World:
¶ An 80-MW solar power plant will be built in Chile’s Antofagasta Region, beginning in the first part of 2015. It is scheduled to be completed and come online about one year later. Electricity generated by it will be sold to the spot market, making it the world’s largest merchant solar power plant. [CleanTechnica]
¶ China’s people expect electric vehicles to grow in significantly the next decade on the back of growing environmental awareness and stricter regulations, according to a new survey. It showed that 68% of the Chinese respondents expect EV sales to be between 11% and 15% of markets in the next 10 years. [ecns]
¶ A new study has shown that increasing Britain’s installed wind energy capacity could go a long way to securing energy independence for the island nation. Independent analysts Cambridge Econometrics concluded that additional wind power would cut Britain’s need for increasingly costly imports of fossil fuels. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Hydro and anaerobic digesters have long been seen as higher-risk investments than simpler technologies such as solar and wind. That may well still be the case, but high street banks appear to becoming more open to these schemes as more projects come on line and are able to demonstrate their performance. [FarmersWeekly]
¶ Saudi Arabia’s plans to build nuclear and solar energy projects will take about eight years longer to complete than originally intended, according to the head of the agency overseeing the projects. In 2012, the Saudi government said it would install 17 GW of nuclear power and about 41 GW of solar capacity by 2032. [Gulf Business News]
¶ Flexible grid management is a growing need. Technology investments to create a resilient grid infrastructure have become crucial as grid instability and power failures due to capacity overload plague Eastern Europe, and stand-by demand for intermittent renewable power sources grow in Western Europe. [PR Newswire UK]
¶ Egypt aims to build solar and wind power plants in the next three years with combined capacity of 4,300 MW, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told an energy conference in Abu Dhabi. The plan is part of Egypt’s strategy for renewable energy to contribute to more than 20% of its energy mix by 2020. [Egypt Independent]
¶ Fracking industry claims about job creation in the UK are wildly over-optimistic and any jobs boom would be short-lived, according to a new report. It also found investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy would create up to six-times more jobs than the same level of investment in fossil fuels. [Click Green]
US:
¶ Minnesota Power has completed commissioning on the latest phase of its Bison Wind Energy Center. All 64 turbines are now generating power. The 205-MW expansion makes it the largest wind farm in North Dakota and ranks Minnesota Power as one of America’s top-10 wind power-owning electric utilities. [AZoCleantech]
¶ Google has unveiled new plan to invest in two renewable energy projects worth more than $1.5 billion, reports Forbes. The first project consists of a $76 million investment in the 300-MW Balko Wind project in Oklahoma. The second is the 104-megawatt Red Hills solar power plant in Utah worth $157 million. [Greentech Lead]
¶ Clean-energy supporters and utilities are at odds over a new bill at the Indiana statehouse. Electricity customers who use solar power receive credits for selling excess power back to the grid, but HB 1320 would minimize those credits, and allow utilities to set fixed charges for solar users. [Public News Service]
¶ Maine’s wind power industry may double its energy output over the next four years and is projected to create more than 4,000 jobs in the state this year. Wind projects currently on the books have a capacity of 1,300 MW by 2018, largely replacing the closed Maine Yankee nuclear plant. [Foster’s Daily Democrat]
¶ Turboden, a group company of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, was chosen by Maine Woods Pellet Company to supply the world largest biomass based ORC power unit for its plant in Athens, Maine. The system will produce 8 MW using waste from wood residues from de-barking and chipping operations. [AltEnergyMag]
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