Opinion:
¶ “Clean up coal or abandon it?” A paper from the University of New South Wales assesses the feasibility and cost of a 100% renewable energy powered National Electricity Market in the period 2030 and makes a statement on carbon capture and storage. [Business Spectator]
World:
¶ GE today announced its 500th wind turbine installation in Brazil. Wind energy is one of the country’s fastest growing energy sources. In 2012, 1,077 MW of wind were added there. [Your Renewable News]
¶ For the upcoming Australian election, the Coalition unveiled its energy document. It focuses almost entirely on promising to increase fossil fuel developments. The only mention of renewable power is another promise to investigate wind power and health problems. [The Guardian]
¶ Vestas is to supply 100 MW of hardware for the Yanchi wind farm in China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region. Natural gas supplier Hanas New Energy, which ordered 50 MW from Vestas less than a month ago, ordered 50 more of Vestas’ new 2 MW turbines. [reNews]
¶ Findings published by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change showed negative articles surrounding the use of green technologies have had a negligible effect on public sentiment over the past 18 months, with support remaining high and opposition low. [uSwitch.com]
¶ Power plant operator Next Kraftwerke expects to nearly triple revenues this year as it links solar, wind and biogas units to respond nimbly to Germany’s sudden big surges in demand – a model it plans to export to other countries. [Reuters]
¶ Joining the bandwagon of heavyweights in the energy sector, Hero group announced its entry in the renewable energy sector with the launch of its new unit Hero Future Energies. The company aims to develop 80 MW and 20 MW of solar by the year 2016-17. [Economic Times]
¶ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he will tell the International Olympic Committee that leaks of radioactive water at the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant will pose no problem in hosting the 2020 Olympics. [Businessweek]
¶ The chief of Japan’s nuclear watchdog chided TEPCO for its inability properly to explain problems. He also lashed out at media coverage, saying reports of recent leaks were exaggerating an impression of the seriousness of the situation at the stricken plant. [Economic Times]
¶ The Japanese government will soon test the concept of an ice wall to arrest the flow of ground from leaking from beneath Fukushima Daiichi into the Pacific Ocean. The feasibility test will start by mid-October at the earliest. [Zee News]
US:
¶ The California Public Utilities Commission has issued a proposal calling for the state’s private utilities to procure 1.325 GW of storage by 2020, for a variety of functions including supporting the integration of an increasing amount of renewable energy. [solarserver.com]
¶ Dominion Virginia Power bid $1.6 million to win a 2 GW site off Virginia in the United States’ second offshore wind lease auction. Apex Virginia Offshore Wind and Dominion went head to head through six rounds of bidding. [reNews]
¶ A digital library containing nearly 3,200 pages of documents related to the replacement steam generators at the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in northern San Diego County was made available online. Some documents are partly redacted. [KPBS]
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