Never Mind the Pope, Australia Plans Czar to Police Windfarms

A day after Pope Francis urged world leaders to cut fossil-fuel emissions, Australia outlined plans to appoint a commissioner to crack down on windfarms.

Will the wind in Spain blow slower on the plain?

Since the time of Don Quixote, the winds have blown strongly across the Spanish plains. But these days, Cervantes' deluded hero would be more likely to go tilting at turbines rather than mills.

European development bank cuts funding for coal power

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will focus on energy efficiency and renewable energy investments over the next five years and slash its funding for coal projects, a managing director at the bank told Reuters.

Wind energy storage tested at institute

The Wind Energy Institute of Canada in western P.E.I. has purchased a $3-million system for storing wind energy, which it expects to begin tests on before the end of the year.

Exelon Skips Utility Fly-In to Lobby on Wind Tax Credit

A CEO of a major utility is skipping an industry-wide fly-in on dividend taxes to instead lobby lawmakers to oppose the production tax credit for wind energy.

The Growing Might of Solar Power

From California to New Jersey, the summer sun was hot this year — and so was the solar industry.While the business of solar energy is still small enough and young enough to record firsts at the fearsome pace that a toddler does, the milestones are getting more substantial.

China says U.S. wind tower probe to hurt cooperation

(Reuters) - China's Ministry of Commerce said a U.S. investigation into wind towers from China could hurt bilateral clean energy cooperation, an area the White House has been eager to develop.

ENERGY: Delmarva Power to credit Del. customers $2M

NEWARK, Del. — Close to 300,000 Delmarva Power customers in Delaware will be credited a share of a $2 million security posted by Bluewater Wind now that a power purchasing agreement between the wind energy provider and the region's primary utility is canceled, Delmarva Power announced late Tuesday.

Renewable Energy – Energy for future

Introduction
Global warming and its increasing effects have shed light on the many global environmental issues. Our planet's fragile ecosystem is under attack on many fronts as a result of industrialization and our growing transportation and infrastructures. Change is needed in order to avert catastrophe, adaptation and development of alternative energy sources is absolutely necessary. Although, renewable energy will take a long time to gain popularity due to economics associated with the use of conventional fossil fuels and associated traditional habits. Nevertheless, renewable energy is the answer to reducing the effects of climate change and help save environment.

Word Choice Matters for Energy Policy

AUSTIN, TEXAS — When President Barack Obama speaks about the fuels of the future, his term of choice is usually “clean energy.”

At the Twitter Town Hall last week, where people asked the president questions via Twitter, Mr. Obama referred to “clean energy” five times.

The only similar term he used was “alternative energy,” once. Other descriptors, like “renewable,” “sustainable” and “green,” were not mentioned.

Wind energy in Asia

In 2010, for the first time ever, more new wind power capacity was installed in developing countries and emerging economies than in the traditional wind farm markets of the OECD.

This puts an end to the assertion that wind power is a premium technology only for rich countries which cannot be deployed at scale in other markets. It is also testament to the inherent attractiveness of wind power for countries striving to diversify their energy mix, improve their security of supply in the face of rapidly growing demand, and relieve national budgets of the burden of expensive fossil fuel imports at volatile prices.

Why America Needs a 21st Century Power Grid

When the west wind blows hard across the prairies, its power can be seen in swirling leaves and bending trees.

Here in Illinois, we're harnessing more of that power every day, with 25 wind farms -- from one-turbine to utility-scale projects -- capturing the energy of the wind and converting it into electricity.

But we are facing a major obstacle in our push to build more and better wind farms and create clean energy jobs in Illinois and across the country. Because while we have the technology to generate a large proportion of America's electricity from wind power and solar energy, we don't yet have the infrastructure to store it or transmit it. That's an enormous problem - and one that can undermine our country's progress toward energy security, carbon reduction and job creation.

Here in America, we already have vast resources for "grow-your-own" renewable energy. The potential of land-based wind power is estimated at more than 8,000 gigawatts, and solar cells could generate far more. (To put those numbers in perspective, ConEd's all-time record demand for northern Illinois was just over 23 gigawatts, set on Aug. 3, 2006.)

But all that potential energy generation does us little good if we can't save that electricity for use at the times when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine, and if we can't send it from the rural areas where it's created to the cities where it's needed the most. And that will require major investment in the electric grid -- the outdated, barely adequate system that moves electric power from generating stations to consumers nationwide.

As the director of the Argonne National Laboratory, I understand the great fiscal challenges facing our government. But I also know that a substantial American investment in clean energy generation, storage and transmission today could yield enormous returns for generations to come.

Recently, the American Physical Society -- the nation's leading physics association - tackled this critical issue in a new report from its Panel on Public Affairs, Integrating Renewable Electricity on the Grid. The report from the panel, which is co-chaired by George Crabtree, a Senior Scientist and Distinguished Fellow at Argonne, makes some fundamental recommendations:

The United States must develop an overall strategy for energy storage at every level -- from car batteries to the national grid.

We must create new, more powerful technology for long-distance transmission of renewable electricity, to balance rural supply and urban demand, and to integrate wind- and solar-generated electricity into the grid.

The APS also recommends a thorough review of the technological potential for a range of battery chemistries and a significant increase in R&D in basic electrochemistry. Achieving these goals would be great news, for our nation and for Illinois.

At Argonne, we have been working for decades to build new electrical energy storage systems and improve our nation's energy security. As a Department of Energy laboratory, we are committed to keeping the United States in the forefront of energy storage technology. Our lithium-ion battery technology powers electric cars, and our advanced materials research promises to create new electrochemical storage systems to light, heat and cool large buildings, industrial sites and even small cities.

With adequate resources, Argonne and other laboratories like ours could speed the pace of innovation and help to bring America's electric grid into the 21st century. Working in collaboration with universities and private industry, we can assemble "dream teams" that can keep our country in the forefront of energy technology.

Right now, America's aging power grid resembles the patchwork of narrow, winding, badly maintained highways of the 1920s and 1930s. Without the vision -- and substantial public investment -- that led to the nationwide Interstate Highway System, it would have been impossible for trucks to move large quantities of goods swiftly, safely and affordably to American cities and towns from coast to coast.

Today, we need to make the same kind of long-term, strategic investment in our power grid, making it possible to capture and store wind- and solar-generated energy and transmit it quickly and efficiently to businesses, manufacturers, and consumers nationwide.

The stakes are huge, for our nation and for Illinois. According to a new study by the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago, there are more than 100 Illinois companies -- with a total of 15,000 employees -- working in the wind power supply chain. The study estimates that every megawatt of power developed creates 17 new manufacturing jobs.

President Eisenhower's investment in the Interstate Highway System, which created a 20th century infrastructure for 20th century transportation, has yielded extraordinary dividends for our country and our economy. It's time to build a 21st century electricity grid to transmit and store the clean, renewable power America needs to remain competitive in this century.

Source: The Huffington Post

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