World:
¶ The world’s first electrical car and passenger ferry powered by batteries has entered service in Norway. The ferry only uses 150 kWh per route, which corresponds to three days use of electricity in a standard Norwegian household. The ferry is powered by lithium-ion batteries charged by hydropower. [The Maritime Executive]
Battery-powered ferry in Norway.
¶ International Energy Agency and the World Bank have issued an update on progress countries have made on energy objectives. They say significant process has been made towards achieving widespread energy access, increased energy efficiency, and a greater development of renewable energy, but more is needed. [CleanTechnica]
¶ On Monday, the International Renewable Energy Agency released a report claiming that developing Djibouti’s significant renewable energy resources will allow the country to reach its goal of sourcing 100% of its energy from renewables by 2020. The country’s has geothermal, wind, and solar resources. [ESI Africa]
¶ Storing hydrogen deep underground in salt caverns and converting it into a reliable, affordable, flexible power source could help meet the UK’s future peak energy and load following demands, according to a new report published by the Energy Technologies Institute. The UK has over 30 useable salt caverns. [PoliticsHome.com]
¶ A report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency more than 7.7 million people world-wide are now employed by the renewable energy industry. This is an 18% increase from last year’s figure of 6.5 million. The solar PV industry is the largest renewable energy employer world-wide. [solarserver.com]
¶ German Chancellor Merkel and French President Hollande jointly yesterday pledged to do their utmost to ensure an ambitious UN deal to combat climate change is reached this year. The EU’s two biggest economies also urged other countries to do their part in helping achieve a global push to cut emissions. [The Daily Star]
¶ Brazil will reach an installed renewables capacity of 32.9 GW by 2017, with wind power becoming the top renewable energy technology there, GlobalData forecasts. Biomass plants represented half of Brazil’s renewable energy mix in 2014 are expected to lose the first place in the ranking to wind farms. [SeeNews Renewables]
Wind farm in Rio Grande do Sul. Author: Alexandre Pereira. License: Creative Commons, Attribution – ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.
¶ Bloomberg New Energy Finance analyzed the pre-approval of a record 34 GW of Chinese wind projects to be built over 2015-18 in an Analyst Reaction, looking at the investment involved, the developers and the geographical distribution of the approved projects. This will be windpower’s biggest year in China. [Business Spectator]
¶ Japan`s nuclear watchdog on Wednesday gave the green light to restart one more atomic reactor, weeks after the government said a fifth of the country`s electricity supply should come from atomic power. The Nuclear Regulation Authority decided a reactor at Ikata nuclear power plant meets safety guidelines. [Zee News]
US:
¶ Georgia Power is launching the 2015/2016 Advanced Solar Initiative Distributed Generation program soliciting projects totaling 100 MW. The company will acquire solar resources using a combination of competitive bidding and fixed pricing. It is holding events to help applicants learn more. [Your Renewable News]
¶ In Alaska, faced with climate change and high electricity costs, the Kodiak Electric Association set a goal of producing 95% of the community’s electrical needs with renewable energy by 2020. They actually arrived there well ahead of time, and are now 99.7% renewably powered by wind and hydro. [Business Spectator]
Kodiak Island wind farm. Photo by James Brooks. Wikimedia Commons.
¶ Iron mines, electric utilities and the biofuel industry came out winners in energy-related measures passed by the Minnesota legislature. But municipal and cooperative electric companies convinced lawmakers people with rooftop solar panels don’t pay their fair share for the grid, so they will pay fees. [Minneapolis Star Tribune]
¶ The US DOE said higher wind turbine towers and longer blades could unlock wind development in all 50 states, opening up an additional one-fifth of the land area in the country. At 110 meter hub heights, the agency expects the land area with physical potential for wind deployment in the US to increase 54%. [reNews]
¶ Duke Energy announced plans to retire its Asheville, NC, coal-fired power plant in four to five years and modernize its generation and transmission system in western North Carolina and upstate South Carolina. They say this will reduce environmental impacts. The coal plant will be converted to burn natural gas. [Your Renewable News]
¶ The solar capacity in the US is forecast to grow to 40 GW by 2017, up from 20 GW in 2014, according to a new video report from the US Solar Energy Industries Association. Solar will be producing enough energy to power eight million homes by 2017, with all solar markets expected to grow 25-50% in this period. [PV-Tech]
geoharvey 
May 21, 2015 at 5:20 pm
Reblogged this on nuclear-news.