RenewableEnergyWorld.com - Solar

Some of the latest battery technologies may become obsolete before reaching the market because of the breakneck pace of advances in the industry.

Chris Gwynne stands in a ravine below a towering dam in the Tasmanian wilderness and ponders whether the giant concrete structure can withstand the politics that may keep it from playing a key role in Australia’s clean energy future.

It was California’s biggest fire yet. In late July and August, wildfires devastated an area north of San Francisco far bigger than New York City, destroying more than 100 homes and injuring 2 fire fighters. It’s just one in a rash of fast-spreading blazes that have killed at least 56 people this year and last in the Golden State.

While this week’s episode of Tesla Inc. has left us with several cliffhangers, it did show one thing: just how far the company has veered from Elon Musk’s secret “Master Plan” of 2006.

LOGAN, Utah - Made In Space, the Silicon Valley startup focused on additive manufacturing in orbit, plans to boost the power available to small satellites with Archinaut, the company's in-space manufacturing and assembling technology. "Small satellites have solar panels that produce a kilowatt to a kilowatt and a half," said Andrew Rush, Made In Space chief executive.

Trump administration officials pushed to highlight the value of coal-fired power plants in a government report on the “bomb cyclone” that plunged the Eastern U.S. into single-digit temperatures last January.

“Japan will present hydrogen to the rest of the world as a new energy choice and will lead global efforts for establishing a carbon-free society taking advantage of Japan’s strong points,” read a statement from Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry as it unveiled the country’s ground-breaking Basic Hydrogen Strategy last December.

A report released this month, which was commissioned by the McKnight Foundation, revealed analysis that showed Minnesota could retire the state’s coal plants, build no additional natural gas plants, and still meet energy demands reliably through clean and renewable energy sources.

New wind and solar installations accounted for nearly 9,000 and 8,000 MW of capacity two years ago, respectively, while natural gas was close behind at more than 7,900 MW. The EIA used complete data from 2016 installations and will release 2017 generator cost data next year.

Bright and breezy days are becoming a deeper nightmare for utilities struggling to earn a return on traditional power plants. With wind and solar farms sprouting up in more areas -- and their power getting priority to feed into the grid in many places -- the amount of electricity being generated is outstripping demand during certain hours of the day.

The project will include 4.88 MW of solar panels. Its battery system will store energy and discharge up to 2.6 MW during peak hours

Utility experts flocked to Johannesburg last month and talked how the skies the limit for the future opportunities and challenges of grid expansion and modernization in Africa.

There’s an energy-storage opportunity hidden in plain sight -- and it has little to do with electric vehicles. As batteries go mainstream, the “deepest potential” for them is likely to be in arbitrage, according to a Bloomberg NEF report Tuesday.

A Thai-based renewable energy technology company, Energy Absolute, plans to invest $3 billion in a battery 'gigafactory', hedging on Southeast Asia’s uptake of electric vehicles and smart grids.

Total corporate funding (including venture capital funding, public market, and debt financing) into the solar sector in Q2 2018 rose 12.5 percent quarter-over-quarter to $2.8 billion from the $2.5 billion raised in Q1 2018, according to a report by Mercom Capital.

Europe’s heat wave is hastening the rise of the “peaker,” a natural gas-fired power plant that can switch on and off quickly and runs only when there’s high demand.

hina’s Silk Road Fund will acquire a 24.01 percent interest in the world’s largest single-site solar thermal plant, which is being built in the United Arab Emirates. The 700-megawatt project will be developed along with Dubai Electricity & Water Authority and Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power Barka SAOG, ACWA said in a statement on Sunday. The plant will combine a central tower and parabolic trough technology to harvest energy from the sun, store it in molten salt and produce steam to generate power during the day and throughout the night.

In July at Intersolar North America, Lee Zhenguo, President of LONGi Group laid out his “solar for solar” vision and explained how one day he believes solar will be so cheap that it will be used to help fix some of the monumental environmental issues that plague the world today.

Late last year, Renewable Energy World published articles and a video to explain the energy imbalance market to readers. This is the market that was created as a result of the fact that California often has excess solar, wind and hydropower and must “curtail” those energy sources, which means turn them off completely. Instead of curtailing them, through the energy imbalance market, those solar, wind, and hydropower plant owners can sell their power over the border to neighboring states.  

Now the state is mulling an even larger opportunity, in which it would dissolve its current grid operator, the California ISO (Cal-ISO) and form one large regional grid, which would have oversight from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The move could lead to lower electricity rates and cleaner energy for all regions, some say. Others worry that giving up state oversight and letting FERC take control could lead to California at some point propping up coal-fired power plants in Wyoming and Utah. After all, FERC has been considering proposals from Secretary Perry on how to keep coal and nuclear power plants alive — the latest move being one related to national security. The articles below outline some of the issues in play. What do you think the state should do? -- JMR  

Renewables and sustainability groups have reacted with fury to proposals by the UK government to scrap subsidies for green energy projects.