Tag Archives: Solar Power

Waste and Recycling Industry – Landfill Gas Collection Almost 50% of Renewable Energy Supply USA

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News

WASHINGTON, April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The waste and recycling industry is continuing to reduce its release of greenhouse gases — even as waste volumes increase, according to the latest greenhouse gas inventory released by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Despite the fact that we are landfilling 6 percent less than 20 years ago, we have greatly improved our ability to reduce methane emissions. As a result, these emissions declined by 30 percent during the same period. This has happened as a result of converting methane to energy, flaring of methane emissions and oxidation techniques.

There are 594 landfill gas-to-energy sites in the United States that generated 1,813 megawatts (MW) of energy and 312 million standard cubic feet a day (mmscfd) of gas. This is enough energy to directly power 1 million homes and heat 729,000, respectively.

Methane gas collected at landfills is used to power home, businesses and government facilities across the nation. Some of it is even used to fuel garbage trucks. Landfill-gas-to-energy projects and other forms of biomass-derived energy make up the almost half of the nation’s renewable energy supply, almost the same amount as is derived from solar, wind, geothermal and hydropower combined.

See on online.wsj.com

SolarReserve Expands International Development Activities into Latin America – WSJ.com

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News

SANTA MONICA, Calif., April 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — SolarReserve, a leading U.S.-based solar energy developer; today announced the company’s international expansion into the Latin American region through the opening of its office in Santiago, Chile.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

SolarReserve’s industry leading CSP technology features an integrated molten salt energy storage system, allowing firm, reliable electricity to be generated on-demand and delivered when the client requests the electricity. This energy storage capability provides a stable electricity product similar to that of conventional fuel-burning power facilities, but without the associated harmful emissions and price volatility.

Engineered and proven by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, the technology generates power from sunlight by focusing energy from a field of sun-tracking mirrors called heliostats onto a central receiver. Liquid salt, which flows similarly to water when melted, is circulated through the receiver, collecting the energy gathered from the sun. The heated salt is then routed to an insulated storage tank where it is stored with minimal energy losses. When electricity is needed, the hot salt is routed to heat exchangers to produce steam that is then used to generate electricity in a conventional steam turbine cycle. Therefore, the system minimizes risk, time and cost, while providing high capacity storage that allows energy production on-demand, day or night.

See on online.wsj.com

Intel, Microsoft top clean energy ranking | SmartPlanet

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News

The EPA has released an updated ranking of the top 50 organizations that use renewable energy to power their U.S. operations.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

The agency’s Green Power Partnership, which updates the list quarterly, said Intel uses clean energy to cover 100 percent of its electricity load. Microsoft moved into second place by increasing its green power use to more than 1,9 billion kilowatt-hours annually. Kohl’s came in third, followed by Whole Foods and Walmart.

See on www.smartplanet.com

US president aims to add 40GW to 82GW of installed CHP capacity by 2020

Posted on by
1

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

Low gas prices, state incentives, environmental regulations and the retirement of old power plants helps fuel rising investment in combined heat and power (CHP) installations in the US, according to a Department of Energy (DOE) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report.

 

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Obama’s CHP initiative

The 40GW CHP expansion goal is based on a 2012 Executive Order from Obama which encourages the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the EPA […] to coordinate policies in order to encourage investment in industrial efficiency measures such as CHP.

The installation of a further 40MW of capacity would save about 1 quadrillion Btu of energy annually, eliminate over 150 million metric tons of CO2 emissions and save energy users some $10 billion a year.

Shale gas revolution helps spur CHP growth

Currently about 8 percent of US power generation capacity and 12 percent of MWh generated annually comes from CHP, according to the DOE report, while 87 percent of CHP installations support manufacturing plants.

The recent US shale gas revolution has helped spur renewed interest in the sector, after investment in new CHPs slowed down between 2004 and 2005, mainly due to volatile gas prices and an uncertain economic outlook.

See on gastopowerjournal.com

California’s Secret To Green Jobs And A Thriving Clean Economy? It’s Policy.

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green & Sustainable News

Gov. Jerry Brown signs bill requiring California utilities to get a third of their power from renewable sources, the country’s most aggressive clean energy standard (AP Photo)

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Green jobs are growing four times faster than the rate of all other jobs nationwide, with the majority happening in California according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. EDF’s analysis of California’s clean economy finds that jobs in core sectors like energy efficiency, renewable energy, clean transportation, and advanced storage and materials have not only remained resilient during the worst of the Great Recession (2008-2010), they outpaced all other job growth and grew 109 percent from 1995 to 2010.

Green jobs are also good jobs in California. They are diverse, across a wide range of education-level and skills, and almost half of all jobs in the clean economy don’t require a college degree according to the Brookings Institution. On average, green jobs offer a higher median wage and career advancement opportunities. An analysis by Philip Romero, the former Dean of CSU Los Angeles College of Business and Economics finds that “workers command wages with a 50-to-100 percent premium over the average job,” and estimates that the overall clean economy will grow “by at least 60-to-100 percent” by the late 2030’s.

See on thinkprogress.org

Sol Voltaics uses nanotechnology to make solar energy 25 percent more efficient

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

Swedish company with Silicon Valley talent has raised $11 million to make solar power more efficient.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Two advances make it possible. The team, led by founder Lars Samuelson (a Lund University professor), created a technology known as Aerotaxy, which makes it cheaper to make nanomaterials. With that, they are creating gallium arsenide nanowires that can serve as solar collectors and that they can integrate directly into solar wafers, known as solar cells. The smarts happens at the atomic level.

[…] manufacturers don’t have many options for bringing down the costs of solar. […] The cells themselves must become more efficient to lower costs.

See on venturebeat.com

TD Bank Announces Energy-Saving Monitoring Data For Net-Zero Store

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green Building Design – Architecture & Engineering
TD reports that the first net-zero bank built in the United States is exceeding expectations according to first-year monitoring data.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

TD Bank’s net-zero energy store opened on May 13, 2011. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory defines a net-zero energy building (NZEB) as a residential or commercial building that produces and exports in a year at least as much renewable power as the total energy it uses.

[…] A NZEB has two key energy features: The building is constructed with energy-efficient technologies that significantly reduce its energy demand, and renewable energy sources supply at least as much energy as the building uses over the course of a year.

See on www.stockhouse.com

Energy Storage Series: Why We Need It, And Why We Don’t

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

It’s almost a cliché that there’s a “friendly debate” pitting utilities against renewable energy. But concerns on the utility side of the table are real: intermittency, potential destabilization at the feeder level, non-baseload, and peaks in generation that don’t necessarily match demand peaks. Today’s power infrastructure involves unpredictability in both supply and demand that is extremely difficult to manage.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

The big question in energy storage, Wheaton says, boils down simply: what does it cost to build more generation (to oversupply), vs. how to store and manage energy? Today it’s more “economically rational” to build more generation, whether it’s solar or wind or even coal, he noted. As energy storage technology costs come down — and as there is better understanding and calculation of externalized costs, such as societal impacts — “we will see those lines cross, and more utilities will go to energy storage as a more economical means to serve the grid.”

Fundamentally, economics determines the decision of over-generation vs. energy storage; right now “either energy storage is not cheaper, or the payback is not enough to shift over,” noted Luebbe. As the cost (dollars per kilowatt-hour) come down and energy storage costs intersect with those in over-generation, “then everyone will do it because it’s economically the logical thing to do.”

See on www.renewableenergyworld.com

ComEd Created 2400 Jobs through Grid Modernization Programs in 2012

Posted on by
Reply

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

ComEd submitted this week to the Illinois Commerce Commission data showing that the 2011 Smart Grid law created more than 2400 full-time equivalent jobs in Illinois in 2012.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

“The grid modernization programs are putting many linemen, electricians and specialists who work on our electric grid back to work in well-paying, skilled jobs. This helps the Illinois economy and boosts other local industries, too,” said Michael Carrigan, president, Illinois AFL-CIO. “Getting the programs back on track will protect and increase jobs for Illinois workers.”

ComEd’s grid modernization investments have provided an important boost to Illinois manufacturers, suppliers and service providers with the expertise necessary to support the electrical system upgrade. Last year, ComEd awarded grid modernization contracts worth a total of $118 million, including 71 percent to Illinois companies providing services and products from engineering to cable to smart switches. Of the total, $54 million, or 46 percent, was spent with diverse suppliers.

See on tdworld.com

What Will Be the Next Technological Breakthrough in Energy?

Posted on by
1

See on Scoop.it – Green Energy Technologies & Development

What technological breakthrough is most likely in the next 10 years that could completely change the energy equation as we now see it?

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

Jeffrey Ball: Information Technologies to Increase Efficiency, and Solar Power Seem Promising

Predicting new-energy technological breakthroughs tends to be a fool’s errand. A decade ago, few envisioned the breakthrough that has most rocked the U.S. energy world: the one-two punch of fracking and horizontal drilling that has unlocked huge stores of shale gas from California to New York.

Right now, two broad areas of new energy technology seem particularly promising: information technologies that could spur major energy-efficiency improvements; and cheaper and more-reliable solar power. […]

Study after study has pegged energy efficiency as the lowest-cost way to curb fossil-fuel consumption and the resulting greenhouse-gas emissions. The problem has been figuring out how to unlock those efficiency improvements in the real world. Today, creative minds are at work developing electronic systems to track and display the energy use of institutional and individual consumers in ways that could make those users much more conscious both about how much energy they consume and about precisely what they could do to cost-effectively consume less. More information, in short, could equal less power.

See on online.wsj.com