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Opinion:

¶ “Crisis looms as our coal-fired power stations start to break down” • Coal-fired power stations are likely to break down more often as the deadline for closure approaches, leaving the UK vulnerable to power shortages. Nine coal-fired power stations remain in the UK. [This is Money]

Shutting down: Coal supplied about 17% of the UK’s
electricity at the end of 2015, down from over 30% in 2014.

¶ “Coal vs. renewables: Texas a leader in shift to wind and solar energy” • If there’s a War on Coal, it’s increasingly clear which side is winning. Analysis by the investment firm Lazard determined that wind energy is now the lowest-cost energy source, even without tax incentives. [Longview News-Journal]

World:

¶ Experts at the World Economic Forum on Africa suggested that leveraging investments into renewable, digital and energy-efficient technologies will spur Africa’s ambitions to a fully electrified continent. Countries are expected to need to add 292 GW of new capacity in the next 35 years. [AllAfrica.com]

Wind farm on the Tunisian coast. Photo by IssamBarhoumi.
CC BY-SA 4.0 international. Wikimedia Commons.

¶ The government of the Indian state of Karnataka is looking to increase the installed solar power capacity target from the current 2 GW to 6 GW by 2022. The new target is in line with the central government’s target of 8% share of solar power in national power consumption by 2022. [PlanetSave.com]

¶ Dubai Electricity and Water Authority said that solar PV panels have been installed on 30 buildings as part of the Shams Dubai initiative launched last year. The utility is working with 18 government organisations to connect 37 projects, with a total capacity of 279 kW. [The National]

Solar PVs have been installed on 30 buildings
as part of the Shams Dubai initiative. Wam

¶ To ensure power for all its people by 2025, Sierra Leone became the first country to sign an agreement in the UK’s Energy Africa campaign. It will eliminate tax on qualified internationally certified renewable energy products to ensure power to 1 million people by 2020. [Sierra Express Media]

¶ Dudgeon Offshore Wind said it has secured a £1.3 billion ($1.84 billion) financing for a 402-MW project being co-developed by Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company Masdar along with Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil and state-owned electricity company Statkraft. [Al-Bawaba]

The project is already more than half-completed. (Shutterstock)

US:

¶ Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp are joining forces with environmental groups to promote the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance. They hope to develop 60 GW of renewable energy by 2025, enough to replace all coal-fired power plants in the US over the next four years. [domain-B]

¶ Power-stingy homes are a must in California. State policies now include a law requiring California’s built environment, tens of millions of structures, to operate twice as efficiently by the year 2030, cutting consumption of electricity and natural gas to half their projected levels. [LA Daily News]

Dorm at Humboldt State College in Arcata, California. Photo by Robert Ashworth. CC BY-SA 2.0 generic. Wikimedia Commons.

¶ A Utah school district is getting ready to flip the switch on a unique alternative energy project. The 60-kW waste vegetable oil cogeneration plant at Grand County High School is the first of its kind for Rocky Mountain Power and one of a few biomass projects in the country. [KCSG]

¶ Wind turbine construction in the United States has rebounded to its highest level in three years in the aftermath of a long political fight over the future of federal tax credits that support renewable energy projects. More than 8,500 MW of wind power capacity was built last year. [Longview News-Journal]

Bliss Wind Farm near Eagle, New York. Photo from Windtech at English Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 unported. Wikimedia Commons.

¶ Dozens of protesters demonstrated outside of a Florida Power & Light facility concerning leaks at the nuclear power plant at Turkey Point. The company announced that customers will shell out an estimated $50 million this year alone for the cleanup of hypersaline water coming from the plant. [Miami Herald]

This entry was posted on May 15, 2016 at 7:24 am and is filed under nuclear power, renewable power, solar, wind.

Tags: nuclear, nuclear power, renewable power, solar power, wind power