Into The Wind By Michael Goggin One of wind energy’s most overlooked benefits is that it requires virtually no water to produce electricity, while almost all other electricity sources evaporate tremendous amounts of water. In 2008, the nation’s thermal power plants withdrew 22 to 62 trillion gallons of freshwater from rivers, lakes, streams, … [continued]
I’ve had the pleasure of hearing about North Carolina’s renewable energy progress several times from Ivan Urlaub. One of the really smart things his organization does is poll voters on renewable energy each year. That means politicians always know where the voters stand on solar, wind, biomass, coal and nuclear. … [continued]
RenewEconomy (See also our update on how wind energy met 91 per cent of demand in South Australia on Wednesday morning). It’s been a big week for wind energy. First was the admission by Tony Abbott’s modellers that the renewable energy target as is will reduce electricity bills, and that the target … [continued]
New figures published by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) show that 19.4% of the UK’s electricity mix for the first quarter of 2014 was generated from renewable sources — up from 12.4% for the same period a year ago. Furthermore, the DECC note that both hydro … [continued]
On June 1, 2014, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) recorded a record midday hourly peak of 4,767 megawatts of alternating current (MWAC) of utility-generated solar electricity delivered into the California grid. With rapidly growing utility-scale solar capacity, CAISO has regularly recorded new hourly output records going back to 2010 … [continued]
At 8:48 p.m. on March 26, wind generation on the electric grid covering most of the state of Texas reached a new instantaneous peak output of 10,296 megawatts (MW). At that moment, wind supplied almost 29% of total electricity load, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the grid’s operator. … [continued]
Curtailments of wind generation on the Texas electric grid have steadily dropped since 2011 as more than 3,500 miles of transmission lines have been built, largely as a result of the state’s Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) program. Occurrences of wind-related negative real-time electricity prices have similarly declined as the CREZ transmission … [continued]
Time to catch up on more solar news. Here are a number of big solar news stories we wouldn’t want you to miss: First Solar + Skytron: First Solar is acquiring Skytron. If Skytron doesn’t ring a bell, it should. It holds more monitored solar PV projects than all about 3 other … [continued]
Adapt or Die read the title of the article suggesting that electric utilities must change their business to survive, or be buried under an onslaught of local renewable energy. But utilities seem to have chosen a third way – Fight – as captured in this map from the Institute for … [continued]
At the time of announcing its performance for the financial year, the UK Green Investment Bank also announced plans to raise £1 billion for a new fund to “acquire equity stakes in operational offshore wind projects in the UK.” The move is expected to boost the offshore wind sector’s rapid growth. … [continued]
