Opinion:
¶ “A renewable fiction: Myths mainstream media refuses to let go” • For years now, many in mainstream media have been propagating myths about renewable energy in general, and wind and solar in particular. It’s unclear why this is so. Perhaps it is fear of new technologies and new ideas. But it remains an issue. [RenewEconomy]
Wind farm
¶ “What would it mean for Los Angeles to go 100% renewable?” The Los Angeles City Council recently passed a unanimous resolution requiring Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest municipally-owned utility in the country, to study how the city can achieve a 100% clean energy future. [Environmental Defense Fund]
¶ “‘Last Gasp of Dying Industry’: Nuclear Experts Decry First New US Reactor in 20 Years” • Watts Bar’s launch is “a symbolic gesture. It’s very sad that this is the last gasp of the industry because it looks like such an extraordinarily dumb one.” Experts on nuclear energy decried the reactors archaic technology and expense. [Common Dreams]
Watts Bar (Photo: Tennessee Valley Authority / flickr / cc)
World:
¶ Next Kraftwerke is delivering the Next Box to connect to its Virtual Power Plant in Northern Europe. The VPP is a distributed network of medium and small power-producing and power-consuming units, provided with Internet of Things connectivity to allow them to talk with and respond to the Next Kraftwerke control center. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Enel Green Power signed a 10-year power purchase agreement to supply wind power to HSBC’s offices in Mexico. The utility will start supplying 50-GWh of electricity each year, from the second half of next year, it said. The power will come from Enel’s 200-MW Dominica wind farm in the state of San Luis Potosi. [reNews]
Wind farm in Mexico (Enel image)
¶ Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister said the tender for a 1,000-MW PV plant, which will be established in Konya’s Karapınar district, will be held in December. Poised to
be the largest of its kind in the world, the solar power plant will pave the way for a new period in Turkey’s use of renewable resources. [Daily Sabah]
¶ General Electric’s renewable energy arm has signed a turbine-supply agreement with German construction company Max
Bögl to develop the world’s first wind farm with an integrated hydropower plant capable of generating power even when there’s no breeze. The wind turbines act together with pumped storage. [EcoWatch]
Project Gaildorf (Max Bögl image via Facebook)
¶ Mainland China’s wind farm developers and equipment suppliers face a substantial drop off in installation volume in 2018 when proposed cuts to wind power tariffs are expected to take effect, industry executives warned. Profitability will also be hampered by further power grid bottlenecks and competition. [South China Morning Post]
¶ As costs on offshore wind keep dropping, installations increase. Last year, almost every third new wind turbine went up offshore. That growth has helped boost the share of wind energy in the European Union’s electricity supply from 2% in the year 2000 to 12% today, according to WindEurope, a business advocacy group. [The Guardian]
Wind turbine installation at Dong Energy’s Burbo Bank
(Photograph: DONG Energy)
¶ China will further limit construction of coal-fired power plants by cancelling some projects that were approved this year, its National Energy Administration said. In a shift to cleaner fuels, the agency will also stop construction of any project that started this year and reassess the schedule for those that started in 2015. [ETEnergyworld.com]
US:
¶ E.On is committing to the renewables market in the US and strengthening its position in the region with new renewable energy projects, power purchase agreements and power plant services. The company began the construction of its Radford’s Run Wind Farm in Macon County, Illinois, with 278 MW of installed capacity. [Electric Light & Power]
Illinois wind farm
¶ Michigan’s overall cost of compliance with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan could be relatively low, according to two recent reports. Under the lowest-cost scenarios, a compliance plan in Michigan was projected to cost even less than a plan that did not factor in any CPP requirements at all. [The Peninsula]
¶ Construction has wrapped up on a $180 million solar farm in Minnesota that is billed as the largest single solar power facility in the Midwest and one of the largest in the US. The North Star Solar project just north of the Twin Cities has over 440,000 solar panels on 1½ square miles of land. It is expected to power more than 20,000 homes. [PennEnergy]
Solar Farm
¶ In a 5-2 decision, judges on Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court cast doubt on the ability of Pennsylvania’s Public Utility Commission to place limits not explicitly defined in state law on the types of alternative energy generators that qualify for above-market-rate reimbursements for electricity sent back to the grid. [PowerSource]
¶ Customers of electric cooperatives across Georgia can get some benefits of solar energy without rooftop solar panels through a new program, Cooperative Solar. Developed by the electric co-ops and renewable energy provider Green Power EMC, the program gives customers access to power generated by off-site solar facilities. [solarserver.com]
geoharvey 
October 21, 2016 at 3:50 pm
Reblogged this on nuclear-news.