Hyundai Plans World’s Largest Grid Storage Battery In Korea

06.12.2017

Elon Musk set the world on its ear in 2017 when he promised Tesla could build and install a 129 megawatt-hour grid storage battery in South Australia in 100 days or less. The kicker? If Tesla failed to meet the deadline, the battery would be free. In fact, Tesla beat its own deadline. The battery got turned on in late November, weeks ahead of schedule. Now Hyundai says it intends to build and install a battery that will be 50% larger than the South Australia facility near Ulsan on the southeast coast of South Korea. It is scheduled for completion in February of next year.

Ali Asghar, a senior associate for Bloomberg New Energy Finance, says falling battery prices are driving a huge increase in battery storage worldwide. “Musk has set a benchmark on how quickly you can install and commission a battery of this size,” he says. Falling costs are “making them a compelling mainstream option for energy-storage applications in many areas around the world, and projects even bigger than Tesla’s are now under construction.”

Industry analysts expect prices to continue to decline in the years ahead. They also believe Tesla competitors will be able to act quickly to get large storage batteries installed. That’s all good news, but Saul Kavonic, an analyst for consulting company Wood Mackenzie in Perth, Australia, says speed will be less important to utility companies than the bottom line. (After all, it takes a decade or more to complete the permitting process for a new nuclear power plant.)

The principal cost benefit of battery storage is not so much the price of the battery as it is the savings realized from not building and operating so-called “peaker” plants that operate only a few hours a day. Not needing to buy fuel for a peaker plant that has a useful life of 30 years or more will add up to a lot of money in the long run, making the upfront cost of a battery backup system easier to swallow.

The news here is not that Hyundai will be able to claim it has built the largest storage battery in history — at least for a few months — it is that utility grids are rapidly adapting to renewable energy technology. The more of these batteries get installed, the sooner we can kick out the horse puckey peddled by the Koch brothers and their well paid acolytes about renewables being too intermittent to be provide reliable electrical service. A decade from now, such notions will be viewed as nothing more than quaint beliefs peddled by people with limited intellectual capacity.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Capital Stage Acquires Two Solar Projects In The Netherlands

06.12.2017

Germany’s largest independent renewable energy operator Capital Stage announced this week that it had acquired two solar parks in development in the Netherlands and which are expected to be connected to the grid in October of next year.

Capital Stage, based in Hamburg, Germany, currently operates 165 solar parks and 64 wind farms throughout Europe with a total out of around 1.5 GW (gigawatts). The company announced on Monday that it had acquired two solar parks in the province of Zuid-Holland (South Holland) in the Netherlands. The two projects, with a combined total capacity of 47.6 MW (megawatts), are set to receive a feed-in tariff of EUR-Cent 10.7 per kilowatt-hour.

Expected to be connected to the grid in October of 2018, the Melissant and Ooltgensplaat solar projects were sold by Dutch project developer Sunstroom Engineering B.V. The acquisition transaction required a total investment, including project-related debt financing, of €44.5 million.

“The Netherlands offer very good framework conditions for investments in photovoltaic installations,” said Dr Dierk Paskert, CEO of Capital Stage AG. “In addition to expected capacity additions of around five gigawatts by the end of the year 2020, these include attractive financing conditions, the high level of investment security and the currency congruence. The two solar parks we acquired are among the largest projects in the Netherlands and therefore have quite a flagship effect. They form a good basis for further investment in our neighbouring country.”

This brings Capital Stage’s total ownership of solar capacity up to 770 MW and its total portfolio up to 1.5 GW.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Falck Renewables Acquires 92 Megawatt North Carolina Solar Project From Canadian Solar Subsidiary Recurrent Energy

06.12.2017

photovoltaic-system solar — Foto: Pixabay

Italy-based Falck Renewables has this week closed a deal to acquire a 99% stake in a 92 megawatt solar PV project in North Carolina from Canadian Solar subsidiary Recurrent Energy for $43 million.

Announced on Monday, Falck Renewables announced that it closed the sale of a 99% stake from the partnership that owns the Class B membership interest in a 92 MW (megawatt) solar project in North Carolina creatively named IS-42, which reached commercial operation at the end of September and is currently delivering its electricity to Duke Energy Process under a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Falck Renewables acquired its 99% stake through its wholly owned subsidiary Falck Renewables IS 42 LLC for $43 million.

“The closing of our first deal in the U.S. energy market represents a major milestone for our team who has been working relentlessly from the beginning of the year on strategic geographic expansion,” said Toni Volpe, chief executive officer of Falck Renewables. “Recurrent Energy has been an outstanding partner on our first opportunity to grow our assets outside Europe.”

“The IS-42 project is Recurrent Energy’s first solar project in the North Carolina market and another example of the company’s ability to grow its U.S. footprint,” said Dr. Shawn Qu, chairman and chief executive officer of Canadian Solar. “We are very pleased to partner with Falck Renewables on their first project in the U.S. and look forward to continuing our collaboration in the U.S. and other markets.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

Boston City Council Approves Plastic Bag Ban

05.12.2017

plastic bags, otpad, kese — Photo: Pixabay

You might want to bring a tote if you plan on shopping in Beantown next year. Boston City Council voted 12-0 on Wednesday to ban single-use plastic bags across the Massachusetts capital.

The measure now heads to Mayor Marty Walsh, who is said to be reviewing the proposal, which requires businesses to charge no less than five cents for other types of shopping bags, such as reusable bags, compostable plastic bags and recyclable paper bags, the Associated Press reported. Businesses would keep the proceeds from the fee.

“More than 350 million single-use plastic bags hit the streets of Boston this year alone, most of which end up filling our landfills, littering our communities, and polluting our air when burned up in incinerators,” said Kirstie Pecci, director of the Conservation Law Foundation’s Zero Waste Project.

Pecci noted that dozens of nearby municipalities have had similar policies for years. “This new ordinance protects the health of our neighborhoods and our environment, while at the same time easing the burden on taxpayers and saving local retailers millions. We are optimistic that Mayor Walsh will follow the lead of 59 other Massachusetts cities and towns and sign this ordinance into law.”

If approved, there would be a one-year implementation period before the ordinance takes effect. During this time, council members plan to work with the Boston Housing Authority, Office of Energy, Environment and Open Space and community groups to make free reusable bags available, according to Waste Dive.

Walsh was opposed to a version of the ban last year due to its potential impact on low income households and small businesses.

The American Progressive Bag Alliance, which lobbies for plastic bag manufacturers, urged the Democratic mayor to veto the ordinance, arguing that it would encourage the use of products that are “worse for the environment” than the bags the council wants to ban, the AP reported.

But Councilor Matt O’Malley, who introduced the proposal with Councilor At-Large Michelle Wu, countered at Wednesday’s council meeting that the convenience of plastic bags “does not outweigh the significant costs associated with them.”

O’Malley also said the measure would save the city money because it would reduce the number of hours that the city’s recycling company is forced to spend picking plastic bags out of recycling collections.

“This plastic bag ordinance is one example of a small step that is completely within the city’s control to take,” Wu said. “There is a tremendous cost to doing nothing on every single one of these climate initiatives.”

Significantly, Waste Dive observed that Boston’s potential bag bag could serve as a tipping point for Massachusetts-wide action due to a patchwork of local bag-law language.

But whatever happens in Boston, it’s clear that the bag-ban movement is gaining traction. Around the world, a growing number of towns, cities and even entire countries have banished these petroleum-based, non-biodegradable items over their harm to the environment and to marine life.

Last month, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed a bill that prohibits the sale of plastic bags in 102 coastal villages and towns in a bid to stop the build-up of ocean plastic and to “[take] care of our marine ecosystems.”

“Our fish are dying from plastics ingestion or strangulation—it’s a task in which everyone must collaborate,” Bachelet said.

An estimated eight million tons of plastic trash gets dumped into our oceans each year, literally choking marine life, harming ocean ecosystems and threatening the larger food chain.

Source: ecowatch.com

Oslo EV Parking Garage Is World’s Largest, Uses 6,000 kWh Of Electricity A Week

05.12.2017

The Vulkan parking garage in Oslo, Norway, has the most EV chargers of any facility in the world — 102. Tesla has opened two large Supercharger stations in the US recently with up to 60 chargers each, but the Vulkan operation tops them both by a wide margin. Since it first opened early in 2016, the number of customers using its chargers has tripled.

To date, a total of 114,000 kWh have been fed into the batteries of the electric cars that use the Vulkan facility. The garage now distributes 6,000 kWh of electricity to electric cars every 7 days. That’s enough for 30,000 kilometers of driving, which keeps 3 tons of carbon emissions out to the atmosphere — every week.

At first, charging was free. But after an equipment upgrade mid-year, customers began paying for their electricity during the daytime. At first, the number of people using the chargers fell, but soon business picked up again and is now increasing rapidly.

“We saw a little fall in charging for the first two weeks after the payment system was introduced, but the numbers are already on the way up again. Electric cars can still charge for free at night and on weekends. Night parking for electric cars is now handled automatically, and users do not need to register with Easypark anymore,” says Isak Oksvold, environmental manager at Aspelin Ramm, the developer of the Vulkan parking garage.

He says there are now more business customers at the facility, including a cleaning company that uses a fleet of electric cars and two carsharing services with a total of four electric cars.

Thanks to a recently completed equipment upgrade, EV customers can choose chargers with 3.6 kW of power all the way up to 22 kW. They can also book a charging time in advance using a smartphone app, which makes charging more convenient. The success of the Vulkan EV parking garage means other developers are looking at opening similar facilities in Norway.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Google Expands Its Commitment To Renewable Energy

05.12.2017

Google already purchases more renewable energy than any other corporation, but now it has agreed to 4 new contracts that will add 536 megawatts of wind power to its energy portfolio. Bloomberg New Energy Finance reports part of that package is 196 megawatts of power from two wind farms owned and operated by Avangrid in South Dakota. Another 200 megawatts will come from an EDF Renewable Energy project in Iowa. The final piece will be 140 megawatts from a wind farm located in Oklahoma owned by Enel.

Not all the wind farms are in operation yet. The Enel facility is expected to come online early next year. The EDF wind farm should be operational before the end of 2019. Construction of the Coyote Ridge and Tatanka Ridge wind energy projects in South Dakota is scheduled to begin in 2019. When all of the facilities are complete, Google will be using 2,397 megawatts of clean power in the US and 3,186 megawatts in total worldwide.

Amazon is the second biggest consumer of renewable energy, with 1,219 megawatts of installed capacity, all of it from US sources. It already gets 208 megawatts from another Avangrid wind farm in North Carolina. Power from that installation is used to operate Amazon’s Web Services division (AWS).

With the addition of the these latest contracts, Google will be able to power all of its US operations entirely from renewables. Kyle Harrison, a BNEF analyst based in New York, says Google’s “electricity consumption is considerable, but for them to meet that already by buying renewable energy is a huge achievement. Google is buying renewable energy across three continents, and has paved the way for dozens of other companies.”

Gary Demasi, Google’s director of global infrastructure, issued a statement this week about the agreement with Avangrid. “Renewables from projects like Coyote Ridge and Tatanka Ridge bring value to our business as we scale and accelerate investment in the communities where we operate. With solar and wind declining dramatically in cost and propelling significant employment growth, the transition to clean energy is driving unprecedented economic opportunity and doing so faster than we ever anticipated.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

SOLAR IMPULSE: A Plane That Went around the World Only by Using Solar Power

05.12.2017

Tour the planet by plane without consuming a liter of fuel? Everyone would say it was impossible. But not two enthusiasts, fans of flying and renewable energy sources – Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg

On March 9, 2015, ABB, a leader in the power and automation market, proudly saw off the aircraft Solar Impulse II and two brave pilots –to a flight around the globe. Crossing their route in carefully planned stages, Piccard and Borschberg were changing as pilots while the aircraft, powered solely by solar power, flew over five continents. A year later, in July 2016, Solar Impulse returned to Abu Dhabi by crossing an impressive 40,000 kilometers.

This revolutionary flight will enter into history with three broken world records, of which the biggest feat is that they were in the air for 117 hours and 52 minutes, from Nagoya in Japan to Hawaii, and on this occasion, they passed 8,924 kilometers without using any fuel whatsoever.

All this would not be possible if this aircraft did not have 17,248 solar cells on its wings, whose range is 72 meters, which allows the aircraft to fully charge its batteries and thus stay in the air and during the night. In order to be filled to capacity and withstand the night flight, the aircraft had to fly at a height that topped Mount Everest.

– If you want to be an innovator, you have to be a pioneer! The desire to fly the Solar Impulse will never abandon me or just to look at it while it is in the air. When you see these four electric motors that lift it up, without noise, without pollution, you have the feeling that you have just jumped into the future. Thanks to new technologies, the future is here today! – said then, Bertrand Piccard.

And how did it all begin?

Bertrand Piccard, a pioneer of Swiss aviation and a psychiatrist, who was a part of the first team to fly around the globe in a balloon in 1999, and his colleague Andre Borschberg, an entrepreneur, and engineer, decided in 2003 to launch the Solar Impulse project.

From 2010 to the present, in the prototype solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse I, and later aircraft Solar Impulse II, they have jointly set up a multitude of international aviation records on flights over Europe, North Africa, and the United States, including a record for duration, height and flight distance.

When you see these four electric motors that lift it up, without noise, without pollution, you have the feeling that you have just jumped into the future

Company ABB became a permanent associate to this flying tandem in 2014, as they shared an interest in aeronautics, clean technology, and renewable energy sources. In Switzerland, they established an Innovation and Technology Alliance to achieve a mutual vision of reducing resource consumption and increasing the use of renewable energy sources.

Several ABB engineers joined the Solar Impulse team and, with their expertise and dedication, contributed to the mission. Their work included improving the control system for ground operations, improving battery charging electronics on the aircraft and solving obstacles that would appear along the route.

Two ABB engineers from Serbia joined the Solar Impulse team – Tamara Turšijan and Stevan Marinković.

– Solar Impulse was created with the idea to inspire new generations to embrace innovations and technologies for solving the biggest challenges on the planet. ABB followed the Solar Impulse team on every mile of the way – said Ulrich Spiesshofer, the chief executive officer of ABB.

ABB’s enthusiasm for the Solar Impulse Project arose not only from the mutual faith in innovation and technology but also from the slogan of the company “Power and Productivity for a better world“. The spirit of the Solar Impulse project reflects the aspirations of ABB to foster operational efficiency, reduce resource consumption, enable sustainable transport and increase the penetration of clean, renewable energy.

– This aircraft is basically a flying smart network that collects energy from renewable sources and then returns it to consumers in an efficient way – notes Andre Borschberg.

As the world’s second-largest supplier of solar inverters and one of the largest suppliers of generators for wind farms, ABB is the leader in the efficient and reliable integration of renewable energy sources into power grids. ABB helps in building a comprehensive network for fast charging of electric vehicles in Europe and delivers key equipment for the world’s largest network of fast chargers for electric cars in China.

The director of this project, Bertrand Piccard, said that ABB, with its leading technologies that enable the production of energy from renewable sources and encourage the energy efficiency of the Solar Impulse team, has contributed that the team persists in its intention and demonstrates the power of innovation and clean technology.

– That’s what the world needs. Otherwise, we will lose all our natural resources – said Piccard, and added:

– I want to tell all the doubting Thomases to be careful because innovations never come from the system. The candle-sellers did not invent the bulb. Everything you use today, tomorrow will be outdated, so if you want to be advanced, you need to change the way you think. Only those who are flexible will succeed in adapting to changes. Just think of the dinosaurs. They were huge and powerful and they were notable to adapt. If an airplane can fly for days and nights without fuel, solely on solar power, do not let anyone convince you that the same is impossible for cars, heating and cooling systems and computers one day.

For more information about ABB’s collaboration on the Solar Impulse project, visit http://new.abb.com/betterworld. For more information on the Solar Impulse project visit www.solarimpulse.com or connect with this joyful team through Facebook or Twitter.

ABB is the world’s leading energy and industrial automation company, which helps its users to more efficiently use electricity, increase industrial productivity and reduce harmful effects on the environment. ABB Group operates in around 100 countries and employs around 145,000 people.

Prepared by: Vera Rakić

This content was originally published in the eighth issue of the Energy Portal Bulletin, named ECOMOBILITY.

Solar To Reach Tipping Point In 2018 & Save 80% In Developing World

05.12.2017

A new report from London-based development company Crown Agents has concluded that 2018 will be the year solar hits its commercial tipping point, resulting in a dramatic drop-off in price and making the technology viable for a billion people, and opening the door to save developing countries up to 80% by switching to solar from diesel and petrol.

Crown Agents published its new report, The Solar Revolution, late last month in which it trumpeted that 2018 will be “the global tipping point for solar power” and “Tumbling prices and dramatic improvements in technology mean that, for the first time, this under-exploited source of renewable energy will be viable, profitable, and sustainable.”

“This report shows that advances in technology have enabled solar energy to be cheaper and more reliable than ever before,” said Fergus Drake, Chief Executive of Crown Agents. “Now we need governments, donors and the private sector to get behind solar in a bold way to reach the 1.1 billion people living without electricity today.”

Crown Agents is now calling on donors and investors to shift their attention towards solar, explaining that “a preoccupation with upfront capital expenditure, and a failure to grasp the long-term return on investment from next-generation solar, have hampered the scaling of solar across the developing world.” However, considering the dramatic fall in costs around the world, solar is becoming more and more cost-effective. Further, and of intimate interest to billions around the world, advances in off-grid solar technology and accompanying technologies such as energy storage and microgrids can now deliver reliable and consistent electricity to communities who don’t have access to the grid but instead rely on fossil fuel technologies like diesel generators.

According to Crown Agents, the real cost of off-grid solar and battery storage now sits below 20 cents per kWh, compared to at least 60 cents per kWh of energy generated by small diesel and petrol generators. As a result, households in developing countries would immediately save up to 80% by switching to solar + storage.

With approximately 1.1 billion people living today without access to electricity, the advent of low-cost solar + storage technology presents a wealth of opportunities for investors, developers, and the global poor. Further, off-grid solar technology is not just immediately accessible for rural communities, but it is a tremendous saving for countries that will not necessarily need to invest in cost-heavy centralized infrastructure such as transmission lines to rural areas — inherently expensive and ineffective, considering the costs to usage ration. You can run a transmission line into a busy neighborhood and be assured it will be paid off relatively quickly, but take that same transmission line and run it out into the middle of nowhere with populations a scant percentage of those urbanized areas, and the cost-effectiveness drops like a stone.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Food Waste: East of England Co-Op Becomes First UK Supermarket to Sell Food After ‘Best Before’ Date

05.12.2017

A group of Co-Op stores will become the first UK supermarket to sell food past its ‘Best Before’ dates in a drive to cut food waste.

Shoppers at East of England Co-Op stores in East Anglia will be able to buy tinned goods and dried food for as little as 10p, as part of a campaign to encourage people to waste less food.

The initiative will be rolled out across 125 stores under the slogan “Don’t be a binner, have it for dinner!”

The East of England Co-Op operates as a separate business from the Co-Operative Group.

“We are trying to reduce our waste and keep as much food in the food chain as possible,” East of England Co-Op said on its website. “We have decided to start selling food past the Best Before date to help reduce the levels of waste that our stores have.”

Products can be legally sold after their Best Before dates, which are quality dates given by the manufacturer. In contrast, ‘Use By’ dates govern the life of products with a limited shelf life, such as dairy and meat, and cannot be sold after their expiration date for safety reasons.

Confusion over the meaning of the two dates is a major factor in the UK’s level of food waste, according to waste advisory body WRAP, which estimates that two million tonnes of food is wasted each year in UK homes purely because it is not being used in time.

Late last month WRAP unveiled new guidance on food labelling to help cut food waste. The new guidance recommends that firms make greater use of simple labels alongside text, such as a ‘fridge’ or ‘freezer’ icons to encourage people to store their food correctly.

Source: businessgreen.com

Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Siemens Team up on Hybrid Airplane

02.12.2017

Automakers are scrambling to add hybrid powertrains to more cars in an effort to meet stricter global emissions standards. But cars aren’t the only vehicles burning a lot of fossil fuels.

Airbus, Rolls-Royce (the aircraft engine manufacturer, not the car company), and Siemens are teaming up to develop a hybrid aircraft. Called the E-Fan X, it won’t go into production, but the partners hope it will demonstrate the feasibility of electrified commercial aircraft. The E-Fan X is expected to make its first flight in 2020, following thorough ground testing.

The testing program will start out with a modified BAe146 jet. Initially, one of the plane’s four gas-turbine engines will be replaced with an electric motor. If all goes well, a second electric motor will replace another one of the conventional engines. As development work continues, the partners will also try to establish new standards for certifying hybrid and electric aircraft, according to an Airbus press release.

Airbus, which has toyed with all-electric aircraft before, will supply the control system and batteries, and integrate the hybrid system’s components with existing flight controls. Siemens will provide the two-megawatt electric motors and related electronics. Rolls-Royce will provide a generator and jet-engine components for the electric motors to integrate with. The E-Fan X will still be a jet aircraft, just one that uses electric motors rather than burning fossil fuels to generate thrust.

A truly comprehensive strategy to reduce transportation-related emissions has to involve vehicles besides cars, and the E-Fan X could be an important step toward improving the efficiency of commercial aircraft. Airlines will probably appreciate the reduction in fuel costs, too. But introducing a new technology into the heavily-regulated airline industry will probably take time.

Source: The Drive

Increasing Ozone Pollution In Chinese Cities Raising Mortality Rates, Research Finds

01.12.2017

The rising air pollution levels in many of China’s largest cities are having a pronouncedly negative effect on human health there. Though, that much has been known for quite a while now. A new study, however, has unearthed something not unexpected but still worth taking note of — “robust evidence” that rising levels of short-term ozone exposure are ramping up mortality rates considerably.

The new paper — published in the Environmental Health Perspectives journal — utilizes data gathered between the years of 2013 and 2015 in 272 cities in China to link increased mortality from heart disease strokes and cardiovascular disease to short-term ozone exposure.

If you live in a large city, then you’re already acquainted with ground-level ozone pollution — otherwise known as photochemical smog. It is produced through the interaction of sunlight and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which are themselves mostly released from vehicle tailpipes and fossil-fueled power plants. So, this news is probably relevant to you as well, not just to the people in China.

Commenting on the fact that, while particulate matter is a larger cause of disease burden in China, ozone is a very significant cause as well — particularly in certain regions (the Pearl River delta, for instance) — the director of the department of public health at Shanghai’s Fudan University, Kan Haidong, stated: “Ozone has been increasing in the past several years in China. In contrast, PM2.5 has decreased by about 30% in the past 5 years.”

Here’s more from Reuters: “Lauri Myllyvirta, a Beijing-based campaigner with environmental group Greenpeace, said soaring ozone is partly a result of China’s success in reducing PM2.5, which has increased the amount of sunlight, but China has lagged when it comes to tackling NOx and VOCs.

“China’s average ozone exposure increased 17% over 2014–2017, implying an additional 12,000 premature deaths per year, Greenpeace estimated, using data from China’s environment ministry and the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database.

As it stands, very notably, China doesn’t have any official ozone reduction targets on the national level. Perhaps the new study will help cause a change in that regard?

Source: cleantechnica.com

Wales Urges UK Government to ‘Think Again’ on Onshore Wind Ban

30.11.2017

wind energy — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The Welsh Government, RenewableUK and several green groups have jointly called for onshore wind and solar projects to be allowed to compete in future UK clean energy auction rounds, arguing that the UK’s current subsidy regime is “threatening” the renewables sector in Wales.

A statement issued today calls on the UK government to “look again” at the way in which Contracts for Difference (CfD) auction schemes currently operate in order to better support development of renewable electricity facilities, and to help Wales meet its decarbonisation targets.

The development of large scale new onshore wind farms has effectively been banned in the UK since 2015, while onshore wind and solar projects are excluded from competing for state subsidies through the CfD process, with government focus instead shifting to ‘less established’ clean energy technologies such as offshore wind.

In the last few days the government has confirmed it wants to explore potentially allowing onshore wind farms to be built in parts of Scotland and Wales, but at present rules governing the CfD process mean contracts cannot be awarded on a geographically specific basis.

Meanwhile no auctions for more mature technologies – including onshore wind and solar – have been announced by government. The technologies are likely to be excluded from bidding for funding from the remaining £557m CfD budget, which is likely to cover a period running until 2025.

However, the statement issued today argues the lack of support for onshore wind and solar has had a significant impact on renewables development in Wales. No new planning applications have been lodged for onshore wind and solar farms in Wales since that time, it states, while many applications lodged before 2015 are now “not progressing” through the system.

“Projects being developed by communities and local authorities to deliver local benefit, including solar rooftop schemes in fuel poor areas as well as wind and solar to power public buildings and local businesses, can no longer attract investment,” the statement reads. “This is threatening both the once-growing sector developing and delivering these projects and the ability of bodies in Wales to build resilience for the future. It also threatens Wales’ ability to meet its climate goals, which contribute to the UK’s 2050 targets. This is at a time when the future looks more uncertain than ever as a result of the decision to leave the EU, and the need for resilient low carbon business models becomes even more urgent.”

Other organisations backing the statement include the Welsh National Trust, agricultural trade body the Country Land & Business Association (CLA) Cymru, developer Sirius Renewable Energy, the Centre for Alternative Technology, Welsh wind cooperative Awel Coop and Community Energy Wales.

“We believe that excluding the most affordable technologies from market mechanisms makes little sense from the supply side, with respect to the cost to bill payers, or from the economic perspective,” the statement continues. “Support for earlier stage technologies is important for economic prosperity and for decarbonisation. We need a concerted approach that provides incentives to new technologies as well as supporting those which are most economical in order to keep costs at affordable levels.”

Electricity generation from renewable sources in Wales has tripled since 2010 and last year supplied 32 per cent of the region’s electricity.

The call came as UK climate change and industry minister Claire Perry defended the government’s current stance on onshore wind, reiterating her comments yesterday that her department is working on a solution to allow such facilities to be built once again in Wales and Scotland. She also appeared to voice frustration that the debate over onshore wind was acting as a barrier to development of other renewables technologies.

Speaking at an event hosted in London by think tank Green Alliance this morning, Perry said that onshore wind was “absolutely part of the mix” for the UK’s future energy sources, but that the current Contracts for Difference (CfD) structure did not allow for support to be restricted only to projects in specific geographies, such as in Scotland and Wales.

“And as many people will be frustrated by in this room, whenever we’ve tried to have a sensible debate about renewable technology, it is crashed on the shoals of onshore wind turbines and mass protests,” she added. “And indeed on the issue of energy bills.”

Green groups were critical of the revelation in last week’s Budget that there would be no additional support for renewable development beyond the existing £557m CfD funding pot – with that pot likely to have to last until around 2025 – but Perry batted away concerns this would impact on investment for clean energy in the UK.

“I was just a little bit surprised at the reaction to that because we are moving to an era very rapidly of subsidy-free renewable technology,” she said. “I opened the Clayhill subsidy-free solar farm just a few months ago; everybody knows the astonishingly low price we are now paying for offshore wind; and it seemed to me that setting out almost £600m of taxpayers money as the ongoing subsidy over the next few years, it did give industry some certainty, and we should be subsidising technologies as the costs are dropping so dramatically. But I do agree that what we need to do is invest more in technologies that are further from the market.”

Now that the government is clearer on wanting onshore wind development in principle, expect the pressure for a route to market in practice to intensify.

Source: businessgreen.com

Solar Schools Are Better Schools

30.11.2017

Hot off the presses, a new report released today by SEIA, The Solar Foundation, and Generation 180 shows vast growth in solar on K-12 schools in the United States. Solar capacity on our country’s schools has nearly doubled since the last version of this report in 2014, with 5,489 K-12 schools now powered by solar, totaling nearly 1,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity.

It’s no secret that many American schools are underfunded and classrooms often lack necessary resources for students to learn. Well, with the cost to install solar plummeting, schools are making the switch and seeing their electricity bills shrink, freeing up funds to use to strengthen what schools are here to do, which is teach our nation’s children.

The cost of a solar school installation pops off the page in this report, dropping 67% in the last decade and 19% last year alone. The result is a boom in installations allowing 4 million students in the United States to receive their education in a school powered by solar.

“There’s a reason solar is spreading so quickly across America’s school districts, and it’s pretty simple — when schools go solar, the entire community benefits,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO.

These 5,000+ schools are running with much lower electricity bills, and those savings can go toward higher pay for our nation’s teachers, school supplies, textbooks and other essential resources. An investment in solar on a school is a direct investment in that community. Plus, what could be better than a science and conservation lesson right on the school grounds?

California schools lead the way in solar adoption with nearly 2,000 schools making the switch. But it’s notable that other states have picked up the pace including New Jersey, Arizona, Massachusetts, and New York. These states are setting an example and laying the groundwork for other states to follow.

When a school goes solar and cuts their energy costs, that puts investment back into what matters most: the students. Learn more about the report here and see if your community’s school has made the smart choice to invest in their community and go solar.

Source: cleantechnica.com

To the Finish Line in a Healthy Way!

30.11.2017

Electric bike, produced in our country by E prime, is an ideal means of transport for holidays or city traffic. This modern means of transport that is available to all generations, reaches the ideal speed and offers an environmentally friendly solution for you.

We can increasingly see electric bikes in the streets that you do not need to register, don’t have to get driver’s license and the range of up to 200 km on a single charge, hints that this bicycles could replace cars that are big polluters of our living space.

From year to year, electric bikes become more and more popular and unique design of E prime models will satisfy the most demanding customer needs.

The domestic producer made sure bringing to the market both, a male and a female model that runs by a fingerprint. In addition to a visually good-looking bike, this mode of transport saves a lot of money.

Why spend money on fuel when you have a fully ecological means of transport on the battery? Without stress and with a lot of enjoyment electric bike gives you a safe and economical driving.

E prime salon is opened at 1 Milutin Milanković Street in New Belgrade and test drive can be arranged by calling the number: 011 43 20 100.

There are several models in the E prime offer that you can buy on an interest-free loan of 55 EUR per month with a repayment period of 2 years.

Call them to schedule your test drive and then choose the model that suits you to reach the goal in a healthy way.

This content was originally published in the eighth issue of the Energy Portal Bulletin, named ECOMOBILITY.

Denmark Is Moving Convincingly Towards Decarbonization, Finds IEA

30.11.2017

The International Energy Agency this week has highlighted the work being done by Denmark in decarbonizing its economy and the country’s progress on meeting its ambitious goals of becoming a low-carbon economy by the middle of this century.

Denmark is aiming to secure 50% renewable energy by 2030 — up from its already impressive level of 45% — and by 2050 the country is hoping to be a low-carbon economy independent of fossil fuels. According to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) in-depth review of the country’s policies, Denmark is “moving convincingly” towards meeting these targets, which would solidify the country as being a world leader on decarbonization. “Effective policies and measures have been put in place to support energy efficiency improvements and switching from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” the IEA writes. “Denmark is to be commended, in particular, for organising successful offshore wind tenders that have resulted in record-low prices.”

The IEA believes that the existing policies in place will allow Denmark to easily meet all of its interim/2020 targets, with the possible exception of its 10% renewable target for the transport sector. However, while Denmark is “moving convincingly” towards its longer-term targets for 2030 and 2050, the IEA nevertheless deems that to meet these targets “would require new policies because most of the existing support schemes expire around 2020.”

One of the key points from the review is the increasing levels of wind and solar power and the difficulties and opportunities for the Danish electricity and heating sectors, as well as for end-use sectors such as transport, building, and industry. Denmark is already a world leader in integrating variable renewable energy (VRE) sources and has the highest share of wind power in electricity generation without sacrificing electricity supply stability at both the transmission and distribution level.

“It is highly encouraging to see that wind power is becoming market competitive,” said Paul Simons, the IEA Deputy Executive Director, who presented the report in Denmark. “Tapping into the large offshore wind resource will help Denmark decarbonise even further.”

“Denmark is now widely recognised as a global leader in integrating variable renewable energy while at the same time maintaining a highly reliable and secure electricity system, thanks to a flexible domestic power system and a high level of cross-border connections.”

But work needs to be done in some of Denmark’s other sectors, such as transport and heating. While progress is being made, such as switching the country’s district heating from coal to biomass, and favoring renewable energy over oil and natural gas in individual heating, these trends must continue if the country is to meet its targets. The focus will be on electrification and sector coupling — the linkage of an electricity sector with heating, transport, and other sectors — which must be expanded to help “reduce or eliminate the use of fossil fuels in district heating, transport and other sectors.”

Denmark is leading the way and proving that economic growth need not be sacrificed in favor of stringent and effective energy measures. But, as with almost every review of policies these days, the IEA concludes by saying that more must be done and government ambition must secure the transition.

Source: cleantechnica.com

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