tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57308155220147957612024-03-13T11:09:03.559+05:30ENERGY SECURITY NEWS, VIEWS & OPINIONSvksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.comBlogger1310125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-91964055939824978752017-10-03T00:23:00.001+05:302017-10-03T00:23:08.496+05:30Infrastructure and Human Resource Development: Next Gen Growth Engines of Indian Economy | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY<a href="http://veekay-indiandreamsvsreality.blogspot.in/2012/01/infrastructure-and-human-resource.html">Infrastructure and Human Resource Development: Next Gen Growth Engines of Indian Economy | INDIAN DREAMS Vs REALITY</a>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-59211229416850585382015-01-03T14:07:00.001+05:302015-01-03T14:07:09.667+05:30<h1 style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #0087cd; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.power-technology.com/features/featurepower-plant-om-how-does-the-industry-stack-up-on-cost-4417756/">Power plant O&M: how does the industry stack up on cost?</a></span></h1><div><br /></div><div><div class="intro" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #666666; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">29 October 2014 <a href="http://www.power-technology.com/contributors/contributor2174/" style="border: 0px; color: #0087cd; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Chris Lo</a></div><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><div class="article_description" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; float: left; font-family: arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 435px;"><div class="standfirst" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><hr style="background-color: #cccccc; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: none none dotted; color: #cccccc;" /><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Operations and maintenance costs vary widely between different forms of power generation but form an important part of any power plant's business case. Power Technology ranks average O&M costs in the energy sector to find out which generating facilities are the cheapest to run and maintain.</div><hr style="background-color: #cccccc; border-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-style: none none dotted; color: #cccccc; text-align: justify;" /></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">Whether the energy source is fossil fuel-based, nuclear or renewable, the cost of operation and maintenance (O&M) forms an important part of a power plant's business case, a piece of the investment puzzle along with capital expenditure and fuel costs that must be balanced against life-cycle profitability, output efficiency and availability. These ongoing costs - both fixed and variable - include day-to-day preventative and corrective maintenance, labour costs, asset and site management, maintaining health and safety, and a host of other important tasks.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">O&M costs vary widely between different forms of power generation, and the O&M burden often plays a varying role in the basic cost analysis of different power plants - high maintenance costs are often offset by advantages in other areas, and vice versa. Here we present the average O&M costs for six of the most common power generation methods while exploring the reasons for those costs and how they fit into the wider landscape of power plant economics.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 10px; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;">The basis for this analysis is data taken from the International Energy Agency's (IEA) World Energy Investment Outlook 2014, which includes raw information on average yearly O&M costs in the power industry, both currently and in the future. The IEA's future cost predictions are based on its so-called New Policies Scenario (NPS), which incorporates countries' announced policy commitments and plans in its projections. Current costs are taken from 2012 data, with projections given for 2020 and 2035. As the IEA's O&M data is split between different countries and regions, we have taken the data for Europe as the default comparison point between power generation methods.</div></div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-28473029727902984412014-12-30T17:28:00.001+05:302014-12-30T17:28:18.749+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2014/12/29/graphene-kill-lithium-ion-batteries/">Graphene Could Kill Lithium-Ion Batteries</a></span></h1>
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December 29th, 2014 by <span style="font-weight: 700;"><span style="color: #85d2eb;"><a href="http://cleantechnica.com/author/seawolf/" rel="author" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #85d2eb; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" title="Tina Casey">Tina Casey</a></span></span><br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="dd_start" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; clear: both; color: #85d2eb; float: left; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;"></a>Don’t break out the widow’s weeds just yet, but it looks like momentum is building for energy storage to move past the lithium-ion phase and get into the more powerful territory of lithium-sulfur technology. In the latest development, a multinational research team has figured out how to overcome a major obstacle in the path of lithium-sulfur energy storage, by using graphene as a “bridge” between different components.</div>
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In theory, lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries possess far greater energy density than the familiar lithium-ion (Li-ion), so breaking the technology out of the lab and into commercial development could have huge clean tech implications for EV battery range and energy storage for solar and wind sources, among other applications.</div>
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Schematic of 3-D hierarchically structured graphene-sulfur/carbonZIF8-D composite ( by K.Xi/Cambridge via<a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2014/12/29/graphene-kill-lithium-ion-batteries/www.alphagalileo.org/AssetViewer.aspx?AssetId=92548&CultureCode=en" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #444444; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="alphagalileo.org">alphagalileo.org</a>).</div>
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Lithium-Sulfur Energy Storage</h3>
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Sulfur is super-cheap, which is mainly why researchers are interested in developing energy storage devices incorporating the material.</div>
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Sulfur also has some bonus attributes compared to conventional Li-ion battery technology, such as a high tolerance for overcharging, relatively light weight, and low toxicity.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-52969210857650379342014-09-06T19:53:00.001+05:302014-09-06T19:53:29.275+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/216136-iea-predicts-16-trillion-in-renewable-investments-through-2020#.VAsYsBWdveE.blogger">Energy agency predicts $1.6T in renewable investments through 2020 | TheHill</a></b></span><br /><br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">The world will invest $1.6 trillion in renewable energy capacity through 2020, when renewable sources will account for more than a quarter of electricity generation, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">The overall increase will come despite a slowdown in the growth of investments in solar, wind, hydropower and other energy sources. Spending will average $230 billion a year through 2020, down from $250 billion in 2013, largely due to falling costs of the technology.</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;"></div><div class="dfp-tag-wrapper wrapper" id="dfp-ad-mosad_1-wrapper" style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><div class="dfp-tag-wrapper" id="dfp-ad-mosad_1"><br /></div></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The Paris-based IEA predicted in its Thursday </span><a href="http://www.iea.org/newsroomandevents/pressreleases/2014/august/name-125080-en.html" style="color: #000066; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">report</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"> that investments in renewable energy will suffer even more if policies aren’t made clearer to favor them.</span><br /><br />
<div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">“Policy uncertainty remains a key challenge to renewable deployment,” the organization said. “Unanticipated changes to incentive schemes represent a risk that investors cannot manage, and can lead to elevated financing costs and boom-and-bust development patterns.”</div><div style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px;">As examples of policy problems, the IEA cited China, where there is limited spending on electricity networks and limited financing. In Europe, investors aren’t certain about renewable policies past 2020, or about development of an</div><span style="font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /><br />Read more: <a href="http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/216136-iea-predicts-16-trillion-in-renewable-investments-through-2020#ixzz3CXseviCH" style="color: #003399; outline: none; text-decoration: none;">http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/216136-iea-predicts-16-trillion-in-renewable-investments-through-2020#ixzz3CXseviCH</a><br />Follow us: <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=bNYbpAvBir4Pxiacwqm_6l&u=thehill" style="color: #000066; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">@thehill on Twitter</a> | <a href="http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=bNYbpAvBir4Pxiacwqm_6l&u=TheHill" style="color: #000066; outline: none; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">TheHill on Facebook</a></span>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-34058535427001948082014-08-30T01:04:00.001+05:302014-09-01T14:24:20.601+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://www.seasidecourier.com/news/north_county/cost-to-decommission-nuclear-power-plant-subject-of-meeting/article_bcce2174-2ec5-11e4-bdb2-001a4bcf6878.html#.VADVmHnbeAg.blogger">Cost to decommission nuclear power plant subject of meeting - Seaside Courier: North County</a></b></span><br />
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<span class="paragraph-0" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">The latest price tag to decommission the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station will be the focus of a community meeting scheduled for this evening in Oceanside.</span></div>
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<span class="paragraph-1" style="margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">The Community Engagement Panel, which was created to advise plant owners Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric and others, will take up an estimate that the two decades-long process could cost $4.4 billion. The new amount, up from previous estimates of around $3.3 billion, was reported earlier this month.</span></div>
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How much of the costs of the shutdown, along with replacement power and other needs, will be borne by the utilities and how much by ratepayers has been the subject of many months of talks between the companies, regulators and consumer watchdogs.</div>
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Thursday's meeting at Quantum Learning Network Conference Center at 1938 Avenida del Oro starting at 6 p.m. is open to the public.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-76390011387748592702014-08-14T12:28:00.001+05:302014-09-01T14:32:00.736+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2425341/we_need_to_rethink_how_we_support_renewable_energy.html">We need to rethink how we support renewable energy</a></span></h1>
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Chris Goodall</div>
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11th August 2014</div>
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Feed-in tariffs are a great way to kick start renewable technologies, writes Chris Goodall. But they suffer from a law of exponentially diminishing returns. It's time for governments to move to direct R&D funding to achieve the transformational changes the world needs.</h2>
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The renewable industries are now addicted to their own guaranteed cash streams from government and have growing lobbying power. The genuine innovation that we need is in danger of never happening.</div>
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Is it right to drive cost reductions in renewable technologies by use of direct production subsidies that are adding increasing amounts to domestic bills?</div>
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Or should we be spending more, much more, on fundamental research and development?</div>
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The argument is this. Broadly speaking, we can achieve cost improvements in any technology either by accumulating production experience (usually called 'the learning curve') or by targeting improvements in technology.</div>
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It is often difficult to disentangle the two phenomena but I still think the distinction is useful. Put another way, should we trying to cut prices by 'learning by doing' or by 'learning by research'?</div>
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<strong style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Feed-in Tariffs emerged as the popular solution</strong></div>
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Governments around the world have backed away from energy research. In the 1970's administrations that had been frightened by the OPEC oil embargo put big sums into R&D, particularly into nuclear but also into wind.</div>
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Outside France, that investment largely failed, and failed catastrophically. Energy R&D then plummeted around the world. A decade ago, UK energy research was costing just a few tens of millions a year. (It has gone up somewhat since).</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-83593156739124703432014-08-14T12:17:00.001+05:302014-09-01T14:32:32.379+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/12/3470070/germany-reliable-grid-renewables/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #107738; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Germany Added A Lot Of Wind And Solar </a></h1>
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<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/08/12/3470070/germany-reliable-grid-renewables/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #107738; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Power, And Its Electric Grid Became More Reliable</a></h1>
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<span class="byline" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BY <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/?person=jspross" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: bold; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">JEFF SPROSS</a> </span><span class="posted-on" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">POSTED ON <time class="published" datetime="August 12, 2014 at 2:58 pm" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">AUGUST 12, 2014 AT 2:58 PM</time></span></div>
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<img alt="germany-minutes-grid-reliability" src="http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Screenshot-2014-08-07-15.47.48-638x479.png" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; display: block; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto; max-width: 638px; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" /></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">To hear its <a href="http://instituteforenergyresearch.org/analysis/germanys-green-energy-destabilizing-electric-grids/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">critics</a> tell it, Germany’s ambitious push to switch over to renewable energy has delivered an electrical grid that’s capricious, unreliable, and prone to blackouts. But according to data <a href="http://www.theecoreport.com/green-blogs/technology/energy/utilities-energy-energy-articles/germany-has-one-of-the-worlds-most-efficient-grids/" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">highlighted</a> by ECO Report last week, the reality on the ground couldn’t be further from that caricature.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Specifically, the availability of electricity in Germany was lost only for an average of 15.91 minutes per customer in 2012, according to figures from the Council of European Energy Regulators. That’s far better than the United States, which saw its electricity become unavailable for a whopping 244 minutes per customer in 2008. Germany also did significantly better than the United Kingdom (lost 81.42 minutes per customer in 2008), the Netherlands (lost 33.7 minutes per customer) and France (lost 95.1 minutes per customer). Of all the countries tracked, Japan and Singapore are the only two with grid reliability to match Germany’s.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">And the country has actually maintained this record for several years: 2008 was the last year in Germany when the amount of minutes lost per customer breached 16.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">ECO Report pointed to a recent <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/german-utilities-bail-out-electric-grid-at-wind-s-mercy.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">article</a> in Bloomberg as an example of the standard story on Germany. The argument goes that by making a big policy push to move the electrical grid onto to renewables like solar and wind — which produce power intermittently, since no one can control when the sun is out or the wind blows — and by making the purely political decision to phase out its nuclear fleet following the Fukushima disaster, Germany has left itself without the kind of reliable baseload power that can only be provided by nuclear reactors or fossil fuels like natural gas and coal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">As Bloomberg <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-24/german-utilities-bail-out-electric-grid-at-wind-s-mercy.html" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">points out</a>, Germany’s domestic electricity has become far more dynamic. Twenty of the country’s biggest utilities are now earning fees in the balancing market, an exchange where firms can earn additional profits by pledging to add or cut electricity within seconds to keep the power system stable. That’s double the amount of utilities that were participating in the balancing market just back in September — and the fees provided by the market can pay utilities as much as 400 times what they’d usually earn with wholesale electricity prices.</span></div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-58681527515794932002014-08-14T12:04:00.001+05:302014-09-01T14:32:59.821+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/california-takes-first-step-toward-creating-distributed-intelligent-grid-future-64952">California takes first step toward creating grid of the future : Renew Economy</a></b></span><br />
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By <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/author/jeff-st-john" rel="author" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Jeff St John">Jeff St John</a> on 14 August 2014</div>
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<em><a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/channel/gridtech" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;">Greentech Media</a></em></div>
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<a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/california-cleantech_310_224.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="california-cleantech_310_224" class="alignright wp-image-44259 " src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/california-cleantech_310_224.jpg" height="198" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: right; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; padding: 3px;" width="274" /></a>In California, where rooftop solar PV, distributed energy storage and energy-engaged consumers are becoming an increasingly important part of the grid mix, state regulators and utilities are starting to think about how these <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Grid-Edge-Keynote-Rate-Structures-are-Making-the-System-Less-and-Less-Eff" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;">grid-edge systems will work together</a> for the benefit of the grid, the environment and ratepayers alike.</div>
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This week, the California Public Utilities Commission plans to open a new proceeding to decide how the state will take on this herculean effort (<a href="http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M101/K227/101227676.pdf" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">PDF</a>). The goal is to create a process for maintaining and growing the distribution grid — the part of the grid that delivers energy to end customers — that takes all the distributed energy resources coming onto the grid into account.</div>
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CPUC’s new Order Instituting Rulemaking is the first step in a process started by AB 327, a law passed by the California legislature last year that <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/AB-327-Signed-Into-Law-in-California-With-Solar-NEM-Warning-from-Jerry-Bro" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;">makes major changes to state energy policies</a>. While AB 327’s electricity tariff and net metering rule changes have gotten the most attention, the law also sets a June 2015 deadline for the state’s big three utilities — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric — to <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/its-time-for-grid-planners-to-put-distributed-resources-on-par-with-transmi" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;">create new models for planning distribution grid</a> investments that “integrate cost-effective distributed energy resources” into their models.</div>
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California’s big three utilities spend roughly $6 billion per year on distribution grid investments, via Distribution Resources Plan (DRP) proposals submitted to the CPUC. But today’s DRPs have no mechanisms to determine how lots of rooftop solar, customer-sited or grid-located energy storage, and demand response will impact that future.</div>
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That’s a problem, because California could see 15 gigawatts of these distributed energy resources (DERs) come on-line this decade, including <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Getting-California-to-12000-Megawatts-of-Distributed-Generation" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;">12 gigawatts of distributed solar</a>, <a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/californias-massive-on-paper-grid-energy-storage-market" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;">1 gigawatt of grid-scale energy storage</a>, and<a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/California-Could-Rewrite-the-Rules-For-Distributed-Demand-Response" style="color: #222222; text-decoration: none;">another gigawatt of demand response</a>. Leave these DERs out of the equation, and utilities have no way to know whether or not their $6 billion annual investments are going to support a DER-rich grid.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-35884938633307703602014-08-14T11:55:00.001+05:302014-09-01T14:18:02.216+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/economics-residential-battery-storage-77735">The economics of residential battery storage in Australia</a></b></span><br /><br />
<div class="postdate" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 8px;">By <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/author/giles" rel="author" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Giles Parkinson">Giles Parkinson</a> on 14 August 2014</div><div class="pf-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Wednesday’s story about the <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/grid-parity-battery-storage-already-62637" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="How far away is grid parity for residential battery storage?">rapidly approaching status of socket parity for solar and battery storage</a> sparked a lot of interest, and a bunch of email requests asking for more information.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">That story pointed out that if Brisbane-based Redflow could increase the number of cycles in its zinc-bromine flow batteries, it could be cost competitive with the grid within a few years.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/redflow-battery.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="redflow" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-34460" height="200" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/redflow-battery-300x200.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: right; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; padding: 3px;" width="300" /></a>Here’s some more information from the report from Australian broking house Morgans. The table below is instructive because it includes the estimated capital cost of the storage system, plus the integrated systems manager. It notes that at its current cycles capability of just 1,000, the technology costs $1.29/kWh – effectively pricing it out of the market.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">But that cost is lowered by half if the number of cycles is doubled. If the cycles can be increased to 3,500, and the kWh of storage increased from 8 to 10, then the cost of the technology falls to just 29c/kWh.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">That, says Morgans, is very possible. And it means that the technology will be competitive with the grid.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">“If Solar currently costs 10-12c (unsubsidised) then Australian energy storage will not be competitive with average grid prices any time soon. However with storage costs of ~30c there could still be a commercial case for peak shifting,” Morgans notes.</div><div class="page" title="Page 11"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Without that increase in cycles, and peak pricing, the short term the economics of using a ZBM in conjunction with renewables at a household level in Australia doesn’t look compelling.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">“For ethically or environmentally motivated individuals the ZBM is still an option, just don’t do the maths. The other alternatives that looks more likely over time is for the use of ZBM’s for peak shaving (i.e. versus expensive peak rates rather than average grid rates) and for off-grid or remote locations.”</div></div></div></div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-76594397328261729362014-08-14T11:50:00.001+05:302014-08-14T11:50:47.454+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/solar-carports-next-big-thing-us-charts-record-growth-33248"><b>Solar carports next big thing? US charts record growth</b></a></span><br /><br />
<div class="postdate" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 8px;">By <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/author/sophie-vorrath" rel="author" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Sophie Vorrath">Sophie Vorrath</a> on 14 August 2014</div><div class="pf-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Australia’s PV industry can now add solar carports to its list of non-residential solar sectors that are yet to take off in this country, as analysts in the US herald another record year in the burgeoning market – the fourth consecutive year, in fact, that over 100MW of solar carports would be installed in the US.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">According to a new report from Greentech Media Research, <em><a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/research/report/us-solar-carport-market-2014-2018" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">US Solar Carport Market 2014-2018: Landscape, Outlook and Leading Companies</a>,</em> America is forecast to add more than 180MW of solar carports in 2014, up from 157MW in 2013, and could be worth nearly $850 million in the space of just two years.<img alt="Screen Shot 2014-08-14 at 12.32.25 PM" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-44295" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Screen-Shot-2014-08-14-at-12.32.25-PM-300x273.png" height="273" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: right; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; padding: 3px;" width="300" /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Historically seen as a niche market, GTM attributes recent growth in the US carport solar market to falling system prices as well as a shift in the value proposition of these types of installations, as educational, government, and non-profit customers target savings on electricity bills.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">“With the average system price of solar carports continuing to fall, commercial solar developers can offer increased value to customers in the form of larger project sizes and greater electricity savings,” said Scott Moskowitz, author of the report.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Developers have used this tactic, Moskowitz notes, exploiting state-level incentives to grow the market at a CAGR of 45 per cent from 2010 to 2014.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">While the report noted that California has historically represented more than half of the national market for solar carports, it also stated that new east coast destinations are cropping up. GTM expects that continued growth in California, New Jersey and Arizona will help boost the total value of the market to $843 million in 2016.</div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-46693218926128340422014-08-12T17:51:00.002+05:302014-08-12T17:51:29.367+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/07/coporatization-renewable-energy-wind-solar">The corporatisation of US green energy: a double-edged sword worth billions</a></span></h1>
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As tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy increase, corporations are entering the green energy landscape</div>
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<span itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span itemprop="name" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a class="contributor" href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/peter-moskowitz" itemprop="url" rel="author" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Peter Moskowitz</a></span></span> in New York</div>
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<figure class="element element-image" data-media-id="gu-fc-831f0454-9e54-435b-a122-4b77a2a1d9f8" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Wind farm" class="gu-image" height="276" src="http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2014/8/7/1407422962001/712929a5-79c4-4dee-afd3-0f86f72bd8e3-460x276.jpeg" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 5px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px;" width="460" /><figcaption style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #666666; font-size: 0.858em; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;">Google, Microsoft and Apple all announced plans to invest hundreds of millions of dollars into wind and solar this year. Photograph: Stephane Mahe /Reuters</figcaption></figure></div>
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There’s a popular meme that <a href="http://www.renewable-living.com/why-solar-power-isnt-feasible/" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">surfaces on green energy blogs</a>, forums, and Facebook pages. The gist is that large corporations love oil and gas because they can own and control it. They’re against renewable energy because no-one can own the sun or wind.</div>
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The problem for anti-corporate green-energy campaigners is, increasingly: the meme isn’t true.</div>
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As the materials for producing wind and solar energy become cheaper, tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy increase, and the prospect of finding more oil and gas becomes weaker, corporations are entering the green energy landscape to the tune of billions of dollars.</div>
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Last month, NRG, one of the US’s largest energy companies with 100 power plants across the country, including plants that run on coal and natural gas, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-28/nrg-yield-plans-400-million-green-bond-for-alta-wind-buy" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">finalized details in its bid</a> to buy Alta Wind Energy Center in California, the largest wind farm in North America, for $800m.</div>
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It was the latest blockbuster renewable energy deal by a large corporation in recent years.</div>
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There’s the under-construction 560 megawatt <a href="http://www.firstsolar.com/en/about-us/projects/desert-sunlight-solar-farm" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Desert Sunlight Solar Farm in California</a>, which is owned jointly by NextEra Energy – an energy conglomerate that makes about $15bn a year mostly from gas and nuclear plants, GE, and Sumitomo – a Japanese company that gets most of its billions from mining, oil and gas production. And there’s the 550 megawatt <a href="http://www.midamericanrenewablesllc.com/topaz_solar.aspx" style="background-repeat: no-repeat; border-collapse: collapse; color: #005689; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Topaz Solar Farm</a>, owned by MidAmerican, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett’s multi-billion dollar empire which is also heavily invested in coal and oil.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-50395782424131025142014-08-12T17:35:00.003+05:302014-08-12T17:35:40.740+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2014/07/30/power-california-wind-wave-solar/">How To Power California With Wind, Wave, & Solar Energy</a></span></h1>
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<small style="font-size: 12px;">July 30th, 2014 by <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/author/joshuashill/" rel="author" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #85d2eb; font-weight: 700; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" title="Joshua S Hill">Joshua S Hill</a> </small><br /><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" id="dd_start" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; clear: both; color: #85d2eb; float: left; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: underline; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;"></a>With a population of over 38 million and rising, California has often been deemed of sufficient size to almost be considered a nation-state of its own. The Golden State’s GDP is on par with many countries, and the state has also been a global leader in renewable energy — often standing apart from its parent country’s political decisions.</div>
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So, it’s no surprise that a new study has been released by Stanford researchers showing how California could convert to an all-renewable energy infrastructure that is both technically and economically feasible.</div>
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The plan, published in <em>Energy</em>, outlines what it would take to make the change, and all the benefits that would come with it.</div>
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<a href="http://i2.wp.com/cleantechnica.com/files/2014/07/3186143355_1dbf035dba_o.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #444444; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" target="_blank"><img alt="Power California With Wind, Wave, And Solar" class="wp-image-70074 size-large" height="465" src="http://i2.wp.com/cleantechnica.com/files/2014/07/3186143355_1dbf035dba_o.jpg?resize=570%2C427" style="border: 0px; width: 620.390625px;" width="620" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="color: #aaaaaa; font-size: 0.91667em; line-height: 17px; margin: 2px 10px 5px; text-align: center;">
Moon Rise behind the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm. Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/caveman_92223/3186143355/in/photolist-5RxPq8-ebjJh3-9VBzew-9nSFiP-ei1iWe-fcJeAW-6U3r4x-eaKn9Q-fB1byU-a7TKF-4FoL4H-5XBRWJ-7Ecczy-6BXFF4-ejokEX-egfT2o-6vr7sy-eaKo89-6L5xAo-3NgUD-3DRvDW-4C6v1e-sAZZN-63mJrn-9PakSt-kyFmeu-2r46NU-5u4n3g-9eNhrE-d7h7yA-6ZFfBS-8zw5Vh-3zVRai-6aEiVr-7HH6HE-kGz2qc-2g2cRB-eH51AX-eWKd2Z-fCSuP2-3cjXmo-93VFYQ-nmeoCd-akfTKx-6qdjLh-bkPtks-KfCX-f8Jv6-bHQ8A6-7dRUX5" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #444444; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="Chuck Coker via Flickr">Chuck Coker via Flickr</a></div>
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“If implemented, this plan will eliminate air pollution mortality and global warming emissions from California, stabilize prices and create jobs – there is little downside,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, the study’s lead author and a Stanford professor of civil and environmental engineering.</div>
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It’s not a half-thought out plan, either, taking into account California’s transportation, electric power, industry, heating, and cooling needs. All employment and financial benefits are laid out, as well as the land and ocean areas necessary, and policies required. It also provides new estimates of air pollution mortality and morbidity impacts.</div>
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It’s not the first time the authors have set their minds to redefining a state’s energy infrastructure, having <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/13/new-york-renewable-energy-future-looks-bright/" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #85d2eb; font-weight: 700; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="created a similar plan for New York">created a similar plan for New York</a> once before. This time, it’s their aim to power California with wind, wave, and solar, and it’s only the second on their way to<a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/25/running-clean-energy-question-social-political-will/" style="-webkit-transition: 0.8s ease-in-out; color: #85d2eb; font-weight: 700; transition: 0.8s ease-in-out;" target="_blank" title="creating plans for the entirety of the US">creating plans for the entirety of the US</a>.</div>
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The plan would create approximately 220,000 manufacturing, installation, and technology construction and operation jobs — and that’s taking into account the losses of fossil-fuel and nuclear jobs. Additionally, California would walk away with net earnings of around $12 billion annually.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-38150273121479839832014-08-12T17:21:00.001+05:302014-08-12T17:21:19.962+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/lackawanna/steel-sun-project-would-add-solar-panels-near-wind-turbines-at-former-bethlehem-steel-site-in-lackawanna-20140713">‘Steel Sun’ project would add solar panels near wind turbines at former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna</a></span></h1>
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Project to install 13,000 panels would turn brownfields at former site of Bethlehem Steel into one of the largest solar energy farms in state</div>
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<a class="lightbox" href="http://www.buffalonews.com/storyimage/BN/20140713/CITYANDREGION/140719500/AR/0/AR-140719500.jpg&maxW=960" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none;" title="Installation of solar panels is expected to begin this fall at the Steel Winds wind farm on the former Bethlehem Steel site. <span class='credit'>Derek Gee/Buffalo News</span>"><span class="imgWrap centerInner" style="display: block; margin-bottom: 0.3em; position: relative; text-align: center !important;"><img alt="Installation of solar panels is expected to begin this fall at the Steel Winds wind farm on the former Bethlehem Steel site." src="http://www.buffalonews.com/storyimage/BN/20140713/CITYANDREGION/140719500/AR/0/AR-140719500.jpg&maxW=602&maxH=602&AlignV=top&Q=80" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></a><div style="color: #666666; font-size: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span class="caption" style="color: #333333; margin: 0px;">Installation of solar panels is expected to begin this fall at the Steel Winds wind farm on the former Bethlehem Steel site. </span><span class="credit" style="color: #777777; font-size: 0.8em; margin: 0px;">Derek Gee/Buffalo News</span></div>
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<header><div id="articleInfo" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-top-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; margin: 0px 0px 30px; padding: 5px 0px;">
<span class="bylineName" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span class="bylineName">By <a class="bylineName" href="mailto:jkwiatkowski@buffnews.com" style="color: #333333; text-decoration: none;" title="Email Jane Kwiatkowski Radlich">Jane Kwiatkowski </a></span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.424999237060547px;">A vast wasteland from a past generation’s steelmaking would be transformed into a high-tech energy producer under a plan to install 13,000 solar panels on brownfields at the former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna.</span></div>
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The project, called “Steel Sun,” would turn the brownfields into one of the largest solar farms in New York State, city and project officials say.</div>
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They expect installation of the ground-mounted solar panels to start by this fall, with completion by year’s end.</div>
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“We think it’s a great reuse of industrial property that you really can’t build anything on,” said Fred Heinle, director of development for Lackawanna. “Solar panels are good for that because there is no ground penetration. They sit on top of the site.”</div>
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The 13,000 ground-mounted 3-feet-by-5-feet panels would face south, with a bit of a tilt.</div>
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<span class="bylineName" style="color: #333333; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><span class="bylineName"><span style="color: black; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22.424999237060547px;">The combined surface area of the panels would be the equivalent of 69 tennis courts.</span></span></span></div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-60405440779625658262014-08-12T17:14:00.004+05:302014-08-12T17:14:44.914+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<header style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; line-height: 15.600000381469727px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><figure class="size_w220" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; float: left; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, 'Book Antiqua', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; margin: 2px 20px 40px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline; width: 220px;"><img alt="A solar panel in operation on a farm in Southwestern Ontario. (Randall Moore/The Globe and Mail)" class="modal_trigger" data-target="#modal_1460_1" data-toggle="modal" height="124" src="http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/ac0/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/article10191558.ece/ALTERNATES/w220/solarpanel.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="A solar panel in operation on a farm in Southwestern Ontario. (Randall Moore/The Globe and Mail)" unique-id="1460_1" width="220" /><a class="enlarge modal_trigger" data-target="#modal_1460_1" data-toggle="modal" href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/ontario-picks-contenders-for-wind-solar-energy-storage/article19901932/#" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: url(http://beta.images.theglobeandmail.com/media/www/images/sprites/onespritetorulethemall-sda04b2757c.png) !important; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px -341px !important; background-repeat: no-repeat !important; background-size: initial; border-bottom-left-radius: 20px; border-bottom-right-radius: 20px; border-top-left-radius: 20px; border-top-right-radius: 20px; bottom: 10px; color: white; display: inline-block; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: bold; height: 14px !important; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; opacity: 0.7; padding: 0px; position: absolute; right: 5px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; width: 14px !important;" title="Enlarge this image" unique-id="1460_1"></a></figure><div class="head_titles" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; margin: -2px 0px 20px 240px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 380px;">
<h1 class="entry-title" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; letter-spacing: -0.6px; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Most of the new systems will be able to turn on a dime, storing and releasing energy almost instantaneously to help balance out the supply and demand over the course of a day">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/ontario-picks-contenders-for-wind-solar-energy-storage/article19901932/">Ontario seeks wind, solar energy storage options</a></span></h1>
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The Globe and Mail</div>
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Published <time datetime="2014-05-03T21:08:22Z" pubdate="" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sunday, Aug. 03 2014, 5:05 PM EDT</time></div>
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Last updated <time class="updated" datetime="2014-43-03T22:08:31Z" pubdate="" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sunday, Aug. 03 2014, 6:43 PM EDT</time><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; font-family: Georgia, Palatino, 'Book Antiqua', 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 15.600000381469727px;"> </span></div>
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Ontario has embarked on a quest to find the holy grail of renewable energy – an effective means to store the power generated by intermittent wind and solar installations.</div>
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The province’s Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) recently chose five companies who will build a dozen demonstration projects designed to capture and release energy. That would allow the electricity grid to react to fluctuations in power production, which are becoming more significant with the addition of renewables whose output varies depending on how the wind blows and sun shines.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-7270658752293687912014-08-12T17:08:00.003+05:302014-08-12T17:08:26.554+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://cjonline.com/news/2014-08-09/germanys-cautionary-hopeful-renewable-energy-tale#.U-n8KshdoUY.blogger">Germany's cautionary, but hopeful, renewable energy tale | CJOnline.com</a></b></span><br /><br />
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border: 0px; color: grey; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Andy Marso</a></div><div class="wl-byline" style="border: 0px; color: #414141; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: bold; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">andy.marso@cjonline.com</div><div class="hnews hentry item" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="entry-content" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">BERLIN — On a recent Monday morning, Jan Peter Klatt sat in his office in Germany’s Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and strained to hear a recording of an interview with Kansas Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Knox was making one last unsuccessful pitch to repeal Kansas’ renewable energy standards by citing Germany, where he said the transition from fossil fuels to renewables was “de-industrializing” the nation.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“It isn’t,” Klatt says. “And especially it wouldn’t be de-industrializing for the States (now). We have to differentiate between the past and the future.”</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The future German leaders imagine is one in which their innovations in solar and wind energy enable them to produce enough domestic electricity to power their nation cheaply and reliably regardless of international instability in a power-hungry world.</div><div style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-right: 8px; margin-top: 4px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Klatt, an expert on the renewable transition’s economic impact, said those innovations are arriving, but Germans have shouldered a “high financial burden” in pioneering them.</div></div></div></div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-8541732056540132902014-08-12T16:48:00.002+05:302014-08-12T16:48:48.545+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="articlepublicationdatecnt" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px;">08/01/2014</span></div>
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According to data from the World Nuclear Association, nuclear power generates 11 percent of the world's electricity. More than 30 countries use 430 commercial nuclear reactors that generate more than 370,000-MW of electricity.</div>
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Different countries put a different emphasis on how much nuclear is part of their energy mix, ranging from nuclear powering 1.5 percent of Iran's electricity mix to France using more than 70 percent. This heat map shows how much of a percentage nuclear generates as of 2013.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-16898570237371103142014-08-08T23:46:00.001+05:302014-08-08T23:46:37.559+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/07/grid-battery-storage-four-reasons-to-invest?cmpid=WindNL-Thursday-August7-2014">Grid Battery Storage: Four Reasons to Invest</a></span></h1>
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The emerging battery storage market will present new opportunities for investors.</h2>
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<a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/u/richardheap" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;">Richard Heap, A Word About Wind </a><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /><span class="grey" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #777777;">July 31, 2014 </span></div>
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Think of a product — chances are that Hawaii has to import it. From food and cars to electronics and building materials, there are few areas where the U.S. state is self-sufficient — and energy is no different.</div>
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Hawaii is in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and about 2,400 miles from California, its closest neighbouring U.S. state, so it clearly cannot link to a grid on the U.S. mainland. But it is still reliant on the mainland for the imported oil and petroleum from which it generates almost 90 percent of its energy. </div>
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<a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/06/hawaiis-solar-conundrum-can-energy-storage-save-the-day" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0079c2; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Hawaii is now looking to change that</a>. It has spent the last six years embracing renewable energy to reduce its reliance on imported fuels. <a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2014/02/the-interconnection-nightmare-in-hawaii-and-why-it-matters-to-the-u-s-residential-pv-industry" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0079c2; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Its efforts are an interesting case study</a> on how nations are set to use energy storage to cope with fluctuating production from sources such as wind farms.</div>
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It also highlights some important reasons why investors in wind and solar should be interested in storage, particularly battery storage.</div>
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Here are four reasons why you should take this technology seriously:</div>
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<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">1. Opening Remote Regions</strong></div>
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The situation in Hawaii shows us the problems for islands if they develop renewable sources but can’t store the energy. <a href="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/blog/post/2014/02/postcard-from-the-grids-future-hawaii-as-a-solar-laboratory" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: #0079c2; line-height: inherit; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Storage is now a vital part</a> of the island’s ambitious attempts to go green.</div>
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In January 2008, the state of Hawaii and the U.S. Department of Energy launched the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative so business leaders, policy makers and citizens could find a way for the island to become energy independent. This set a goal of 70 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2030.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-51737608284838932822014-08-08T23:41:00.001+05:302014-08-08T23:47:04.991+05:30Big Batteries Are Starting to Boost the Electric Grid - MyArkLaMiss.com - KTVE NBC 10 - KARD FOX 14 - Your homepage for the latest News, Weather and Sports in the ArkLaMiss!<a href="http://www.myarklamiss.com/story/d/story/big-batteries-are-starting-to-boost-the-electric-g/13459/94sBRwS-IE2PGfH7QLyhEQ#.U-USYKyNGpI.blogger"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b>Big Batteries Are Starting to Boost the Electric Grid - MyArkLaMiss.com </b></span>-</a><br /><br />
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<div class="media" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px; margin-top: 15px; overflow: hidden; width: 690px; zoom: 1;"><div class="featured-media ng-scope" ng-controller="featuredMediaCtrl" ng-init="init(3, 'False')" ng-show="mediaItems.length > 0"><div class="viewport-wrapper" style="background-color: black; height: 388px; overflow: hidden; position: relative;"><div class="viewport" style="height: 388px;"><div class="media-item ng-scope" media-item="" ng-hide="showAd" ng-show="isSelected()" ng-transclude="" style="height: 388px; margin: 0px auto;" thumbnail-image-url="/media/lib/195/a/1/3/a130044b-f063-421d-8fe8-db6a9706ffff/Headline.jpg"><div class="image ng-scope" style="height: 388px;"><img src="http://www.myarklamiss.com/media/lib/195/a/1/3/a130044b-f063-421d-8fe8-db6a9706ffff/Story.jpg" style="border: 0px; display: block; height: 460px; margin-top: -36px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle; width: 690px;" /><div class="caption" style="background: none 0px 0px repeat scroll rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); bottom: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: white; left: 0px; padding: 10px 15px; position: absolute; width: 690px;">(PGE VIA PNNL / NBC)</div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="additional-media" style="float: left; text-align: center; width: 690px;"></div></div><div class="story-content FullTextOnly" itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: table; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.200000762939453px; margin-top: 20px; width: 690px;"><div block-page="" class="block-page ng-scope" ng-show="isActiveBlockPage()"><section><div class="story-media Left" style="float: left; margin-right: 20px; width: 300px;"><div class="lr_comp_300x250_story" id="lr_comp_300x250"></div></div><div class="story-body" font-size-emitter="" style="margin-bottom: 20px;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">(NBC News) -- Long hailed as a game changer that will allow unlimited amounts of wind and solar energy onto the electric power grid, big rechargeable batteries are beginning to move out of research labs and find a home amid the real-world tangle of smokestacks, turbines and power lines. Today, the reality falls short of the hype about fossil-fuel-free electricity — but experts say that future could be in store.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">For the foreseeable future, electric utilities will rely on coal, gas and nuclear power plants to provide a steady base of power, according to Paul Denholm, a senior analyst at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. But batteries can help balance the flow of electricity as demand ramps up and down throughout the day.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">"That is where the hot applications are right now for energy storage," he told NBC News.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">Traditionally, utilities maintain a little "wiggle room" on their system, he explained. For example, they might run power plants at 90 percent capacity, so that extra juice can be made available when a dark cloud passes overhead and thousands of people flick on their lights.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">Operating power plants that way is hard on a system. It's inefficient, and expensive. Batteries, which can add extra juice nearly instantaneously, are a more cost-efficient way to keep the grid humming. What's more, this load leveling usually only requires 15 to 30 minutes' worth of energy. "You can have a relatively small storage device and make a decent amount of money on it," Denholm said.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">While the market for this type of battery usage is limited, it is an entry point for a technology in need of experience on the grid, he explained.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">Load leveling is precisely what Avista Corp. in the Pacific Northwest plans to do with the 3.6-megawatt capacity vanadium flow battery it is purchasing for its grid in Pullman, Washington, with the help of a $3.2 million matching grant it received in July from Washington state to advance energy storage technology.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">In theory, the battery from Mukilteo, Wash.,-based UniEnergy Technologies could be installed next to a wind farm to store excess generated electricity, for occasions when wind speeds go so high that turbines are shut down to prevent damage, or when the wind suddenly dies out.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">"But that carries with it a lot of cost [for] a single purpose … and you still have to send it across the transmission lines to get it to the load," Curt Kirkeby, a senior electrical engineer and technical strategist with Avista in Spokane, Washington, told NBC News.<o:p></o:p></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;">Rows of battery racks are arrayed at Portland General Electric’s Salem Smart Power Center in Salem, Ore. PGE is a participant in the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project, which is using the center’s 5-megawatt energy storage system to test smart-grid strategies.</div></div></section></div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-76986667686047097252014-08-06T23:46:00.000+05:302014-08-08T23:49:16.674+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/pripyat-ukraine-the-eerie-photos-of-an-abandoned-city/story-e6frfqai-1227013530096" style="color: #292929; font-family: inherit; line-height: 43px;">Pripyat, Ukraine: the eerie photos of an abandoned city</a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
<img alt="Abandoned apartment blocks are crumbling. Picture: IAEA Imagebank." src="http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2014/08/05/1227013/528142-b8397432-1b89-11e4-9498-229fc8e204d4.jpg" /></div>
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<span style="color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 15px; text-align: left;">Abandoned apartment blocks are crumbling. Picture: IAEA Imagebank</span></div>
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<span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: LiberationSerifBold, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">ON APRIL 26, 1986 the worst nuclear power disaster in history occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Station in the Ukraine.</span></div>
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During a test to see how much power was needed to keep the number four reactor operating in the event of a blackout, the station exploded releasing devastatingly dangerous amounts of radioactive chemicals into the air.</div>
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Millions of square miles in dozens of surrounding European nations were contaminated as firefighters worked to contain the blaze that burned for 10 days raising concerns about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry and nuclear power in general.</div>
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<img alt="Inside the control room of reactor four that caused the world’s largest nuclear accident." height="488" src="http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2014/08/05/1227013/526345-06971224-1b94-11e4-9498-229fc8e204d4.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="650" /></div>
<div class="caption" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6e6e6e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 15px; padding: 10px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span class="caption-text" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Inside the control room of reactor four that caused the world’s largest nuclear accident.</span> <span class="image-source" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Source:</span> Supplied</span></div>
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The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) estimates that approximately 30 people were killed by the explosion and related radiation exposure, with several thousand more deaths possible due to a higher cancer incidence over the long term.</div>
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Pripyat, a city of 50,000 people founded in 1970 to house workers from Chernobyl, was the closest to the number four reactor and the most seriously affected. The entire city was forced to evacuate and nearly 30 years later it sits frozen in time, a haunting reminder of the devastation that occurred.</div>
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Crumbling apartment blocks, swimming pools, hospitals, playgrounds and schools sit dilapidated, the victim of looters and graffiti.</div>
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The clocks are frozen in time when the power first went out and children’s toys, furniture, books and clothing lay strewn about the site.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-60943912633837917902014-08-06T23:22:00.001+05:302014-08-06T23:22:38.399+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/uq-first-solar-start-world-leading-solar-plus-storage-pilot-at-gatton-47604">UQ, First Solar start world-leading solar plus storage pilot at Gatton : Renew Economy</a></b></span><br /><br />
<div class="postdate" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 8px;">By <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/author/giles" rel="author" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Giles Parkinson">Giles Parkinson</a> on 6 August 2014</div><div class="pf-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><br /><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Construction has begun on what is being billed as one of the world’s leading solar PV research pilot programs, at the University of Queensland campus at Gatton, west of Brisbane.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">A 3.275MW solar PV array is being built at the Gatton campus. That makes it the biggest such array in Queensland, but it is the mix of technologies and the study of grid integration that will make it unique.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">The array will include fixed tilt, single axis tracking and dual axis tracking, two types of battery storage – totaling up to one megawatt hour – and two of the most sophisticated power system laboratories ever built in Australia.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gatton.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="gatton" class="alignright size-medium wp-image-43842" height="165" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/gatton-300x165.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: right; float: right; margin: 0px 0px 5px 10px; padding: 3px;" width="300" /></a>The project is being led by UQ’s Global Change Institute and US-solar manufacturer and developer First Solar, with UNSW also taking a prominent role.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">It is being funded by a $40.7 million grant from the Education infrastructure Fund, a leftover of the now defunct Solar Flagships program. UQ and First Solar are contributing several million further in investment and in kind.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Professor Paul Meredith, the director of UQ Solar, said in an interview ahead of Wednesday’s opening ceremony, that the facility would be one of the most sophisticated and largest research solar PV pilot plants in the world.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">He pointed to the mix of technologies, the addition of storage, and the creation of the power system labs, both by UNSW and UQ.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">“All of us understand that what has been dragging back the development of solar PV is the systems integration issue,” he said. “Gatton will be at the front edge of engineering on connecting PV into network.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">About $15 million will be spent on the pilot plant, the solar array and the storage, as well as the research pavilion, while the rest has been used to build the power system labs and data labs at the two universities.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">“This is risky stuff for a university. We don’t normally get into the power business. But it is our responsibility as a university to take the first step, to be an early adopter. Would a mainstream business be able to do this – the answer is probably no.”</div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-10445103614743266962014-08-06T23:20:00.001+05:302014-08-08T23:47:33.397+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/sodium-%CE%B2-batteries-transform-wind-solar-baseload-generators-12160">Sodium-β batteries could transform wind and solar into baseload generators : Renew Economy</a></b></span><br /><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;">The cost of generating wind and solar power has been sinking like a stone, but the cost of storing all that energy for a rainy day has remained stubbornly high. With that in mind let’s take a look at a new advanced energy storage development announced by our friends over at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;">PNNL has been working on bringing down <a href="http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=1066" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>the cost of sodium-β batteries</b></a> (that’s β for beta). Sodium-β batteries are widely perceived to be the key to advanced energy storage for utility scale wind and solar energy power, but their relatively high cost has been an obstacle to widespread adoption.</div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_43864" style="background-color: white; border: none; clear: both; color: #333333; float: none; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 510px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/low-cost-energy-storage-e1407151368764.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="low-cost-energy-storage-e1407151368764" class="wp-image-43864 size-full" height="339" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/low-cost-energy-storage-e1407151368764.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="500" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">New liquid metal alloy improves sodium-β batteries<em> (courtesy of PNNL).</em></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;"><b>Sodium-β Batteries For Advanced Energy Storage</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;">Sodium-β refers to a class of <a href="http://techportal.eere.energy.gov/technology.do/techID=757" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>rechargeable metallic batteries</b></a>, in which the two electrodes are separated by a ceramic membrane made of <a href="http://authors.library.caltech.edu/5456/1/hrst.mit.edu/hrs/materials/public/Beta-alumina.htm" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>beta alumina</b></a>. Initially used to construct industrial furnaces, by the 1960′s beta alumina was rediscovered as a conductive material with applications for advanced energy storage.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;">According to the Energy Department, there are two promising materials for the positive electrodes, sodium-sulfur or sodium-nickel-chloride (the later is the <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2012/07/10/grid-storage-battery-cost-to-fall-to-500kwh-by-2022-lux-research-projects/" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>ZEBRA battery</b></a>, for those of you familiar with the topic).</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;">In terms of performance potential, sodium-β batteries could far outstrip lithium-ion batteries, the current gold standard. In addition to advanced energy storage for utility operations, sodium-β batteries could also play a role in mobile energy storage for electric vehicles.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 15px;">The main problem is that under current technology, the molten state of the sodium-β electrode materials is maintained by a high operating temperature, up in the 350 C range. The high temperature is the main driver of expense for the batteries. It contributes to a relatively short lifespan, and it also requires the use of more expensive materials.</div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-84159948546386170052014-08-06T12:15:00.001+05:302014-08-08T23:49:16.678+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h2 class="m-entry__title" data-remote-admin-entry-id="5722984" data-remote-headline-edit="title" data-remote-headline-promo-headine="The rise and fall of nuclear power, in 6 charts" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: #f1f3f2; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4c4e4d; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px; max-width: 90%; padding-bottom: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/8/1/5958943/nuclear-power-rise-fall-six-charts">The rise and fall of nuclear power, in 6 charts</a></span></h2>
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<span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Nuclear power is slowly going out of style. Back in 1996, atomic energy supplied 17.6 percent of the world's electricity. Today that's down to just 10.8 percent — and it could drop even further in the years ahead.</span></div>
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That's according to the <a href="http://www.worldnuclearreport.org/WNISR2014-Online.html" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 100ms ease; background: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6d98a8; font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none; transition: all 100ms ease;">World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2014</a>, which charts the rise and fall of nuclear power over time<i style="box-sizing: border-box;">.</i></div>
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<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"></i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The upshot is that significantly fewer nuclear reactors are in operation today than was the case in 2010 — in large part due to the shutdown of 48 reactors in Japan after the Fukushima disaster. On the flip side, only China currently has plans to massively ramp up reactor construction. And new reactors in many countries, from Finland to Vietnam, are falling victim to delays and cost overruns.</span></div>
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That's not encouraging news for efforts to tackle global warming. The proportion of energy that the world gets from carbon-free sources <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/6/19/5821250/these-5-charts-show-why-the-world-is-still-failing-on-climate-change" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 100ms ease; background: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6d98a8; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none; transition: all 100ms ease;">has stagnated</a> since 1999 — in part because of the nuclear industry's struggles. And the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change <a href="http://www.vox.com/2014/4/13/5610356/un-panel-heres-how-we-cut-emissions-and-avoid-a-climate-disaster" sl-processed="1" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; -webkit-transition: all 100ms ease; background: none !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #6d98a8; font-weight: 600; text-decoration: none; transition: all 100ms ease;">has warned</a> that reducing emissions will be significantly more expensive if nuclear power's not available.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-23694915541035033932014-08-04T20:00:00.004+05:302014-08-08T23:49:16.669+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/07/31/slow-death-nuclear-power-rise-of-renewables/">The Slow Death of Nuclear Power and the Rise of Renewables</a></span></h1>
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<span class="author" itemprop="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/author/jeffrey-cavanaugh/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #4e9241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;" target="_blank">Jeffrey Cavanaugh, Mint Press News</a></span><span class="sep" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> | </span><span class="pubdate" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">July 31, 2014 2:01 pm</span></div>
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The Chairman of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission Lewis Strauss noted in a 1954 speech to the National Association of Science Writers that the splitting of the atom and the dawn of the Atomic Age heralded, in his view, a coming era of electrical power that for consumers would be “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_cheap_to_meter" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #439241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;" target="_blank">too cheap to meter</a>.” Soon, he said, “it would not be too much to expect that our children”—meaning, of course, us—would know of things like famine, limited range of travel and nearly every other human malady only from reading about them in history books.</div>
<figure aria-labelledby="figcaption_attachment_343525" class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_343525" style="background-color: #eeeeee; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; max-width: 510px; padding: 3px;"><span class="image-container size-full wp-image-343525" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: block; margin: 0px; max-height: 300px; max-width: 500px; padding: 0px;"><img alt="Photo courtesy of Shutterstock" class="size-full wp-image-343525 " height="300" src="http://files.cdn.ecowatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/nuke.jpg" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; display: inline-block; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px; vertical-align: middle; width: auto;" width="500" /></span><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" id="figcaption_attachment_343525" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 0.875rem; line-height: 18.200000762939453px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.1875rem 0.4375rem;">The technology known as nuclear power today is a lumbering giant utterly dependent on state-based largesse for its existence. <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-73078270/stock-photo-nuclear-power-plant-with-an-intense-red-and-cloudy-evening-sky.html?src=XU37f1G9xgyd02Iy94srXA-1-69" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #439241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;">Photo courtesy of Shutterstock</a></figcaption></figure><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding: 0px;">
Born on a great tide of technological progress released by the atom, he intoned, mankind would collectively face a new age of prosperity the likes of which the world had never known before. At the time it was widely assumed that Strauss—a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Strauss" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #439241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;" target="_blank">pivotal figure</a> in America’s early years of nuclear experimentation and tinkering—was talking about fission power, as he had just days earlier spoken of industry having at its command vast amounts of “electrical power from atomic furnaces,” at the groundbreaking of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shippingport_Atomic_Power_Station" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #439241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;" target="_blank">Shippingport Atomic Power Station</a>, the world’s first full-scale, civilian <a href="http://ecowatch.com/news/energy-news/nuclear-energy-energy/" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #439241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;" target="_blank">nuclear power</a> reactor, located outside of Pittsburgh.</div>
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In fact, Strauss was actually talking about fusion power, which, at the time, was a top secret, Cold War concern of the American government. However, the supposition of the country’s technocratic elite was that just as fission research had led to both the atomic bomb and plants like the one at Shippingport, fusion breakthroughs would soon lead to controlled fusion reactions and reactors that would herald the coming age of plenty that Strauss predicted.</div>
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<b style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">From too-cheap-to-meter marvels to state-supported dinosaurs</b></div>
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History didn’t turn out as Strauss had envisioned, of course, as a controlled fusion reaction—as opposed to the uncontrolled variety which scientists easily pulled off and turned into ever more powerful nuclear weapons—<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Bottle-Strange-History-Thinking/dp/B002BWQ5H2" style="-webkit-transition: color 0.2s linear; background: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; color: #439241; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s linear;" target="_blank">proved devilishly difficult</a> to produce.</div>
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vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-39701074853126355502014-07-06T14:28:00.001+05:302014-07-06T14:28:14.369+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/grid-clean-energy-access-market-valued-12bn-85805">Off-grid, clean energy access market valued at $12bn : Renew Economy</a></b></span><br /><br />
<h1 class="post-title" style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #0c4a80; font-family: georgia, times, serif; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 1em; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px 0px 5px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/grid-clean-energy-access-market-valued-12bn-85805" rel="bookmark" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Permanent Link to Off-grid, clean energy access market valued at $12bn">Off-grid, clean energy access market valued at $12bn</a></h1><div class="postdate" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 8px;">By <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/author/vrinda-manglik" rel="author" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Vrinda Manglik">Vrinda Manglik</a> on 1 July 2014</div><div class="pf-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><div class="printfriendly pf-alignright" style="float: right; margin: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><a href="http://cleantechnica.com/" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;">CleanTechnica</a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">One in five people around the world, approximately 1.3 billion people, lack access to electricity.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">The Sierra Club just released a new report — <a href="http://action.sierraclub.org/site/DocServer/0747_Clean_Energy_Services_Report_03_web.pdf?docID=15922" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>Clean Energy Services For All (CES4All)</b></a> - - showing that off-grid clean energy is the right tool for the energy access job. That’s because it’s the fastest, cheapest, and most effective means of ending energy poverty – and it’s going to create a $12 billion annual industry by 2030.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Working with Evan Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Stewart Craine of<a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/calling-all-village-infrastructure-angels" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>Village Infrastructure Angels</b></a>, we have provided one of the first estimates of future growth for the rapidly expanding clean energy access market. Today, excluding grid extension, this market is estimated to be a $200-250 million industry annually. However, we project a 26 percent compound annual growth rate that will enable growth that reaches a $12 billion annual market by 2030 – when universal electrification is achieved. To put that in perspective, the U.S. residential market for solar in 2013 was only $3.76 billion.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">It turns out our central thesis has been right all along – <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/12/18/1353791/small-is-big-bangladesh-installs-one-million-solar-home-systems/" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>small is big</b></a>.</div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_41820" style="border: none; clear: both; float: none; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 524px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rsz_ces4all-1.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="rsz_ces4all-1" class="wp-image-41820 " height="265" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rsz_ces4all-1.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="514" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">Off-Grid, Clean Energy Access Market Valued At $12 Billion</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Central to our ‘CES4ALL’ model is the notion that energy efficiency unlocks the energy access ladder. Energy efficiency measures that are currently available allow energy access to be delivered for 50-85 percent less energy input, which enables dramatically reduced capital expenditure.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">From off-grid LED lighting to “<a href="http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Skinny-Grids-LEDs-Harness-More-Distributed-Energy-for-Less" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>Skinny Grids</b></a>,” we can now provide energy access with a fraction of the amount of power we used to need. More importantly, we can unlock affordable initial interventions — like lighting, mobile phone charging, fans, and TVs plus a small amount of agro processing — to help people get onto the energy ladder today rather than forcing them to wait decades for a grid extension that may never come.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">As incomes expand and markets evolve, these populations will upgrade and expand their energy services, in turn creating a bottoms up, distributed, democratized grid.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">It’s important to understand that we aren’t just imagining this clean energy market growth – it’s already happening. The fact is that the off-grid energy market is growing rapidly, with estimates of <a href="http://www.gvepinternational.org/en/resources/lighting-africa-market-trend-report-2012-overview-grid-lighting-market-africa" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>95 percent compound annual growth rates in sub Saharan Africa alone</b></a>. In Bangladesh, 80,000 solar home systems are being installed every single month while neighboring India has promised <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-05-19/modi-to-use-solar-to-bring-power-to-every-home-by-2019.html" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>solar for all by 2019</b></a>.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Similar to how solar leasing unlocked the market for residential solar use in the United States, this off-grid market has been unlocked by business and financial model innovations, like mobile money-enabled “pay-as-you-go” systems. These innovations have primed the off-grid sector for further rapid growth, similar to what the mobile phone industry experienced a decade ago.</div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_41817" style="border: none; clear: both; float: none; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 553px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rsz_clean-energy-access-chart.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="rsz_clean-energy-access-chart" class="wp-image-41817 " height="284" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/rsz_clean-energy-access-chart.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="543" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">Clean Energy Access</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">But if there is one message we need to leave you with it’s this: show us the money!</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">In order for the market to reach its full potential by 2030, entrepreneurs need financing now. We estimate that financial need to be roughly $100 million in new investments in off-grid clean energy manufacturers over the next three years. The investment needs of consumer finance companies in this market will require even larger investments — $400 million over roughly the same time period.<br />Combined, approximately <a href="http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/2012/05/energy-access-entrepreneurs.html" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>$500 million is needed in the next two to three years</b></a>, consistent with a letter from industry to the World Bank.</div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_41818" style="border: none; clear: both; float: none; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 553px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Clean-Energy-Access-Microgrids-and-Solar.png" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="Clean-Energy-Access-Microgrids-and-Solar" class="wp-image-41818 " height="273" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Clean-Energy-Access-Microgrids-and-Solar.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" width="543" /></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="font-size: 8pt; padding: 5px;">Clean Energy Access technology</div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">In short, this off-grid energy market has a tremendous opportunity to catalyze a solar revolution for the masses — one that will help democratize energy, create local jobs, and decarbonize new power systems in one fell swoop. The only thing standing in its way is access to the financing to make it happen. Private investors are already stepping up to the plate with <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-guay/45-million-flows-to-off-g_b_5255578.html" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><b>$45 million</b></a> invested in just the past four months, but international financial institutions like the World Bank are nowhere in sight.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">It’s time we held these development institutions accountable. It’s time they finally built the equitable, sustainable, and democratic systems that distributed clean energy make possible. It’s time for clean energy access for all.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><em>Source: <a href="http://cleantechnica.com/2014/06/29/grid-clean-energy-access-market-valued-12-billion/" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;">CleanTechnica</a>. Reproduced with permission.</em></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><br /></div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5730815522014795761.post-43641667673262555602014-07-06T14:25:00.001+05:302014-09-01T14:20:45.217+05:30<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;"><b><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/2014/graph-day-large-scale-solar-costs-australia-99974">Solar costs tipped to halve and beat wind in 5 years : Renew Economy</a></b></span><br /><br />
<div class="postdate" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 8px;">By <a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/author/giles" rel="author" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;" title="Posts by Giles Parkinson">Giles Parkinson</a> on 1 July 2014</div><div class="pf-content" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: tahoma, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px;"><div class="printfriendly pf-alignright" style="float: right; margin: 0px;"></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">One of the world’s biggest solar manufacturers and project developers, the US-based First Solar, has predicted that utility-scale solar costs in Australia will halve over the next five years, becoming cheaper than wind energy by 2020.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">First Solar says this should mean that large-scale solar takes up an increasing amount of the capacity required to be built under the current 41,000GWh target.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">However, First Solar’s prediction about costs are predicated on the renewable energy target not being removed or diluted in the interim, as is feared under the Abbott government.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">First Solar argues that the RET is needed to encourage new projects and bring down costs. More than half the cost of a large-scale solar project, it says, comes from the cost of local of local suppliers and contractors. Without new projects, these costs cannot be reduced.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;"><a href="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/first-solar-PPA-predictions.jpg" style="color: #0c4a80; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="first solar PPA predictions" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-41791" height="304" src="http://reneweconomy.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/first-solar-PPA-predictions-590x304.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); clear: both; display: block; float: none; margin: 0px auto 20px; padding: 3px;" width="590" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">The graph above illustrates First Solar’s argument. The more solar farms that are built, the more costs can come down, and the less government support is needed. This will allow such projects, eventually, to be built without subsidy. In Chile, where electricity prices are even higher, and the sunshine is even stronger, this is already the case.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px;">But First Solar says that rapid reduction in costs would not occur without a “market bridge” to bring technologies to commercialisation and maturity, particularly if the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency are also removed.</div></div>vksharmahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10923271354051259206noreply@blogger.com0