Landmark Resolution Could Pave Way for Cities to Go 100% Renewables

01.06.2017

U.S. Conference of Mayors Vice President Mayor Steve Benjamin along with his Mayors for 100% Clean Energy co-chairs introduced a landmark resolution Wednesday to the U.S. Conference of Mayors that would formally establish support from the nation’s mayors for the goal of 100 percent renewable energy in cities nationwide.

If approved, the measure would represent one of the strongest energy policies adopted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors and could pave the way to community-wide 100 percent clean energy commitments in cities throughout the U.S. Twenty-nine cities across the country have now committed to 100 percent clean, renewable energy.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors annual meeting, which is the largest gathering of mayors in the country, will be held from June 23-June 26 in Miami Beach, Florida.

“It’s up to us as leaders to creatively implement clean energy solutions for our cities across the nation. It’s not merely an option now; it’s imperative,” said Mayor Benjamin. “Cities and mayors can lead the transition away from fossil fuels to 100 percent clean and renewable energy. With this measure, we intend to show that we will. It’s time for leadership and I urge my fellow mayors to join me in supporting this resolution.”

The new Mayors for 100% Clean Energy initiative launched in April is co-chaired by Mayor Philip Levine of Miami Beach, Mayor Jackie Biskupski of Salt Lake City, Mayor Kevin Faulconer of San Diego and Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin of Columbia, South Carolina. Mayors for 100% Clean Energy aims to demonstrate bold local leadership and showcase the depth and breadth of support from city leaders for a transition to 100 percent renewable energy.

“As mayor of Miami Beach and this year’s host of the US Conference of Mayors, I encourage mayors to vote for the resolution and support a vision of 100 percent clean energy,” Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine said.

“Earlier this month, I issued a proclamation stating my aim to pursue a 100% renewable energy transition in my City of Miami Beach. We hope to continue to be a model for other communities that want to address climate change and advance clean energy solutions. The Conference of Mayors is a great opportunity for cities to show that we will lead the way nationally.”

In addition to announcing the new U.S. Conference of Mayors measure, Mayor Benjamin also issued a new mayoral proclamation Wednesday endorsing a goal of powering Columbia entirely with clean and renewable energy.

Source: ecowatch.com

Report: All Buildings Must Be Zero-Carbon by 2050 to Hit Climate Targets

01.06.2017

The global building industry must prepare for a seismic shift towards low-carbon if the world is to meet global climate targets to keep temperatures at safe levels, a new study released today reveals.

According to new research from the World Green Building Council (WGBC), every building on the planet must be ‘net zero carbon’ by 2050 to limit warming to less than two degrees. Currently less than one per cent of all buildings have net zero status, which describes highly energy-efficient buildings that generate or supply the energy they need to operate from renewable sources to achieve net zero carbon emissions.

Transitioning all global buildings to net zero carbon will require a “monumental” effort from business, governments and NGOs, admitted Terri Wills, WGBC CEO.

“We need nothing short of a dramatic and ambitious transformation from a world of thousands of net zero buildings, to one of billions if we are to avoid the worst impacts of climate change,” she said in a statement. “Businesses, governments and NGOs hold the key to this transformation, but they must commit to aggressive action. It is possible to create a world in which every single building produces zero carbon emissions, but we must start today.”

The global building sector is a significant source of greenhouse gas pollution. Building and construction account for around 30 per cent of global energy consumption, 30 per cent of global emissions, and on average, half of emissions in major cities.

And the transition to net zero carbon will need to happen during a period of intense growth for the sector. According to predictions from the International Energy Agency, the global building stock is set to almost double from 223 billion square metres today to 415 billion square metres by 2050.

Ensuring new and existing buildings become net zero carbon will therefore require considerable, co-ordinated efforts. In particular, renovation rates must dramatically improve – current renovation rates amount to less than one per cent per year, and the WGBC estimates that to hit the 2050 net zero carbon goal they must increase by three per cent per year every year, starting in 2017.

Under the predictions, all new buildings must operate at net zero carbon by 2030, and all buildings new and renovated must be net zero carbon by 2050. To achieve this, the WGBC report calls on businesses to commit to investing in, building and occupying only new projects and renovated properties, disclose carbon emissions for all assets by 2030 and certify all assets as net zero carbon by 2050.

It also calls on governments to back new net zero carbon building standards for new and existing structures, while NGOs are urged to develop new certification programmes for net zero carbon buildings that leading businesses can adopt.

Source: businessgreen.com

World’s First Commercial Plant Sucking CO2 from Air Launches in Switzerland (PHOTOS)

01.06.2017

The world’s first commercial plant to suck carbon dioxide out of the air will open today in Zurich in what its creators are claiming is a “historic moment” for negative emissions technology.

The Swiss Direct Air Capture (DAC) plant, developed by ClimeWorks, is now up and running on the roof of a waste recovery site. Powered by waste heat from the facility, it is drawing out carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to be used by a nearby greenhouse run by German salad growers Gebrüder Meier Primanatura AG.

Christoph Gebald, co-founder and managing director of ClimeWorks, told reporters yesterday carbon capture technology will be essential for delivering net zero emissions by the end of the century, as set out in the Paris Agreement.

“It is clear today that we won’t be able to achieve zero gigatonnes by the end of the century without the use of carbon removal technologies,” he said on a call.

Gebald said the technology employed at the new plant could be easily scaled up and combined with underground CO2 storage to deliver a viable negative emissions technology.

The plant works by using a specially designed filter to trap carbon dioxide out of the air, which is then isolated at a temperature of about 100 degrees Celsius. The captured gas is funnelled via an underground pipe to the greenhouses, where it is used to boost plant growth.

Other commercial uses could include carbonation for soft drinks or the production of climate-neutral fuel.

The site is the first DAC plant to have a commercial customer for its capture technology. It is producing CO2 for 600CHF per tonne ($615), which is below cost forecasts from scientists but still far above the current market price Gebrüder Meier Primanatura AG is paying. The difference in cost is being supported by investment from ClimeWorks and from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.

However, Gebald insisted that rapid cost reductions are in the pipeline, with the cost of CO2 capture expected to hit $200 per tonne within the next three years and $100 per tonne by 2025-2030. This would make the technology fully commercially viable for industrial CO2 purchasers, he said.

Adding sequestration to the ClimeWorks system – thought crucial as industrial demand for CO2 is not high enough to meet climate goals – will add around $10-$20 to the per tonne cost of CO2 capture, Gebald added.

The advent of a commercially viable system for CO2 capture could prove a lifeline for the carbon capture and storage (CCS) sector, which has struggled to overcome technical and cost concerns in recent years. Since the UK government unexpectedly scrapped a £1bn CCS competition the industry has all but ground to a halt in Britain, despite it deemed vital by climate advisors for the country to meet its emission reduction targets cost-effectively.

ClimeWorks said the DAC plant is designed as a modular system so can be set up near to the CO2 customer to cut down on transport emissions. The Swiss firm is keen to launch more plants in its core target markets, as well as test how its technology works alongside underground CO2 storage. It currently has seven pilot plants operating or in planning stages.

ClimeWorks has set a goal of filtering one per cent of global CO2 emissions by 2025 – to achieve this Gebald said around 250,000 DAC plants like the Zurich operation will be needed. For this to be commercially viable, he admitted a carbon price will be necessary, perhaps from progressive firms looking to market themselves as ‘carbon-negative’. “We hope that there will be pioneering companies who support our vision with a private carbon market,” he said.

Source: businessgreen.com

Renewable Energy Provides Record Share of Australia’s Electricity in 2016

31.05.2017

wind energy — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

A new report by Australia’s Clean Energy Council has revealed that renewable energy provided a record share of electricity in 2016 thanks in large part to record rainfalls in key hydro catchment areas and the completion of new wind and solar projects.

The Clean Energy Council’s Clean Energy Australia Report 2016 claims that more than 17% of Australia’s electricity was sourced from renewable energy during 2016, a record amount for this century (which also sounds a sneaky way of suggesting that it isn’t the all time record). In total, renewable energy provided 17.3% of Australia’s electricity, which amounts to the equivalent of powering almost 8 million Aussie homes. It also served as a significant increase on 2015’s 14.6%, with hydro generation increasing by 26% year-over-year to account for 42.3% of the total renewable electricity generated. Wind came in second with 30.8% of the total, followed by small-scale solar PV with 16% — larger types of solar accounted for only 2.3%.

In terms of where Australia now sits in comparison to where it wants to be by 2020, it’s mixed news, depending on where you sit. Approximately 17,500 gigawatt-hours (GWh) were generated in 2016, but Australia has set a target of generating 33,000 GWh in 2020, which means the industry is just over halfway towards achieving the large-scale component of the country’s Renewable Energy Target (RET).

This looks like a long way to go, but the Clean Energy Council (CEC) is quick to point out that 2017 is likely to be “the biggest year for the industry since the iconic Snowy Hydro Scheme was finished more than half a century ago.” Ten large wind and solar projects were completed in 2016, and more than 35 projects are under construction this year. In fact, according to the CEC, the first five months of the year have already brought $5.2 billion worth of financing for renewable energy projects.

“Every month brings new project announcements,” crowed Clean Energy Council Chief Executive Kane Thornton. “While total investment in large-scale renewable energy was $2.56 billion last year, $5.20 billion worth of projects have secured finance in just the first five months of 2017 and have either started construction or will begin this year.”

“The installation of rooftop solar systems was steady during 2016, with 135,370 systems installed throughout the year. This has also accelerated in 2017 with the industry posting its largest ever March quarter for rooftop solar, and the biggest of any quarter since August 2012.

“The changes that are happening across the country right now are extraordinary. Renewable energy is now the cheapest kind of new power generation that can be built today – less than both new coal and new gas-fired power plants. The price of gas in particular has skyrocketed,” Thornton added.

Source: cleantechnica.com

SunPower to Provide 194 Megawatts of Solar Panels to Projects in France

31.05.2017

US solar panel manufacturer SunPower has announced that it will provide a total of 194 megawatts worth of solar panels to small- and large-scale solar projects in France, which were successfully obtained through two recent French tender rounds.

There has not been a huge amount of news floating around about the recent French solar auctions (especially for someone who doesn’t speak French), but US solar PV panel manufacturer SunPower has shed some light on two recent auctions thanks to its own successes.

In March, SunPower revealed that it had successfully won the right to provide 130 megawatts (MW) worth of solar panels to 25 ground-mount and carport solar projects in France. This amounted to 31% of the projects awarded in the March large-scale solar power tender. Announced on Tuesday, SunPower also revealed that it had been awarded the contract to supply 64 MW worth of solar panels, 57% of the total 361 solar projects awarded under France’s most recent auction, a tender process for rooftop solar projects.

“For the second time this year in France’s tender process, SunPower has been selected to supply more winning projects than any other brand,” said SunPower Executive Vice President Peter Aschenbrenner. “We are proud to be the leading provider of solar panels for the solar projects announced in this first tender round, and to play a key role in promoting the use of clean, renewable solar power in France.”

“SunPower solar panels deliver competitive cost of energy, highest reliability and proven long-term performance,” said SunPower Executive Vice President Eduardo Medina back in March. “We are proud to be the leading provider of solar panels for the solar projects announced in this first tender round, and to play a key role in promoting the use of clean, renewable solar power in France.”

A significant amount of the solar panels supplied by SunPower to the resulting French projects will be manufactured at the company’s facilities in Toulouse, France, subsequently providing extra benefit to the country.

Source: cleantechnica.com

IKEA Unpacks Textile Waste with Fabric Collection Pilot

31.05.2017

IKEA has become the latest retail giant to try and tackle the UK’s growing pile of fabric waste with a new pilot scheme to collect old textiles in store for reuse, repair and recycling.

The Swedish retailer’s Cardiff store has today launched a trial ‘textile take-back’ programme in a bid to encourage more people to recycle their unwanted clothes and soft furnishings.

All textiles will be donated to the YMCA in Roath, Cardiff and will then either be sent for recycling or repaired and passed on to the homeless or low-income families.

IKEA is also planning to run a series of in-store workshops showing customers how to repair and ‘upcycle’ old fabrics to extend their lives.

The efforts aim to cut back on the amount of textile waste generated across the UK. According to research from waste advisory body WRAP, the UK consumes 1.7 million tonnes of textiles each year, with 620,000 tonnes of that ending up in landfill or incineration.

IKEA’s scheme follows in the footsteps of high street fashion retailers such as H&M, Sainsbury’s and Mango, which have launched in-store clothing collection banks for customer use.

Matthew Fessey, store manager at IKEA Cardiff, hopes the pilot will help its customers minimise their contribution to landfill waste. “With our vision to create a better everyday life for the many people, the textile take-back scheme in Cardiff will help our customers to live more sustainably while supporting people in need who are living in the local community,” he said in a statement.

“Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do and this scheme builds on our zero waste to landfill achievement last year across the UK & Ireland business,” he added. “We also want to allow our customers to upcycle their unwanted goods instead of throwing them away, minimising the contribution to landfill.”

IKEA already collects old sofas, batteries and lightbulbs in its stores across the UK. The retailer said it will consider expanding the textile collection nationwide if it receives positive customer feedback on the Cardiff pilot.

Source: businessgreen.com

Ecology Plays Important Part in Serbia-UN Partnership (PHOTOS)

31.05.2017

Karla Robin Herši, Ivica Dačić — Foto: Facebook/United Nations - Serbia

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic and the UN Resident Coordinator in Serbia Karla Robin Hershey, signed today the Development Partnership Framework between the Government of the Republic of Serbia and the United Nations Country Team for the period 2016 to 2020. This document presents a comprehensive basis for the cooperation and assistance of the UN system, including 19 UN agencies, funds and programmes, aimed at encouraging and improving the overall economic, social and environmental development of the Republic of Serbia.

The Development Partnership Framework is fully aligned with the national development priorities of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, as well as with the process of accession negotiations of the Republic of Serbia and the European Union and the UN Agenda for sustainable development by 2030. Estimated value of the programme activities for a five-year period covered by the Development Partnership Framework, amounts 170 million dollars (USD).

With its five pillars and nine outcomes to be achieved by 2020, Development Partnership Framework is a kind of road map for the further promotion of good governance and the rule of law, development of social and human resources, economic development, growth and employment, environmental protection, fight against climate change and building resilient communities, and integrating culture into the overall process of sustainable development. At the signing ceremony, both sides have expressed expectations that the five-year Development Partnership Framework will give a new impetus to the joint efforts to further promote cooperation between the Republic of Serbia with the UN system.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic thanked the UNCT, represented by the Resident Coordinator Karla Robin Hershey, for the persistent and dedicated work on the Development Partnership Framework, as well as the expectation that through the joint work of our ministries, offices and agencies of the UN system, Framework will be successfully put into practice in the interest of the prosperity of all citizens of the Republic of Serbia.

German and Italian Firms Join Forces on Hydrogen Bus Development

31.05.2017

Elektromobil, Punjač — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

A group of German and Italian public transit companies are seeking tenders for the development of 63 hydrogen fuel cell buses as part of an EU-funded low emission transport project to help boost urban air quality.

The joint procurement process aims to secure lower prices for building the low emission buses, which are envisaged to begin operating “in the next few years” across Wuppertal, Frankfurt, Mainz, Wiesbaden and Cologne in Germany and South Tyrol in Italy.

According to German transport firm WSW mobil GmbH, which is leading the procurement process on behalf of the group, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles produce lower nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions than fossil fuel equivalents and with ranges of up to 400km on a single charge can be as flexible as diesel buses.

The hydrogen needed for the buses can also be produced either as a by-product from the chemicals industry or via an “electrolysis” process from renewable electricity, the firm added.

Other transport companies taking part in the procurement group include German firms Verkehrs-Verbund Mainz-Wiesbaden GmbH, traffiQ Frankfurt and Regionalverkehr Köln GmbH, as well as Italian local transport provider SASA SpA-AG in Bolzano.

The procurement process is being partly supported by the EU-funded JIVE project, which is aiming to deploy 139 new zero emission fuel cell buses across nine cities in Europe. The German firms in the group have additionally bid for funding from the German government’s National Innovation Program on Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technology (NIP II).

The transport operators are part of a fuel cell bus procurement cluster which currently consists of 15 companies across Germany and Italy with a common target of switching their complete bus fleets to emission-free vehicles in the future in order to combat air pollution.

The news also came ahead of new research yesterday estimating that fuel consumption of new trucks could be cut by 33 per cent between 2020-2030 if manufacturers introduce proven fuel efficiency technologies, such as aerodynamic improvements and low rolling resistance tires.

Such technologies and improvements would be cost-effective for manufacturers and hauliers, as “virtually all the fuel savings” could be achieved within a payback time of less than three years, according to the study by consultancy Ricardo Energy & Environment.

Commissioned by European NGO Transport & Environment, the report found that nearly all of the technologies considered for the US market under phase two of America’s truck CO2 standards could be applied to EU trucks with “substantial” fuel savings potential and emissions benefits.

Trucks represent less than five per cent of all vehicles on the road in Europe but are responsible for around 30 per cent of road transport CO2 emissions, according to T&E.

Stef Cornelis, safer and cleaner trucks officer at T&E, said fuel consumption technologies that could help cut CO2 emissions from the European fleet were already available but have yet to be deployed, but that if they were hauliers could benefit from lower fuel consumption bills.

“That explains why truck fuel economy has stagnated for the last two decades,” said Cornelis. “Europe needs CO2 standards for trucks now so as to boost competitiveness in innovation and accelerate the uptake of fuel efficiency technologies.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Tanzania to Open Renewable Energy Technology Training Centre

30.05.2017

Following a study revealing that renewable energy, particularly solar, is dominating rural Tanzania, there are now plans to open a training centre.

The director of the Innovative Technology and Energy Centre (ITEC), Dr Herb Rhee, has announced plans to open a training centre for renewable energy technology in Arusha, Tanzania.

According to local media, Tanzania Standard, Dr Rhee said the renewable energy technology centre will open doors in August this year, and will have the capacity to train 1,000 students per year.

According to media, Dr Rhee stated that they are also planning to construct power transmission grids for use of solar power in rural areas.

“The centre, aimed at energy development, will be situated at the Nelson Mandela African Institute of Science and Technology in Arusha. Also, we have opened two centres but at small-scale at Karatu and Dodoma,” he said.

Media quoted him saying that they have already trained 300 students from various secondary schools and 200 primary and secondary school teachers in Arusha on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), to increase energy and power experts in rural areas.

Also commenting on the development was the founder and chief executive officer for E3 Empower, Ji-Young Rhee, who said they will use their technology in improving various sectors including health, entrepreneurship and education by reaching rural areas through ICT.

“Through our project, we will be able to supply electricity to rural areas,” Rhee stated.

Last month, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Rural Energy Agency issued the Energy Access Situation Report, 2016 Tanzania Mainland, which indicated that solar power in rural areas is leading by nearly 65% with only 34.5% of grid-connected power.

According to the report, in general electricity access (to any form of electricity) in rural areas has improved from 6.1% in 2011 to 16.9% in 2016.

“One general observation from this data is that more efforts are needed to improve the accessibility of modern energies to rural residents in order to achieve sets of energy targets by 2030 as stipulated in 2015 Energy Policy,” the report said.

Source: esi-africa.com

The First Large-Scale Solar Farm Built in Australia Will Soon Quadruple in Size

30.05.2017

photovoltaic-solar — Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The Greenough River solar farm in Western Australia, the first large-scale solar farm in the country, plans to quadruple in size from 10MW to 40MW.

The plans by co-owners Synergy, the government-owned generator and retailer, and US energy giant General Electric, were unveiled in a submission to WA’s Economic Regulation Authority, and reveal that two new 15MW arrays will be built either side of the existing facility, around 50km south-east of Geraldton.

The new arrays, will use First Solar modules, as did the first, but unlike the first installation these will deploy single axis tracking technology to improve the yield. More than 90 per cent of solar farms in Australia are now using tracking technology. SMA is providing the inverters.

Synergy and GE say that the solar farm will seek a power purchase agreement, but presumably that will come from Synergy itself, as it is it the biggest utility in the state and has yet to meet all its renewable energy target commitments.

Greenough River was built in 2012 and remains the only solar farm connected to the main grid in Western Australia, although several other projects have begun, or are about to begin, construction. These include the 30MW Byford solar farm south-east of Perth and a 10MWW solar farm planned near Northam by Carnegie Clean Energy.

Across Australia, however, the large-scale solar boom is accelerating. Eight grid-connected large-scale solar farms have now been completed and another 30 are under construction, or have reached financial closure and are about to begin.

The joint owners of Greenough River says the solar plant, located on a wheat farm, “has been extremely warmly welcomed by what is a very small remote community. No public complaints or opposition have been received.”

Source: cleantechnica.com

Australia’s Clean Energy Seed Fund Raises $26 Million In Capital

30.05.2017

The Clean Energy Seed Fund established just under a year ago as the first investment of the Coalition government’s re-badged Clean Energy Innovation Fund, has this week completed a $26 million capital raising, easily surpassing its $20 million target.

The fund’s manager, Artesian Venture Partners, said on Wednesday that the bumper capital raising included $10 million commitments from cornerstone investor the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) and Australian Ethical Investment, and further investments from Hostplus and Future Super.

Launched in September 2016 with a $10 million cornerstone commitment from the $1 billion CEIF, the fund was set up to focus on clean energy sub-sectors including the internet of things, battery storage, biofuels and metering and control.

It aims to provide “pull-model” venture capital support to encourage greater investment and participation in the early-stage cleantech sector and co-investment from a wide range of investors, including high net worth individuals, angel investors, venture capital firms, corporates and institutions.

In the short-term, its goal is to invest at seed, angel and later stage follow-on rounds in 30-50 startups over a four-year investment period.

The fund also draws on the finance and skills of both the CEFC and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the latter of which was, at the time of the fund’s establishment, facing steep budget cuts.

CEFC investment development director, Blair Pritchard said the $26 million of funds raised would be enough to see more dedicated clean energy accelerators popping up around the country.

“We are delighted with the strong interest from investors, which greatly exceeded our expectations,” Pritchard said in comments on Wednesday.

“It’s a fantastic vote of confidence in the clean energy sector.”

Artesian managing partner Jeremy Colless also described the fund-raising as a “huge vote of confidence,” that put clean energy entrepreneurs and startups at the forefront of the energy revolution.

“Australia has the potential and resources to excel in several innovation verticals, including CleanEnergy, AgTech and Medical Devices,” Colless said.

“By developing strong startup activity in these verticals, Australia can address major Asia-Pacific mega trends including food security, healthcare spending and sustainable energy, creating domestic jobs and building export opportunities.”

“The Clean Energy Seed Fund will play a critical role in helping establish a national clean energy startup ecosystem, encouraging and supporting entrepreneurs, backing accelerator programs, attracting co- investors, and engaging with international, especially Asian, partners and markets,” he said.

David Elia, the CEO of industry super fund Hostplus, said the investment ticked all the boxes for its members.

“Not only are we optimistic in the long-term risk adjusted returns investments like this deliver to our members, but more fundamentally we believe this genuinely addresses the much-needed focus on unlocking Australian innovation that targets clean energy solutions,” he said.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Chinese Company Offers Free Wind Power Training for Coal Miners in Wyoming

30.05.2017

Vetropark, Njiva, kukuruz — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

When we think of coal country in the United States, we think of West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. But Wyoming is where the majority of American coal comes from. In fact, the Cowboy State, as it calls itself, produces four times as much coal as West Virginia. That also means it has suffered a devastating loss of coal mining jobs in recent years as the use of coal to make electricity has declined. Now a Chinese company wants to retrain some of those unemployed miners to work in the wind power industry.

Goldwind Americas is the US arm of one of China’s largest wind turbine manufacturers. Of all the states in America, Wyoming is one of the best suited for wind energy because it has high average wind speeds and lots of wide open spaces. Nevertheless, Wyoming has been hostile to wind power. It is the only state that levies a special tax on electricity generated by wind.

That hasn’t deterred Goldwind Americas, however. Last week at an energy conference in Wyoming, Goldwind offered to provide free training to unemployed coal miners looking for work building and maintaining wind power farms and wind turbine technicians. Free retraining for unemployed workers is more than the state government is willing to do for its citizens.

The company has plans to install hundreds of state-of-the-art wind turbines in locations all across Wyoming. “If we can tap into that market and also help out folks that might be experiencing some challenges in the workforce today, I think that it can be a win-win situation,” David Halligan, chief executive of Goldwind Americas, told the New York Times.

Goldwind believes miners, with their experience working under difficult conditions and their expertise in mechanical engineering, are well suited to work in the wind energy industry. There are billions of dollar in federal subsidies available for wind farms, and wind power is generally the cheapest source of electricity around. Goldwind hopes the lure of stable, well paying jobs will overcome the resistance in the state capital to wind power.

Certainly, nothing could be more counterintuitive than putting hurdles in the way of businesses that want to create jobs and favoring those that are shedding jobs. Wyoming lost another 6,000 coal jobs in the past year alone. But ideology is hard to overcome. The state’s leaders are bought and paid for by fossil fuel interests and do their bidding even when doing so means shooting themselves and their voters in the foot.

The cowboy mystique is all about self-reliance and success through hard work, both of which are laudable traits. But historically, cowboys didn’t succeed by being stupid, something the state’s leaders fail to realize. If Goldwind is successful, perhaps the state government will start representing the people it was elected to serve rather than corrupt corporate interests who want to damage the state’s economy by keeping it chained to the past.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Portland (Oregon) Commits to 100% Renewable Electricity by 2035, 100% Renewable Energy by 2050

29.05.2017

The City of Portland, Oregon, and Multnomah County have locked in a commitment to obtaining 100% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035 as the latest #CommitTo100 city to join the pledge.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune shared on his blog that the commitment by Portland represents a major milestone because of its holistic approach:

“Once approved by the city and county commissioners, the plan will make Portland the largest city in the country to commit to transition all energy sectors to 100 percent clean energy.”

The commitment of the City of Portland and Multnomah County to taking on the challenge of shifting energy generation to renewable sources serves as a stake in the sand for the Pacific Northwest, which was an empty desert in the map of communities committed to moving to 100% renewable electricity/energy that we featured earlier this month.

While top-level commitments to moving to 100% renewable energy generation represent major steps towards that goal, it will require an engaged community to course correct the entire electricity generation system.

City of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler called the community into action in his statement on the commitment: “we don’t succeed addressing climate change by government action alone. We need our whole community: government, businesses, organizations and households to work together to make a just transition to a 100 percent renewable future.” He went on to note that he is fully aware of how challenging it will be: “Getting our community to 100 percent renewable energy is a big goal.”

The city broke it goals out into milestones along the greater journey of moving to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Phase out coal by 2032
Phase out natural gas by 2035
100% renewable electricity generation by 2035
100% renewable energy by 2050

Oregon Live quoted Dave Robertson, vice president of Public Policy and Corporate Resiliency at Portland General Electric, chiming in to confirm PGE support of the plan.

“If our resource strategy is approved by regulators, we will add significant amounts of renewable energy to surpass our 2025 renewable energy target more than five years early and at a reduced cost to our customers. The addition of these new renewable resources, combined with our existing wind, solar and hydroelectric facilities, will enable PGE to generate more than 50 percent of our energy from carbon-free sources by 2020.”

The commitment to securing 100% of its energy from renewable sources is a massive milestone for the city of Portland and truly sets the bar for other cities pursuing milestones of their own. The push to mitigate climate change is nothing new to the City of Portland, which was the first US city to adopt a carbon reduction strategy way back before it was cool in 1993.

Source: cleantechnica.com

84% of People Now Consider Climate Change a ‘Global Catastrophic Risk’

29.05.2017

A majority of people in eight countries say they are ready to change their lifestyles if it would prevent climate catastrophe, a survey on global threats released Wednesday found.

The poll of 8,000 people in eight countries—the U.S., China, India, Britain, Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Germany—found that 84 percent of people now see climate change a “global catastrophic risk.”

It comes as President Donald Trump goes to Italy for his first conference with the Group of 7 (G7) to discuss inequality and the environment. Anti-poverty groups are urging the president not to pull out of the Paris climate deal, as he has threatened to do.

On climate, “there’s certainly a huge gap between what people expect from politicians and what politicians are doing. It’s stunning,” Mats Andersson, vice chairman of the Global Challenges Foundation, which commissioned the survey for its annual Global Catastrophic Risks report, told the Thompson Reuters Foundation on Wednesday.

Many people now see climate change as a bigger threat than other issues like population growth, weapons of mass destruction and artificial intelligence, among other concerns, the poll found.

Still, those fears also ranked high, and the survey found that about 70 percent of respondents would support a new global organization designed to address international risks.

“Whether it’s the specter of nuclear conflict over North Korea or the planet tipping into catastrophic climate change, the need for effective global cooperation has never been greater,” Andersson said.

Source: ecowatch.com

NASA Finds New, Frightening Way Glaciers Are Melting in Greenland (PHOTO) (VIDEO)

29.05.2017

Scientists have had their eyes on Greenland as its iconic glaciers have begun disappearing due to a warming climate. But, what they didn’t expect to see was a whole new type of melting.

The Rink Glacier, the largest glacier on the west coast of Greenland, was exhibiting some strange melting behaviors during the hot summers of 2010 and 2012 that can only be described as a “warmed freezer pop sliding out of its plastic casing.” This kind of mass melt lasted four months between June and September in 2012 with a loss of 6.7 gigatons of mass.

The mass moved 2.5 miles every month for the first three months, then 7.5 miles all at once in September. That’s actually pretty speedy considering the Rink Glacier usually melts at a speed of one to two miles a year. But, still, it was slow enough that NASA had to use aerial GPS data to measure the movement.

“You could literally be standing there and you would not see any indication of the wave,” said Eric Larour of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and coauthor of the research. “You would not see cracks or other unique surface features.”

Witness Greenland’s rapidly declining ice mass since 2002, as observed by NASA’s twin GRACE satellites: https://t.co/73r3hcd7sa pic.twitter.com/8Ciu95P1lg
— NASA Sea Level (@NASASeaLevel) May 23, 2017

There was also a similar melting pattern in the summer of 2010, but scientists didn’t recognize it on first glance and had to go back and quantify it with the data from that period. Sure enough, there was a wave in 2010 as well, smaller than the one in 2012, but it moved at the same speed.

NASA scientists aren’t quite sure why this is happening but they suspect it has something to do with surface melting. During these two summers, there was more standing water due to melting than ever before. In fact, in 2012, more than 95 percent of the surface snow and ice was melting, creating giant lakes on top of the Rink Glacier. The water had to flow somewhere, so it might have carved channels through the ice, weakening the infrastructure of the glacier. This lubricated the ice mass, allowing it to slide out of its pocket, slowly, over the course of the summer.

“Intense melting such as we saw in 2010 and 2012 is without precedent, but it represents the kind of behavior that we might expect in the future in a warming climate,” said coauthor Erik Ivins of JPL. “We’re seeing an evolving system.”

Understanding how and why the ice melts is essential to understanding how climate change is affecting the glaciers over time. This ultimately helps scientists calculate sea level rise and changes to the global carbon cycle.

Source: ecowatch.com

UK Smashes Solar Power Record

29.05.2017

Solar power has broken records in Britain in Friday as the country basked in temperatures as high as 28 degrees.

According to the National Grid solar generation hit its highest ever level in Friday, delivering 8.7GW, the equivalent of 24.3 per cent of national demand.

That day figures sail past the previous record of 8.48GW for a half hourly period of solar output, set earlier this month.

It marked a day of record low-carbon generation, with experts suggesting 60 per cent of Britain’s lunchtime power use came from low-carbon sources.

The UK has 12GW of solar capacity installed and on sunny days regularly provides between 10 and 20 per cent of UK electricity demand.

National Grid’s Duncan Burt, who is responsible for control room operations, insisted the system is well equipped to handle the high volume of renewable power on the grid.

“We have planned for these changes to the energy landscape and have the tools available to ensure we can balance supply and demand,” he said in a statement. “It really is the beginning of a new era, which we are prepared for and excited to play our part”.

In Friday was the first time solar generated more power than nuclear energy, according to the Solar Trade Association (STA). “We were delighted that at around midday today 8.75GW was generated by solar, supplying nearly 25 per cent of the UK’s total demand,” STA CEO Paul Barwell said. “This is the first time that solar has generated more than nuclear, second only to gas.”

It is the latest in a string of clean energy landmarks this year for the electricity grid. In March the amount of electricity demanded by homes and businesses on one weekend afternoon was lower than it was in the night time for the first time ever, thanks to customers switching to using rooftop solar power instead of grid power.

Then in April the UK experienced another record-breaking weekend for clean power, with solar generating 26 per cent of grid electricity in England and Wales and wind generation hitting a peak of 20.59 per cent. Total renewable electricity generation also hit a record peak on the same weekend.

Source: businessgreen.com

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