Europe's offshore wind industry booming as costs fall
The Guardian: On a sunny October morning, our boat passes the run-down relicts of Liverpool’s maritime past and heads down the river Mersey and into the Irish Sea. As we steam offshore, I see in the distance a cluster of tall structures that soon reveal themselves to be towers of a wind turbine array. Arriving at the windfarm, six miles offshore, the turbines rise as high as 650ft, taller than the tallest church in the world. Each of the turbines’ three shiny metallic rotor blades is nearly 300ft long.
“A single rotation of an eight-megawatt turbine will cover the daily electricity consumption of an average British household,” says Benj Sykes, vice president of Dong Energy Wind Power, the company that is constructing and co-owns this wind project, as the boat rocks in five-foot swells. Cont'd...
Solar & Wind Cheaper To Replace Coal In UK Than Biomass
Joshua S Hill for CleanTechnica: Â A new study has concluded that transitioning to wind and solar power would be a cheaper option for the United Kingdom to replace its coal fleet than using biomass electricity generation.
According to a new study published this week by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and conducted by London-based Vivid Economics, which examined the full system costs of renewable energy technologies like wind and solar in comparison to biomass as a replacement for the UK's coal fleet, wind and solar came out as the cheaper option.
The UK already uses a lot of biomass for electricity generation, with the report concluding that "biomass supplies the lion's share" of the country's renewable electricity generation. However, as the authors of the report note:
"…recent science shows that many forms of biomass produce more carbon emissions than fossil fuels like coal and natural gas-especially biomass from forests-increasing carbon pollution precisely when the United Kingdom aims to rapidly decarbonise its electricity sector."  Cont'd...
What is a Stacked Perovskite/CIGS Solar Module?
As this result shows that the combination of two PV technologies can outperform the power generation of single junctions the significance of this result shouldn't be underestimated as it breaks the current limitations of solar technology and shows that higher performing modules can be expected to become part of the energy system ... Tom Aernouts, imec
Digitization and the Evolving Utility: The Song Remains the Same
Energy suppliers face change. New forms of alternative energies, new network technologies and the transition to the digital world all present challenges. There are lessons to be learned about how to make the new world work.
Will the World Do Enough to Improve the Use of Sustainable Energy by 2020?
The need for renewable energy is high, but governments need to commit to salvation of the future. Short-term goals shouldn't come at the cost of our future.
Idaho company debuts solar power sidewalks
Nicholas K. Geranios for AP: Scott Brusaw has a vision for the nation's roads.
He believes the solar-powered glass pavers his company makes could transform thousands of miles of pavement into a new energy source.
His business, Solar Roadways, recently unveiled its first public installation, in a downtown plaza in this northern Idaho resort town. It's 150 square feet of hexagon-shaped solar panels that people can walk and bicycle on.
The company is working on proof that the panels, for which it has a patent, are strong enough and have enough traction to handle motor vehicles, including semitrailers.
"Our plan is to replace all the asphalt and concrete," said Brusaw, noting concrete occupies over 48,000 square miles in the U.S. "If you cover it with solar panels, we can make three times our energy needs."
Solar Roadways is among a growing number of companies embracing renewable energy as the U.S. aims to reduce carbon emissions by one-third from 2005 levels by 2030. Cont'd...
NREL's Solar Radiation Research Laboratory Offers a Mesa-Top Home for Global Measurement Accuracy
The need for good data is foremost. A swing of just a half percentage point in the actual output of solar energy plants-compared to projected outputs-would represent about $165 million annually.
Solutions for E-Mobility Demands
There are two standards governing EV charging. In the U.S. there is the SAE J1772 standard, while in Europe and China the IEC61851 standard is used.
Small Power, Big Grid: Part 2 - DERs AND REGIONAL LOAD FORECASTING
The Emerging Relationship between Distributed Energy Resources and the Transmission System.
Is 2016 The Turning Point For Energy Storage?
Michael McDonald for OilPrice.com: In the future, when investors look back at the year that represented the turning point for clean energy, 2016 may be it. The industry overall is growing at a breath-taking pace, but perhaps not for the reason that some investors think. Energy storage rather than solar power and wind power are the real factors that are driving a revolution across the electrical power industry.
Energy storage changes the equation, not only in the renewables space, but in the conventional utility space as well. The concepts of spin/non-spin reserve costs, peaker prices, and a variety of other conventional concerns for utilities, lose meaning in the context of efficient and cost-effective energy storage. While energy storage was available previously, it’s only today that costs are coming down substantially. Tesla’s economies of scale on battery storage are well-known, but small start-ups like Orison are finding ways to lower costs in innovative ways as well. The graphic below from a recent EPRI presentation highlights the role that multiple layers of costs savings can play in creating economical battery storage. Cont'd...
World's Largest Solar Project Would Generate Electricity 24 Hours a Day, Power 1 Million U.S. Homes
Lorraine Chow for EcoWatch: The race to build the world's largest solar power plant is heating up. California-based energy company SolarReserve announced plans for a massive concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in Nevada that claims to be the largest of its kind once built.
SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the $5 billion endeavor would generate between 1,500 and 2,000 megawatts of power, enough to power about 1 million homes. That amount of power is as much as a nuclear power plant, or the 2,000-megawatt Hoover Dam and far bigger than any other existing solar facility on Earth, the Review-Journal pointed out.
"It's a big project," Smith told the publication. "It's an ambitious project." Cont'd...
Functionality of India's Renewable Energy Policy - In Wake of 175 GW by 2022
India has surely set up an ambitious goal of 175 GW of Renewable Energy by 2022, with solar and wind as the mainstream players aiming 100 GW (60 GW of Grid Interactive and 40 GW Rooftop) and 60 GW respectively.
VTT Develops Combustion Technologies for Biomass - Aims at Negative Emissions
VTT is seeking a carbon capture technology for Finnish power and heat production plants. The first pilots were implemented, using wood pellets, at VTT's Bioruukki and the results are promising.
World's First Farm to Use Solar Power and Seawater Opens in Australia
Kristin Falzon for EcoWatch: Sundrop Farms, a tomato production facility that is the first agricultural system of its kind in the world, celebrated its grand opening in Port Augusta, South Australia, Thursday.
Instead of soil, pesticides, fossil fuels and groundwater, Sundrop Farms uses only solar power and desalinated seawater to grow tomatoes across 49 acres. The water is pumped into the facility from the Spencer Gulf about 1.2 miles away where it is desalinated to water the farm's 180,000 tomato plants. Cont'd...
Fact or Fiction: 3 Biggest Myths About NEXTracker Technology
There still seems to be some confusion in the marketplace surrounding specific types of tracking applications, especially when it comes to independent row, self-powered trackers (SPTs)
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