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Unease in Southern California over San Onofre’s Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Plan

san-onofre-deadfThe Nuclear Regulatory Commission also ruled earlier this year that radioactive waste can be stored on nuclear plant sites indefinitely. “We’re looking at the waste sitting here for potentially hundreds of years,” Gilmore said, pointing from her home to the coastline below. “We don’t know how many years it’s going to sit here, and the NRC only certifies these casks for 20 years.”

San Onofre’s Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage Plan Worries Some Residents, KPBS, December 11, 2014 By Alison St John Almost 4,000 highly radioactive spent fuel assemblies will have to be stored indefinitely on the narrow strip of land between Interstate 5 and the ocean, where the San Onofre nuclear power plant now stands. That’s because political gridlock nixed a federal long-term storage site for nuclear waste in Nevada. Continue reading →

December 13, 2014 Posted by | USA, wastes | Leave a comment

Malaysia now a world leader in producing solar energy equipment

sunflag-MalaysiaSolar Rises in Malaysia During Trade Wars Over Panels, NYT, By DEC. 11, 2014 KULIM, Malaysia — Tucked away in this former tin-mining town, past the small farms of banana trees and oil palms, is one of the solar industry’s best-kept secrets.

The six factories here with cavernous rooms up to one-third of a mile long constitute the production backbone of First Solar. Working alongside minivan-size robots adapted from car assembly plants and other industries, 3,700 employees produce five-sixths of the American company’s solar panels. Workers in Ohio make the rest.

The list of manufacturers is long. Panasonic of Japan has a solar panel factory a mile down the road. SunEdison makes wafers 60 miles away in Chemor. Hanwha Q Cells and SunPower have giant factories even farther south, while Solexel, a Silicon Valley start-up, is preparing to build an $810 million solar panel factory in stages.

Malaysia, a Southeast Asian nation with just 30 million people, is the biggest winner in the trade wars that have embroiled the solar sector. As Chinese companies have been hit with American tariffs and European quotas, Malaysia has increasingly attracted multinationals with its relatively low labor costs, lucrative tax breaks, warm relations with the West and abundance of English-speaking engineering talent.

Malaysia is now the world’s third-largest producer of solar equipment, trailing China by a wide margin but catching up rapidly with the European Union. And Malaysia’s role in the global solar trade is only likely to increase in the coming months if the American government broadens tariffs on panels made in China next Tuesday as expected……

The solar manufacturing boom in Malaysia has been almost invisible, a rarity in an industry known for heavily promoting even the smallest factory opening or new solar panel farm as progress toward cleaner energy……..

Trade wars have helped some American companies. SolarWorld, a big manufacturer that has led trade litigation against China, recently said that it was expanding capacity by 150 megawatts and adding 200 jobs at its main solar panel factory in Hillsboro, Ore. It partly pointed to the trade actions that had slowed the flood of Chinese imports.

But production in Malaysia, already triple the United States’ output, is rising faster. The latest project underway in Cyberjaya, Malaysia, is an 800-megawatt solar module factory for Hanwha Q Cells. First Solar is putting the finishing touches on a 100-megawatt factory here to supply the Japanese market.

Malaysia is a beneficiary of the complex interaction of global trade rules, economic competitiveness and environmental policies in the solar industry. Tariffs have had the most immediate effect………. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/business/energy-environment/solar-rises-in-malaysia-during-trade-wars-over-panels.html

December 13, 2014 Posted by | business and costs, Malaysia, renewable | Leave a comment

Thousands of Peruvians march in support of action on climate change: call for renewable energy

climate-change‘The water is ours’: thousands in march at Lima climate forum SBS World News, 11 Dec 14 Thousands of Peruvians have marched through the streets of Lima in support of policies to limit greenhouse gases as climate talks grind on. Thousands of people have marched in central Lima against the abuse of earth’s resources, urging ministers haggling over a world climate deal to ensure a global switch to 100 per cent clean energy by 2050.

Students, environmentalists, workers, women’s defenders, anti-poverty activists and indigenous groups joined the “People’s Climate March” in the Peruvian capital on Wednesday, chanting “Water yes, gold no!” and “The water is ours!”

The colourful line of festive demonstrators snaked its way through the city, accompanied by rhythmic drumming and brass bands.

Police estimated the crowd at about 1800 people, but AFP witnessed many times that and organisers said about 15,000 turned out……http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/12/11/water-ours-thousands-march-lima-climate-forum

December 13, 2014 Posted by | general | Leave a comment

Scotland got 107% of its electricity needs from wind power, in November

wind-turb-smflag-ScotlandWind Power Provided 107% of Scotland’s Home Electricity Needs In November http://sustainnovate.ae/en/industry-news/detail/wind-power-provided-107-of-scotlands-home-electricity-needs-in-november 10 December 2014 | Posted by Zachary Scotland is an amazing leader in the renewable energy space. As I wrote last month,renewable energy provided more electricity than either nuclear energy, coal, or natural gas in the first half of 2014 in Scotland. It aims to get 100% of its electricity from renewable resources by 2025, one of the most ambitious targets in the developed world.

In October, wind energy provided 126% of home electricity demand. While that was a great month for wind energy, it wasn’t a wild fluke. WWF Scotland reports that, in November, wind power again provided over 100% of the country’s residential electricity needs, 107% this time. Producing 812 TWh of electricity, that’s enough for 2.6 million Scottish homes.

Scotland has excellent wind resources, but it also has great political leadership and is attractive to industry leaders.

“While Torness nuclear power station had to be shutdown unexpectedly, November turned out to be another big month for wind power in Scotland, with enough pollution-free electricity generated to supply 107 per cent of Scottish households with the electricity they need,” said WWF Scotland’s director Lang Banks. “Even on calmer days, when wind wasn’t at its strongest, wind still supplied the equivalent of almost a third of electricity needs of every home. It’s clear that wind is now a critical and growing part of our current power sector.”

The highest wind power output during the month was on November 11, when 55,611 MWh of electricity were produced by wind turbines. That was enough to supply 5.34 million homes with electricity, or 221% of Scottish homes.

The data above was provided by WeatherEnergy and analysed by WWF Scotland.

December 13, 2014 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

Communities back wind power as UK gets record levels of electricity from wind energy

Record wind power levels as new research shows clear majority back wind energy projects near them, Renewable UK,  9 December 2014
RenewableUK was today celebrating a new daily record amount of electricity generated from wind. Official National Grid figures showed that on Sunday 7th December an average of 7.315GW of power was produced by wind farms. The previous record was 7.234GW. This means that the equivalent of 43% of all GB homes were powered by wind on Sunday.

RenewableUK also commented on research carried out by Accent for the Energy Institute and New Power Magazine which showed that 61% of people would accept a wind turbine, or several turbines, within five miles of their home. The research, which was carried out in November, among householders throughout the UK, found that only 24% of people would welcome a gas extraction site with possible fracking near them, and just 18% backed local nuclear. The only technology with more popular support than wind was solar PV.

The survey also showed that 54% of UKIP voters, and 57% of Conservative voters support wind energy within 5 miles of their home, despite the leaders of their parties opposing onshore wind.
: http://www.renewableuk.com/en/news/press-releases.cfm/2014-12-09-record-wind-power-levels-as-new-research-shows-clear-majority-back-wind-energy-projects-near-them#sthash.PmKPUfot.dpuf

December 13, 2014 Posted by | renewable, UK | Leave a comment

Latin America and Caribbean ripe for renewable energy growth

Renewable Energy Growth Opportunities In Latin America & Caribbean Clean Technica, December 12th, 2014 by  The renewable energy focus has slowly been shifting away from traditional national powerhouses in Europe and North America towards developing nations, primarily across the Southern Hemisphere. A new report published by the Worldwatch Institute has analysed the particular market barriers and growth pathways available for two specific regions, Latin America and the Caribbean, and found that renewable energy growth could address significant economic, social, and environmental challenges.

The report, Study on the Development of the Renewable Energy Market in Latin America and the Caribbean, published Wednesday, was designed to identify renewable energy growth opportunities and barriers, and offer up specific methods to overcome these challenges.

“Our goal was to prepare a concise and comprehensive report on the current status of, and powerful drivers for, renewable energy in the LAC region,” says Alexander Ochs, Worldwatch’s Director of Climate and Energy and the project leader.

“We identify key technology, market, and policy barriers, as well as concrete instruments to overcome them. Because of the region’s high vulnerability to extreme weather events, we specifically address the energy sector’s climate change adaptation needs. And we provide a clear set of recommendations to multilateral banks for how to best fulfil their important role in supporting renewable energy development and deployment.”

Of particular interest were the particular opportunities to address key economic, social, and environmental challenges that investing in renewables will provide Latin America and the Caribbean. The authors of the report identified several such challenges, including:

  • Achieving universal access to electricity
  • Meeting future electricity demand
  • Transforming the electricity system
  • Mitigating and adapting to climate change
As the report’s authors note, “renewables are increasingly the most economic option for new generation capacity, especially for countries that depend on fuel oil for power generation, such as many in Central America and the Caribbean.”………

The report claims that, even dismissing large-scale hydro, Latin America and the Caribbean have the potential to generate more than 78,000 TWh of electricity from renewable energy sources, enough to meet the region’s current and future energy needs many times over.

“The falling prices of renewables, their abundance, their complementarity, and their reliability today make renewable energy an economically favorable alternative to all conventional technologies in almost all countries of the region—if there is open and fair competition,” says Ochs. “But in many places, existing policies still support fossil fuels, and additional hindrances often exist, including social, market, and finance barriers. Governments have a responsibility to address these, and multilateral banks have important tools to support them.” http://cleantechnica.com/2014/12/12/renewable-energy-growth-opportunities-latin-america-caribbean/

December 13, 2014 Posted by | OCEANIA, renewable | Leave a comment

USA resists tightening international safety rules on nuclear reactors

safety-symbol-Smflag_RussiaFlag-USARussian Nuclear Safety Proposal Put Focus on U.S. Reactors Bloomberg, By Jonathan Tirone  Dec 10, 2014 Russia scaled back opposition to European proposals to improve the safety of nuclear power, leaving the U.S. as the main dissenter to new rules intended to avoid a repeat of Japan’s 2011 meltdown in Fukushima.

Russia changed its stance at a Dec. 4 meeting of nuclear diplomats, setting out the Moscow government’s view of new rules to limit radioactive contamination in the event of a nuclear accident, according to a copy of the 13-page presentation seen by Bloomberg. The move raised the chances of a deal to strengthen the Convention on Nuclear Safety, according to three Western diplomats present at the meeting, who asked not to be identified because the talks were private.

The European Union is trying to find a path to tighter safety rules for the world’s aging nuclear reactors with its relationship with Russia overshadowed by the conflict in Ukraine. Yet it’s the U.S., the world’s biggest nuclear-power generator, that is proving the biggest obstacle, the diplomats said, as company investments in reactor safety lag those of European peers.

U.S. resistance to the European safety proposals is a “serious concern,” Senators Barbara Boxerand Edward Markey said in a Dec. 1 letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Allison Macfarlane. The Democrats urged U.S. diplomats to work with “international partners” to amend safety flaws exposed by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-Ichi meltdowns.

Two Proposals

Russia abandoned its opposition to tightening international rules on reactor safety the day after reports of a nuclear accident in Ukraine. The reported mishap — which ultimately proved to be false — roiled markets and sent Ukrainian bond yields to a record high. The 1986 meltdown of a Soviet-built reactor in Chernobyl, about 80 miles north of the capital Kiev, weighed on Ukraine’s budget for decades and resulted in a 2,600 square kilometer (1,000 square miles) exclusion zone.

The European proposal would compel nuclear operators to both prevent accidents and, should they occur, mitigate the effects of radioactive contamination. Most controversially, the treaty change would also force potentially costly upgrades at existing plants.

More than half of the world’s 438 reactors were built at least 30 years ago and are nearing the age when they’ll need special attention, according to International Atomic Energy Agency statistics………

“People in the U.S. don’t realize that in many ways our nuclear safety standards lag behind those inEurope,” former NRC commissioner Victor Gilinsky said in a written reply to questions. “The German and French containment structures are generally more formidable than ours and those reactors generally have more protection systems.”……

Regulators worldwide have tried to boost safety standards in response to the Fukushima meltdown, which forced 160,000 people to flee radioactive contamination after a tsunami flooded safety back-up systems.

The NRC is still working out the parameters on how it values human lives at risk from a nuclear accident, spokesman Scott Burnell said. The value helps determine how much nuclear-plant operators need to spend on backfitting reactors with new safety gear. The NRC was criticized Dec. 3 by Boxer, chairman of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works committee, for being slow to ensure plant safety improvements.

“Some reactor operators are still not in compliance with the safety requirements that were in place before the Fukushima disaster,” Boxer said. “This is unacceptable.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/russian-concessions-on-nuclear-safety-put-focus-on-u-s-reactors.html

December 13, 2014 Posted by | Russia, safety, USA | Leave a comment

Palisades Nuclear Plant safety violation

safety-symbol-SmNRC finds Palisades Nuclear Plant safety violation involving monitoring workers for radiation By Emily Monacelli | emonacel@mlive.com COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI, 11 Dec 14  — Federal regulators found a safety violation involving monitoring of workers for radiation exposure at the Palisades nuclear power plant inCovert Township early this year, according to a report……. David Lochbaum, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Nuclear Safety Project, expressed concern Thursday about a report recently released that showed NRC inspectors examined 20 components at Palisades and found 10 low-level safety violations. Lochbaum said it is alarming that the problems were found by NRC inspectors and not first by Entergy workers.

“You have to do more than fix these violations,” Lochbaum said, adding that to prevent recurrences requires that Palisades operators get to the root of the problems. http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2014/12/palisades_safety_violation.html

December 13, 2014 Posted by | incidents, USA | Leave a comment

1,000 MW of renewable energy contracts for South Africa

South Africa to announce 1,000 MW of renewable energy contracts Fri Dec 12, 2014 JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africa will announce a series of renewable energy projects on Monday that will add 1,000 megawatts (MW) of power into the country’s constrained electricity grid, sources close to the deals told Reuters……http://af.reuters.com/article/investingNews/idAFKBN0JQ19W20141212

December 13, 2014 Posted by | renewable, South Africa | Leave a comment

Iran and other countries look forward to business boom when nuclear deal is achieved

diplomacy-not-bombsAnticipating Nuclear Deal and End to Sanctions, Iran Awaits a Business Boom, NYT By  DEC. 12, 2014 “……….it is almost an article of faith in business circles that the latest extension is only the postponement of an inevitable thaw between Iran and the rest of the world…………

“The world needs this deal, we need this deal,” Ms. Moghimi said. “It will happen.”

Both moderates and conservatives have expressed concerns about the unchecked rise in expectations, among the public as well as elite business classes, that a deal will be cinched. They have been warning that the enthusiasm could turn to bitter disappointment if the negotiations, set to resume in Geneva next week, should fail, possibly touching off unrest or what some clerics call “another sedition,” a reference to the revolt that followed disputed presidential elections in 2009…….

The wave of optimism began with the election of a moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, who promised to mend Iran’s ties with the world. Mr. Rouhani continues to encourage that thinking, saying just last week that the “nuclear issue would be brought to its destination.” His foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, promised after the most recent extension that a nuclear deal can happen “within weeks.”

The heightened expectations are not solely to be found among Iranians. The flow of foreign delegations to Iran continues at a steady pace, bringing eager businessmen who in conferences laud Iran’s unique geographical position, its stability and largely untapped market of middle-class consumers………http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/13/world/middleeast/anticipating-nuclear-deal-and-end-to-sanctions-iran-awaits-a-business-boom.html

December 13, 2014 Posted by | business and costs, Iran, politics international | Leave a comment

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