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Opinion:

¶ “Peak Post-Truth Has Arrived – President Trump Says Ice Caps Are ‘At A Record Level'” • Peak truth has probably arrived, or nearly so. Many cultural observers will note that almost any topic discussed nowadays seems to quickly devolve into an us/them, in/out sort of dynamic where the truth doesn’t actually matter much. [CleanTechnica]

Reign of Terror, a product of mob mentality

World:

¶ King Coal’s reign in India is about to come crashing down. Coal supplied 80% of India’s total power mix in 2016-2017, but new wind and solar is now 20% cheaper than the average wholesale power price of existing coal-fired generation, and 65% of India’s coal power generation is being sold at higher rates than new renewable energy. [Forbes]

¶ Renewable technologies, covering wind, solar and biomass, beat coal generation for the first time in the EU, according to the latest figures for 2017. This is the conclusion of a new report compiled by the think tanks Sandbag and Agora Energiewende, which analysed data from the EU’s official statistics agency EUROSTAT. [Climate Action Programme]

Wind turbines at the ocean’s edge

¶ Companies in Scandinavia are pushing the development of electric construction equipment and medium-duty trucks forward. In Norway, two companies are working on electric earth moving equipment and in Sweden, Volvo Trucks has announced it will begin selling electric medium-duty delivery trucks in 2019. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Like most small island developing states, the countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States spend a large part of their earnings on imported fossil fuels to meet energy needs, though they also boast high levels of solar radiation, good wind regimes. The area’s potential for geothermal is particularly impressive. [LSE Latin America and Caribbean]

St Lucia (Photo: Frank Kehren, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

¶ Enel’s new advanced energy services unit Enel X has been awarded contracts for 217 MW of demand response resources in Ireland’s capacity market auction. The recent tender, launched by the Republic and Northern Ireland transmission system operators Eirgrid and Soni, was the country’s first foray into capacity auctions. [reNews]

¶ Swiss outfit ABB has successfully tested the 500-MW HVDC Maritime Link enabling the exchange of electricity between Newfoundland and the North American grid in Nova Scotia. The project includes two 230-kV AC substations in Newfoundland, one 345-kV AC substation in Nova Scotia and two cable transition stations. [reNews]

Bay of Fundy (Photo: Province of Nova Scotia)

¶ The EU now gets over 30% of its electricity from renewable sources, up from 12% in 2000. At the current rate of growth, the European bloc can increase the proportion of renewables in its electricity mix to 50% by 2030, according to a report by Sandbag and Agora Energiewende. Much of the growth was in Germany and the UK. [Quartz]

¶ The Heinrich Böll Foundation conducted a poll on energy in France, and the trend it showed is very clear: 83% of French people think France should prioritize investments in renewable energy. Only 12% of the interviewees prefer that investments go towards the modernization and life extension of nuclear power plants. [Energy Collective]

Seine Musicale in Paris (Photo: Inhabitat)

US:

¶ According to GTM Research, the 30% solar tariff that President Trump has agreed to impose on imported solar modules and cells will cause the US solar industry to constrict by 11% over the next 5 years, causing nearly a quarter million customers not to install solar. The tariff will hit the utility-scale solar sector the hardest. [CleanTechnica]Preview (opens in a new window)

¶ About half of the military’s infrastructure has been affected by climate-related risks, according to a Pentagon report obtained by a nonpartisan climate think tank. The report surveyed over 3,500 US bases worldwide. It found that about 50% of  them reported effects from events like storm surge flooding, wildfire, drought and wind. [Science Magazine]

US Naval Air Station in Italy (Michael Lavender, US Navy | Flickr)

¶ A member of the Arizona Corporation Commission, Andrew Tobin, has proposed a clean energy overhaul that would make the state a clean energy leader. The Energy Modernization Plan aims to produce one of the cleanest energy mixes in the nation, while lowering prices for consumers and improving grid reliability. [Greentech Media]

¶ An agreement has been signed between the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and Salt River Project to double the capacity of the Kayenta Solar Farm. Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said the agreement is a step toward making the tribe energy self-sufficient and establishing the Navajo Nation as an energy producer. [Navajo-Hopi Observer]

Kayenta Solar Farm (Courtesy of Salt River Project)

¶ With the continued help of the production tax credit, US windpower developers installed 7,017 MW of new wind capacity in 2017, bringing the country’s total to 89,077 MW, the American Wind Energy Association reported. The new windpower capacity installed in 2017 reportedly represented $11 billion in private investment. [Platts]

¶ Plant owners and consumer attorneys struck a bargain in the long-running dispute over who pays for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant. The agreement would save consumers $775 million through February 2022. The deal requires California Public Utilities Commission approval. It would end a federal lawsuit. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

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Science and Technology:

¶ A study funded by the National Science Foundation and published in the journal Nature Geoscience offers new insights the problem of high nitrogen levels present in agricultural runoff. Multiple wetlands, or “wetland complexes” in a watershed, are extremely effective at reducing nitrate levels in rivers and streams. [Water Online]

Wetland

World:

¶ EnergyTrend’s latest report said that both China and Europe will help push the global solar market along steady growth patterns in 2018, continuing a record-breaking year of solar installations in 2017. We do not have figures for total solar in 2017 yet, but EnergyTrend expects it will reach over 100 GW for the first time. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Danish offshore wind company Ørsted has begun construction on the 1.2 GW Hornsea Project One offshore wind farm. When it is completed, will be the largest offshore wind farm in the world. The wind farm, 120 km off the coast of Yorkshire, will generate enough electricity to provide for the equivalent of 1 million UK homes. [CleanTechnica]

Hornsea Project One

¶ Tiny household batteries are supporting the power grid’s coal-fired power plants during heat waves in Victoria. New software from Canberra-based company Reposit automatically connects batteries to the grid in times of need. The company pays its customers A$1/kWh when prices are high, well above the 11.3¢/kWh minimum retail price. [The Age]

¶ Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, based in Madrid, reported major developments from renewable energy markets in Mexico and Chile. It was awarded rights to a 540-MW hybrid solar-wind project in Chile. It also that it reached financial closure for its first solar power project in Mexico, the 342-MW (DC) Potosí Solar Farm. [CleanTechnica]

Fotowatio project in Uruguay

¶ Residents of Denmark’s Bornholm Island are participating in a smart energy project that uses Internet of Things technology to create a flexible power grid. The Baltic island, which already gets 56% of its energy from renewable sources, is a model for how to develop a smart grid on a small scale, thanks to the EcoGrid project. [TechTarget]

¶ Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd announced that all its factories in the Indian states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will start using solar power as the primary source of energy for its manufacturing operations. The company signed agreements with Vibrant Energy to buy 2.7 crore units (27 million kWh) of solar power. [The Siasat Daily]

Solar system on water

¶ Nine years before the 2011 meltdown crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, TEPCO turned down a request from the government’s nuclear watchdog for it to conduct a simulation of powerful tsunami that could hit the plant, a court document showed. In declining the offer, TEPCO lost an opportunity to prepare for the disaster. [The Japan Times]

US:

¶ New York State has cooked up an elaborate offshore wind energy master plan, according to a story in Newsday. If all goes well, New Yorkers are looking at hundreds of turbines with a capacity of 2,400 MW, and a $6 billion industry employing 5,000 people. Currently, New York has only one offshore wind farm in the works. [CleanTechnica]

Deepwater Wind (Screenshot via NYSERDA)

¶ New Jersey Gov Phil Murphy officially announced that New Jersey is rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative program, the landmark, bipartisan effort to reduce carbon pollution from electric power plants in the Northeast region. Former Gov Christie pulled New Jersey out of the program nearly seven years ago. [Environment America]

¶ There is a major wind power building spree coming on ahead of the loss of federal development incentives in 2020. Mammoth wind farms are expected to dot America’s central plains. While it may sound like a golden age of onshore windpower, it could just be a temporary growth spurt that will be followed by a severe slowdown. [American Journal of Transportation]

Installing turbines in Oklahoma

¶ Offshore wind developers say Trump administration support for offshore wind has been strong during its first year in office, but states are providing the biggest push for new development, especially Massachusetts, Maryland, and New York. More than 4,000 GW of offshore wind power potential exist off US coastlines. [Bloomberg BNA]

¶ One of Alabama’s largest solar energy facilities, built in partnership with Alabama Power, is now up and running in Chambers County. The 72-MW Alabama Solar A project sits on 1,400 acres, just south of the city of Lafayette. Most of the plant’s energy is going to serve Wal-Mart through a long-term contract. [Yellowhammer News]

Alabama Solar A (Photo: Phil Free | Alabama NewsCenter)

¶ T-Mobile announced that it has finalized a contract for 160 MW from Infinity Renewables’ Solomon Forks Wind Project in Kansas, with power generation slated to begin in early 2019. At the same time, T-Mobile announced that it will move to 100% renewable electricity by 2021, and that it has joined RE100. [Windpower Engineering]

¶ Days after Massachusetts selected Northern Pass transmission project to help it meet renewable energy goals, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healy has announced she will review the process that led to its selection. The project still needs other approvals, one of which is needed from the New Hampshire Site Evaluation Committee. [Utility Dive]

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Opinion:

¶ “Renewable Energy Is Much Faster To Install & More Scalable Than Nuclear Power” • Myth: We need to build more nuclear power if we want to cut electricity emissions quickly and turn off coal and natural gas power plants. Short answer: Renewables can grow fast because they can be installed practically everywhere rapidly and simultaneously. [CleanTechnica]

Wind farm (Photo: Tomasz Bazylinski | Unsplash)

¶ “Natural gas killed coal – now renewables and batteries are taking over” • Over the past decade, coal has been increasingly replaced by cheaper, cleaner energy sources. US coal power production has dropped by 44%. It has been replaced by natural gas, which is up 45%. But in the same time, renewables are up 260%. [The Guardian]

Science and Technology:

¶ Tiny airborne particles can have a stronger influence on powerful storms than scientists previously predicted, a study published in the journal Science found. Scientists have known that aerosols may play an important role in shaping weather and climate, but the study shows that the smallest of particles have an outsized effect. [Daily News & Analysis]

Powerful storm

¶ Last year, 2017, was the hottest on record for the world’s oceans, according to a report published by a peer-reviewed journal. In the course of investigation, researchers noted that in 2017, a large amount of heat was deposited in the Atlantic Ocean. They calculated that the rise in heat gave way to a nearly 2 mm rise in sea levels. [teleSUR tv]

World:

¶ Residents of a housing society in Mumbai have managed to cut their electricity bill by 83% by switching to solar energy. The Twin Star Co-operative Housing Society, with 56 flats, has installed a 20 kW rooftop solar system. Residents say this reduces the electricity bill from ₹31,000 ($487) to around ₹5,000 ($78.65). [Hindustan Times]

Twin Star Co-op solar array (Photo: Satish Bate | HT)

¶ More than 10,000 homes in Australia’s second most populous state were stuck without power as a surge in demand amid scorching heat overloaded the grid. The latest blackouts were caused by grid failures, rather than supply shortages, which had sparked a national debate over renewable energy versus coal-fired generation. [The Indian Express]

¶ The Indo-Asian News Service reported that electric vehicles powered with renewable energy can help save close to ₹40,000 ($630) in fuel cost annually, four times earlier estimates. The report, “Help Delhi Breathe,” by finance research firm Equitorials called for 100% electric vehicles by 2030 to be powered by renewable energy. [SteelGuru]

Reva NXG electric car (RevaNorge, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ The renewable energy sector in India is heading toward consolidation. Sumant Sinha, chairman and CEO of ReNew Power, said, “With tariffs dipping and some uncertainty coming in on the policy front, project developers with a relatively lower appetite for growth or risk, are exiting the business at fair valuation of their assets.” [Economic Times]

¶ In an effort to reduce energy waste, Petroleum Development Oman invited bids for solutions to convert gases that are now being flared into power. Flaring is done at a number of stages of development and production of hydrocarbons, mostly to dispose wasteful gases that are either unusable or uneconomical to recover. [ZAWYA]

Oman petroleum development (Photo: Fahad Shadeed | Reuters)

¶ SolarReserve, a developer of large-scale solar power projects and solar thermal technology, opened two offices in South Australia. Its Australian headquarters will be in Adelaide, and a field office supporting the Aurora Solar Energy Project will be in Port Augusta. SolarReserve identified Australia as a priority market for the global organisation. [PACE Today]

US:

¶ According to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality, 48% of the air pollution in the Wasatch Front region comes from vehicles. In response, Rep Patrice Arent filed HB101, a bill that would require emissions testing on diesel vehicles in Utah. Diesel exhaust, though it is not a huge portion of emissions, is still significant. [Universe.byu.edu]

Air inversion at Salt Lake Valley (Photo: Steve Griffin | AP)

¶ North Carolina Gov Roy Cooper’s office announced that Dominion Power and Duke Energy, partners in the state’s newly approved pipeline, will spend $58 million on environmental initiatives such as expanding renewable energy. Funds can also be used to give access to the pipeline to businesses in communities along the pipeline’s path. [WWAY NewsChannel 3]

¶ The President has made it clear in numerous ways that the issue of climate change is not a priority for his administration. States and local governments have taken the issue up, however. The city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia have both stepped up with new climate initiatives to bring residents into a renewable energy age. [The Signal]

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Opinion:

¶ “The Energiewende paradox” • The German adoption of renewable energy has truly been revolutionary in many ways. In the 1980s, the government and power companies did not believe renewable power production would surpass 4% even in the long run. Today, it has a 38% share. But Germany is not likely to reach its target for 2020. [Livemint]

German rooftop (Getty Images)

¶ “Coal country at crossroads: Future shaky despite promises from Trump” • As ageing coal-fired power plants are shut, coal’s share of the nation’s power mix has plummeted from nearly half in 2008 to roughly a third today. Roughly 20 of 380 have closed or are in the process of shutting since Trump took office, and the future is gloomy. [Longview News-Journal]

¶ “Why decommissioning South Africa’s Koeberg nuclear plant won’t be easy” • South Africa is likely to decommission the Koeberg plant in the same way other countries have done theirs, by effectively leaving the waste on site indefinitely in temporary storage facilities. But decommissioning cannot be ignored for much longer. [Mail & Guardian]

Koeberg nuclear plant (Paul Scott/Wikimedia Commons)

Science and Technology:

¶ William Ruckelshaus, who was appointed first head of the EPA by former President Richard Nixon, commented on climate denial, warning that it would be a disaster for the US. “It’s a threat to the country,” he told HuffPost. “If you don’t step up and take care of real problems, and don’t do anything about it, lives will be sacrificed.” [Independent Journal Review]

World:

¶ Danish ministry of industry, business, and financial affairs presented a plan, called The Blue Denmark, that covers 36 different initiatives to strengthen maritime development in the country. One of them is about modernizing the ferries that connect the many small populated islands to the mainland. Their primary power will be electric. [CleanTechnica]

The ferry Assens Baagø (Image: Carsten Lundager)

¶ Norway’s Scatec Solar said it plans to build solar plants in Southeast Asia. The firm said it is negotiating its first 50-MW project in Vietnam, which has a goal for more than 4 GW of new solar capacity. Scatec is also awaiting approval for a 50-MW farm in Bangladesh and has proposal a 70-MW project for Myanmar. [ETEnergyworld.com]

¶ Morocco’s plans to boost renewable energy development were discussed at a meeting chaired by King Mohammed VI. Morocco intends to enhance its renewable energy potential “in order to reach the expected goal of increasing renewable production capacity to 42% by 2020,” a statement from the royal office said. [The North Africa Post]

King Mohammed VI in a meeting in Casablanca

¶ Regional Australia is already feeling the impact of climate change, with intensifying heatwaves, storms, and bushfires. Local councils are stepping up to address the problem. The Cities Power Partnership, Australia’s fastest growing local government climate network, this week welcomed 35 new councils, bringing it to 70 councils. [The Advocate]

¶ The Philippine Department of Energy has endorsed 29 power projects with over 1,500 MW of total capacity. Of the 29 projects, there are 15 renewable energy plants, 10 diesel-fired plants, and three power barges, data from the DOE showed. Only of them is a coal-fired plant, though that represented 1,000 MW of the new capacity. [Philippine Star]

Coal-fired power plant

US:

¶ Obsidian Renewables has optioned 7,000 acres of high desert territory along transmission corridors in Oregon. In the next five years, the company hopes to install a series of arrays with a total capacity of 600 MW, backed up by 400 MW of battery storage, to replace ageing coal plants. The new tariff and state policy may limit growth. [OregonLive.com]

¶ North Carolina state regulators gave the go-ahead for a $5 billion natural gas pipeline to be built in eight of the state’s counties. Development of the 600-mile pipeline, which will carry gas from fracking wells in West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina is being led by Virginia-based Dominion Energy. It is opposed by environmentalists. [ClickLancashire]

Near the North Carolina pipeline route (Photo: Steve Helber | AP)

¶ Central Maine Power is forging ahead with plans to build a major transmission line in western Maine to bring wind and hydro power from Canada into New England’s electricity grid. This is despite losing its bid for a big renewable energy contract from Massachusetts, which was instead provisionally awarded to the Northern Pass project. [Bangor Daily News]

¶ Almost 200 employees at the Siemens manufacturing plant in Fort Madison, Iowa, lost their jobs over the last two days in a round of layoffs. A spokesperson said about 330 employees will remain working at the facility. The facility manufactures wind turbine blades. It has a history of fluctuations in the size of its work force. [Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier]

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Opinion:

¶ “MSNBC & CNBC Miss The Key Points Of Trump Solar Tariffs Story” • The solar tariffs are not being applied because China or Chinese companies have done anything wrong. They are not a response to illegal dumping or Chinese subsidies on solar panels (that old case was resolved). And they will cost America many more jobs than they protect. [CleanTechnica]

Solar panel installation (Shutterstock)

World:

¶ PwC, formerly Pricewaterhouse Coopers and one of the world’s most recognizable businesses, has announced this week that not only has it cut its overall carbon footprint by nearly a third since 2007, but that it will now commit to reducing its total carbon by 40%, and it is committed to procuring 100% renewable electricity. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Austria is now planning to sue the European Commission over its approval of a nuclear energy expansion project in Hungary, government officials said. The announcement follows from the decision made by the European Commission last year to grant permission to the government of Hungary to expand the Paks nuclear facility. [CleanTechnica]

Paks nuclear facility

¶ Royal Dutch Shell has spent over $400 million on a range of acquisitions in recent weeks, from solar power to electric car charging points, cranking up its drive to expand beyond its oil and gas business and reduce its carbon footprint. Shell has been investing in EV charging stations, solar power projects and renewable grids. [Reuters]

¶ With falling costs of creating electricity from solar power and wind, electricity from renewables will soon be “consistently cheaper” than electricity from fossil fuels, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency said. That is particularly good news for poor communities without access to modern energy. [Christian Science Monitor]

Burkina Faso (Ludovic Marin | Reuters)

¶ Albatros, a 112-MW offshore windfarm, is being developed 90 km north of Borkum island in the exclusive economic zone of the German North Sea. It is an expansion of the nearby Hohe See windfarm. The Albatros windfarm will have 16 Siemens turbines, each of 7 MW, having a hub height of 105 meters and rotor diameter of 154 meters. [Power Technology]

¶ The Kazakh Deputy Minister of Energy announced a series of auctions for large-scale renewable energy power projects to be launched this year, with the first bidding round to be held in May. Overall, the government intends to allocate around 1 GW of renewable energy power generation capacity through the tenders. [pv magazine International]

Kazakhstan (Image: Kuanysh Raimbekov | Flickr)

¶ Ceylon Electricity Board, the largest electricity provider in Sri Lanka, has issued a tender for 90 MW of solar power. The tender is for 90 PV power projects with a capacity of 1 MW each, all of which must be developed on a Build, Own & Operate basis. They will be connected to 18 different grid substations in different regions. [pv magazine International]

US:

¶ Commercial Development Company Inc announced that it has purchased the closed Brayton Point power station in Somerset, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center recently identified Brayton Point as a potential site for the development of an industrial wind port to support the new wind energy for the state. [Windpower Engineering]

Brayton Point Power Station in Somerset, Massachusetts
(Wikimaster97commons, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ A white paper from Environment New York said the rapid growth of less expensive wind and solar energy and the falling costs of energy storage led to a six-fold increase in energy storage capacity (not including pumped hydropower) over the past decade. Concerns about variable power sources are fading away. [Windpower Engineering]

¶ The Public Utility Commission of Texas plans to write the state’s first rule book for utilities that want to use batteries to store power for the grid, a move that could potentially trigger changes to how electricity is produced, delivered and regulated in the state. The merchant power industry is working to see its own goals are met. [Government Technology]

Transmission system (Shutterstock image)

¶ Enel Green Power North America, Inc signed a power purchase agreement with Wynn Las Vegas. The resort will buy the energy produced by EGPNA’s new 27-MW Wynn Solar Facility at Stillwater, Nevada. The solar project is under construction already, and it is expected to start production during the first half of 2018. [WebWire]

¶ Hulu is in the process of migrating its data centers to a 100% renewable energy facility in Las Vegas operated by multi-tenant data center provider Switch. The video-on-demand company says the move will eliminate 265,000 tons of carbon emissions while powering millions of stable and secure streams each week. [Energy Manager Today]

Switch data center (Switch image)

¶ As part of its commitments under compromise legislation with the North Carolina solar industry, Duke has filed with North Carolina regulators to create both a community solar program and a “green tariff” option for the military, universities and other large power users to procure electricity from renewable energy installations. [pv magazine USA]

¶ Three Democratic senators in New Jersey’s legislature have drafted new legislation to support the state’s struggling nuclear plants financially. Public Service Enterprise Group has been pushing for subsidies of about $350 million annually over 10 years. The new legislation also calls for new efficiency standards and solar rules. [Utility Dive]

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Opinion:

¶ “Renewable Energy Doesn’t Get More In Subsidies Than Fossil & Nuclear Energy Have Gotten, & Continue To Get” • Fossil fuels have received government subsidies for 100 or so years. They reportedly get about $5 trillion each year, globally. Renewable energy also receives subsidies, but nothing compared to what fossil fuels get. [CleanTechnica]

Wind farm Avangrid

¶ “We want 41 million conversations about climate change” • At Budweiser, we pride ourselves in a close relationship with our consumers. Our research shows that they want to act on climate change but feel powerless to do anything. We sell 41 million bottles of Budweiser every day, and each one is an opportunity for discussion. [The Climate Group]

¶ “An Overlooked Solution for Competitive and Local Renewable Power” • A 40-year-old federal law has a new life in promoting a competitive US clean energy market because of falling costs for wind and solar. But despite its lofty potential, the policy remains trapped between regulatory obstacles and utility resistance. [CleanTechnica]

Local renewable power’s effects on the market

World:

¶ Dongshi Kingpower Science and Technology Ltd and Hydro-Québec announced that they had signed a license agreement for patents related to solid-state lithium batteries. The agreement allows Kingpower to use solid-state battery technology, which Hydro-Québec developed, to produce batteries for the Chinese automotive market. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Two wells have been drilled for a geothermal project on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. A third well that was stalled by mud is now moving forward. The geothermal plants will provide baseload power with solar PVs to form a core part of Montserrat’s Energy Policy. The policy aims at a target of 100% renewable power by 2020. [ThinkGeoEnergy]

Montserrat geothermal plant (Photo: Bastien Poux)

¶ Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is next in line to lead South Africa, told reporters at the World Economic Forum in Davos that his country currently cannot afford to build new nuclear power reactors. Ramaphosa’s approach differs markedly from that of President Jacob Zuma, wanted to build up to eight reactors. [TechCentral]

¶ The world’s biggest lithium-ion battery has absorbed excess electricity on the South Australian grid, and resold it on the power market for around $810,000. Tesla‘s Powerpack Project only came on stream in December, but on two occasions it has already stepped up to save the grid and helped its owners turn a quick profit. [Greener Ideal]

Hornsdale battery

US:

¶ The Northern Pass Transmission Line project that will bring up to 1.09 GW of hydropower from Quebec, Canada, to New England, has been selected as the sole winner of a huge Massachusetts clean-energy solicitation. The Northern Pass project envisages the construction of a 192-mile (309-km) power distribution network. [Renewables Now]

¶ A group of 409 clean energy business leaders organized by independent environmental advocacy group E2 has penned a letter to US President Donald Trump opposing his recent decision to impose a 30% tariff on all imported solar cells and modules, warning that the move has the potential to eliminate almost 90,000 American jobs. [CleanTechnica]

Row of solar houses (Shutterstock image)

¶ Lawmakers are trying again to close a loophole in Hawaii’s “100 percent renewable energy by 2045” policy that allows the state to meet that goal even if half of the electricity being consumed comes from oil-burning power plants. Gov David Ige asked lawmakers in 2016 to reconsider a tabled bill to amend the first-of-its-kind law. [Honolulu Civil Beat]

¶ Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey will soon be powered by a 23.5-MW solar development to be built by KDC Solar, making it the world’s first solar-powered theme park. The project will include solar carports over certain parking lots and 40 acres of ground-mounted solar panels. It is expected to be finished in 2019. [Power Engineering Magazine]

Six Flags Great Adventure

¶ Renewable energy jobs outnumber coal and natural gas jobs in 30 states, according to a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund. Clean-energy jobs number about 777,000 positions, with California and Texas employing the most, says the 31-page report. In comparison, coal and gas jobs number about 558,000. [Kallanish Energy]

¶ E.ON announced its Texas Waves energy storage projects, co-located at the existing E.ON Pyron and Inadale wind farms in West Texas, have started operations. Texas Waves consists of two 9.9-MW short-duration energy storage projects using lithium-ion battery technology. They are at wind farms near Roscoe, Texas. [Windpower Engineering]

E.ON batteries

¶ Enel Green Power North America signed a power purchase agreement with Wynn Las Vegas for energy produced from the new 27-MW Wynn Solar Facility under construction in Stillwater, Nevada. The 160-acre facility is expected to cost $40 million to develop, and will be finished in the first half of 2018. [Power Engineering Magazine]

¶ A lawsuit challenging subsidies for New York’s nuclear plants will head to trial after the state’s Supreme Court rejected motions to dismiss it. The measure deals a setback for Exelon Corp, whose subsidiaries own the RE Ginna and Nine Mile Point nuclear plants in upstate New York. Entergy Corp is also a defendant. [POWER magazine]

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Opinion:

¶ “A truly great home is a net-zero home” • Building responsibly is a big passion of mine. A home should not just protect us and keep our families safe. It should also impact our environment positively. It should be made with products that withstand the elements so they don’t wind up in the landfill. It should use its own energy and water. [National Post]

Net-zero home (Effect Home Builders image)

¶ “Natural Gas And The New Deathprint For Energy” • Tuesday afternoon saw a horribly fatal accident in Oklahoma when natural gas exploded at an oil and gas well outside of Quinton, killing five workers. If wind or solar killed that many people, it would be front page news. If nuclear did, it there would be mobs with pitchforks. [Forbes]

Science and Technology:

¶ About 11.5 billion sandwiches a year are eaten in the UK, according to the British Sandwich Association. Researchers at the University of Manchester calculated the carbon footprint of 40 different types of sandwiches, both pre-packaged and home-made. They found the sandwiches equivalent to the annual use of 8.6 million cars. [The Independent]

Sandwiches (Getty Images)

World:

¶ French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged to shut all of his country’s coal-fired power plants by 2021. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he said, “We’ve also decided to make France a model in the fight against climate change.” Mr Macron’s speech stressed the economic benefits of innovation. [SteelGuru]

¶ Over $90 billion in investments have now been pledged for the development of electric vehicles and associated battery tech by the world’s top auto manufacturers, according to Reuters analysis. This includes $52 billion by automakers in Germany, $21 billion by those in China, and at least $19 billion by automakers in the US. [CleanTechnica]

Volkswagen ID concept car

¶ Building solar and wind farms requires land, and there are many companies looking for areas without much economic value to build them in. People living in poor rural areas are vulnerable to land grabbing. Inhabitat reports that people in one Mexican town may have found a way to protect themselves from predatory energy companies. [Green Matters]

¶ China wasted less wind power last year with both curtailment volume and rate dropping, official data indicated. China’s wind power curtailment volume fell by 7.8 billion kWh in 2017 compared with that in 2016, while its curtailment rate dropped 5.2% year on year, according to the country’s National Energy Administration. [Xinhua]

Chinese wind turbines (Photo: 大漠1208, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ The EU is to provide €578 million ($717 million) to build a power link between Spain and France to carry excess Spanish renewable energy and ease one of Europe’s worst network bottlenecks, an EU source said. A 370-km (230-mile) Franco-Spanish subsea power cable will be built across the Bay of Biscay, west of the Pyrenees. [ETEnergyworld.com]

¶ The CEO of PPC Renewables and the mayor of the Greek island of Santorini, announced a partnership to build a waste management and energy production facility that will use a geothermal field on the island. This is done in cooperation with the Municipality of Santorini and the Ministry of the Aegean and Island Policy. [ThinkGeoEnergy]

Santorini (Photo: Maggie Meng | flickr, creative commons)

¶ E.ON aims to offset a looming drop in profit from its German nuclear plants, which are being phased out by 2022, by increasing earnings from networks, renewables and retail, one of its board members said. Germany is getting out of nuclear power after Japan’s Fukushima disaster and E.ON’s plants are scheduled to close. [Reuters]

¶ A boom in wind farms is fuelling a jobs surge in the Australian renewable energy industry with 17% employment growth in the sector in December. There are now 79 wind farms operating in the country and at least another six due to be built this year. The rapid growth is helping Australia hit its Renewable Energy Target. The Sydney Morning Herald]

Manufacturing wind turbine towers (Photo: Jessica Shapiro)

US:

¶ Fluence Energy Storage is developing the world’s largest battery energy storage facility as part of a $2 billion repowering project in Long Beach, California. The battery will combine with efficient combined-cycle gas capacity to replace ageing natural gas peaking plants, meeting local reliability needs within the California’s environmental goals. [CleanTechnica]

¶ The recently announced 30% solar tariff could be offset and overwhelmed by new plans announced this week by the Rocky Mountain Institute and 35 solar energy industry leaders. They committed to developing an ultra-low-cost solar product to reduce costs to the point that fully installed costs would only reach $0.50 per watt. [CleanTechnica]

Solar panels in the desert

¶ Maine Gov Paul LePage imposed a moratorium on new wind energy permits in his state and established a commission that will meet behind closed doors to study the economic impacts of wind turbines on the state’s tourism industry. It will be exempt from Maine’s Freedom of Access laws and will not have to meet in public. [Lewiston Sun Journal]

¶ Wind power is forecast to surpass hydroelectricity for the first time as the nation’s top source of renewable electricity sometime in the next year, the Energy Information Administration said. The sector is expected to produce 6.4% of utility-scale electricity in 2018, and 6.9% in 2019, propelled by a national construction boom. [HuffPost]

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Opinion:

¶ “How The US Government Is Underestimating The Global Growth Of Renewable Energy” • Dan Cohan, a professor at Rice University who uses numbers provided by the US DOE’s Energy Information Administration, came to question some of them. On examination, he found the numbers on renewable energy were often wildly inaccurate. [Houston Public Media]

Wind power (Photo: Gabriel C Pérez | KUT)

¶ “Hacking Nuclear Systems Is the Ultimate Cyber Threat. Are We Prepared?” • In a drill, a hacker hijacked a simulated power plant and used its industrial controls against themselves to flood the cooling system. It took officials from three different Swedish nuclear plants a couple of hours to disconnect the industrial computer. [Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting]

World:

¶ UK electrical engineering company Smith Brothers switched on the grid connection for two wind farms in Scotland totalling 23.55 MW. The projects are the 14.35-MW Tullymurdoch facility, with 7 turbines, and the 9.2-MW Welton of Creuchies wind farm, with 4 turbines. They are located adjacent to one another at a site in Perth and Kinross. [reNews]

Two Smith Bros wind farms (Credit: Smith Bros)

¶ Renewables are becoming the energy source of choice for corporate electricity users, with electricity generation owned by companies increasing more than twelvefold in Europe in 2016, a report says. The report tracks progress made by companies committed to 100% renewable power as part of the RE100 initiative. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

¶ Five new backers have joined Kyocera Corp, Kyudenko Corp, and Mizuho Bank to support the development of a solar plant of up to 480-MW on the island of Ukujima in Japan. About $1.8 billion in investment is planned for the project, with a goal of starting construction before the end of March 2019, according to the companies. [reNews]

Solar farm (Kyocera image)

¶ Since 2014, Engie has operated a strategic shift by reducing future exploration in fossil fuels and investing massively in green energies and energy efficiency services. Under the guidance of the present chief executive, Isabelle Kocher, this has accelerated. Low-carbon activities now represent more than 90% of earnings. [Power Engineering International]

¶ The first of three Haliade 150-6MW turbines by GE Renewable Energy has been erected at the site of a pilot offshore wind farm in China, with the others to be installed in the days to come, according to GE. The turbines will be part of a 73-MW offshore demonstration project owned by Fuqing Haixia Electricity Generation Co. [Renewables Now]

GE Haliade 150-6MW nacelle (GE image)

¶ According to analysis of corporate clean energy procurement by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, corporations around the world signed a record volume of Power Purchase Agreements in 2017, amounting to 5.4 GW of clean energy by 43 companies across 10 different countries, which is an impressive 25% increase over 2016. [CleanTechnica]

¶ The Regional Council has given the go ahead for construction of a new 120-MW Fraser Coast solar farm at Munna Creek in Queensland. The Fraser Coast Chronicle reports that the $200 million project could create about 300 jobs during construction. It should have the potential to power around 30,000 Queensland homes. [Energy Matters]

Solar farm in Australia’s Sunshine State

US:

¶ Greenskies Renewable Energy LLC is completing rooftop solar arrays on eleven public schools in New Haven, Connecticut.  The solar arrays will enable the City of New Haven to lower its annual electric costs with clean, renewable energy. The installations of solar arrays will more than double the city’s solar capacity to 2.8 MW. [Markets Insider]

¶ Ocean Thermal Energy Corp, based in Pennsylvania, designs and develops deep-water hydrothermal clean energy systems that generate renewable power through Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. OTE announced that it has completed the first draft of the master plan for a renewables-powered EcoVillage in the US Virgin Islands. [Renewables Now]

Jack Bay, St Croix (Photo: Grisha Levit, CC BY-SA 2.0)

¶ Budweiser said it has switched all its US brewing to renewable electricity and is adding a clean energy logo to its labels as part of a global shift to green power by its parent Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s biggest brewer. A “100 percent renewable electricity” symbol will be added to US bottles and cans, Budweiser said, [Reuters]

¶ Platte River Power Authority’s announcement that it would buy 150 MW of electric capacity from a new wind farm will mean that the power wholesaler and its member cities such as Loveland will be getting 48% of their electricity from renewable sources. The project should start selling electricity from the wind farm by the end of 2020. [Loveland Reporter-Herald]

Wind farm outside Glenrock, Wyoming

¶ Massachusetts Gov Charlie Baker called for improvements in education, transportation and housing in his state of the state address. In the half-hour speech, Baker said Massachusetts must not rest on its laurels. Among other things, he said the state is working to increase its reliance on renewable energy and improve transportation. [The Recorder]

¶ Duke Energy Renewables announced that it has ordered 24 IdentiFlight units for its Top of the World wind project in Wyoming as part of its avian protection program. The system uses artificial intelligence with high-precision optical technology to detect eagles and prevent their colliding with rotating wind turbine blades. [Windpower Engineering]

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World:

¶ Vestas Wind Systems announced that it has secured its first wind turbine order in Kazakhstan, for the 52-MW Astana wind project. The order is from CAPEC Green Energy, a leading renewable energy developer in the country. Vestas will provide turbine installation and commissioning. Delivery is expected in the third quarter of this year. [CleanTechnica]

Vestas turbines (Vestas image)

¶ The world’s oldest insurance market, Lloyd’s of London, is the latest member of the European insurance industry to divest from coal. The Unfriend Coal campaign said that as of November 2017, leading insurance companies had pulled $20 billion out of investments in coal, and a growing number refuse to underwrite new coal projects. [OilPrice.com]

¶ China’s National Energy Administration published its official solar statistics for 2017, revealing that the country had installed a total of 52.83 GW worth of new solar capacity in 2017. This represents a 54% increase from the 34.2 GW of new solar PV capacity China installed in 2016, a figure that had been thought enormous. [CleanTechnica]

Floating solar plant in China (Sungrow image)

¶ The World Bank is planning a “Scaling Solar and Storage” program as an extension on its aim to foster solar energy development. The bank had been focused on large-scale solar tendering, predominantly in Africa. The new program would work on utility-scale tenders that pair solar PV with battery storage. [Power Engineering International]

¶ The number of public charging points for plug-in electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles in China grew by around 51% during 2017, according to Miao Wei, the country’s Industry and Information Technology Minister. That said, however, public charging infrastructure development is still lagging behind demand. [CleanTechnica]

Charging station (Image by Epattloamer, some rights reserved)

¶ One of the largest solar power parks globally will have solar trackers supplied by NEXTracker. In a press release, NEXTracker announced that it will supply trackers for 325 MW of solar power projects in the Benban solar power park in Egypt. The trackers will be supplied to Sterling & Wilson, a global EPC company. [CleanTechnica]

¶ In Hungary, the Prime Minister’s Office and other parties are discussing a scheme aimed at supporting the country’s farmers in installing medium-size solar power facilities. The scheme envisages deployment 600 of solar power facilities, each with a capacity of 0.5 MW. It will have a budget of 8 billion HUF ($31.7 million). [pv magazine International]

Hungarian solar plant (Photo: CivertanS, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ Australia’s Clean Energy Regulator announced that the 2020 renewable energy target has effectively been met, three years ahead of schedule. The earlier 42,000 GWh target had been cut to 33,000 GWh by the Abbott government under the pretext that it would cause prices to rise and the lights to go out, a prediction that proved absurd. [RenewEconomy]

US:

¶ President Donald Trump has announced steep tariffs on imported washing machines and solar panels, giving a boost to Whirlpool Corp and dealing a setback to the renewable energy industry in the first of several potential trade restrictions. The tariff on solar panels is intended to protect two foreign-owned manufacturers. [The Guardian]

Installing solar panels

¶ Puerto Rico Gov Ricardo Rosselló announced that he will privatize the island’s crippled, broke, and decrepit electric energy authority, which he said has become a heavy burden to residents and has been hampering economic recovery. The bankrupt company has outdated, inefficient, and polluting generating and transmission systems. [NBCNews.com]

¶ California dairies and agricultural companies have new opportunities to address methane emissions under a program encouraging the development of dairy biogas in the state. Four utilities recently announced they will start accepting proposals for pilot projects that successfully capture and process biogas from dairy cows. [Energy Manager Today]

Dairy cows (Credit: Henrik Hjortshøj)

¶ Tech companies, led by such giants as Apple and Facebook, are snapping up more clean energy than ever, setting a record in 2017, worldwide. The Trump administration’s rollback of US environmental policies may actually have emboldened some companies to buy more clean power to fight climate change in the absence of federal policy. [BloombergQuint]

¶ The San Diego County Water Authority and the City of San Diego, are assessing the potential to develop the 500-MW San Vicente Energy Storage Facility to increase the availability of renewable energy for the region. They hired Black & Veatch to help evaluate proposals, select the service team, and negotiate agreements. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

San Vicente Reservoir

¶ Bipartisan proposals introduced in Virginia’s House and Senate would undo a Dominion rate freeze and return some funds to ratepayers, the result of a lower corporate tax rate. Dominion supports the bill and was consulted in its drafting, according to The Washington Post. Bills would drop 6% immediately, if the proposal passes. [Utility Dive]

¶ The Millstone Power Station in Waterford, Connecticut, won a victory as it moves to secure long-term contracts to sell electric power to Connecticut’s utilities. State utility regulators said in a draft report that they would move forward with a controversial procurement process that could benefit in the 2,200-MW nuclear plant. [Hartford Business]

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Opinion:

¶ “The challenges driving microgrids into the mainstream” • Five years ago, in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, the potential of microgrids became quite clear when widespread disruption caused power outages in several states. Buildings with their own microgrid systems stood out like beacons against a backdrop of blackouts. [Power Engineering International]

Hurricane Katrina

World:

¶ International Wind Power Company signed a contract with King Abdullah Economic City to build Saudi Arabia’s first commercial wind farm. Under the terms of the contract, IWPC will lease 10.2 hectares (25.2 acres) of land in the KAEC Industrial Valley to build wind turbines that will generate sustainable electricity. [MEConstructionNews.com]

¶ Now that oil prices have begun to rise again, Norway’s oil and gas development and output will as well, with output perhaps eclipsing the earlier high of 2004 within five years, according to a report from the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Norwegian oil and gas investment is expected to begin climbing in 2018, after 4 years of decreases. [CleanTechnica]

Gudvangen

¶ InfraCo Africa, part of the multi-lateral Private Infrastructure Development Group, has signed a joint development agreement worth $3.1 million to develop the Khoumagueli Solar PV project in the Republic of Guinea. Khoumagueli is expected to be Guinea’s first grid-connected solar power plant. It will have a capacity of 40 MW. [African Review]

¶ Abdul Latif Jameel Energy plans to use its renewable energy experience to develop carbon neutral desalination plants, as it pursues contracts in both sectors in markets including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The firm is considering using solar and wind power to power desalination, which is typically highly energy-intensive. [The National]

Desalination plant (Photo: Mona Al Marzooqi | The National)

¶ Cuba aims to become one of the more than 100 countries that will meet their energy demands with renewable sources like wind, water or sunlight by 2050. Cuba plans to meet 24% of its energy needs from different renewable sources by 2030. Currently, two large wind projects are under construction with Chinese help. [ecns]

¶ Siemens Gamesa 7-MW turbines have started delivering power from the second and final phase of Ørsted’s 659-MW Walney 3 offshore wind farm in the Irish Sea. Ørsted said three of the 47 Siemens Gamesa machines had already been installed at the Walney East phase of the project off the coast of Cumbria in England. [reNews]

Walney 3 (Credit: Ørsted)

¶ UK-based billionaire Sanjeev Gupta is looking to purchase equipment in the old Holden factory in South Australia and to use the plant to create an electric vehicle production line in what would be a remarkable transformation of Australia’s car industry and economy. Gupta has the backing of the South Australian government. [RenewEconomy]

¶ Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy has secured contracts totalling 326 MW from multiple developers for 26 projects in India. The deals are for supplying, erecting, and commissioning of 135 G114-2.0MW machines and 28 G97-2.0MW turbines. The projects range from 2 MW to 60 MW and are scheduled to be commissioned in March. [reNews]

Gamesa turbines (Image: Siemens Gamesa)

¶ TEPCO has started clearing rubble at the Number 1 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Workers will remove nuclear fuel from its storage pool as they continue work on the decommission process. The company is vacuuming finer debris scattered over the spent fuel storage pool in the upper part of the building. [NHK WORLD]

¶ A massive wind farm project that will power up to 46,000 homes in Tasmania is due to start generating electricity by mid 2019. The A$280 million ($224.4 million) Granville Harbour Wind Farm finally commenced construction this week. On completion, it will boast 31 turbines and have a capacity of 112 MW. [The Advocate]

Premier Will Hodgman and Granville Farm owner Royce
Smith at the groundbreaking (Photo: Lachlan Bennett)

US:

¶ A report says New England could see rolling power blackouts within years without more stable fuel supplies. ISO-New England is an independent nonprofit that manages the six-state power grid. The group studied how fuel supply and demand might play out in those states in the hypothetical winter of 2024 to 2025. [New England Public Radio]

¶ There is a term for what’s going on right now in the Sierra Nevada and the mountains that feed the Colorado River. It is called a “snow drought,” and Nevada climate scientists warn that periods of below-average snowpack have become increasingly common, and more frequent snow droughts are likely as global temperatures rise. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

Washoe Lake (Benjamin Hatchet, Desert Research Institute)

¶ The San Diego County Planning Commission voted 6-1 last week to recommend that the County’s Board of Supervisors approve the County’s revised Climate Action Plan, with some modifications. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider the revised Climate Action Plan and the Planning Commission’s recommendation Feb 14. [CBS 8 San Diego]

¶ Both New England and California have cut greenhouse gas emissions since launching market-based cap and trade programs. But analysts say the programs are not the primary drivers of emissions reductions. If that is true, does cap and trade work? The numbers are not all in and the experts still disagree on the programs’ effectiveness. [Utility Dive]

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Science and Technology:

¶ A team of researchers led by a University of Arizona associate professor of dendrochronology examined lines of hundreds of tree rings to reconstruct the last 290 years of climate history. They found increases in extreme summer weather events in the last 50 years, which related to increased changes in the jet stream from climate change. [Arizona Daily Star]

Pine on Mount Olympus (Photo: Greg King)

¶ Global warming is real, and it is happening now. Within hours of the announcement by scientists in the US that 2017 was either the third warmest or second warmest year ever recorded over the Earth’s land and oceans, there came a further revelation: In regards to oceans in particular, 2017 was simply the warmest year on record. [bdnews24.com]

World:

¶ Saudi Arabia aims to save 40 GWh this year from efficiency, as part of the country’s economic diversity and environmental sustainability objectives, according to the head of the its newly established National Energy Services Company. The energy efficiency body is seeking collaboration with foreign partners to achieve the target. [The National]

Saudi electric generating plant (Photo: Fahad Shadeed | Reuters)

¶ The revised projections for energy up to 2035 from the UK Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy are generally very optimistic. BEIS expects low-carbon sources of electricity to supply 68% of UK power generation by 2020, 70% by 2025, 76% by 2030 and 86% by 2035. That of course includes nuclear. [environmentalresearchweb]

¶ The governor of Sokoto State, Nigeria, inaugurated an 80-kw solar mini grid electricity project that will provide uninterrupted power supply to Kurdula community of Gudu LGA. He said more than 500 households, with 4000 inhabitants, benefit. The event was attended by ambassadors to Nigeria from Germany and the EU. [Politics Nigeria]

Inauguration ceremony

¶ TEPCO, the operator of destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant, published fresh images from inside a damaged reactor, the AFP news agency reported. Images captured by a special camera installed on a robotic probe, showed broken metal parts, debris and rubble, including fragments that may contain melted nuclear fuel. [Sputnik International]

¶ In India, as part of the Southern Railway’s initiative to save on electricity costs by producing 4 MW of solar power, rooftop solar plants will be installed at 11 stations in the Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad railway divisions. The solar installations are expected to produce electric power at half the price the system currently pays. [The New Indian Express]

Angadipuram rail station (Dhruvaraj S, Wikimedia Commons)

US:

¶ Omaha-area economic development officials are looking to get a piece of Apple’s $30 billion-plus expansion plan announced last week. Apple will build data centers, and it also plans to build a new corporate campus. Apple will power its new facilities with renewable energy, and Nebraska has a lot of wind power to offer. [Omaha World-Herald]

¶ The California Public Utilities Commission approved 15 utility pilot programs to accelerate the change to electric mobility, generally supporting needs of disadvantaged communities. Historically, they been shut out of affordable high-quality transportation, and air pollution levels have been dangerous. The oil lobby is not happy. [CleanTechnica]

Nodding donkey

¶ Product announcements this week from Nissan’s Infiniti luxury brand and Volkswagen’s Porsche division tap into a larger story from last year. While global automakers are watching what Tesla is up to, an announcement in July by near-luxury brand Volvo seems to have had just as much impact on new vehicle product planning. [OilPrice.com]

¶ As SCE&G tried to complete the increasingly costly Summer nuclear project, it learned that a major piece of equipment it needed would be shipped to China instead. Westinghouse promised it would provide a replacement. But Westinghouse went broke, and the Summer nuclear plant was cancelled, Now, SCE&G wants its money back. [The State]

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Opinion:

¶ “NSW’s largest windfarm highlights power of community investment” • The Sapphire Wind Farm will be New South Wales’ largest wind project. It is an impressive undertaking, but community engagement is what makes it stand out. It will be the first large windfarm in Australia to offer community members an opportunity to invest. [The Guardian]

Investors posing by a turbine blade

¶ “It’s Time for Electric Companies to Pivot” • Renewable energy is rapidly changing the electric grid, and utilities need to adapt or face still greater disruption in their industry, according to a report from the Rocky Mountain Institute. Two directions in particular appear likely to offer opportunities for growth, the report says. [IEEE Spectrum]

Science and Technology:

¶ Climate change threatens the sugar maples in northern hardwood forests. As global temperatures rise, drought could stunt their growth, a decades-long study found. The number of sugar maple trees will decrease, diminishing the amount of maple syrup available and eliminating the stunning colors of these forests during autumn. [Newsweek]

Sugar maples, threatened (Photo: Muffet, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ NASA is working on a nuclear energy source that could power future outposts on the moon and Mars, as well as missions to the far reaches of the solar system. Los Alamos’ Kilopower device is no bigger than a garbage can, is said to be safe, could be built to produce 1 kW or 10 kW, and could generate power for years or even decades. [Popular Mechanics]

World:

¶ The government in Canada says it plans to invite expressions of interest in a renewable energy power program that could include offshore wind. The Honourable Jim Carr, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, announced C$200 million (US$161 million) of funding for innovative emerging renewable power to expand renewable energy sources. [Offshore Wind Journal]

Offshore wind power

¶ Enel has started construction of the 93-MW Salitrillos wind farm in the north-eastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas. The $120 million project, which will generate approximately 400 GWh of electricity a year, is expected to enter into service by 2019. It will sell electricity to the Federal Electricity Commission under a 15-year agreement. [reNews]

¶ Altogether, 1,612 GWh of energy from renewable sources was produced in Estonia last year, 14% more than in 2016. Renewable energy production made up 16.8% of total consumption, while the renewable energy accounted for 15.1% of consumption in 2016, according to Elering, the Estonian transmission system operator. [The Baltic Course]

Agriculture and wind farm

¶ New wind farms expected to start operations in 2018 will increase Mexico’s wind capacity by more than 1,100 MW this year, according to estimates by the Mexican Wind Energy Association. Mexico ended last year with a total wind power capacity of 4,005 MW, so the capacity is slated to increase by more than 25% this year. [Mexico News Daily]

¶ The Spanish solar project developer Grupo OPDE has submitted a request for an environmental license for a 50-MW solar power project it intends to build in Mérida, in the Spanish southern region of Extremadura. According to the filing, project construction is expected to require an investment of around €32.6 million. [pv magazine International]

Extremadura (Image: Ventura Carmona | Flickr)

US:

¶ Despite initiating a slew of regulatory rollbacks allegedly aimed at helping the struggling coal sector regain jobs, the entire sector grew by just 771 jobs during President Trump’s first year in office. Moreover, several key coal-producing states like Ohio, Kentucky, Montana, and Wyoming lost more coal jobs than they gained in the year. [ThinkProgress]

¶ Panasonic is building a smart city in Colorado. Called CityNow, the futuristic city is rising outside Denver and will be a living lab experiment for creating towns that can survive a disaster, run on clean, renewable power, and contain sustainable infrastructure that improves people’s lives, according to a report from Inhabitat. [Proud Green Building]

CityNow will be near Denver airport. (Image via Inhabitat)

¶ Abigail Ross Hopper, the Solar Energy Industries Association President and CEO, made a personal plea to US President Donald Trump to reject imposing high tariffs on solar imports and risking tens of thousands of US-based jobs. High tariffs would theoretically benefit two foreign-owned solar manufacturers in the US. [CleanTechnica]

¶ More than 100 MW of solar capacity was installed across the Hawaiian Electric companies’ service territories in 2017, a 19% jump from the previous year, according to the utility. The addition, which represents the largest increase in five years, is expected to help to move the state closer to its 100% renewable energy goal. [Solar Industry]

Solar system in Hawaii

¶ Community radio station Radio Casa Pueblo, located in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico, says it is now operating entirely with renewable energy. The station, whose operation no longer depends on electricity from the power grid, says it played a big part in informing inhabitants of the island’s central region during and after Hurricane Maria. [Radio World]

¶ Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres baseball team, will soon have a 336,520-watt solar power system. The project will be made up of 716 high efficiency, 470-watt SunPower solar modules, the Padres said this week. It will be the biggest solar system in Major League Baseball. Installation is expected to be completed by March. [CNBC]

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World:

¶ Masdar and Statoil announced that they have signed a collaborative agreement to analyze data from the integrated energy storage system that was designed and installed alongside the world’s first commercial-scale floating offshore wind farm, the 30-MW Hywind Scotland. The project will study potentials for integration. [CleanTechnica]

Hywind Scotland floating wind farm

¶ Rooftop solar systems with a combined capacity of 35 MW will be installed at 500 public schools in Palestine, according to the Palestine Investment Fund, which has been selected as developer of the project. The Noor Palestine program aims to reduce dependence on energy imports and strengthen Palestine’s energy security. [Renewables Now]

¶ The French government announced a plan that will simplify administrative procedures and accelerate the development of wind power projects in order to double its installed generation capacity by 2023. The proposed reforms are intended to cut in half the average time it takes for wind power projects to be completed and connected to the grid. [Reuters]

French wind farm (Photo: Christian Hartmann | Reuters)

¶ Masdar signed an agreement to deliver a wind power portfolio of more than 800 MW in Egypt alongside Elsewedy Electric and Marubeni Corporation. The three entities are partnering for the first time to build on their existing renewable energy capacity in Egypt. Masdar has already developed a number of solar power plants in Egypt. [Emirates 24|7]

¶ Norway is aiming to be the first country in the world to switch to 100% electric planes for short-haul flights, the country’s airport operator Avinor has announced. The company wants all of the country’s short-haul airliners to be electric by 2040, in what is the most goal yet adopted for the embryonic electric aviation sector. [www.businessgreen.com]

Airplanes

¶ Capital Stage AG, a Hamburg-based solar and wind park operator, has announced a partnership with the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund to co-invest in a Power Capital portfolio, consisting of more than 20 solar farms with a total generating capacity of 140 MW. The investment is ISIF’s first for solar park developments in Ireland. [Independent.ie]

¶ The Pico Alto geothermal power plant in Terceirea on the Azores Islands was commissioned in November of 2017. The plant is expected to cover up to 10% of the island’s electricity needs this year. The Azorean president pointed out that the Azores already have 37% of the electricity produced from renewable sources. [ThinkGeoEnergy]

Pico Alto geothermal power plant (Source: Exergy ORC)

¶ UK house-holders can cut their domestic energy bills by up to 66% by turning their homes into mini-power stations, according to Japanese car giant Nissan. Excess energy collected via solar panels on sunny days and stored in a fridge-sized home-battery during off-peak times could be sold back to the national grid when demand for it is at its highest. [This is Money]

¶ Wind power generation in the UK, which exceeded 10 GW for the first time on January 13, reached 13.6 GW on January 17, according to data by Drax Electric Insights. At 13.6 GW, it supplied 29% of the country’s total power between 1245 and 1315 local time, UK power producer Drax Group Plc said in a social media post. [Renewables Now]

Fraisthorpe wind farm

¶ ITM Power, the energy storage and clean fuel company, together with Shell, will be building a new hydrogen electrolysis plant, the largest of its kind in the world. The plant will be built at Rhineland refinery, Germany and will have a peak capacity of 10 MW. The H2 will be used for making products and for testing technology. [gasworld]

US:

¶ Avangrid Renewables, announced that it has signed its second major wind contract with Nike, this time for 86 MW of Texas wind power. The power purchase agreement will cover the remaining portion of Avangrid Renewables 286-MW Karankawa Wind Farm in Bee and San Patricio counties, just east of Mathis, Texas. [EnerCom Inc]

Baffin Wind Farm (Photo: Business Wire)

¶ In Massachusetts, the Northampton City Council voted unanimously to pass a resolution showing support for the ideal of achieving 100% renewable energy reliance. It is a goal that’s been championed by a number of other Massachusetts communities; six other municipalities have already signed resolutions supporting it. [MassLive.com]

¶ By about this time next year, residents and businesses of Camarillo, California may be seeing lower electric bills. The Camarillo City Council voted unanimously to move forward with plans to bring in an alternate supplier of electricity to compete with Southern California Edison through a community choice aggregation program. [Camarillo Acorn]

Taking back the power

¶ A new ISO-NE report finds that New England’s grid is vulnerable to a season-long outage of any of several major energy facilities, such as the 688-MW Pilgrim nuclear plant, which recently went offline when a cold snap caused the loss of a power line to the plant. The most concerning trend is increased reliance on natural gas. [RTO Insider]

¶ Nine regulated units at five power plants in Virginia with combined capacity of 1,208 MW will be put into “cold reserve” later this year, Dominion Energy said. The Richmond, Virginia-based holding company also said it will be eliminating about 295 positions at its Power Generation Group and about 100 positions at its nuclear facilities. [Platts]

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Opinion:

¶ “Trump’s ‘America First’ Policy Could Cripple the US Solar Industry” • In the United States, 260,000 people work in the solar energy industry, and 88,000 of them may be at risk of losing their jobs. President Donald Trump is expected to decide by January 26 whether to “protect” two foreign-owned makers of solar cells in the US. [New Republic]

Michigan solar farm (Photo: Deb Nystrom, Wikimedia Commons)

Science and Technology:

¶ The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is building a reactor that will make a renewable form of natural gas in a two-step process. First, supplies of cheap solar and wind-powered electricity will be used to split hydrogen from water. Then the hydrogen will be combined by microbes with carbon dioxide to make natural gas. [E&E News]

World:

¶ An oil spill from an Iranian tanker that sank off China spread into four separate slicks covering an area of 100 sq km (39 sq miles), say Chinese authorities. The Sanchi was carrying 136,000 tons of ultra-light crude oil when it collided with another vessel 260 km off Shanghai on 6 January. It burned for a week before exploding and sinking on Sunday. [BBC]

The tanker Sanchi burning (Reuters)

¶ As the founder and CEO of BlackRock, Laurence D Fink controls over $6 trillion in assets. On January 16, the chief executives of most of the major business corporations in the world received a letter from him telling them they have to develop a social conscience if they wish BlackRock to continue investing in their businesses. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Australia recorded its best ever clean energy investment year in 2017, according to new figures from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Its investments came to $9 billion in 2017, up 150% on 2016 and lifting Australia to 7th position in terms of global clean energy investment last year. Much of the boom is due to large-scale projects. [CleanTechnica]

Investment in Australia

¶ Fotowatio Renewable Ventures, a subsidiary of Abdul Latif Jameel Energy, secured a 540-GWh hybrid project in Chile. It will generate energy using a combination of solar PVs and wind energy. It is Abdul Latif Jameel Energy’s first hybrid project and is expected to supply annual power needs for around 223,973 households. [Power Technology]

¶ China’s insatiable appetite for solar power led to a surprise increase in global clean-energy investment past year even as US President Donald Trump pushed to support coal. Overall global investment in the sector rose 3.0% to a total $333.5 billion, offsetting falls in Japan, Germany and Britain, a Bloomberg New Energy Finance study said. [Іnsіdеr Cаr Nеws]

Installing solar PVs in China

¶ Output from UK wind farms topped 10 GW for the first time in 2017, setting a new national record. Experts welcomed the news, saying it is evidence the UK is “poised to lead its peers in wind generation.” The record comes shortly after 2017 was declared the “greenest year ever” due to the number of renewable energy records broken. [The Independent]

¶ The UK Government has confirmed plans to cap the level of subsidies that power stations converted to biomass and co-firing generators can receive under the Renewables Obligation. Drax, the owner of the UK’s largest thermal plant, welcomed the news and said it would now convert another of its generators to burn biomass. [The Energyst]

Drax power station (Photo: Paul Glazzard | Creative Commons)

¶ Shell has signed a deal to buy all of the power from England’s largest solar park, the 69.8-MW Bradenstoke development, once RAF Lyneham, near Swindon. The deal follows Shell’s entrance into both business and domestic energy retail and represents another small but strategic step by a big oil company into clean energy. [The Energyst]

¶ Europe’s political leaders have supported calls for the continent to be more ambitious on renewable energy. Members of the European Parliament voted for a collective clean energy target of 35% by 2030, an 8% increase on the 2016 target set by the European Commission. Clean energy advocates welcomed the news. [Innovators Magazine]

Wind turbine (Abigail Lynn)

US:

¶ Residents in 30 towns across Vermont, including Brattleboro, Dummerston, Londonderry, Marlboro, Newfane, Putney, and Weston, are petitioning to put climate change on their respective Town Meeting Day agendas and ballots. Vermont has a goal to power the state with 90% renewables by 2050, but is far from meeting this mark. [Commons]

¶ A clean energy group in Ohio has new data that they say can change the debate on clean energy during the 2018 campaign season. The Ohio Conservative Energy Forum is pointing to a poll that shows conservative voters are 36 percent more likely to vote for someone who supports energy efficiency and increases the use of renewables. [WOSU]

Solar farm in Shelby, Ohio (Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki)

¶ A boom in solar power could wipe out $1.4 billion a year of summertime revenue for Texas fossil-fuel generators. Almost 15 GW of solar power may be installed in the coming years, and every GW stands to reduce peak summer wholesale electricity prices by about $2.76/MWh, analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance shows. [BloombergQuint]

¶ Opponents and supporters of a request by Dominion Energy, the owner of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station, to gain access to Connecticut’s renewable energy marketplace are making last-ditch efforts to sway the opinion of state utility regulators. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority scheduled a final ruling for Feb 1. [Litchfield County Times]

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Opinion:

¶ “China Is the New World Leader in Renewable Energy” • China is becoming dominant in the realm of renewable energy, a report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis says. And the US decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement was an important catalyst for the growth in China’s renewable energy leadership. [Futurism]

PVs in China (Image: Wikimedia Commons | WiNG)

World:

¶ Bloomberg thinks Australia is poised to have a renewable energy bonanza. By 2040, up to 45% of Australia’s electrical power is predicted to come from “behind the meter” systems with solar panels and battery storage on private property. If this is true, Australia will lead all other countries in renewable energy production. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Royal Dutch Shell will now be returning to the solar energy sector, after an absence of 12 or so years, with the acquisition of 43.86% stake in the US-based firm Silicon Ranch Corporation. Apparently pursuing an “all of the above” strategy, it is also going ahead to its first large oil and gas development project in the North Sea in 6 years. [CleanTechnica]

Silicon Ranch solar farm (Image via Silicon Ranch Corporation)

¶ Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, and EDF SA signed a memorandum of understanding to develop off-grid projects in sub-Saharan African countries. The World Bank estimates that around 600 million people do not have access to reliable electricity sources. EDF and Masdar aim to provide sources for them. [pv magazine International]

¶ Renewable energy firm EDF Energies Nouvelles said it had commissioned its 115-MWp Santiago Solar PV power plant in Chile. The plant has around 400,000 PV modules and occupies over 200 hectares of land. It is EDF Energies Nouvelles second largest in Chile, after the 146M-Wp Bolero plant, commissioned in late 2017. [PV-Tech]

Santiago Solar PV power plant (Image: EDF Energies Nouvelles)

¶ An “energy revolution” is being predicted for the UK over the next decade, as farmers and landowners look to invest in energy storage technology. The renewable energy storage systems, which include both batteries and thermal storage systems, can run from very small units to technologies for power plant and grid-scale installations. [FarmingUK]

¶ EU Energy Ministers opted to endorse the Commission’s original proposal of just 27% at December’s Energy Council. Now, the European Parliament will vote on the Renewable Energy Directive and Governance Regulation. These two pieces of legislation will determine Europe’s ambition on renewable energy post-2020. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Polish wind farm

¶ Tenders for more than 4,000 MW of renewable energy capacity are to be launched in Saudi Arabia this year under a national program for power exports, a government official told The National. According to the plan, the country will hold auctions for 3,250 MW of solar PVs and 800 MW of wind power in eight projects. [Renewables Now]

¶ Scotrenewables Tidal Power SR2000 tidal current turbine delivered impressive generation throughout heavy North Atlantic storms that battered the Orkney Islands in late autumn and early winter. The turbine showed it is capable of generating through around 99% of conditions experienced at the Orkney site. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Scotrenewables Tidal Power SR2000

¶ UK investment in wind and solar power has crashed since the Government reduced the amount of help available, new figures show. The dramatic slump, a 56% fall in a single year, sparked an accusation that the Government is failing in its environmental strategy, despite its “green veneer.” Meanwhile, much of the world powers ahead. [The Independent]

¶ German developer Innogy has a €10 billion capital investment plan over the next three years that will include onshore and offshore wind as well as solar. Its CEO told a media briefing in London that the cash will be used in part to fund a 7-GW-plus renewables pipeline in major markets including Germany, the UK, and the US. [reNews]

Rhyl Flats offshore wind farm (Credit Innogy)

US:

¶ At the Detroit auto show, Ford announced it is more than doubling its previous commitment to electric cars to $11 billion by 2022. By then, The Verge says, it will have 16 electric models in its product lineup, for a total of 40 models that are hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or fully electric. By comparison, GM says it will have 16. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Based on preliminary estimates, the Rhodium Group said US emissions declined by a little less than 1%. The improvement results from changes in the energy sector, where 94.7% of net new electricity capacity was renewable. The improvements were offset by increased emissions from buildings, industry, and transportation. [Inhabitat]

Wind power (Image via Thomas Richter on Unsplash)

¶ Global investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and General Electric said the Quinbrook Low Carbon Power Fund closed on construction and tax equity financing for the 200-MW first stage of the 365 MW Persimmon wind farm in Oklahoma. Quinbrook recently acquired a 75% controlling equity stake in Persimmon. [Kallanish Energy]

¶ After members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted unanimously to terminate considering Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s proposed grid resiliency pricing rule, which was widely thought to be a lifeline for the struggling coal and nuclear power plant sectors, they decided to retain a fuel-neutral attitude. [Daily Energy Insider]

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Opinion:

¶ “Edible insects: Do insects actually taste any good?” • Edible insects are often portrayed as something of a sustainable super-food, an environmentally friendly alternative to livestock. But who is already eating them and do they actually taste any good? (Spoiler: Hornet larvae taste like sweet mussels when cooked and seasoned properly.) [BBC]

Crickets Vientiane (Getty Images)

¶ “Dumb & Dumber: Looking Beyond The Department Of Energy’s Flawed ‘Baseload’ Study” • While this study will hopefully end futile efforts to find a clean energy scapegoat for failing non-renewable power, it does not erase a longer-range issue: big, old power plants and new fossil-fuel power plants are equally ill-equipped to compete. [CleanTechnica]

¶ “Is An Oil Price Spike Inevitable?” • The oil glut is over, at least when it comes to US commercial inventories. Brent touched $70 last week, and discoveries continuing to sit at record lows, so there is a chance that $70 a barrel is only the beginning. One thing, however, is certain: The oil market is notoriously difficult to predict. [OilPrice.com]

Oil jack

Science and Technology:

¶ The latest weather reports from Alaska are alarming. In December, 2017, the average temperature in Alaska was 19.4° F according to a report from NOAA. That average is 2.1º F more than the previous high temperature record set in 1985. For the month, Alaska was 15.7º F warmer on average, compared to data going back to 1925. [CleanTechnica]

World:

¶ A massive oil tanker that sank off the coast of China could affect marine life for decades, experts say. The 900 foot-long tanker was carrying about a million barrels of ultra-light crude oil at the time of the collision. China’s State Oceanic Administration said several oil slicks have already been found, including one covering over 22 square miles. [CNN]

Rescue ship and tanker (China’s Ministry of Transport)

¶ The UAE has a target of generating 44 GW of electric power from renewables by 2050. It expects to tender at least 1 GW a year of projects as it diversifies its energy mix, its Minister of Energy said. Last year, the UAE announced its ambitions to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 70% by 2050, while improving energy efficiency by 40%. [The National]

¶ Amazon Watch and CREDO have accused several global financial institutions of having strong links to reported human rights violations and environmental degradation in the regions of the Amazon. They say they delivered over 120,000 signatures on petitions that urge BlackRock, Inc and JPMorgan Chase to stop financing violations. [Triple Pundit]

Amazon oil exploration (Rainforest Action Network | Flickr)

¶ China has played an important role in supporting the future energy mix strategy of the UAE, the UAE Minister of Energy and Industry said. The UAE, which is a major oil supplier with 99% of its domestic energy needs based on oil and gas, aims to increase the share of clean energy from near zero three years ago to 50% by 2050. [Xinhua]

¶ Up and coming corporate energy retailer Flow Power signed a new 10-year deal to supply Melbourne-based ANCA, with locally generated renewable energy sourced from the Ararat wind farm in Victoria. ANCA, which manufactures computing machinery and systems, will have long-term access to clean energy at wholesale prices. [RenewEconomy]

Ararat wind farm in Victoria

¶ The government of Queensland said a strong response to its 400-MW “reverse auction” for renewable energy projects showed Queensland was on track to reach its renewable energy target of 50% by 2030. Questions remain about potential subsidies and how the state policies fit with those of the federal government. [The Australian Financial Review]

¶ Over 30 years have passed since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine. Now, the Ukrainian government is finishing up work on a new solar system very near the old nuclear plant. The new plant, with a capacity of 1 MW, is located just 100 metres from the sarcophagus that encases the wrecked Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. [Alphr]

Pripyat and the covered Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

US:

¶ Data from both the Energy Information Administration and Rhodium Group show that solar and wind power represented 94.7% of the US net new electricity capacity (15.8 GW out of 16.7 GW) added in 2017. However, that is mainly because fossil fuel power continued to fade away, as 11.8 GW of utility-scale fossil fuel plants closed. [Engadget]

¶ NV Energy issued requests for proposals for renewable energy projects in Nevada with a combined capacity of 330 MW.  The proposed projects can include wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, and biogas as all would fit within Nevada’s renewable portfolio standards. Supplemental battery storage is also being considered. [Energy Digital – Energy News]

Solar power in Nevada (Photo: Getty Images)

¶ Avangrid Renewables commissioned over 500 MW of new wind farms in recent weeks. They are the 131-MW Tule Wind Farm in California, the 298-MW El Cabo Wind Farm in New Mexico, and the 75-MW Twin Buttes II Wind Farm in Colorado. The company’s US fleet now has 3,300 wind turbines in 22 states. [Electric Light & Power]

¶ Arizona utility Tucson Electric Power is launching this week a request for proposals targeting between 100 MW and 150 MW of wind power. TEP will also take into consideration proposals for the provision of ancillary services and supporting energy storage systems. TEP says it intends to add 800 MW of fresh renewables by 2030. [Renewables Now]

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Opinion:

¶ “Global Warming Is Going To Demolish Economies and Societies” • It is not just Florida. Human beings have long settled close to seas, rivers, oceans, gulfs, and bays, and many of the world’s most populated and economically vital cities and regions will be physically harmed to one degree or another by the effects of climate change. [CleanTechnica]

Monaco

¶ “Natural gas is energy’s new king – but how long will it reign? California may offer some clues” • “King Gas” has its critics, especially among environmentalists, and California is an example of why the dominance of natural gas is far from secure. The state uses twice as much renewable power as it did just eight years ago. [The San Diego Union-Tribune]

¶ “Could a renewable investment “boom” spell the end of Australia’s energy crisis?” • Economists claim a string of new renewable energy investments could be the beginning of the end of Australia’s energy crisis. After Elon Musk’s 100-MW battery installation in South Australia, more storage and renewable power is on the table. [ABC Online]

Tesla battery in South Australia

World:

¶ London’s air quality is within legal limits in mid-January for the first time in 10 years, City Hall has said. The capital breached limits for nitrogen dioxide by 6 January every year for the last decade, Mayor Sadiq Khan said. So far this year, London’s NO2 has not exceeded limits, although it is likely to do so later this month, Mr Khan admitted. [BBC]

¶ Cape Town, home to Table Mountain, African penguins, sea, and sunshine, is a world-renowned tourist destination. But it could also become famous as the world’s first major city to run out of water. Most recent projections suggest that its water could run out as early as March, after three years of very low rainfall and increasing consumption. [BBC]

Cape Town, South Africa (Getty Images)

¶ The Middle East is expected to more than triple its share of renewable energy from 5.6% in 2016 to 20.6% in 2035, according to a new forecast from Siemens. The Siemens report, “Middle East Power: Outlook 2035,” notes that the region will acquire 483 GW of power generation in the same time frame, up from 277 GW. [ArabianBusiness.com]

¶ Alinta Energy wants at least one in five of its customers to be powered entirely by renewable energy by 2020. The company says it plans to bring a gigawatt of new renewable energy online following its acquisition of Victoria’s Loy Yang B brown coal-fired power station. The renewables will have the same capacity as the coal plant. [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Wind farm (Photo: Erin Jonasson)

¶ The Northern Territory government has called for expressions of interest to build what could be the world’s second biggest big battery, a large-scale energy storage system of between 25 MW and 45 MW to support the grid in Darwin and Katherine. The grid is increasing its use of renewable power. It is currently 96% powered by diesel and gas. [RenewEconomy]

¶ The University of New South Wales announced that it had entered into a “tripartite arrangement” with Maoneng Australia and Origin Energy for an offsite solar PV corporate power purchase agreement. With the agreement, the university is set to achieve carbon neutrality for energy, with all of its energy needs met by solar PVs. [CNBC]

UNSW Campus (Oliver Strewe | Moment Mobile | Getty Images)

¶ The falling cost of renewable energy means nuclear power cannot compete with cheap solar power in developed countries, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency report for 2017. Global renewable energy costs are falling so fast they could be consistently cheaper than fossil fuels by 2020, IRENA says. [Energy Matters]

US:

¶ Green Mountain Power suffered “several millions” of dollars of lost revenue over the past 18 months because the electric grid in northern Vermont is not robust enough, its director of power planning told the Public Utility Commission. The Washington Electric Co-op has experienced a similar setback for the same reason. [vtdigger.org]

GMP control room (Photo: John Herrick | VTDigger)

¶ An ambitious project to protect Florida’s Treasure Coast waterways from damaging algae faces critics who decry it as shortsighted and discriminatory against the Miccosukee Indian Tribe. The plan would feed fresh water to the Everglades, as nature had once done, but the water is loaded with agricultural nutrients now. [MyPalmBeachPost]

¶ The number of US power plants burning Montana coal is in steep decline, according to a report published this week by state legislative analysts. As many as 19 power plants that once burned Montana coal have closed since 2012. Another 18 of the power plants using its coal have published plans to close, or partially close, by 2030. [Billings Gazette]

Entrance of a coal mine (Janie Osborne, Associated Press)

¶ An energy development company in Idaho is asking federal authorities to declare state regulators in violation of a law intended to promote alternative energy. The Idaho regulators denied a 20-year contract for a $200-million battery project, and allowed only a 2-year contract, because the batteries would be charged by solar power. [The Daily Herald]

¶ Connecticut regulators are getting mixed signals from power industry participants as they near the deadline for issuing a report on the economic viability of the Millstone nuclear power plant. Some stakeholders say Millstone may be the most profitable US nuclear plant; others say the plant needs a state contract to operate. [RTO Insider]

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Opinion:

¶ “Puerto Rico is taking a big step toward revamping how it gets power – and it could be a model for the rest of the US” • More than three months after the storm, 1.5 million Puerto Ricans remain without power, and hundreds of thousands have no clean water. It could happen elsewhere in America. And the solutions for Puerto Rico can inform us. [Business Insider]

Tesla microgrid in American Samoa (Tesla image)

¶ “Carbon Taxing May Be Coming To Energy Conscious States” • After President Trump said the US would abandon the Paris Climate Agreement, many state and local governments decided to continue with it. Massachusetts State Representative Jennifer Benson proposed taxing carbon much as countries around the world do. [The Drive]

Science and Technology:

¶ Global warming will increase the risk of river flooding over the coming decades, endangering millions more people around the world, a study from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research said. It found that flood defenses especially need to be improved in the United States, Indonesia, Central Europe, and parts of India and Africa. [Sun.Star]

Flooding in Germany (AP image)

World:

¶ The Australian summer heat is fierce. A section of highway from Sydney to Melbourne started to melt. Heat-struck bats fall dead from the trees. In suburban Sydney, temperatures hit 47.3° C (117° F), though they cooled to 43.6° C (110.5° F) the next day. It is now hotter without an El Niño than it used to be with one. And it may be the new normal. [BBC]

¶ The European Investment Bank announced that it will provide $150 million towards new renewable energy projects in Peru. The bank said the investment will go towards building a wind farm and solar power plant with a combined capacity of 312 MW. The 132 MW wind farm is set to become Peru’s largest, with 42 turbines. [Climate Action Programme]

Wind farm (Photo: Petya Boyadzhieva)

¶ The Portuguese government approved six more unsubsidized large-scale solar projects to be located the country’s southern regions. They will have a combined capacity of 229 MW. So far, the Portuguese Directorate General for Energy and Geology has approved unsubsidized solar projects with a combined capacity of 756 MW. [pv magazine International]

¶ Japan’s plans to develop its renewable energy lag behind much of the world, as the nation “prioritized keeping the status quo for fear of change,” its Foreign Minister said. He lamented the fact that Japan wants renewable energy to account for 22% to 24% of its overall energy mix by 2030, while the global average already stands at 24%. [Bloomberg]

Floating solar farm (Photo: Buddhika Weerasinghe | Bloomberg)

US:

¶ The Tesla Model 3 is now on show, and attracting huge crowds. One is being featured at the Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto and another at the Century City mall in Los Angeles. But a customer who orders a Model 3 today will have to be patient. There are approximately 400,000 people with reservations for them in line already. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Lincoln Clean Energy, based in Chicago, has closed project financing for its 300-MW Tahoka Wind project in Texas. The project will have 120 GE 2.5-127 wind turbines, and GE will provide long term services for the wind farm as it operates. LCE has developed more than 1.8 GW of renewable projects since 2011. [CleanTechnology News]

Wind farm

¶ Coronal Energy, a power producer focused on utility-scale solar and storage projects, announced that it has closed $235 million in total financing for its Gulf Coast Solar Center portfolio. The Gulf Coast Solar Center is a 120-MW, three-site portfolio in Northwest Florida built for Gulf Power in cooperation with the Navy and Air Force. [PR Web]

¶ The Wendell, Massachusetts, Energy Committee wants its town to become a net-zero community that meets all its energy needs through renewable energy, and it has a plan to get there. Co-Chairwoman Nan Riebschlaeger said the board is focusing on supporting residents with its Green Fund, which helps residents invest in energy conservation. [The Recorder]

Wendell Town Hall (Photo: John Phelan, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources has designated the Town of Stoneham as a Green Community and gave the town a grant of $169,615, after it committed to reduce energy consumption and emissions. Of the Commonwealth’s 351 municipalities, 210 have earned their Green Communities designation. [Patch.com]

¶ Years before South Carolina was saddled with two failed nuclear reactors, SCANA and other utility companies hosted “appreciation dinners” for the lawmakers who pick the state’s seven utility regulators, The Post and Courier found. All of these lawmakers were on the little-known Public Utilities Review Committee. [Charleston Post Courier]

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Science and Technology:

¶ Researchers at the Juelich Research Center and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Germany studied major electrical grids, and came up with surprising findings. The frequency and voltage variations caused by wind and solar power turn out not to be as great as those caused by the power trading system. [CleanTechnica]

Frequency fluctuations on the European power grid showing
regular variation every fifteen minutes due to the market trading system (Credit: Benjamin Schäfer, Max Planck Institute)

World:

¶ The International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA) says the cost of power from onshore wind has fallen by around 23% and that for solar PV has fallen by 73% since 2010. With further price falls expected for green energy options, IRENA says that all renewable energy technologies should be competitive on price with fossil fuels by 2020. [Forbes]

¶ The cost of generating electricity from renewable energies is set to reach new lows worldwide, according to projections by IRENA. But along with the projections came a warning that much of the expected growth in renewable power such as solar and windpower could happen outside of Europe, because of stalling policies there. [EURACTIV]

Windpower and mist (David Clarke | Flickr)

¶ A target for English soil to be managed sustainably by 2030 was welcomed by the Anaerobic Digestion & Bioresources Association, which said AD can help achieve this objective with support from government. AD plants recycling biological waste can potentially meet 30% of the UK’s domestic gas or electricity demand. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

¶ A report published by the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis said that with the US pulling out of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, China has solidified its position as the dominant global clean energy powerhouse. China is set to lead the way in global power capacity additions for at least the next two decades. [CleanTechnica]

Wind turbines

¶ The Subsecretary of Renewable Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Mining of Argentina has launched a tender to supply solar PV kits to 120,000 rural households. The supply includes acquisition of both low-power solar home kits and rechargeable solar lamps, and operation of the facilities for a period of at least three years. [pv magazine International]

¶ South Africa may still get most of its energy from coal, but in the country’s sunny Northern Cape province, solar steam power plants are being built. Plants that use sun-heated salt to drive turbines will produce enough electricity for nearly a million people, or almost the province’s entire population, the operators say. [Thomson Reuters Foundation]

Solar plant (Pranab Ghosh | International Finance Corporation)

US:

¶ E.ON has started building the Stella wind farm in Texas. It will have a capacity of 201 MW, powered by 67 Nordex turbines. E.ON also started operation of two wind farms: Bruenning’s Breeze in Willacy County, Texas, with a capacity of 228 MW, and Radford’s Run in Macon County, Illinois, with a capacity of 306 MW. [Your Renewable News]

¶ Citing several concerns, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F Kilmartin today announced his opposition to construction of the gas-fired Invenergy power plant in Burrillville. He said that he intends to seek permission from the Court to file an amicus brief in Rhode Island Superior Court challenging the plant’s water-supply plan. [STL.News]

Rhode Island Capitol

¶ A report released by Oil Change International says that the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas project would be much greater than those of Oregon’s remaining coal-fired power plant, when such problems as methane leaks associated with production are considered. [The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel]

¶ Obsidian Renewables, a solar developer based near Portland, Oregon, is eyeing the prospects of developing a 600-MW utility-scale solar project that would help replace power lost from looming coal-fired retirements in the Northwest and which would be near the three 500-kV lines that make up the California Oregon Intertie. [Platts]

Installing solar panels (Oregon DOT, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ Sammons Renewable Energy has purchased the 162.9-MW Midway Wind from Apex Clean Energy. Planned for the Texas Gulf Coast in San Patricio County, Midway Wind will incorporate 47 Siemens Gamesa G132 turbines. The project is expected to be in commercial operation as early as December of this year. [Power Engineering Magazine]

¶ Earlier this month, Delaware announced it intends to sue the EPA over its lack of action to help curb emissions at power plants in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, which it says are responsible for 90% of the ozone in Delaware. Now it is reducing its own emissions by introducing electric and propane-powered buses into its transportation fleet. [Delaware First Media]

Proterra bus (James Dawson | Delaware Public Media)

¶ Groups including Vote Solar, Union of Concerned Scientists, and the Environmental Law and Policy Center are urging Michigan regulators to require DTE Energy to evaluate renewable energy sources before building a proposed billion-dollar natural gas power plant. Their analyses shows renewable energy would save money. [Solar Power World]

¶ A little more than five years after the Omaha Public Power District and Exelon Corp agreed to a 20-year, $400 million deal for Exelon to manage day-to-day operations of the now-closed Fort Calhoun nuclear plant, the Omaha utility is nearly off the hook. OPPD expects to pay a final $83,333.33 to Exelon this month. [Omaha World-Herald]

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Opinion:

¶ “Diversity! Diversity! Diversity! What Bomb Cyclones Teach Us About Our Fuel Sources” • Extreme cold hammered almost half of America’s power plants, but most of those hardest hit were fossil fuel plants. Coal stacks froze, and diesel generators failed in the low temperatures. Gas choked up, as pipelines could not keep up with demand. [Forbes]

Bomb cyclone (NOAA-CIRA image)

¶ “Denmark Positions Itself as the Flag Bearer for Wind Power” • Denmark just set a world record for using wind power to drive its economy, and its government predicts that anyone betting against the technology is on the wrong side of history. Denmark has made a point of bypassing Washington in talks with state leaders to promote wind. Bloomberg]

Science and Technology:

¶ Climate change has made severe cold spells like the one that recently gripped the US Northeast far less common than they used to be, a team of researchers has found. The Arctic has warmed, and cold snaps are warmer. So a spell of extremely cold weather like the recent one is rare, about 15 times rarer than a century ago, the scientists said. [The Straits Times]

Cold snap (AFP image)

World:

¶ Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy announced this week that it will supply 62 of its new 8-MW direct-drive offshore wind turbines to the 500-MW Saint Brieuc project in France, bringing the company’s total supplied capacity in French waters up over 1.5 GW. The SG 8.0-167 DD turbine has blades nearly 82 meters long. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Renewable power met about 44% of Portugal’s electricity demand in 2017, data from the Portuguese Association of Renewable Energy shows. In 2017, thanks to renewable power plants, the average price of electricity in the wholesale market fell to €18.3/MWh (US 2.18¢/kWh), for savings to the consumer of €727 million. [Renewables Now]

Wind farm in Portugal (StockPhotosArt | Shutterstock.com)

¶ Prime minister Theresa May and environment secretary Michael Gove have unveiled a “green Brexit” strategy that aims to significantly reduce pollution and aid natural resources over the next 25 years. The strategy includes a crackdown on some disposable plastic goods, with target to “eliminate all avoidable plastic waste by 2042.” [Civil Service World]

¶ More than 40% of Victoria’s energy needs during last Saturday’s heat wave were met by renewables, an energy expert has found. Dylan McConnell, from the Climate and Energy College at the University of Melbourne, used Australian Energy Market Operator data to show renewable power set a record during the heat wave. [The Weekly Times]

Wind turbine in Toora, Victoria (Fir0002/Flagstaffotos)

US:

¶ The Trump administration’s proposal to open vast portions of US coastline to oil drilling was met with ferocious opposition from a number of the coastal governors it would affect. At least one governor, Florida’s Rick Scott, a Republican, asked for and received a waiver from the administration. The waiver drew accusations of favoritism. [CNN]

¶ Climate change in Alaska has the potential to create serious physical and mental health problems for Alaskans, according to a report from the Alaska Division of Public Health. Melting permafrost damages infrastructure, increases wildfire smoke, disturbances harvests of wild fish and game, and spreads disease, the report said. [Huron Daily Tribune]

Damage from melting permafrost (Photo: Diana Haecker, AP)

¶ Superstorm Sandy caused more than $71 billion in economic damage, according to the National Hurricane Center. New York City has spent billions on repairs. Now, the city wants the five largest oil companies to reimburse it for its losses and pay for the infrastructure improvements needed to protect the city for the future. [CleanTechnica]

¶ With the federal government promoting fossil fuels, cities and towns in New Hampshire are among the leaders in boosting renewable energy. Hanover became the first municipality in the country to commit to achieving 100% renewable energy by community vote. The movement is spreading in New Hampshire and beyond. [Public News Service]

Large scale solar farm (Photo: mrganso | Pixabay)

¶ In the early days of the Trump administration, the head of one of America’s largest coal companies sent a four-page “action plan” to the White House calling for rollbacks of Obama-era environmental and mine safety regulations. A copy of his four-page plan has become public. Much of the action plan has been put into effect. [Power Engineering Magazine]

¶ Renewable energy, primarily derived from wind whistling across the Nebraska plains, accounted for 30% of the Omaha Public Power District’s retail energy sales in 2017. That is a significant milestone for the traditionally coal-heavy utility, especially considering that renewables accounted for just 13% of its retail sales in 2016. [Omaha World-Herald]

Grande Prairie wind farm (Megan Farmer | The World-Herald)

¶ A report released by the National Institute of Building Sciences, found that every $1 the federal government spends on so-called mitigation projects, such as elevating homes at risk of flooding, improving stormwater management systems, or strengthening buildings against earthquakes, reduces future costs by an average of $6. [Insurance Journal]

¶ Diablo Canyon, the last nuclear plant in California, will begin shutting down operations in six years. State regulators approved a plan outlining details of the closure unanimously. The decision comes after the nuclear plant’s operator made an agreement with a collection of environmental and labor groups to shutter the plant. [Thegardenisland.com]

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Opinion:

¶ “This is How Wind and Solar Energy Will Crush Fossil Fuels” • Newly leaked bids for energy contracts for Xcel Energy’s 2017 All-Source Solicitation show that wind and solar are not only competitive, they’re dominant when combined with energy storage. This is a game-changer for utilities, and may spell the end for fossil fuels. [Motley Fool]

Solar power in the mountains (Getty Images)

¶ “Get ready for a lot of coal-plant shutdowns” • President Trump has promised to revive the coal industry, but objective market analysis indicates that is not likely. Roughly 13 GW of coal electricity at more than a dozen different units across the country are set to retire this year. That amount is second only to 2015 when nearly 15 GW shut down. [Axios]

Science and Technology:

¶ Thanks to fast falling solar, wind, and battery costs, renewable charged batteries are becoming advantageous. And, as Elon Musk showed with his now famous 100-day Australian bet, batteries go in fast and once in place can feed power instantaneously into the grid as needed. Once used on islands, they are now attractive to mainland utilities. [Seeking Alpha]

Tesla batteries and solar array on Kauai

¶ Scientist at the National University of Singapore report they have discovered a new way to cool air to as low as 65° F without using any chemical refrigerants or compressors. The system depends on a membrane that removes water from the air, which it then cools by evaporation. It could reduce the amount of average global warming appreciably. [CleanTechnica]

World:

¶ Part of an oil tanker that has been ablaze for days off the coast of Shanghai exploded on January 10, forcing the rescue boats searching for 31 missing sailors to retreat, Chinese authorities said. The Sanchi was carrying about 1 million barrels of oil from Iran to South Korea when it collided with the a freighter in the East China Sea on January 6. [CNN]

The Koshiki helping to extinguish the flames

¶ China is the largest force developing clean energy globally, by far. Its companies are increasingly looking abroad to expand opportunities, according to a report by the US-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. Chinese companies and investors for low-carbon projects outside the country are rapidly growing important. [eco-business.com]

¶ China is seeing signs of success in its fight against smog as pollution levels slump dramatically in the capital region Beijing. Concentrations of PM2.5 plunged 33% from a year earlier in the fourth quarter in 26 cities around Beijing, according to a Greenpeace East Asia report. Levels in the capital alone tumbled 54%. [Bloomberg]

Beijing region, December 4, 2017 (Photo: VCG via Getty Images)

¶ The Japanese government plans for nuclear power to provide around 21% of the nation’s electricity once more by 2030. But it also stipulates that 22-24% should come from renewable energy sources. Two prefectural governments, Fukushima and Nagano, pledged that all of their electricity will come from renewables by 2050. [The Conversation UK]

US:

¶ Renewable energy accounted for half of the utility-scale power sources installed in 2017, according to analysis by the DOE. As renewable energy sources contribute more energy to the grid, fossil fuel power plants continue to shut down, and nearly all of the utility-scale power sources retired in the past decade were powered by fossil fuels. [Chron.com]

Texas wind turbines (Bill Montgomery, Houston Chronicle)

¶ In a short press conference after meeting with Norway’s Prime Minister Erna Solberg for just over an hour, President Trump said the US could consider reentering the Paris Climate Accord that he pulled out of last summer, and spoke wistfully about Norway’s hydroelectric capacity. “So, we can conceivably go back in,” Trump said. [Quartz]

¶ The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory will be heading the Electrification Futures Study over the next two years. It is a large research collaboration to explore the impacts of widespread electrification in all US economic sectors, including commercial and residential buildings, transportation, and industry. [Phys.Org]

Electrification in all sectors (NREL image)

¶ Backed by an ongoing $1 billion investment, Dominion Energy has grown its solar fleet in Virginia and North Carolina over the last two years from near zero to approximately 1,350 MW in service, in construction or under development. That is enough clean energy to power nearly 340,000 homes during peak sunshine. [Electric Light & Power]

¶ Nevada’s NV Energy issued a request for proposals that could add up to 330-MW of new renewable energy projects to be built in Nevada. The RFP includes the potential integration of battery energy storage systems. It will provide enough carbon-free electricity to power approximately 200,000 Nevada homes. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Solar and wind power

¶ A $46 million solar project in California’s Imperial Valley will be built by Boston-based nonprofit Citizens Energy Corporation following the unanimous vote of the local utility’s board of directors. Under the Imperial Irrigation District’s eGreen program, it will yield savings to 15,000 low-income households. [Solar Power World]

¶ The Trump administration is ruling out plans to sell new drilling rights off the coast of Florida after pressure came from Republican Governor Rick Scott. The about-face came just five days after the Interior Department said it was considering selling oil and gas leases in more than 90% of US coastal waters. [Bloomberg]

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Opinion:

¶ “How Much Longer Does South Florida Have Until The Real Estate Apocalypse Begins?” • At some point the reality that the region is not long for this world will have to sink in, and when it does, demand for homes in the region will crater to a degree that not many living there now probably fully comprehend … so, when will that be? [CleanTechnica]

Miami

¶ “How Blockchain Can Democratize Green Power” • The certification process for Renewable Energy Credits is expensive and cumbersome, and Power Purchase Agreements can only be negotiated by large green generators. But mom-and-pop green generators can enter the market effectively by using blockchain. [EcoWatch]

¶ “On Trump’s Watch, FERC Deals a Death Blow to US Coal Industry” • President Trump rolled into the Oval Office with an emotional appeal to coal miners and all those whose interests depended on the US coal industry. The president’s promises rang hollow throughout his first year in office. His second year offers no relief. [Triple Pundit]

Transmission lines (US DOE photo)

World:

¶ The UK government announced that it expects the 8 remaining coal powered generating stations in the country to be closed by 2025, mostly because of increased economic pressure on coal as the UK carbon tax makes coal more expensive than other fuels. Nevertheless, some climate activists fear the government’s plan is too timid. [CleanTechnica]

¶ The Inter-America Development Bank’s IDB Invest signed a $1 billion senior, unsecured A/B loan package to Columbian utility, Empresas Públicas de Medellín, to build a 2,400-MW hydro-power facility in the northern region of Antioquia, Colombia. Ituango will be the largest hydropower project in the country. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

Hydropower tunnel

¶ Eastern Europe’s largest biogas plant has opened in Teofipol, a farming town in the Ukraine’s Khmelnytskiy region. Fermenting cow manure, corn silage and sugar beet pulp, the plant is capable of generating 15.6 MW, enough electricity to power 16,000 households in the region. It uses four engines by GE Jenbacher of Austria. [Ukraine Business Journal]

¶ A giant solar-thermal power plant to be built in the mid-north of South Australia has received development approval from the state government. Construction will begin at Port Augusta this year on SolarReserve’s $650 million Aurora plant, creating 650 construction jobs and 50 ongoing positions, acting Energy Minister Chris Picton says. [SBS]

Solar thermal power plant (AAP)

¶ Two former Japanese prime ministers have jointly unveiled a plan for legislation to immediately scrap all nuclear power plants in the country, and to shift completely to renewable energy sources by 2050. The plan drawn up by the group says the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant exposed the risks of nuclear power generation. [NHK WORLD]

¶ One of Australia’s largest coal-fired power stations has had six failures of one of its units in the past three weeks, straining the power grid and prompting a call for fossil fuel plants to be set the same reliability standards being considered for renewable energy suppliers. Two trips in two hours shed 230 MW and 161 MW respectively. [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Loy Yang coal-fired power station (Photo: Paul Harris)

US:

¶ An Xcel Energy solicitation for 238 projects of renewable energy resources with battery storage drew 430 proposals with record low median prices. Wind with storage drew 5,700 MW of bids priced at 2.1¢/kWh ($21/MWh). Wind and solar with storage drew 4,048 MW at 3.06¢/kWh. Solar with storage drew 16,725 MW, at 3.6¢/kWh. [Energy Storage News]
(The least expensive fossil fuel listed in Lazard’s LCOE analysis, combined cycle natural gas, produces electricity at 4.2¢/kWh to 7.8¢/kWh. Coal, nuclear, and other listed sources are higher than that.)

¶ Over 116 GW of new wind and solar capacity is expected to be installed in the US through the end of 2020, according to a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission projection. That total includes 72.5 GW of wind in 465 units and 43.5 GW of solar in 1,913 units. However, coal is expected to keep shrinking, losing 20.7 GW. [Power Engineering Magazine]

Wind farm in Idaho (From energy.gov, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ In Michigan, Wolverine Power Cooperative’s seven members and 268,000 member-consumers rang in the new year by cutting their carbon footprint from electricity by 25%. Now, more than half of their energy is carbon-free. The new carbon-free energy comes in addition to Wolverine’s current solar, wind, and hydro energy assets. [Broadway World]

¶ New York will be the first major city to be remapped by FEMA with climate change in mind, according to a report in the New York Times. Cartographers will take into account the new normal of rising sea levels and increasingly frequent 100-year (and 500-year) storms. FEMA’s maps represent the agency’s flood plain estimates. [Next City]

An empty lot in Queens where a house damaged
by Hurricane Sandy was demolished (Photo by AP)

¶ In January of 2018, the aging coal-fired St. Johns River Power Park in Jacksonville, Florida, was officially retired by co-owners Florida Power & Light and JEA, the municipal electric provider for the City of Jacksonville. FPL also announced it has opened four new large solar power plants, and four more are on the way. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

¶ Opponents and supporters of a request by the owner of the Millstone Nuclear Power Station to gain access to Connecticut’s renewable energy marketplace are making last-ditch efforts to sway the opinion of state utility regulators. The regulators’ preliminary decision was to keep the plant open through 2035. [New Haven Register]

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Opinion:

¶ “What an integrated Western grid means for California” • All renewables are on the rise in the US, especially wind and solar. But only some electricity grids are well positioned to capture the benefits low-cost renewable power offers. The electricity grids of the Western US are home to both major electricity and major grid challenges. [GreenBiz]

The wild West (Shutterstock | BCFC)

¶ “Clean Line: A TVA Failure of Clean Energy and Environmental Leadership” • It has become increasingly clear that the Tennessee Valley Authority is taking a hostile position towards renewable energy. TVA is woefully behind peer utilities in the US Southeast in procuring significant resources of both solar and wind energy resources. [Clean Energy News]

Science and Technology:

¶ NASA wants you to head for the mountains with a smartphone and a measuring stick. The space agency’s earth science arm is funding research that recruits citizen scientists on snowmobiles, skis, and snowshoes to measure snow depth in backcountry areas of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Early results have been promising. [The Cordova Times]

Backcountry skiing in Alaska

¶ Since the sexes of sea turtles are determined by the heat of sand incubating their eggs, scientists doing a survey expected that with climate change there would be slightly more females. But instead, they found female sea turtles from the Pacific Ocean’s largest green sea turtle rookery now outnumber males by at least 116 to 1. [National Geographic]

World:

¶ Giving an overview of what to expected over the next few months, the Solar Energy Corporation of India announced three tenders for solar power projects, totalling 1.2 GW, within the first week of this year. The announcements are part of an accelerated program to auction at least 77 GW of solar power capacity by March of 2020. [CleanTechnica]

Solar Park in Gujarat

¶ Wind power developers are building new onshore projects in the UK, despite the cancellation of government subsidies in 2015. This is highlighted by the news that renewables developer Dulas has won agreements for  British met mast installations from four major firms: SSE, Innogy, E.ON, and Brookfield Renewable UK. [Power Engineering International]

¶ Philippine Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi announced that for the third consecutive year, the country ranked first among 125 countries in the World Energy Council’s World Energy Trilemma Index. The WETI ratings are based on three criteria: energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability. [Philippine Canadian Inquirer]

Bangui Wind Farm (Ignacio Malapitan III, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ According to statistics released by ABSOLAR, the Brazilian solar association, the country has reached a cumulative installed solar power of around 1,099.6 MW. This makes Brazil the second Latin American country to have over 1 GW of solar power, after Chile. Of Brazil’s capacity, 935.3 MW is in large-scale solar plants. [pv magazine International]

¶ The UK’s trade body for anaerobic digestion said on-farm anaerobic energy plants can make a “key contribution” toward meeting the goals set out in Scotland’s first Energy Strategy. The Scottish Government’s Energy Strategy’ target is for at least 50% of all heat, transportation, and electricity to be supplied from renewable sources by 2030. [FarmingUK]

Biogas facility

US:

¶ The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unanimously rejected Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s plan to subsidize coal and nuclear power plants by raising consumer energy bills. This was a major blow to the Trump administration’s effort to bring back coal power, especially since 3 of the 5 commissioners are Trump appointees. [ThinkProgress]

¶ 2017 was the costliest year ever for weather and climate disasters in the United States, NOAA announced, totaling $306 billion. The previous record year, 2005, saw $215 billion in disasters. Last year saw 16 weather events that each topped a billion dollars in damage, including three record-breaking hurricanes. [CNN]

Minnesota storm (David Joles | Minneapolis Star Tribune | TNS)

¶ Attorneys seeking customer refunds from SCE&G for its failed multi-billion-dollar nuclear power plant accused the utility of breaking its promises to its ratepayers. They maintained that the utility had promised its customers that if they paid higher rates while two nuclear reactors were being built, they would get lower rates later. [The State]

¶ President Trump renominated Kathleen Hartnett White to lead the Council on Environmental Quality in the White House. The Senate had declined to consider her nomination during the congressional session that expired last month. Democrats object that White’s views on climate change are contrary to established science. [Washington Examiner]

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Science and Technology:

¶ 2017 was the second hottest year on record with regard to global average temperatures, after only 2016, according to a report from the Copernicus Climate Change Service. It was a year of extremes, with many wildfires, very low sea ice extent, and lots of drought. Now, of the 17 hottest years on record, 16 were in this century. [CleanTechnica]

Hot spot

¶ The air pollution a mother is exposed to around the time of conception is linked with the risk of her baby being born with birth defects, according to a new study published in the Journal of Pediatrics. Babies born to women who breathe heavily polluted air in the month before and after conception are much more likely to have birth defects. [CleanTechnica]

World:

¶ There are fears of an environmental disaster in the East China Sea as a tanker continues to leak oil two days after colliding with a cargo ship. Chinese officials have told state media the Sanchi is in danger of exploding and sinking. Rescuers attempting to reach the site were being beaten back by toxic clouds, according to the transportation ministry. [BBC]

Burning tanker (Reuters image)

¶ If the UK is to meet its climate change goals, then it will need to invest more in so-called clean energy and cleantech. That’s the takeaway of a new analysis and report from Carbon Brief, which was based on data provided by Imperial College London. This is despite the fact that most of the UK’s electricity came from “low carbon” sources. [CleanTechnica]

¶ The North Sea Wind Power Hub, an artificial island in the North Sea that could supply renewable energy to 80 million people in six European countries, is set to open in 2027. TenneT thinks the project could handle windfarms with a capacity of 30 GW, more than twice the amount of offshore wind power Europe currently has installed. [Digital Journal]

Offshore hub – click on the image to enlarge it. (TenneT image)

¶ China’s top economic planner said the country is planning several major coal-group mergers and acquisitions by 2020. The efforts aim for reducing excess coal capacity, improving resource allocation, upgrading technology, and improving production safety. There were 10,800 coal mines in China in 2015; now there are about 7,000. [China Economic Net]

¶ Indonesia’s Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has announced that in December 2017 renewable energy provided 12.62% of the total national electricity supply, exceeding the 2017 state budget target of 11.96%. Hydropower produced the greatest share of the renewable energy, at 7.27%, followed by geothermal, which stood at 5%. [Jakarta Post]

Steam rising from geothermal plant (Tempo | Aris Andrianto)

¶ ACWA Power has reached financial close of the three solar PV projects worth $190 million under Round 2 of Egypt Feed-in-Tariff program II. They have a total capacity of 165.5 MWp. After starting operations in Q4 2018, the combined output of the projects is expected to power 80,000 houses and save of 156,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. [African Review]

¶ Orkney, a sparsely-populated archipelago 10 miles off the northern tip of mainland Scotland, is not an obvious place to go looking for the future. Yet the windswept islands have become a foremost center for innovation in renewable energy, including the use of hydrogen generated from wind and sea power as an alternative to fossil fuels. [Financial Times]

Scottrenewables energy converter (Scottrenewables image)

¶ The US State Department is taking steps toward signing a US-Saudi nuclear umbrella agreement required by United States law as a preliminary to selling the country nuclear power reactors. The White House is hinting it would not insist that Saudi Arabia promise not to reprocess irradiated fuel to extract plutonium or enrich uranium. [The Hill]

¶ French renewable energy company Neoen has a support agreement with the Victorian Government for an integrated wind farm and battery storage facility, the Bulgana Green Power Hub. The project includes a 204.4-MW wind farm with Siemens-Gamesa wind turbines and a 20-MW/34-MWh lithium-ion battery provided by Tesla. [EcoGeneration]

Neoen wind farm with Tesla batteries

US:

¶ In Colorado, Longmont’s City Council would establish a citywide goal of having all of its residents’ and businesses’ electricity generated by carbon-free methods in the near future, under a resolution up for consideration Tuesday night. The resolution’s final goal is to have “a 100% clean, renewable energy supply by the year 2030.” [Longmont Times-Call]

¶ Anchorage has yet to see an official temperature below zero for this winter; this makes it the fourth latest date for that to occur. In the winter of 2000-2001, no below zero temperatures were recorded at all. Including that year, all of the five latest dates for sub-zero temperatures in Anchorage have happened since 2000. [KTUU.com]

Springtime Anchorage (Wikipedia)

¶ Some time ago, Ohio froze its renewable energy requirements and eased restrictions on the oil and gas industry. But the state has also closed coal-burning power plants, and its electric power sector cut its carbon pollution by 50 million metric tons a year from 2005 to 2015, the US Energy Information Administration said. [Crain’s Cleveland Business]

¶ In Maine, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority and Diversified Communications are ready to dedicate a project that will produce 1.5 MW of solar energy. Officials say the system is designed to provide 13.3% of the electricity at Brunswick Landing business park from on-site renewable energy while cutting carbon emissions. [WMTW Portland]

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Opinion:

¶ “The future of our technology and our planet depends on one thing: the battery” • With the coming era of the electric car and more advanced robotics, a need to swap to renewable energy, and an ever-increasing (and more mobile gadget-hungry) global population, humanity’s capability of storing energy is going to become critical. [TechRadar]

Tesla’s Gigafactory is in Nevada (Credit: Tesla)

¶ “Justice for Puerto Rico” • A good new year’s resolution for the US government would be to do justice to Puerto Rico and its three million American citizens as they suffer with the aftermath of two powerful hurricanes. In addition to facing rebuilding homes, businesses, and infrastructure, they are burdened with $74 billion debt. [Commonweal]

¶ “It will require concerted effort to achieve a sustainable future” • Concerted global efforts are needed to protect our planet from the impacts of global warming for a sustainable future. The UAE effectively contributes to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and is at the forefront of support for sustainability. [The National]

Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park
(Photo: Pawan Singh | The National)

¶ “‘Bomb cyclone’ appears to stymie Perry’s argument for coal” • The winter storm was just the type of scenario Energy Secretary Rick Perry cited as a reason to subsidize coal and nuclear power plants. But so far, the region’s electricity grid has responded with little disruption, aside from a shutdown of the Pilgrim nuclear plant. [The Keene Sentinel]

Science and Technology:

¶ Global warming is making the world’s oceans sicker, depleting them of oxygen and harming delicate coral reefs more often. In coastal water bodies, including estuaries and seas, low-oxygen sites have increased more than 10-fold since 1950. Scientists expect oxygen to continue dropping even outside these zones as Earth warms. [India Today]

Ocean

World:

¶ Solar modules worth more than $150 million are stuck at various Indian ports due to a dispute over their classification and the import tax. Customs officials want to classify some of them as “electric motors and generators”, attracting a 7.5% duty, not as “diodes, transistors and similar semi-conductor devices” with no duty. [The Daily Star]

¶ Electric vehicles are not all sexy next-generation roadsters or Chinese AI-linked car startups. The mundane backbone of the economy of logistics vehicles is also undergoing electrification. Tesla brought much rightful attention to its electric semi, but in China a large shift in medium- and short-range logistics vehicles is also happening. [CleanTechnica]

Electric delivery van

¶ Petroleum Development Oman has invited expressions of interest from companies to take part in a competitive tender for a 100-MW utility-scale solar PV project in southern Oman, a report said. The project is set to be PDO’s first renewable energy venture being developed as an independent power project, reported the Oman Observer. [Trade Arabia]

¶ It’s fair to say that China is putting its money where its mouth is when it comes to pollution and climate change. Now China has announced a reforestation program that will plant enough trees in 2018 to cover an area the size of Ireland. Forests already cover 21.7% of the country. That figure is set to increase to 23% by 2020 and 26% by 2035. [CleanTechnica]

Forest (via Foter 1)

¶ A new cooperative is fighting back in the face of surging power prices and actively address Queensland’s energy crisis. The idea is a clean, community-owned solution using technology known as a central tower power plant to generate from between 100 and 200 MW of electricity to meet the energy demands of up to 50,000 homes. [Whitsunday Times]

¶ Three solar power plants started operations recently under the first round of Egypt’s feed-in tariff system. And 17 companies signed power purchase agreements with the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy under the second phase. The solar PV and wind projects will add 4,300 MW in capacity to the system by 2018. [Ahram Online]

Solar system in Egypt

US:

¶ Duke Energy is sending more than 200 of its employees along with trucks, equipment and supplies to Puerto Rico to support the effort to rebuild the power grid and restore electric service to areas hit hard by storms. Personnel from Duke Energy operations in the Midwest, Carolinas and Florida will take part in the effort. [satPRnews]

¶ For Georgia Power customers, plugging into solar power no longer means having to add panels to your roof. The company is launching a community solar program that would allow customers to lease part of a large array. It is among the efforts that make Georgia one of the fastest growing states in adding solar power. [The Augusta Chronicle]

A 20-MW solar array in Hazelhurst, Georgia

¶ The news has been increasingly bleak for US nuclear power, with its failed projects and proposed bailouts. But in Minnesota nuclear power looks like it will be part of the state’s electric production until the 2030s. Xcel Energy believes nuclear energy is critical to meeting its carbon reduction goals as closes coal generators. [St. Cloud Times]

¶ If Dominion Energy buys South Carolina Electric & Gas, its customers will get a one-time shot of cash to make up for some of the years they spent financing an abandoned nuclear power plant. Then over the next two decades, SCE&G customers would pay about $2.2 billion for the project, plus a 10.3% return for investors. [Charleston Post Courier]

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Opinion:

¶ “Climate change may lead to a rise in floating architecture” • A serious question is posed by climate change: How will our cities cope with rising sea levels? Some architects believe that floating buildings offer the answer, and have come up with a wide variety of designs to prove it, from simple prefab homes to entirely amphibious neighborhoods. [CNN]

Prototype floating school in Nigeria (Design Museum image)

¶ “Is the White House declaring a policy war on California?” • It is Washington versus California on marijuana, climate change, offshore oil drilling, and immigration this week as bubbling disagreements between California and President Donald Trump’s administration all seemed to spill over at once. But the timing in Washington might be intentional. [CNN]

¶ “3 Questions Worth Answering in the Wake of Winter Storm Grayson” • My colleagues and I think about coastal flooding a lot, but the footage from yesterday had our brains buzzing with new unknowns and threats never considered. It is not simply how do we prepare for storms like this. It’s how do we prepare for a future. [Union of Concerned Scientists]

Satellite image of Grayson

World:

¶ A new partnership between UK nonprofits aims to help local communities buy existing solar PV farms. Community business trust Power to Change and social investment firm Big Society Capital have joined forces to form Community-Owned Renewable Energy Partners, which aims to acquire six to eight solar farms. [Decentralized Energy]

¶ CleanTechnica has published a couple of articles recently on Shenzhen’s 16,000 electric buses. But those stories should not be taken to imply that this is an isolated case of Chinese electric bus leadership. To do so would miss the much bigger and broader story. Here is a roundup of two months of electric bus stories from China. [CleanTechnica]

Consignment of electric buses going to a customer

¶ Finnish development financier Finnfund has provided $15 million in loan funding for the construction of ten solar plants in El Salvador, expected to become operational in 2019. The power plants are now under development and will have a total capacity of 100 MW. The total funding for the projects is about $160 million. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

¶ The UK Government confirmed that its 2015 pledge to phase out coal-fired power within a decade would move ahead under a new rule that limits the “carbon-intensity” of power plants. The limit will allow gas to act as back-up generation, but coal plants will be forced to close unless they are fitted with carbon capture technology. [Telegraph.co.uk]

Thermal power plant (Photo: Phil Noble | Reuters)

¶ Following Tesla’s successful deployment of the world’s largest battery in South Australia, another state in the land down under has lined up as Tesla Energy’s next customer. As noted in a recent report from the Sydney Morning Herald, Victoria has joined South Australia in its push towards a large-scale renewable energy system. [Teslarati]

¶ Germany crossed a symbolic milestone in its energy transition by briefly covering about 100% of electricity use with renewable energy sources for the first time ever on 1 January. In the whole of last year, the world’s fourth largest economy produced a record 36.1% of its total power needs with renewable energy sources. [Clean Energy Wire]

Wind turbine and the moon (Pixabay image)

US:

¶ In the latest issue of its “Energy Infrastructure Update,” with data through November 30, 2017, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission notes that proposed net additions to generating capacity by utility-scale wind and solar could total 115,984 MW by December 2020, effectively doubling their current installed capacity. [Solar Power World]

¶ The winter storm moved out from the Northeast, and the winter cold moved in. A combination of winds, high tide, and a super moon produced the highest tide the area around Boston has ever seen. But the Boston area wasn’t alone in the misery. Up and down the East Coast, tens of thousands spent a frigid night without power. [CBS News]

Wave crashing over a home in Scituate, Massachusetts
(Photo: Scott Eisen | Getty Images)

¶ Three months and 17 days after Hurricane Maria devastated the US territory of Puerto Rico, 45% of its residents, about 1.7 million people, are still without power. So Sunnova Energy Corporation, the island’s second largest residential solar installer, begged Congress yesterday to do something to help those people get power restored. [pv magazine USA]

¶ California Independent System Operator and the California Energy Commission separately released reports on renewable energy. The data from CAISO show that local renewables, including hydro power, met 38% of demand. The CEC report shows that California is already very close to reaching its RPS mandate for 2020. [pv magazine USA]

Solar Frontier Midway1 solar project

¶ If President Donald Trump is actually serious about bringing coal back, he has his work cut out for him. The President’s first year in office was marked by a slew of coal power plant closings, and his second year is already off to a bad start. Mepco Inc announced that it will close a Pennsylvania mine, eliminating 370 coal jobs. [Triple Pundit]

¶ Proposed legislation that would have provided $300 million per year to New Jersey nuclear plants facing premature closure has stalled in the state Assembly. Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto decided not to post the Assembly bill for a vote in the chamber, effectively preventing action on the proposal before the legislative session ends. [Platts]

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Opinion:

¶ “Clean Energy Soared in the US in 2017 Due to Economics, Policy, and Technology” • President Trump rolled out the antiquated arguments that clean energy cost too much and threatened the grid. But markets and policies mostly ignored him. All he did was to abandon the race for global leadership in slowing global warming. [InsideClimate News]

Solar panels in Los Angeles (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)

¶ “We are in trouble” • From an environment point of view, we are in serious trouble. Most people are entirely unaware of how bad things are. We cannot continue things as they are – nature will prevent that. We will have to provide for carbon-free power in the near future, including utility-scale solar and wind power. [Green Energy Times]

¶ “Waking up to clean energy in 2018” • Ten years ago, Canada was asleep, if not intentionally tranquilized, when it comes to energy. Then Ontario was jolted awake by a failing and massively over-budget nuclear industry and one of dirtiest coal power plants in North America. Now, Canada is is investing in renewable energy. [Alaska Highway News]

Bear Mountain Wind Park

World:

¶ The Greek government’s plans for an auction-based scheme for renewables and high-efficiency cogeneration is getting support from the European Commission. The EC said the scheme will be instrumental in helping the country reach its 2020 climate goals. Greece has set a target of producing 18% of its energy from renewables by 2020. [Renewables Now]

¶ Offshore and onshore wind turbines provided 43.6% of Denmark’s total energy requirement for 2017. The new data on Danish renewable energy consumption in 2017 showed that wind turbines provided a record amount of energy to the grid last year. Danish wind turbines reached a total output of 14,700 GWh in 2017. [Energy Voice]

Offshore wind power

¶ A subsidiary of Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management Inc plans to buy Westinghouse, the bankrupt nuclear services company, from Toshiba Corp, for $4.6 billion. Brookfield Business Partners LP and institutional partners plan to use $1 billion of equity and $3 billion of long-term debt financing to buy Westinghouse. [The Japan News]

¶ EnBW has generated first power to the grid from its 19.8-MW Freckenfeld wind farm in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Two Nordex N131 3.3-MW machines are expected to enter full commercial operations this month, and four more turbines, will be erected and commissioned during the next few weeks, EnBW said. [reNews]

Wind turbines stand above fog (Image: EnBW)

US:

¶ The Trump administration announced plans to end a ban on new offshore drilling off the coasts of Florida and California and is considering over 40 sites for leases. Interior had just issued a stop-work order on a National Academy of Sciences study reviewing the offshore oil and gas operations inspection program to enhance safety. [CNN]

¶ Assemblyman Phil Ting, who represents the city of San Francisco in the California legislature, has filed a bill that would allow only zero-emissions cars to be sold in the Golden State beginning in 2040. Though the bill may seem radical, several countries have similar initiatives in the works, including China, France, the UK, and India. [CleanTechnica]

Los Angeles

¶ Two wind farms in Texas totalling 352 MW have kicked off commercial operations, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners announced on Thursday. The Danish fund manager is an equity owner in the 196.7-MW Bearkat I and 155.4-MW Fluvanna I projects. Both facilities were constructed on time and on budget, CIP said. [Renewables Now]

¶ The latest Energy Infrastructure Update from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is packed full of good news for natural gas and renewables, but not for coal. FERC anticipates 20,650 MW of retirements of coal-fired power plants, with only 1,927 MW of new units planned. But natural gas and renewables are still growing fast. [CleanTechnica]

Crescent Dunes CSP (Image: US DOE)

¶ After months of construction, one of Alabama’s largest solar energy facilities, built in partnership with utility Alabama Power, is up and running in Chambers County. The 72 MW Alabama Solar A project sits on 1,400 rolling acres, just south of LaFayette. The new solar farm has a long-term contract with Walmart for most of the power. [Solar Industry]

¶ Enel Green Power North America, Inc, a subsidiary of Enel SpA, started operations of two new wind farms in Oklahoma: the Thunder Ranch wind farm, which has a capacity of around 298 MW, and of the Red Dirt wind facility, which has a capacity of around 300 MW. They are Oklahoma’s first incentive-free wind farms. [Windpower Engineering]

Red Dirt wind farm

¶ Consumers Energy announced that Cross Winds Energy Park II in Tuscola County began serving customers and contributing 44 MW of renewable energy in Michigan. The $90 million Cross Winds Phase II employed 250 workers during construction phase. Its 44-MW capacity is enough to serve about 17,000 residents. [Windpower Engineering]

¶ As the New Hampshire legislature gears up for the 2018 session, over 50 New Hampshire businesses are calling for lawmakers to support clean energy policies. Dartmouth Hitchcock, Hannaford Supermarkets, Hypertherm, Velcro Cos., Timberland, Worthen Industries, and Wire Belt Co of America are among them. [North American Windpower]

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Opinion:

¶ “Why 2018 will be a make or break year for renewables” • The coming year will make or break US renewable energy markets, as state and regional governments defend their 21st century policies against a Trump administration plan to end competition in the nation’s power markets and begin new subsidies for old coal and nuclear plants. [GreenBiz]

Solar installers (Shutterstock)

Science and Technology:

¶ In November, 1959, the well-known physicist Edward Teller was the guest of honor at an American Petroleum Institute celebration to mark the 100th anniversary of the oil industry in America. In his remarks, he warned that climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions would cause rising sea levels and destroy coastal cities. [CleanTechnica]

¶ A NOAA study said cacao plants, which are the source of chocolate, face the threat of extinction as a result of climate change. The cacao plants require specific conditions including uniform temperatures, abundant rain, high humidity and a nitrogen-rich soil to thrive. But scientists at UC Berkeley hope to save them through genetic modification. [inUth.com]

Cacao plant (Photo: Wikimedia)

World:

¶ In 2012, Norway set a goal for transportation-related emissions. The country decided that 85 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer would be the official target for the year 2020. The latest figures reported by Norwegian news channel NA 24 show that goal was achieved and even exceeded in 2017, 3 years ahead of schedule. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Biomass surpassed petroleum in Uruguay’s energy supply mix, reaching 41% versus 40%, according to the country’s 2016 National Energy Balance. And it has been four years since the country has imported any electricity, due to the diversification of the energy mix, according to the country’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy. [Renewables Now]

Cassava (Author: Chad Skeers, CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic)

¶ The 350-MW Wikinger wind farm, whose name means Viking in German, has fed electricity to the grid for the first time. The farm consists of 70 Adewen turbines, and is the result of a €1.4 billion ($1.68 billion) investment. Wikinger is in the Baltic Sea, and is expected to supply 350,000 homes with renewable energy. [Energy Digital]

¶ A proposed $130 million solar farm with 400,000 panels proposed on the outskirts of Mulwala, New South Wales, is before Federation Council. It will have a 140-MW capacity, may include battery storage, and is to be constructed on 270 hectares of farmland. The site is generally on a five-year rotation of cropping and sheep grazing. [Riverine Herald]

Farming energy from the sun

¶ Denmark is set to support 13 large heat pump projects with DKK23 million ($3.7 million) in funding, the country’s energy agency announced last week. The 13 projects will be installed at 11 combined heat and power (CHP)-based district heating plants across Denmark. The plants have a combined capacity of 29.7 MWe. [Decentralized Energy]

US:

¶ Climate change is causing the sea to rise. Mismanagement of water resources and pumping water and oil causes some land to subside. Now, the state of Louisiana is coming up with a plan that declare much of coast to be uninhabitable and aggressively force the abandonment of the region by offering buyouts and raising taxes on those who remain. [CleanTechnica]

Louisiana flood of 2016 (USDA photo)

¶ Due to a forecast snowstorm for Jan 4, the three-member Vermont Public Utility Commission postponed a public hearing on the petition to allow Entergy to sell the dormant Vermont Yankee nuclear plant to NorthStar for decommissioning. The PUC says it plans to reschedule the meeting to either Jan 16 or Jan 17, at 7 pm. [Commons]

¶ Ann Arbor is to power 100% of the city’s municipal government operations with clean and renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by 2035. The City Council unanimously approved the resolution in December, directing the city administrator to provide a multi-year action plan by September 2018 with five-year target objectives. [MLive.com]

Solar panels (Ryan Stanton | The Ann Arbor News)

¶ New York state confirmed a procurement for at least 800 MW of offshore wind power in two solicitations in 2018 and 2019. The proposal is included in governor Andrew Cuomo’s 2018 State of the State address. The state has plans to develop 2.4 GW of offshore wind by 2030. New York is also seeking to develop 1.5 GW of energy storage by 2025. [reNews]

¶ Colorado utilities are planning to add a lot more renewable energy over the next few years. One trend driving this is the emergence of demands for 100% renewable energy from the utilities’ major customers. But perhaps more importantly, the low costs of wind and solar energy have continued to fall, so they are cheaper than coal. [Clean Cooperative]

NREL wind turbines (Photo: Hustvedt, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ Bitterly cold weather is causing a spike in natural gas prices that is rekindling debate over expanding pipelines to New England. Last week, wholesale prices for natural gas more than tripled to their highest level in three years, rising to $35.35 per million BTUs on the spot energy market that supplies much of the region. [Gloucester Daily Times]

¶ Dominion Energy Inc has struck a $7.43 billion all-stock deal to buy troubled energy company Scana Corp, ushering in the final chapter for Scana’s major South Carolina abandoned nuclear project. The deal requires a number of state and federal approvals and could face a tough time from South Carolina lawmakers. [Fox Business]

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World:

¶ The Department of Economy, Enterprises and Employment of the Spanish region of Castilla-La Mancha approved a 50-MW solar project that Spain’s power and gas utility, Gas Natural Fenosa plans to develop in the province of Toledo. The project will require an investment exceeding €49 million, the local government said. [pv magazine International]

Castilla-La Mancha countryside (Image: Victor Martín | Flickr)

¶ In an effort to boost renewable energy in Egypt, the Ministry of Electricity and Renewable Energy initiated a E£ 5 billion ($282 million) project to build the largest wind farm in the Middle East. It is located in the Suez Bay and funded through investments of several international entities, according to the Al-Ahram Arabic website. [Egypt Independent]

¶ RES was granted planning approval for Murra Warra Wind Farm, 25 km north of Horsham, Victoria. When completed it will be one of the largest wind farms in the southern hemisphere, with 116 state-of-the-art wind turbines providing up to 420 MW of generation capacity, enough to power about 248,000 households. [Renewable Energy Magazine]

RES’ Ararat Wind Farm in Victoria (Courtesy photo)

¶ The New Year saw TransAlta retire one of its Alberta coal power generating units and mothball another as it begins the transition to cleaner sources of energy. The company will say goodbye to three more units over the next year and a half to prepare them for conversion to natural gas as part of a move to eliminate coal. [Globalnews.ca]

¶ The Australian microgrid market is forecast to increase to more than $20 billion annually, with around half of all Australian homes expected to have rooftop solar panels installed, by 2024. This will put the country at the forefront of movements that are transforming electric generation and transmission worldwide. [The Sydney Morning Herald]

Solving bill woes with solar power (Photo: AAP)

¶ The Indian state of Haryana is making solar power mandatory for new buildings. Within limits of municipalities, all new residential buildings built on a plot size of 500 square yards and above will have to install solar PV Power plants. Houses with have to install at least 1 kW or 5% of the sanctioned load, whichever is higher. [The Indian Express]

US:

¶ The attorneys general of California and New York filed suits in federal court that seek to block the new so-call tax reform act from taking effect and force the federal government to enforce the methane capture rules of the Obama administration. The federal administration is unacceptably pitting profits against people’s lives. [CleanTechnica]

US Constitution

¶ A flurry of state regulatory activity takes place this month in two companies’ request for approval of the sale of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. On Thursday, Jan 4, the three-member Vermont Public Utility Commission will host a public hearing on the petition to allow Entergy to sell the dormant plant to NorthStar for decommissioning. [Commons]

¶ A data center in Nevada is now using power from two massive new solar farms thanks to an Obama-era program that set aside federal land for solar energy development. The two solar farms, Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2, have a combined capacity of 179 MW. They are located in Clark County, at the southern end of Nevada. [Triple Pundit]

Solar-powered data center in Nevada

¶ EDP Renewables North America has closed two financing deals totalling $507 million for four wind farms and three solar plants with a combined capacity of 423 MW. Bank of New York Mellon is providing tax equity funding of $439.6 million in exchange for an interest in four wind farms in Indiana, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ohio. [reNews]

¶ In his 2018 State of the State address, New York Governor Andrew M Cuomo proposed an agenda to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and growing the clean energy economy. New York aims to reduce emissions from existing fossil-fuel power plants and advance clean energy technologies. [Windpower Engineering]

New York City

¶ According to the Electric Power Research Institute, US electric utilities have a $1.3 trillion opportunity to cut operating costs over the next decade by adopting technologies and processes enabled by the internet of things. We heard similar estimates at the Energy Information Administration’s annual conference last summer. [Capitalist Times]

¶ New York City will soon weigh the possibility of powering its ferries with renewable fuel as part of a bill passed through the City Council. The bill, which the city council unanimously passed on Dec 19, includes a two-year study on the feasibility of city ferries using alternative fuels like biodiesel, and hybrid or fuel-cell electric. [Patch.com]

East River Ferry (AP Photo | Mark Lennihan)

¶ The state of Michigan says more utility customers produced their own electricity in 2016 than the previous year. Michigan’s Public Service Commission says 2,582 residential, commercial and industrial customers participated in the state’s net metering program, an increase of 427 from 2015. Solar power was most popular. [PennEnergy]

¶ Greek renewable power producer Terna Energy said it has launched commercial operations of a 155.4-MW wind park in Texas. The Fluvanna I plant, powered by 74 Siemens Gamesa turbines, is the first stage of a 380-MW project, which Dallas-based wind developer Tri Global Energy LLC sold to Terna Energy in 2016. [Renewables Now]

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Opinion:

¶ “Despite Efforts To Trip It Up, New Energy Economy Remains On Sound Footing” • A decade into the New Energy Economy, the country is not turning back. Falling electricity costs and continually improving technologies mean that the prospects for both solar and wind energy continue to brighten at the expense of coal. [Forbes]

California solar thermal plant (BLM, Wikimedia Commons)

Science and Technology:

¶ Over a quarter of the world’s land could become significantly drier if global warming reaches 2° C, according to new research from an international team including the University of East Anglia. But limiting global warming to under 1.5° C would dramatically reduce the fraction of the Earth’s surface that undergoes such changes. [Science Codex]

World:

¶ Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong, has a population of a bit less than 12 million. Shenzhen also has a lot of buses, 16,359 of them, to be precise. And as of this moment, every one of them is electric. Next, the city intends to make all of its more than 17,000 taxis electric. That may not be too hard, as 12,518 of them already are. [CleanTechnica]
(Last month, there were not quite 300 electric buses in the US.)

Electric buses in Shenzhen

¶ The UK’s recycling industry says it doesn’t know how to cope with a Chinese ban on imports of plastic waste. Britain has been shipping up to 500,000 tonnes of plastic for recycling in China every year, but now the trade has been stopped. At the moment the UK cannot deal with much of that waste, the UK Recycling Association says. [BBC]

¶ Chinese authorities stopped production of 553 passenger vehicle models on January 1st, 2018 because they fail to meet government fuel consumption standards, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. Beijing Benz Automotive, Chery, FAW-Volkswagen, and Dongfeng Motor Corp are among those with models banned. [CleanTechnica]

Chinese road

¶ As existing plants fail to sell all the electricity they can produce, Indian power producers have cancelled some coal-fired projects. In fact, nearly 40% of the country’s coal-based capacity is going unused. A rapid increase in renewable power following Modi’s pledge to provide clean energy is exacerbating the glut of electric power. [The Business Times]

¶ For the first time in 150 years, more of the global middle class will be in Asia rather than the West. This is largely due to China taking a lead in lifting people out of extreme poverty. As the Chinese people expect increased economic well-being, their government is turning to renewable power sources to supply their power. [The National]

Solar water heaters in China

¶ State-owned gas utility GAIL India Ltd has commissioned the country’s second largest rooftop solar power plant, it announced. The firm has installed a 5.76 MW solar plant at its petrochemical complex at Pata in Uttar Pradesh. The plant was installed over the roofs of warehouses and covers a total area of 65,000 square meters (16 acres). [ELE Times]

¶ Oakey in the Darling Downs will be the site of the next solar farm in Queensland. The 80-MW farm will receive a further A$55 million from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation. CEFC Large-Scale Solar lead Gloria Chan said that the project should deliver enough renewable energy to power around 24,000 of the state’s homes. Energy Matters]

Solar farm

¶ Tata Power Renewable Energy Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Power, has commissioned a 50-MW solar plant at the Pavagada Solar Park in Karnataka. The 50-MW solar plant has been built over an area of 253 acres. With this development, TPREL’s total installed operating capacity now stands at 1,664 MW. [Hindu Business Line]

US:

¶ New England is leading the East in a transition to renewable energy. Old fossil fuel plants are being retired, and in some cases are being given severance pay to retire early. A number of proposals are on the table for renewable power and energy storage coming from within New England or to be imported from other areas. [RTO Insider]

National Grid Transmission Proposals | National Grid

¶ Massachusetts is expected to decide on a major renewable electric supply project in late January. Several entrepreneurs are touting their projects in the run-up to that decision. Some of the proposals would carry electricity produced by wind or hydro power plants in Canada across Vermont, New Hampshire or Maine. [The Recorder]

¶ Garvan Donegan, an economic development specialist for the Central Maine Growth Council, said 2017 was a “great year” for solar projects in the region. A number of large arrays came on line in the central Maine region this year while others are in the planning stage. The projects lead to job creation and further development. [Press Herald]

ReVision Energy solar array installation

¶ The Trump administration has a plan to subsidize coal and nuclear power plants, but analysts are skeptical it will do enough to prevent more of the facilities from closing down. In vowing to revive the coal industry and stop the decline of nuclear energy, President is fighting against a tide of coal and nuclear plant closures. [Kaplan Herald]

¶ This year had the second warmest December on record for Fairbanks, Alaska, and the warmest in 104 years, according to an Alaska climate science and services manager with the National Weather Service in Fairbanks. For the month of December, 2017, the average temperature in Fairbanks was close to 13° F above normal. [Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]

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Opinion:

¶ “New GOP Tax Bill Is A Huge Win For Oil & Gas Companies” • Trump’s allies in the GOP Congress gave an incredible end-of-the-year gift to energy companies, especially to fossil fuel companies. Critics say it will lessen renewable energy at the expense of the environment by unleashing further fossil fuel exploration. [ETF Daily News]

Oil Well

¶ “Trump Or No Trump, “Capitalist Tool” Shares Love For Renewables, Lumps For Coal & Natural Gas” • Renewables are making big moves into US electricity generation, and Forbes, the self-described “capitalist tool,” is not shy about toting up the damages. One piece describes how solar is gunning for both coal and natural gas. [CleanTechnica]

¶ “How Alberta achieved Canada’s lowest renewable-electricity prices” • Alberta has the lowest priced renewable electricity in Canada, according to Premier Rachel Notley. The province achieved rock-bottom prices by establishing a competitive auction process to award renewable electricity contracts to low bidders. [The Globe and Mail]

Wind turbines in Alberta (Wikimedia Commons)

¶ “Denying climate science” • After spreading misinformation about greenhouse gas emissions’ role as a driver of climate change for decades, the deceptive tactics of the fossil fuel industry are slowly beginning to backfire. General Electric’s major cuts to its fossil-fuel-heavy power department is just one example. [The News International]

¶ “The Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown Continues Unabated” • Dr Helen Caldicott explains recent photos of Fukushima’s Daiichi nuclear reactors: radiation levels have not peaked, but have continued to spill toxic waste into the Pacific Ocean. It is only now that robots have been able to photograph the damage. [Center for Research on Globalization]

Fukushima Daiichi, co clean before the meltdown (Twitter)

World:

¶ More Indian states are switching to solar power from thermal power due to the cost benefits. The state of Punjab is considering setting up a huge solar power project at the land where currently a 460-MW coal-based power plant stands. The power plant, spread over an area of 2,000 acres, is set to be retired on the first of January 2018. [CleanTechnica]

¶ When 13-year-old Autumn Peltier came face-to-face with Justin Trudeau, she scolded him. She said, “I am very unhappy with the choices you’ve made,” referring to his support for pipeline projects. Next spring, Autumn Peltier will address the UN for the declaration of the International Decade for Action on Water for Sustainable Development. [BBC]

Autumn Peltier meeting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

¶ The Indian government is planning to revamp its incentive program for rooftop solar power systems in an attempt to expedite implementation of the capacity across various segments of power consumers. The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy has proposed financial support worth ₹23,450 crore ($3.7 billion) from the government. [CleanTechnica]

¶ Pakistan will begin 2018 with expensive energy prices and breakeven supplies. While the year is estimated to conclude with a bit of electricity surplus after 13 years, gas shortages are unlikely to end by December 2018. The decade of darkness is likely to come to an end during the year, though at a cost in higher prices. [DAWN.com]

Feeding the pot

¶ Bowing to pressure from shareholders and the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, Royal Dutch Shell pledged to increase its investment in renewable fuels and to cut its carbon emissions in half by 2050. Shell and other oil companies have moved sporadically over the last decade toward greater production of wind and solar energy. [Luxora Leader]

¶ The Cyprus government has repeatedly stated that it has a national energy plan that guides the development of its energy sector. So far, however, the plan is shrouded in mystery as it has not gone through any public consultation, despite the fact that the European Commission expected such draft plans to be submitted by January 1, 2018. [Cyprus Mail]

Mosque and turbines, Cyprus (A.Savin, Wikimedia Commons)

¶ In the UK, electricity from offshore wind is cheaper to generate than energy from nuclear power stations. For contracts to generate power in 2021–22, the price has fallen to £74.75 per MWh. Contracts to produce power in 2022–23 rates are as low as £57.60. To contrast, EDF Energy got contracts to build Hinkley C at £92.50. [OilPrice.com]

US:

¶ One of America’s biggest wind energy projects is now stuck. Environmentalists blame the Tennessee Valley Authority for the failure of Clean Energy Partners’ $2.5 billion effort to bring more renewable energy into the Tennessee Valley. The TVA was not moved by its offer of cheaper and cleaner power. [Chattanooga Times Free Press]

Wind farm (Photo: Clean Energy Partners)

¶ The News-Gazette reports that the University of Illinois South Farms has been idle since October with electrical system issues, but it is scheduled to resume operations soon. University officials are considering expanding the 21-acre solar farm to help meet renewable-energy goals outlined in the Illinois Climate Action Plan. [WJBD Online]

¶ In his Senate confirmation hearing, Barry Myers, President Trump’s choice to run the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said he agrees humans are the primary driver of recent climate change. Myers’ unambiguous acceptance of the human role in climate change marks a clean break from the Trump administration. [Kaplan Herald]

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