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COP21:

¶ Following three days of hectic parleys over a complex 54-page draft pact, negotiators released a draft document, though there was reportedly no agreement on about 250 undecided options across the text. India has expressed satisfaction with the first draft, saying progress had been made. [Daily News & Analysis]

Photo by Presidencia de la República Mexicana. CC BY-SA 2.0. Wikimedia Commons.

¶ A new report, Transformational INDCs: how new renewables pledges could transform the economics of wind and solar, says national climate change plans submitted prior to COP21 have placed the world on the brink of a renewable energy revolution. INDCs are Intended Nationally Determined Contributions. [CleanTechnica]

¶ The once black-and-white world of climate negotiations for poorer countries has shifted at talks this week in Paris. For years, many have said richer countries created the global warming, so it is up to them to clean it up, but it is clear that developing nations have to be part of the solution. [San Angelo Standard Times]

¶ COP21 is expected to draw 750 stakeholders to Paris this week to address critical climate change issues. And hundreds of charged activists are taking to the streets to ensure that their voices and concerns are also heard. As the World Health Organization pointed out, the “stakes are high.” [Huffington Post]

Hundreds of pairs of shoes are displayed at the place de la Republique, in Paris, as part of a rally. Laurent Cipriani/AP

¶ Former US Vice President Al Gore took to the stage at COP21 in a side-event focused on stranded fossil fuel assets. The crowd expected the longtime climate activist to come prepared with a compelling narrative that made the case for strong action coming out of the conference, and Gore did not disappoint. [Triple Pundit]

World:

¶ The Egyptian Ministry of Electricity this week took a major step towards the development of one of the largest solar power parks in the world. A total of 11 project developers have signed agreements to develop projects that will form a part of the 1.8 GW solar power park planned for Benban, Aswan. [CleanTechnica]

¶ China has started construction on the country’s biggest wind power project on an island off Fujian Province. The wind farm on Nanri Island, Putian City, will have a capacity of 400 MW. The project should yield 1400 GWh of electricity each year, replacing energy from burning 450,000 tonnes of coal. [CRIENGLISH.com]

Nanri Island Wind Farm in Putian City, south China’s Fujian Province. Photo: xjny.ts.cn

¶ Google has purchased the output of renewable energy generation facilities around the world totalling 841 MW. The company has to date invested in more than 2 GW of renewable energy facilities and claimed the 841 MW of deals is the “biggest ever non-utility purchase” of renewable energy. [PV-Tech]

¶ Privately owned Bruce Power will invest $13 billion to refurbish the world’s largest nuclear station on Lake Huron. The company will as‎sume all financial risk of cost overruns from the overhaul of six of Bruce’s eight reactors that is to begin in 2020. The work was to begin in 2016, but has been delayed. [Hamilton Spectator]

¶ The sustained rise in power bills over the past several years has prompted a surge in Australian households wanting to “do-it-yourself” by unplugging from the power grid, which may result in further declines in carbon emissions. As much as 90% of households are looking to renewable energy. [Sydney Morning Herald]

Ninety percent of households are looking to solar panels. Photo: Matt Bedford

US:

¶ US solar manufacturer and developer SunPower Corp announced the start of construction on its 100-MW Boulder Solar project in Nevada. Utility NV Energy will buy the power generated at the plant under a 20-year power purchase agreement. The solar park is expected to be operational in 2016. [SeeNews Renewables]

¶ Carbon pollution equal to 384,097 cars could be eliminated by 2020 with a moderate growth in wind power off the Rhode Island coast, a report from Environment Rhode Island Research and Policy Center says. Enough wind power for 344,566 homes could be built there over the next five years. [GoLocalProv]

¶ In the first 10 months of 2015 the US installed 4.18 GW of wind and 1.4 GW of solar power generation capacity. Renewables accounted for 63% of all the new power capacity. In October, 200 MW of wind, 33 MW of solar and 10 MW of biomass power generation capacity went online. [SeeNews Renewables]

Wind farm in New Jersey, US. Author: nosha. License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.

¶ A unit of a North Carolina utility and Google Inc. announced separate deals Thursday for more than 600 MW of electricity from three new wind farms to be built in Oklahoma. Duke Energy Renewables said it will build a 200-MW wind farm in Kay County and sell the power to a utility in Missouri. [NewsOK.com]

¶ Exelon said Thursday it has embraced New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s plan to support three upstate nuclear units to make them economically viable enough to continue operating. Entergy, however, has rejected the plan. The governor’s plan does not count nuclear power toward the 50% clean power goal. [Platts]

This entry was posted on December 4, 2015 at 7:26 am and is filed under nuclear power, renewable power, solar, wind.

Tags: nuclear power, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, photovoltaic, solar power, wind power