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SFCE Aug 11
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meteoconrol to Provide Remote Monitoring and Central Control Solutions to the World's Largest Single PV Power Station
Aug 11, 2015 | PR Newswire
meteocontrol China, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE, HK stock code: 1165), announced today that it will provide integrated remote control systems to Zonergy Company Ltd.'s (Zonergy) soon to be completed phase one 100MW PV power station in Punjab Pakistan. Upon completion, the ground-mounted ... -
Meteocontrol China to supply Zonergy with remote control systems
Aug 11, 2015 | Greentech Lead
By Ajith Kumar S
Energy and weather services company meteocontrol China, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy, is to provide integrated remote control systems to Zonergy. The systems are to be installed at a 100-megawatt photovoltaic power station being developed by Zonergy... -
Clouds over China’s solar power industry
Aug 11, 2015 | Eco-Business
The recent turmoil in China’s stock market has sent shockwaves through the country’s corporate sector, including its mighty solar power industry which in recent years has grown to dominate the world market. Harnessing solar energy is considered a key way of cutting back on fossil fuel use and of meeting... -
Smart cities of the future
Aug 10, 2015 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Kevin Chen
Federal and local governments around the world are expected to spend $475.5 billion on technology products and services by 2019. From New York to Chicago to Rio de Janeiro, metropolitan centers around the world are looking for new ways to be “smart” – to become more sustainable, improve the efficiency of public services and citizens’ ... -
U.S. Wind Energy Continues Growth, DOE Reports Find
Aug 11, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
The total installed wind power capacity in the U.S. grew by 8 percent from 2013 to 2014, reaching a total of nearly 66 gigawatts of wind capacity, according to new reports from the Energy Department. The U.S. ranks second in the amount of installed wind capacity behind China, which had nearly ... -
Australia outlines low end emission cut targets
Aug 11, 2015 | Financial Times
By Jamie Smyth
Australia has outlined plans to cut carbon emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels — towards the lower end of pledges made by developed nations ahead of a United Nations climate change conference in December. The policy could create tension with the US, UK and Germany, which are pressing other developed countries to... -
City to study how Uber affects traffic, pollution
Aug 10, 2015 | NY Post
By Danielle Furfaro
The city council on Monday morning signed into a law a plan to study how for-hire cars like Uber affect traffic and air pollution around the city. The study will take a close look at how the growing number of Internet-based car service vehicles affect the city’s air quality and increasingly congested streets, said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez... -
Wind power hits lowest price on record
Aug 10, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The cost of electricity from wind power fell to its lowest point on record last year as the industry continued its growth pattern, according to the Department of Energy (DOE). A Monday report from DOE said wind power that utilities bought last year in purchase power agreements... -
Study Says China Pollution Hurts U.S. Air Quality
Aug 11, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alex Morales
Chinese air pollution is blowing across the Pacific Ocean and partly offsetting clean air measures taken in California, according to Dutch and U.S. researchers. More than two-fifths of the expected benefits of anti-pollution controls in the Western U.S. were canceled out by rising ozone pollution from China, scientists led by Willem Verstraeten... -
From Shale to Solar: What Today’s Energy R&D Can Learn From Fracking’s Success
Aug 10, 2015 | Greentech Media
By Loren King
In recent weeks, energy analysts have highlighted the limits of existing clean energy technologies. Even as their share grows, variable renewables face serious economic challenges at higher levels of integration. The latest iteration of Gen3+ nuclear reactors has been beset by cost overruns and construction delays. -
Australians Prefer Renewables: 84% Say Solar Their Ideal Energy Source, 69% Wind
Aug 11, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Sophie Vorrath
More than 80 per cent of Australians name solar power among their top three most preferred energy sources, new research from The Climate Institute has found. In its latest Climate of the Nation report, The Climate Institute found that 84 per cent of Australians preferred solar to be in their ideal energy mix of three sources, followed by wind, at...
Press Release - meteoconrol to Provide Remote Monitoring and Central Control Solutions to the World's Largest Single PV Power Station
Industry News
Full Text of Stories Below
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Aug 11, 2015 | PR Newswire
meteocontrol China, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE, HK stock code: 1165), announced today that it will provide integrated remote control systems to Zonergy Company Ltd.'s (Zonergy) soon to be completed phase one 100MW PV power station in Punjab Pakistan. Upon completion, the ground-mounted station will be the world's largest single PV power project, at 900MW. The two sides agreed that meteocontrol will provide generation II data acquisition devices, sensor and portal software VCOM, along with associated configuration, commissioning and training services.
Pakistan's Punjab Province is located in the core region of the ongoing "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" megaproject, with excellent natural light resources. The 900MW PV terrestrial power station project being constructed by Zonergy Company Limited is the world largest single PV power project. Officially agreed upon by the government leaders of China and Pakistan, the project has been given priority to be completed as part of the "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor," and is an important opening project for the "One Belt, One Road" strategy. The initial 100 MW phase one project will soon be completed.
"It is great pleasure to cooperate with Zonergy to provide professional and efficient solutions and service to the 100MW phase one project of the 900 MW terrestrial PV power station in Punjab, Pakistan. This is also an excellent opportunity to deepen bilateral cooperation on smart operation and maintenance management of PV power stations," said meteocontrol China General Manager Henry Luo.
In addition, the two sides reached an agreement that meteocontrol will give priority to provide specialized monitoring as well as operation and maintenance solutions to the overall development plan of Zonergy's PV power station business segment. This will help build an intelligent monitoring platform, to help increase power station earning and to reduce overall operation and maintenance costs. The two sides further agreed to explore in-depth on how to widen their scope of cooperation to include power station quality assurance services and intelligent operation and maintenance management, including power station rating, technical due diligence, solar forecast, so as to assist Zonergy's business development both at home and abroad in a comprehensive way.
"meteocontrol is the market leader for professional PV remote monitoring systems, currently monitoring almost 37,500 PV systems around the globe with total installed capacity of 12 GW. Zonergy and meteocontrol have reached a consensus that we will jointly seize the market opportunities brought by China's "One belt, One Road" strategy, through leveraging meteocontrol's extensive expertise in PV power station operation and maintenance management, so as to ensure the quality of our power station, provide greater efficiency, reduce generation costs, and create more value for the customers," said Zonergy Vice President Jacky Jia.
About Zonergy Company Limited
Zonergy Company Limited specializes in the development, investment, construction, operation and financing advisory of distributed photovoltaic system and terrestrial photovoltaic power stations. Zonergy creatively combines PV with digital technology, relying on the unique advantages of the integrated network of markets, policy and financing, to provide professional and high quality services to the customers. Zonergy has accumulated extensive customer resources, made prominent achievements and won good reputation. The company actively served the country's strategy, strived at the international forefront of comprehensive exploration and utilization of solar energy resources. Zonergy also delivered leading performance in the National Golden Sun Demonstration Project, distributed PV project and terrestrial PV power station project. Zonergy has so far completed various PV projects with total installed capacity over 500MW, and carried out projects in untapped domestic and international markets with a total installed capacity over 2.5 GW.
About meteocontrol
meteocontrol, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy (SFCE), with EU headquarter based in Augsburg, Germany and APMEA headquarter based in Shanghai (China), and offices and branches in Lyon(France), Madrid (Spain), Milan (Italy), Alameda (U.S.A.) and Moers (Germany), offers energy and weather data management, yield reports, quality audits and technical due diligence as well as monitoring and technical operations management of PV systems of all sizes. meteocontrol has more than 30 years of expertise in renewable energy filed and has so far been involved in projects with a total investment volume of more than 13 billion euros. The company currently conducts technical operation management for systems with a total power of around 500 MWp. In addition, meteocontrol is the market leader for professional remote monitoring of PV systems. meteocontrol monitors around 37,500 PV systems around the globe with a total power of over 12 GWp. For more detailed information, please visit: www.meteocontrol.com
Photo - http://photos.prnasia.com/prnh/20150810/0861507249
PR Newswire Link (English): http://en.prnasia.com/story/archive/1474866_EN74866_0
PR Newswire Link (Chinese): http://www.prnasia.com/story/archive/1474866_ZH74866_1
China Money Network: https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2015/08/11/meteoconrol-to-provide-remote-monitoring-and-central-control-solutions-to-the-worlds-largest-single-pv-power-station
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Meteocontrol China to supply Zonergy with remote control systems
Aug 11, 2015 | Greentech Lead
By Ajith Kumar S
Energy and weather services company meteocontrol China, a subsidiary of Shunfeng International Clean Energy, is to provide integrated remote control systems to Zonergy.
The systems are to be installed at a 100-megawatt photovoltaic power station being developed by Zonergy and nearing completion in Punjab, Pakistan.
The said power plant is part of the first phase of a 900-megawatt power project, touted to become the largest such installation globally.
According to a report, meteocontrol will provide its second generation data acquisition devices, sensor and portal software VCOM to Zonergy. Additionally, it will provide configuration, commissioning and training services as part of the deal.
Punjab Province in Pakistan lies in the proposed China-Pakistan economic corridor which will see a concentration of industrial projects in due course. The region receives abundant insolation to support projects of the size of 900-megawatt photovoltaic terrestrial power project.
And Pakistan plans to complete the project on priority basis as it is part of the “One Belt, One Road” strategy of the country.
The systems to be supplied by meteocontrol are expected to help build an intelligent monitoring platform that would increase power station earning and reduce overall operation and maintenance costs, a report says.
Link: http://www.greentechlead.com/solar/meteocontrol-china-to-supply-zonergy-with-remote-control-systems-27352
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Clouds over China’s solar power industry
Aug 11, 2015 | Eco-Business
The recent turmoil in China’s stock market has sent shockwaves through the country’s corporate sector, including its mighty solar power industry which in recent years has grown to dominate the world market.
Harnessing solar energy is considered a key way of cutting back on fossil fuel use and of meeting the challenge posed by climate change.
Seven out of the world’s top ten manufacturers of solar panels are China-based companies, together providing about 40 per cent of global solar supplies.
But now the industry’s future expansion is under threat as companies try to cope with too much production capacity, very low profit margins and crushing amounts of debt.
In 2013 Suntech, a Chinese company which was at one time the world’s biggest manufacturer,went bust. International creditors are still trying to recoup millions lent to the company.
Earlier this year the Hanergy Thin Film Power Group, a Chinese company which is a world leader in the manufacture of solar products, lost half its share value amid concerns about its corporate structure and worries of over-capacity and falling profit margins in the solar market. Export boom
Meanwhile the China-based conglomerate Yingli Green Energy Holding, another world leader in solar production, has been beset with rumours of a slowdown in demand leading to a halt in production at some of its plants. “
As panel manufacturers scrape by on razor-thin margins, kept afloat by government credit, investing in fundamentally new technologies is far from a priority.
Varun Sivaram, researcher at the US Council on Foreign Relations
Like many other industries in China, the solar sector has grown fast: in recent years companies rushed to join in a solar export boom, bolstered by generous loans from government banks. Exports of solar products surged.
But then US solar manufacturers complained of heavily subsidised China-made solar goods threatening to destroy their industry.
Tariffs were imposed on a number of Chinese solar products. A slowdown in Europe’s economy also hit export sales.
China cut the price of its products: according to the Bloomberg New Energy Finance research group, China now sells solar panels for just over 60 US cents per watt of electricity generating capacity, down from US$4.50 per watt in 2008.
While that’s good news for those installing solar – and of considerable benefit in the fight against climate change – the price drop has put considerable pressure on China’s solar manufacturers. It has also meant many solar companies elsewhere in the world have gone to the wall. Ailing industry
Varun Sivaram is a researcher at the US Council on Foreign Relations, specialising in renewable energy. He says that while China’s dominance of the solar market has led to low global prices, the industry is not in a healthy state.
“Solar is heading down a path of profitless prosperity”, says Sivaram. In effect, he says, China is subsidising the global solar industry.
Sivaram says one of the damaging side effects of China’s dominance of the solar market is that production has tended to stick to old technologies and innovation in the industry has been stifled.
“As panel manufacturers scrape by on razor-thin margins, kept afloat by government credit, investing in fundamentally new technologies is far from a priority.”
Some relief for the China industry might be provided by a government-backed campaign to boost sales in the domestic market. About a third of panels manufactured in China in 2014 were installed within the country.
It’s estimated that China will install 14 GWs (gigawatts) of solar panels this year, mainly involving giant solar farms in the Gobi desert and elsewhere. In central Europe an installed capacity of one GW of photovoltaics alone would be expected to produce almost 900 GWh of electricity annually, supplying around 225,000 households.
In the first three months of 2015 China added the equivalent of the entire installed solar power of France to its electricity network.
Link: http://www.eco-business.com/news/clouds-over-chinas-solar-power-industry/
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Aug 10, 2015 | The Hill - Congress Blog
By Kevin Chen
Federal and local governments around the world are expected to spend $475.5 billion on technology products and services by 2019. From New York to Chicago to Rio de Janeiro, metropolitan centers around the world are looking for new ways to be “smart” – to become more sustainable, improve the efficiency of public services and citizens’ quality of life.
Forward-thinking civic and business leaders are experimenting with massive amounts of data – and the tools and technologies to compile and examine it – in order to improve how efficiently and effectively cities are managed.ADVERTISEMENTBut the explosion of data is not without obstacles. According to the research firm, Gartner, it may take a full decade or more before the maximum utility of government open data is realized.
So-called, “smart cities” require more than data alone – they require technologies to collect and analyze huge amounts of information and they require cross-sector solutions that can be scaled to size. “Smart cities” require leaders to use Big Data for good – to make better decisions, drive smart growth and benefit society as a whole.
The true smart cities will use Big Data to enable the preemption and prediction of urban issues, improving efficiency and quality of city services from healthcare to traffic management. If used properly, and in conjunction with tools that deliver actionable insights, smart cities will transform the lives of urban residents.
The timing of this transformation couldn’t be better. The number of people living in cities worldwide is expected to increase to 6.3 billion by 2050 – up from 3.6 billion in 2010. To meet the demands of growing urban populations, more and more cities are taking up data-smart initiatives. In fact, at the state and local levels of government, alone, spending on information goods and services is projected to grow at a 3.3 percent rate between now and 2019, increasing to $70 billion.
The initiatives vary in scope and focus, but the drive is the same – improve efficiency, save costs and generally improve the urban experience.
In New Orleans, for example, leaders are responding to ongoing fiscal challenges with NOLAlytics – a unit spanning multiple departments focused on using data to improve the city’s services. The unit’s first project aims to reduce fire causalities and save costs. The Targeted Smoke Alarm Outreach program – a door-to-door smoke alarm campaign leverages data from the Fire department, Census and American Community Survey and the New Orleans Fire Department to prioritize outreach in neighborhoods that are least likely to have smoke alarms.
Meanwhile in Singapore, leaders are building a network of sensors to collect and analyze data at bus stops, public parks, traffic intersections and other areas to improve public services with the goal of making them not only more responsive, but anticipatory of needs.
And the General Service Administration has figured out a way to save $13 million annually in energy costs by using a proprietary data algorithm to monitor 180 buildings for malfunctioning exhaust fans.
At Experian, we are also embracing the potential of Big Data to improve society and support smart cities. We are using data assets to glean insights and help consumers, financial institutions, healthcare organizations, automotive companies, retailers and governmental organizations make more informed and effective decisions.
For example, with rising insurance costs, deductibles and copays, some people struggle to afford the out-of-pocket expense that can come with seeking medical treatment. Because of this, some consumers decide not to seek treatment, which could have negative effects on their health and overall well-being. Experian works with hospitals, medical offices and clinics to provide unique data and analytics to provide insight into each patient’s financial situation. By leveraging healthcare-specific predictive models, Experian enables healthcare organizations to easily and efficiently determine which patients qualify for financial assistance programs or help them set up a payment plan that fits within their current budget.
And in Orange County, California, for instance, Experian worked with local officials to verify the county’s list of 260,000 inactive voters – those who had not cast a ballot in the last four years – against our extensive database of known addresses. Once Orange County had the proper addresses they were able to send out post cards for residents to either update their contact information or confirm that they had moved out of the county. The process saved the county $80,000 in the next election.
And in our DataLabs, teams of data scientists with experience in machine learning and analytics are using data for good in bold new ways, developing data-driven solutions and pinpointing previously undetected strategies. By leveraging technologies, such as Hadoop, Spark, Hive and advanced machine learning techniques, we are able to crunch through massive amount of information and discover new insights to help local businesses and governments understand their customer and constitution base to provide better services.
For example, the DataLabs is working with social media and de-identified data to better understand and predict consumer activity. By analyzing this data, our DataLabs can identify the generalized daily travel patterns of consumers, which can in turn be used in combination with the government’s open data to improve public services, from transportation planning to land use and public safety in large crowds.
With the abundance of data, we have the potential to improve the efficiency of government and build smarter cities. To achieve such goal, we need to encourage data sharing, standardization of data, and the application of the data science to use Big Data for good and truly transform urban life.
Link: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/technology/250581-smart-cities-of-the-future
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U.S. Wind Energy Continues Growth, DOE Reports Find
Aug 11, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Rebecca Kern
The total installed wind power capacity in the U.S. grew by 8 percent from 2013 to 2014, reaching a total of nearly 66 gigawatts of wind capacity, according to new reports from the Energy Department.
The U.S. ranks second in the amount of installed wind capacity behind China, which had nearly 115 gigawatts installed as of the end of 2014, an Aug. 10 market report on wind technologies from the department found. Also, in 2014 wind energy made up 4.9 percent of end-use electricity demand in the U.S.
The report also found that wind was the third-largest source of newly installed generating capacity in 2014, behind natural gas and solar. It also noted that General Electric, Siemens and Vestas continued to dominate the wind turbine industry, making up 98 percent of the U.S. market in 2014.
Additionally, the department noted that the 74,000 installed wind turbines have reached a distributed wind cumulative capacity of 906 megawatts. In 2014, 24 states added nearly 64 megawatts of new distributed wind capacity, according to the department's separate distributed wind market report for 2014.
Prices Dropping
“With declining costs and continued technological development, these reports demonstrate that wind power is a reliable source of clean, renewable energy for American homes and businesses,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in an Aug. 10 statement.
The department noted that the price of wind energy has reached an all-time low and is now competitive with wholesale power prices and traditional energy sources in many parts of the country.
The average wind power purchase agreement (PPA) prices signed in 2014 fell to $23.50 per megawatt hour, from nearly $70 per megawatt hour in 2009.
However, the department said the PPA prices have been lowered due to federal, and in some cases, state tax financial incentives, such as the federal Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit in 2014.
Need for Stable Policy
The American Wind Energy Association, the wind energy national trade association, has raised concerns about impacts on the competitiveness of the wind industry since both the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit expired at the end of 2014 and Congress did not extend them.
“While this report is good news, extending the Production Tax Credit and Investment Tax Credit remains critical for keeping Americans at work, reducing the cost of wind energy and continuing to scale up this homegrown resource through the end of this decade,” said Tom Kiernan, chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, in an Aug. 10 statement.
Moniz also highlighted the need for consistent federal policy to ensure the wind industry's continued growth.
“Through continued investments and the help of stable policies, we're confident that wind power will keep playing a major role in creating jobs and shaping America's clean energy future,” he said.
Link (subscription needed): http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=74162216&vname=dennotallissues&fn=74162216&jd=74162216
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Australia outlines low end emission cut targets
Aug 11, 2015 | Financial Times
By Jamie Smyth
Australia has outlined plans to cut carbon emissions by at least 26 per cent by 2030 from 2005 levels — towards the lower end of pledges made by developed nations ahead of a United Nations climate change conference in December.
The policy could create tension with the US, UK and Germany, which are pressing other developed countries to lay out ambitious plans to tackle global warming at the Paris meeting.
It also sets up climate change as a key domestic political battleground, with the opposition Labor and Green parties seeking deeper emissions cuts in the country, which according to OECD and World Bank data are among the highest emissions per person in the developed world.Tony Abbott, prime minister, said on Tuesday the government needed to be environmentally and economically responsible. He said the target placed Australia in the middle of comparable countries and would lead to the highest cuts in emissions per capita in the developed world.
“The last thing we want to do is strengthen the environment and at the same time damage our economy,” said Mr Abbott. “We are not leading but we certainly aren’t lagging.”
He said there was a commitment to achieve a 26 per cent cut in emissions from 2005 levels, and that the government believed it could achieve a 28 per cent reduction.
Comparing the emissions pledges made by developed countries is tricky as some use different base or target years. Research by the Climate Institute think-tank suggests that the average cut proposed by developed nations is 37 per cent by 2030 compared with 2005, Australia’s base year.
Since being elected in 2013 the Liberal-National coalition has steadily unpicked Australia’s climate and energy policies. It has repealed carbon and mining taxes, scaled back renewable energy targets and attempted to abolish the Clean Energy Finance Corporation — a state lender to the renewable sector.
Mr Abbott said the government’s climate and energy policies balance the need to support economic growth and the country’s coal industry. The 2030 target aligns Australia with reductions proposed by Japan (25 per cent) and Norway (22 per cent).
Climate and energy experts said that Australia was not living up to its goal of restricting global warming to a rise of 2C above pre-industrial levels. They also claimed that the government would struggle to meet its latest target without a significant change of policy direction.
“There is a risk Australia’s latest pledge will be seen as an empty target as there is no policy framework to achieve it,” said Frank Jotzo, director of the Centre for Climate Economics at Australian National University.
The government said its policies were working. But research by consultancy Pitt & Sherry showed that since Australia became the first country in the world to scrap a national carbon tax in July 2014, CO2 emissions from the power sector have begun to rise after years of decline.
In the 12 months to the end of June, emissions in the electricity sector jumped 4 per cent. Meanwhile, the share of coal in the power sector rose to 75.8 per cent from 72.7 per cent as some coal power plants restarted generation.
Julie Bishop, foreign minister, defended the reduction target.
“We will take to Paris a strong and environmentally and economically responsible position,” she said.
Link: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/7cfedf2c-3fd9-11e5-9abe-5b335da3a90e.html#axzz3iOGabIq6
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City to study how Uber affects traffic, pollution
Aug 10, 2015 | NY Post
By Danielle Furfaro
The city council on Monday morning signed into a law a plan to study how for-hire cars like Uber affect traffic and air pollution around the city.
The study will take a close look at how the growing number of Internet-based car service vehicles affect the city’s air quality and increasingly congested streets, said Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, who sponsored the bill.
“The rapid growth of the for-hire sector caused deep concern among my colleagues and I,” said Rodriguez. “After much deliberation and discussion with industry stakeholders we discovered the best path forward to allow us to truly understand this growth’s impacts.”
When Rodriguez originally proposed the bill in June, he also introduced a sister bill that would severely limit the amount of new for-hire cars that would be allowed on the road while the year-long study was taking place. That bill created a firestorm between Mayor de Blasio, the council, and Uber, who claimed that the bill was meant to pacify yellow and green cabbies.
The bill was tabled last month.
Rodriguez had originally wanted the study to take a year, but he and the others sponsors shortened it to four months.
Uber, which currently has about 20,000 affiliate drivers in New York City, said that it will hand over numbers to assist the study.
The results of the study will be due to the council by April 30 of next year.
Link: http://nypost.com/2015/08/10/city-to-study-how-uber-affects-traffic-pollution/
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Wind power hits lowest price on record
Aug 10, 2015 | The Hill - E2 Wire
By Timothy Cama
The cost of electricity from wind power fell to its lowest point on record last year as the industry continued its growth pattern, according to the Department of Energy (DOE).
A Monday report from DOE said wind power that utilities bought last year in purchase power agreements, the main measurement for comparing costs, was 2.35 cents per kilowatt hour, the drop of two-thirds from its 2009 peak.Wind saw the most growth of any power source last year and, with 66 gigawatts installed, now accounts for 4.9 percent of of the country’s electricity demand, DOE found.
“With declining costs and continued technological development, these reports demonstrate that wind power is a reliable source of clean, renewable energy for American homes and businesses,” Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said in a statement.
“Through continued investments and the help of stable policies, we’re confident that wind power will keep playing a major role in creating jobs and shaping America’s clean energy future.”
The Obama administration is especially happy about the news, because wind power is a key piece of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) carbon rule for power plants, which seeks to replace high-carbon-generating capacity like coal with lower-emitting sources, like wind and other renewables.
The growth last year came despite problems with the wind production tax credit, a federal tax provision that gives credits for producing electricity from wind.
Congress allowed the credit to expire at the end of 2013. It renewed the credit retroactively for the entire year in late December, but did not extend it.
A separate report released Monday found that distributed wind power, which includes on-site or other small wind power installations, grew by 66 megawatts in 2014, and now accounts for almost a gigawatt of capacity nationally.
Link: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/250728-wind-power-hits-lowest-price-on-record
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Study Says China Pollution Hurts U.S. Air Quality
Aug 11, 2015 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Alex Morales
Chinese air pollution is blowing across the Pacific Ocean and partly offsetting clean air measures taken in California, according to Dutch and U.S. researchers.
More than two-fifths of the expected benefits of anti-pollution controls in the Western U.S. were canceled out by rising ozone pollution from China, scientists led by Willem Verstraeten at Wageningen University in the Netherlands said Aug. 10 in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The research highlights the need for countries around the world to collaborate in efforts to combat air pollution, because the effects can be felt beyond a country's borders. While ozone is important in the upper atmosphere to protect the planet from ultraviolet radiation, at ground level it's a harmful pollutant that causes respiratory problems in humans and damages plants, and in the lower atmosphere, or troposphere, it acts as a greenhouse gas.
“Global efforts may be required to address regional air quality and climate change,” the researchers wrote. “Air quality and regional climate-change mitigation policies could eventually have limited impact if not considered in a global context.”
Ozone is formed in the atmosphere when nitrogen oxides and some volatile organic compounds react in the presence of sunlight. Nitrogen oxides are included in tailpipe and factory emissions, and a product of thermal combustion.
Chinese officials have recognized the country's air pollution problem, and are taking measures including shutting down coal plants, restricting traffic and boosting renewable energy to rein in the rise in pollutants.
Using observations and computer models, the scientists found that China's emissions of nitrogen oxides rose 21 percent and its tropospheric ozone levels gained almost 7 percent from 2005 through 2010. They also found that increased amounts of ozone were being transported across the Pacific to the U.S., concluding that it offsets 43 percent of the expected air quality benefits on the west coast from domestic measures.
Researchers at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology co-wrote the study.
Link: http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=74162215&vname=dennotallissues&fn=74162215&jd=74162215
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From Shale to Solar: What Today’s Energy R&D Can Learn From Fracking’s Success
Aug 10, 2015 | Greentech Media
By Loren King
In recent weeks, energy analysts have highlighted the limits of existing clean energy technologies.
Even as their share grows, variable renewables face serious economic challenges at higher levels of integration. The latest iteration of Gen3+ nuclear reactors has been beset by cost overruns and construction delays. And while the recent progress in storage technology is worth celebrating, scalable utility-scale storage remains a distant dream.
Increasingly, analysts describe current designs as "bridging technologies," stepping stones toward more advanced clean energy, whether in the form of perovskite solar cells or modular nuclear reactors. To become commercially viable, however, these emergent technologies will need all the policy support they can get.
Thankfully, the U.S. government is rather good at driving radical innovation. The decades-long struggle to make fracking viable is one of the DOE’s great success stories, where public and private groups worked together to break the shale code. As such, the shale gas revolution offers important lessons for energy innovation policy. 1. The government must gamble
Predictions for the Next Big Thing are almost invariably wrong. Fossil energy bets, whether public or private, were no different.
When the U.S. government stepped up its R&D efforts following the 1973 oil embargo, many assumed underground coal gasification and synthetic fuels would power the future. Even within the niche of unconventional gas, most experts believed that tight sands gas would play a larger role than shale ever would.
Today, there is very little consensus around what the next wave of clean technology will be -- all the more reason for governments and policymakers to avoid technological tribalism. As shale shows us, the technologies with little early promise are often those with the biggest long-term payoff. 2. Public and private must cozy up
Because radical innovation is so complex, and requires such different types of expertise, multi-group collaboration is invaluable. Against widespread concerns about the corrupt "revolving door" between government and industry, fracking is actually an example of why it’s essential for government agencies to work closely with the private sector.
In the case of shale, the Department of Energy and the Gas Research Institute were extremely successful in recycling national labs' research to meet industry needs. As they have no skin in the game, these public or semi-public bodies also acted as intermediaries between potential rivals. None of this could have happened if public and private were kept away from each other. 3. Pork barrel spending has its upsides
One of the most maligned aspects of industrial policy is also one of its strengths. Even the best-designed energy policy is useless if it cannot gain political support. By also providing a local stimulus, pork barrel spending can make large research programs and tests beds politically saleable.
In 1976, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) lobbied to get a major shale research project, the Eastern Gas Shales Project, funded in his home state. It was three years after the oil embargo, and Byrd wanted to direct some of that spending for jobs in his constituency. The result was not simply pork. The EGSP established that there was a lot of natural gas in shales, and helped spark the interest of Mitchell Energy. 4. Firms should come in all shapes and sizes
Innovation scholarship has long debated the optimal industry structure and the merits of small versus big, new versus old. But what really comes through in the shale gas case is that a diverse network of firms is optimal.
Mitchell Energy, rightly credited for pioneering shale gas fracking, was a medium-size firm in the oil and gas industry: big enough to invest substantial funds into R&D, but small enough as to have few alternatives other than to bet on shale.
The majors, by contrast, focused on the less-risky option of offshore drilling, and yet they still played an important role in developing early iterations of horizontal drilling. Small service firms were important vehicles through which science (and most often scientists) could make its way from the national lab to the field. 5. Investors must play the long game
Energy transitions are not a game of immediate gratification. By the time Mitchell and Devon Energy combined to “crack the Barnett” in 2002, work on unconventional gas extraction had been underway for decades, tracing back to the oil embargo and even before that to the nuclear tests of the 1960s. The fact that we are still waiting on the next generation of solar, nuclear and batteries suggest the next breakthroughs may take just as long. With these timelines in mind, policy must be oriented toward the long term and provide the patient capital that is often lacking in the private sector.
Innovation is hard work. The kinds of breakthroughs needed to fully decarbonize the economy are likely to be harder still. To stand any chance of success, policymakers and business leaders alike must move beyond old ideas about what public and private can and can’t do. When it comes to innovation, neither can thrive without the other.
Link: http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/from-shale-to-solar-what-todays-energy-rd-can-learn-from-shales-success
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Australians Prefer Renewables: 84% Say Solar Their Ideal Energy Source, 69% Wind
Aug 11, 2015 | Clean Technica
By Sophie Vorrath
More than 80 per cent of Australians name solar power among their top three most preferred energy sources, new research from The Climate Institute has found.
In its latest Climate of the Nation report, The Climate Institute found that 84 per cent of Australians preferred solar to be in their ideal energy mix of three sources, followed by wind, at 69 per cent.
Another 65 per cent of respondents thought that cutting investment in wind farms and household solar – the new government issued mandate for the Clean Energy Finance Corp – was the opposite of what was needed; and only 11 per cent disagreed.
“Despite a year which has seen renewable energy targets wound back, and attacks on wind power, support for both solar and wind in Australians’ preferred energy mix has grown,” said TCI chief John Connor.
Gas and nuclear, meanwhile, were found to be favoured by only 21 and 13 per cent of survey respondents, respectively, with nuclear and coal now tied as the least preferred energy source.
Some 70 per cent of the electorate also agreed that it was inevitable that Australia’s current coal-fired generation would need to be replaced, with 72 per cent saying governments needed a plan to ensure their orderly closure and their replacement with clean energy – 7 per cent disagreed with this.“The government and the opposition have an opportunity to join mainstream Australian attitudes with climate commitments and policies which can limit carbon pollution, encourage renewable energy and clean up our energy system,” concluded Connor.
As well as strengthening support for renewables, the report, based on a survey conducted by Galaxy Research in July, also shows an increasing awareness about the cause and impacts of climate change and carbon pollution regulation, and a greater call for government action.
According to TCI, the results highlight a growing disconnect between the Abbott government – which is due to set its emissions reduction target on Tuesday this week – and public sentiment on climate action, renewables and pollution regulation.
“There is a clear message in this report: ‘the Abbott government should take climate change more seriously’,” said the TCI report.
The survey also found that just over half of Australians thought Australia’s post-2020 pollution reduction targets should be based on climate science and not what other nations do. “The government and the opposition have an opportunity to join mainstream Australian attitudes with climate commitments and policies which can limit carbon pollution, encourage renewable energy and clean up our energy system,” said Connor.
Link: http://cleantechnica.com/2015/08/11/australians-prefer-renewables-84-say-solar-their-ideal-energy-source-69-wind/
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