Opinion:
¶ “Clean Power Plan Won’t Kill The Grid, Even If The Wall Street Journal Says It Will” – Those who take the Wall Street Journal for gospel miss a lot of what’s going on with US energy, says Denise Robbins of Media Matters for America. They probably won’t get it if they use that source and ignore all others. [CleanTechnica]
World:
¶ Clean energy has overtaken fossil fuels in terms of annual electricity generation capacity additions, with more renewable energy capacity now being added globally than coal + natural gas + oil combined. And, perhaps more importantly than that simple proclamation, there’s now no going back. [CleanTechnica]
Graphs comparing additions of fossil fuels with those of renewables.
¶ The Dutch city of Amsterdam is planning for the transition from diesel buses to electric ones to be complete by 2025, reportedly. The plan is that the first 40 electric buses will be delivered in roughly 2 years time, with all diesel buses being slowly phased out, until none is left in 2025, at the latest. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, have announced plans to launch the Masdar Solar Hub to expedite the development of solar technologies. The new hub will be focusing on research and demonstration of cutting-edge solar technologies. [ArabianBusiness.com]
¶ The President and CEO of ACWA Power, said the company will invest $12 billion in current and new renewable energy projects in several countries. He added that the Saudi Group is competing for three wind power tenders totaling 850 MW in Morocco’s wind power expansion plan, the largest in the world. [Morocco World News]
US:
¶ Tesla is clearly aiming to sell its new battery systems to a wide range of large commercial markets. This can be seen in the fact that Walmart has already installed Tesla’s batteries at 11 California locations, as part of a pilot program with SolarCity. Elon Musk says Tesla will make an announcement this week. [CleanTechnica]
¶ According to an independent environmental monitoring firm, there were 695 “avian detections” and another 8 injured birds found over the first four seasons operation of the Ivanpah solar power tower project from October of 2013 (during the initial pre-production commissioning) and October of 2014. [CleanTechnica]
Ivanpah is partly funded by Google
¶ Texas’ state incentives may soon be cut off if the Texas House of Representatives approves a bill eliminating the incentives that helped get the Texas wind industry going. Many wind industry experts said it isn’t a smart move. They said the future of wind development in Texas may be hindered. [LubbockOnline.com]
¶ A solar garden building boom is sweeping the Denver area, with nine gardens already built and 10 more under development. An 800-kW array next to Green Valley Ranch Middle School in Denver is set to go into operation. In Boulder, a $1.5 million, 500-kW installation being built next one that opened in 2013. [The Denver Post]
¶ A parade of energy executives, analysts, academics and government officials from several countries delivered speeches and participated in panels as part a Houston energy conference. Most worried over low prices and making a profit, and speculated on what it could all mean for economies and consumers. [Valley News]
¶ One topic seemed to dominate the Michigan Energy Innovation Business Council’s annual meeting that took place this week: renewable energy. The consensus is, renewable energy maybe good for the environment, but it’s also very good for the economy, and that’s why, business people are so interested. [Detroit Free Press]
¶ Under a new plan put forth by Maine’s Governor LePage, which is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday at 1 pm before the Legislature’s Energy, Utilities and Technology Committee, voters would no longer have a say on the creation of nuclear power plants with generating capacities of 500 MW or less. [Press Herald]
geoharvey 
Leave a comment