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Bill Gates now promoting renewables (? not nuclear)

Bill Gates Provides Boost To Renewable Energy Storage Company Aquion Energy April 3, 2013  Clean Technica Nicholas Brown

Bill Gates, the well known co-founder of Microsoft, has decided to provide a financial boost to renewable energy storage research and development (R&D). He is one member of a group of high-profile investors who are investing $35 million into Aquion energy.

The company is creating a water-based battery system intended to be cheap and environmentally friendly. Aquion’s energy storage technology is reportedly being developed for large- and small-scale energy storage projects, and the company is delivering pre-production energy storage units throughout this year, with the intention to ramp up production at a high-volume manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania by the end of 2013. http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/03/bill-gates-provides-boost-to-renewable-energy-storage/#XErorPJRkTq1fT8b.99

 

April 4, 2013 Posted by | business and costs, renewable | Leave a comment

Gallup poll shows Americans want solar and wind power

renewable-energy-pictureSurvey Says: Americans Want More Solar And Wind Flag-USAPower, by Energy Matters 3 April 13 As the USA seeks to consolidate its domestic energy industry, a nation-wide poll has revealed two-thirds of Americans support solar and wind power over oil and nuclear energy.

Production of coal proved least popular, with just one in three people surveyed supporting it as the primary solution to future energy independence.

The Gallup poll asked respondents to categorise the emphasis they believe should be placed on a range of domestic energy production sources.

The poll found an overwhelming 76 percent of all Americans wanted more emphasis placed on producing domestic energy using solar power, followed closely by wind energy (71 percent), then natural gas (65 percent), oil (46 percent), nuclear (37 percent), and coal (31 percent)…. http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3669

April 3, 2013 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Birthpangs of a new capitalist industry – China’s solar technology

sunWhat’s going on with Chinese solar? The Conversation,  John Mathews, 27 March 2013 ”…..  The birth pangs of a capitalist industry What we’re seeing is the birth pangs of a new, capitalist industry. We should be rejoicing that some companies are going bankrupt – it shows that the flag-Chinaindustry really is competitive, and not subject to arbitrary state control.

There have been comparable episodes at the birth of every major industry. Detroit boasted hundreds of auto companies in the 1910s and 1920s before bankruptcies and consolidation led to the creation of the Big Three – Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Likewise in electronics and computers. Now it is the turn of solar photovoltaics.

China has created an astonishingly successful solar photovoltaic industry, far beyond the imaginings of commentators even ten years ago. A decision was taken at the highest levels that China needed to promote renewable energy industries to complement and offset its rapid escalation of coal-burning and fossil fuel driven industrialisation. Continue reading →

March 30, 2013 Posted by | China, renewable | Leave a comment

Tokyo has the storage capacity for a solar powered city

sunA Solar Powered Tokyo? http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3661 28 March 13 Much of Tokyo’s power needs once supplied by nuclear power could be met by rooftop solar along with energy storage systems already in place.

flag-japanNuclear is still a dirty word to many in Japan following the Fukushima crisis, a disaster that will continue to negatively affect a large area for many years to come.

While solar power offers an attractive alternative; the issue remains of continual supply – particularly at night and during heavily overcast days.

A recent study examining the potential for rooftop photovoltaics in Tokyo to replace nuclear capacity reveals some of the answer is already in place – pumped hydroelectric storage. Continue reading →

March 29, 2013 Posted by | energy storage, Japan | Leave a comment

Solar energy systems for all new homes, rules Californian City Council

CALIFORNIA CITY TO REQUIRE SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS ON ALL NEW HOMES  HTTP://E360.YALE.EDU/DIGEST/LANCASTER_CALIFORNIA_TO_REQUIRE_SOLAR_ENERGY_SYSTEMS_ON_NEW_HOMES/3804/ 28 MAR 2013: A city in southern California this week passed a zoning regulation that requires developers to install solar power systems on every new house they build. Beginning next year, all new homes built on lots at at least 7,000 square feet in size in Lancaster, Calif. will be required to produce at least one kilowatt of solar electricity. Developers also have the option of purchasing solar energy credits from other developments within the city limits. The new zoning rules are the latest initiative in Mayor Rex Parris’s quest to make Lancaster, which has a population of 150,000 and abundant sunshine, the “solar capital of the universe.” Since 2008, the city has also introduced an initiative to attract utility-scale solar developers to the city, proposed a transmission project to deliver solar-generated power to other communities, and created an affordable solar financing program for homeowners, businesses, and nonprofits. “To truly establish ourselves as the alternative energy capital of the world, we must continue to take a progressive approach,” Parris, a Republican, said in a statement.

March 29, 2013 Posted by | decentralised, USA | Leave a comment

Small scale renewable energy storage

Small-scale energy storage project wins Australian Government backing PACE – Process and Control Engineering 22 March, 2013 Kevin Gomez Australian energy storage company Ecoulthas been awarded Australian Government funding through the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

The funds will be used to conduct small/ mid-sized storage project development using Deka UltraBattery technology to deliver cost effective storage solutions for homes and businesses in Australia and around the world.

This pilot will develop a battery storage system prototype for three types of deficit charge/distributed energy applications:

  • Off-grid renewable power solutions (Remote Area Power Supply);
  • Distributed grid connected storage to support voltage and power fluctuations that arise where there is dense concentration of small roof-top solar installations in residential areas; and
  • Hybrid generation (such as diesel plus renewables) to improve fuel efficiencies.

Ecoult CEO John Wood said the ARENA grant was a strong vote of confidence in the Australian-invented technology……

The pilot project will extend the collaboration between Ecoult, its US-based parent company East Penn Manufacturing and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

Research partner CSIRO, which originally invented the Deka UltraBattery technology, will also play an important role in this pilot project, developing intelligent algorithms that improve the integration of Deka Ultrabattery units with the Solar PV panels and increase the value derived from each kWh of energy storage…… http://www.pacetoday.com.au/news/small-scale-energy-storage-project-wins-australian

March 22, 2013 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, energy storage | Leave a comment

Koch brothers and fossil fuel front groups are not winning in Kansas

Koch-climate-changeKansas Ignores Koch Brothers, Keeps Renewable Energy Standard Clean Technica, March 2, 2013 The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that twin votes in Kansas State House and Senate on Thursday put the kibosh on legislative efforts to roll back and delay Kansas’ renewable energy standard (RES).

Passed in 2009, Kansas’ RES requires investor-owned utilities to generate 20 percent of peak demand electrical capacity from renewable sources by 2020. The American Wind Energy Association has actually highlighted the RES as a driving factor in the states burgeoning wind power sector — half of Kansas’ wind farms began operating between 2010 and 2012, after the RES went into effect.

Unfortunately, Kansas has also been targeted by conservative anti-renewable efforts. Republican Rep. Dennis Hedke, the chairman of Kansas’ House Energy and Environment Committee, recently acknowledged he had private talks with a lobbyist for Koch Companies Public Sector LLC concerning the House bill to dilute the RES. (HB 2241) Even anti-tax activist Graver Norquist got in on the action, telling the state’s legislature it ought to abandon the “costly renewable energy mandate so as to mitigate its negative impact on the economy.”

But to Kansas’ credit, it looks like neither effort bore fruit: Continue reading →

March 4, 2013 Posted by | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Ontario shutting down coal fired power, going for renewables

Ontario to add renewable energy, shut coal-fired power plants Mar 1,
2013     (Reuters) – Ontario’s power grid operator expects more than
3,200 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity to be connected to the
transmission system, while the province’s remaining coal-fired plants
will shut over the next 18 months.
In a report published on Thursday, the Independent Electricity
System Operator (IESO) said the renewable capacity
includes the Canadian province’s first two transmission grid-connected
solar projects.
By August 2014, the IESO said total wind and solar generation
connected to the transmission and distribution systems is expected to
reach about 6,800 MW.
“Integrating renewable resources into Ontario’s changing supply
mix has been a learning process for both us and the renewable
generators,” Bruce Campbell, IESO Vice-President of Resource
Integration, said in the release.
“Everything we’ve learned will be applied in the coming months as
wind and solar gain even more prominence on the grid,” he
said……..http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/01/utilities-ontario-ieso-idUSL1N0BT5TX2013030

March 2, 2013 Posted by | Canada, renewable | Leave a comment

Elderly Australians ill due to extreme heat – solar air-conditioning is the answer

Solar-air-conditioningGrandparents Carking It In The Heat? Install Renewable Energy!, Clean Technica March 1, 2013 Ronald Brakels
World temperatures are rising, resulting in increasing mortality from heat stress. Or to put it another way, more people are dropping dead because it’s too damn hot. Unfortunately this is nothing new in Australia. Dropping dead from damn hotness has always been popular in these parts. Here in South Australia about 75 people currently die from it each year.
But as our population gets older and we slowly cook the planet, the number of deaths from it being too damn hot has the potential to sky-rocket.
One of the factors in Australia contributing to old people carking it in the heat has been increases in electricity prices. Apparently some old people are too price sensitive to turn on the air conditioner even when the temperature approaches the too hot to live limit. But a much bigger problem is that as people age they tend to lose the ability to tell that it’s too damn hot and so can pass into suffering from heat stress without realizing it. And then there are elderly people living in poverty who can’t afford electricity to run the air conditioner………

Other people building wind turbines or installing solar on their roofs can push down electricity prices for everyone and help prevent old people from dying when it’s too damn hot, but an excellent way to keep down electricity prices for the elderly is to put solar panels on the roofs of any old people whom you’d like to see continue to shuffle around on this mortal coil.

Rooftop solar is especially good for powering air conditioners as it produces the most electricity on hot, cloudless, summer days. It is particularly good for air conditioning when it faces west, or partially west, as then it can produce plenty of power all through the afternoon. It will produce less electricity when it’s cloudy, but it’s not so hot when it’s cloudy, so that’s not a real problem. And sure, it can still be hot after the sun goes down, but that’s not such a big deal if the house is already cool. No one is likely to die from it being too damn hot if they turn off their air conditioner at sunset.

For most Australians the feed-in tariff for new solar is now about 8 cents a kilowatt-hour. This means it will cost a person with a couple of kilowatts or more of rooftop solar perhaps 18 cents an hour to run a room air conditioner in a heat wave. Considering that ice-cream cones can cost $7.50 here, that’s a pretty good deal and only the most price sensitive of Australians would be too cheap to turn on the air conditioner at that cost.

http://cleantechnica.com/2013/03/01/grandparents-carking-it-in-the-heat-install-renewable-energy/#lfKdC3gHyCRMM48b.99

March 2, 2013 Posted by | AUSTRALIA, renewable | Leave a comment

100% renewable energy – it’s happenng

These are just a handful of examples in what amounts to the beginnings of a global movement. Go100Percent.org, a project launched to track 100% renewable energy projects around the world, has mapped more than 8 Countries, 41 Cities, 48 Regions, 8 Utilities, and 21 NonProfit/Educational/Public Institutions that have shifted or are committed to shifting within the next few decades to 100% renewable energy in at least one sector.

 Basic logic says that non-renewable energy, by definition, is finite and will run out.

100% Renewable Energy: Becoming the New Normal?  http://cleantechnica.com/2013/02/22/100-renewable-energy-becoming-the-new-normal/#tdSoYvM5qMkJWZmy.99  February 22, 2013

By Diane Moss, Founding Director of Renewables 100 Policy Institute A decade ago, cities, regions, and businesses aiming for 20% renewable energy were on the cutting edge. Few believed that a higher target in a few decades was an achievable goal. Anyone even suggesting a target of 100% renewable energy was a radical. Fast forward to today and in much of Europe, and increasingly in the U.S. and the developing world, 100% renewable energy goals are becoming the new normal.

Entire countries like Denmark have passed laws requiring that the whole energy supply — electricity, heating/cooling, and transportation — be met by renewable resources. The Pacific island of Tokelau, which risks disappearing as climate change raises sea levels, is one nation that has already met the goal of 100% renewable energy supply, throwing down the gauntlet to far larger polluters around the world who are truly causing the problem.

Iceland is almost there, with 100% renewable electricity and 81% renewable energy overall.

Scotland has a mandate to achieve 100% renewable power supply by 2020.

Upper Austria, inspired by the town of Guessing, which is already there, has a target to achieve 100% renewable heat and power by 2030.

Whole regions in Germany are already meeting, if not surpassing, their power demand with renewables. Several have done the same for their heating requirements, and are busy working toward targets for integrating the transportation sector.

In the U.S, cities like San Francisco, Lancaster, and San José have set official goals to reach 100% renewable power within the next decade, and the state of Vermont has an energy plan in place to reach 90% renewable energy in all sectors by mid century. The heartland town of Greensburg, KS has already reached a 100% renewable power goal set after being destroyed by a tornado in 2007, and aims to achieve renewable energy for all sectors.

Additionally, businesses including IKEA, Whole Foods, and Google are aiming to power, or already are powering, their companies with 100% renewable energy technologies. Continue reading →

February 24, 2013 Posted by | ACTION, renewable | Leave a comment

Britain’s schools to use crowdfunding to go for solar energy

Crowdfunding Solar Schools In Britain http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3606, 22 Feb 13,  Schools in the UK wanting to go solar but that are strapped for cash are able to participate in a new crowdfunding service. Continue reading →

February 22, 2013 Posted by | decentralised, UK | Leave a comment

Secret funding supplied to USA anti-wind power front groups

secret-agentMedia campaign against windfarms funded by anonymous conservatives http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/feb/15/media-campaign-windfarms-conservatives/print  , US environment correspondent   guardian.co.uk,  15 February 2013  

Secretive funding network channelled millions to stop state governments moving towards renewable energy Conservatives used a pair of secretive trusts to fund a media campaign against windfarms and solar projects, and to block state agencies from planning for future sea-level rise, the Guardian has learned.

The trusts, Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund, served as the bankers of the conservative movement over the past decade. Promising anonymity to their conservative billionaire patrons, the trusts between them channelled nearly $120m to contrarian thinktanks and activists, wrecking the chances of getting Congress to act on climate change.

Now the Guardian can reveal the latest project of the secretive funding network: a campaign to stop state governments moving towards renewable energy.

The campaign against wind and solar power was led by a relatively new entity, theFranklin Centre for Government and Public Integrity. The Franklin Centre did not exist before 2009, but it has quickly become a protege of Donors Trust. Continue reading →

February 16, 2013 Posted by | renewable, secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA | Leave a comment

See this: low cost boadband Internet – solar powered – for rural Africa

see-this.wayVideo: Microsoft Providing Low-Cost, Solar-Powered Broadband Access In Africa http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3595  15 Feb 13, Early this month, Microsoft Corp announced the launch of a pilot project delivering low-cost wireless broadband access in parts of Kenya via solar-powered base stations.

   A project carried out in collaboration with the government of Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communications and Indigo Telecom Ltd.,  the network utilizes TV white spaces to carry broadband signals to previously unserved locations near Nanyuki and Kalema. The project is the first deployment of TV white space technology in Africa.

TV white spaces are well-suited for delivering low-cost broadband access as radio signals in the TV bands can be transmitted over longer distances and penetrate more obstacles than other types of radio signals. As a result, fewer base stations are required.

Microsoft says that as television has begun to switch from analog to digital around the world, even more of this spectrum can be used to relay broadband.

More than 6,000 people will benefit from the project; which is part of theMicrosoft 4Afrika Initiative. In addition, solar power systems with deep cycle battery energy storage will be installed at local schools to supply electricity to their Information & Communication Technology (ICT) labs. Each system will generate 4.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per day, which should provide a small surplus of power above what is required for each lab.

While 4.5 kilowatt hours doesn’t sound like a great deal, it will be sufficient for students to use tablets and eReaders in the labs.

“Solar power addresses the issue of reliability in developing economies and carries low operating costs since panels last a long time and batteries can function for up to three years,” says a statement from Microsoft.

“That makes solar an increasingly affordable way to deliver power, especially in areas that lack infrastructure for both electricity transmission and broadband access.”

February 15, 2013 Posted by | AFRICA, decentralised, Resources -audiovicual | Leave a comment

Small scale solar energy will revolutionise Ghana’s rural communities

Solar energy to power rural electricity launched, Ghana Business News, February 10, 2013 A new life changing solar energy system aimed at augmenting rural electricity power generation using the sun’s direct energy has been launched in Accra.

Dubbed Solar2Africa400, the system consists of a portable folding solar panel, a cable, a connector and a 400-watt power inverter.

It is aimed at responding to the growing demand for off-grid electrification solutions and support government’s efforts at cutting down the cost of extending the national grid to island and lakeside communities.

The innovation was born out of collaboration between Power for Africa, a United Kingdom based company, which designed the system for developing countries such as Ghana and Gem Technologies, a Ghanaian company. Continue reading →

February 11, 2013 Posted by | AFRICA, decentralised | Leave a comment

Germany moving ahead with solar energy storage

Germany To Announce Energy Storage Subsidy? http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3584 Germany blazed the trail for solar PV uptake and it appears the nation may be about to do the same for energy storage.

  Rumour has it that early this week Germany’s government will announce an initiative to support the purchase of battery based energy storage systems integrated with solar panel arrays.

Owners of solar power systems up to 30kW capacity will be entitled to low-interest loans from state-owned bank KfW and a repayment allowance from the Ministry of Environment that will cover 30% of the cost of an energy storage system. Continue reading →

February 11, 2013 Posted by | energy storage, Germany | Leave a comment

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