This blog is all about various sources of renewable energies , appliances that are powered by renewable energy , the benefit of renewable energy ,and its importance in global energy situation renewable energy news
Enthused by drop in
renewable energy tariff, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said India’s
60-65% of installed power generation capacity will be green energy.
“Going by prices we have discovered, I am inspired to say that 60-65%
of India’s installed capacity base will be green energy,” Goyal said at
Take Pride event organised by CII.
He further said, “India’s renewable energy programme is a great example of how you can do big by thinking big.”
Earlier this month, Goyal had predicted that India’s solar power
generation capacity will cross 20,000 MW in the next 15 months, from the
current 10,000 MW, and said drastic reduction in costs of solar power
is proof of maturity of the sector.
Lower capital expenditure and cheaper credit have pulled down solar
tariff to a new low of Rs 2.97 per unit in an auction conducted for 750
MW capacity in Rewa Solar Park in Madhya Pradesh last month.
The auction was conducted by a joint venture of Madhya Pradesh government and the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
The wind power tariff has too dropped to a record low of Rs 3.46
per unit in an auction of 1,000 MW capacity conducted by the SECI.
At present, out of 315 GW of total power generation installed
capacity, around 50 GW is from renewable sources while large hydro
projects (above 25 MW) constitute 44 GW.
As much as 14,000 MW (or 14 gigawatt) of solar projects are currently
under development and about 6 GW is to be auctioned soon. In 2016,
about 4 GW of solar capacity was added, the fastest pace till date.
According to power ministry estimate, another 8.8 GW capacity is
likely to be added in 2017, including about 1.1 GW of rooftop solar
installations.
The government is targeting 100 GW of solar and 60 GW of wind
energy capacity by 2022. Total renewable energy generation capacity is
envisaged at 175 GW by 2022.
Commending the government’s initiative on Goods and Services Tax
(GST), he said: “Nearly seven constitutional laws have been passed in
the last two and a half years by this government without a majority in
the Rajya Sabha. Our finance minister is the best finance minister.”
source: http://www.hindustantimes.com
An experiment is underway in Germany that could be a game-changer for
the future of renewable energy, and it involves some dangerously high
temperatures.
Just how hot are we talking? Only about 3,500°C at the peak of the experiment, which is hot enough to boil iron. Yes, it’s that hot.
In order to get to such high temperatures, the experiment (which is called Synlight)
uses an array of more than a hundred high-powered spotlights, which are
all focused together on a single target. And when you combine that much
light from so many different sources, you get light which is about ten
thousand times more intense than sunlight.
So why go to all this
trouble? You might assume they’re trying to see whether intensely
focused beams of sunlight can be harnessed in future solar energy
projects.
But you’d be wrong.
The real reason: hydrogen extraction.
The
idea is to use intense beams of focused light to bombard water vapour,
thereby separating the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in the vapour by
breaking the covalent bonds holding the H2O molecules together.
Although
the spotlights used in this phase of the experiment require a lot of
energy input and have a high carbon footprint, the aim is to eventually
use sunlight to create a renewable, carbon neutral process for
harvesting hydrogen gas.
As for why we might want large amounts of
hydrogen gas, the answer is simple: it’s a great replacement for fossil
fuels. Hydrogen gas is combustible, and can be used to fuel aeroplanes,
automobiles, and power plants. In an interview with The Guardian, Professor Bernard Hoffschmidt,
a research director at the German Aerospace Center, explained, “We’d
need billions of tonnes of hydrogen if we wanted to drive aeroplanes and
cars on CO2-free fuel…Climate change is speeding up so we need to speed
up innovation.”
But although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe,
most of the available hydrogen atoms in our atmosphere are bound up in
other molecules, such as methane (CH4) or water vapour (H2O). Actual
pure hydrogen gas (H2) is relatively rare — less than one percent of the
atmosphere. Much less in fact: a mere 0.000055% of our atmosphere is comprised of H2.
But wait, if we start breaking up H2O molecules to harness hydrogen, won’t we eventually run out of water?
No, and that’s the beauty of combustible hydrogen: when it’s burned, we end up with water molecules as the byproduct
instead of carbon dioxide (CO2). So not only do we get all our precious
water molecules back for free, we also solve the problem of greenhouse
gas production.
So let’s hope this experiment gets a good result.
The clock is ticking on global petroleum reserves, and climate change is
accelerating. We badly need a silver bullet to solve our energy woes.
And abundant, free hydrogen gas could be a major piece of the puzzle in
coming decades.
source: http://www.msn.com
Madison, Wisconsin committed to getting 100 percent
of its energy from clean, renewable sources in a resolution passed
unanimously by the City Council on Tuesday. It became the 24th city to
make such a promise, according to a tally by the Sierra Club, which has a
“Ready for 100” nationwide campaign.
Madison’s resolution sets
a high bar in a state that gets most of its electricity from coal and
where, as in most places, natural gas is almost exclusively used for
heating during harsh winters.
Madison’s resolution calls for the entire
city to get all of its power from clean renewable sources, starting
with city operations. There is no target date specified, but the
resolution mandates that a plan to get the city government’s operations
to all-renewable must be developed by January 2018, including specific
dates and benchmarks. The resolution calls this process a “budgetary and
managerial priority.”
Madison City Council member Zach Wood.
“The community (citywide) goal hopefully
will be realistic, we’ve had our partners at the table and will continue
to do so,” said Zach Wood, a City Council member who spearheaded the
resolution. “The reason we have two separate goals is we want the city
to be a leader — not just tell our neighbors what to do but walk the
walk, and make sure we get there first.”
The resolution allocates up to $250,000
for a planning process wherein the city will engage a consultant to
develop different options for moving forward. The money comes from
$750,000 for sustainability improvements already enshrined in the 2017
budget.
“That’s not the easy part but it’s the
cheap part,” said Wood. The city will need to continue allocating money
in future years to carry out its own energy transition and provide
support for private citizens and businesses.
While the resolution is largely
non-binding, it mandates the plan be developed and regular reports on
progress to the City Council. The 100 percent goal will be written into a
revised version of the city’s sustainability plan, and will be overseen
by the Sustainable Madison Committee, made up of 18 citizens appointed
by the mayor.
The plan due in January 2018 “will give people a sense (of) what the building blocks are and how they might arrange them,”said
Sustainable Madison Committee chair Raj Shukla. “We’ll give
policymakers as much flexibility as possible, and a very clear
understanding of what the tradeoffs are. There are real limitations on
what a city can do outside its operations. But what it can do is use its
bully pulpit, and encourage businesses, utilities and other entities to
follow suit.”
Utility buy-in
The city’s electricity is provided
primarily by the utility Madison Gas and Electric, with the utility
Alliant also serving some customers. MG&E’s portfolio includes
about 13 percent renewable energy, 48 percent coal-fired power, 9
percent gas and oil and 30 percent purchased from elsewhere. Advocates
and city leaders note that MG&E will be the key player in
determining how much of the city’s power comes from renewables.
MG&E officially endorsed the resolution, and has its own Energy Framework 2030 that calls for 30 percent renewables by 2030. MG&E recently announced plans for its largest wind farm to date, a 66-megawatt installationnear Saratoga, Iowa.
But MG&E spokesperson Dana Brueck
said the company is committed to working with the city to implement the
spirit of the resolution. Currently, the company’s Green Power Tomorrow program
lets customers buy electricity specifically from wind. A pilot program
launched last year letting customers purchase solar power is sold out
but will be expanded, Brueck said.
“We have ambitious renewable energy and
carbon reduction goals,” Brueck said. “If we can go further faster, we
will. Like the city, we’re looking to increase our use of renewable
resources and to reduce our reliance on coal.”
Advocates including the citizen group RePower Madison have in the past clashed with MG&E over
policies that they say are hostile to solar energy, including increases
in the fixed charges it levies on all customers regardless of how much
energy they consume from the grid.
RePower Madison organizer Mitch Brey
praised the utility for its involvement in the resolution process, and
called on the company to step up its commitment to renewables.
Brey added that Renewable Energy Credits
or similar credits purchased from elsewhere should not be used to meet
the 100 percent renewable goal.
“I don’t think it would be very satisfying for anyone if we met this goal by buying credits,” Brey said.
Popular support
The city government and individual
businesses, industries and homeowners can increase the city’s reliance
on renewable energy by building solar installations or small wind
turbines “behind the meter” on their own property, in some cases owned
by third parties through Power Purchase Agreements.
The utility’s rate policies help
determine how feasible it is for customers to install solar, with fixed
charges, interconnection requirements and other factors playing a major
role. In Wisconsin and across the country, renewable advocates note that
technology and economic forces are making solar increasingly
attractive.
“I think the biggest drivers are things
out of our control — the price of renewables is dropping dramatically,
the price of energy storage is dropping drastically, we’re seeing price
parity,” said Shukla. “That’s the kind of thing that will kick this into
high gear. We want to just start the ball rolling.”
Madison residents have voiced
overwhelming support for the resolution and renewable energy in general,
with crowds attending multiple hearings about the proposed resolution
and testifying in its favor.
“We’ve been working hard since last
summer to make the public aware of every entry point for participation
in the democratic process,” said Elizabeth Katt Reinders, a
Madison-based senior organizer for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal
campaign. “We’ve been thrilled to see what a huge response there has
been. That’s something we’re really proud of.”
A Sierra Club press release notes that on
the same day the resolution was passed by Madison, with its famously
progressive politics, the town of Abita Springs, Louisiana passed a
similar measure. Abita Springs voters favored Donald Trump in the
presidential election.
“Politics has nothing to do with it for
me,” said Abita Springs Mayor Greg Lemons in a statement. “Clean energy
just makes good economic sense. By establishing a 100 percent renewable
energy goal, we have an opportunity to use solar power that we can
control in our community, for our community.”
Other cities
committing to 100 percent renewable energy include San Diego, Los
Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose in California; Boulder, Pueblo and
Aspen in Colorado; Moab, Utah; Georgetown, Texas; Burlington, Vermont;
Rochester, Minnesota; and Grand Rapids and Traverse City, Michigan.
“You’ve seen other cities set really
aggressive goals, you kind of need those to push the envelope and bring
folks along,” said Kathy Kuntz, executive director of Cool Choices,
a Madison nonprofit that uses a gaming platform to help businesses
improve their sustainability. “If we can show that as a community
Madison thrives while we achieve this objective, that becomes an
important example for others.”
Gas, vehicles and other major challenges
Heating homes, businesses and public
institutions with clean, renewable energy will be a serious challenge
for Madison. Electric heating is typically much less efficient than
natural gas, and to be “clean” the electricity would need to come from
renewable sources.
Brey noted that biogas from manure
biodigesters and landfill gas collection systems could theoretically be
used for heating, as could geothermal energy, all sources that would be
considered renewable. Shukla said those options haven’t been discussed
as realistic possibilities thus far. He said increasing buildings’
energy efficiency — so that less gas is needed for heating — will be the
first step on the heating front.
On the transportation side, Shukla said
the city will look to electrify its own vehicle fleet, with the power
provided by the sun or wind.
Brey said that plans for citywide
transformation should be included in the planning process from the
start, even though the city’s immediate goals have to do with its own
operations.
“It shouldn’t be done in a silo, getting
city operations to 100 percent and then later figuring out how to do the
community as a whole,” he said.
Proponents say they are committed for the long haul.
“This is the first step of many,” said
Council member Wood. “Last night was great, we were extremely encouraged
and excited, but we need to capture this excitement and keep it going
when it comes time to put more money into this and realize our
commitments. This is long, long term. We’ll need to invest in and focus
on it every year, forever.”
Image: Platforms Ellen and Elly offshore near Long Beach,
Calif. Credit: US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement |
Flickr.
Organizations are collecting more information than they ever have
in the past, and energy companies are no exception. One estimate puts
the amount of data collected on an offshore oil rig at 2 terabytes per
day. More and more, these companies are turning to analytics service
providers to make sense of their data within their business processes.
Now, those analytics providers are looking at ways to translate their
experience in oil and gas to the growing offshore wind energy market.
ABS Group works with offshore oil and gas companies to deliver
analytics services that help answer operational questions with the data
those companies collect. The Houston-based solutions provider also works
in the project certification phase for offshore wind to help developers
identify and mitigate risk. ABS Group Vice President of Power Business
Development Tom Adams believes that the company can leverage its experience in risk mitigation for offshore wind
and its work with offshore oil and gas analytics to bring big data
analytics to the operational phase of offshore wind projects.
"Our involvement in offshore wind in this particular area is early
days - it's something of great interest to us and we think a growing
focus and priority for the offshore wind industry globally," Adams said.
"There are several drivers that lead us to believe that a high level of
sophistication and analytical 'horse power' will be needed."
One of the main drivers he sees in the latest large-scale offshore
wind projects is the very aggressive cost that the developers are
bidding for their power.
"We see that on the front end on the capital investments side and the
EPC phase, which we're more heavily involved in these days as a project
certification service provider," he said.
The cost of building offshore wind farms is coming down tremendously
as the scale of new projects has grown. Those costs are moving very
aggressively through all parts of the supply chain, and ABS Group sees
the same cost pressures and aggressive targets translating to the
O&M phase of projects as well.
"Anything that can help achieve those targets or make them more certain to be achieved is going to be in demand," Adams said.
Srikanta Mishra, Ph.D., Institute Fellow and chief scientist for
energy at Battelle, believes the application of data analytics in three
specific areas of offshore oil and gas environments — forecasting,
equipment performance and predictive maintenance — is "readily
translated" to offshore wind energy.
In terms of forecasting, Mishra said, offshore wind farm operators
would be interested in making predictions of weather, temperature or
precipitation, for example, together with inputs such as wind speed and
wind direction.
"You can learn from the past and build models that can say with some
degree of accuracy what is going to be the wind speed and direction in
the next hour and the next 24 hours," he said. "Those can be important
inputs with respect to how the grid accepts what is coming from the wind
energy generator."
With respect to performance, having sensors that monitor the behavior
of turbines on an individual basis, and the wind farm collectively, can
be a valuable process, he said. Analysis of that data can determine the
conditions in which the turbines have under-performed in the past and
be applied to operations in the future.
He said that the same type of analyses can be applied for predictive
maintenance of individual turbine components to identify conditions,
such as pressure, temperature, wind speed, and precipitation, when
equipment has failed.
Battelle works with companies to bring multiple sources of data into
one easy-to-use platform that allows operators to learn from their data
and then use that knowledge to make decisions. Through its Elucidata
service, Battelle gives energy companies access to a large group of
subject matter experts across a variety of domains.
Data management provider OSIsoft's experience working with offshore
oil rigs on condition-based maintenance helped the company support Dong
Energy in using data and analytics to understand how to do the
maintenance that was needed on its offshore wind turbines at the right
time and the lowest cost.
According to Chris Crosby, principal - global nuclear and renewable
energy for OSIsoft, Dong Energy took the data that was available on its
wind turbine generators and moved it into OSIsoft's scalable, open data
infrastructure, called PI, to do condition-based maintenance. Dong
Energy also moved that data into its asset management system so that its
managers could create work orders. In addition, the company used its
data to established a map that provided a visual status of the wind
turbines.
Integrating its data into the three technologies allowed the wind
farm managers to have a visual of what was happening in a particular
wind farm, and drill down into a specific wind turbine to see the work
flow status on that machine, Crosby said. Dong Energy saved 20 million
euro per year as a result of that integration initiative.
According to Crosby, monitoring and understanding the health of an
asset, and bringing that visually to managers within an organization,
supports similar business problems, no matter the business.
source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com
Local officials in China's Jiangsu Province will help expand waste-to-energy capacity in the region with an investment in a new facility with a processing capacity of 900 metric tons.
China Everbright International last week said it signed an agreement
for a household waste-to-energy project with the People's Government of
Siyang County in Jiangsu Province for construction of the Siyang
waste-to-energy project.
According to Everbright CEO Chen Xiaoping, the company has three
waste-to-energy projects in operation in the north of Jiangsu Province,
which collectively have an annual household waste processing capacity of
approximately 700,000 metric tons.
Everbright said that the project will be constructed in two phases.
Phase I has a designed daily household waste processing capacity of 600
metric tons, with a total investment of approximately RMB350 million
(US$50.6 million). The company expects the facility to generate about 75
GWh of electricity annually.
source:http://www.renewableenergyworld.com
GreenWish Partners, a Paris-based independent power producer, will invest $280 million to build solar power plants in Nigeria that are expected to start producing electricity in the first quarter of next year.
A plant in the southeastern state of Enugu will produce 100 MW, while
the company will build two others of 50 MW each in the northern Kaduna
and Jigawa states, CEO Charlotte Aubin-Kalaidjian said in an interview
in Lagos. The project will be funded 70 percent through debt and 30
percent through equity and on completion will provide power to 2.5
million people, she said.
“We only take risks where solar makes sense, where it is competitive
and where there is political support,” Aubin-Kalaidjian said. “This
government is very committed to developing power and renewables,
especially in regions where there is no gas available.”
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country of more than 180 million people, faces an 8,000-MW energy shortfall,
having capacity to generate only about 4,000 MW of electricity. Most
plans for new capacity focused on using natural gas from the southern
petroleum region until the Power, Works and Housing Minister Babatunde
Fashola’s introduced a framework to accommodate solar power producers
last year. Dollar Challenge
That has resulted in a power purchase agreement with the Nigerian
Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, the clearing house of the local
electricity market, to enable GreenWish sell to the national grid. The
transactions are in the local currency but denominated in dollars to
hedge against naira-value fluctuations, Aubin-Kalaidjian said.
Nigeria has struggled to meet its foreign-currency needs since the
price of crude, its main export, tumbled from peaks reached in mid-2014
and militant attacks in the oil-rich Niger River delta cut output.
Shortages have put pressure on the naira, causing it to lose more than a
third of its value in the past year.
“It creates a challenge when the industry has their business linked
to the naira,” Aubin-Kalaidjian said. "So it’s important to take that
into account and structure properly."
Founded in 2014 with a focus on Africa, GreenWish currently has a
pipeline of more than 1,000 MW of solar projects with industrial
partners across West Africa, according to Aubin-Kalaidjian
source: Bloomberg News
The 2018 Zayed Future Energy Prize is now open for entries to the 10th anniversary edition. To learn more and to make an entry online, visit www.zayedfutureenergyprize.com today.
Totalling US$4 million and awarded annually, the Zayed Future Energy
Prize is a world-leader for recognising outstanding contributions and
inspirational commitments to a global future of clean energy and
sustainable development. It was established by the UAE Government in
2008 to honour the vision of the nation’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed
bin Sultan Al Nahyan and his legacy of environmental stewardship.
Through the achievements of its 57 winners to date, the prize has
touched the lives of more than 289 million people worldwide.
We invite entries in the form of online submissions from small and
medium-sized businesses; non-profit and non-governmental organisations;
and schools with pupils of ages 11-19 years. What’s more, anyone may
nominate worthy individuals and corporations for the Lifetime
Achievement and Large Corporation awards.
The five categories of the Zayed Future Energy Prize awards and their corresponding prize money are:
Large Corporation – recognition award
Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) – US$1.5 million
Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) – US$1.5 million
Lifetime Achievement – US$500,000
Global High Schools – US$500,000 divided equally between one school
from each of five regions: Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and
Oceania
As we prepare to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the
Zayed Future Energy Prize in January 2018, there has never been a more
opportune time to recognise the innovators and pioneers working
tirelessly to find solutions for the world’s energy and sustainability
challenges. Submitting an entry
To facilitate entries from Australia, New Zealand and the whole
Ocenia region, Business Outlook and Evaluation has been appointed the
Zayed Future Energy Prize Oceania Outreach Partner.
Submissions are accepted online and will close on 6 July 2017. The prize will be presented at an awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi in January, 2018.
source: http://reneweconomy.com.au
Some energy analysts are optimistic that renewables will continue to
surge under the Donald Trump administration, with or without help from
the Clean Power Plan. Part of that cheerful outlook is due to huge renewable energy buys already in the pipeline.
These
projects will be difficult if not impossible to reverse. A case in
point is the latest news from the U.S. Department of the Interior, which
just announced a $9 million winning bid in auction for more than
122,000 acres of offshore wind energy development in the waters of North
Carolina, at Kitty Hawk.
More American offshore wind energy
The U.S. has been a bit slow to join the global offshore wind market. But the long, relatively shallow Atlantic coastline is a tantalizing prize for renewable energy stakeholders.
According to one study, there is enough wind potential off the Atlantic coast to power every city on the eastern seaboard.
The
industry made a significant step toward development in 2010, when the
Barack Obama administration organized a lease program for Atlantic
offshore wind energy under the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean
Energy Management (BOEM).
Several Republican governors of states
on the eastern seaboard took steps to block offshore wind development,
which slowed things down. But Rhode Island finally broke the logjam.
Last fall, the tiny state flipped the switch on America’s very first
offshore wind farm.
Next up could be New York state, where Norway’s Statoil recently won the rights to develop an 80,000-acre site for offshore wind.
BOEM held an auction for two wind areas off the New Jersey shore in 2015. But without a strong advocate in state leadership, those projects may stall out.
So far, New Jerseys’s Board of Public Utilities has failed to take critical rule-making steps to prepare for the sale of the electricity generated by the proposed wind farm. Another offshore wind project in the state is also near collapse, which some locals attribute to policies under Gov. Chris Christie, despite support from the Obama administration.
In
a rather tragic twist, the New York wind area is located within sight
of the New Jersey shore. Once the New York wind farm is up and running,
New Jersey residents will get a nice view of those turbines spinning on
the horizon.
North Carolina wind on the rise
North
Carolina has emerged as a clean power leader among southeastern states,
partly because it is the only state in that region to establish
renewable energy requirements.
Those rules took effect in 2007.
They continued to propel renewable energy development in the state even
after Republican Gov. Pat McCrory won the election in 2012, though offshore wind development spun its wheels. The prospects for offshore wind look better now that the state is under new leadership.
In the latest news, BOEM capped a five-year planning effort by announcing that the lease for North Carolina’s Kitty Hawk wind area was provisionally granted to the company Avangrid Renewables.
The
potential generating capacity of the wind area is an impressive 1,486
megawatts, according to estimates from the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory, which can power around 500,000 homes. Avangrid will
determine the actual size of the wind farm.
source: http://www.triplepundit.com
On March 17th, 2017, First
Solar, Inc. (Tempe, AZ, US) and the Moapa Band of Paiutes joined Sen.
Dean Heller, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada State Energy Office
Director Angela Dykema, Clark County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick,
executives from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP)
and other community and energy industry leaders to celebrate the
commissioning of the Moapa Southern Paiute solar PV project.
The 250 MWac Moapa Southern Paiute solar
photovoltaic (PV) project is capable of generating enough clean energy
to power an estimated 111,000 homes.
Located on the Moapa River Indian reservation
approximately 30 miles north of Las Vegas, this facility is the
first-ever utility-scale solar PV plant on tribal land and has a
long-term power purchase agreement (PPA) with LADWP to bring clean,
renewable energy to Los Angeles residents.
“I’m proud to see the day has finally arrived to
commission the Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project,” said United States
Senator Dean Heller.
“The tribe is truly embarking on a new journey while
serving as a trendsetter with this venture. This project is the first
and largest utility-scale solar plant on tribal lands. Nevada is no
stranger to successful solar projects, and this is another great example
of that.”
“There is no doubt renewable energy is the way of
the future for energy sustainability, and Nevada has the unparalleled
natural resources to be a national leader in investment and development
of clean energy technology and job creation,” added Senator Catherine
Cortez Masto.
For the Moapa Band of Paiutes, this solar energy
project has proven to be an ideal economic development opportunity,
providing lease revenues over the lifetime of the project and about 115
construction jobs for tribal members and other Native Americans, while
also preserving their land and cultural heritage.
The Moapa Southern Paiute solar project, constructed
and operated by First Solar, features more than 3.2 million advanced
First Solar thin film photovoltaic (PV) panels. This equates to more
than 25 million square feet of solar panels, or enough to cover more
than 450 NFL football fields. The energy will serve LADWP under a
25-year PPA.
