Japan Creates Major Feed-In Tariff for Renewable Energy
In a major breakthrough for the feed-in tariff movement worldwide, Japan's upper chamber has approved a new law implementing a feed-in tariff policy for renewable energy.
The law, which goes into effect next July, sets a target of 30,000 MW of new renewable development within the next decade, nearly five times the 6,500 MW of wind, solar, and geothermal power currently operating in the country.
The move has global implications, as the world's third largest economy follows that of the world's second-largest economy, China, and the world's fourth-largest economy, Germany, in implementing feed-in tariffs in order to rapidly develop renewable energy.
Biden calls for new clean energy policy for US
The United States can't lead the world in the 21st century with its current energy policy, Vice President Joe Biden told alternative technology supporters Tuesday at a clean energy summit in Las Vegas.
The nation is already trailing China and Germany in green technology, Biden said. It will trade its dependence on foreign oil for a dependence on foreign clean energy technology if its leaders don't act to help fledging green researchers and businesses, he said.
"If we shrink from deciding whether we are going to lead in the area of alternative energy, renewable energy, then we will be making the biggest mistake that this nation has made in its history," Biden said during his keynote speech at the fourth-annual National Clean Energy Summit at the Aria hotel-casino.
Solar Stunner: America is a $1.9 Billion Exporter of Solar Products
With all the stories about China dominating the solar photovoltaics (PV) manufacturing sector, you might not think that America is a net exporter of solar products. But it is — to the tune of $1.8 billion. That’s a $1 billion increase over net exports documented in the solar sector last year.
In fact, a report released this morning from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association found that the U.S. has a $247 million trade surplus with China.
US Governors Ask Obama to Boost Wind Energy
A coalition of 24 US governors from the major parties and each region of the country has asked the administration to take steps to provide a more favourable business climate for the expansion of wind energy according to the American Wind Energy Association.
Demands are being made for a 7-year extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) to provide consistent, low tax rates for wind energy.
A letter from the governors, sent last month to the White House, has since been made public by the Governors Wind Energy Coalition.
Competition brewing among states over renewable energy exports
If Nevada wants to be the global “epicenter of renewable energy,” as Gov. Brian Sandoval put it on Tuesday, it’s going to have some competition with its neighbors.
While Sandoval, California Gov. Jerry Brown, and Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire spoke at Tuesday’s National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas about cooperative ventures to improve energy efficiency production and supply, it’s clear no state’s leader wants to appear too dependent on the others.
“How much we import has to be balanced with how much we’re building locally...Hopefully we can be an exporter,” Brown said. “We’re going to try to build as much indigenously as we can.”
Gregoire said she wants Washington to be a producer, as well.
Illinois Gov. Quinn signs bill to study offshore wind energy
Gov. Pat Quinn has signed bills creating a council to study the potential for wind energy projects in Lake Michigan and allowing counties to establish wind farm districts.
Quinn’s office announced the new laws Sunday and said both take effect immediately.
Two Evanston lawmakers — state Rep. Robyn Gabel and Sen. Jeff Schoenberg — sponsored the bill that creates the Lake Michigan Offshore Wind Energy Advisory Council to review the potential for offshore wind energy projects.
U.S. wind industry rebounds in second quarter
U.S. wind energy continued to rebound in the second quarter, with 2,151 megawatts (MW) of electrical generating capacity installed in the first half of 2011 versus 1,250 MW during the same time in 2010, up 72 percent.
However, analysts at the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) cautioned that without stable policy such as an extension of the Production Tax Credit, set to expire in 2012, the industry's recovery will stall.
Project activity and orders for 2013 and beyond are scant because of the lack of a predictable business environment, causing layoffs and even bankruptcies in American manufacturing plants and the supply chain, said AWEA. These struggles for U.S. wind manufacturers will only worsen if Congress were to allow the tax credit to expire.
NEK Wind Project Clears Another Hurdle
Green Mountain Power has cleared more hurdles in its effort to build a large wind energy project on a Northeast Kingdom ridgeline.
As VPR's John Dillon reports, the latest step has involved wetlands on Lowell Mountain.
Arizona Solar Project Gets a $967 Million DOE Loan Guarantee
DOE announced on August 5 that it has finalized a $967 million loan guarantee to Agua Caliente Solar, LLC, for a solar photovoltaic generating facility in Arizona. The loan guarantee will support the construction of a 290-megawatt solar power plant, called Agua Caliente Solar, in Yuma County. The project will use thin-film solar panels manufactured by First Solar, Inc. Sponsor NRG Solar LLC estimates the loan guarantee will fund approximately 400 construction jobs and 10 full-time operating jobs at the plant, one of the largest of its kind in the world.
Yosemite Installs Largest National Park Solar Array
Yosemite National Park is known for El Capitan and the breathtaking views captured by Ansel Adams, but visitors may soon remember another sight from their trip. Yosemite has installed the largest solar power array of all the national parks with a 672 kW system that will provide 12 percent of the park's power needs.
Installed by Suntrek, the system consists of a 500 kW solar canopy over a parking lot, a 100 kW rooftop array on a warehouse and a 72 kW wall mounted array, all located within the park's maintenance and administrative complex. The whole system is made up of 2,800 solar PV panels.
The $4.5 million installation will save the park $50,000 a year on energy costs and the park also expects to receive $700,000 in energy rebates from PG&E over the next five years.
Blackstone to invest billions in German wind farmBlackstone is set to announce its largest renewable energy deal with the investment of a combined 2.5 billion euro ($3.5 billion) into the construction of Germany's biggest ever offshore wind farm, the Financial Times said on Friday.
The newspaper said the U.S. private equity firm group will announce on Friday that it has secured financing for an 80-turbine wind farm in the North Sea, which it plans to complete constructing by 2013.
The 1.2 billion euro project, dubbed "Meerwind," which was first announced in 2008, is set to produce enough power to service 40,000 households.
DOE Investing $50 Million to Advance Domestic Solar Manufacturing MarketDOE announced on August 2 its $50 million investment over two years for the SUNPATH program. The program is designed to help the United States reclaim its competitive edge in solar energy manufacturing. SUNPATH, which stands for Scaling Up Nascent PV AT Home, is the second Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative supporting DOE's SunShot Initiative.
SUNPATH seeks to increase domestic manufacturing through investments that have sustainable, competitive cost and performance advantages. It will help companies with pilot-scale commercial production scale up their manufacturing capabilities, enabling them to overcome a funding gap that often curtails domestic business at a critical stage. By bridging this gap, SUNPATH will help ensure that innovative, low-cost solar technologies are manufactured in the United States.
California utilities get 17 percent of power from green sourcesThe state's large investor owned utilities now receive17 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and other green sources, according to a quarterly report by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Under state law, investor-owned utilities such as PG&E Corp. and Southern California Edison are required to obtain 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, but the CPUC has provided the utilities with an additional three years to comply with the 20 percent target.
Federal ruling boosts wind energy interestsBoosters of proposed interstate transmission lines that would take Iowa's wind-generated electricity east of the Mississippi River to Chicago and big markets beyond think they have a winner in a new Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruling.
FERC laid out a "public policy" status for regional transmission organizations and state regulatory bodies as planning oozes forward on various proposals, some of which would cost $20 billion or more. The power lines would have up to 765 kilovolts of capacity, double the largest lines now serving Iowa.
Most important, the ruling gives the various authorities a rationale to assign portions of the costs of such a line to all the recipients of the electricity, not just the builders who would start the lines somewhere in the Dakotas, Minnesota or Iowa.
South Africa Seeks Bids for First Renewable Energy ProjectsSouth Africa's Department of Energy called on investors to submit proposals to build the country's first renewable energy power plants.
The bids can cover energy produced from wind, solar, hydro, biogas, biomass or landfill gas, the department said in an advertisement in the Sunday Times newspaper yesterday.
The government is aiming to purchase 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy by 2013 and 3,800 megawatts by 2016, according to a July 28 cabinet briefing.
Upon registration, bidders must pay 100,000 rand ($15,000) for every megawatt of installed capacity they propose to build, the department said. A mandatory briefing session for project developers will be held on Sept. 14.
EU wind energy use to triple by 2020The use of wind energy among EU members is expected to triple by the end of the decade, the European Wind Energy Association predicts.
The association said that Ireland, Denmark and Portugal will lead the European community in wind energy by 2020 with wind energy making up 52, 38 and 28 percent their energy production, respectively.
The EWEA said electricity production from wind will increase from about 5.5 percent of total European demand in 2010 to more than 15 percent of total demand by 2020.
Scotland's Next Wave: Marine PowerFrom his office in a converted Victorian schoolhouse, Neil Kermode can see little more than centuries-old stone buildings and narrow streets better suited to horse carts than Land Rovers. Yet Kermode, head of the European Marine Energy Centre in Scotland’s Orkney Islands, will tell you he can also see the future. Orkney, a collection of green, hilly islands where the North Sea collides with the Atlantic Ocean, has become a testing ground for wave and tidal power, technologies that will be instrumental in helping Scotland reach its goal of getting all its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. “The bit of alchemy of turning seawater into electricity has been done,” Kermode says as he gazes out at the busy harbor in Stromness, a 90-minute ferry ride from the Scottish mainland. “Now what we’ve got to do is to industrialize it and do it reliably.”
Posts
