World:
¶ Work is nearing completion on what will soon be Europe’s largest floating solar power farm. But few are likely to see the 23,000 solar panels on the Queen Elizabeth II reservoir near London. It is invisible to all but Heathrow passengers and a few flats in neighbouring estates. [The Guardian]
Divers fix anchors onto the bed of the reservoir.
Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian
¶ SunEdison and a subsidiary of the state-owned Chinese company Jinneng Group, Jinergy Clean Energy Technology Company, are partnering for the creation of a 1.5 gigawatt integrated N-type mono-crystalline hetero-junction solar cell production facility in Shanxi, China. [CleanTechnica]
¶ The 56 MW Moree Solar Farm is feeding electricity into Australia’s National Electricity Market network. Spain’s Fotowatio Renewable Ventures developed and constructed the project. It deploys single axis tracking and is the largest solar project using crystalline silicon PV modules. [pv magazine]
¶ The 63.3-MW Calatagan Solar Farm is the largest solar facility completed in the Philippines to date. Solar Philippines, a renewable energy firm led by 22-year-old entrepreneur Leandro Leviste, developed, financed and constructed this solar farm at a cost of $120 million. [Inquirer.net]
A 160-hectare farm in Calatagan, Batangas, Philippines.
Contributed photo
¶ A group of prominent business leaders, including Ottawa’s growth guru Dominic Barton, is urging Canada to accelerate the transition to a cleaner, lower-carbon economy by pursuing a society-wide game plan. The leaders will introduce a virtual think tank called Smart Prosperity. [The Globe and Mail]
¶ 70% of Scottish voters polled wanted to see more renewable energy such as wind, solar, wave and tidal. Respondents had been asked whether there should be continued development of renewables, the extension of the life of fossil fuel plans, use of shale gas or building new nuclear plants. [Energy Voice]
¶ Wind farms in Spain produced 6,091 GWh in 2015, up by 2.4% year-on-year, and helped reach a total renewable energy share of 54.6% for February. Despite a lack of new capacity additions, Spanish wind power accounted for 30.2% of the country’s total power for the month. [SeeNews Renewables]
Wind farm. Author: TraumTeufel666.
License: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic.
¶ ScottishPower has plans to more than double the size of its 440-MW Cruachan hydro power station, though development is dependent on Government guaranteed pricing. The estimated £400 million development would need a floor price on its use in return for a cap on profits. [Scottish Daily Record]
¶ Construction of Britain’s first nuclear power plant in 20 years should be delayed until 2019 so problems with a similar reactor design in France are solved, the CFE-CGC Energy Union said. Unions occupy six of the 18 seats on the board of EDF, which is yet to vote on a final investment decision. [BBC]
US:
¶ The US produced over 190 million MWh of wind power in 2015, more than any other country in the world, even as China has nearly double the capacity, the American Wind Energy Association said. More than 31% of Iowa’s in-state electricity generation came from wind. [SeeNews Renewables]
Source: American Wind Energy Association
¶ A wide coalition of utilities, solar installers, consumer advocates, and environmentalists in Maine have introduced a bill in the state legislature to advance solar growth in the state and replace the net metering policy with a market-based “pay for production” program. [Utility Dive]
¶ Owing to the very harmful effects of common air pollution on fetal and childhood development, a large group of pro-life Christians in Texas, through the Evangelical Environmental Network, will be participating in the Pro-Life Clean Energy Campaign, according to a press release. [CleanTechnica]
Brazos Wind Farm, Texas.
Photo by Leaflet via a Wiki CC BY-SA 3.0 License
¶ The New York State Common Retirement Fund lost at least $5.3 billion over the last three years by remaining invested in fossil fuel holdings, instead of reinvesting in green companies. These are the findings according to a new report from Corporate Knights, an investment research company. [CleanTechnica]
¶ Two Wisconsin utilities announced projects that will roughly double the state’s solar capacity. Dairyland Power Cooperative agreed to purchase almost 19 MW from 12 new solar arrays. Xcel Energy has agreed to purchase up to 3 MW from community-owned solar gardens. [Chippewa Herald]
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