Category:

Germany’s green goals have profound consequences for Eon and RWE

Thousands of ordinary Germans are using renewables, which entitle them to an above-market rate for power they put into the grid Johannes Teyssen, Eon chief, hopes Eon’s successor company will be able to compete more effectively in new energy technology The solar panels Konrad Kuisle installed on the roof of his barn and milking shed have been a steady source of income for the Bavarian dairy farmer. “I installed the panels because, on the one side, I support renewable energy. But I also get something out of it,” says Mr Kuisle, who calculates the power he feeds into Germany’s electricity grid generates up to 15 per cent of his annual turnover. Mr Kuisle is just one of thousands of ordinary Germans who have scrambled to invest in renewable power as Germany pursues one of the most radical sets of energy policies in the world — which are having enormous […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

A Biofuel Debate: Will Cutting Trees Cut Carbon?

Eduardo Porter Does combating climate change require burning the world’s forests and crops for fuel? It certainly looks that way, judging from the aggressive mandates governments across the globe have set to incorporate bioenergy into their transportation fuels in the hope of limiting the world’s overwhelming dependence on gasoline and diesel to move people and goods. While biofuels account for only about 2.5 percent today, the European Union expects renewable energy — mostly biofuels — to account for 10 percent of its transportation fuel by 2020. In the United States, the biofuel goal is about 12 percent by early in the next decade. The International Energy Agency envisions using biofuels to supply as much of 27 percent of the world’s transportation needs by midcentury. The reasons for such ambitions are clear: It is nearly impossible under current technology to run cars, trucks, ships and jet planes on energy generated […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

New dawn for U.S. solar power capacity

Analysis from Wood Mackenzie finds parallels between emerging solar power and the U.S. shale boom. UPI/Stephen Shaver HOUSTON, Feb. 3 (UPI) — Solar power progress in the United States is expected to advance to record levels as prices decline and technology improves, Wood Mackenzie finds. Energy consultant group Wood Mackenzie finds it’s getting cheaper to install solar power components. With this, new solar capacity has evolved from a niche renewable sector to something that’s pressuring conventional business models in the utility industry. "Just as shale extraction technologies reconfigured oil and gas markets, no other technology is closer to transforming power markets in a similar fashion than distributed and utility-scale solar," Prajit Ghosh, research director for American renewables research, said. The U.S. government is supporting solar development through its SunShot initiative, which aims to make the renewable technology competitive. The program aims to move solar power capacity from less than […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Obama Budget Would Pour Funds Into Climate, Renewable Energy

ENLARGE President Obama’s budget released Monday includes a new $4 billion fund to help states comply with draft Environmental Protection Agency regulations cutting carbon emissions from U.S. power plants. Photo: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg News WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama ’s fiscal 2016 budget plan would pour billions of dollars into climate-change and renewable-energy technologies, and repeal nearly $50 billion in tax breaks from the oil, natural-gas and coal industries. The budget proposal, released Monday, underscores an intensifying push by Mr. Obama on his climate agenda, which he hopes to cement as a presidential legacy in his final two years in office. While many of Mr. Obama’s energy and environmental plans have been included in prior year proposals, the 2016 proposal includes a new $4 billion fund, dubbed the Clean Power State Initiative Fund, to help states comply with draft Environmental Protection Agency regulations cutting carbon emissions from U.S. power plants. The fund, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Massachusetts set for offshore wind energy

U.S. Interior Department holds auction for wind energy development off the coast of Massachusetts. Photo by Teun van den Dries/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Jan. 30 (UPI) — Wind energy potential in the Atlantic holds promise as a new source of renewable energy and economic stimulus, the U.S. Interior Department secretary said. With high bids totaling $448,000, the Interior Department said it doubled the total acreage available for wind energy development off the coast of Massachusetts in the fourth-ever auction of its kind. "Offshore wind along the Atlantic holds great potential to help power our nation with renewable energy while adding jobs to the economy," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a Thursday statement. The U.S. government estimates the leased area, a combined 354,409 acres, could support around 2 gigawatts of commercial wind energy, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of 700,000 homes if fully developed. Wind energy development up and […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Clean Power to Shrug Off Oil Slump, Goldman, Deutsche Bank Say

Spending on renewable energy, which surged 16 percent in 2014, will remain strong this year, largely unaffected by the slumping oil prices that have artificially depressed their shares. That’s the message from Stuart Bernstein, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s global head of clean technology and renewables, and Vishal Shah, Deutsche Bank AG’s renewable-energy analyst. Because oil produces only 1 percent of U.S. electricity, the crude plunge that’s roiling markets should have only a “modest” effect on clean-energy developers or the companies that equip them, Bernstein said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want to be dismissive of the impact of declining oil and gas commodity prices on renewable energy,” Bernstein said. “But they will have a very small impact on the long-term cost of electricity.” Clean energy attracted a total of $310 billion in investment last year, up from $268 billion in 2013 and the first increase in three years, […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Oceana: Wind better than drilling in Atlantic

Advocacy group Oceana says wind energy developments in the Atlantic would bring more benefits than offshore drilling. Photo by Teun van den Dries/Shutterstock WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 (UPI) — A U.S. ocean advocacy group said an offshore wind sector in the Atlantic Ocean could produce twice as many jobs and twice as much energy as offshore drilling. "The American public deserves to know the facts when it comes to expanding this dirty and dangerous practice to the East Coast, and what alternatives there are for clean energy generation," Andrew Menaquale, an energy analyst at advocacy group Oceana, said in a Wednesday statement. The National Ocean Industries Association, an industry group lobbying for more offshore work, said about 1.34 million barrels of oil equivalent per day could be produced from the Atlantic basin by 2035. Oceana instead found an offshore wind energy sector in the Atlantic could produce more energy than […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

NREL enzyme enables conversion of biomass to sugar up to 14x faster than current alternatives; changing the economics of conversion

« Lufthansa Group aircraft will fly from Oslo on biokerosene beginning in March; deal with Statoil | Main | Toyota introduces all-new Tacoma with new 3.5L non-hybrid Atkinson cycle engine » Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have developed an enzyme that can enable the conversion of biomass to sugars up to 14 times faster and more cheaply than competing catalysts in enzyme cocktails today. The enzyme called CelA, a cellulase from the bacterium Caldicellulosiruptor bescii , could thus could change the economics of biofuel conversion. In one scenario, the best commercially used enzyme converted sugars at a 30% extent in seven days. CelA converted to double that extent. And while it took the alternative enzyme seven days to achieve that conversion, CelA, with a small boost from an extra beta glucosidase, achieved double in just about two days. Among CelA’s many […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Wind and Solar Energy: Transforming the Grid with Clean Energy, Reliably, Every Day

Despite years of successful experience, dozens of studies, and increasing utility support for clean energy, urban myth holds that electricity from renewable energy is unreliable. Yet over 75,000 megawatts (MW) of wind and solar power have been integrated, reliably, into the nation’s electric grid to date. That’s enough electricity to supply 17.9 million homes. And, as a new NRDC fact sheet published today illustrates, the electric grid can handle much higher levels of zero-carbon wind and solar power, far more than what’s necessary to achieve the relatively modest carbon emission reductions in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to limit pollution from existing power plants. But first, a little background on how our nation’s electric system works. Grid basics The nation’s high-power transmission system is made up of three largely separate grids: one on either side of the Continental Divide (roughly) and the third in Texas. The two largest […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
Category:

Falling Crude Prices Force Ethanol Makers to Take It on the Chin

ENLARGE Falling profit margins for the $40 billion U.S. ethanol industry may cause some companies to scale back production in 2015. Bloomberg News Tumbling oil prices are bringing unwelcome tidings to one of the U.S. Farm Belt’s hottest industries. Ethanol makers are bracing for a drop in earnings as cheap crude pushes down the prices they fetch from refiners to blend the corn-based fuel additive into gasoline. Ethanol producers also face a recent jump in the price of corn, their main raw material. Falling profit margins for the $40 billion U.S. ethanol industry may cause some companies to scale back production in 2015, analysts and industry executives say. Still, many observers think ethanol demand may remain steady or even rise if cheap gasoline spurs U.S. motorists to drive more, tempering the hit to ethanol earnings. Crude-oil prices slid 20% in December to about $53 a barrel and fell 46% […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple