Opinion:
¶ “The elephant in the room” There’s an African saying, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Here in Vermont, achieving 90% renewable energy by 2050 can be done one house, one business, and one institution at a time. [Commons]
¶ “The six U.S. nuclear power plants most likely to shut down” A report by investment research firm Morningstar in its latest Utilities Observer publication warns about the sector’s risks. The nuclear power industry is melting down financially. [Grist]
Science and Technology:
¶ Eos Energy Storage says it has a breakthrough energy storage systems that could make a huge impact on the energy market. The 1-MW/6-MWh Aurora energy storage system can reportedly achieve 10,000 cycles and costs $160/kWh for a DC system. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ Two separate coalitions of green businesses and energy companies representing more than €250 billion of annual revenue and 176,000 jobs have thrown their weight behind the push for a new renewables target for 2030. [Business Green]
¶ Electricity from the Kalkbult solar PV power station flowed into the national grid on Tuesday, making it South Africa’s first solar plant to come online – three months ahead of schedule. The 75 MW plant will generate power for 33,000 households. [South Africa.info]
¶ A remote-controlled robot has succeeded in pinpointing two holes in the containment vessel of the damaged Unit 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi. The robot’s camera captured images of water leaking into the building housing the reactor. [RTT News]
¶ The head of the World Energy Council has warned that without governments providing financial support to nuclear power projects, the sector’s share of the power generation market will remain stationary. [PennEnergy]
US:
¶ Facebook says it will begin operating its new data center in Altoona in early 2015 powered entirely by renewable energy that will come from a new wind project in Wellsburg, Iowa. [DesMoinesRegister.com]
¶ By 2015, Nebraska will have the potential to generate more than 1,200 megawatts of electricity from wind farms. Nebraska currently has 459 megawatts of installed wind power capacity but will add 750 megawatts this year and in 2014. [Lincoln Journal Star]
¶ Google and global private equity firm KKR are to make a joint $400m investment into six solar plants – five in California and one in Arizona – with a combined capacity of 106 MW of electricity. [NewNet]
¶ A new report, “The Values of Geothermal Energy: A Discussion of the Benefits Geothermal Power Provides to the Future US Power System,” has been released by the Geothermal Energy Association and the Geothermal Resources Council. [Renewable Energy Magazine]
¶ A report by the Union of Concerned Scientists says that the NRC is ignoring its own safety regulations at Diablo Canyon. They say the plant is located dangerously close to recently discovered fault lines, which could potentially put people living nearby at risk. [KCOY.com]
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