World:
¶ “Safety Panel Urges Fukushima Operator To Communicate With Public Better” • A panel of safety experts urged the operator of the tsunami-wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan to communicate more quickly with the public over incidents such as last week’s leak of contaminated water, which went for a week without comment. [ABC News]
Fukushima Daiichi before meltdowns (KEI, CC-BY-SA 3.0)
¶ “16% Of New Cars Were Battery EVs In France In January” • The French plugin passenger car market is continuing to grow. Most recently, this is all thanks to pure battery EVs jumping 37% to 20,017 registrations, or 16% share, in January. Plugin hybrids were also up, with a moderate rate of 2% year-over-year, to 10,509 units, or 8.6% share. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Cascaded Geothermal Heating And Cooling Networks for Industry, Trade, And Residential Buildings” • The NEFI project CASCADE, running to the end of 2025, is investigating cascaded heat, passing residual heat from one building to use in another, in the Austrian municipalities of Steyr, Gmunden and St Martin im Mühlkreis. [CleanTechnica]
Steyr (Leonhard Niederwimmer, Unsplash)
¶ “Adani Green Energy Links 551 MW Of Solar Capacity Plant To National Grid” • Adani Green Energy Limited has successfully operationalised a 551-MW solar PV plant in Gujarat’s Khavda renewable energy park, and it has started supplying electricity to the national grid. The park is to be the largest renewable energy installation in the world. [The Hans India]
¶ “China’s Renewable Installations Surpass Expectations, But Potential Utilization Risks Exist” • China is set to reach its 2030 wind and solar capacity target of 1.2 TW six years early, with installed capacity already reaching 1.1 TW by end-2023, Fitch Ratings says. The China Electricity Council forecasts 260 GW of new installations in 2024. [Mettis Global]
Wind turbines in Xinjiang (Chris Lim, CC-BY-SA 2.0)
¶ “Government Adds Over 7,000 MW To Grid Via Renewable Energy Programme: Mantashe” • Over 7,000 MW has been connected to South Africa’s electricity grid, Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe said. The addition is a result of the government’s Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme. [Central News South Africa]
¶ “AGL And AEMO Search For Answers On Loy Yang Outage” • In Victoria, storms tore down at least six transmission towers on one of the main 500 kV transmission lines, triggering a massive frequency excursion that took 2,700 MW of generation capacity, including the Loy Yang A brown coal generator owned by AGL Energy. [RenewEconomy]
Loy Yang power plant (Billy Joachim, Unsplash)
¶ “Poland Analyzes Whether Nuclear Plant Will Be Ready By 2033 Amid Delays” • Poland is analyzing whether its first nuclear power plant can be built by 2033 amid delays the project suffered under the previous government that lost power in October, the climate minister said. She said the financing model to build it has not been decided. [Reuters]
US:
¶ “New Mexico Legislators Seek Cleaner Transportation Fuels, Would Follow West Coast’s Lead” • New Mexico’s Legislature has approved a bill aimed at reducing climate-warming pollution from cars and trucks through financial incentives to businesses. California, Oregon, and Washington are already enforcing carbon fuel standards. [ABC News]
New Mexico (Raychel Sanner, Unsplash)
¶ “Feds Finalize Areas For Floating Offshore Wind Farms Along Oregon Coast” • The federal government finalized two areas for floating offshore wind farms along the Oregon coast, authorities announced, bringing the state closer to commercially developing and producing a renewable energy source that’s part of the fight against climate change. [ABC News]
¶ “Wildfire Smoke To Worsen Across US, Putting 125 Million At Risk: Study” • Wildfires are expected to worsen across the US, and the effects of wildfire smoke could bring startling health risks to 125 million Americans by mid-century, a study by First Street Foundation revealed. It shows the rise of wildfires is becoming a national crisis. [ABC News]
Wildfire (Ross Stone, Unsplash)
¶ “Biden–Harris Admin Invests $60 Million To Expand Clean, Renewable Geothermal Energy” • In support of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the US DOE announced that it had selected three projects to get up to $60 million to demonstrate the efficacy and scalability of enhanced geothermal systems for generating electricity. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Siemens Invests In US Transformer Factory” • Siemens Energy is investing $150 million in a power transformer factory in Charlotte, North Carolina, creating almost 600 local jobs. Today, only 20% of US large power transformer demand is met by domestic supply with lead times of up to five years, according to the company. [reNews]
Transformer (Jasonbook99, CC-BY-SA 3.0, cropped)
¶ “US EV Sales: Strong Increases Year Over Year Every Month of the Year” • There are a lot of headlines and there’s a lot of hype falsely declaring that the EV market is struggling. Sometimes such stories are focused on the US market and sometimes they are focused more broadly, but no matter what their focus, they are wrong. [CleanTechnica]
¶ “Bills That Would Open The Door For Virginia Utilities To Charge Customers For Nuclear Development Costs Advance” • Bills that would allow Dominion and Appalachian Power to seek approval to start charging customers for the costs of developing small modular nuclear reactors moved forward in the Virginia House of Delegates and Senate. [Cardinal News]
Have a fantastically providencial day.
geoharvey 
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