Massive 600MW Dutch Offshore Wind Farm Starts Generating Power

10.05.2017

One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms has been officially opened, delivering 600MW of clean power capacity to Dutch grid.

The Gemini wind park, which is located 85km off the coast of the Netherlands, was unveiled yesterday after it was completed both under budget and ahead of schedule.

The Dutch development consortium behind the project said it is now set to generate enough power to meet the needs of around 1.5 million people, or around 785,000 households.

Construction of the €2.8bn project began in 2015, and the farm now consists of 150 Siemens’ wind turbines, each with a capacity of 4MW, as well as two offshore high-voltage substations.

The substations are connected to a land station at the Dutch coastal town of Eemshaven via a 110km export cable, before electricity is sent to the town’s TenneT power station.

The offshore wind farm is expected to create 75 to 100 permanent jobs in the seaport town where management and maintenance headquarters are located.

Financed by 25 banks from Asia, Australia, Europe and North America, the Gemini wind farm was developed by a consortium featuring Northland Power, which holds a 60 per cent stake, as well as Siemens with a 20 per cent stake and marine engineering firm Van Oord with a 10 per cent stake.

HVC, a joint venture consisting of 48 Dutch municipalities and six water regulatory authorities, holds the final 10 per cent interest in the wind park, which is expected to play a major role in helping the Netherlands hit its target of generating 14 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020.

Covering a 68km area in the North Sea, the wind farm’s location has some of the “highest and most constant wind speeds” in the region at an average of 36km per hour, according to Gemini’s MD Matthais Haag.

“Now fully operational, Gemini will produce 2.6 TWh of sustainable energy every year, reducing the Netherlands’ CO2 emissions by 1.25 million tonnes,” he said at yesterday’s opening cermony. “We are proud to make this contribution to the realisation of the Netherlands’ sustainability targets.”

Source: businessgreen.com

RenewableUK Sets Out Manifesto for ‘Strong’ Clean Energy Sector and ‘Stable’ Policy

10.05.2017

RenewableUK has become the latest green trade body to set out its manifesto wish-list ahead of the anticipated launch of the main party’s election manifestos next week.

The group, which represents over 400 businesses from the wind and marine energy sectors, yesterday published a short report entitled Powering Britain that sets out a series of measures designed to create a “strong energy future”.

It echoes calls from trade body Energy UK and groups across the renewables industry for the government to provide a route to market for the cheapest forms of clean energy, such as onshore wind farms.

It says the next government should “keep consumer energy bills down by investing in domestic, affordable, low carbon power”, adding that new onshore wind is the cheapest technology “bar none”, while offshore wind is set to be cheaper than nuclear power in the near future.

The report also argues the next government should set a “long term, low carbon vision for energy system” and build a “modern, flexible, and smart energy infrastructure which matches the needs of 21st century consumers, British industry and the UK economy”.

Finally, it argues the next government should deliver a Brexit deal that secures the economic and export opportunities associated with the UK’s growing renewable energy supply chain.

Emma Pinchbeck, executive director at RenewableUK, said the next government has “a clear opportunity to ensure that the renewable energy sector can continue to grow and deliver even cheaper electricity to UK homes and businesses”.

“The first steps to achieving this include confirming existing investment commitments, and ensuring a competitive process is in place to secure cheap new generation,” she added. “We need a transparent procurement system which is fair to all technologies. As we look to leaving the European Union, the next government can show leadership by bringing forward a plan to deliver the UK’s climate commitments and maintaining a robust carbon price floor.

“Stable policy will allow industry to keep delivering. Government should be at the heart of building our strong energy future.”

Industry insiders are expecting the mainfestos from the main political parties to provide relatively little new clean energy policy thinking or commitments, with the focus likely to be on the Conservative’s promise of a price cap and Labour and the Lib Dem’s longer term decarbonisation goals.

However, developers and investors are optimistic that any manifesto that reiterates the next government’s commitment to decarbonisation and fails to rule out any technologies could pave the way for the new government to deliver an ambitious long term emission reduction plan, provide policy and funding clarity to mobilise new energy infrastructure investment over the next parliament, and leave the door open for new cost effective onshore wind and solar projects.

Source: businessgreen.com

EP100: H&M Dresses for Energy-Saving Success

10.05.2017

Fashion retail giant

and US-based LED lighting manufacturer Cree have become the latest two high profile firms to pledge to double their energy productivity under the EP100 initiative.

The EP100 scheme, which is led by The Climate Group, is a sister campaign to the RE100 initiative that sees firms commit to sourcing 100 per cent of their power commit to sourcing renewable power. To date 12 multinational firms have signed up to the campaign, setting clear targets to double their energy productivity.

“H&M and Cree have been taking bold steps on energy productivity and we are delighted to welcome them to EP100 and showcase their ambitions to link smarter energy use with business growth objectives,” said Jenny Chu, head of energy productivity initiatives at The Climate Group, in a statement. “We know that business accounts for about half of the electricity used worldwide, and by focusing on energy productivity outcomes, companies like H&M and Cree demonstrate that corporates can reduce their own energy demand, improve their bottom lines and contribute to hitting the targets of the Paris Agreement.”

As part of its EP100 pledge, H&M said its plans to ensure that by 2030 its new stores are using 40 per cent less energy per square meter, compared to those constructed today. The also said it plans to in new lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems to improve its operational energy productivity across its existing estate.

Significantly, the company added that it aims to have 100 per cent of its supplier partners enrolled in an energy efficiency program by 2025, while also reducing energy use through its transport, logistics, and distribution operations.

Similarly, Cree said joining EP100 would help it build on its record of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by over 1,000,000lbs between 2015 and 2016.

“Joining EP100 is a natural for us, as improving energy productivity is the essence of what we do at Cree,” said Greg Merritt, vice president for marketing and public affairs at Cree. “Our constant innovations in LEDs, LED lighting and other Cree technologies enable people to do more and consume less.”

Pierre Borjesson, global sustainability business expert at H&M, said enhancing energy productivity was a “fundamental part” of the company’s wider sustainability strategy, which has seen it commit to sourcing 100 per cent renewable energy and introduce a number of new sustainable fashion ranges.

“We have long been working to reduce our climate impact and recently launched our new commitment to achieve a climate positive value chain by 2040,” he said. “This means H&M will support reductions of greenhouse gases to a larger extent than what our value chain emits. Two of our key priorities are leadership in energy productivity and using renewable energy throughout the value chain.”

The news comes a year after the initial launch of EP100 and sees H&M and Cree join the likes of Johnson Controls, Swiss Re, Danfoss and Dalmia Cement as part of the group.

Kateri Callahan, president of the Alliance to Save Energy, which also supports the EP100 initiative, urged other firms to set public energy productivity targets.

“EP100 is a unique chance for companies to demonstrate the business case for clean energy through the adoption of the ambitious goal of doubling energy productivity,” she said. “Leading by example, H&M, Cree and all other EP100 companies are helping us build a stronger economy and a healthier, more prosperous world through the deployment of the efficient technologies and practices we know create jobs and improve the environment.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Solar Power Brings Light to Dark Corners of Indian Train Stations

09.05.2017

The pounding of trains running through the night does not disturb the fatigued sleep of the homeless migrants huddled at the foot of the sky bridge at Visakhapatnam railway platform.

“It is the dark corners that frighten us, near the water taps and where we take a child to relieve himself,” says Usha Saimala, who has arrived with other families from Kannayapally village in neighbouring Telengana State to work the brick kilns of Andhra Pradesh.

In the shadows drug users, thieves and even human traffickers may lurk, Saimala explains. For her – and the hordes of passengers passing through – lights bring a sense of security.

Solar lighting is on its way to this station, one of the busiest on India’s east coast with 33 million passengers passing through in the last 3 years. From August, a 1 megawatt (MW) solar roof-top will power LEDs for the platforms, two locomotive sheds, a hospital, offices and small shops.

This pioneering project is expected to save the station $31,000 a year compared to grid electricity, while preventing greenhouse gas emissions.

It is part of a government push to green the country’s vast railway network, installing 1,000MW of solar and getting at least 10% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.

“We want Indian Railways to become a green engine of growth,” said federal railway minister Suresh Prabhu at an event in Delhi last month. “Indian Railways being a significant consumer of energy, identifying a cost-effective energy system with least environmental impact is essential.”

Decarbonising the railways supports India’s pledge under the Paris climate deal to reduce emissions intensity 35% by 2030.

The solar generation potential is enormous, with the rooftops of 8,500 stations, 125 hospitals, 600,000 residential quarters, schools to cover, plus 44,000 hectares of vacant land and the verges along 66,690 km of track.

Yet the solar rollout, launched in 2015, is off to a slow start. As of March, only 16MW of solar capacity had been installed, with developers citing policy and regulatory hurdles.

Visakhapatnam is one of the 300 railway stations where work has begun, out of 7,000 that Indian Railways has targeted for solar panels.

The tendering process is time-consuming. At Visakhapatnam, it began in December 2015 and took nearly a year to get approval.

A 2017 study by the Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) examined the challenges that developers face.

“It was expected that the 1 GW target would serve as a signal for financiers and solar developers to come forward and participate actively in bidding for tenders floated by the Railways for installation of solar projects. While the initial response was overwhelming, there have been concerns raised on various issues ranging from technical and financial to policy aspects,’ said the study.

While solar bids are becoming increasingly competitive and financial incentives have been rendered comparatively less significant, risk-averse developers still prefer some form of government subsidy. They are uncertain whether the current trends in solar prices are here to stay or are a temporary phenomenon.

Another road block is regulations in all but six states that prohibit Indian Railways from importing power across state borders, even when it would be cheaper and cleaner to do so.

Then there are stringent performance standards. Indian Railways calls for panels to generate on average at 16% of capacity, while most developers will only guarantee 12-14%. A mismatch can result in power shortages at the ever-bustling rail hubs, according to Aditya Ramji, the lead researcher of the CEEW study.

This is not helped by maintenance issues that may not become apparent until after installation. For instance, a dusty site will reduce output unless countered by extra washing in summer. Providing geo-coordinates in the tendering document will help to plan for these extra costs, says a UNDP document listing rooftop solar’s challenges and potential.

Of the 7,000 stations targeted for solar panels, 90% are smaller rural stations where grid-connected solar may not be viable, said Ramji. Here, solar micro-grids could be a game changer, he suggested, with any excess power sold to nearby houses or small businesses.

Despite the obstacles, Ramji said Indian Railways’ guaranteed and growing electricity demand made it an attractive customer for developers: “The momentum has been created and market signal is positive.”

Source: climatechangenews.com

In 10 Years, Wind Energy May Be Cheaper Than Fossil Fuels

09.05.2017

Breaking news has surfaced in the world of renewable energy sources. In the U.S. alone, a new wind turbine is completed every 2.4 hours, and, in 2016, 5.6 percent of all electricity generated in this country was produced with wind energy. This is more than twice what it was in 2010.

This surge in renewables is actually largely due to greater participation from major corporations like GM, Home Depot, Microsoft, and Walmart. Wind energy requires low (and stable) costs over time and produces viable and reliable energy. Big companies are catching on that renewables are good for the planet — and the bottom line.

In fact, Alex Morgan, a wind energy analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, told Insider Climate News that, in the U.S, unsubsidized onshore wind energy will be cheap enough to give fossil-fuel power plants a run for their money in the next 10 years.

It is especially important for renewable energy sources like wind continue to become more affordable and more efficient now, as climate change becomes a much more massive and pressing issue. This development shows how investment in renewables is moving us forward.

Climate change is not slowing down, and so our efforts to combat it must be greater and move faster. Wind energy is proving to be an essential tool in doing just that. However, to have any chance at really pushing against the progression of climate change, we must use all of the tools that we have.

Solar power has become the cheapest option and is providing countless people with jobs — more so than Apple, Facebook, and Google combined. Canada, in 2015, was able to produce more than half of its energy from renewables like solar, wind, biomass, and hydroelectric.

Renewable energy is no longer a lesser alternative. It is a more stable, cost-effective, and flexible option than fossil fuels, and, as climate change continues to threaten our continued existence, it is becoming our smartest option. Hopefully, as more people, governments, and corporations participate, we can one day be fossil fuel free.

Source: futurism.com

Wind Energy Brings Comanche County, Texas, a Bit of Hope

09.05.2017

More than 20 percent of the electricity being generated in Texas now comes from wind. It’s a little-known legacy of former Texas governor — now U.S. Energy Secretary — Rick Perry. He got it all going with infrastructure and incentives more than a decade ago. Developers are buying up more and more land rights to build wind turbines. In Comanche County, Texas, it’s been an economic lifesaver, if an unexpected one.

Judge Bobby Arthur been living in Comanche County for all 77 years of his life.

“We’re primarily based strictly in agriculture,” he said. When he was a kid, Comanche was the place for one crop: peanuts.

“We used to have $414 million in peanuts, but they went away,” he said.

The peanut industry in Comanche collapsed in the early 2000s, when a long-standing federal subsidy disappeared. Arthur heard talk of people putting their land up for sale and leaving town. Unlike a lot of Texas, Comanche doesn’t have oil and gas under its land. He started looking around for anything to keep Comanche County going.

“I don’t care where you’re from, as long as you’re willing to keep Comanche going, have the income coming to Comanche, we’ll take anything we can get,” he said.

He talked with other rural judges in a similar pickle, and they told him what they were looking into: renewable energy. In the early 2000s, then-Texas Gov. Perry started building infrastructure and financially supporting renewable energy, specifically wind and solar power. Arthur got county commissioners to approve more tax breaks and started making phone calls to energy companies.

“I’d do a little research on some of these different companies,” he said. “They started getting more prevalent in the area, so they started coming to me.”

Arthur felt like he had found a needle in a haystack. Elements came together for a huge wind farm called Logan’s Gap. The judge went to local landowners and sold them on the project. After years of dealings, today Logan’s Gap produces enough energy for 50,000 Texas homes a year. It’s run by Pattern Energy, which sends more than half of the electricity produced there to Wal-Mart. More than half the turbines are located on the Dudley Bros. ranch.

John Dudley runs the finance side of his family’s purebred cattle company, Dudley Brothers registered Hereford operation. His family ranch has been here since 1938. When Dudley got an offer to put wind power on his property, he had just one question for other ranchers who’d signed deals:

“How does that impact your cattle operation?” he asked. “And the answers I got back were, there’s no negative impact to your cattle operation, the cattle don’t care, they just graze right around and go on.”

There are four or five of the 87 Logan’s Gap turbines visible from his office. His brown Hereford bulls graze among them. He signed a nondisclosure agreement, so he won’t say how much he makes from the wind power, but says it’s made life on the ranch a lot easier.

But some people around here don’t think wind farms are a good fit.

Jeff Tucker retired as a firefighter in Fort Worth and bought about 300 acres.

“We came here to, frankly, move our family from the city to a different time, a different style of living,” he said.

He brought his wife and three kids out here for fresh air and wide-open skies. He said wind turbines ruin his Texas sunsets. He’s organized an anti-wind farm group called Won’t Feel Like Home. He posts research on Facebook casting doubt on the viability of the industry. He took me out on his land to get the picture.

“See this ridge right here?” he asked. “It goes back behind us, and at night, you can see those blinking lights, looks like something out of World War III, space aliens.”

Tucker said he was offered a contract to have wind turbines on his property. He refused. He holds town meetings and goes door to door, urging landowners to push back against expansion of the wind farm, which right now is just in phase one.

Pattern Energy said the wind farm will bring Comanche County $80 million over the next 25 years. A lot of these Texans don’t mind wind turbines in their sunsets if it means better roads, better schools, better everyday life.

Source: marketplace.org

Wales’ Largest Onshore Wind Farm Reaches Full Power

09.05.2017

Thirty-eight months after construction started, one of the UK’s largest onshore wind farms has come fully online, promising to cut carbon emissions by more than 300,000 tonnes a year.

Vattenfall announced yesterday that its 76 turbine Pen y Cymoedd Wind Energy Project began operating at full power over the weekend, delivering clean power equivalent to the amount consumed by 13 per cent of Welsh homes.

The £400m project, which is now officially Wales’ largest onshore wind farm, is now expected to employ 20 onsite staff for the lifetime of the project.

“To get to this stage of the project safely and on schedule is obviously very important to Vattenfall and our contractors,” said Will Wason, Vattenfall’s project director, in a statement. “I sincerely hope that full generation from Wales’s largest onshore wind farm, producing competitive, clean, predictable power from the valleys will mean a lot to Wales.”

The project is part of a wave of onshore wind farm projects to secure approval before the government effectively blocked financial support for onshore wind farms in line with its 2015 manifesto commitment. Industry insders are now fearful the industry will experience a significant investment hiatus unless prospective onshore wind farms are provided with a new route to market.

Companies across the energy industry are calling on the Conservative Party to reconsider the decision to not allow onshore wind farms to compete for clean energy price support contracts, arguing the sector can build new capacity at a lower cost than any other form of technology, including fossil fuel power plants.

Source: businessgreen.com

San Francisco Goodwill Taps BYD To Supply 11 Zero-Emission Electric Trucks To Bay Area

08.05.2017

The San Francisco Goodwill, with support from the California Air Resources Board and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, has awarded BYD a contract for 11 electric trucks into its operations around the Bay Area.

This will be the first installation to put a fleet of electric trucks to the test in the hilly terrain of the Bay Area. The new purchase will bring 10 Class 6 BYD electric trucks and 1 Class 8 BYD electric refuse truck to the region. The 10 Class 6 trucks will replace existing collections trucks that will also be used to move donations around between the various Goodwill stores in the area.

President of BYD Motors, Stella Li, sees the deployment as more proof that electric vehicles are ready for mainstream applications:

“This deployment with Goodwill for BYD state of the art battery electric trucks will show the skeptics that zero emission technology is reliable and ready for wide scale use in medium and heavy-duty trucking applications.”

Goodwill operates in 165 regions with more than 2,500 retail locations around the world and is using the electric vehicle fleet in the Bay Area to prove out whether or not it can scale the vehicles to the rest of its fleet. Over 24 months, the team will collect and analyze data to determine how the vehicles perform compared to conventional fossil fuel vehicles. The team will assess the full cost of ownership of the vehicles, which should be a substantial improvement with the BYD refuse truck alone capable of saving $13,000 in fuel and maintenance costs per year compared to conventional diesel-powered refuse trucks.

Cost, it seems, will be the ultimate differentiator that will drive fleets to convert from inefficient 19th century technologies to cutting-edge electric vehicle technologies. The Workhorse W-15 plug-in hybrid electric pickup truck similarly touted a substantial improvement in the cost of ownership over the life of the vehicle compared to more conventional work trucks like the Ford F-150.

BYD estimates that the new fleet of electric trucks will eliminate more than 1,355 tons of greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 1.2 tons of criteria and particulate matter emissions over the lifetime of the vehicles. The program taps into California’s cap-and-trade program funds, with the Bay Area Air Quality Management District and SF Goodwill covering the remainder of the purchase.

Source: cleantechnica.com

Are Low Emission Zones the Route to Cleaner Air?

08.05.2017

Zagađenje, Auspuh, Automobil — Photo: Pixabay

Following a high court order the government have launched their new clean air plan. One proposal is for clean air or low emission zones in many UK towns and cities aiming to reduce traffic pollution by restricting vehicles with weaker exhaust controls.

There are over 200 zones across Europe, but do they work? Europe’s largest is in London. Before the scheme the capital had one of the oldest delivery fleets in the UK. This changed in the run-up to the implementation of the zone and exhaust particles decreased alongside busy roads in outer London.

In Germany, where zones also ban the most polluting cars, air pollution in cities with zones improved faster than in those with no zone. This was especially the case for particle pollution. In contrast, researchers struggled to find improvements from Dutch zones. One possible reason is that the schemes were too weak; they applied to small areas of each city and banned only the very oldest lorries.

For many years new diesels passed ever-tighter exhaust tests in the laboratory only to emit much more nitrogen oxides on roads. Defra estimates an annual health cost of £13 billion from nitrogen dioxide pollution. If a clean air zone achieved the replacement of a 12-year-old diesel car with a new one we could save £350 per year in health cost. A new petrol or electric replacement would be over £750 saving. Removing the car and using public transport, walking and cycling would be even better. This would simultaneously tackle problems of obesity and lack of exercise, improve traffic noise and help air pollution and climate change.

Source: theguardian.com

Mumbai Society Switches to Solar Power Will Save ₹5 Lakh a Year

08.05.2017

solar-panels — Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay

Grace Co-operative Housing Society, Vasant Oscar, Mulund (West), switched to solar energy last month and will save Rs 5 lakh per annum in electricity bills, which means a monthly saving of Rs41,000. It got solar panels installed that help light up elevators and common areas of five buildings in the society, which has 160 apartments.

The residents of the society have also been segregating their organic waste and recycling it to manure to ensure the 100-odd trees they have within the complex stay intact. “Other than saving on electricity bills, we are also trying to reduce our carbon footprint. India has signed the Paris climate accord and it’s our duty to fulfil the nation’s commitment,” said S C Shrivastava, secretary of the society. “Our long term goal is to save future generations from ill effects of climate change.”

Set up at a cost of Rs18.5 lakh, the 29.4 kilowatt power (kWp) solar system with 94 panels will produce 45,000 units of electricity in a year and 120 units daily. A two bed-room-kitchen apartment in Mumbai uses on average 8-10 units of electricity per day. “We expect to recover the cost of installation over the next three years. We will also be recovering Rs 5 lakh through subsidy provided by Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) as per government rules,” said KV Mujumdar, resident and another committee member.

Residents also estimated reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the project. “The use of green energy will reduce almost 30 tonnes of CO2 emissions in a year, which is equal to planting 1,250 trees,” said Mahesh Rathore, treasurer of the society.

The renewable energy source will not only benefit the residents of Grace CHS but also areas in the city where electricity supply is less. A net-metering system, which allows surplus power generated by solar will be exported back to the grid and any deficiency is imported from the grid. At the end of a financial year, the society will be charged by the power supplier only for the ‘net usage’. “Therefore, excess electricity will compensate areas facing power cuts in the city,” said Dhaval Gori from Aditya Green Energy that set up the plant.

Moreover, the society has recycled 3.28 lakh kg organic (kitchen, horticultural) waste in past three years. Daily segregation of 300kg of wet waste and 180 kg of dry waste is done from every household.

While the wet waste is composted into 30kg of manure per month, only the dry waste is collected by the civic body’s dumper truck daily.

“We are following a zero waste concept as there is 100% waste segregation in the society. Our wet waste is being converted into manure at four compost drums where waste is churned with the help of various enzymes,” said Rani Pandit, a resident. “We will soon begin plastic segregation too.”

Source: hindustantimes.com

Nebraska Sails Past 1K Megawatts of Wind-Energy Capacity

08.05.2017

With the raising of a 400-megawatt wind farm in the state, Nebraska has sailed past 1,000 megawatts — or 1 gigawatt — of wind-generated capacity.

Nebraska’s turbines provide over 1,300 megawatts of capacity with more on the way, looking to take advantage of the state’s largely untapped wind potential, the Lincoln Journal Star reported.

The American Wind Energy Association said Nebraska is the 18th state to join the group of gigawatt-level wind energy states.

The association reported last month that wind accounted for over 10 percent of electricity generated in the state for the first time last year. The figure was less than 3 percent just five years ago, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

The state’s turbines cranked out electricity an average of 45 percent of the time last year, the highest rate in the nation, according to the association.

The most recent wind farm built, the 200-turbine Grande Prairie, is both the largest wind project in Nebraska and the biggest built in the United States last year.

Nebraska Energy Office director David Bracht said three things need to be present for the state to attract more wind farms: wind, a market for selling the power and transmission lines to get the electricity to the buyer.

“We’re a big state area-wise but we’re a small state in terms of population,” he said. “That translates to more limited transmission. That is one of the advantages that Iowa had in developing its wind, larger population and transmission all over the state.”

Source: heraldcourier.com

Philippines Approves 30 Megawatt Solar + Storage Project To Assess Impact On Grid

07.05.2017

More developing markets are now considering storage solutions for better and efficient integration of solar power projects into the existing grid.

The Department of Energy in the Philippines recently approved four large-scale solar power projects to assess the impact of their integration into the existing transmission network. These projects include two of 70 megawatts capacity each, one of 22 megawatts, and another of 30 megawatts with battery storage.

The two projects of 70 megawatts capacity each will be developed by Pilipinas Newton Energy and Pilipinas Einstein Energy in San Manuel in the province of Pangasinan. C-Solar Power will develop the 22-megawatt project in Tarlac. A battery-based solar power project with a capacity of 30 megawatts will be developed by Silay Global Energy Solutions in Negros Occidental.

These projects are expected to play an important role in developing a roadmap for large-scale integration of not only solar power but projects based on other renewable energy technologies as well. Absorption of renewable energy technologies into existing transmission grid remains a major challenge across all developing markets, be it India, Chile or China.

In March, the Department of Energy also approved a 150-megawatt solar power project equipped with storage technology, based on batteries, for development in Concepcion. The project will be developed by Solar Philippines and will consist of nearly half a million modules.

The Concepcion solar power project will initially sell electricity in the open market while continuing to negotiate with utilities for a long-term power purchase agreement.

After the Renewable Energy Law was approved in 2008, a surge in renewable energy capacity addition was seen in the Philippines. The government had announced a feed-in tariff scheme wherein projects were offered ¢0.21 per kWh. The tariff scheme attracted overwhelming response from project developers, forcing the government to expand the capacity under the program from 50 megawatts to 500 megawatts.

Source: cleantechnica.com07

Range for E-cars up to 1000 km with New Batteries

06.05.2017

electric - car - battery — Foto - ilustracija: Pixabay

You cannot get far today with electric cars. One reason is that the batteries require a lot of space. Fraunhofer scientists are stacking large cells on top of one another. This provides vehicles with more power. Initial tests in the laboratory have been positive. In the medium term, the project partners are striving to achieve a range of 1,000 kilometers for electric vehicles.

Depending on the model, electric cars are equipped with hundreds to thousands of separate battery cells. Each one is surrounded by a housing, connected to the car via terminals and cables, and monitored by sensors. The housing and contacting take up more than 50 percent of the space. Therefore, the cells cannot be densely packed together as preferred. The complex design steals space. A further problem: Electrical resistances, which reduce the power, are generated at the connections of the small-scale cells.

More space for batteries

Under the brand name EMBATT, the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems IKTS in Dresden and its partners have transferred the bipolar principle known from fuel cells to the lithium battery. In this approach, individual battery cells are not strung separately side-by-side in small sections; instead, they are stacked directly one above the other across a large area. The entire structure for the housing and the contacting is therefore eliminated. As a result, more batteries fit into the car. Through the direct connection of the cells in the stack, the current flows over the entire surface of the battery. The electrical resistance is thereby considerably reduced. The electrodes of the battery are designed to release and absorb energy very quickly. “With our new packaging concept, we hope to increase the range of electric cars in the medium term up to 1000 kilometers,” says Dr. Mareike Wolter, Project Manager at Fraunhofer IKTS. The approach is already working in the laboratory. The partners are ThyssenKrupp System Engineering and IAV Automotive Engineering.

Ceramic materials store energy

The most important component of the battery is the bipolar electrode – a metallic tape that is coated on both sides with ceramic storage materials. As a result, one side becomes the anode, the other the cathode. As the heart of the battery, it stores the energy. “We use our expertise in ceramic technologies to design the electrodes in such a way that they need as little space as possible, save a lot of energy, are easy to manufacture and have a long life,” says Wolter. Ceramic materials are used as powders. The scientists mix them with polymers and electrically conductive materials to form a suspension. “This formulation has to be specially developed – adapted for the front and back of the tape, respectively” Wolter explains. The Fraunhofer IKTS applies the suspension to the tape in a roll-to-roll process. “One of the core competencies of our institute is to adapt ceramic materials from the laboratory to a pilot scale and to reproduce them reliably,” says Wolter, describing the expertise of the Dresden scientists. The next planned step is the development of larger battery cells and their installation in electric cars. The partners are aiming for initial tests in vehicles by 2020.

Source: sciencedaily.com

Turbines Propel Nebraska Past a Wind-Energy Milestone

05.05.2017

With the raising of Grand Prairie, a 400-megawatt wind farm in Holt County, Nebraska has sailed past 1,000 megawatts — or 1 gigawatt — of wind-generated capacity. It’s the 18th state to join the club, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

For the first time last year, wind accounted for more than 10 percent of electricity generated in Nebraska, the association reported last month. Just five years ago, that figure was less than 3 percent, according to the federal Energy Information Administration.

Nebraska’s turbines provide 1,328 megawatts of capacity, and there are more on the way, looking to take advantage of the state’s largely untapped wind potential. Developers have 7 megawatts of turbines under construction and others totaling 586 megawatts in development, the association reported in its first quarterly report for 2017.

Despite ranking fourth among states in abundant wind, Nebraska has long been a straggler when it comes to harnessing that resource. The state briefly climbed to 17th in wind energy production last year before being bumped down to 18th by New Mexico during this year’s first quarter.

The fact that Nebraska has lagged behind other states such as Iowa — which became the first state to generate 35 percent of its electricity from wind in 2016 — could play into its favor in attracting future development, said David Bracht, director of the Nebraska Energy Office.

“Given the fact that Nebraska has really good wind and has, relatively speaking, developed less of that, we have more of our very best wind left to develop,” Bracht said.

Another factor in Nebraska’s favor is that its wind is some of the most-productive in the country. Turbines can only spin when the wind blows. Nebraska’s turbines cranked out electricity an average of 45 percent of the time in 2016, the highest rate in the nation, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Nebraska’s electricity is provided by a network of nonprofit public power districts that can’t collect federal wind production tax credits like investor-owned utilities in other states can, a factor that has long been cited as a barrier to wind development.

Lincoln Electric System and other Nebraska utilities have tackled that obstacle by signing contracts to buy power from private turbine owners who collect the tax credits, such as Invenergy, which has a regional office in Littleton, Colorado, and owns Prairie Breeze II Wind Energy Center, a 41-turbine complex in Antelope and Boone counties.

Source: journalstar.com

China Increases Solar Power Output by 80% in Three Months

05.05.2017

China electricity output from photovoltaic plants rose 80 per cent in the first quarter after the world’s biggest solar power market increased installed capacity.

Solar power generation rose to 21.4 billion kilowatt-hours in the three months ending 31 March from a year earlier, the National Energy Administration said on Thursday in a statement on its website. China added 7.21 gigawatts of solar power during the period, boosting its total installed capacity to almost 85 gigawatts, the NEA said.

The power-generation increase comes even as more solar plants stand idle because of congested transmission infrastructure. China idled about 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours of solar power in the first quarter, up from 1.9 billion kilowatt-hours a year earlier, according to the NEA data.

Central and eastern China accounted for about 89 per cent of new capacity, the NEA said.

Source: independent.co.uk

1...321322323...412 Page 322 of 412

Newsletter

Calendar of events

2025 August

Events for 31 August

Events for 1 September

Events for 2 September

Events for 3 September

Events for 4 September

Events for 5 September

Events for 6 September

Events for 7 September

Events for 8 September

Events for 9 September

Events for 10 September

Events for 11 September

Events for 12 September

Events for 13 September

Events for 14 September

Events for 15 September

Events for 16 September

Events for 17 September

Events for 18 September

Events for 19 September

Events for 20 September

Events for 21 September

Events for 22 September

Events for 23 September

Events for 24 September

Events for 25 September

Events for 26 September

Events for 27 September

Events for 28 September

Events for 29 September

WRITE US