Tag Archives: Wind Power

Nuclear Plant Closures Forecast for New York and Chicago regions

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Nuclear reactors that light New York City and Chicago with carbon-free electricity face possible extinction before they can reap the benefits of President Barack Obama’s proposed climate rules.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>A slump in power prices, increasing maintenance expense as plants age and stricter safety regulations following Japan’s 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster may prompt the industry to retire as many as five plants before the end of the decade, according to research firm UBS Securities LLC. That would eliminate enough generating capacity to power 2.4 million U.S. homes. […]

Reactors such as Indian Point are combating critics that want to shut them down over safety concerns. New York, for example, has solicited bids to replace the plant with natural gas-fired generators and authorized a transmission line to deliver hydropower from Quebec.

Retired nuclear units would likely be replaced by gas plants built by operators such as NRG Energy Inc. (NRG), which would have the result of increasing overall greenhouse gas emissions. That may complicate Obama’s longstanding goal of slashing U.S. emissions 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, and echo challenges faced by countries such as Japan and Germany as they phase out nuclear power, said Chris Gadomski, an analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance.<

See on www.bloomberg.com

Renewables & Energy Efficiency Can Cut Power Plants’ Water Use 97% by 2050

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Investing in renewables and energy efficiency could reduce power plants’ water withdrawals by 97 percent from current levels by 2050 and cut carbon emissions 90 percent from current levels, according to a study by the Union of Concerned Scientists…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>The report warns that a “business-as-usual” approach would keep emissions within 5 percent of current levels and water withdrawals would not drop significantly until after 2030. And while utilities’ ongoing shift to natural gas would decrease water use in the coming decades, the study says its ongoing requirements could still harm water-strained areas. This shift to natural gas also would do little to lower the power sector’s carbon emissions.

More than 40 percent of US freshwater withdrawals are used for power plant cooling, the report says. These plants also lose several billion gallons of freshwater every day through evaporation.

Further, increasing demand and drought are putting a greater strain on water resources. Low water levels and high water temperatures can cause power plants to cut their electricity output in order to avoid overheating or harming local water bodies. Such energy and water collisions can leave customers with little or no electricity or with added costs because their electric supplier has to purchase power from elsewhere, as occurred during the past two summers.<

See on www.environmentalleader.com

Three Types of Climate Action for Europe and Central Asia Region

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Under current trajectories, the world is headed toward a world that will be 4 degrees warmer by the end of this century.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>[…] However, as we try to show in our recent publication, Growing Green: the Economic Benefits of Climate Action, strategic investment in climate action can benefit these countries in the medium- and long-terms – thus offsetting the negative consequences of these investments.

Above all, countries need to focus on three types of climate action: climate action as aco-benefit, climate action as an investment, and climate action as insurance.

This first area of climate action is simply a co-benefit of policies that make sense even if we were not concerned about climate change. These are things like supporting energy efficiency investments or restoring degraded soils to make agriculture more productive (while also increasing carbon storage in soils).

The second area is what we call climate action as an investment. This gets at the issue of how countries can benefit from greening their economies – doing well by doing good. What we have seen in the last few years is that new firms emerge in countries that have implemented ambitious green policies early and take advantage of the economic opportunities that have sprung from these policies. […]<

See on blogs.worldbank.org

The 21st century data center: You’re doing it wrong | ZDNet

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Outdated designs are keeping data centers from reaching their full potential.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>One example of this are data centers that use raised floors for cooling. Many IT pundits have discredited this method of cooling as wasteful, including Schneider Electric’s territory manager for the Federal government and the ACT, Olaf Moon.

[…]

Cappuccio notes that engineering firms that are consulted to build data centers know about the newer and more efficient ways to do things. But rather than try something new, they prefer the stock standard cookie-cutter approach to creating data centers because it’s fast and easy, he said.

[…]

“I’ve seen a lot of data centers being built that are too big,” says Cappuccio. “We’re finding people with data centers that are three to four years old when they realise they have far too much space, and are still providing air conditioning to those areas. So they begin to shrink them, putting up walls, bringing down the ceiling so they don’t air condition the extra space.”

See on www.zdnet.com

The Obama Administration Proposes $8 Billion in Loans for ‘Clean’ Fossil Fuel Technologies

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As part of President Obama’s new energy initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy has proposed $8 billion in loan guarantees for fossil fuel technology projects that are able to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

> […]the U.S. Department of Energy has proposed $8 billion in loan guarantees for fossil fuel technologies to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The proposal would fund schemes such as waste heat recovery and carbon dioxide capture, however it has unsurprisingly received criticism as it would draw focus away from green technology projects such as renewable energy and electric vehicles.

Speaking about the new proposal, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz stated:  “Coal and fossil fuels still provide 80% of our energy and 70% of electricity, and they will remain an important part of our future, as the president noted.”<

See on inhabitat.com

The Amazing Energy Race

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The United States is falling behind. To catch up, we need to reorder our priorities, find cleaner and smarter fuels and develop new technologies.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>“In reducing coal’s historic dominance, the president is formalizing a market trend that was already taking shape,” remarked Andy Karsner, who was an assistant secretary of energy in the last Bush administration. His bigger message, though, was “no matter where you find yourself on the political spectrum, it’s useful for the nation to discuss, debate and consider a strategy for climate change. The consequences of inaction are potentially greater than all the other noise out there.”<

See on www.nytimes.com

Energy Storage Systems for Solar and Wind Power Integration Will Total Nearly 22 Gigawatts of Installed Capacity from 2013 to 2023

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June 26, 2013 More than 1,300 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar power generation capacity are expected to come online in the next 10 years, creating an unprecedented amount of instability on the gri…

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>“Several of the major markets for renewables, including Germany, Japan, and the United States, have enacted rules or legislation encouraging the adoption of energy storage systems for the purpose of integrating variable energy sources onto the grid,” says Anissa Dehamna, senior research analyst with Navigant Research.  “These market incentives come in various forms, including outright subsidies for ESS adoption, reforms that change how variable generation is compensated, and adjustments to connection requirements for variable power plants.”

In particular, changes to the compensation arrangements for variable power generation will have significant influence on the market for ESSs for solar and wind.  Compensation mechanisms have changed drastically over the past 10 years, according to the report, and many compensation schemes have grandfather clauses—meaning that older wind and solar systems have much different compensation rates and structures than newer systems coming online.<

See on www.navigantresearch.com

Research and Markets: Global and Chinese Power Energy Storage Battery – 2013 Report – WSJ.com

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DUBLIN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 28, 2013–

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/nblmtd/2013_deep) has announced the addition of the “2013 Deep Research Report on Global

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>The report begins by defining the industry giving details on classification, application, industry chain, structure industry overview, international market analysis, China domestic market, Global market analysis, macroeconomic environment, economic situation analysis and influence, industry policy and plan, product specification, manufacturing process, and product cost structure.

The report then gives statistics on 21 key manufacturers including information on capacity, production, cost, price, profit, production value gross margin, products, customers, application, capacity, market position, company contact information and other company related information. […]

In the end, this report gives a SWOT analysis and discusses a 400MWh/year investment feasibility analysis project and investment return analysis and also gives related research conclusions and a development trend analysis of Chinese and Global Power Energy Storage Battery industry.<

See on online.wsj.com

Utilities fear what they cannot control with community solar – PV-Tech

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Utilities love solar. Or at least they love utility-scale solar, i.e. installations they can own or control through power purchase agreements.

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

>”People like solar and the utility can play a really useful role in bringing solar into a community. But you do have to deal with some issues in terms of how to take advantage of the tax incentives. That can really change the cost of the programme. To take advantage of the tax code, the system has to be located on your property.

[…]

“We’ve seen some prices as low as 5c-6c per kWh once the tax depreciation and tax advantages have been taken by an entity that has that tax appetite. For those who are subscribing this is a resource for the future and many years out that would be a hedge.”

Ultimately, one of the biggest appeals of community solar is the value proposition and that does not always come down to the cheapest rate: communities want power sourced as locally as possible. Green pricing failed to gain mass appeal 10 years ago because consumers were being sold ‘clean power’ generated by wind two states away.<

See on www.pv-tech.org

Wind turbines to power Scotland’s railways

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A Scottish railway operating company has been given the green light to install two wind turbines at a West Lothian railway depot. They are expected to produce 14,000kWh of electricity …

Duane Tilden‘s insight:

A Scottish railway operating company has been given the green light to install two wind turbines at a West Lothian railway depot.

They are expected to produce 14,000kWh of electricity – enough to power a small station like Greenfaulds, Cumbernauld in Scotland – and save almost eight tonnes of carbon emissions every year. ScotRail also expects to save around £4,500 in energy bills per year, which it plans to reinvest in more renewable energy schemes on Scotland’s railways.

See on www.energylivenews.com