geoharvey

Opinion:

¶   “Missing The Big Picture About California’s Low Electric Bills Again” Despite all the facts, the myth that Californians pay a lot of money for their electricity every month continues to be perpetuated. This time around, it was a Forbes blog contributor who fell for the same misconception. [Energy Collective]

World:

¶   In Australia, the Victorian Labor Party is underlining its renewable energy credentials by vowing to help the town of Newstead, near Bendigo, to become 100% renewable energy by 2017, making it the state’s first “solar town”. The effort will focus primarily on solar power and battery storage for reliable 100% renewable power. [RenewEconomy]

¶   Dutch energy companies, farmers and other operators of renewable energy want to demolish and replace 172 recently built mega windmills in order to collect an additional subsidy. Wind turbines that are still in working order are being replaced with new ones as operators do not receive subsidy for the old ones. [NL Times]

¶   Transparency Market Research, in its latest research report, says the global geothermal power generation market will grow significantly. It was valued at $2.5 billion in 2013, and is expected to reach a figure of $8.9 billion by 2019. This is a compound rate of growth of 23.58%. [GlobeNewswire]

¶   The region Australians call New England may become the first region in the country to be powered 100% from renewable energy sources. The Northern Tablelands Greens candidate Mercurius Goldstein says this would provide energy security while keeping the region free from Coal Seam Gas mining. [The Inverell Times]

¶   The Indira Paryavaran Bhavan, a central government building in New Delhi, is India’s first net zero energy building that has been constructed with adoption of solar passive design and energy-efficient building materials. The building has a number of features reducing environmental impacts aside from energy. [eco-business.com]

¶   Power generation in Nigeria will receive a boost with the addition of 1200 MW by American investors. This follows on the heels of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between a consortium of American investors and the federal government. The project is to be completed within two years. [Leadership Newspapers]

¶   Brazil will surpass the United States as the world’s top market for biopower, research firm GlobalData reported. The US remains the world’s global biopower leader for now, but Brazil is expected to increase its countrywide biopower installed capacity from 11.51 GW in 2013 to an estimated 17.1 GW by 2018. [International Business Times]

¶   Speaking to BusinessLine from London after release of IEA’s World Energy Outlook 2014, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency said softening of crude oil prices will not last forever and signs of stress must not be ignored. US tight oil output will level off, and non-OPEC supply will fall back in the 2020s. [Hindu Business Line]

US:

¶   Electric cooperatives are facing a new challenge that centers on how today’s members view renewable energy. “For the first time, we see cooperative members who want to talk about and want to see renewables and clean power, and they see that as more important than reliability and cost. And that’s a major change.” [Electric Co-op Today]

¶   A renewable energy program in San Francisco could create more that 8,100 construction jobs by building $2.4 billion worth of proposed solar, wind and geothermal projects, a new report says. That refutes many criticisms made by Mayor Ed Lee when the city killed a previous version of CleanPowerSF. [SFGate]

¶   The giants of the tech world are at the forefront of clean energy right now. Rapidly advancing technology is a cornerstone of sustainable energy; the latter is predicated on the former. One company, however, doesn’t seem to be riding the clean energy wave, and they’re slightly bigger than your average start-up: Amazon. [RYOT]

Opinion:

¶   “The Upcoming Crisis for Fortis Inc and TransAlta Corporation” Power generators aren’t nearly as safe as investors think they are. What’s the upcoming crisis? It’s solar energy.  The risk is that you and I will put solar panels on our roofs. [The Motley Fool Canada]

Science and Technology:

¶   A team at the University of Liverpool set out to find a replacement for the expensive and toxic cadmium chloride used in coating some PVs. They tested numerous alternatives and found that magnesium chloride yielded comparable efficiency. [Scientific American]

World:

¶   The respected International Energy Agency (IEA) has found that world renewable energy capacity grew at the fastest ever annual rate in 2013. Renewable energy now accounts for 22% of the world’s electricity generation, and that figure is expected to climb to 26% by 2020. [The9Billion]
… According to the latest report from the IEA, renewable energy now accounts for 80% of new generation among the 34 developed countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. Policy uncertainty remains a threat, however. [CleanTechnica]

¶   New solar PV projects are currently being developed in Japan by First Solar total 250 MW, according to recent reports. The company is reportedly expecting its rooftop sector in the country to eventually grow to be even larger than its commercial-scale segment. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Vestas has received a firm and unconditional order for 29 V100-2.0 MW turbines for a wind power project in Poland. The order was placed by EDF Energies Nouvelles, a leader in renewable energy power generation. [Power Online]

¶   The firm hired by the Abbott government to conduct the modelling for its controversial review of the Renewable Energy Target has admitted it was instructed to ignore commercial reality – particularly around coal-fired power generation. [RenewEconomy]

¶   In the midst of a suburban sprawl halfway between the Eiffel Tower and Paris’s busy Orly airport, a drilling crew works night and day burrowing deep into the Earth’s crust in search of underground heat. The wells will provide heat to nearby homes, schools, and hospitals. [The Rakyat Post]

¶   Sales of solar cell modules in Japan rose 14% to 1.88 GW in April through June from a year earlier, industry data showed, supported by the government scheme to speed up the installation of renewable energy. [Reuters Africa]

US:

¶   Facing unprecedented, industry-wide declines in electric and water sales over the last decade, officials of JEA, which provides electric, water, and sewer services to residents of Jacksonville, Florida, are searching for new ways to make money. [St. Augustine Record]

¶   In Connecticut, both Ansonia and Derby are going ‘green’ in order to save some green. Plans to install thousands of solar panels over each of the cities’ closed landfills are projected to save more than $1 million in electricity costs over the next 15-20 years. [New Haven Register]

¶   For various reasons — including logistics, economics and permitting issues — geothermal has not even come close to reaching its potential in the US. That could change with the introduction of a series of bills that may hasten its development and remove some bureaucratic obstacles. [OilPrice.com]

¶   The Guam Power Authority is on track to lose $4.5 million this fiscal year because of customers who are using less power or who have started using alternative energy sources, such as solar panels. In response, it is considering changing the way customers are billed for power. [Pacific Daily News]

¶   Just months after being ordered to lift their game on distributed, grid-connected solar, Hawaii’s investor-owned electric companies have revealed plans to triple the amount of rooftop solar installed on the island state by 2030. [CleanTechnica]

¶   Impatient with the pace at which states and the federal government are confronting climate change, communities from the coast to coast have begun taking steps to elbow aside big electricity companies and find green power themselves. [Los Angeles Times]