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#Post#: 2685--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: February 16, 2015, 1:38 pm
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After a several DECADES of denying the obvious, mortgage
providers are FINALLY recognizing that renewable energy
INCREASES the value of a property. It's about time!
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02/13/2015 11:05 AM
Fannie Mae Gives Discount to Green Apartment Buildings
SustainableBusiness.com News
For the first time, mortgages will be discounted for green
buildings, which advocates have been pursuing for years.
Fannie Mae announced that green multifamily properties will get
a 10 basis point discount on interest for refinancing,
acquisition and supplemental mortgage loans. To qualify,
buildings can be LEED-certified, Energy Star-certified or meet
Enterprise's Green Communities Criteria.
Fannie Mae is the top provider of multifamily financing in the
US with a portfolio valued at more than $200 billion. 20 million
families live in rental apartments and condos in the US.
If the market interest rate is 4% for multifamily loans, for
example, certified buildings would pay 3.9%, saving $95,000 in
interest payments over 10 years on a $10 million dollar loan.
"This is a great demonstration of leadership from Fannie Mae,
and the partnership between the multifamily finance industry and
the green building industry," says Rick Fedrizzi, CEO and
founding chair of the US Green Building Council. "This is real
money and an incentive to not only build green but also for
existing buildings to achieve certification. For the first time,
Fannie Mae multifamily lenders will be able to reward building
owners for their better buildings."
"We clearly see the value in the triple-bottom line of certified
green buildings: financial benefits of lower operating costs for
owners and tenants; social benefits of better quality housing
for renters; and environmental benefits for everyone," says
Jeffery Hayward, executive vice president for multifamily,
Fannie Mae.
And Fannie Mae will securitize the loans as Green Bonds, making
them available for socially responsible investors to include
them their portfolios.
Green building advocates have long said mortgages should be
cheaper because lower energy, water and maintenance bills leave
more disposable income for loan recipients.
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LEED Savings
LEED buildings, for example, consume 25% less energy and 11%
less water on average, and have 19% lower maintenance costs,
while producing a third less greenhouse gas emissions.
In 2013, President Obama extended his Better Buildings program
to multifamily housing. Under the program, building owners
pledge to reduce energy consumption across their portfolios by
20% within 10 years, and agree to share best practice strategies
that can be substantiated with energy data.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also provide financing to make
multifamily buildings more energy and water efficient.
Here is Fannie Mae's Green Initiative:
Website: www.fanniemaegreeninitiative.com
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26152
Agelbert NOTE: THe MKings among us will NO DOUBT wail, moan and
groan about "welfare queenery", "government handouts" and other
"lack of responsibility" ([i]see psychological projection on
steroids ;)[/i]) claims while studiously ignoring THEIR
mega-welfare queen, 24/7, decade after decade, taxpayer theft
FOR WARS AND "subsidies".
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[img width=640
height=580]
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#Post#: 2743--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: February 25, 2015, 7:24 pm
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Hawaii
Reaches 21% Renewable Energy
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SustainableBusiness.com News
Hawaii Electric announced that 21% of its electricity comes from
renewables, far exceeding the state's Renewable Portfolio
Standard (RPS) that targets 15% by 2015.
12% of residential customers have on-site solar - a penetration
level that leads the nation, says the utility. Partially that's
because Hawaii has very high energy prices because it imports
all its oil, but it is also because the utility has been
proactive on developing home-grown energy.
The utility filed a Power Supply Improvement Plan with the
Hawaii Public Utilities Commission which would:
•Increase renewable energy to over 65% by 2030
•Triple the amount of distributed solar by 2030
•Lower electric bills 20% by 2030
In other words, a utility is actually promoting the idea of
raising the state's RPS, instead of trying to crush it like
we're seeing in too many states.
In 2014, "we continued to grow our businesses in steady fashion
and delivered a competitive core return on equity of 9.8% for
the year as Hawaii Electric's combination of companies continues
to provide us with the financial resources to efficiently invest
in future opportunities," says Constance Lau, CEO.
Part of that investment is in grid modernization to be able to
integrate more renewable energy. A clear, open planning process
will let customers and solar contractors know how much more
solar can be added each year, says Hawaii Electric.
"Even as recent oil price decreases have brought our customers
bill relief, we remain focused on further reducing costs for our
customers with proposed grid-scale solar and wind projects," Lau
said. "We also are working with other stakeholders to bring
liquefied natural gas to Hawaii as a cleaner, lower-cost
alternative to oil while we continue to aggressively pursue more
renewable generation sources."
Hawaii Electric is being acquired by NextEra Energy, one of the
largest renewable energy developers, currently repowering parts
of Altamont Pass Wind Farm and part-owners of the recently
completed 550 MW Desert Sunlight Solar Project, for example.
NextEra's utility side, Florida Power & Light, isn't very
forward looking.
Read our article, Hawaii Plans For Solar, Instead of Reacting To
It.
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26167
#Post#: 2749--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: February 27, 2015, 12:56 pm
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02/26/2015 01:19 PM
[b]
California Carbon Auction Brings In $1 Billion! And Protects
Forests[/b]
SustainableBusiness.com News
California raked in $1 billion in first cap-and-trade auction of
the year, and since they take place every quarter, it can look
forward to raising about $4 billion this year.
December's auction brought in $400 million, so why so much more
now? As of January 1, transportation fuels are included in the
program. ;D
This is a big deal. Until now, the program applied to a few
hundred major stationary polluters - utilities, manufacturers
and food processors. Now, it includes mobile sources -
transportation fuels - which accounts for 40% of California's
emissions, expanding it dramatically.
Refineries and fuel wholesalers have to pay for emissions tied
to fuel sales. They passed the cost to motorists, raising gas
prices about 10 cents a gallon at the pump.
Even with the number of permits raised substantially, prices
held steady at $12.21 per carbon credit, which gives companies
the right to emit 1 ton of carbon this year.
Last year, Quebec joined the program, so the province will get a
share. When Quebec on board the program became the Western
Climate Initiative.
Carbon Offsets Protect Forests, Help Native Americans ;D
As part of the carbon trading program, companies can cover up to
8% of emissions with purchases of less expensive carbon offsets.
Offsets can be used for three purposes:
•to pay businesses that destroy carbon-forcing HFCs like
refrigerants;
•to pay dairies that capture methane
•to pay landowners that make a 100-year commitment to manage
forests so they absorb maximum carbon from the atmosphere.
In April, California's Air Resources Board (ARB) issued the
Yurok tribe over 800,000 offset credits in one of the first
approved forestry projects. At the going rate of about $9 a
credit, the tribe earns several million dollars to protect its
forests, reports the LA Times.
Carbon Offset Yurok Land
About half the land on its reservation is owned by logging
companies and the tribe is using the proceeds to buy and restore
its ancestral land along the northern California coast.
"Due to the heavy logging activity that occurred around the Blue
Creek Drainage, there's been significant degradation of habitat
as well as fish population, by 80-90% from what it had been
historically. We wanted to restore this land to its fullest
capacity and the revenue from the carbon market offsets allowed
us to do that," Vice Chair Susan Masten, told the Environmental
Defense Fund.
Carbon projects allow the tribe to "maximize both revenue and
the ability to preserve the forest," Chairman Thomas O'Rourke
Sr., told the LA Times. It's allows us to "do our part on global
warming and to preserve our way of life so that our future
generations can see the pristine forest that our parents'
grandparents saw."
Round Valley Indian Tribes is getting over 540,000 offset
credits for its Improved Forest Management Project - 5,550 acres
on its northern California reservation.
"This reinforces our goal of sustainable forestry to maintain
levels of wildlife, native plants, fish, clean water, and
reduced fire threats. This project also is in line with the
tribes' mission to ensure that our future generations enjoy the
benefits of a healthy forest," Joe Dukepoo, Round Valley Tribal
Councilman, told Indian Country Today.
ARB set up the program with rigorous rules to make sure that
emissions reductions are "real, permanent, quantifiable,
verifiable and enforceable." A 113-page protocol for forest
projects shows how to measure the amount of carbon plants are
absorbing, and requires extensive monitoring, reporting and
independent verification.
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Read our article, How California Will Spend the $5 Billion a
Year From Cap-and-Trade.
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26171
Reader Comments (1)
[quote]Author:
Dave Clegern
Date Posted:
02/26/15 11:48 PM
It is incorrect to imply that California will have $1B to spend
as a result of this month's carbon allowance auction. The
majority of that money (considerably more than half) is returned
to utilities for the benefit of their customers (to avoid rate
increases, for on-bill credits twice a year, etc.) The remaining
proceeds are split between California and our auction partner,
the Canadian Province of Quebec. The amount of the actual total
for California is also affected by the exchange rate at the time
the total is tallied, and that has not yet happened. Dave
Clegern Air Resources Board Public Information Officer for
Climate Change Programs dclegern@arb.ca.gov[/quote]
#Post#: 2826--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: March 14, 2015, 3:02 pm
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[move][font=courier]Market Forces Signal Clean Energy’s
Watershed Moment
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Tom Doyle, President and CEO, NRG Renew
March 12, 2015
Business leaders have an important decision to make this year:
to continue operating under the status quo or to join the list
of successful companies creating a more sustainable future by
contracting or investing in renewable energy and making a
positive impact on their brand, customers, employees and bottom
line.
In the past few months, we’ve seen exciting renewable energy
announcements from market leaders such as Kaiser Permanente,
Apple, Google, Starwood, Amazon, Citigroup and Blackrock.
Citing concerns about climate change and its threat to human
health, Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest
not-for-profit healthcare providers, last week announced plans
to power half the electricity it uses in California with
renewable energy. Having previously committed to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020, Kaiser
Permanente is now targeting to surpass this goal by the end of
2016, accelerating its timetable by three years. To this end,
Kaiser Permanente will purchase up to 70 megawatts of
distributed solar power from NRG Renew to be installed on
rooftops and parking shade structures at up to 170 Kaiser
Permanente facilities across California, including medical
offices, hospitals, clinics and data centers.
Several of the following market forces have aligned to make
distributed solar power a viable, strategic option for Kaiser
Permanente — and companies across all industries that are
reviewing and re-evaluating their energy needs, looking for
cleaner, more sustainable sources:
Cost reduction driven by technology advancements and
scalability: The renewable energy industry is experiencing a
decrease in infrastructure costs, finding that “solar
photovoltaic modules cost three-quarters less today than they
did in 2009, while wind turbine prices declined by almost a
third over the same period.” The economics of clean energy are
clear. In fact, some Fortune 500 companies have shaved more than
$1 billion off their annual electric bills.
Grid instability and weather catastrophes have driven more
interest in distributed generation: Not a lot has changed since
the grid was originally built more than a century ago. In 2001,
five weather-related events caused power outages that affected
more than 50,000 customers. Ten years later, that figure
rocketed up to 120 events that took down the grid. Weather
events like Superstorm Sandy, combined with an antiquated
infrastructure, signal that this pattern of unreliability will
likely continue. Making the grid more resilient presents an
ever-increasing cost imposed on consumers, but distributed solar
and microgrids can take the strain off the grid by placing
clean, solar energy generation next to a company’s load needs,
helping mitigate the impact of future grid-related catastrophes.
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Sustainability goals improve brand image in the eyes of
customers, employees and shareholders: According to an Accenture
and United Nations sustainability report surveying more than
1,000 top executives across 103 nations and 27 industries, 93
percent of CEOs see sustainability as important to the future
success of their business, and 80 percent see sustainability
issues as a route to competitive advantage in their industry.
Not only do sustainability efforts address growing consumer
demands that companies address climate change and do the right
thing for the planet, but renewable energy savings can be
reinvested in research and development of innovative new
products to corner markets or increase market share.
Companies are hedging for the future against volatile fuel
prices and escalating utility rates: In the past, companies did
not have a choice where their energy would come from. Today,
there are more options for companies to lock in long-term,
fixed-cost, clean energy contracts such as Power Purchase
Agreements or Operating Leases that allow companies to hedge
against future increases in power pricing and fundamentally
purchase electricity in a cheaper way.
A combination of all these factors has led to an increase in
renewable investment including a rise in the number of companies
embracing distributed generation as a strategic, economic and
more sustainable energy option. This middle ground between
residential solar and utility-scale solar is an area where
single-brand, multi-site companies, such as Kaiser Permanente
and Unilever, can uniquely benefit from a portfolio approach to
harnessing renewable energy.
At Arizona State University, we worked with the university’s
team to develop and install more than 30 installations across
the campus. At our Starwood projects in Arizona, Hawaii and St.
John, we’re taking a diversified, custom design-driven approach,
integrating solar panels into the existing landscape to provide
visually compelling installations that adds to the beauty at
each resort. While the economics and electricity pricing can
vary greatly, a portfolio approach spreads the pricing across
the collection of projects for overall savings. And it’s an
approach that will work for many companies globally that operate
multiple sites from college, government and corporate campuses
to shopping centers, warehouses/distribution centers and
manufacturing facilities.
Our sustainable future is here.
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Now is the time
to reevaluate your energy needs and join us in rewriting the
energy status quo with renewables at its core.
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Agelbert note: The energy status quo needs to have renewables
EVERYWHERE, not simply at its core.
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And dirty energy
production needs to PAY for all the pollution from the past as
well as be prohibited from polluting in the present and future.
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[left][move][I][font=impact]The Fossil Fuelers DID THE Climate
Trashing CRIME,[COLOR=BROWN] but since they have ALWAYS BEEN
liars
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/>and conscience free crooks
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they
are trying to AVOID [/color] DOING THE TIME or PAYING THE
FINE! Don't let them get away with it![/font][/I][/move]
#Post#: 2865--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: March 22, 2015, 1:31 pm
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03/20/2015 12:32 PM
China Installs As Much Solar As Entire US This Year :o [img
width=80
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/> [img width=110
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SustainableBusiness.com News
If you thought India's goals for solar were high at 15
gigawatts a year
HTML http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/energy-environment/234186-a-change-to-renewable-energy-can-happen-quickly,<br
/>China can still beat that.
China says it will install 17.8 gigawatts of solar this year,
raising the target 20%. That's almost as much as the entire US
has at 20 GW.
If they follow last year's plan, about half will be rooftop
solar - a priority for the first time - as a way to reduce
pollution in populated centers
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/25696,<br
/>and get off coal
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/26174.<br
/>Until now, almost all solar systems have been built in remote
locations at utility-scale, requiring big investments in
transmission infrastructure.
Since most people don't live in single family homes, rooftop
solar and small, ground-mounted projects would be on large
rooftops of industrial and commercial companies, and public
buildings like rail stations and airport terminals.
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According to news sources, China missed the mark last year on
small solar because lots of distributed systems are more
complicated to finance and install.
The country can reach 26% renewable energy by 2030, according to
the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in Renewable
Energy Prospects: China. Looking only at electricity, renewables
could supply 40% by then (including hydro and nuclear). And that
would bring 18% lower coal consumption.
"China's energy use is expected to increase 60% by 2030. :P
How China meets that need will determine whether or not the
world can curb climate change," says Adnan Amin,
Director-General of IRENA.
According to IRENA, 2.6 million people work in the renewable
energy industry in China.
Determined to Clean Up Pollution
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/>country has a new Minister of the Environment, Chen Jining, an
environmental scientist
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/> and former president of the prestigious Tsinghua University.
His predecessor was known as a "consummate insider
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that let industry
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get away with
skirting requirements, which came to a head with the recent
release of the film, "Under the Dome," which made headlines when
it went viral.
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[img width=50
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[img width=640
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o/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/750px-underthedome_english.jpg[/img
]
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While the population has been protesting polluted air and water
for years, the film is widely seen as the final wake-up call -
China's "Silent Spring." Viewed an amazing 200 million times for
a 104-minute film, it exposes the devastating impact China's
industries have had on air quality, and the government that has
failed to regulate them. While the media and government
originally lauded the film, the files have quietly become
unavailable. >:(
Amazingly, companies have been covering up their pollution in
some innovative ways, like "rigging automated
pollution-monitoring systems to fudge data, discharging
pollution through secret underground pipes and dumping toxic
waste into rivers in the dead of night," reports CleanBiz.Asia.
Agelbert NOTE: It's clear the Chinese Predatory Capitalists
LEARNED A LOT from a certain FASCIST FOSSIL FUEL GOVERNMENT that
has RUN/RUINED the USA for about a century.
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And China's air pollution is making it all the way to the US.
Various pollutants, from acid rain-inducing sulphate to
black carbon,
HTML http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/24473<br
/> travel on "westerly winds," reports Reuters.
"We've outsourced our manufacturing and much of our pollution,
but some of it is blowing back across the Pacific to haunt us,"
Steve Davis, a scientist at University of California Irvine,
told Reuters. One third of China's greenhouse gases is
attributed to its export industries, according to Worldwatch
Institute.
Read our article, Climate Change Reframed: China, World Bank
Prioritize Pollution
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/>
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AGELBERT RANT: If you think, FOR ONE SECOND, that the very same
Fascist Fossil Fuel Government in the USA that is spraying
nanoparticle aerosols in the troposphere TO SLOW DOWN GLOBAL
WARMING SO THE FOSSIL FUEL BASTARDS can preserve their profit
over people and planet CRAP, is "concerned" about the pollution
from China, you have that EXACTLY backwards.
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More aerosols
from MORE pollution reflects sunlight, GET IT?
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If you don't, you need to look up the term "profit over planet".
And no, that will NOT work in the long run to cool the planet.
BUT THE SHORT RUN is ALL that the greedball imbeciles that run
our country have the mental horsepower to handle.
So EXPECT our biosphere math challenged Dr. Strangeloves to
INCREASE the geo-engineering of the atmosphere in DIRECT
PROPORTION to the DECREASE of polluting aerosols from China by
adding MORE heavy metal aerosols to MAKE UP for the aerosols
China stops putting out.
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Have a nice day.
[center]
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/>Fossil Fuels IS SUICIDE%5E_%5E.gif[/center]
#Post#: 2931--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: April 6, 2015, 1:07 pm
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04/02/2015 03:47 PM
[move]China's Hydrogen Tram Rolls Off Assembly Line[/move]
SustainableBusiness.com News
The first hydrogen-powered train just came off the assembly line
in China and will soon be operating in Qingdao.
It looks like a bullet train, but it is called a tram because
it's meant for short city trips right now. It has a 62-mile
range and a top speed of 43 mph, with room for 380 passengers.
Built by Sifang, a subsidiary of state-owned China South Rail
Corporation, it runs on hydrogen fuel cells, an "advanced
permanent-magnet synchronous motor and frequency converter."
[img width=640
height=380]
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China plans to spend $32 billion in the next five years to reach
over 1,200 miles of tram tracks in numerous cities, up from just
83 miles now, says Xinhua News.
The city of Foshan - with 8 million people - is taking the lead
on hydrogen. Last year, it invested $72 million to bring
Sifang's factory and distribution system there, and they are
collaborating on a national hydrogen research center in the
city, reports Bloomberg.
Shanghai has Maglev trains - super high-speed trains that
"float" at top speeds of 260 mph, and work is advancing on
speeds as high as 371 mph.
Instead of running on wheels, Maglevs are propelled along tracks
electromagnetically, eliminates friction and providing a smooth,
quiet, very fast ride.
In Japan, a Super-Maglev that reaches 311 mph carried passengers
during an eight day test last year. It enters full service in
2027, when it will take 1000 passengers between Tokyo and Nagoya
(167 miles) in 40 minutes.
Japan wants to spread the technology and even offered the US a
$4 billion loan (half the cost) to build a Super-Maglev between
Baltimore and Washington DC. It would cut the one hour commute
(37 miles) to 15 minutes. Another line would run from Boston to
DC. Although there's been interest on both the state and federal
level, it's hard to imagine the US Congress allocating funds for
this anytime soon.
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Renewable energy=
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/> [img width=60
height=40]
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/>Fuelers
[center] [img width=100
height=100]
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#Post#: 3008--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: April 21, 2015, 8:07 pm
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Renewables Beat Fossil Fuels Second Year in a Row ;D
Nathanael Greene, Natural Resources Defense Council * | April
21, 2015 9:39 am
Start spreading the news: The world is now deploying more
renewable energy in the production of electricity—more wind and
solar power, in particular—than it is fossil fuels.
And it has been since 2013
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, according to the
analysts at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That year, the world
added 143 gigawatts of new renewables capacity, compared to the
141 gigawatts of power generated by coal, natural gas and oil
combined.
[img width=640
height=380]
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States can speed the deployment of solar by allowing third-party
developers to install solar on homes, businesses and community
institutions and sell the electricity the systems generate back
to customers at a reduced cost. Photo credit: Shutterstock
Not only that, but by 2030, we’ll likely add a whopping four
times as much renewable energy generating capacity as fossil
fuel capacity, the Bloomberg folks say. “The electricity system
is shifting to clean,” Michael Liebreich, of Bloomberg New
Energy Finance, said at the company’s The Future of Energy
Summit 2015 in New York City last week. “Despite the change in
oil and gas prices, there is going to be a substantial build-out
of renewable energy that is likely to be an order of magnitude
larger than the build-out of coal and gas.”
[img width=640
height=380]
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Power generation capacity additions (gigawatt). Source:
Bloomberg New Energy Finance
That is great news, but it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods,
global warming-wise. Renewables still produce less energy
(gigawatt-hours) than fossil fuels. Worldwide and here in the
U.S., we’re still not investing nearly as much as we need to to
prevent the worst impacts of climate change. But we’re making
headway and the goal is in sight, assuming we continue with
policies that incentivize clean energy for all it has to offer.
Here I mean, of course, significant climate change mitigation,
cleaner air for our kids to breathe, improved public health (and
the decreased healthcare spending that comes with it), and good
jobs galore.
Recent advances in the deployment of renewables, and
commensurate drops in fossil fuel installation, have been made
possible because many nations around the world—ours
included—along with their state, provincial and local
governments, have used smart policies to support renewable
energy. These policies have spurred demand, sped economies of
scale, driven investment in improved technologies and increased
competition in the marketplace, all of which, in turn, have led
to breath-taking price declines in the costs of both wind and
solar power.
To continue these advances around the world, and help make
renewable energy even more prevalent and accessible, there’s
much we in the U.S. can do. And what we do in the U.S. is
especially significant, because the progress we make here
influences the world marketplace (Here’s an example:
Policy-driven demand in the U.S. helped bring Chinese solar
manufacturers into the market. Their efforts, in turn,
significantly drove down the cost of solar panels so that last
year, they cost a mind-blowing 50 cents a watt in most places.
Compare that to $1.31 a watt in 2011).
There are three federal policies, at a minimum, that need to be
renewed if we are to continue to push down prices and deploy
more clean energy: the Production Tax Credit for wind power and
the Investment Tax Credit for offshore wind power, both of which
have already expired; and the 30 percent Solar Investment Tax
Credit, which remains in effect through 2016. That credit has
been pivotal in solar’s exponential growth in recent years,
including double-digit job growth in an industry that provides
good-paying jobs to many people with only high school degrees.
That credit should be renewed as well.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan to
cut carbon pollution from existing power plants will also likely
become a huge driver of renewable energy development here in the
U.S. and, thus, help lower prices and increase deployment
worldwide.
At the state level, renewable energy standards, which require
utilities to get certain percentages of their electricity from
sources such as solar and wind power, have been the major
impetus behind clean energy development. These standards are
under attack in some states by legislators connected with the
fossil-fuel-funded American Legislative Exchange Council, and we
should defend these standards with all we’ve got. The good news
is that many states are increasing their standards so that more
and more of their energy comes from renewable sources, a move
the Natural Resources Defense Council encourages.
California is the current leader, with its plan to get 50
percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030. New
York could pull ahead, though, with a 50 percent by 2025
standard that the Natural Resources Defense Council and its
partners are promoting now. States can also speed the deployment
of solar through more efficient permitting and interconnection
processes, and, importantly, by allowing third-party developers
to install solar on homes, businesses and community institutions
and sell the electricity the systems generate back to customers
at a reduced cost.
As renewable energy prices come down fast and the concentration
of carbon pollution in our atmosphere continues to skyrocket,
renewable energy offers a solution with benefits for
everyone—cleaner air, good jobs and a safer climate for our
kids. Smart policies that promote it and its many benefits are
key to advances not just here in the U.S. but all the way around
the world.
HTML http://ecowatch.com/2015/04/21/renewables-beat-fossil-fuels-bloomberg/
* Agelbert NOTE: Please do not confuse anything written for and
by dirty energy defender MKing disingenuously titled "Natural
Resources" with the peer reviewed and responsible work coming
from Nathanael Greene of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
MKing is all about exploitation without reflection.
HTML http://www.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-200714183312.bmp<br
/>
Nathanael Green is about restoration and responsible
preservation.
HTML http://www.runemasterstudios.com/graemlins/images/2thumbs.gif
Renewable energy=
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/> [img width=60
height=40]
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/>Fuelers
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#Post#: 3066--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: May 2, 2015, 4:46 pm
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Does RELIABLE energy have to be DIRTY energy?
[img width=640
height=380]
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#Post#: 3099--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: May 7, 2015, 8:14 pm
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May 4, 2015
Authors Laurie Guevara-Stone Writer / Editor
Emerging Economies Surge Forward with Renewables
A recent report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance and several
partners shows that renewable energy adoption is growing in the
world’s emerging economies nearly twice as fast than in
industrialized nations.
Not only are renewable energy technologies now cost competitive
with fossil fuels in many developing nations, but they are often
more reliable, safer, and at times cheaper than conventional
grid power. ;D
The report—covering 55 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin
America and the Caribbean—destroys the myth that fossil
generation is the best way forward, and shows that the strides
made by the private sector, government, and civil society have
the potential to pave the way for an exciting market for
renewables in Africa and beyond.
HTML http://www.pic4ever.com/images/47b20s0.gif
The top ten countries studied in the report with the best
investment climate and policies for clean energy include large
polluters like China, Brazil, India, and Indonesia, but also
include smaller nations such as Kenya, Uganda, and Uruguay. The
report looked at numerous indicators of what makes a country
attractive for clean energy investment, development, and
deployment, including a country’s policy and power sector
structure, the level of price attractiveness for clean energy
deployment, the expectations for how large the market for clean
energy can become, the availability of local funds, the local
cost of debt and green microfinance activity, the availability
of local manufacturing and other similar types of capacity to
spur clean energy projects, the level of policy support for
carbon emissions reduction, and local corporate awareness of
carbon issues.
Cost-Competitive Electricity
Some of the poorest countries in the world actually have very
expensive and/or quite unreliable electricity. Their grids—with
badly aging infrastructure—often rely on imported fossil fuels
and even those with their own energy resources face shortages
meaning routine brownouts, or worse, blackouts. (In countries
such as Sierra Leone and Nigeria, the grid is down more than
half the year, according to a Joint Research Centre, European
Commission report.) Brazil’s drought is causing electricity
rationing due to the country’s reliance on large hydro, and
India’s coal shortage in previous years raised costs and closed
power plants. When renewables such as solar and wind compete
with expensive energy coupled with inadequate infrastructure,
renewables reach grid parity and are more reliable and secure
for populations connected to the grid.
The case is even stronger for the 1.3 billion people in the
world without access to electricity. Many of these people rely
on kerosene lamps that are not only costly—poor households
typically spend 10 percent of their income on kerosene—but also
an extreme health hazard. Access to distributed solar systems or
other renewable technologies could not only bring cleaner,
healthier, and more reliable power to rural areas, but can do so
much more economically than trying to extend the grid.
The following four countries—countries in which renewables are
growing quickly—exemplify why developing countries and emerging
economies are investing in renewables … from greening their
centralized grids to electrifying the billions of people still
without access to electricity.
Brazil
In October 2014 Brazil held its first solar-only energy auction,
and the accepted bids for more than 1,000 MW of power—averaging
$87/MWh—were among the lowest unsubsidized solar prices in the
world and well below the peak wholesale power prices at that
time of $400/MWh. Wind energy became the cheapest energy source
in Brazil years ago, beating out both natural gas and
hydropower.
Currently Brazil gets less than 1 percent of its electricity
from solar (only 44.6 MW), 3 percent from wind, and over 70
percent from hydropower. But being in the worst drought in
eighty years, the country wants to diversify its electricity
supply, with a target of 3.5 GW of solar and 22.4 GW of wind
power in operation by 2023, 20 percent of the country’s current
generating capacity.
India
Solar energy in India is now cheaper than coal. And many utility
companies in India are now realizing the business case for
renewables over conventional power projects. Tata Power, the
second-largest private sector power generating company in India,
is looking to expand its renewable energy portfolio by acquiring
300 MW of wind projects in northwest India. And the country
recently announced it intends to more than double its use of
renewable energy, from 6 percent to at least 15 percent, by
2020.
Yet India also realizes there are many more benefits to
renewable energy than alleviating climate change. The country
already has over 1 million households and 10,000 rural
communities using distributed renewable energy systems to
provide them with basic electricity. According to a booklet the
country produced for the climate talks in Lima, “Apart from
electricity generation, the application of these technologies
has benefited millions of rural folk by meeting their lighting,
cooking, and productive energy needs in a decentralized and
environmentally benign way.” Among India’s proposals are 25 more
solar farms and 100,000 more solar pumps for irrigation and
drinking water.
Kenya
Although Kenya is the largest economy in East Africa, less than
20 percent of Kenyans have access to electricity. For people
without access to grid power, often renewables are the cheapest
option. Most Kenyans use kerosene for lighting, paying $0.92 per
liter. For the average Kenyan family that makes less than $2 per
day kerosene is not only a costly extravagance, but also an
unhealthy and polluting one. This makes off-grid solar an
economical and healthier choice. Around 744 buildings from
health centers to schools have been hooked up to solar through
Kenya’s 2009 Rural Electrification Master Plan.
The country also hopes to boost wind power generation by 630 MW.
Kenya is already on its way with construction of the Lake
Turkana 300 MW Wind Project spanning 40,000 acres. The project
is expected to increase the country’s power generation by 17
percent, and be the cheapest source of power in the country
after geothermal.
Uruguay
This small South American country generates about 45 percent of
its electricity from hydropower. However, during dry periods,
prior to 2013 the country purchased electricity from neighboring
Argentina at up to $400/MWh, eight times the average cost of
electricity generation in the United States. To avoid expensive
imported fuels, the country embarked on a plan to install enough
wind farms to generate 30 percent of the nation’s energy needs,
at only $64/MWh. The installed wind capacity is now at 219 MW,
and renewables generate 84 percent of Uruguay’s electricity.
Because of cheap wind power, consumers saw a 5.5 percent energy
bill decrease in July 2014.
Uruguay is also forging ahead with solar power, and the state
electric company recently agreed to purchase electricity from a
50-megawatt solar farm at just over $90/MWh.
Smart Choices for the Future
While countries around the world experiment with renewables,
many emerging economies are making it part of their long-term
strategies for development. Demand continues to grow
quickly—developing countries grew their grids by nearly 30
percent in the past five years, compared to 9.6 percent in OECD
nations. And sub-Saharan Africa is seeing 300 percent compound
annual growth in off-grid lighting.
This is thus a critical time for emerging economies around the
world. Will their current dirty, expensive, unreliable grids be
built out with fossil-fueled power? And how will they electrify
the 1.3 billion beyond the reach of that grid?
Encouraging examples and early successes from these countries
and others demonstrate that distributed solar PV and other
renewables could provide an answer, but much work remains left
to do in the transition from fossil fuels to clean, reliable,
affordable renewable electricity.
HTML http://blog.rmi.org/blog_2015_05_04_emerging_economies_surge_forward_with_renewables
#Post#: 3124--------------------------------------------------
Re: The Big Picture of Renewable Energy Growth
By: AGelbert Date: May 12, 2015, 4:32 pm
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Hawaii Goes Green and Other Big Renewables Stories
Posted on May 12, 2015
By Juan Cole
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This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s website.
The Hawaii legislature has just passed a bill by an overwhelming
margin that sets a goal of 100% renewable energy in the state by
2045. The new law requires that the state get a third of its
electricity from renewables by 2020, only five years from now.
Electricity in Hawaii is expensive, about 34 cents a kilowatt
hour for residences, since unlike most states it depends on
petroleum as the fuel for its plants, and that has to be
imported across long distances. The US average cost for
residential electricity is 12 cents a kilowatt hour. New solar
installations can provide it as low as 6 cents a kilowatt hour,
and new geothermal plants are slightly cheaper (Hawaii has a
*lot* of potential geothermal power but there is substantial
public resistance, and solar may be the better play). So the
legislature’s plan is the only thing that makes sense, and if
anything its timeline is not nearly ambitious enough. Even a
developing country like Morocco plans for 42% renewables by
2020, and Scotland may well be 100% by then. Costa Rica already
is.
Solar energy is playing a role in post-disaster relief works in
Nepal. Small solar kits power water purification and can charge
phones and provide lighting in villages, where power lines are
now often down because of the massive earthquake. donate here.
China put in 5 gigawatts of new solar plants in the first three
months of 2015 alone. In all of 2014, the USA did not install
that much new solar, and 2014 was a remarkably good year for
solar power in the US. China is near to outstripping Germany for
title of country with the most solar energy. It will likely have
45 gigwatts of solar generation capacity by the end of 2015, 10
gigs more than it had planned for.
Graphic of installed Renewable Energy capacity of top ten
ountries at link below.
Pakistan, habitually plagued with a lack of electricity and
repeated brown-outs, has opened its first solar power plant. The
newly opened plant generates 100 megawatts, but that will be
increased 10-fold to 1 gigawatt over the next year. It only cost
$190 mn. to build, took a year, and was installed by by China’s
Tebian Electric Apparatus Stock Co Ltd (TBEA). The project is
part of a $46 bn. development scheme proposed by the Chinese
government for Pakistan.
Dubai has earmarked $3 billion to raise the generating capacity
of the Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park from 1
gigawatt to 3 gigawatts. The United Arab Emirates also announced
that it will install 100 MW of solar in the north.
HTML http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hawaii_goes_green_and_other_big_renewables_stories_20150512
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