RMI Outlet By Laurie Guevara-Stone If I told you about a place where almost 40 percent of the people live without electricity, over 90 percent live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate exceeds 80 percent, you might be picturing a rural village in Africa or some other developing … [continued]
Climate Central By Bobby Magill When the U.S. Energy Information Administration launched its new U.S. Energy Mapping System last fall and upgraded it for use on mobile devices in early June, it powered a system allowing anyone to visualize some of the reams of data the EIA compiles on all things energy-related in the country. … [continued]
Although topping the 2012 Green Economy Index and named the European Green Capital 2014, Denmark and Copenhagen are not ready to rest on their laurels. Their green ambitions include carbon neutrality for the greater Copenhagen area by 2025 and energy self-sufficiency from oil by 2050. In order to reach these goals, Denmark needs to recruit … [continued]
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]
