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Coal crunch gives impetus to India’s solar switch

For six years in a row, India’s monopoly coal producer has missed its production targets, leading to chronic electricity shortages and sending power producers scrambling for pricier imports. But what looks like a looming crisis could turn out to be an almost accidental energy overhaul. Like many developing nations, India has relied for decades on cheap coal to provide electricity for burgeoning industry and fast-expanding cities, putting aside worries about pollution and global warming. But from three years ago when solar capacity was almost zero, the country has added 2.2 gigawatts of solar to its electricity grid, enough to power 20 million Indian homes. It plans another 2 GW this year, toward a total 15 GW addition by 2017. Individual states plan even more. India has also added about 26 GW in coal-fired capacity since 2011, but already plants are sitting idle for […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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India’s Diesel Subsidy Spurs Pollution Worse Than Beijing

Molecular biologist George Easow’s move to India to start a clinical diagnostics business lasted just three weeks before he was convinced to return to the U.K. The convincing was done by his seven-month-old daughter Fiona. Within days of moving to New Delhi , the child was wheezing and gasping for air because of smog. “She could hardly breathe,” said her father. Fiona was kept indoors and put on medication. Nothing worked. “We had to make a call,” Easow said, adding her symptoms disappeared once back in the U.K. and haven’t returned. For the 16.8 million residents of India’s capital, the wheezing continues. The bad news is it’s going to get worse. New Delhi isn’t alone as cities across the nation suffer from some of the worst air quality in the world. That’s costing the country 1.1 trillion rupees ($18 billion) in shortened life spans of productive […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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For Storing Electricity, Utilities Push New Technologies

From backyard tinkerers to big corporations, inventors have been struggling to find a way to store solar, wind and other renewable energy so it can furnish electricity when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. Now California is offering businesses a big incentive for success—contracts that the utility industry estimates could total as much as $3 billion for successful, large-scale electricity-storage systems. Starting this year, big utilities that do business here must begin adding enough battery systems or other technology so that by 2024 they can store 1,325-megawatts worth of electricity—nearly 70 times the amount that the handful of mostly experimental systems in the state store now. Regulators are also requiring municipal utilities to buy or lease energy-storage equipment. The storage systems California wants don’t exist on such a scale, so the new rules amount to a big bet—paid for by utility customers—that creating demand will […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Will Natural Gas Fuel America’s Big Trucks? Shell Treads Carefully

Shell is tapping the brakes on plans to push natural gas as a fuel for the trucking industry. The company confirmed it will not build a previously announced plant 20 miles west of Calgary that would turn natural gas into liquid form, known as LNG, for use in heavy duty trucks. Shell still plans to build out a network of LNG fueling stations along a 900-mile stretch between Alberta and Canada’s Pacific Coast. But those LNG service stations, which will be operated by Pilot Flying J, will sell natural gas fuel created by a company other than Shell. “We are definitely still interested, but it’s an emerging market so Shell has to take a balanced approach to these developments,” Shell spokeswoman Destin Singleton said. So far Shell has not changed plans for two other LNG fuel plants – one in Geismar, La. and one in […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Calif. lawmakers pass drought relief bill

California lawmakers on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a $687 million plan to provide immediate relief to drought-stricken communities, a package that includes emergency money for communities running low on drinking water and farming communities where fallow fields are leading to  high unemployment . The bill now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. Amid one of California’s driest years on record, the Assembly and Senate voted to approve SB103 and SB104 and send the legislation to the governor. The legislative package moved quickly after it was announced last week by Brown and Democratic legislative leaders. It will take effect immediately if signed, as expected, by the governor. The plan redirects money in the state budget and draws from two bonds previously approved by voters. It includes $472 million in accelerated grant funding for water conservation and recycling projects. Another $15 million will go to communities running low on drinking water supplies while […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Shale Brings High Hopes In Mississippi, Louisiana

Residents living above an oil-rich shale formation that stretches across southwest Mississippi and Louisiana have been waiting on a boom for years. A steady trickle of drilling is already boosting the rural region’s economy, and spending by two oil companies could make 2014 the year that many other locals finally cash in on the oil far beneath their feet. Already, Max Lawson has spent hours watching the round-the-clock work of shoving pipe into the ground in his back pasture. The process began two years ago when Encana Corp. built a big gravel pad, but didn’t take off until late last year when a convoy of 200 trucks carted in a drilling rig and other equipment to bore into the earth looking for oil. "They call it the Gillsburg Christmas tree," he said while standing near the brightly lit rig. "It looks like a little […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Euro Zone Inflation Stays Low; Joblessness Remains High

PARIS — Inflation in the euro zone remained stuck at a very low level in February, while the jobless rate was unchanged in January, official reports showed Friday, providing the European Central Bank with crucial data before its monetary policy meeting next week. Consumer prices in the 18-nation euro zone rose 0.8 percent in February, unchanged from the revised figure for January, Eurostat, the statistical agency of the European Union reported from Luxembourg. The “core” inflation rate, which excludes energy and food prices, ticked up to 1.0 percent from 0.8 percent in January. The January jobless rate for the euro zone remained at 12 percent, Eurostat reported. For the full European Union, made up of 28 nations, the jobless rate stood at 10.8 percent, also unchanged. The numbers were largely in line with market expectations, and financial markets reacted calmly. The Euro Stoxx 50 index slipped about 0.1 percent […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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EU environment ministers to debate 2030 climate framework

European Union environment ministers are set to open debate on controversial 2030 targets for greenhouse gas emissions and renewable energy, the Greek presidency says. The EU Environment Council will meet Monday in Brussels, where Greece says it will put the European Commission’s proposed targets on the table for the first time since they were announced in January and subsequently dismissed by the European Parliament as "shortsighted and unambitious." Monday’s debate is meant to produce a report to be presented at the full European Council meeting of March 20-21, when the commission is hoping to forge a consensus among European heads of state in time for the Sept. 23 U.N. Climate Summit in New York. The 2030 framework represents a "next step" after EU’s current, legally binding greenhouse gas targets expire in 2020. The 28-nation bloc says it is well on the way to achieving […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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Have We Reached the Point of "Peak Cars"?

We’ve all heard a lot about Peak Oil, the point at which global oil production begins to decline because the accessible supply is simply not as big as it was the year before. Whether it has been passed or is looming in the near future, is still being debated, especially in the light of the recent boom in U.S. production. But it is highly likely that it is imminent, which is really a good thing, given the carbon emissions entailed, which has not been reason enough for many people, institutions and governments to press for alternatives. But what about all of those cars and trucks that most of that oil goes into? There are a number of analysts who think that, despite the optimistic sales projections of automakers, we may be approaching the point of peak cars. Given the fact that more and […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA
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Have We Reached the Point of “Peak Cars”?

We’ve all heard a lot about Peak Oil, the point at which global oil production begins to decline because the accessible supply is simply not as big as it was the year before. Whether it has been passed or is looming in the near future, is still being debated, especially in the light of the recent boom in U.S. production. But it is highly likely that it is imminent, which is really a good thing, given the carbon emissions entailed, which has not been reason enough for many people, institutions and governments to press for alternatives. But what about all of those cars and trucks that most of that oil goes into? There are a number of analysts who think that, despite the optimistic sales projections of automakers, we may be approaching the point of peak cars. Given the fact that more and […]

Posted On : Published By : ASPO-USA