South Africa’s sweeping energy evolution
|Tags: Africa & Middle East, Clean Energy, Coal-fired Power, Financing & Economics, Nuclear In four short years, South Africa’s energy infrastructure has undergone a dramatic evolution, with renewable energy quickly replacing traditional coal-fired power. In 2007, construction began on two new coal-fired power stations with a combined capacity of 9.6...
Dutch vote opens door to closing coal plants
|Tags: Climate, Coal-fired Power, Europe As a result of a nonbinding motion by the Dutch parliament to cut the country’s CO2 emissions 55 percent by 2030, decision-makers are now considering the possibility of retiring the five remaining coal-burning power plants operating in the Netherlands. The...
Read more“There was a big solar boom in the 80s, and then it fell apart, and then a boom in the 90s, and then it fell apart. This latest solar boom really has not fallen apart despite oil really coming down in cost, and I think the market finally evolved.”
– Matt James, managing partner at investment firm Roundrock Capital Partners, on the market maturation of the solar industry and the financial community’s increasing comfort level in large-scale, securitized investments.
Read more“[Clean coal] is a spin that just isn’t going to work.”
– Jon Davies, president of coal-industry PR firm Davies Public Affairs, speaking at a coal marketing conference in Pittsburgh
Read more“[Rural electric] cooperatives that project a negative view of renewables are really taking a risk of being out of sync with their members.”
– Tom Laing, a vice president with Touchstone Energy’s market research organization, on the results of a nationwide survey of customers showing strong support for renewable energy
Poll: Ohio Republicans want more renewables
|Tags: Clean Energy, Coal-fired Power, Energy Efficiency, North America, Public Opinion, Solar, Wind Republicans and conservative independents in Ohio strongly support the development of renewable energy, according to findings from a new poll conducted by a GOP polling firm. Among the findings from the survey of 400 Ohio voters: 82 percent of conservative voters want...
U.S.’s first wave-energy project goes online
|Tags: Clean Energy, Hydroelectric/Tidal Power, Innovation, North America The installation of two buoys less than a mile off the Hawaiian coast marks the first fully functioning venture into wave-energy technology in the United States. As the buoys bob up and down, they turn energy from the ocean’s movement into electricity, which travels...
Experts: bigger turbines = lower energy costs
|Tags: Financing & Economics, Global, Innovation, Wind The cost of electricity generated by wind should plunge between 24 and 30 percent by 2030, and even further by the middle of the century, according to a survey of 163 wind energy experts completed by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the...
U.S. coal woes continue through first half of 2016
|Tags: Coal Production, Financing & Economics, North America Led by significant cuts in output from the Powder River Basin, U.S. coal production in the first half of 2016 dropped 26 percent from the same period the previous year. According to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence, coal production was at 778...
Read more“[The grid is] moving away from a passive to an active grid … solar, wind and electrical storage devices, power that not only flows from the utility to the customer, but now from the customer back to the utility.”
– Steve Griffith, of the National Electrical Manufacturing Association on the expected rapid growth of microgrids
Read more“In the five stages of grief, we’re past denial. Now we’re into anger, depression and bargaining — and the bargaining is trying to figure out what the new normal is and how to make this work.”
– University of Wyoming energy economics professor Robert Godby, quoted in a Bloomberg story on the impacts of the coal industry’s decline on his state.
Global coal plant pipeline is shrinking
|Tags: Asia & India, Coal-fired Power, Global The amount of coal-fired power under development worldwide dropped dramatically in the first half of 2016, according to a survey by CoalSwarm’s Global Coal Plant Tracker. Overall, the “coal plant pipeline” – the total amount of coal-fired generating capacity in...
Read more“[A]ny investors basing their investment decisions on coal and gas continuing to be the cheapest source of electricity could be deeply misguided.”
– From an analysis by the Carbon Tracker Initiative showing that the global average levelized cost of energy for renewables is now below fossil fuels, even without subsidies.
Brits OK world’s biggest offshore wind farm
|Tags: Europe, Jobs, Wind The British government has approved construction of what will likely be the world’s biggest offshore wind farm 55 miles off the English coast. The Hornsea Project Two farm will have up to 300 turbines and a total capacity of 1.8 gigawatts, enough energy to power...
Montanans show strong support for clean energy
|Tags: Clean Energy, Coal-fired Power, North America, Public Opinion Polling results from Montana indicate that even with coal as a historic foundation of the state’s economy, voters are looking forward and strongly support a number of clean energy policies. The September 2016 poll, conducted for the Montana Conservation Voters...
WA regulator moves state further from coal
|Tags: Coal-fired Power, Consumer Impacts, Financing & Economics, North America, Utilities The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has issued several orders that highlight the state’s intentional move away from coal as a source of electricity. First, the UTC allowed PacifiCorp, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican...
Transmission buildout would save billions
|Tags: Clean Power Plan, Consumer Impacts, North America, Transmission A new study shows that proactively building a more robust transmission grid to accommodate the nation’s shifting energy infrastructure will yield net savings in total generation and transmission investment costs ranging from $30 billion to $70 billion through...
PTC extension fueling big U.S. wind expansion
|Tags: North America, Utilities, Wind With long-term stability provided by Congress’s five-year extension last December of the renewable energy Production Tax Credit, the wind industry has moved on a number of large deals through the first half of 2016. More than 18 gigawatts of new wind projects...
AZ regulator poses doubling of renewables
|Tags: North America, Solar, Utilities The head of the Arizona’s utility regulating body wants to double the amount of renewable energy that utilities in the state are required to provide to customers. Arizona Corporation Chairman Doug Little has proposed requiring utilities to raise the bar on...
Renewables trends make CPP make $ense
|Tags: Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, North America, Solar, Wind As the U.S. courts prepare to hear arguments over the Clean Power Plan, posts by NRDC and EDF provide an overview of the developments on clean energy across the country that are positioning states to easily meet the plan’s goals and benefit economically at the...
Read more“If all the benefits are accounted for, distributed solar will be recorded as the least-cost technology. But we have utilities trying to deny the benefits of solar.”
– Kris Mayes, former Arizona Corporation Commission member, on an ACC docket looking at the value of solar
Read more“Stuff is getting cheaper. You can’t hold back the tide of renewable energy. The dam is about to break.”
– Chris Riley, president of Guzman Energy, whose company is challenging the utility status quo by offering customers flexible, market-based contracts that it says avoid the inefficiencies of owning generating assets.
Texas coal plants are hemmorhaging money
|Tags: Coal-fired Power, Financing & Economics, North America, Solar, Wind Increasing competition from low-cost natural gas and wind and solar energy are driving fundamental changes in the Texas electricity market that are putting coal-fired power plants under increasing financial stress, according to a study by the Institute for Energy...
Read more“Having more wind and solar in the grid, they’re going to act to keep energy market prices down.
It’s a market transformation, and it’s not a temporary phenomenon.”
– David Schlissel of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis on the trends making Texas coal-fired power plants uneconomic to run.
Think wind is cheap now? Wait until 2030
|Tags: Financing & Economics, Wind According to a survey of energy experts worldwide, the already inexpensive nature of wind power are only going to get cheaper in the coming years. The survey, conducted by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory...
Read more“Utility-scale solar is now spreading to the Southeast, to Texas, and we are even seeing reasonably priced projects in the Upper Midwest, in states like Minnesota and Michigan.”
– Lawrence Berkeley National Lab researcher Mark Bolinger commenting in Utility Dive on a report he authored on the trend of solar gaining a foothold across all parts of the United States.
“The fact that solar is becoming more cost-effective is likely to make utilities more interested in the prospect of ownership.”
|Tags: Consumer Impacts, Financing & Economics, North America, Solar, Utilities – Galen Barbose, lead author of a Lawrence Berkeley National Lab analysis that tracks the price of solar PV in the United States, as quoted in Utility...
Alpha’s last Ky. coal mine to close its doors
|Tags: Coal Production, Financing & Economics, North America Bankrupt coal producer Alpha Natural Resources has announced that it will close its last mine in Kentucky in November. An estimated 117 workers at the Process Energy mine in Pike County coal mine will be laid off. An Alpha spokesman said the decision to shutter the...
PJM power market says it can meet CPP targets
|Tags: Clean Power Plan, Consumer Impacts, Financing & Economics, North America, Transmission The operator of the largest power market in the United States has determined that it can meet the goals of Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan with minimal impact on electricity prices. The PJM Interconnection, which oversees power distribution in mid-Atlantic...
Norway blackballs Duke from investments
|Tags: Coal-fired Power, Europe, Financing & Economics The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has blackballed any future investments in America’s largest utility. The executive board of Norges Bank, which oversees Norway’s $900 billion investment fund, voted to exclude Duke Energy from its investments...