…We need to broaden our idea of progress and success, adopting prosperity instead of GDP growth because it encompasses general flourishing, thriving, general wellbeing, happiness and health as well as economic factors – socio-economic goals should not continue to be geared to more and more money for a few. Efficiency needs to replace waste.

… without an integrated and coordinated approach to social, economic and environmental issues we won’t have dynamically stable, secure ways of living that are able to persist over time.

"The battery was deployed at the site to provide energy storage for the wind farm, helping to stabilize its output to the grid. Such battery systems are being considered for solar installations as well. “Battery storage is an important innovation to address the variability of wind and solar energy generation,” said Duke Energy Renewables President Greg Wolf. “Developing an expertise in this advanced technology will enable us to expand the use of renewable energy, better integrate it into the power grid and become even more efficient at serving our customers.”"

"The project has been in the works for a while, at least since 2009 when Duke Energy matched a $22 million grant from the DOE to install large-scale batteries. The grant came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). It was one of 16 grants totaling $185 million that the DOE’s Office of Electricity Distribution and Energy Reliability made for such storage projects. Each project is cost-shared with the project owners, with the DOE making no more than half the investment. Other projects that received grants included compressed air energy storage, flywheels and advanced batteries. The devices being installed help with frequency regulation, smoothing of a photovoltaic installation, ramping for wind, and time shifting for a fossil fuel plant."

The new tunnel, which is more than 10 kilometers (6 miles) in length, is channelling additional water from the Niagara River to flow to the Sir Adam Beck Generating Station at a rate of 500 cubic metres (132,086 gallons) per second. This will supply Ontario with enough clean, renewable electricity to power 160,000 homes.

The California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) board of governors has approved five new power-line projects specifically intended to meet California’s renewable energy goals.

The projects were part of the 2012-2013 transmission plan approved by the board. The plan also identified the need for 36 projects that support regional and national reliability standards. According to the CAISO, the 41 transmission projects approved in the plan – which are estimated to cost approximately $1.7 billion – are needed to maintain the reliability of the transmission system and allow the state to meet its 33% by 2020 renewable portfolio standard.

The transmission plan also examines infrastructure requirements for the ISO grid in the event that one or both nuclear power plants were to shut down. The plan is updated annually and looks out over a 10-year horizon to determine future grid needs.

The road to renewable was a formidable one. Apple doubled the size of an already huge solar array in North Carolina, buying another 100 acres of land to support the expansion.  The two separate 100-acre solar arrays in Maiden, N.C. each produce 42 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy annually. Apple also uses biogas from nearby landfills to power Bloom Energy Server fuel cells at its Maiden site.

Although it’s been secretive about the project, the company has been vocal in its plans to use renewable power exclusively for its new data center in Prineville, Oregon. That energy will come from a mix of sources, such as wind, hydro, solar and geothermal power.

"China has put strong emphasis on renewable energy as a way to cut back on emissions and reduce air pollution. The country has been investing heavily in solar and wind energy in order to spur economic development and reduce its impact on the environment. Despite this strong focus on renewable energy, China is still heavily dependent on fossil-fuels. These fossil-fuels are part of the reason the country is struggling with air pollution today, according to the Central Government."

Over the past years, Bosch Solar Energy has tried unsuccessfully to achieve a competitive position. Due to global overcapacity, which has since become huge, nearly the entire industry is sustaining heavy losses.

Dr. Stefan Hartung, the chairman of the Bosch Solar Energy AG supervisory board and member of the Robert Bosch GmbH management board responsible for the Energy and Building Technology business sector, sums up the situation as follows: "Despite extensive measures to reduce manufacturing cost over the past year, we were unable to offset the drop in prices, which was as much as 40 percent"

As announced in January 2013, the losses of the Solar Energy division came to some one billion euros last year. The division currently employs some 3,000 associates, roughly 850 of them at aleo solar AG and some 150 at CISTech.

In total, the three categories [Renewables] amount to 8.5% of world energy supply. If growth continues at today’s rate, it will be a very long time before renewable energy supply can be expected to amount to more than 10% or 15% of world energy supply.

Occupants in Net-Zero energy buildings are usually measured as a plug load.  Monitoring & limiting plug loads are methods of managing energy use in a building.

"We all expect the share of renewables to grow, but we will only be able to accommodate such growth if the required infrastructures are in place," he said. "Intermittent renewables need not only flexible back-up and energy storage, but also a modernization of the existing grid-infrastructure. That is quite expensive, so we should do everything we can to bring costs of renewables down."