May
12
2012
Electric utilities and policymakers in Japan and Germany have been scrambling for months to find ways to compensate for nuclear power plants shut down in the aftermath of Fukushima.
In both instances, fossil fuels are part of the stopgap solution to offset the declines in nuclear generation in the short term, but longer-term energy policies are shifting definitively toward efficiency and renewables. Now, the unexpected and indefinite shutdown of both units at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in Southern California has raised questions about California‘s short-term electricity supply options and long-term contingency plans.
Not surprisingly, efficiency, demand response, and renewables could play a key role in helping to diversify and mitigate risks for Southern California’s electricity supply future. The solutions being pioneered in these three markets, while driven by different circumstances, all take advantage new smart grid technologies to manage and integrate distributed resources.
In Japan, only one of the 54 commercial nuclear reactors that supplied 30 percent of the nation’s electric power prior to the Fukushima disaster is currently operating. It, too, is scheduled to shut down for scheduled maintenance on May 5, leaving the country with no power supplies from nuclear plants for the first time in more than four decades.
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May
11
2012
Courtesy: ch4biogas.com
COVINGTON, New York, May. 01 – /EWire/ –
U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) joined state and local officials today at the grand opening of New York state’s largest on-farm, ‘co-digestion’ biogas power project, marking an important boost to the state’s renewable energy production and sustainability efforts. The facility is located at Synergy Dairy, a 2,000-head dairy farm in Covington, Wyoming County, southwest of Rochester.
CH4 Biogas LLC built, owns and operates the project under the name Synergy Biogas LLC. The Synergy Biogas LLC plant also is the state’s first biogas project specifically designed for the co-digestion, or processing, of animal and food wastes. The biogas created in the 120,000-gallon co-digester is fueling a GE (NYSE: GE) ecomagination-qualified, Jenbacher J420 biogas engine to generate 1.4 megawatts (MW) of renewable electricity.
By anaerobically digesting waste from local food processors in addition to the dairy’s cow manure, the 425 ton per day, mixed-waste facility is more cost-effective. The facility has created about a half dozen jobs while enhancing the efficiency of the 30-employee farm’s operations and sustaining area food manufacturers and haulers.
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May
10
2012
Credit: iStock
“Thermodynamic and Energy Efficiency Analysis of Power Generation from Natural Salinity Gradients by Pressure Retarded Osmosis”
Environmental Science & Technology
A new genre of electric power-generating stations could supply electricity for more than a half billion people by tapping just one-tenth of the global potential of a little-known energy source that exists where rivers flow into the ocean, a new analysis has concluded. A report on the process — which requires no fuel, is sustainable and releases no carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse gas) — appears in ACS’ journal Environmental Science & Technology.
Menachem Elimelech and Ngai Yin Yip explain that the little-known process, called pressure-retarded osmosis (PRO), exploits the so-called salinity gradient — or difference in saltiness — between freshwater and seawater. In PRO, freshwater flows naturally by osmosis through a special membrane to dilute seawater on the other side. The pressure from the flow spins a turbine generator and produces electricity. The world’s first PRO prototype power plant was inaugurated in Norway in 2009. With PRO appearing to have great potential, the scientists set out to make better calculations on how much it actually could contribute to future energy needs under real-world conditions.
Elimelech and Yip concluded that PRO power-generating stations using just one-tenth of the global river water flow into the oceans could generate enough power to meet the electricity needs of 520 million people, without emitting carbon dioxide. The same amount of electricity, if produced by a coal-fired power plant, would release over one billion metric tons of greenhouse gases each year.
The researchers acknowledge funding from the Environment and Water Industrial Development Council of Singapore for Ngai Yin Yip’s fellowship.
Courtesy: asc.org
May
9
2012
We keep hearing that renewable energy is booming in the United States, but where is it? Here’s a handy map from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showing how much electricity each state gets from wind, solar, biomass, and geothermal (but not hydropower):
Maine was the clear winner in 2011, getting 27 percent of its electricity coming from renewable sources — a lot of it wind power and biomass. But Maine had a lot of renewable energy back in 2001, too. South Dakota and Iowa, at 21 percent and 17 percent, have seen far more impressive growth. Both of those states got almost none of their electricity from renewable sources a decade ago.
Why do some states do better than others? Policy helps. Some 30 states have laws that require utilities to get a certain portion of their power from renewable sources. (The Southeast is the big exception here.) The strictness of the laws varies from state to state, but by and large, states with stricter standards get more renewables. But simply having natural resources helps, too: Idaho, Wyoming, and South Dakota don’t have strict standards, but there’s so much wind up there that turbines are going up anyway.
What’s less clear is whether this rapid growth will continue. A good portion of the recent boom in wind and solar power has been thanks to the federal production tax credit and assorted grants in the stimulus bill. Those grants have now expired and the tax credit for wind will expire at the end of 2012. Clean-energy advocates are hoping it gets renewed when Congress tries to avert “Taxmageddon” and the end of this year, but that’s not a sure bet.
Meanwhile, the EIA notes, if you include hydropower, some states in the Pacific Northwest look even better. Idaho gets 93 percent of its electricity from hydroelectric dams. Oregon gets 78 percent and Washington 82 percent. Hydropower tends to get short shrift whenever talk turns to renewables because it’s generally assumed that there’s no more room for growth — all the big dams have been built already. But this isn’t entirely true. A recent report from the Department of the Interior found that there are all sorts of smaller existing dams around the country that could be put to work and generate an additional 1.5 million MWh of electricity, enough to power a small city.
Update: Commenter Bert Eisenstein points out that looking at what percent of a state’s electricity is renewable only gives part of the picture, since a small state like Maine with relatively few wind turbines can look better than a huge state like Texas that has many more turbines.
That’s a fair point. The EIA has data on total renewable generation, not including hydropower. The top states in 2012 on this metric were:
1. Texas
2. California
3. Iowa
4. Minnesota
5. Washington
6. Illinois
Courtesy: washingtonpost.com
May
8
2012
The Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Plant in Þingvellir, Iceland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Iceland is the only country in the world which can boast 100% renewable electricity, a fact that it is trying to exploit in attempts to attract foreign investment to help boost its economy which is still recovering from the collapse of its banks in 2008.
This is not the first time that Icelanders have tried to entice foreign business, but it has previously had little success with diversifying away from its three main industries of fishing, aluminum, and tourism; hopefully its hydro and geothermal power plants will prove to be sufficiently tempting.
Hordur Arnarson, CEO of the state owned utility Landsvirkjun, has said that the price of the electricity is also very appealing to investors, calling it “the most competitive price in Europe.” Investors have the opportunity in their contracts to lock the favourable rates for a dozen years or more, very appealing with the current price volatility, and the uncertainty of future prices.
Foreign Minister Össur Skarpherdinsson, noted that “this is the beginning of a new chapter in the industrial life of Iceland.”
One of the first foreign firms to invest in the nation is the British data hosting company Verne Global. CEO Jeff Monroe has explains that his company is now “able to serve the international community from our 100 percent renewable powered data center. What we have done as a first mover here in Iceland is we have secured a long-term power contract with Landsvirkjun that is substantially better than what you’ll see as the published rate — and you get green without paying the premium.”
By: James Burgess of Oilprice.com
