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2012-02-04SFGate:
The price of renewable power contracts signed by California utilities more than doubled from 2003 through 2011 but has now started to plunge, according to a long-awaited state report issued Friday. New contract bids submitted to the utilities last year were about 30 % lower than in 2009, according to the report.
Read more PwC: Deals for ‘new generation’ renewable technologies – wind, solar, biomass - are entering the big time driving the market to new record highs, reports PwC in its annual global analysis of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions in the renewable sector.
Read more Oilprice: “It seems that more and more large, renewable energy projects are being announced each day. The most recent is a giant solar power plant that will be built by Top Oilfield Services, a Tunisian oil and gas engineering company, and Nur Energie, a British solar firm. The project, called TuNur, will consist of a 2 GW concentrated solar power (CSP) park”.
Read more WindPowerMonthly: US developers installed 6,8 GW over 2011, a 31% rise on last year, with California, Ohio and Idaho the fastest growing states.
Read more PowerEngineering: In his Jan. 24 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama reinstated his commitment to renewable energy. Despite the demise of solar manufacturer Solyndra looming over the past year of his term, Obama said that he “will not walk away from the promise of clean energy.”
Read more SolarPowerPortal: A new report published by analysis company Bloomberg New Energy Finance has found that cost effective, grid-scale energy storage could be closer than previously thought. One of the largest barriers to the mass adoption of solar technology has always been the intermittent generation of electricity that is supplied to the grid, as it peaks during the day when demand is typically low. Solutions to capture the intermittent energy generated by solar have always been too costly to implement in any meaningful scale.
Read more CleanTechnica: Despite disproportionate support for fossil fuels, a November 25, 2011 Bloomberg article reveals that in terms of new power-plant investments, renewable energy is surpassing fossil fuels for the first time. Electricity generated by wind, sun, waves and biomass drew $187 billion last year, compared with $157 billion for natural gas, oil and coal. Last year was also the first time expenditure in developing countries exceeded that of the industrialized world.
Read more Yahoo: A fledgling but fast-growing solar technology that multiplies the sun’s power up to many hundreds of times promises to deliver cheaper electricity than traditional panels and has received the backing of some major industry players. Called concentrating photovoltaic solar, or CPV, the technology is best suited for very sunny, desert-like locations and could face some near-term challenges. Those include a sharp drop in the price of its top competition – mainstream solar panels.
Read more IBTimes: China’s solar energy goals for 2015, in the last year, have gone from 5 GW to 10 GW… to 15GW. Last year, on the last day of the year(!), China seemed to reach a total of 1 GW of installed solar power in 2011. This was the first time the country hit that amount, of course. (Note: the U.S. hit that same milestone in 2011, but a little earlier in the year - in September.) That brought China’s total installed solar capacity to about 2 GW (yes, approximately doubling its cumulative capacity).
Read more Reuters: Private investment funds Terra Nex of Switzerland and Germany’s Middle East Best Select (MEBS) plan to build 400 megawatts (MW) of solar power generating capacity in Oman, the European investors said on Sunday.
Read more Bloomberg: Global investment in clean energy reached a new record of $260bn in 2011, up 5% on 2010 and almost five times the total of $53.6bn in 2004. Investment in solar far outstripped that in wind, and perhaps of most note, US clean energy investment moved back ahead of China for the first time since 2008, according to the latest authoritative data from analysis company Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Read more TheMotleyFool: Even in a tough year for solar manufacturers, the world’s biggest solar market reached a new record for installations. German regulatory agency Bundesnetzagentur said the country installed 7,5 GW of solar power in 2011, just beating out 2010’s record of 7,4 GW.
Read more ArabNews: The march continues — all around the globe. By 2030, almost 15,7 % of the world’s energy will be coming from renewable sources. This is significant. And despite hiccups, global renewable spending is projected to hit the $7 trillion mark by then, the Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) says in a recently unveiled report. It predicts investments in the sector doubling from 2010’s record-breaking $195 billion, to $395 billion in 2020, before reaching $460 billion in 2030.
Read more WindDaily: China has a great potential for offshore wind power, up to 750 GW, or three times that of onshore wind resources, says China Meteorological Administration, with industrial centers on the eastern and southern coasts showing the greatest promise.
Read more CleanTechnica: Various arguments — some exaggerated, some plainly false — have been made over the years by those opposed to rapid expansion of renewable energy. They say solar and wind energy won’t work, or that they can’t supply consistent power, or that they can’t be expanded fast enough to meet our needs. Fortunately, one by one, improvements in technology have proven these arguments to be untrue.
Read more CleanTechnica: Germany’s solar energy output surged 60% to 18 TWh in 2011, accounting for more than 3% of national electricity generation, national industry association Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft (BSW) announced yesterday. Overall, renewable energy accounted for 19,9% of German power production in 2011, according to preliminary totals, as compared to 16,4% in 2010.
Read more Grist: India set a goal to build 20 GW of solar – an enormous amount – by 2020. The haters said at first that the country might not make it, but lately India’s plan is seeming smarter than anyone imagined. Plus, it’s creating jobs – both in India and in America! What’s leading to its success?
Read more RenewableEnergyWorld: Renewable energy capacity will more than triple, while doubling its overall percentage of the U.S. energy mix, by 2036. In addition, natural gas could overtake coal as the primary fuel for U.S. power generation. These conclusions and many more are among key findings from Black & Veatch’s year-end Energy Market Perspective (EMP).
Read more AWEA: Wind power hits 20% overall in two states. It contributes a record 50% for a period of time in another. And the turbines that pump out all those electrons? Their cost has dropped 33%. The wind power industry never sits still in any given year, and 2011 was no different, as it forged ahead with a slew of benchmarks, policy progress, and hard data that illustrate wind energy continuing its march forward as a mainstream, reliable and affordable energy source made in America.
Read more AsiaNews: Bangladesh government’s policy to promote renewable energy has lured a large number of new entrants into the business, particularly for solar panel installations. In the last two years, nearly 100 firms and NGOs have appeared on the scene to sell technologies including solar home systems, irrigation pumps, water heaters, street lights and their accessories and batteries. The Bangladesh government has taken a policy to meet 5 percent of the country’s energy demand through green energy by 2015 and 10 per cent by 2020.
Read more GulfToday: The combined value of renewable energy projects confirmed for the Project Village at the 2012 World Future Energy Summit (WFES) has reached more than $4 billion. Those projects are on top of the large-scale investments in renewable energy under development by Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted renewable energy company and host of WFES, and other companies exhibiting at the summit in January.
Read more CleanTechnica: “German consumption of oil fell 3%, gas by 10,2%, lignite coal by 0,7% (although hard coal rose 3,7%), and nuclear by 22,9%. At the same time, use of renewable energy climbed by 4,1% and represented about 20% of the country’s electricity and 10,8% of total energy in 2011. An increase in residential and industrial efficiency combined with milder temperatures in 2011 provided the conditions for the decrease in consumption.”
Read more EnergyEfficiencyNews: The US solar energy market is getting an early Christmas present this week with the announcement of new investments by Warren Buffett and Google. Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy Holdings has made its second investment in solar power, announcing the purchase of a 49% stake in the 0,29 GW Agua Caliente project in Yuma County, Arizona being developed by NRG Energy. The $1.8 billion project is being supported by a $967 million loan guarantee from the US Department of Energy.
Read more Oilprice: Global installations in 2011 is expected to reach 23,8 GW, up 34% from last year, and following behind Italy’s 6,9 GW and Germany’s 5,9 GW as the top solar energy markets are; the United States with 2,7 GW; China with 1,7 GW; Japan with 1,3 GW, and France in sixth with approximately 1,0 GW.
Read more RenewableEnergyFocus: “The agreement fulfils ordinances to provide a 51% Renewables Portfolio Standard for the City of San Francisco’s CCA service by 2017. This promises to make San Francisco the world leader in green power, substantially reducing greenhouse gas pollution, and making innovative green technologies the standard rather than the exception, and creating new local green jobs here in San Francisco – all while maintaining competitive power bills.”
Read more RenewableEnergyWorld: Kenya is the epicenter of geothermal energy development in the region. It is estimated to have 7 GW – 10 GW of geothermal potential, and it is currently Africa’s largest geothermal producer with 0,2 GW of capacity. If geothermal’s exploration and financing challenges can be surmounted, East Africa has the potential to become the global leader in the production of the cheapest renewable energy source. Access to such low-cost energy supplies could spur economic growth and reduce poverty across the region.
Read more utexas.org: The maximum theoretical efficiency of the silicon solar cell in use today is approximately 31 percent, because much of the sun’s energy hitting the cell is too high to be turned into usable electricity. That energy, in the form of “hot electrons,” is instead lost as heat. Capturing hot electrons could potentially increase the efficiency of solar-to-electric power conversion to as high as 66 percent.
Read more PV-TECH: Despite a softening German market, PV installations globally are set to hit a record 23.8GW in 2011, an increase of 34% over 2010 figures. A changing of the guard will also take place with Italy overtaking Germany in PV installations for the first time, according to new data from market research firm IHS.
Read more TheMotleyFool: According to a recent study done by Queen’s University and Michigan Technological University, we’ve passed grid parity in many locations. The study also says that quality improvements and more time in the field mean that models should more aggressively account for degradation and predicted cash flows. Until now, models have been fairly conservative on these two counts.
Read more Forbes: Europe has been the largest solar energy market for years, but it has ceded some of the spotlight this year to India as India becomes a new frontier for American manufacturers. The Indian National Government is thinking big. It has set an ambitious goal of adding 20 GW of electric grid-connected solar projects by 2022, as well as 2 GW of off-grid solar.
Read more Professional Engineering: An “underwater kite” tidal turbine has been developed that opens up the possibility of more coastal areas being used for energy generation across Britain in the remainder of the decade.
Read more Recharge: Australia is almost halfway to its 2020 renewable energy target, mostly thanks to hydro and wind power, the country’s Clean Energy Council (CEC) says.
Read more Oilprice: In light of recent events, Japan has been urged to pay more attention to renewable energy sources. Coincidently, in the same month as one of the world’s worst nuclear crises devastated Fukushima, an incredibly innovative wind turbine system revealed itself on Kyushu University’s campus for field testing. With a promise to generate two to three times the power of traditional models, the new turbine designs exemplify the potential for a cleaner energy future in Japan and around the world, removed from the dangers of nuclear power plants.
Read more CleanTechnica: “Upgrading the energy efficiency of America’s buildings is one of the fastest, easiest and cheapest ways to save money, cut down on harmful pollution and create good jobs right now. But we can’t wait for Congress to act. And, if they won’t act, I will,” said President Obama. ”So today, I’m directing all federal agencies to make at least $2 billion worth of energy efficiency upgrades over the next 2 years – at no up-front cost to the taxpayer.”
Read more Professional Engineering: Siemens has delivered its first gearless direct drive wind turbines to a wind farm in Scotland. The SWT3.0-101 direct drive technology wind turbine requires half the parts of a conventional turbine, including a smaller number of moving parts. This allows, Siemens said, for increased output and improved maintainability, while requiring less maintenance and entailing increased profitability for customers.
Read more Forbes: Forget the fact that solar companies like Trina and Suntech have reported dismal earnings in recent weeks and fear that governments in North America, Europe and Asia will slash incentives for renewable energy. The solar industry will continue to grow, and likely even accelerate.
Read more BusinessGreen: New report shows Europe will see a huge spike in renewable energy capacity if member states meet. The coming decade will experience a 17-fold increase in offshore wind energy capacity across Europe, while concentrated solar power and marine energy should deliver similar growth rates if EU member states fulfil their stated plans to install renewable technologies.
Read more RenewableEnergyWorld: A new report released by the Technology and Policy Assessment function of the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), which addresses key controversies in the energy field, suggests that up to one fifth of global energy could be provided by biomass (plants) without damaging food production. The report reviews more than 90 global studies. A debate has been raging about the role biomass could play in the future energy system: some say it could play a major role in fueling the planet, others argue that it risks an environmental disaster. To get to the heart of the controversy, UKERC scientists at Imperial College London have undertaken a systematic review of the evidence base.
Read more Grist: Last year investors poured $187 billion into electricity from renewable sources (wind, sun, biomass, etc.), versus $157 billion for fossil fuels, calculates Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “The progress of renewables has been nothing short of remarkable,” United Nations Environment Program Executive Secretary Achim Steiner said in an interview. “You have record investment in the midst of an economic and financial crisis.”
Read more MiddleEastOnline: Two consortiums led by German, French industrial giants join forces to deploy solar panels, wind turbines across Arab deserts. A first solar field will soon get off the ground in Morocco at a cost of 1.9 billion euros. Near Ouarzazat, in central Morocco, the plant is expected to produce 0,5 GW, half the energy created by a nuclear reactor. In total, the projects are aimed meeting 15 % of Europe’s electricity demand by 2050.
Read more BusinessGreen: Renewable energy is now firmly entrenched as the world’s fastest growing energy sector, according to a major new report from the International Energy Agency released this week. The reports also repeats the IEA’s increasingly vocal predictions that several renewable energy technologies will become cost competitive with fossil fuels over the next decade, allowing renewables to emerge as the dominant energy technology.
Read more CleanTechnica: The International Energy Agency (IEA), traditionally a very fossil-fuel-friendly international agency, reported today that renewable energy is becoming cost-competitive (and should receive subsidies to account for its environmental, energy security, and health benefits).
Read more TheAdvertiser: Countries are lining up to supply a huge global market for solar energy, and it’s important for the United States to stay in the game, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Friday after touring a Colorado solar facility.
Read more CNBC: In the current economic climate of corporate thrift, the booming market for technologies to use less energy continues to attract more investor capital. According to a recent survey by Johnson Controls, the average energy efficiency investments takes around 3 yrs to pay for itself, and that short timeframe should keep the efficiency sector booming for years to come. “The world will continue to open its eyes to the massive opportunities to make buildings and factories more efficient. This will drive deployments in both existing buildings and new construction as the economy recovers.”
Read more Bloomberg: With regard to technologies, cost reductions will spur deployment of solar power, which will undergo the second-fastest percentage growth of all technologies (after offshore wind) from 51GW in 2010 to 1,137GW by 2030. This will require significant capital – an annual average of $130bn over 2010-30 compared with $86bn in 2010.
Read more Recharge: What the internet has done to loosen the stranglehold of traditional media outfits, renewables will do to old-style energy companies. So believes Johan Ihrfelt, co-founder and chief executive of Swedish wind developer O2 Vind — and he should know.
Read more CleanTechnica: “Economics of nuclear make it a no-brainer no-go. It’s fumbled the ball for 60 years and, unless governments cut it off, will continue doing so. The people who don’t think so have bought the nuclear industry’s kool aid or work in the industry itself. Though, it won’t be long until solar hits grid parity. And when it does, the world changes,.. the world changes.” Watch the full video here (approx. 2 min):
Read more OilPrize: Falling costs mean that the average onshore wind farm will be competitive with natural gas-fired power generation by 2016, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). “And it is not going to stop: In the next few years the mainstream world is going to wake up to wind cheaper than gas, and rooftop solar power cheaper than daytime electricity. Add in the same sort of deep long-term price drops for power storage, demand management, LED lighting and so on, and we are clearly talking about - a whole new game.”
Read more TheMotleyFool: The solar industry seems to have settled down a bit now that we’ve gotten a feel for how weak sales were in the third quarter. The weakness likely will continue and cause continued fallout for manufacturers, but there are positive things going on in the industry as we speak.
The Solar Energy Industries Association recently surveyed Americans about their thoughts on solar power, federal incentives, and solar manufacturing. Here are some of the points that I thought were interesting.
•When asked what energy source they would provide financial support to 39% said solar, 21% said natural gas, 12% wind, with nuclear and coal bringing up the rear.
•Nine out of 10 Americans said it was either “extremely important” or “somewhat important” to develop the use of solar power.
Läs hela artikeln OceanPowerMagazine: The Chinese Newspaper People’s Daily, is reporting that China plans to increase installed capacity of its offshore wind power sector to 30 gigawatts by 2020 with investments of almost $16 billion in US dollars.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: The IEA states that while “the age of fossil fuels is far from over, their dominance will decline” and predicts that renewable energy technologies, led by hydropower and wind, will account for half of new capacity installed by 2035.
Läs hela artikeln NewYorkTimes: These days, mention solar power and you’ll probably hear cries of “Solyndra!” But Solyndra’s failure was actually caused by technological success: the price of solar panels is dropping fast, and Solyndra couldn’t keep up with the competition. In fact, progress in solar panels has been so dramatic and sustained that, as a blog post at Scientific American put it, “there’s now frequent talk of a ‘Moore’s law’ in solar energy,” with prices adjusted for inflation falling around 7% a year.
This has already led to rapid growth in solar installations, but even more change may be just around the corner. If the downward trend continues — and if anything it seems to be accelerating — we’re just a few years from the point at which electricity from solar panels becomes cheaper than electricity generated by burning coal.
Läs hela artikeln TheHindu: “The estimated global public subsidy for fossil fuels is between £91 billion to £152 billion a year. Subsidies for oil products in non-OECD countries are estimated at over £55 billion annually.” The book cites statistics from the European Environment Agency that for every £1 spent on subsidising renewable energy projects £4 are spent on fossil fuels.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica: Wind power is booming across the U.S. and across the world. Being perhaps the cheapest form of new electricity in most places, it is consistently being chosen over development of coal, nuclear, and natural gas power stations by energy companies and corporations (with and without a green leaning) who can do simple math. Total installed power capacity of wind turbines around the world is expected to go from 197 GW at the end of 2010 to 1,750 GW by 2030.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica: The projected price trends and cost-competitiveness are comparable to worldwide projections. It’s pretty a common expectation that in 3-5 years — even without any accounting for the trillions in dollars dirty energy costs the world each year in social, environmental, and health problems — solar will be completely cost-competitive. In such a world, unless the rich dirty energy industry convinces politicians to give them even more than the billions of dollars in tax breaks and subsidies it gets every year, solar will continue its explosive growth around the world.
Läs hela artikeln Yahoo: Survey by Kelton Research finds continued widespread public support for development of solar energy, federal incentives for solar, across political spectrum.
Läs hela artikeln RichmondTimes-Dispatch: Solar-power installations doubled in the US last year. They are expected to double again this year. More solar energy is being planned than any other power source, including nuclear, coal, natural gas and wind. Prices of solar panels may be able to compete with fossil fuels, even when the federal solar subsidy shrinks by two-thirds, in 2016.
Läs hela artikeln TheAge:
“We have a vision of the household of the future which has got our energy management in there, so [customers have] got complete visibility, it’s got solar panels on the roof, it’s got solar hot water, its got a fuel cell in the backyard - not that they’re viable yet, but in 10 years time they will be - and we’ve got an electric vehicle in the garage. You might become 80% cent independent of the grid. You’re starting to get a convergence of some of these things so that it’s probably closer than you think. Certainly our strategy is, build towards it, build towards it.”
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: The oil rich Gulf region is not often regarded as a clean energy hub. But that has not stopped the Kuwaiti government setting the most ambitious renewable energy targets in the region – albeit in an attempt to boost fossil fuel exports. Eyad Ali al-Falah, assistant undersecretary for technical services at the Ministry of Electricity and Water, yesterday told Bloomberg that the government is aiming to get 10% of the country’s electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergy: By 2050, the EU could have a fully interconnected electricity grid bringing high amounts of renewable power online without the need for costly nuclear and fossil fuel plants as back up. A fully interconnected grid would deliver power from where the supply is to where the demand is throughout Europe.
Läs hela artikeln Reuters: High solar and thermal power output expectations weighed on European spot power prices on Monday, reversing an uptrend in second half last week when higher consumption kicked in. German solar capacity utilisation will peak at around 17 GW in midday hours over the next few days.
Läs hela artikeln stv: “Investment in renewables will not only help green our entire energy system but protect us from volatility of oil and gas prices, reduce bills for consumers over the long term and provide unrivalled economic opportunities for Scotland”, according to Dr Dan Barlow, head of policy at WWF Scotland.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: In recent months South Africa has seen a dramatic change in its energy policy as the Department of Energy, NERSA and Eskom have taken steps to move to a renewable energy future. On November 4th the Independent Power Producer bidding process for the first 0,2 GW of CSP will close, leaving many anxious developers waiting until COP17 to find out if their project has won the tender.
Läs hela artikeln Guardian: Steven Lang, clean tech leader for the UK and Ireland at Ernst & Young, says government policies are one of the key determinants for how fast new clean technologies grow. “Governments need to send a very clear signal to the market, that they are committed to this. Financial incentives are also very important”.
Läs hela artikeln BBC: “This 1,5 GW Moray Firth offshore wind project is among 8 developments in Scottish waters that, together, will deliver up to 10 GW of clean energy from offshore wind and help ensure we meet our 2020 target to generate the equivalent of 100 % of our electricity demand from renewables. Together, these 8 offshore wind projects could generate investment value of as much as £30 billion, and businesses and communities across Scotland are well-placed to secure substantial benefits from that, as well as from exporting expertise for projects further afield.”
Läs hela artikeln RechargesNews: If you want to know what’s new in the renewable-energy industries in China, your first point of call should be Li Junfeng. If you can get hold of him, that is. The president of the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association (Creia) divides his time between many boards, research institutes and industry associations. He is also at a lot of conferences and networking events.
Läs hela artikeln BBC: The release of a national photovoltaic (PV) Feed-in Tariff (FiT) policy in July has resulted in a significant increase in PV project development activity in China, according to the first edition of the Solarbuzz China Deal Tracker. As of the end of September, the non-residential PV project pipeline in China stands at 14 GW.
Läs hela artikeln BBC: Renewable energy sources are expected to contribute up to 80 percent of global energy supply by 2050, according to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Among the report’s points of emphasis: wind power alone is capable of supplying more than 100 percent of future demand.
Läs hela artikeln delmarvanow.com: A poll released today shows that a strong majority of Marylanders — 62% — want to see local offshore wind power in the state and are willing to pay slightly more on their monthly electricity bills to develop this resource. Policymakers and advocates from the business and environmental communities agree that these are exceptionally strong polling numbers and are a signal that offshore wind is popular across the state.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: A new forecast from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) says renewable energy will grow faster than other electric generating options and will account for nearly a third of the world’s electric generating capacity by the end of 2035. In its newly released International Energy Outlook 2011 (IEO2011), the nonpartisan statistical and analytical agency within the U.S. Department of Energy says installed renewable energy capacity – including hydroelectric – will grow at a 2.7 percent annual rate through 2035.
Läs hela artikeln MITnews: Solar cell bonded to recently developed catalyst can harness the sun, splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen. Researchers led by MIT professor Daniel Nocera have produced something they’re calling an “artificial leaf”: Like living leaves, the device can turn the energy of sunlight directly into a chemical fuel that can be stored and used later as an energy source.
Läs hela artikeln Huffingtonpost: Solar makes more sense economically right now. Compare it, for example, to generating electricity by burning coal. An article in the August issue of the American Economic Review (the journal of the American Economic Association, a group that no one has ever accused of being a bunch of tree-huggers), shows that the overall costs to our economy of burning coal are so high that they’re actually greater than the market price of the energy that’s generated. In other words, the roughly $53 billion in damages that the coal industry inflicts on our economy every single year is greater than the value of the electricity it generates!
Läs hela artikeln CommmonDreams: According to a new report, ratepayers in Florida and Georgia would be better served by investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy resources, rather than building new nuclear reactors in those states. The report, “Big Risks, Better Alternatives,” (PDF) was released today by Synapse Energy Economics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based consulting and research firm.
Läs hela artikeln MonsterAndCritics: The Federation of German Industries (BDI) on Wednesday highlighted Greece’s potential to produce solar energy and said that a European energy revolution was ‘urgently needed’, during an interview with dpa.
Läs hela artikeln Reuters: Denmark’s new center-left government adopted a target on Monday to reduce Denmark’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels and boost renewable energy to cover half of Denmark’s electricity need.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: Germany still exports more energy than it imports even after exiting nuclear, thanks to its renewable energy industry. Renewable energy supplied a record 20.8% of its electricity in the first half of 2011, from wind, solar, biomass and hydro.
Läs hela artikeln BBC: The EU is planning to call on the rest of the world to emulate its low carbon strategy and adopt global targets for renewable energy use and energy efficiency improvements, ahead of next June’s Rio+20 sustainability summit.
Läs hela artikeln BBC: Chinese solar power pioneer Huang Ming is one of four winners of the 2011 Right Livelihood Awards, sometimes also called the alternative Nobel prize. Mr Huang was honoured for developing “cutting-edge technologies for harnessing solar energy”.
Läs hela artikeln Reuters: Investment in UK-based renewable energy projects by private equity firms has surged, with the value of deals so far this year almost 10 times the total for all of 2010. The value of renewable energy buyouts struck by private equity firms in the UK so far this year has risen to 585 million pounds, compared with 64.3 million for all of last year, reflecting the growing appeal of green energy projects to investment funds.
Läs hela artikeln Reuters: Even though Canada will likely set a record for new wind energy capacity this year, the rapid growth could dry up without stable policies to encourage its expansion, an industry association said Monday. About 1,3 GW of new installed wind energy capacity is projected to come online this year, up from 0,7 GW in 2010. That would top 2009’s record of 0,95 GW, and bring total capacity to more than 5,3 GW.
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE) will sell its stake in a nuclear joint venture to concentrate on renewable energy and carbon capture and storage, the company said today. SSE’s move follows Siemens decision to cease building nuclear power plants following Germany’s decision to phase out the technology by 2022.
Läs hela artikeln ModernPowerSystems: Germany reports that renewable energy supplied nearly 21% of the country’s electricity during the first half of 2011. Wind, biomass, solar, and hydro power plants generated 57 TWh during the first six months of the year, amounting to 20.8% of supply. Solar photovoltaic (solar PV) systems on rooftops of homes, farms, and factories generated 3.5% of the national supply, exceeding for the first time the quantity of electricity, 3.3%, produced by conventional hydroelectric power plants.
Renewable energy is set to make up nearly 2/3 of new electricity generation capacity installed in the EU over the next decade, according to new estimates by the European Commission.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: 5%? That’s the EIA’s projected global increase in renewable energy generation by the year 2035. You’d think that nearly 30 years of technological, business and environmental inroads would make a bigger dent in the world’s future energy mix. But the International Energy Outlook is quick to point out that it doesn’t take into account any policy changes that may affect the energy mix across the world. The renewable industry knows better than anyone that policy is king, and that the success of a growing industry is tied directly to that government support.
Läs hela artikeln LosAngelesTimes: The good news: renewable energy – in the form of solar power, wind, hydroelectric and other types – is the world’s fastest-growing energy resource. That’s according to the U.S. Energy Department’s International Energy Outlook 2011, released this week. The not-so-good news: World dependence on fossil fuels will remain, largely because of tremendous leaps in demand from China, India and other emerging economies. That increase in demand will be so great, Energy Department analysts say, that renewable energy will see only a slight increase in its share of the world’s energy sources, rising from the current 10% to 14% in 2035.
Läs hela artikeln Reuters: A major expansion of renewable energy could create millions of jobs worldwide, stir economic growth in heavily indebted countries and help fight climate change at the same time, an American adviser to the German leader Angela Merkel said on Monday. Jeremy Rifkin, a best-selling author and an adviser to the European Union on climate change and energy security, said Germany has been leading the way by creating some 250,000 jobs in renewable energy in just a few years, but could do more.
Läs hela artikeln PVTech: The French government is funding a new solar programme that will see Corsica Tenesol install 500 PV systems and 250 converters in several of the country’s overseas territories. La Réunion and Corsica are among the islands set to benefit from the €30 million Millener project, which will build 1,000 energy management systems over the next four years.
Läs hela artikeln TheVancouverSun:
Stores of geothermal power exceed one million times the nation’s electrical consumption, scientists say. A “massive” store of clean, renewable energy is sitting at Canadians’ feet, according to a federal report on geothermal energy.
Läs hela artikeln Popsci: Masayoshi Son, entrepreneurial founder of Softbank, Japan’s third-largest mobile network, and according to Forbes, the nation’s richest man, unveiled a vague but undeniably ambitious plan to completely change Japan’s energy infrastructure. His plan, which relies heavily on wind and geothermal power and abandons nuclear, would, he says, shift the majority of Japan’s energy sources to renewable energy by 2030.
Läs hela artikeln Guardian: Armed with tens of billions in loans from the Chinese government, Chinese solar companies have scaled at a rate unthinkable only a few years ago. At the end of 2011, there will likely be 50 GW of manufacturing capacity in place around the world, with much of that new capacity being developed in China and other Asian countries. (In the year 2000, there were only 0,1 GW of production capacity worldwide.)
Läs hela artikeln Edie.Net: Britain’s wind power generation capacity continues to smash records as it beat the significant mark of 3,000 MW (3 GW). At the peak time of 11.58am, Tuesday 6 September, wind power generation reached a total 3,021 MW at that point in the day, wind power was supplying 7.2% of the total amount of electricity on the grid.
Läs hela artikeln TheHindu: The world’s largest solar photovoltaic plant will start delivering up to 0,125 GW of clean, sustainable solar energy in Maharashtra in March 2012. Germany is proud to play a role in this important project by supporting the financial investment. Only recently, Germany’s state-owned KfW Development Bank and India’s Ministry of Finance signed a reduced-interest loan of €250 million for the construction of this solar plant at Shivajinagar, Sakri.
Läs hela artikeln EurActiv.com: European solar module-generated power may take until the end of the decade to compete with conventional forms of energy across Europe for cost, the world’s biggest solar association said yesterday (5 September). But that ‘grid parity’ could be reached sooner in some regions, the report added.
Läs hela artikeln ReinforcedPlastics: Brazilian wind power deployments could exceed 5 GW by 2013 representing a five-fold increase from the current installed capacity, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
Läs hela artikeln Treehugger: “In total for the first half of 2011 all nations added an additional 18.4 GW of new wind power, with the year expected to end with there being 43.9 GW completed. The world’s total installed wind power capacity by mid-year was 215 GW.”
Läs hela artikeln Marketwire: The City of Lancaster, California, has taken a historic step towards becoming one of the first “Net Zero Cities” in the world. Net Zero Cities produce as much energy from sustainable sources, such as solar energy, as they consume. This dramatically reduces their carbon emissions. New technologies such as energy storage, supply and demand management and the “smart grid” are used to save energy and money – all good news for consumers as prices for oil and energy continue to rise.
Läs hela artikeln Grist: Throughout the past decade, Germany has fundamentally transformed the way it produces electricity. The country increased its share of renewable electricity from 5 percent in 2000 to 18 percent in 2010. Over time, Germany has consistently met its legislated targets ahead of schedule, and appears poised to outdo itself again in the next years.
Läs hela artikeln ekathimerini.com: Germany is promoting a mammoth plan for the utilization of solar energy in Greece, amounting to 20 billion euros. The project concerns the installation of photovoltaic panels to a total capacity of 10 gigawatts, which is almost the same as the total installed capacity of Greece’s main electricity company, Public Power Corporation (PPC) amounts to 10.2 GW.
Läs hela artikeln BusinessRecorder: The biggest European automaker, Volkswagen, plans to invest almost one billion euros ($1.44 billion) in renewable energies over the coming years, a press report said on Friday.
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: The Brazilian authorities have this week confirmed that wind power in the country currently costs less than natural gas, after a series of energy auctions saw wind farm operators undercut other forms of energy generation.
Läs hela artikeln TheNation: Thailand is pushing green plans by proposing to increase alternative energy consumption to 25% of the total by 2022, above the original target of 20%. A geothermal power plant is also in the picture as the Energy Ministry is seeking to stabilise energy security in light of strong public resistance to nuclear and coal-fired power plants.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica:
With the price of solar panels dropping significantly over the last five years, Germany’s Solar Millennium AG reports it will convert the first 0,5 Gigawatts of its 1,0 Gigawatts Blythe solar power plant in the Mojave desert from concentrated solar power/solar thermal system to PV.
Läs hela artikeln AllAfrica: Investment in renewable power in Africa is set to grow from a total of US$3.6-billion in 2010 to $57-billion by 2020, accompanied by huge foreign direct investment in energy infrastructure. This is one of the findings of Frost & Sullivan’s study “Mega Trends in Africa: A bright vision for the growing continent”, which is due to be released at an African growth, innovation and leadership conference in Cape Town on 25 August.
Läs hela artikeln Oilprice: Japan’s Parliament readies approval of an energy bill that will spark ‘explosive growth’ in renewable solar and wind. Solar and wind companies, set your sails for Japan! The country is about to pass a landmark bill into law that will see “explosive growth” in both solar and wind energy investment according to Prime Minister Naoto Kan. The bill is designed to reduce Japan’s dependence on nuclear power, which accounts for roughly 30% of the country’s energy generation. Japanese lawmakers are readying to sign the bill into law by the end of August.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica:
There’s been a lot of talk about power consumption and conservation, as well as of renewable energy sources, after the Tohoku earthquake and the exploding reactors that reduced Japan’s power output by quite a bit. The Japanese company DNP Social Link has launched a smartphone application which allows users to monitor electricity usage in the home. The application, called “Total Power Saving,” is free to download for DNP Social Link’s customers in Japan.
Läs hela artikeln MySanAntonio:
CPS Energy will be making a far larger investment in solar energy than the already substantial 50-megawatt project it sought proposals for earlier this year. The utility last week notified all of the bidders for that project that they have until July 16 to resubmit their proposals — but this time for up to 400 megawatts, in large part because the price of solar continues to drop.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyFocus: China has set its first unified benchmark grid feed-in power tariffs for solar projects, China Daily reports. The rates are higher than those proposed by many solar power developers in the country.
Läs hela artikeln PVTech: German solar association, BSW-Solar has said that the rapidly falling costs of photovoltaic systems could lead to new solar power plants built in Germany not requiring financial support mechanism to operate profitably in 2017, based on expected energy prices at that time.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: Global wind power installation increased by 35.8 GW in 2010, bringing total wind energy capacity up to 194.4 GW, a 22.5% increase on the 158.7 GW installed at the end of 2009, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
Läs hela artikeln DailyNews: Power and Energy Minister Champika Ranawaka yesterday said they have arranged to introduce the first main grid connected solar power plant in the Hambantota District. This will be the first step towards promoting solar energy in Sri Lanka, the minister said.
Läs hela artikeln ElectronicsWeekly: These are not good times for the solar energy market, but there are signs that pressure is easing and the market may turn a corner later this year. Despite a very weak start to the year, the full year photovoltaic (PV) capacity forecast is upped by more than 1GW.
The market watcher now predicts more than 22GW of new PV capacity will be added globally this year.
Läs hela artikeln YahooNews: Energy producers expect European wind power generation to triple by 2020, with tens of thousands of new, ever-bigger wind turbines springing up, an industry body said Tuesday. By the end of 2010, wind power produced about 5.3 percent of demand across the EU’s 27 states, some 182 Terawatt hours (TWh). Its share is tipped to reach 15.7 percent by 2020, or 581 TWh.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: A new structure proposed for the Aalborg Waterfront in Aalborg, Denmark, would change the city’s skyline in a dramatic way without appreciably impacting its carbon footprint.
Läs hela artikeln Guardian: Germany has taken some fundamental energy decisions in recent months, ones that are interesting for other countries to study and learn from. The most “famous” decision recently has been to phase out nuclear power in the next ten years. This move builds on years of debate and a societal decision after Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident to move away from nuclear energy.
Läs hela artikeln Slashdot: ‘Last year, the solar industry set the ambitious yet achievable goal of installing 10 GW annually by 2015 – enough to power 2 million more homes each and every year.’
Läs hela artikeln Travelmole: The Caribbean CHENACT Programme found that air conditioning is the single largest end-use of electricity in hotels in the Caribbean - from 50 to 54 per cent for medium-large hotels. Initial reports indicate there are significant opportunities for energy efficient savings in the hotel sector with average potential electricity savings between 35-50% per cent of total hotel power consumption.
Läs hela artikeln Huffingtonpost/Gizmag: An ambitious Solar Energy project on a massive scale is about to get underway in the Arizona desert. The 800+ meter (2625 ft) tall tower will instantly become one of the world’s tallest buildings. Its 200 MW power generation capacity will reliably feed the grid with enough power for 150,000 US homes, and once it’s built, it can be expected to more or less sit there producing clean, renewable power with virtually no maintenance until it’s more than 80 years old.
Läs hela artikeln NZHerald: The Australian government has just announced its Clean Energy Future Plan. This package includes a carbon tax on the 500 biggest emitting companies as well as billions to be invested in renewable energy, energy efficiency and agricultural emission reductions. Households are to be compensated for likely cost increases. It has proved incredibly controversial across the Tasman in much the same way as New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme did a few years back. Yet the sky did not fall in as a result of the ETS and it is now an established part of doing business here.
Läs hela artikeln Treehugger: As the world solar PV rankings now stand, Germany still leads the way with approximately 17 GW installed. Italy No2 with 7 GW. Spain and Japan are tied for 3rd with 4 GW each. The United States is in No4 with 3 GW of solar PV (1.25 GW of which is in California).
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has today announced he is to donate $50m to a Sierra Club campaign calling for the closure of coal power plants and the accelerated development of alternative energy technologies.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: Germany made news this spring when it announced it would wean itself from nuclear power by 2022, but no country relies on nukes more than France; they supply a world-leading 74 percent of the country’s electricity. The French haven’t said they’ll ditch the atom like the Germans will, but they are now making a real push toward diversifying with renewable energy – including offshore wind power.
Läs hela artikeln Treehugger: The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the numbers for wind power in 2010, and there are two ways to look at it.
Läs hela artikeln LosAngelesTimes: The latest surge in oil prices may help the renewable energy industry reach a turning point after years of boom-and-bust cycles long dictated by the rise and fall in gas prices. Solar, wind and biofuel investors and analysts said the latest run-up in prices caused by unrest in Libya and other oil-producing nations could lead to lasting interest in alternate sources of energy.
Läs hela artikeln UPI.com: Africa, German PM Angela Merkel said, can “learn from us what kinds of alternatives there are. I think this is especially important in sparsely populated rural areas with decentralized power supply where renewables can be a good possibility.”
Läs hela artikeln SiliconRepublic: The renewable energy sector supplied an estimated 16% of the world’s energy and 20% of its electricity last year and has continued to perform well despite the economic slowdown, cuts in incentives, and low natural-gas prices, according to a new United Nations-backed report.
Läs hela artikeln Aljazeera: Japan’s prime minister Naoto Kan says he wants the country to learn from its ongoing crisis and become less reliant on nuclear energy.
Mr Kan told a news conference on Wednesday the risk of nuclear energy is too high and he wants to wean the nation off nuclear and eventually seek a society that can do without it. He said Japan should develop renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and biomass. Mr Kan also said another pillar of Japan’s energy policy should be conservation.
Läs hela artikeln Newelectronics: Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed materials that make it possible to produce photovoltaic cells on paper or fabric nearly as simple as printing a document.
Läs hela artikeln Gulfnews: African governments should consider investing in renewable energies like wind, solar and hydro power to help feed the continent’s growing energy demands and combat threats of climate change, the head of a new international energy agency said on Friday.
Läs hela artikeln BangkokPost: Investment in renewable energy last year amounted to a record 211 billion dollars, a rise of 32 percent over 2009 and 540 percent over 2004, a UN-backed report said on Thursday. By early 2011, 119 countries around the world had policies or targets in place to support renewables, more than half of them in the developing world.
Läs hela artikeln GreentechMedia: The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its most recent “Monthly Energy Review” and Electric Power Monthly last month.
According to these documents, renewable energy has passed a milestone: domestic production is now greater than that of nuclear power.
Läs hela artikeln Monster&Critics: China leads the world in investment in renewable energy technology, with much of its expenditure going into wind farms, according to a report published in Frankfurt on Tuesday.
Läs hela artikeln RechargeNews: Torresol’s Gemasolar power-tower installation has become the world’s first concentrating solar power (CSP) plant to feed an uninterrupted supply of power into the grid over 24 hours. Gemasolar reached the solar-energy milestone less than two months after it was commissioned in Andalusia by Torresol – a joint venture between Masdar and Spanish construction giant Sener.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: Using Google expertise and robust data resources in conjunction with McKinsey’s Low Carbon Economics Tool (LCET), Google has come up with several models and made some analyses that present some possible answers to those questions. Google says its report isn’t intended to be a prediction of the future, rather a presentation that “could provide a new perspective on the economic value of public and private investment in energy innovation.”
Läs hela artikeln YahooNews: Natural gas will fast become the fossil fuel of choice to complement renewable energy for the foreseeable future, after long being regarded as merely a step on the way to a greener energy mix.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: Over the past few years, renewable costs have been on the decline, particularly solar and wind. According to industry experts, we are getting closer and closer to grid parity. So why is there still such financial uncertainty?
Läs hela artikeln Ansa: The tiny town of Aramengo d’Asti in northwest Italy is converting to solar energy in the latest sign that alternative energy is growing in popularity. Mayor Francesco Tavolato announced on Tuesday a consortium would be set up to build a 400,000-euro solar plant to convert the sun’s energy into electricity and service the town’s 640 inhabitants.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: Australia is known for many things – poisonous creatures, unkind terrain – but soon it will become known as a solar energy leader with the completion of two of the largest solar projects of their kind in the world.
Läs hela artikeln TheHimalayantimer: “An important key to lowering energy intensity is the elimination of fossil fuel subsidies and transition to renewable energy. Asia must also take radical steps to increase energy efficiency”, according to Asian Development Bank (ADB) president Haruhiko Kuroda.
Läs hela artikeln TheTelegraph: An energy firm has offered to install solar panels on each of the 21,000 homes and businesses in its local area after winning funding that could lead to Britain’s first renewable energy-powered town.
Läs hela artikeln YahooNews: French state-owned energy group Areva announced Tuesday that it had won a bid to participate in an Australian Solar Energy Programme. The project will combine Solar Thermal Technology with Natural Gas Electricity production so that the plant provides power around the clock.
Läs hela artikeln EarthTimes: Solar energy production in the United States has taken a big step forward with the announcement of a loan guarantee to an American company developing new technology. The news comes as figures show that the U.S. solar energy industry continued to be one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy in the first quarter of this year.
Läs hela artikeln SolarDaily: The US Solar Energy industry continued to be one of the fastest growing economic sectors in Q1 2011 according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight.
Läs hela artikeln NewYorkTimes: Given that New York City has been falling behind some of its municipal counterparts in new solar power installations, renewable energy advocates are happy to hear that its rooftops can hold more than water tanks and lounge chairs.
Läs hela artikeln NewYorkTimes: The Chinese government is considering plans to subsidize the use of energy-efficient materials and renewable energy technologies in new buildings and is encouraging provincial and municipal governments to impose stricter efficiency standards than the national minimums, Chinese officials said Wednesday.
Läs hela artikeln Breitbart: Germany is ready to step up Technological Cooperation with Japan to promote the use of Renewable Energy in the wake of Berlin’s decision to close all Nuclear Power Plants by 2022, Volker Kauder, a key ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said Monday.
Läs hela artikeln Asahi: Panasonic Corp. will invest more on renewable energy operations than on its mainstay TV operation in the current fiscal year, accelerating a shift away from home electric appliances.
Läs hela artikeln TheEconomicTimes: Switching rural India on to renewable energy sources could help the country bridge its widening energy deficit, according to the Planning Commission.
Läs hela artikeln Travolution: High speed trains running between Paris and Amsterdam are now being powered by about 2.1 miles of solar panels on a tunnel alongside the E19 motorway.
Läs hela artikeln TheAge:
Australia is expected to generate 6 times more Renewable Energy and up to 3 times more Gas-Fired Power in 2050 under a carbon price than it does today, according to Treasury modelling for the multi-party climate policy committee.
Läs hela artikeln ArabianBusiness: Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, has the potential to produce enough Solar Power to meet more than 4 times Global Demand for Electricity, Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said in a speech in Krakow, Poland, posted on the Saudi Press Agency website.
Läs hela artikeln PrensaLatino: Businessmen and researchers attending the Third Cuba-Italy Meeting on energy and technology for heritage goods, being held in this capital on Thursday, give a strong boost to bilateral trade relations.
Addressing the meeting, Italian ambassador to Cuba Marco Baccin stated that relations are in full development and very promising.
Läs hela artikeln WindPowerMonthly: To date, Iran has approx. 0,1GW of installed Wind Capacity, while the potential resource could exceed 15GW, according to the energy ministry.
Läs hela artikeln Euronews: Researchers in Europe are working on how to capture more of the sun’s enormous power and turn turn it into electricity. It’s reckoned that the equivalent of the world’s daily energy consumption hits the earth in the form of solar rays every 17 seconds. With new nano technology there can be huge possibilities of improving present poor efficiency of solar cells (approx. 16%).
Läs hela artikeln EurActiv.com: Asia must expand Solar Energy generation if the region is to stay on its strong economic growth path and reduce carbon emissions, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) vice president said on Monday.
Läs hela artikeln ModernPowerSystems: Renewable energy sources are expected to contribute up to 80% of global energy supply by 2050, according to a new report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) May 2011. The UN Report clearly demonstrates that Renewable technologies could supply the world with more energy than it would ever need, and at a highly competitive cost.
Läs hela artikeln evwind: China widened its lead over the US as the most attractive country for renewable energy projects, following its greenest five-year plan to date, Ernst & Young LLP said. China’s score out of 100 increased to 72 from 71 last quarter, while the US remained in second place at 67 points in the consultant’s quarterly Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index. India drew ahead of Germany to claim third place.
Läs hela artikeln Bloomberg: Solar Power may be cheaper than electricity generated by Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Reactors within 3 to 5 years because of innovations, said Mark M. Little, the global research director for General Electric Co. (GE)
Läs hela artikeln EnvironmentalFinance: The European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) has called for the EU to set a legally binding renewable energy target of 45% by 2030, saying it is necessary to fight climate change and give investors long-term predictability.
Läs hela artikeln DaliyYomiuri: In the wake of a crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Prime Minister Kan will show Japan’s determination to become an international leader in the promotion of renewable energy, such as solar and wind, while reducing dependence on nuclear power, the sources said. Kan is expected to announce the plan at the opening of the summit scheduled to begin Thursday in Deauville France.
Läs hela artikeln Yahoo: Many polls, including a Politics Daily poll taken this winter, show that voters from both parties, including the valuable independents, overwhelmingly support alternative energy solutions. 93 percent of Democrats were in favor, independents 82 percent and Republican voters were in favor of passing an alternative energy bill by 75 percent. Rush Limbaugh, the Republican media mouthpiece, leads the charge against alternative energy and his rhetoric is taking mainstream Republicans down with him. Solar Power is the Energy of The Future and once it becomes prevalent, it will become much cheaper in the long run.
Läs hela artikeln TheDailyStar:
South Korea has opened what it says is the ultimate eco-friendly business center, a construction that emits zero carbon and uses only renewable energy, in a project to underline the government’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gases.
Läs hela artikeln StraitsTimes, Singapore: Japan, seeking to promote renewable energy as it struggles with the world’s worst nuclear crisis in decades, may this week announce a plan to make solar panels compulsory on the roofs of all new buildings by 2030, the Nikkei newspaper said on Sunday.
Läs hela artikeln WorldwatchInstitute: “In Denmark, we have decided that we do not want to be in that energy race. We want to insulate ourselves from future peaks in energy prices and disruptions in supply, and to invest our money in green, long-term, sustainable sources of energy. Our government has announced its ambition that Denmark should become fully independent of fossil fuels by 2050, and instead meet its energy needs with renewable energy. A detailed, comprehensive strategy for how to get there, “Energy Strategy 2050”, was launched a few months ago—the first of its kind in the world.”
Läs hela artikeln EuropeanVoice: Buildings account for 40% of Europe’s energy use. Renovating them so that they consume 80% less energy would be like saving the entire amount of energy produced by Europe’s coal and nuclear plants. Simply put, reducing demand means that we would have to find less energy. It would also have the advantage of creating two million new jobs.
Läs hela artikeln HindustanTimes: To push the Green Technologies, the Environment Ministry has decided to exempt Solar Energy projects from environment clearance and fast track clearance process of Green Building Projects. A decision to this effect was announced this week through two different circulars and comes in wake of the Plan Panel committee’s suggestion to give incentives to industry including faster clearances to promote Green Technologies.
Läs hela artikeln JapanTimes: Prime Minister Naoto Kan’s request that Chubu Electric Power Co. shut down the Hamaoka nuclear power plant was valuable, though he should have reached this decision much sooner after the Fukushima crisis, according to an expert on nuclear and renewable energy.
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: “Shifting the focus from saving carbon to saving energy could make it easier to drive investment in energy saving measures. Pricing carbon is not as effective as a method for decision making. A watt is probably the most traded commodity in the world and has very transparent pricing. It’s tangible and everyone can understand it.”
Läs hela artikeln NewYorkTimes: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said in a report that the availability of renewable sources like the wind and sun was virtually unlimited, and could provide up to 77% of the world’s energy needs by mid-century, but governments needed to adopt policies to take advantage of them.
Läs hela artikeln NewEurope: Inaugurating an Offshore Wind Farm, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on 2 May that her country is offering €5 billion in soft loans to kick-start investment in Renewable Energy.
Läs hela artikeln Guardian: Mr Alex Salmond, the Scottish first minister, wins overall majority in 5 May election and will be able to push through an agenda including Renewable Energy. Mr Salmond will pressing ahead with contentious plans to generate 100% of Scotland’s electricity from Renewable Sources by 2020.
Läs hela artikeln Forbes: China has more than doubled its goal for Solar Power 2020. China’s previous goal was to have 20GW installed by 2020, but the target is now 50GW. China has become increasingly aggressive as of late in pursuing alternative energy sources, driven by commodity prices as well as concerns over air pollution. Last year, China installed a staggering 18GW of Wind Power, with a goal of achieving 200GW installed by 2020.
Läs hela artikeln AssociatedPress: The world’s top scientific body concluded that Renewable Energy in the coming decades will be widespread and could one day represent the dominant source for powering factories and lighting homes, according to a draft report obtained by The Associated Press Thursday.
Läs hela artikeln IBTimes: Despite key challenges facing the industry, a new report from Pike Research forecasts that investment in Offshore Wind Power will surge in the next several years and as a result, total installed power generation capacity will increase by a factor of 17 between 2011 and 2017, rising from just 4.1 GW of installed capacity to 70.1 GW by the end of the forecast period.
Läs hela artikeln TvNZ: New Zealand is now a full member of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Last year 74% of New Zealand’s electricity came from renewable sources and the government has a target of 90% by 2025.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: News from New Jersey based Ocean Power Technologies indicates that wave energy will likely be bringing more green jobs and revenue to Oregon businesses soon and shows promise for much more in the future.
Läs hela artikeln PhysOrg.com: Researchers at MIT have found a way to make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of Solar Cells by enlisting the services of tiny viruses to perform detailed assembly work at the microscopic level.
Läs hela artikeln EarthTimes: The more traditional method of solar power is photovoltaic. That converts the sun’s heat into electricity. A solar power tower plant, by comparison, uses thousands of heliostats focusing the sun’s rays on one central tower. The solar tower at the new plant is approximately 450 feet tall. It’s believed solar power tower systems may be more efficient than their trough counterparts. At the Mojave Desert facility, it’s estimated water consumption will be cut by 90%.
Läs hela artikeln detail.de: The county and the city of Bamberg have set the goal of making the energy consumption for the region’s 210,000 people 100 percent independent and from renewable sources by 2035. And that’s not only in the electricity sector; heating should also be completely converted to renewable energy.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: The threats to our old energy systems bolsters the rationale for investing in renewable energy. Shifting to renewable energy can help us to meet the dual goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, thereby limiting future extreme weather and climate impacts, and ensuring reliable, timely, and cost-efficient delivery of energy. It’s just a no-brainer that investing in renewable energy can have huge dividends for our energy security.
Läs hela artikeln Forbes: Clean energy has long been at the forefront of economical and environmental discussions across the globe. But in the wake of President Obama’s State of the Union address earlier this year — in which he pledged that 80 percent of the country’s electricity would come from clean energy by 2035 — alternative energy sources have become more relevant than ever.
Läs hela artikeln JapanToday: In 2010, for the first time, worldwide cumulated installed capacity of wind turbines, biomass and waste-to-energy plants, and solar power reached 381GW, outpacing the installed nuclear capacity of 375GW, the report ‘The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2010-2011’ issued by Worldwatch Institute, noted.
Läs hela artikeln TheLocal, GermanEnglishNews: Daily Passauer Neue Presse reported Wednesday that Röttgen had told a gathering of conservative MPs that the price per kilowatt-hour would rise only by about 0.1 to 0.9 cents over the next decade under the government’s plan. The paper reported that Chancellor Angela Merkel had told the same meeting that a break with the past was needed and an accelerated exit from nuclear power was essential.
Läs hela artikeln GreenEconomy: The fossil fuel industry and the politicians and pseudo-scientists it buys are fond of saying that renewable energy can’t power the world. That claim will eventually be proven ridiculous. For now, though, many may be surprised to know that renewable resources already account nearly 11% of U.S. energy production.
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: Renewables rise from 5.4% to 9% of total capacity, while oil and nuclear’s share of energy mix falls. The share of renewable energy across the EU’s generation mix has almost doubled over the past decade according to new EU statistics released today.
Läs hela artikeln SundayNation: The French government has offered Kenya a concessional loan of 56 million euros (Sh6.7 billion) for the development of Renewable Energy.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyFocus: India could install 65.2 GW of Wind Power by 2020, according to the Indian Wind Energy Outlook 2011 published by the World Institute of Sustainable Energy (WISE), the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) and the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).
Läs hela artikeln Bloomberg: The cost of developing a Solar Power Project will fall by half in the next decade worldwide, making energy from the sun more competitive with fossil fuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated.
Läs hela artikeln Wired: A paper will soon come out from the National Solar Energy Center in Israel hypothesizes that the country — which now only gets a tiny fraction of its power from Solar — could conceivably boost the total to 90% with things like vanadium-redox flow batteries and pumped hydro storage.
Läs hela artikeln Google: “This historic milestone reached by Wind Energy shows that this energy source, as well as being indigenous, clean and increasingly competitive, is also capable of providing three million Spanish households”. For March 2011 Wind Energy accounted for 21% of Spanish Energy Demand.
Läs hela artikeln PowerMagazine: One of the main criticisms of renewable energy facilities is that they are unable to dispatch electricity when it’s needed. The great game-changer is low-cost energy storage, which would enable renewable energy production to be stored and rapidly released when needed. Here are seven promising distributed energy storage technologies that could be commercialized in the near future.
Läs hela artikeln PVTech: The fallout from the Fukushima nuclear disaster looks set to continue after an official from China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) revealed the government was planning to cut its 2020 target for nuclear power capacity. China’s previously-announced nuclear capacity of 80GW may be scaled back, with solar energy coming in to fill the void, reports Bloomberg.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica: Votes of Republicans, Sam Blakslee (R-San Luis Obispo), Sharon Runner (R-Antelope Valley), and Tony Strickland (R-Santa Barbara) joining Democrats on climate legislation is in marked contrast to what we see at the Federal level. Renewable energy in California has developed to the point where it is developing a bipartisan constituency.
Läs hela artikeln StraitsTimes: JAPAN’S Premier Naoto Kan said on Tuesday the country must push alternative energy sources as it recovers from its quake and tsunami disaster and struggles to contain a nuclear emergency.
Läs hela artikeln EurekAlert: Scientists today claimed one of the milestones in the drive for Sustainable Energy — development of the first Practical Artificial Leaf. Speaking at the 241st National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, they described an Advanced Solar Cell the size of a poker card that mimics the process, called photosynthesis, that Green Plants use to Convert Sunlight and Water into Energy. “Nature is powered by photosynthesis, and I think that the future world will be powered by Photosynthesis as well in the form of this Artificial Leaf,” said Nocera, a chemist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
Läs hela artikeln YahooNews: “It looks like the Solar Energy Industry as a whole will be booming. The Solar Energy Industries Association gave a presentation last week where they divulged that industry revenues went from $3.6 billion in 2009 to $6 billion in 2010, a huge 67 percent increase in one year.”
Läs hela artikeln TheStarOnline: “Malaysia plans to achieve approx. 1GW or 5.5% share of renewable energy in the energy mix by 2015. Currently, renewable energy contributes less than 1% to the energy mix in Malaysia. By 2020, the target is for renewable energy to comprise 11% or approx. 2,1GW of overall electricity generation in the country.”
Läs hela artikeln DeutscheWelleWorld: In the wake of Germany’s nuclear review, the Economics Ministry is calling for an accelerated expansion of the energy grid. One priority would be high-voltage cables that could overcome shortcomings in renewable energy.
Läs hela artikeln HuffingtonPost: “While there may be good reasons for nuclear power to be used as a bridge fuel to a renewable energy future, I am confident that nuclear power is politically dead in the United States. This makes the research and development of alternative energy and carbon capture and storage that much more important and urgent.”
Läs hela artikeln GlobalPost: “In the future we will generate up to 10 times the electricity that we need in the waters around Scotland. We will sell electricity across Europe and become the Green Powerhouse of the continent, and in the process generate tens of thousands of jobs for Scotland.” First Minister Alex Salmond, SNP, continues the political fight for Sustainable Energy Values.
Läs hela artikeln ReinforcedPlastics: “We must ensure that the renewable energy targets established in 2001 and 2009 are replicated for the period after 2020 - with ambitious 2030 targets. For some 2020 is far away. For politicians it is at least two elections away – a political lifetime. But for the electricity industry it is the day after tomorrow.”
Läs hela artikeln BiofuelsWatch: A collaboration agreement between Australia and Germany is expected to make the Solar Energy Capture Technologies much cheaper and easily available. The agreement has been announced just after a similar agreement which was signed between Australia and US in November by Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton to reduce the cost of Solar Technology.
Läs hela artikeln BiofuelsWatch: The Wind Industry has seen an increase of about 20% in installations than compared to 2010. The Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) 5 year forecast is estimated New Wind Power capacity of about 40GW which will be set up from 2011 to 2015, the global installed capacity is expected to double by 450GW.
Läs hela artikeln RadioNewZealand: “Under the Auckland Solar Programme, households and businesses could get a heating system installed by an agreed supplier and defer the payment through finance.”
Läs hela artikeln EnergyTribune: Chinese efforts to develop Renewable Energy Technologies have accelerated in recent years as the Government has recognized Energy as a Strategic Sector. China has adopted a host of new policies and regulations aimed at encouraging Energy Efficiency and expanding Renewable Energy Deployment.
Läs hela artikeln BiofuelsWatch: According to a latest report named as Indian Solar Energy Market Outlook 2012, the installation of Solar Energy in India has been developing at a extraordinary speed during the last few years. The Solar Energy has appeared as one of the very possible as well as commercially profitable sector in the entire Renewable Energy Space.
Läs hela artikeln RenewableEnergyWorld: “Self-contained and powered completely by the energy of the sun, the generators can power most life-sustaining electrical equipment including water purification systems and recharge telephones, radios, cameras, televisions, small medical devices, computers and mini-refrigerators.”
Läs hela artikeln EbergyTribune: Saudi Arabia wants to meet its two fastest-growing needs - Jobs and Electricity - by making the Materials Used to Absorb Power from the Sun.
Läs hela artikeln ClickGreen: Energy Minister Chris Huhne: “Renewable heat is a largely untapped resource and an important new green industry of the future. This incentive is the first of its kind in the world. It’ help the UK shift away from fossil fuel, reducing carbon emissions and encouraging innovation, jobs and growth in new advanced technologies.”
Läs hela artikeln FMLink: Despite record Global Investment in Renewable Energy in 2010, the continuing Impacts of the Global Financial Crisis are placing Renewable Energy Markets in a state of flux, according to a Recent Report by Ernst & Young.
Läs hela artikeln BusinessGreen: The vision of a 1GW offshore wind farm powering 750,000 homes in the south east took a step closer to reality today when the first turbine foundation was installed in the Thames Estuary.
Läs hela artikeln AMEInfo Middle East: The modern rate of population growth and industrialization has lead to rising demand on Energy Efficiency, Grid Reliability and put focus on Renewable Energy Sources. The need to re-think how Energy is used, Recovered and Conserved has heightened. The WETEX 2011 Exhibition in Dubai will show many commercial innovative and smart ways of adopting the challanges with lowest possible footprint.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica: Denmark gets 20% of its energy from wind power, and plans to get to 50% by 2025. All renewable energy sources can work together balancing each other, and the more options there are to balance output within the widest possible geographic region, the better.
Läs hela artikeln Datamonitor: Global investment in clean energy has risen by 30% year-on-year, reaching a total of $243bn according to Ernst & Young’s latest report. China has consolidated its position as the most attractive country globally for renewable energy development; however, there are significant disparities between countries, and uncertainty over political support persists.
Läs hela artikeln UPI.com: More than $370 million is available to fund environmental and sustainable programs in the European Union, the bloc’s government has announced.
Läs hela artikeln PRNewswire: At a National Press Club Speakers Luncheon, April 19. Mr. Turner will discuss Renewable and Alternative Energy, his most recent Solar Projects in New Mexico and Atlanta, climate change, and nuclear disarmament. Mr. Pickens will address his crusade to reduce America’s dependence on OPEC oil, which he highlights as a threat to the U.S. economy and national security.
Läs hela artikeln NationalJournal, US: China’s wind and solar markets are still experiencing growth, according to report from Ernst&Young, with the country’s total installed wind capacity growing by 64 percent in 2010 and reaching over 42 GW.
Läs hela artikeln Reuters: Saudi-based Polysilicon Technology Co (PTC) has signed a $380 million deal to build a polysilicon plant in the kingdom, it said on Sunday, as the leading oil exporter seeks to shift toward solar power.
Läs hela artikeln BloombergBusinessweek: The state Senate approved a law Thursday setting new rules for how California utilities can meet the most aggressive renewable energy standard in the nation, giving them 10 years to get a 33% of their power from Wind, Solar, Geothermal and Other Renewable Sources.
Läs hela artikeln WindPowerMonthly: Indian Wind Power capacity saw a record increase of 2GW in 2010 to approx. totally 13GW. The country has estimated potential of totally 48.5GW.
Läs hela artikeln ReinforcedPlastics: Government attitudes to renewable energy are the most important investment driver, according to a survey by Corporate Finance Advisory Firm. Solar was the most popular sector for cleantech investment, followed by energy efficiency and onshore wind.
Läs hela artikeln Guardian: The United Nations has set out its blueprint of how to green the world’s economy, in order to kickstart economic growth after the recession, without generating an accompanying rise in greenhouse gas emissions. Key elements to a greener and more sustainable world are energy efficiency and to develop renewable forms of power.
Läs hela artikeln Bloomberg: Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Asia’s largest information-services provider, will increase its focus on renewable-energy technologies and cloud computing, accoording to Mr Ajoy Mallik, the company’s global head of venture capital.
Läs hela artikeln ProfessionalEngineering: A total of 14 UK projects have applied for funding from a multi-billion euro funding mechanism to support Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and Renewable Energy projects across the European Union. Of the 14 UK applications received for the EU’s New Entrant Reserve (NER) scheme – a fund worth between €4.5 billion and €9 billion – nine were for CCS projects and five for innovative renewables.
Läs hela artikeln MaritimeJournal: Taken together the EU Action Plans show that EU-27 will meet 20.7 % of its 2020 Energy Use from Renewables. Wind Energy is expected to generate 14% of Europe’s total electricity demand in 2020, more than any other renewable source.
Läs hela artikeln yahoo-news-uk: Japan plans to make the power sector buy electricity from a wider range of renewable energy sources than it does currently in a feed-in tariff incentive scheme from the year starting April 2012.
Läs hela artikeln pv-tech.org: According to IMS Research, Asia’s share of PV cell production will reach nearly 85% by the end of 2011. “The expertise of the large Asian suppliers at large-scale production in similar fields and, their willingness and ability to invest significant capital is likely to mean that they are able to quickly reach low-cost and high-volume”.
Läs hela artikeln IsraelNationalNews: During the International Conference and Exhibition, February 22nd-February 24th, Researchers from Israel, the United States, India, Canada and other countries will be on hand to discuss plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase Solar Power. Läs hela artikeln Delawareonline: “As Solar Panel prices drop, China plans to boost its own Solar-Power Installations by more than 60-fold to 20 GW, or the equivalent of about 18 new nuclear plants, by 2020 from 2009. A nationwide subsidy or auction program is needed, though not a direct copy of the European or U.S. model, which is based on tax breaks.”
Läs hela artikeln Softpedia: Chemical engineers are currently looking for new ways of designing and building solar cells, in such a way that they could be spray-painted on roofs, windows and walls. Harnessing the power of the Sun could in the near future be a lot closer at hand than it is today.
Läs hela artikeln SolarDaily.com: Italy’s two biggest banks on Friday said they have joined the German-led Desertec project to build giant solar power stations in North Africa and the Middle East. Desertec aims to generate some 15% of Europe’s electricity use with solar and wind energy within the next 40 years.
Läs hela artikeln Deccan Herald: Renewable energy is set to be the next big technology industry, with the potential to transform the trillion dollar energy industry across the world, World Bank said in a new report Friday.
Läs hela artikeln Independent News Scoop World, Nz: The world has the technical know-how and financial capability to run entirely on renewable energy by the middle of this century, accordning to CA professor Mark Jacobson and research scientist Mark Delucchi. Their report has received significant attention in trade and mainstream media as it provides a rare road map for how the world can move away from coal and oil. “There are no large technical or even economic barriers to powering all energy sectors globally on wind, water or solar power, the biggest obstacle is - politics.”
Läs hela artikeln Malaysia Bernama.com: According to director of Energy, Mr Ramon Mendez, Uruguay could generate 25-28% of its power from Wind Energy and Biomass in 2015, that is nearly twice its 15% target.
Läs hela artikeln Bloomberg.com: Vestas Wind Systems A/S will announce plans to offer for sale a new o
Offshore Wind Turbine at the end of next month, according to the company’s chief executive. New Wind Turbine, with approx. doubled capacity compared to present, will be on the market from 2014/2015.
Läs hela artikeln Renewable Energy Focus: “India could become a Global Renewable Energy Powerhouse due to Its Need for Alternative Energy Sources, International Pressure and Strong Government support.”
Läs hela artikeln Globes Israel’s Business Arena: “Investmenst in Cleantech Energy R&D has expanded in recent years because the market understood that money could be made from it. The figures are dramatic, and indicate a very clear trend. Investment in cleantech is growing steadily from year to year.”
Läs hela artikeln Global Wind Energy Council: At the end of 2010 total installed Wind Energy Capacity was up to 194.4 GW, a 22.5% increase on the 158.7 GW installed at the end of 2009, according to Global Wind Energy Council, 6 February 2011.
Läs hela artikeln EurActiv.com: Renewable energy is set to make up nearly two-thirds of new electricity generation capacity installed in the EU over the next decade, according to new estimates by the European Commission.
Läs hela artikeln The Jerusalem Post: New renewable energy capacity and investment are gradually surpassing that of conventional (coal, gas and nuclear) energy, according to the Renewables 2010 Global Status Report, which was released late last week.
Läs hela artikeln Deutsche Welle: The renewable energy sector experienced faster global growth than conventional sources last year as policy-makers and investors chose to go green despite the economic downturn.
Läs hela artikeln NewEnergyFocus: By becoming more self sufficient we can create sustainable local energy economies. People and communities can save money on their fuel bills at the same time as generating an income and cutting carbon. I want to work with industry to overcome the challenges it is facing. Together we will create a marketplace for jobs and prosperity alongside products and advice which people trust.
Läs hela artikeln Renewable Energy Focus: “Global photovoltaic demand continues to soar in 2010 and is currently projected to double the rate of installations compared to last year, according to the international solar energy market research and consulting company.”
Läs hela artikeln EUROPA: “If current growth rates are maintained, in 2020 up to 1400 TWh of electricity could be generated from renewable sources, the report concludes. This would account for approximately 35-40% of overall electricity consumption in the EU, depending on the success of community policies on electricity efficiency, and would contribute significantly to the fulfilment of the 20% target for energy generation from renewables”.
Läs hela artikeln Kyodo News: “Solar power is one of the fastest growing and commercially viable technologies, with the IEA projecting that photovoltaics will account for 11 percent of global electricity production by 2050”.
Läs hela artikeln OilOnline.com: If aggressively developed, the UK’s offshore renewable energy resources could by 2050 generate the electrical equivalent of 1 billion barrels of oil per year, roughly the same as the annual average UK North Sea oil & gas output, according to a report released 19 May 2010.
Läs hela artikeln EU Reporter: “Although still behind the leaders in the field, Britain currently has 40GW of offshore wind farms at different stages of development, although some have only received planning permission at present.”
Läs hela artikeln The Australian: “Germany’s Solar Millennium, one of the applicants for the Solar Flagships, reportedly said last week it was on track to complete a 150MW solar thermal plant in Egypt this year, which will be boosted by gas turbines and is being touted as a template for a series of solar farms and other renewable energy installations that will form part of the proposed $700bn Desertec project that will supply up to 25 per cent of Europe’s energy needs.”
Läs hela artikeln NewEnergyFocus: The European Renewable Energy Council (EREC) has today (April 15) launched a “Re-thinking 2050” report, outlining how the European Union can switch to a 100% renewable energy supply.
Läs hela artikeln Physorg.com: “Achieving all-renewables electricity will depend less on new technology than on revamping Europe’s legal and regulatory framework, the report argued: Most of the technical components are available in principle already today.To become a reality, such a vision will require a regional power system based on a super-smart grid and the rapid scaling up of all forms of renewable power”.
Läs hela artikeln businessGreen.com: “The report estimates that based on current trends renewable energy will constitute 22 per cent of the world’s installed power generation capacity by 2020, up from 13 per cent today, and will then grow to account for 31 per cent of the energy mix by 2030. But again Bloomberg’s New Energy Finance Global Energy and Emissions Model forecasts that renewable energy will need to account for more like 40 per cent of installed capacity by 2030 to keep in line with the scale of emission reductions that climate scientists believe will be required”.
Läs hela artikeln CleanTechnica: “US solar energy company SunEdison has announced final plans to build the largest photovoltaic (PV) power plant in the world,.. in Italy.”
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