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andy_t_roo

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #950 on: May 06, 2015, 11:15:50 AM »
i don't think we will ever move to a predominantly localised generation due to pure economics of scale; eg: concentrated solar thermal allows relatively cheap energy buffering on a scale not easily achievable with smaller scale batteries.

The efficiency of various generations and storage scales with size, so there will always be a place for centralised power.

My previous comment was about how batteries as an independent technology are now cost viable for load leveling.

Generation wise, renewables have been cost efficient for a while, they just suffer from load balancing and dispatchability issues which had prevented penetration of renewables beyond about 20%, before grid instability becomes an issue.

Here in australia we are beginning to have some issues, as solar power generation peaks harder than power demand during the day, causing coal powerplants to become less profitable due to not being able to ramp up for base load during the day, because of the dip in power demand at midday.

One report i saw [citation needed, cant find it now] said that there was risk of brownouts on a 5-10 year horizion due to under-investment in baseload, when comparing expected demand to planed new generation capacity.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #951 on: May 07, 2015, 12:30:45 AM »
Hawaii legislature sets 100% renewable portfolio standard by 2045.
Quote
- The Hawaii legislature on Tuesday passed a bill that would set a 100% renewable portfolio standard by 2045.

- The bill, House Bill 623, sets a goal of 30% renewables by 2020, 70% by 2040, and 100% by 2045.

- The bill passed the Senate 24-1 and the House 50-1. It now heads to the desk of Governor David Ige, who is a Democrat.
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/hawaii-legislature-sets-100-renewable-portfolio-standard-by-2045/394804/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #952 on: May 16, 2015, 07:43:49 PM »
The future of wind turbines:  no blades?
http://www.wired.com/2015/05/future-wind-turbines-no-blades/
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slow wing

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #953 on: May 17, 2015, 03:39:39 AM »
I don't understand that. The swept area looks tiny compared to current wind turbines of the same height.

So they are relying on turbulence and eddy currents to collect the wind energy from a much larger area than the swept area?

Need further convincing. For the moment not optimistic about the commercial prospects for this design.

Yuha

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #954 on: May 18, 2015, 06:37:43 PM »
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/why-doe-says-hydropower-is-poised-for-a-comeback/396323/

Quote
But now, climate change and the need for clean and flexible baseload power is forcing hydro back into the spotlight, and forcing utilities and environmentalists alike to take a second look at the resource.

Technological advances are allowing utilities and environmental groups to reconsider the power of flowing waters that now provide over 7% of U.S. electricity and could be much more, according the latest market report from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

“Utilities backed away from hydropower because opposition from environmentalists made it too challenging,” explained DOE Wind and Water Power Program Manager Hoyt Battey. “It didn’t have the best public image for a long time because of some very legitimate concerns about its impact on waterway ecosystems. But we are getting a lot better at dealing with and mitigating those impacts.”

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #955 on: May 20, 2015, 01:52:21 PM »
New report from Pew's Clean Energy Initiative.

This will give you hope: Developing countries are racing to install wind and solar
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2015/05/19/this-will-give-you-hope-developing-countries-are-racing-to-install-wind-and-solar/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #956 on: May 20, 2015, 07:11:57 PM »
These New Giant Wind Turbines Could Dramatically Change Energy Production In The U.S.
Quote
A new report from the U.S. Department of Energy shows how advances in wind power technology and deployment will continue to make wind power cheaper and more accessible — and will make it possible to achieve at utility-scale levels in all 50 states by 2030.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/05/20/3660677/bigger-taller-wind-turbines-will-unlock-wind-power-across-united-states/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #957 on: May 20, 2015, 08:20:53 PM »
85 watts of solar energy changes the lives of these Hondurans.

Honduran women bring light to their communities
Quote
In Honduras, the four women installed panels together with other members of their communities, whom they trained. Each of the 207 installed panels generates 85 watts per household.

“Now, in addition to providing us with light, we can use the radio and TV…and we can also charge our cell phones and bulbs. We now sleep at nine and the children can study at night; we can listen to the news, read the Bible, talk… and we have less risk of fire,” says Juanita Zambrano.

In some of the schools where the solar system has been installed, some teachers are already using technological tools in their classes, improving the quality of education. Teenage students can tune in to classes on the radio.
http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/ourstories/women-from-honduras-learn-about-solar-energy-in-india.html
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #958 on: May 21, 2015, 04:19:36 PM »
"Digital Wind Farm":  combines different size wind turbines, connected in the Cloud, to maximize performance and improve future output.
Quote
Each Digital Twin is constantly being fed data from sensors and analyzing it to improve operation.

When real-world conditions change, it calculates a course correction, creating a feedback loop that keeps each machine running at peak performance.

https://renewables.gepower.com/wind-energy/overview/digital-wind-farm.html
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Jim Hunt

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #959 on: May 21, 2015, 05:32:54 PM »
"Digital Wind Farm":  combines different size wind turbines, connected in the Cloud

A mini "virtual power plant"?

http://www.energymeteo.com/en/services/virtual-power-plants.php
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #960 on: May 23, 2015, 02:06:06 PM »
A mini "virtual power plant"?

Yes!  Getting "smart" with the variations of wind and solar is the next logical step. 
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #961 on: May 23, 2015, 02:13:13 PM »
Easy to see the next generation of recreational vehicles working like this -- no need for electrical hookups.  And now you'd want the sunny campsite, not the shady one.  :)

Live Off the Grid in This Solar-Powered 'Ecocapsule' Pod
http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/live-grid-solar-powered-ecocapsule-pod-n363516
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Jim Hunt

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #962 on: May 23, 2015, 02:33:34 PM »
Getting "smart" with the variations of wind and solar is the next logical step.

Living in the wilds of the West Country as I do, another logical step seems to me to be to add "bio" into the mix as well. I called my local planning department recently to enquire about such matters. They assured me they had never heard the term "Anaerobic Digester" before!
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #963 on: May 23, 2015, 04:35:54 PM »
They assured me they had never heard the term "Anaerobic Digester" before!

Have they heard the term  "Landfill"?   ;D
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #964 on: May 26, 2015, 02:22:43 AM »
Climate Change May Put Power Grid at Risk in the West
Quote
Higher temperatures and low stream flow reduce coal-fired power plants’ ability to use water for cooling, preventing them from operating at full capacity. The most vulnerable power plants could see a reduction in power generation capacity by up to 8.8 percent, the study says.

Renewables take a hit, too, but are much less vulnerable to climate change.

Solar photovoltaic panels generate less power as air temperatures rise, leading to a power generation capacity loss of up to 1.7 percent. And, just like airplanes have difficulty getting airborne in Phoenix on hot summer days because the air isn’t dense enough to create sufficient lift from the wings and power from the jet engines, wind turbines operate less efficiently when the air is hot and less dense. The study says climate change’s effect on wind turbines is too uncertain to estimate a possible loss in power generation capacity, however.

“Often when we think about the effects of hotter temperatures on electricity provision we focus on the demand side as people consume more electricity for air conditioning,” Chester said. “Our results show that climate change can be expected to impact the electricity supply side as well ultimately raising questions about our ability to meet this growing demand with the current mix.”
http://www.climatecentral.org/news/climate-change-power-grid-at-risk-19005
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ghoti

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #965 on: May 26, 2015, 02:41:35 AM »
We've already seen several nuclear plants in the US have to shutdown briefly because the river water they use for cooling was too hot.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #966 on: May 28, 2015, 06:50:48 PM »
Troubled times in the recycling business, as common materials are fetching lower prices.

Why trash is no longer cash for recycling biz
http://www.readability.com/m?url=http://www.cnbc.com/id/102713255
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #967 on: June 01, 2015, 02:35:11 PM »
In the video:  Middle East power company CEO says everyone is redoing their calculations; with solar priced at 5.98 cents per kilowatt hour, they can't supply energy as cheaply any other way.

Quote
“I think in 2020 we’re going to look back and say – if we pick one year as a point of inflexion – I’m very confident it will be 2015.”
Saudi Arabia solar power exports ‘absolutely realistic’
http://www.rtcc.org/2015/05/28/saudi-arabia-solar-power-exports-absolutely-realistic/#.dpuf
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #968 on: June 04, 2015, 03:09:45 AM »
We Could Power Entire World on Renewables by 2025, Says Global Apollo Program
Quote
“The objective is that, by 2020, renewable power should be cheaper than coal in all sunny parts of the world, and by 2025 in all parts of the world.”
http://ecowatch.com/2015/06/03/power-world-renewables-apollo/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #969 on: June 04, 2015, 02:01:03 PM »
Details in the link....
Quote
Top News This Week

Tech Giants Urge Halt To Green-Energy Freeze (Charlotte Observer)
Apple, Facebook and Google have called on North Carolina’s legislative leaders to halt a move to freeze the state’s renewable energy standard.

Texas Backing Away From Cutting Support For Wind, Solar Energy (Dallas Morning News)
Texas’ booming wind power industry is successfully challenging legislation that would end support for renewable energy.

Solar Panels Power Up In Connecticut (AP)
Connecticut’s rooftop solar business is thriving and becoming more common as utility rates rise.

Oil Billionaire Makes $450 Million Bid on Russian Solar Ramp-Up (Bloomberg)
Viktor Vekselberg is investing a fortune in solar farms through 2018 and says diversifying power generation will benefit the country.

'Moon Shot' Call On Clean Energy (BBC)
A group of scientists and economists want to mimic the urgency of the Apollo Space Program to spur greater global clean energy investment.

Quote of the Week
“The right and ability to access power from renewable resources is not merely a goal, but an expectation.” – Apple, Facebook and Google in a letter to North Carolina legislators calling on them to halt a move to freeze the state’s renewable energy standard (Charlotte Observer)
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=07bcd4eb83&e=60ddb6357b
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #970 on: June 09, 2015, 06:40:11 PM »
Good grasp of the obvious:

UBS Analysts: Solar Will Become the ‘Default Technology of the Future’
Quote
Within a decade, solar photovoltaics could account for 10 percent of electricity supply globally, beating out coal and nuclear as "default" power generation technologies.

That's the conclusion of a new analysis from investment bank UBS, which found that global installed solar capacity will more than triple between now and 2025, and then triple again between 2025 and 2050. By the middle of the century, UBS estimates that nearly 3,000 gigawatts of solar will be installed worldwide.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/ubs-analysts-solar-will-become-the-default-technology-of-the-future
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Yuha

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #971 on: June 09, 2015, 07:04:58 PM »
California solar generation is growing fast:
http://www.desertsun.com/story/tech/science/energy/2015/06/07/california-setting-new-solar-records-rapid-pace/28573421/

Quote
California hit 6,078 megawatts of solar generation at noon on Sunday, May 31, according to the California Independent System Operator, the nonprofit corporation that manages the state's electricity grid.
...
California hit 1,000 megawatts of solar generation for the first time in 2012, followed by 2,000 megawatts in 2013 and 3,000 megawatts in 2014. Over the first few months of this year, the state regularly set new records above 5,000 megawatts, followed by its first 6,000-megawatt mark in April.
...
The solar numbers reported by the independent system operator aren't complete. They don't include several parts of the state, including areas served by the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power and the Imperial Irrigation District.

They also don't include rooftop solar and other "behind-the-meter" solar installations, which Browning estimated could total nearly 3,000 megawatts across the state.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #972 on: June 09, 2015, 07:34:19 PM »
California solar generation is growing fast:
http://www.desertsun.com/story/tech/science/energy/2015/06/07/california-setting-new-solar-records-rapid-pace/28573421/

Also from that article:
Quote
"We've had moments where the whole state was over 50 percent powered by renewable energy," said Adam Browning, executive director of Vote Solar, a national advocacy group. "Think about that: the seventh-largest economy of the world running on what was formerly an empty pipe dream. It's absolutely amazing."
Woot!   \o/   :)
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Laurent

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #973 on: June 09, 2015, 08:00:49 PM »
http://www.econation.be/en/
The light catcher is a system that bring light inside the building without the heat. (it seems so)


ghoti

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #974 on: June 09, 2015, 09:53:30 PM »
Also known as a skylight :P

plinius

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #975 on: June 10, 2015, 12:32:31 AM »
Also known as a skylight :P

This specific one looks pretty primitive with just one single mirror?

Lennart van der Linde

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #976 on: June 10, 2015, 07:57:08 PM »
Not sure where to put this piece by David Roberts on Jacobson's new paper on 100% clean energy for the US by 2050:
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8748081/us-100-percent-renewable-energy

"It is technically and economically feasible to run the US economy entirely on renewable energy, and to do so by 2050. That is the conclusion of a new study in the journal Energy & Environmental Science, authored by Stanford scholar Mark Z. Jacobson and nine colleagues.

Jacobson is well-known for his ambitious and controversial work on renewable energy. In 2001 he published, with Mark A. Delucchi, a two-part paper (one, two) on "providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power." In 2013 he published a feasibility study on moving New York state entirely to renewables, and in 2014 he created a road map for California to do the same.

His team's new paper contains 50 such road maps, one for every state, with detailed modeling on how to get to a US energy system entirely powered by wind, water, and solar (WWS). That means no oil and coal. It also means no natural gas, no nuclear power, no carbon capture and sequestration, and no biofuels."

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #977 on: June 11, 2015, 02:55:41 AM »
UK leads European solar energy expansion to help renewables overtake output of nuclear power as industry leaders hail ‘tipping point’ for the technology.
Quote
“For the first time ever in Europe, renewables produced more power than nuclear..."
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/09/record-boost-in-new-solar-power-continues-massive-industry-growth
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Tor Bejnar

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #978 on: June 11, 2015, 03:02:27 AM »
Quote
“For the first time ever in Europe, renewables produced more power than nuclear..."
I would have thought hydroelectric power and water pumping with wind (etc.) existed before the first nuclear plant was dreamed of!  Shows how little this American knows of European history.  ;D
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #979 on: June 11, 2015, 05:06:19 AM »
Tor, isn't America "the World" for the average American? ;)

In the sixties, 95% of our electricity came from hydro.
We built these things at the end of the 19th century.


As for the average Swede, there was a poll in one of our leading newspapers this week, over 81% of the voters thought the suggestion to phase out and ban fossil fuels in cars (in roughly twenty years) was absolute nonsense.

Tor Bejnar

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #980 on: June 11, 2015, 05:02:45 PM »
Sleepy,
The optimist in me hopes that most of that Swedish 81% was quibbling with the "roughly 20 years", thinking it should be "within 10 or 15 years"! :)

In "the World" I live in, however, climate change cannot be mentioned at work. :'(
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #981 on: June 12, 2015, 01:00:02 AM »
More on the Georgetown, Texas, story.

This Big Texas City Will Soon Be Powered Entirely By Wind And Sun
Quote
Ross said that a lot of “folks don’t really care what kind of electrons are flowing down the transmission lines,” they just don’t want to pay more for power. Once he explains the new setup to residents, even the most skeptical and politically conservative, they tend to come around.

“The main criticism I’ve heard about green energy is the worry that the tax credits might go away,” said Ross. “Well that doesn’t impact us because they are contractually obligated to deliver energy at that price for 25 years.”

Ross, who is a Certified Public Accountant by trade, took this idea one step further.

“And if you are really looking into that — in the tax code which industry gets the most deductions and credits of any industry out there? That would be fossil fuels. Renewable energy credits are minuscule compared to fossil fuels,” said Ross, who was elected as a Republican mayor earlier this year.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/06/11/3666649/georgetown-texas-one-hundred-percent-renewable/
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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #982 on: June 12, 2015, 06:41:56 AM »
Sleepy,
The optimist in me hopes that most of that Swedish 81% was quibbling with the "roughly 20 years", thinking it should be "within 10 or 15 years"! :)

In "the World" I live in, however, climate change cannot be mentioned at work. :'(

Here you "can" talk about climate change, but you better be equipped with a forehead like a Musk Ox and patience like a Saint. ;)

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #983 on: June 13, 2015, 09:57:38 PM »
Quote
@Sustainable2050 [Kees van der Leun]: On an average day, an offshore wind turbine produces the energy needed for production of 20 tonnes of steel, paying back the energy invested
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #984 on: June 16, 2015, 12:41:34 PM »
This Is What Happens When A State Seriously Invests In Clean Energy
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/15/california-clean-energy_n_7578810.html
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icefest

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #985 on: June 17, 2015, 12:13:08 AM »
Quote
@Sustainable2050 [Kees van der Leun]: On an average day, an offshore wind turbine produces the energy needed for production of 20 tonnes of steel, paying back the energy invested

And yet, unless you can produce one without carbon emissions you'll never make one that's truly carbon neutral.
Open other end.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #986 on: June 19, 2015, 01:26:41 AM »
Solar City announces partnership to build large "solar gardens," allowing "renters, low-income housing residents, schools, and others" to purchase solar energy without installing solar panels on their properties. 
In Minnesota!

http://www.readability.com/m?url=http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/178863/solarcity-sunrise-energy-launch-community-solar
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #987 on: June 19, 2015, 08:03:14 PM »
...the U.S. has installed in the past two years more solar than the previous 38 years combined, according to Rhone Resch, Solar Energy Industries Association's president and CEO.
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2015/01/solar-outlook-2015-still-growing-but-no-longer-energys-young-kid.html

#PutSolarOnIt is a National Solar Day of Action on June 21st, the Summer Solstice — the longest day of the year...
http://putsolaronit.com/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #988 on: June 19, 2015, 09:08:02 PM »
Researchers from the Lappeenranta University of Technology in Finland have concluded that a fully renewable energy system is not only possible, but economically viable for Finland.
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/06/10/fully-renewable-energy-system-economical-viable-finland/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #989 on: June 21, 2015, 12:25:12 AM »
Survey Of Big U.S. Investment Companies Shows Why We Might Be On The Verge Of A Solar Power Boom
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Approximately two-thirds of big investment companies plan to prioritize solar power in the next five years, according to a new survey.

The survey, commissioned by financial services firm Wiser Capital, got responses from 100 representatives from large investment companies in the United States. It found that 32 percent of those companies plan to invest in solar for the first time this year, and 28 percent will invest in solar for the first time in the next two to five years. It also found that about 80 percent of the companies polled want to invest in solar “to support a cleaner energy future, and a little over 60 percent want to invest in it because they’re confident they’ll get a return on the investment.”
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/06/17/3670599/solar-investment-companies/
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #990 on: June 21, 2015, 09:58:10 PM »
Will color be the new black?   ;)  Making the case for cheap and colorful solar coatings derived from a new class of solar materials: perovskites.

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What will tomorrow’s solar panels look like? This week, along with colleagues from Oxford and MIT, I published a feature in Scientific American making the case for cheap and colorful solar coatings derived from a new class of solar materials: perovskites. In this post, I’ll critically examine prospects for commercialization of solar perovskites, building on our article’s claim that this technology could represent a significant improvement over current silicon solar panels. We argue:

Perovskites are tantalizing for several reasons. The ingredients are abundant, and researchers can combine them easily and inexpensively, at low temperature, into thin films that have a highly crystalline structure similar to that achieved in silicon wafers after costly, high-temperature processing. Rolls of perovskite film that are thin and flexible, instead of thick and rigid like silicon wafers, could one day be rapidly spooled from a special printer to make lightweight, bendable, and even colorful solar sheets and coatings.

Still, to challenge silicon’s dominance, perovskite cells will have to overcome some significant hurdles. The prototypes today are only as large as a fingernail; researchers have to find ways to make them much bigger if the technology is to compete with silicon panels. They also have to greatly improve the safety and long-term stability of the cells—an uphill battle.
http://blogs.cfr.org/levi/2015/06/18/to-succeed-solar-perovskites-need-to-escape-the-ivory-tower/
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Yuha

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #991 on: June 23, 2015, 09:09:03 AM »
Not sure where to put this piece by David Roberts on Jacobson's new paper on 100% clean energy for the US by 2050:
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8748081/us-100-percent-renewable-energy

David Roberts has added a follow up piece (with one more to follow):
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/19/8808545/wind-solar-grid-integration

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Last week, I described a modeling study showing that it is possible to run the entire US economy on renewable energy: wind, water, and solar power. Technologically, the tools are available. Economically, the total system costs would be lower than a business-as-usual scenario. But politically, the plan is wildly ambitious, to the point of fantasy.

Among other things, it would require that policy and investment decisions be approached holistically, coordinated across multiple sectors, and made on the basis of multidecadal cost-benefit horizons, with enormous upfront investments paying off in health and climate benefits that unfold over decades.

That is not the way humans typically approach big challenges. Engineers aren't granted the power to redesign large systems from scratch.

...

So here's our question: given current energy infrastructure and institutions, how much variable renewable energy (VRE) — wind and solar — can we integrate into the energy system?

wili

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #992 on: June 23, 2015, 05:45:02 PM »
Thanks for those links, Yuha. Roberts is a big hero of mine.

But it strikes me that all those issues also become more tractable if we have a big net reduction in the amount of energy we use.

"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #993 on: June 23, 2015, 07:32:05 PM »
Bloomberg 2015 New Energy Outlook report.

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@business: Watch the future of energy unfold in 11 charts http://t.co/9Q7kXr2HAN #NEO2015 http://t.co/HsznDitujK
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #994 on: June 24, 2015, 08:20:41 PM »
More on the Bloomberg New Energy Finance report.

The Way Humans Get Electricity Is About to Change Forever
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-23/the-way-humans-get-electricity-is-about-to-change-forever
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Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #995 on: June 25, 2015, 02:53:48 AM »
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #996 on: June 27, 2015, 06:25:19 PM »
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Yuha

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #997 on: July 05, 2015, 03:12:13 PM »
Not sure where to put this piece by David Roberts on Jacobson's new paper on 100% clean energy for the US by 2050:
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/9/8748081/us-100-percent-renewable-energy

David Roberts has added a follow up piece (with one more to follow):
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/19/8808545/wind-solar-grid-integration

Here's the next follow up piece:
http://www.vox.com/2015/6/24/8837293/economic-limitations-wind-solar

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I will be delving into specific solutions for VRE grid integration in future posts — there's a lot of fascinating work going on this area. For now, a few general remarks.

This post is framed around "limitations," but as I said above, if wind and solar both reach global grid penetrations equal to their capacity factors, that would make VRE cumulatively around half of all global electricity. That would be amazing!

And let's recall that in the 1990s and mid-2000s, the conventional wisdom was that VRE would hit a ceiling at about 10 percent of total grid power in the US. Now NREL says that "an economic carrying capacity of 30% [VRE] in much of the United States will require largely understood changes to operational practices as well as transmission capacity expansion." Getting there will involve enormous challenges, but they are challenges we know how to overcome.

Smart research and modeling pushed our credible aspirations from 10 percent to 30 percent. By the time we reach 30 percent, smart research and modeling (along with considerable real-world experience) will have pushed it higher.

These economic challenges don't give fans of wind and solar any reason to slow down or get discouraged. But they are a good reason to start planning ahead, so that as wind and solar continue their rise, they are met by a modern grid that can accommodate them.

Sigmetnow

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #998 on: July 05, 2015, 07:38:56 PM »
Here's a 22 June IEEE article:  Taking the U.S. to 100 Percent Renewable Energy State by State
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A group of researchers at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, led by Stanford’s Mark Jacobson and Mark Delucchi, says that the United States can get 100 percent of its energy from renewable sources, using existing technologies, by 2050. And they lay out a state-by-state plan for doing so. Jacobson and Delucchi had previously calculated that the world could theoretically go 100-percent renewable by 2030; in this more practical plan, they focus on the United States and look forward to 2050.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/energy/renewables/taking-the-us-to-100-percent-renewable-energy-state-by-state
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wili

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Re: Renewable Energy
« Reply #999 on: July 05, 2015, 10:22:07 PM »
I just wanted to say thanks, Sig, for your many valuable posts and links. I don't often respond, but I do often share them on other sites and on fb. Keep it up!
"A force de chercher de bonnes raisons, on en trouve; on les dit; et après on y tient, non pas tant parce qu'elles sont bonnes que pour ne pas se démentir." Choderlos de Laclos "You struggle to come up with some valid reasons, then cling to them, not because they're good, but just to not back down."