand charges, provide backup power, and yield other benefits. These early activities will likely accelerate the infamous utility death spiral—self-reinforcing upward price pressures, which make further self-generation or total defection economic faster.

Because grid parity arrives within the 30-year economic life of typical utility power assets, the days are numbered for traditional utility business models.  ;D The “old” cost recovery model, based on kWh sales, by which utilities recover costs and an allowed market return on infrastructure investments will become obsolete. Utilities must re-think their current business model in order to retain customers and to capture the additional value that such distributed investments will bring.

The results are profound, especially in geographies like the U.S. Southwest. In this region of the country, the conservative base case shows solar-plus-battery systems undercutting utility retail electricity prices for the most expensive one-fifth of load served in the year 2024; under the more aggressive assumptions, off-grid systems prove cheaper than all utility-sold electricity in the region just a decade out from today (see Figure ES3 below).




A CALL TO ACTION

Millions of customers representing billions of dollars in utility revenues will find themselves in a position to cost-effectively defect from the grid if they so choose. The so-called utility death spiral is proving not just a hypothetical threat, but a real, near, and present one. The coming grid parity of solar-plus-battery systems in the foreseeable future, among other factors, signals the eventual demise of legacy utility business models.

Though utilities could and should see this as a threat, they can also see solar-plus-battery systems as anopportunity to add value to the grid and their business models. The United States’ electric grid is on the cusp of a great transformation, and the future of the grid need not be an either/or between central and distributed generation. It can and should be a network that combines the best of both.

Having determined when and where grid parity will happen, the important next question is how utilities, regulators, technology providers, and customers might work together to reshape the market—either within existing regulatory frameworks or under an evolved regulatory landscape—to tap into and maximize new sources of value that build the best electricity system of the future the delivers value and affordability to customers and society. These disruptive opportunities are the subject of ongoing work by the authors, covered in a forthcoming report to follow soon.


Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/28/power-grid-might-become-alternative-grid-norm/#50xghVWeX8570O9R.99
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
« Reply #33 on: March 31, 2014, 02:51:08 pm »
 
03/27/2014 02:58 PM          
Vermont Raises Support for Solar While Slew of States Consider Repeal

SustainableBusiness.com News

Vermont is swimming against the tide of ALEC and other Koch-sponsored Americans for Prosperity bills that are moving through the states to make it harder to grow renewable energy.


In Vermont, the legislature voted to increase solar net-metering to reward homeowners and businesses for installing solar systems. They raised the net-metering cap substantially - from 4% of a utility's peak load to 15%.


That is, utilities no longer have to compensate customers when they send solar back to the grid when net-metering payments surpass 15% of its peak demand from the previous year or from 1996, whichever is greater.

Net metering allows people with on-site solar to first use solar energy for themselves and then sell any excess back to utilities at the full retail price. Utilities, in turn, sell the energy to neighboring homes and businesses.

While Vermont's largest utility and one of the most progressive in the country, Green Mountain Power, doesn't believe there should be a cap at all, the situation is quite different in states where legislation by ALEC is being pushed.  >:(

Repeal Bills Sprout in Numerous States  >:(

Until this year, we didn't hear much from utilities, but since ALEC developed a model bill to eliminate net-metering - "Updating Net Metering Policies Resolution," it's suddenly become controversial for utilities across the country.

After meeting a measly 1% cap, Missouri utilities say they are no longer required to provide rebates for solar. Last year, solar sales surged in Missouri, adding 1,700 jobs in the state and if it were in place through this year, that number would double, according to Missouri Solar Energy Industries Association.

In Kansas, bills were introduced to eliminate net-metering, but after negotiations, have been watered down instead. They raised the maximum size of solar arrays eligible for net metering and cut the payment that people receive.

This week, the State Senate  voted to repeal the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), but it was rejected by the Assembly.   


ALEC and Americans For Prosperity   have made repealing the RPS a top priority, and the latter has been running statewide radio and TV ads.    >:(


The RPS - which requires 20% renewable energy by 2020 - has been driving growth of the wind industry there since 2009. It has created 13000 jobs with close to 2 gigawatts installed, and factories that make wind components have sited there. Kansas gets over 10% of electricity from wind and is benefiting from lower electric prices. And Kansas City is about to become a leading city for solar, installing rooftop systems on 80 municipal buildings.

Republican State Senator Forrest Knox says the RPS distorts the free market and therefore will drive up costs now that the federal production tax credit has expired, which has artificially propped up growth. Other senators that voted for repeal say it's time for the industry to stand on its two feet and they expect electric prices to rise 40%.

Kansas should be the first in the nation to abandon cumbersome government mandates on energy production, according to Jeff Glendening, state director of Americans for Prosperity, reports Topeka Capital Journal.


At the same time the Kansas Senate passed the Promoting Employment Across Kansas program - which subsidizes companies that relocate to or expand in Kansas.

Bills to kill net-metering and impose fees on solar owners have also been introduced - and so far have been defeated - in Utah and Washington. In Utah, however, they passed a bill to study the value of distributed energy.

Indiana just passed a law that eliminates the state's energy efficiency standard and ends ratepayer-funded energy efficiency programs, such as free energy audits and subsidized upgrades, at the end of 2014.

Last year, ALEC failed to roll back state RPS after getting some 120 of its model bills introduced. They added net-metering to their list for this year. Arizona passed a modified bill that is already having a negative impact on solar sales.

30 states have a mandatory RPS and 7 have a voluntary one. Over 40 states have net-metering laws.


Read a really long article on the battle between rooftop solar and utilities:
Website: www.scientificamerican.com/article/fight-over-rooftop-solar-forecasts-a-bright-future-for-cleaner-energy/
http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25611
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Just How Off Is EIA’s Renewable Energy Outlook? How About 20+ Years? ???

Is the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) forecast for the future of renewable energy in America wrong? It’s an important question, considering policy decisions and private investments are often set by EIA guidance.

EIA’s “Annual Energy Outlook 2014” early release overview predicted renewables would supply only 16% of US electricity demand by 2040, but a new analysis of EIA’s own data finds the outlook is “almost certainly wrong.”

According to the Sun Day Campaign, renewables will make up a much larger percentage of America’s energy portfolio, much faster than EIA projects – roughly 20 years faster, in fact.  ;D



EIA’s Renewable Energy Forecast “Simply Wrong”

EIA data shows renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind) grew from less than 9% of total US supply in 2004 to nearly 13% in 2013 on the strength of solar photovoltaic and wind energy’s rapid growth.


US EIA renewable energy production chart via US EIA

That expansion rate raised concerns about EIA’s 16% by 2040 projection. “Given the relatively consistent growth trends of the past decade or longer for most renewable energy sources and their rapidly declining costs, it seems improbable that it will require another 27 years to grow from 13% to 16%,” said Ken Bossong, Sun Day executive director. “Thus, EIA’s forecast is not just unduly conservative; almost certainly, it is simply wrong.”

Sun Day’s analysis parsed EIA data for renewable energy sources within US net electrical generation from 2003 through 2013, and it paints a vastly different picture. If past trends continue, Sun Day forecasts, renewable energy will reach 13.5% in 2014, 14.4% in 2015, 15.3% in 2016, and 16% no later than 2018. That’s five years, not 27, if you’re counting along at home.

Interestingly, even Sun Day’s forecast may be too conservative. Five years ago, the decline of solar PV module prices as well as Production Tax Credit (PTC)-fueled boom and bust of wind may have been impossible to predict. Sun Day notes projections based on EIA data suggest hydropower, biomass, and geothermal contributions will remain largely unchanged, even as other studies suggest significant growth.

Solar And Wind Energy Lead The Charge

So if Sun Day is so bullish on renewable energy’s future, where will the US generate all this new capacity? Unsurprisingly, the answer is probably solar and wind.


Sun Day US renewables forecast chart via Sun Day

Wind energy made up 4.13% of net electrical generation in 2013, with the amount of wind power growing by an average of 22,200 thousand megawatt-hours (MWh) annually from 2007 to 2013. Uncertainty over the PTC means that pace is unlikely to continue, but Sun Day uses the American Wind Energy Association’s (AWEA) report of 12 gigawatts in the development pipeline to forecast wind energy’s contribution to hit 4.5% in 2014, 5% in 2015, and 5.5% in 2016.

Despite record-setting new solar installations in 2013, solar energy is still one of the smallest overall contributors to US electricity supply, but that’s about to change. Grid-connected solar contributed just 0.23% of net electricity in 2013, but that’s after 50% growth from 2010-2011, 138% growth from 2011-2012, and 114% growth from 2012-2013.

Sun Day combines these growth rates with the number of projects expected to come online in 2014 and 2015 to forecast an exponential expansion of net solar generation to .45% in 2014, .9% in 2015, and 1.37% in 2016. Exciting expectations, considering EIA only expects solar to generate .5% by 2015.

Other Renewables Hold Flat

The growth of wind and solar looks even more impressive when compared to other forms of renewable energy, and shows where the real growth will occur. Hydropower, biomass, and geothermal are all projected to hold steady over the next few years.

Hydropower has long been the “baseload” renewable electricity source, and the dominant percentage of renewables in US energy supply with 6.63% in 2013, but that sector’s potential may be tapped. Some small hydro facilities and upgrades at existing plants are expected to come online, but decreased water supply due to climate change may offset those additions to hold flat. Sun Day forecasts hydropower’s share will actually decrease as other renewables surge, falling to 6.55% by 2016.


Small hydropower facility image via CleanTechnica

That same trend is expected for biomass and geothermal, as generation increases but overall percentages remain flat, according to Sun Day. Biomass (wood-based fuels, landfill gas, municipal solid waste, and other waste) is expected to hold steady at 1.48% from 2013 through 2016, and geothermal is projected to remain constant at .41% from 2013 through 2016.

While it’s worth noting EIA estimates both geothermal and biomass to increase between 2013 and 2015, that discrepancy may be a direct result of Sun Day’s more aggressive outlook.

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2014/04/16/just-eias-renewable-energy-outlook-20-years/#jY2Eo8FcVQBHJxUl.99
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
« Reply #35 on: April 24, 2014, 01:03:59 pm »
UK Awards First Guaranteed Power Price Contracts to Biomass, Offshore Wind Projects

 Alex Morales, Bloomberg 
 April 24, 2014

LONDON -- Drax Group Plc, D o n g Energy A/S and SSE Plc will get guaranteed power prices for U.K. biomass and offshore wind plants, the first renewable energy projects to benefit from a new aid program.

A project by Drax to convert a coal-fired unit at the U.K.’s biggest power plant to burn biomass was on a list of eight that the Department of Energy and Climate Change said had won the new contracts. A second unit, that had been shortlisted in December, was excluded. Five of the projects were for offshore wind, including three by Dong, one by SSE and a venture between Statoil ASA and Statkraft AS.

The contracts are the first under a new assistance system for renewables that will guarantee the price generators will get for their power for 15 years. The government said today that the eight projects will lead to as much as 12 billion pounds ($20 billion) of investment by 2020, supporting 8,500 jobs and adding as much as 4.5 gigawatts of generating capacity.

“These contracts for major renewable electricity projects mark a new stage in Britain’s green energy investment boom,” Energy Secretary Ed Davey said in the statement. “They are a significant part of our efforts to give Britain cleaner and more secure energy.”

The government is trying to spur 110 billion pounds of spending on power plants and the grid by 2020, while meeting binding renewable energy and carbon emissions targets.

Under so-called “strike prices” announced last year, coal plants that convert to biomass will get 105 pounds per megawatt- hour of power they produce for 15 years. Offshore wind farms will get from 140 pounds to 155 pounds, depending on when they are completed. That compares with the current month-ahead price of about 41 pounds.

Biomass

Davey told reporters in London today that while the contracts announced today will add about 2 percent to power bills in 2020, the net effect of all the government’s energy policies, including efficiency measures, is to lower bills by 166 pounds in 2020 relative to what they would otherwise be.

The other projects to win contracts were a biomass conversion by Lynemouth Power Ltd. and a biomass-fueled combined heat and power plant by MGT Power Ltd. All of the projects had been included on a list of 10 that the department said in December were “affordable” under the new program, except for SSE’s Beatrice project, which wasn’t on that list.

Drax had two units included in the list in December, while only one was awarded a contract. The company said in an e-mailed statement today that the government has since told it that one of the units is no longer eligible for the contracts, and that the generator has begun legal proceedings to challenge that decision.

Drax Slides

“We are disappointed by today’s decision on the ineligibility of our second unit,” Drax Chief Executive Officer Dorothy Thompson said in the statement. “Nothing has changed, as far as our plans are concerned, between being deemed eligible in December and now. We have, therefore, commenced legal proceedings to challenge the decision.”

Drax shares today fell 12 percent as of 4:05 p.m. in London trading, the biggest intraday drop since July 2012.

At a press conference, Davey declined to outline the specific reasons for ruling out one Drax unit.

“We applied our published criteria to all the applicant projects,” Davey told reporters in London. “The decisions we announced today are based on that. It’s not like Drax doesn’t have options,” he said, referring to its eligibility for incentives under the renewables obligation program and so-called contracts for difference that will be started later this year.

Today’s contracts are precursors to the contracts-for- difference, or CFDs, that the government is completing. Under CFDs, utilities will receive a guaranteed price per megawatt- hour of power they produce, over a fixed number of years, regardless of the market price.

The exclusion of the second Drax unit may lend some hope to Eggborough Power Ltd., which said in December that its coal- fired plant may close if it didn’t secure the guaranteed prices that would allow it to convert to biomass.

DECC said that the two other projects listed in December have withdrawn from the process.

The government said it expects the contracts to be signed in May, when they will also take effect. Further contracts will be made available in the fall, the energy department said.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/04/u-k-awards-first-guaranteed-power-price-contracts-to-biomass-offshore-wind-projects?cmpid=rss
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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NRDC Partnership Produces First-Ever Stock Index Excluding  ;D  Fossil Fuel Companies

http://ecowatch.com/2014/04/29/nrdc-stock-index-fossil-fuel/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Rewiring the World With Clean Energy
« Reply #38 on: May 02, 2014, 02:37:49 pm »
Rewiring the World with Clean Energy

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

            The Plan involves three interacting strategies which include:

 

       · In industrial countries, withdraw subsidies from fossil fuels and establish equivalent subsidies for clean non-carbon energy sources;

       · Create a large global fund -- perhaps through a small tax on international currency trading -- to transfer clean energy technologies to developing countries; and, 

        · Incorporate within the Kyoto framework a progressively more stringent Fossil Fuel Efficiency Standard that rises by 5 percent per year.


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

          This paper contains a set three interactive strategies which we believe would  reduce carbon emissions by the 80 percent required by nature -- at the same time as it would create millions of jobs around the world, especially in developing countries. 

          To set the plan in its starkest context: the deep oceans are warming, the tundra is thawing, the glaciers are melting, infectious diseases are migrating and the timing of the seasons have changed.  And all that has resulted from one degree of warming.  By contrast, the earth will warm from 3 to 10 degrees later in this century, according to the IPCC

As NASA scientist Jim Hansen said in February, 2006: "We have to stabilize emissions of carbon dioxide within a decade, or temperatures will warm by more than one degree -- warmer than it has been for half a million years."   


          At the risk of exaggerating their potential, we believe these solutions could, at the same time, address several other major problems facing us as well.

          The most obvious, given our newfound vulnerability to guerrilla attacks, is that a worldwide transition to renewable energy would dramatically reduce the significance of oil -- and with it our exposure to the political volatility in the Middle East.

          A second security-related  connection is that a  renewable energy economy would have far more independent sources of power -- home-based fuel cells, stand-alone solar systems, regional windfarms -- which would make the nation's electricity grid a far less strategic target for terrorist attacks. 


          Perhaps a more relevant connection is that the continuing indifference to climate change by the U.S. -- which generates a quarter of the world's carbon emissions -- will likely provoke more guerrilla attacks from people whose homelands are going under from rising seas, whose crops are destroyed by weather extremes and whose borders are overrun by environmental refugees.   

          Conversely, a properly-funded global energy transition would represent the kind of proactive policy needed to begin to redress the economic inequity that threatens to split humanity irreparably between rich and poor. Just as runaway carbon concentrations are threatening to destabilize the global climate, runaway economic inequity can only continue to destabilize our global political environment.


For its own security, the U.S. needs to abandon its traditional posture toward developing countries -- which has been by turns defensive and coercive -- and replace that with a new set of policies which are expansive, inclusive and geared toward real poverty alleviation.  It seems to be an article of faith among development economists that energy investments in poor countries create far more wealth and jobs than investments in any other sector.  Were the U.S. to lead a wholesale transfer of clean energy technologies to developing countries, that would do more than anything else in the long term to undermine support for anti-U.S. terrorism.

On the economic front, it seems clear the entire global economy is susceptible to periods of stagnation, even recession.  Not long ago, some members of the Federal Reserve were even talking about deflation. 

The globally destabilizing credit crisis, the heart-stopping plunges of the stock market and the crippling uncertainty surrounding the price of oil in late 2008 triggered paralyzing fears of a deep and prolonged global economic recession. A truly floundering economy seems relatively  immune to tax cuts and interest rate reductions.  I think any recipe for stable, long-term economic health must include a component of public works programs -- in this case, a program to rewire the globe with clean energy.   Few economists believe the recent capital crisis will be our last. A substantial global public works program would provide a much-needed stabilizing ballast to counteract the wild swings of the market and the resulting instability of the global economy. 

      Without question, that would be the most productive investment we could make in our future.  Within a decade, it would begin to generate a major and continuing worldwide economic lift-off. 


      No global solution, moreover, can ignore the role of the oil-producing nations -- especially in the Middle East -- without courting major and unacceptable global economic dislocations. In this regard, it is worth repeating that hydrogen is expected to be a major fuel in a post-carbon environment. Hydrogen is most easily produced by putting electricity into water. So if the nations of the Middle East were to cover their deserts with saltwater pipelines and windmills and photovoltaic panels, they could maintain their role as energy suppliers to Europe, East Asia and Africa.

 Finally there is the climate crisis itself:

Unintentionally, we have set in motion massive systems of the planet with huge amounts of inertia that have kept it relatively hospitable to civilization for the last 10,000 years. We have reversed the carbon cycle by more than 400,000 years. We have heated the deep oceans. We have loosed a wave of violent and chaotic weather. We have altered the timing of the seasons. We are living on a very precarious margin of stability.
 

          Against that background, we are offering this set of strategies.  We believe these strategies present a model of the scope and scale of action that is appropriate to the magnitude of the climate crisis.  To date, we have not seen other policy recommendations that adequately address either the scope or urgency of the problem.

          Largely because of inaction by the world's governments, it seems that the Kyoto goals (but not the Kyoto process) are fast becoming obsolete -- and that it is soon time to go straight for the goal of 70 percent reductions globally. Our hope is to get ideas of this scope into the conversation to help move it to an appropriate level. 

          The Plan involves three interacting strategies which include: http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=6320&method=full


Agelbert NOTE: Darwininan church UBERMENSCH convinced that Caloric Intake defines Morality in our "random" universe are advised to avoid reading the info at the link because it is too CORNUCOPIAN for you DOOMER "REALISTS". Have a nice day dreaming of collapse, disaster and population die off.


It is an error of perception to confuse the perverse joy of masochism with reality because it leads to the irrational rejection of all practical hopeful future scenarios (IOW mental box canyons are temporary FUN for doomers that lead to suicidal ideation). This abysmally stupid behavior is often disguised as a sophisticated mockery of hope (based on empirical evidence NOT pie in the sky) filled theists  cloaked with a fraudulent air of objective, hard nosed, science based conclusions (IOW Intelli-morons claim Brainiac Ubermensch status when the exact reverse is true). The fate of these Stumbling Blocks to human progress through moral behavior is grim. Believe them at your peril.

                                           Anthony G. Gelbert

« Last Edit: May 02, 2014, 10:46:17 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
« Reply #40 on: May 04, 2014, 04:23:37 pm »
Even In Turmoil, Egypt Moves to Renewable Energy


SustainableBusiness.com News

 
In the midst of all the turmoil in Egypt, we're pleasantly surprised to hear that the government plans to invest in solar, reports PV Magazine.

To spur clean energy and create jobs for youth, they say they will invest up to $1 billion for several big solar projects. They also will install rooftop solar on government buildings to reduce strain on the grid.

The government "will not be able to prevent electrical power cuts" this summer, says Egypt's Minister of Electricity and Energy, but they will reduce energy consumption as much as  possible to resolved the overburdened grid within a few years, reports Daily News Egypt.

 Egypt's goal is to raise the share of renewable energy to 20% by 2020. 12% is expected to come from wind. In a separate plan for solar, they want 3.5 gigawatts by 2017 - 700 MW of solar PV and 2.8 GW of concentrating solar.

 Last year, the government's New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) asked for bids (from local and international companies) for its first major solar project. Ten, 20 megawatt solar farms would be spread over the southern Egyptian province of Aswan. Italy is helping out with a $500,000 grant.

Egypt is also taking small steps toward manufacturing solar PV modules, starting with a 21 MW capacity this fall and building to 80 MW by the end of 2016.

 "MENA" countries (Mid East, North Africa) could see $50 billion in solar investment alone by 2020, says the Middle East Solar Industry Association. They expect 37 GW of renewable energy projects to be built, with 12-15 GW of that in solar.


 There are already 2.3 GW of solar, with Israel in the lead with 842 MW, according to a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) and the United Arab Emirates' Directorate of Energy and Climate Change.



All 21 MENA countries have renewable energy targets, up from five countries in 2007, reports PV Magazine, adding up to 107 GW by 2030. 

 Read our article, Arab Spring Spawns Middle East Youth Climate Change Movement.

http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25688?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SBGeneralNews+%28SustainableBusiness.com+General+News%29
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
« Reply #41 on: May 19, 2014, 01:07:44 am »
China To Triple Solar Capacity To 70,000 MW By 2017, To Help Reduce Air Pollution  

China has thrilled the solar industry in the past few years with bigger and bigger solar installation targets. Of course, this also came on the back of solar capacity oversupply and a solar manufacturer shakeout that put many non-Chinese solar companies out of business, but it has also helped to pull manufacturers out of a financial crisis and further drive down the cost of solar for customers and the developers and installers who benefit from growing demand. China’s latest announcement is a pretty impressive solar target of 70,000 megawatts by 2017.

However, anyone who has followed the China solar story over the past few years knows that we may well see that target raised higher before too long. Furthermore, if the driving factor is air pollution, and China is going to be building even more coal power plants in the coming years, the push for clean energy is only going to get stronger. Anyhow, for more information on the new China solar target, see this Solar Love repost:

China just seems to be getting ever more ambitious with its renewable energy targets, as recent announcements have shown. Or is “ever more desperate” the more accurate way to put it?

In a recent announcement, the Chinese government revealed that it would (yet again) speed up solar energy development in the country — aiming to triple installed capacity up to 70,000 megawatts (70 gigawatts) by the year 2017. The move is part of a renewed push in the country’s “war on smog” and is intended to help reduce its (great) reliance on coal-fired power plants.

If the new goals are met, then China’s installed solar capacity will surge by 50 GW in just 3 years. That’s seriously impressive installation rates. Of course, as always, that’s if the goals are met — always a big if when dealing with publicly released figures from government bodies. As it stands currently, China is home to about 20 GW of installed solar capacity.

However, it’s worth noting that China has a history of setting “low” solar targets and then raising them. A few years ago, China’s 2015 solar target was 5 GW, then it doubled that to 10 GW, then it more than doubled that to 21 GW, then it nearly doubled that to 40 GW! This all occurred within the course of about 2 years. 70 GW by 2017 sounds impressive, but we’ll see if that isn’t increased yet again in the coming years.

The announcement also noted that the current aim is to possess 150 GW of installed wind power capacity, 11 GW of biomass power, and 330 GW of hydro power by 2017.
  ;D Climate Progress provides more:

The announcement comes just two months after Chinese Premier Li Keqiang’s officially “declared war” on the country’s horrific and tragic smog problem, which scientists in Beijing have compared to the effects of a nuclear winter. The pollution has made headlines around the world as it has worsened, causing myriad health problems, marring cityscapes, and even giving an 8-year-old girl lung cancer. What’s more, the pollution has recently been confirmed to be caused by fossil fuel production, with coal at the forefront.  >:(  :P

China’s announcement that it would increase solar capacity also comes just days after a report found that China’s continued dependence on coal would thwart any effort to fight global warming by any other country. That report, led by the UK’s Center for Climate Change Economics and Policy and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, recommended China swiftly reduce its dependency on the fossil fuel, otherwise it would be “almost impossible” for the world to avoid a situation where global warming stays below 2°C.

“The actions China takes in the next decade will be critical for the future of China and the world,” the study stated (rather starkly for such a report). “Whether China moves onto an innovative, sustainable and low-carbon growth path this decade will more or less determine both China’s longer-term economic prospects in a natural resource-constrained world, … and the world’s prospects of cutting greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to manage the grave risks of climate change.”

Something to note — last year the country approved the construction of over 100 million metric tons of new coal production capacity. 
To put that another way, in only a single year, the country “added coal production capacity equal to 10% of total US annual usage.”

To get back to the subject of air-pollution — a decade-long study exploring the after-effects of the closure of a coal-fired power plant, with regard to human health, was recently released. The report shows — without any kind of ambiguity — the great cost that such plants have on human health, and, more specifically, on the health of children. 


One of the most interesting findings of the research was that “childhood developmental scores and levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) — a key protein for brain development — are significantly higher with decreased levels of exposure to air pollution in utero.”   >:( Not really surprising, but still good to see it spelled-out so clearly.

Agelbert NOTE:Remember that the next time somebody tells you children growing up in coal country (WV) or in areas near a coal fired power plant (I.E. THE POOR and the POOR MINORITIES) all over the USA have the SAME CHANCE as the rich and upper middle class kids who AREN'T BRAIN IMPAIRED BY PROFIT OVER the PLANET in general AND THE POOR IN PARTICULAR...






Another study conducted by the then-director of the Harvard Medical School found that coal cost the United States $500 billion a year in health and environmental impacts. Amazing. Imagine what the global total must be.

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/05/18/china-triple-solar-capacity-2017-part-new-effort-reduce-air-pollution/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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South Carolina Prepares for Solar Revolution
« Reply #42 on: May 23, 2014, 04:35:26 pm »
South Carolina Prepares for Solar Revolution With Historic 105-0 State House Vote 

http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/22/south-carolina-solar-state-house-vote/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Stanford Professor’s 50-State Plan For 100-Percent Renewable Energy


http://ecowatch.com/2014/02/19/stanford-professor-50-state-renewables/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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