World:
¶ Tidal Lagoon Power has launched a £22 million tender for
the turbine manufacturing and pre-assembly plant for its up to 320-MW Swansea Bay project. The 100-meter-long hub will be located between the Kings and Queens Dock at Swansea Bay following a competitive tender of potential locations for the facility last year. [reNews]
Artist’s impression of Swansea Bay tidal lagoon (TLP image)
¶ India ratified the landmark Paris climate pact Sunday. India’s formal agreement brings the accord closer to coming into force. It is to take effect after 55 countries producing 55% of the world’s emissions ratify it. With India onboard, 62 countries accounting for more than half the world’s emissions would have ratified the agreement. [Voice of America]
¶ The first review of economic bids in Argentina’s tender for one GW of renewable energy shows that wind and solar offers have fallen to as low as $49/MWh (€43.7/MWh) and $59/MWh, respectively. The average rate for wind power in the auction stood at $69.5/MWh, while the average for solar power was of $76.2/MWh. [SeeNews Renewables]
Wind turbine at Loma Blanca wind farm in Argentina
(Photo by Federico López, CC BY SA, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ The Australian energy industry urged political leaders to stop the point-scoring over the South Australian blackout. Experts said policymakers would be “fighting against economics” if they doubled down on the centralized grid instead of redesigning the market to meet the shift to decentralized energy. [The Australian Financial Review]
¶ Kenya’s government has an ambitious target of achieving universal access to power by 2020, with plans already underway. The Kenyan energy and petroleum ministry cabinet secretary said that the government was exploiting locally available energy sources, including off-grid renewables solutions, to achieve this goal. [ESI Africa]
Maasai men and tourists jumping in Kenya
(Photo by Christopher Michel, CC BY SA, Wikimedia Commons)
¶ As climate change affects weather patterns more, remote communities in Northwestern Ontario feel the impacts. With shorter and warmer winters and more variable temperatures, winter roads have become mostly unreliable. Communities are seeking renewable alternatives to their dependence on diesel generation. [The Chronicle Journal]
¶ South Africa, a country beset by frequent power outages, will have to wait a little longer before pressing ahead with a highly contentious and very costly expansion of its old nuclear power fleet. The energy ministry pulled the plug on new reactors, postponing the procurement process to allow for further consultations. [Independent Online]
The Koeberg power station outside Cape Town
(File picture: Bruce Sutherland. Credit: Supplied)
¶ Two new plants in South Wales and North London will increase the anaerobic digesters that Agrivert operate to a total of five, increasing the company’s total food waste recycling capacity to 250,000 tonnes per annum and its geographical coverage to span Hertfordshire, London and the South East, Oxfordshire and South Wales. [CIWM Journal Online]
US:
¶ Rural electric cooperatives once brought electricity to far-flung communities, transforming rural economies. One co-op in Western Colorado is trying to spur economic development again, partly by generating more of their electricity locally from renewable resources. But that requires legal action. [Harvest Public Media]
Intake for a micro-hydro plant in Colorado
(Cally Carswell for Inside Energy)
¶ With gambling, alcohol, general debauchery, or the sheer amount of electric wattage, Las Vegas doesn’t seem like a place that would be willing to go green. And yet it is. Several Las Vegas Strip Casinos are getting off the Nevada power grid. Both MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts Ltd have already left it. [The Inquisitr]
¶ Donald Trump has said he wants to abolish the EPA. That’s no small feat, given that the agency was created by law – one signed by President Nixon. Now, he has named a prominent climate science denier and longtime foe of regulation, Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to lead his EPA transition team. [InsideClimate News]
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