Renewable Energy News

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/4/body-100-percent-renewable-vision-building.jpg" /pIncreasingly countries and regions are leapfrogging timid renewable targets and moving toward full 100 percent integration of renewables into electricity supply. Some thought leaders, politicians, and advocates are moving even further, suggesting 150 percent, even 300 percent renewable electricity generation to meet not only electricity supply but also heat and transport./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/4/body-ten-clean-energy-stocks-for-2013-march-update.jpg" /pWhile the broad market of small stocks as measured by my benchmark the iShares Russell 2000 Index (IWM) managed to turn in a small 2% gain in March for the third month in a row, clean energy stocks repeated February's performance, giving back more of January's spectacular gains. My clean energy benchmark, the Powershares Wilderhill Clean Energy Index (PBW), declined 3.2% to end the quarter up 5.5% for the year, while IWM closed up 12.2% for the first quarter./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/4/body-rps-attacks-go-against-the-march-of-history.jpg" /pLast week in Phoenix, I watched the very conservative governor of Arizona, Jan Brewer, deliver a brief keynote speech to open the second day of the CleanTech Future conference put on by CleanTech Connections and the Arizona Commerce Authority. Nineteen floors above the impressive solar PV arrays at Arizona State University's downtown campus across the street, Brewer extolled the virtues of solar and other clean energy as a business boon for her state./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/3/body-energy-storage-series-why-we-need-it-and-why-we-dont.jpg" /pIt's almost a cliché that there's a "friendly debate" pitting utilities against renewable energy. But concerns on the utility side of the table are real: intermittency, potential destabilization at the feeder level, non-baseload, and peaks in generation that don't necessarily match demand peaks. Today's power infrastructure involves unpredictability in both supply and demand that is extremely difficult to manage. The choice comes down to two options: over-generate so as to not undersupply, or find ways to better match up supply and demand./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/22/body-getting-more-from-wind-turbines-with-condition-monitoring-systems.jpg" /pWind turbine downtime is particularly costly during winter, for two reasons. First, November to April is the period over which most such plants around the world produce around two thirds of their electricity yield. The wind farms depend on the availability of wind, which in turn depends on the season. Second, logistical costs for maintenance during this time of year are high. So turbine failure at this time must be avoided at all costs. Condition monitoring, perhaps integrated with programmable logic control, can help a plant maintain its energy availability over this crucial period./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/3/body-bp-exiting-us-wind-unit-pares-renewable-energy-interests-to-fuels.jpg" /pBP is getting out of the wind industry in the U.S., following its exit from solar barely a year ago, in a broader shift back to its oil and gas roots. BP spokesperson Mark Salt characterized the move as "a continuing effort to become a more focused oil and gas company and re-position the company for sustainable growth into the future."/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/3/body-renewables-to-exceed-fossil-fuels-in-european-generation-by-2020.jpg" /pEurope's share of generation capacity using renewable sources will rise to at least 40 percent by 2020, exceeding capacity fueled by coal, natural gas and oil, according to the region's grid operators group Entsoe./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/2/body-risk-and-finance-in-the-pv-industry.jpg" /pEmerging from the 2008 financial crisis with new incentives, innovative business models, and rapidly declining costs, photovoltaics (PV) have gone on to achieve installation at rates unprecedented in their 40 year-long U.S. commercial history. And, despite some headwinds, PV deployment will likely see sustained levels of investment and deployment in the near term./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/22/body-local-development-through-community-led-renewable-energy.jpg" /pMany people who consider themselves supporters of renewables still doubt the feasibility of 100 percent in the near future. In times of economic crisis and budget cuts in most parliaments, people are mainly concerned about jobs and price increases in their daily lives. But the evidence shows that investments in renewable energy actually tackle these issues. The deployment of renewable energies results in local development and the energy transition is indeed the best response strategy to many of today's challenges./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/2/body-ges-new-brilliant-wind-turbine-put-to-the-test.jpg" /pEarlier this year GE launched its new 2.5-120 wind turbine targeting low-wind-speed sites (7.5 m/s average wind speed, for IEC Class III and DiBT WZ2 environments), offering what it says will be better efficiency (25 percent) and power output (15 percent) than its current model, the 2.85-103./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/3/body-why-africa-is-missing-the-solar-electricity-boat.jpg" /pDespite having one of the best solar regimes in the world, Africa is still a trivial player in the global solar market. Less than 1.5 percent of the trade in solar came to Africa last year, and most of those solar panels were bound for South Africa./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/3/body-energy-efficiency-finds-its-cell-phone.jpg" /pEnergy efficiency insiders have envied the telecommunications industry for years. After all, it produced the iPhone, Android and other products that American consumers can’t seem to live without. The telecom industry achieved this level of innovation after it deregulated. The electricity industry deregulated too, but no killer product followed, no /p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/2/body-8-myths-about-wind-energy.jpg" /pThe wind industry's rapid expansion in the past few years underscores the industry's significant potential to create jobs, spur economic activity, reduce water use, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, all while producing clean electricity. However, many myths of wind energy have been spread, sometimes intentionally, sometimes through hearsay. It i/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/2/body-wind-power-costs-uk-consumer-just-10-pounds-a-year.jpg" /pWhile debate in the media rages on whether the UK’s green energy policies will raise electricity bills or not, Ed Davey, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has said that onshore and offshore wind power together cost householders only £10 a year in total, according to a Guardian article. Moreover, Davey said that wind power is need/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/2/body-scope-not-timing-remains-the-key-issue-in-euchina-pv-trade-war.jpg" /pWhile much of the focus is on the timing issues of the Europe/China anti-dumping investigations, it is the scope of any such actions that remains the key uncertainty for the industry as a whole./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/2/body-cloudy-days-for-a-washington-state-community-solar-effort.jpg" /pThe Backbone Campaign's community solar project was motivated by a generous production incentive offered in Washington State for solar projects installed on public property.  Campaign organizer Bill Moyer and many residents of King County, WA, hoped to keep more energy dollars in the local economy by using this incentive to create a community solar/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/1/1-body-massachusetts-solar-market-projections.jpg" /pMA SREC prices have rallied since mid January, with Vintage 2012 prices increasing from $205 to trade as high as $235 in March. Over the same period the vintage 2013 SRECs rallied stronger than 2012’s, moving from $155 to as high as $230, with the spread narrowing from $50 to $5. The timing of this run up seemed to coincide with the issuance of two/p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/20/body-to-keep-wind-competitive-manufacturing-ups-its-game.jpg" /pOvercapacity, tightening margins, intense demand fluctuations, uncertain subsidy support and severe price competition: wind turbine manufacturing isn't for the faint-hearted these days. Wind turbine original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are now redesigning their businesses from the ground up to compete effectively in today's ultra-competitive global marketplace./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/3/20/body-de-risking-wind-hedging-against-variability.jpg" /pAs wind power's share of electricity generation has increased, so have the financial consequences of risks associated with its inherently high variability - risks which don't just affect wind power producers but reverberate vertically through the value chain and horizontally to affect a range of electricity market players. Large utilities can manage risk with a combination of all three basic risk management strategies: limiting exposure to specific energy sources, diversifying, and engaging in extensive trading activities to hedge several types of risks across their operations./p

img hspace="10" vspace="5" align="left" src="http://www.renewableenergyworld.com//assets/images/story/2013/4/1/body-latin-america-report-weighing-brazils-wind-domestic-content-provision.jpg" /pWind turbine manufacturers are balking at a new rule in Brazil requiring them to buy or make parts domestically to qualify for lower-cost loans from the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), which could put a crimp in the anticipated growth of one of the more promising market regions for wind energy./p