World:
¶ Researchers have linked local temperature spikes in China to Chinese fossil fuel use and carbon emissions. [Christian Science Monitor]
¶ Europe is on track to achieve its 2020 renewable energy targets, but could stand some improvements in policy. [Greentech Media]
¶ Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, but the cost of power from wind is less expensive there than the cost of coal or any other fossil fuel. [Energy Digital]
¶ Five Taiwanese KMT lawmakers went against party lines on a bill to stop the construction of the controversial Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in the Gongliao District of New Taipei City. The KMT caucus says lawmakers who voted against party instructions will be fined at least NT$10,000 ($334). [Taipei Times]
¶ Some 28,500 containers of low-level radioactive waste were dropped into the English Channel between 1950 and 1963. Experts have assumed that the containers had long since rusted open, and the contents slowly dissipated. But at least some of the containers have been discovered intact. [Spiegel Online]
¶ The Point Lepreau nuclear plant in the Canadian province of New Brunswick is offline to get the chemistry of the water in the boilers adjusted. Power at Point Lepreau has been reduced a number of times in recent weeks because plugs at each end of the fuel channels are too tight. [MetroNews Canada]
US:
¶ According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 100% of all new generating capacity added in the United States in March, 2013, was from solar power. During the first quarter, 82% was renewable. [CleanTechnica]
¶ The first commercial, grid-tied enhanced geothermal plant in the United States has gone online in Nevada. [Utility Products]
¶ Wind power capacity grew by 28% in 2012 in the United States. It accounted for 42% of all new generating capacity during the year. [Treehugger]
¶ The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities’ Office of Clean Energy is suggesting taking some funding away from support for solar power and putting it toward energy storage. [The Green Optimistic]
¶ Virginia is creating an agency to support nuclear power development. Anti-nuclear groups are upset because the agency will not have to comply with the state’s Freedom of Information Act and a number of other laws. [Daily Press]
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