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Indian Point, Closest Nuclear Plant to New York City, Set to Retire by 2021

mainIn January 2017, Entergy Nuclear and the state of New York reached an agreement to retire the two nuclear reactors at the Indian Point Energy Center, located in Buchanan, New York, about 25 miles north of New York City. Indian Point is one of four nuclear power plants in New York state and accounts for about 12% of total electricity generated from all sources statewide. Under the agreement, Entergy will retire one reactor in April 2020 and the other in April 2021.

Entergy had been seeking a 20-year license renewal for both reactor units from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2007. However, New York state challenged the renewals as a result of environmental and safety concerns because of the facility’s proximity to New York City. The announced closure dates could be postponed by four years given a mutual agreement between Entergy and the New York state government if electricity reliability in the region is significantly affected or if other emergency circumstances arise.

Indian Point operates two pressurized water reactor units, each with a licensed capacity of 1,072 megawatts (MW). These two units began commercial operation in 1974 and 1976. A third, smaller reactor opened in 1962 and was shut down in 1974 because the emergency core cooling system did not meet regulatory requirements. With a total capacity of 2,144 MW, Indian Point represents 40% of the state’s nuclear capacity and 5% of the state’s total installed electricity generating capacity.

Although Indian Point represents 5% of New York’s electricity generating capacity, the plant provides about 12% of the state’s total electricity generation. Nuclear plants tend to operate as baseload generators, providing more electricity throughout the day compared with other plants that are more likely to operate during times of high electricity demand or, in the case of some renewable generators, when their resources are available. Based on the latest annual data for the United States, an operating nuclear power plant typically has a capacity factor of about 90% versus 55% for combined-cycle natural gas and 30%–35% for wind, for example.

Natural gas-fired generation accounted for 41% of New York’s electricity generation in 2015. Over the past several years, combined-cycle natural gas plants have become more competitive as a form of baseload electricity generation. Relatively low natural gas prices and new infrastructure projects increased the amount of natural gas able to be delivered from production areas in Ohio and Pennsylvania to demand centers along the Atlantic Coast.

New York’s recently announced Clean Energy Standard seeks to add more capacity and generation from nonhydro renewable sources such as wind and solar photovoltaic. Although there are differences between the technologies that qualify for the Clean Energy Standard and those included in EIA’s category, nonhydro renewables accounted for about 5% of New York’s electricity generation in 2015. New York’s Clean Energy Standard requires that 50% of the state’s electricity generation comes from renewable sources (other than large hydro) by 2030.

Source: eia.gov

Making Freshwater from the Sun

170126CSPTechnologiesTo reduce the use of non-renewable groundwater and still meet growing water needs, the production of desalinated seawater in the MENA region is projected to be 13 times higher in 2040 compared to 2014. Traditionally, desalination has been powered by oil or natural gas, or is based on reverse osmosis, which requires significant quantities of electricity.

While the region is the world’s most important exporter of hydrocarbons, it is also endowed with another abundant resource thanks to significant levels of direct sunlight and large, open deserts close to urban centers. This combination has the potential to shift countries away from their reliance on fossil fuels to carbon-free energy sources such as concentrating solar power (CSP).

The basic principle of CSP is to reflect direct sunlight onto mirrors that are used to heat water, which can then be used to generate electricity. Unlike solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies, CSP can store heat energy for short periods of time. This enables CSP plants to produce electricity even when clouds block the sun or even after sundown. CSP also holds significant potential for supplying direct heat, which is useful for industrial purposes or water desalination.

In addition, both electricity and fresh water can be produced at the same time using higher temperature plants, such as with central receiver towers. In some cases it may be more economical to separate the two processes when the working temperature is relatively low, using CSP for electricity production and reverse osmosis for desalination.

But producing fresh water with CSP is not economically viable yet. It costs about three times more than when using natural gas, for example, which explains why there are no large-scale CSP desalination plants in operation.

IEA analysis also forecasts future cost reductions for membrane-based desalinisation technologies, meaning that electricity is likely to remain the best choice. Even with costs falling by 50% in the next 25 years, CSP remains about 60% more expensive than using traditional technologies.

The picture changes dramatically if fossil fuel and electricity subsidies are completely phased out. In this case, CSP desalination becomes cost competitive with natural gas-based desalination in the late 2020s. By 2040, it is only 30% more expensive than electricity-based reverse osmosis. As a result, CSP in global desalination capacity could reach 10% by 2040, according to World Energy Outlook 2016, providing the Middle East and North Africa with a clean, sustainable option for fresh and clean drinking water.

Source: iea.org

 

Report: Electric Cars in Pole Position to Dominate Green Car Market

Photo:-illustration: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Electric cars are set to dominate the fast-expanding ultra-low emission vehicle (ULEV) market in the coming decades, with hydrogen vehicles unlikely to play a major role prior to 2050.

That is the conclusion of a new update from the UK’s Energy Technologies Institute, which also questions the widely held assumption that a major investment in new public recharging infrastructure is needed to make electric vehicles (EVs) viable.

“The ETI believes the most promising opportunity is for an increase in the use and ownership of plug-in electric vehicles (hybrids and battery operated) but new market structures will have to be introduced to enable and support the most promising solutions,” the government and industry-backed body states.

“A lot of people believe hydrogen vehicles can help deliver decarbonisation. The ETI believes that hydrogen could play a long-term role towards and beyond 2050, but it is hard to see the UK hydrogen industry being able to match the scale needed for mass market transport use before then.”

The report argues significant reforms are required to ensure EV adoption grows rapidly from its current one per cent share of the market, noting the UK will have to upgrade its power grid to support the mass roll out of battery-powered cars and take steps to ensure EVs are easily accessible for mainstream motorists.

However, the update – which forms part of the ETI’s on-going Consumers, Vehicles and Energy Integration (CVEI) investigation into how consumers use ULEVs – argues charging infrastructure should be focused on domestic and work locations.

“The vehicles and charging arrangements designed must be attractive to consumers who will need simple, unobtrusive but effective solutions,” said Liam Lidstone, ETI strategy manager for light duty vehicles in a statement. “Our analysis to date shows that home recharging followed by workplace charging are the most important locations and a 3kW charge rate – the power rating of a standard domestic socket – should be sufficient for most users’ needs. Developing a public network infrastructure for vehicle recharging is a very high risk investment and our analysis would suggest it is not needed to meet the UK’s 2050 energy and climate targets.”

However, he acknowledged some expansion in public charge points was likely to be needed. “Enterprises such as shopping centres may see commercial advantages in offering charging facilities to encourage more use of their facilities but there also needs to be investment in rapid charging points (minutes rather than hours) as a medium term option,” he said. “This is where existing motorway networks could be utilised as they occupy the locations and points in journeys where rapid charging would be of most benefit to consumers.”

Lidstone also argued that automotive firms and energy companies needed to focus on delivering EVs and charging solutions that had a mass market appeal.

“To be successful, electric vehicles need to be designed to meet the needs of ‘mainstream’ consumers not just people with an interest in this area,” he said. “A large scale uptake from the mass market will have a major impact on the country’s electricity supply and future systems have to be designed today to incorporate any such dramatic movements in demand, because of the lifetime of the assets involved.”

The ETI’s conclusions are likely to be contested by some advocates of fuel cell vehicles, who argue they represent an effective long term alternative to both EVs and fossil fuel powered vehicles.

Speaking to BusinessGreen, Andrew Hinkly, executive head of marketing of precious metals at mining giant AngloAmerican, said the recently launched Hydrogen Council is keen to remind policymakers that hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles offer some distinct advantages over plug-in electric vehicles.

“They provide the flexibility and convenience that consumers are used to,” he said. “It is a vector towards decarbonising transport that requires the minimum change for consumers and frankly for infrastructure as well, because you can refuel at a filling station the same as you can do today – you will spend two or three minutes doing so and you can drive as far as you can today on a tank of petrol.”

Source: businessgreen.com

EU Hails Clean Energy ‘Year of Delivery’

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

The European Union is on track to meet its renewable energy, energy efficiency, and greenhouse gas emission targets for 2020 following a ‘year of delivery’ across the renewables sector, according to a wide-ranging new report from the European Commission.

The Second State of the Energy Union report details how the bloc has already beaten its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission targets for 2020 and is on track to meet its goal of sourcing 20 per cent of energy from renewable sources by the end of decade, having passed the 16 per cent milestone in 2014.

The report also confirms the EU has consistently decoupled economic growth and emissions growth, having slashed emissions 22 per cent since 1990 even as GDP has grown 50 per cent.

“For the Energy Union, 2016 was the year of delivery,” the report states, detailing how the Energy Union Framework Strategy had now been translated into a new clean energy package and mobility strategy.

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President responsible for the Energy Union, said the focus now should be on making 2017 “the year of implementation”. “The Energy Union is about more than energy and climate alone; it is about accelerating the fundamental modernisation of Europe’s entire economy, making it low-carbon, energy and resource efficient, in a socially fair manner,” he said. “Now that a large part of the relevant legislative proposals are on the table, 2017 should be the year of implementation.”

Miguel Arias Cañete, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, said the bloc’s commitment to the clean energy transition would not be derailed, despite “current geopolitical uncertainties”.

“There is no alternative,” he said. “And the facts speak for themselves: renewable energy is now cost-competitive and sometimes cheaper than fossil fuels, employs over one million people in Europe, attracts more investments than many other sectors, and has reduced our fossil fuels imports bill by €16bn. Now, efforts will need to be sustained as Europe works with its partners to lead the global race to a more sustainable, competitive economy.”

The report estimates the EU sourced 16.4 per cent of its energy from renewables in 2015, with official projections renewables share should hit 21 per cent by 2020, exceeding the 20 per cent target.

It adds that there are considerable environmental and economic benefits arising from the bloc’s investment in renewables, including an estimated saving on fossil fuel imports of €16bn in 2015 and emissions savings of 436 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, equal to the national emissions of Italy.

The report also reveals that the European renewable energy sector boasted a turnover of around €144bn in 2014, employing more than one million people.

However, the update notes that for the 2020 renewables goal to be met “Member States will have to keep up their efforts in order to reach their national goals”, and acknowledges total investment in renewables across the bloc has fallen by more than half since 2011 to €44bn.

A handful of countries are projected to narrowly miss their national renewables targets, including the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and the UK.

UK ministers have privately acknowledged in the past that slower than expected progress in delivering renewable heat and transport technologies meant the UK was on track to miss its 15 per cent target, with some experts fearing it could fall some way short of the goal. However, the EU report suggests significant progress in delivering renewable power capacity means the UK is projected to source 14.8 per cent of its energy from renewables in 2020, falling just shy of the 2015 target.

Dr. Nina Skorupska, chief executive of the Renewable Energy Association, said the government should now step up efforts to meet the targets for renewable heat and transport that it is projected to miss.

“While it appears that UK is on track to meet our power targets, we are seriously falling behind in the heat and transport sectors,” she warned. “The government should take immediate steps to remove the roadblocks to further renewable energy deployment.”

Specifically, she argued the government should raise the cap on crops used in the production of biofuels, re-think recent reforms to renewable heat schemes that have stymied biomass development, and provide a route to market for solar and onshore wind farms.

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Desplechin, secretary general of biofuel body ePURE, argued action is needed right across the bloc to accelerate efforts to meet the EU’s renewable transport fuel targets. “The European Commission’s renewable energy report card confirms that the EU is falling behind in its climate policies for transport,” he said. “Many Member States are nowhere near on track to meet their obligations for at least 10 per cent renewables in transport by 2020. One big reason for what the report calls ‘slow progress’ is that the Commission keeps downshifting on its policies on biofuels – which offer significant greenhouse gas savings. That policy instability has undermined Member States’ abilities to use renewables in transport.”

The update also received a luke warm welcome from Wendel Trio, director of campaign group CAN Europe, who argued the encouraging expansion in clean energy across the bloc had to be set against the more ambitious goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

“Current progress does not mean that the EU can rest on its laurels, because it has set the bar extremely low,” he said. “Being on track to reach our current weak targets gives one additional argument that the EU can and must do more to scale up climate ambition. Aligning the energy transition with the Paris Agreement will require more ambitious climate and energy targets, strong legislation, and additional measures such as deadlines for phasing out fossil fuels.”

Source: businessgreen.com

Smog-Fighting Music Academy Proposal Uses an Air Purifier System as Effective as 33,000 Trees

Photo: Wikipedia
Foto: Wikipedia

The Polish city of Krakow has some of the worst air pollution in the world. In hopes of improving the city’s air quality, FAAB Architektura proposed a smog-fighting music academy fitted with a German air purification system that they say works effectively as 33,000 city trees. The music academy was designed as part of a larger “Krakow Music City” masterplan that envisions a largely car-free and environmentally friendly development atop a former military base.

Located between Krakow and the Vistula River, the proposed masterplan is designed to blend into the natural landscape with its vernacular wooden lap panel cladding and use of energy-efficient technologies. Around 1,300 square meters of a Green City Solutions-developed air purification product would be embedded in the music academy’s moss-covered rooftops. The special moss culture converts air pollutants into biomass.

The green-roofed buildings comprise an education wing, concert hall, and small guest building carefully placed around existing trees and designed to immerse students and visitors in nature. Ground heat exchangers would be used to reduce energy use. Rainwater would also be collected in an underground tank and reused wherever possible. FAAB Architektura submitted their proposal to a design competition hosted by Akademia Muzyczna w Krakowie, which will reveal the winning entry on March 31, 2017.

Source: inhabitat.com

World’s Most Powerful Wind Turbine Breaks 24-Hour Record for Energy Generation

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

Anyone who still thinks wind power is just a load of hot air obviously hasn’t been paying attention. Witness the V164, a prototype wind turbine that Denmark’s MHI Vestas Offshore tested at Østerild at the close of 2016. With a rated power of 9 megawatts under optimum conditions, the V164 set a new energy-generation record by a single wind turbine in December by producing a staggering 216,000 kilowatt-hours over a 24-hour period.

And make no mistake, the V164 isn’t a glorified windmill. Standing nearly 722 feet tall, the V164 boasts with a sweep area of 227,377 square feet—or larger than the London Eye. Its 262-foot-long blades, the equivalent of nine London double-decker buses, weigh 77,160 pounds apiece.

The platform is part of MH Vestas Offshore’s “continued commitment to deliver affordable offshore wind power,” Torben Hvid Larsen, the firm’s chief technical officer, said in a statement.

“We are committed to delivering turbine technology that is in line with the development of our industry, based on our 20-plus years of offshore experience,” he said. “Reliability remains a key enabler, and our approach to developing our existing platform supports this strategy.”

With the new record secured, the prototype is poised to go to market. Built with the unforgiving North Sea environment in mind, V164 has an operational life span of about 25 years, after which 80 percent of it can be recycled.

“We believe that our wind turbine will play an integral part in enabling the offshore industry to continue to drive down the cost of energy,” Larsen added.

Source: inhabitat.com

U.S. to Pull out of Paris Climate Change Agreement under Trump

Photo-illustration: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

As seemed likely from the day Donald Trump was elected president of the United States, the country will pull out of the global Paris Climate Agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

The move had been signaled even before the election by the new president’s choice of noted climate-science denier Myron Ebell as head of his EPA transition team.

Indeed, yesterday, Ebell confirmed that the U.S. would pull out of the global pact under which China, the U.S., Europe, and India all agreed to slash carbon-dioxide emissions over the next two decades.

As recounted in an article by the Reuters news service, Ebell spoke to reporters in London and confirmed the pullout.

“The U.S. will clearly change its course on climate policy,” he said, according to Reuters. “Trump has made it clear he will withdraw from the Paris Agreement.”

Whether that happens immediately by executive order, or as part of a larger package of changes to environmental regulation and the EPA, Ebell suggested, apparently remains undecided.

The Paris climate agreement was negotiated in December 2015 by 193 nations, including the U.S., which had notably declined to ratify its predecessor, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The new agreement took effect last November, after India and the 28 members of the European Union ratified the agreement within days of each other in October. To become binding, the agreement had to be signed by 55 countries, representing 55 percent of global emissions.

Its most important goal is to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F) above the pre-industrial levels that prevailed in 1700 or earlier.

Any country that has ratified the Paris agreement must wait four years to withdraw, but Reuters quotes a source on the Trump transition team saying there are speedier ways to accomplish that goal.

They include a letter withdrawing the U.S. from the 1992 parent treaty that led to the agreement, issuing a presidential order deleting the U.S. signature on the treaty, or voiding U.S. participation in any activities toward the pact’s goals.

Withdrawing from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ebell said, would be the “cleanest” way to end U.S. involvement.

“The people who elected [Trump] would prefer not to have a seat at the table,” he said. In his London comments, Ebell also discussed the new administration’s plans to slash environmental regulation and ease fossil-fuel extraction and transportation.

He said he expected the political views of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission executives and staff to change “dramatically” under the new president.

Among other duties, FERC reviews applications for the construction and operation of fossil-fuel and electricity transport infrastructure, notably including natural-gas pipelines.

“Given the way the campaign went,” Reuters said Ebell told reporters, “I think you will see very quick executive action to expedite LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminals and pipelines.”

Whether these changes are predicated on the confirmation of Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt to head the U.S. Environmental Protection agency also remains unclear.

Pruitt also denies the accepted science of climate change, and has sued the agency he is nominated to lead a remarkable 14 times to prevent it enforcing its rules.

No date has been set for his confirmation vote by the U.S. Senate; Pruitt appears to be one of the Trump nominees against whom there is most resistance by the minority party.

Source: greencarreports.com

World Wetlands Day – 2. February

WWD17_homepage_E2nd February each year is World Wetlands Day. This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2. February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea.

Each year since 1997, the Ramsar Secretariat has provide and value of wetlands.

On 27 January 1998, the then Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention Secretariat, Mr. Delmar Blasco, signed the first partnership agreement between a global environmental convention and the private sector with Mr. Franck Riboud, CEO of the Danone Group, Yves Buchsenschutz, Director General of the Evian Water Company, France, part of the Danone Group, and Mrs. Dominique Voynet, French Minister for the Environment.

The Danone–Evian Fund for Water was born. Its mission is to raise awareness among decision-makers and the public at large of the importance of water resources through a portfolio of projects and educational products.

Thanks to financial support from Danone, each year communications materials for World Wetlands Day are produced in the Convention’s three official languages: English, French and Spanish.

Source: worldwetlandsday.org

Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Down 7 Percent Since 2014

MIT-Campsus-Emissions-1_0

MIT’s total campus emissions have dropped by 7 percent since 2014, according to MIT’s second annual greenhouse gas inventory. The inventory, whose results were released by the MIT Office of Sustainability in collaboration with the Department of Facilities and the Environment, Health and Safety Office, measured campus emissions in fiscal year 2016, which runs from July 2015 through June 2016. The analysis provides a wealth of data to inform MIT’s carbon-reduction strategies going forward.

“Step by step, we are making encouraging progress across the Institute,” says Don Holmes, director of maintenance and utilities in MIT’s Department of Facilities. “Teams from across the departments are employing creative energy-saving strategies that help optimize building performance, including upgrades to systems and lighting, improved insulation, and higher-efficiency materials and equipment. We are also investing in an upgrade to our power plant that will achieve additional emissions reductions.”

One year ago, when President L. Rafael Reif announced MIT’s five-year Plan for Action on Climate Change, the Institute committed to being a leader in solving the complex, global challenge of climate change. The announcement galvanized the already-engaged MIT community to take direct action to meet the plan’s goals.

One such goal is to use the campus as a “test bed” for climate action, and develop solutions to reduce campus emissions by at least 32 percent by 2030 with a plan toward achieving carbon neutrality as soon as possible. The inventory is being used to inform MIT’s carbon reduction plans and as a tool for campus learning and engagement.

“The greenhouse gas inventory is an indispensable tool for tracking and managing our efforts to reduce MIT’s campus carbon emissions. Just as importantly, by making the data publicly available, the inventory serves as a critical tool for engaging more members of the MIT community in reducing consumption and achieving our campus carbon emissions goals,” says Vice President for Research Maria Zuber.

With the underlying energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) data publicly available, staff, students, and faculty can use the inventory to support the Institute’s efforts to identify ways to reduce MIT’s emissions, understand related energy and emission trends, and refine data collection methods.

A greenhouse gas inventory assesses the quantity of greenhouse gases the Institute produces, and identifies the emissions’ sources. The team used the Campus Carbon Calculator — the most commonly used inventory tool for universities — to convert data from the MIT campus into a single unit: metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e). For this inventory, MIT measured its campus greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with burning fossil fuels, and the emissions of noncombusted GHGs used in research, refrigeration, and electrical insulation. The MIT Office of Treasury and Planning then audited the findings for accuracy.

The 2016 inventory builds on the findings of the first inventory, released in January 2016, which reported campus emissions from 2014 and 2015 and established the 2014 emissions as a baseline for tracking changes. In 2016, MIT continued to measure its greenhouse gas emissions from three areas (as it did in 2014 and 2015): building energy use for Cambridge-based academic purposes, fugitive gases, and campus-owned vehicles.

“The data from our latest GHG inventory affirm that the strategies we have put in place are beginning to show results,” says Office of Sustainability Project Manager Steven Lanou, who managed the development of the inventory.

As in previous inventories, the largest source of campus emissions is the energy used to heat, cool, and power buildings. Ninety-seven percent of the Institute’s emissions are associated with the operation of labs, offices, residences, and other building facilities across campus. MIT leases approximately 515,000 gross square feet to accommodate departments in Cambridge, which account for 3 percent of these building-related emissions.

The inventory revealed that fugitive emissions, GHGs that are emitted on campus through noncombustion processes used in research, refrigeration, and electrical insulation, account for 2 percent of campus emissions.

Finally, campus-owned vehicles, MIT’s fleet of over 160 shuttles and departmental vehicles, account for 1 percent of emissions through their fuel combustion.

Between 2014 and 2016, the campus achieved a 7 percent reduction in overall emissions, from 213,428 MTCO2e in 2014 to 198,038 MTCO2e in 2016. The majority of the change came from the reduction of emissions in MIT-owned buildings, followed by reductions in fugitive gases, and fleet vehicle emissions. While there was an overall increase in leased space in 2016, increased emissions associated with leased space are primarily the result of better data tracking and collection practices.

Changes in emissions are expected to fluctuate year-to-year. For example, between 2014 and 2015, MIT recognized a 5.8 percent net reduction in emissions, while between 2015 and 2016 a net reduction of 1.4 percent was realized. Changes in space use, operations at MIT’s central utility plant, and weather can all influence emissions.

MIT achieved this reduction in its GHG emissions from 2014 through several strategies, including investing in energy efficiency and use of cleaner fuels, while also benefiting from relative improvements in grid-purchased electricity. Successful energy efficiency strategies included investments in new construction and renovation, upgrades in space lighting, building retro- and monitoring based-commissioning to optimize building performance, mechanical system upgrades, and utility distribution system insulation. Since FY2014, it is estimated that MIT’s investments in building energy efficiency lowered MIT’s annual total emissions by 8,400 metric tons of greenhouse gases — an amount equal to over half of the measured reductions.

While the 2016 GHG inventory shows encouraging results, there is still significant work to be done in achieving the Climate Action Plan goal of at least a 32 percent reduction in emissions. Shaped by past experience and new knowledge, MIT is already looking ahead to reduce its climate impact through several strategies.

The CUP Upgrade Project will replace the current natural gas turbine, add a second turbine, and upgrade for energy efficiency. These renovations will bring three major improvements: improved campus power resilience, reduced GHG emissions, and reduced regulated pollutant emissions. The renovation is expected to be completed by late 2020.

MIT will look to reduce the emission of fugitive gases through chemical substitution, enhanced material capture and reuse, and possible process redesign in its laboratories. For its campus vehicle fleet, MIT seeks to expand of the use of alternative fuels, optimize vehicle sizes for required duty, and improve transit routing and scheduling. As for the buildings MIT leases in Cambridge, emissions reduction strategies will require partnerships with leasing companies to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy sources in non-MIT owned properties.

Looking forward, MIT recognizes that investing in renewable energy by deploying additional renewable energy systems on campus and enabling off-site renewable energy production is a key component of the plan. In October 2016, MIT committed to partnering and investing in the development of the Summit Farms Solar Project in North Carolina, a 60 megawatt solar photovoltaic farm. When this project is completed in 2017, MIT will purchase solar energy equivalent to 40 percent of its current electricity use, which will neutralize emissions by 17 percent. This alliance with Boston Medical Center and Friends of Post Office Square is an additional demonstration that MIT is prepared to take large-scale action on climate change.

Source: energy.mit.edu

A Step Toward Renewable Diesel

MIT-Lipid-Bio_0

MIT engineers have genetically reprogrammed a strain of yeast so that it converts sugars to fats much more efficiently, an advance that could make possible the renewable production of high-energy fuels such as diesel.

The researchers, led by Gregory Stephanopoulos, the Willard Henry Dow Professor of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at MIT, modified the metabolic pathways of yeast that naturally produce large quantities of lipids, to make them about 30 percent more efficient.

“We have rewired the metabolism of these microbes to make them capable of producing oils at very high yields,” says Stephanopoulos, who is the senior author of the study, which appears in the Jan. 16 issue of Nature Biotechnology.

This upgrade could make the production of renewable high-energy fuels economically feasible, and the MIT team is now working on additional improvements that would help get even closer to that goal.

“What we’ve done is reach about 75 percent of this yeast’s potential, and there is an additional 25 percent that will be subject of follow-up work,” Stephanopoulos says.

The paper’s lead author is former MIT postdoc Kangjian Qiao. Other authors are former MIT graduate students Thomas Wasylenko and Kang Zhou, and former MIT postdoc Peng Xu.

Renewable fuels such as ethanol made from corn are useful as gasoline additives for running cars, but for large vehicles like airplanes, trucks, and ships, more powerful fuels such as diesel are needed.

“Diesel is the preferred fuel because of its high energy density and the high efficiency of the engines that run on diesel,” Stephanopoulos says. “The problem with diesel is that so far it is entirely made from fossil fuels.”

Efforts to develop engines that run on biodiesel made from used cooking oils have had some success, but cooking oil is a relatively scarce and expensive fuel source. Starches such as sugar cane and corn are cheaper and more plentiful, but these carbohydrates must first be converted into lipids, which can then be turned into high-density fuels such as diesel.

To achieve this, Stephanopoulos and his colleagues began working with a yeast known as Yarrowia lipolytica, which naturally produces large quantities of lipids. They focused on fully utilizing the electrons generated from the breakdown of glucose. To achieve this, they transformed Yarrowia with synthetic pathways that convert surplus NADH, a product of glucose breakdown, to NADPH, which can be used to synthesize lipids. They ended up testing more than a dozen modified synthetic pathways.

“It turned out that the combination of two of these pathways gave us the best results that we report in the paper,” Stephanopoulos says. “The actual mechanism of why a couple of these pathways work much better than the others is not well-understood.”

Using this improved pathway, the yeast cells require only two-thirds of the amount of glucose needed by unmodified yeast cells to produce the same amount of oil.

While this new glucose-to-lipid conversion process could be economically feasible at current prices for cornstarch, the researchers are hoping to make the process even more efficient, Stephanopoulos says.

“There is still room for more improvement, and if we push more in this direction, then the process will become even more efficient, requiring even less glucose to produce a gallon of oil,” he says.

The researchers are also exploring using cheaper sources of plant material, such as grass and agricultural waste, which would require converting the cellulose that makes up those plant materials into glucose.

The research was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Source: energy.mit.edu

Transforming the Power Sector, at IRENA Ministerial Meeting

irena-power-sector-ministerial-roundtable-panelRenewable energy, for three years running, has accounted for more new power generation capacity installed worldwide than all other sources combined. In 2015, over USD 270 billion were invested in solar PV and wind power, boosting capacity by 47 GW 63 GW respectively. This capacity is expected to only grow and efforts are now focusing on implementing an innovative enabling framework to integrate these technologies at the scale needed. But that is not a simple task and questions still remain: what technologies and tool are part of the power sector transformation? What still needs to be developed? And how can IRENA assist?

“The transformation of the energy sector towards a renewables-based one is moving forward at an accelerated pace. Nowhere is this revolution more evident than in the power sector,” said Adnan Z. Amin, IRENA Director-General, at the opening Ministerial Roundtable, Towards an Economy Fuelled by Renewable Power: Innovation for the Next Stage of the Power Sector Transformation.

Government officials from around the world gathered to discuss the ongoing power sector transformation, and converse with prominent executives from the energy industry on its future development and outlook.

Integrating high shares of variable renewable energy in power systems, is a challenge not only from the perspective of securing the power supply, but also from the perspective of how to manage the surplus power from these sources.

In some countries at certain times, variable renewable power generation exceeds demand. Windy days in Denmark can produce 116% of the domestic power demand, and a share as high as 140% was reached in July 2015. In Portugal, wind power produced up to 65% of domestic power demand on some days in December 2015. On 8 May 2016, 95% of Germany’s domestic power demand was supplied by solar PV and wind power, and exports of electricity surged.

Energy experts and country representatives agreed that a holistic innovation approach is needed to tackle this challenge. Innovations ranging from technology to market design and business models all have a role to play. Part of the solution lies in implementing innovative flexibility measures in the power system, including additional cross-border interconnections, electricity storage systems, demand side management strategies, and advanced weather forecasting.

Luiz Barroso President of Brazil’s Energy Research Company, explained the country’s use of renewable energy auctions and biofuels, and highlighted how hydro and renewables can be used to leverage both technologies, something recently explored in IRENA’s market analysis of Latin America.

Barroso highlighted that although financing is available, risk allocation and business models are everything to tap these resources. “We like renewables because their short construction time is a hedge against economic uncertainty,” he told the Ministerial Roundtable, while explaining that currency risk can be an issue in emerging economies.

The outcomes of the Ministerial Roundtable was reported back to the Assembly, and will further feed into IRENA work, particularly IRENA’s two alternating biennial activities regarding the power sector transformation; the IRENA Innovation Week, which was last held in 2016; and the Innovation landscape report for the power sector transformation, which is expected to come out later this year. They will highlight not only technological innovations, but the market, regulatory, and business model changes that are making the up-scaling of variable renewables possible.

To learn more about innovation, check out IRENA’s innovation outlook reports on offshore wind power, advanced liquid biofuels, and renewable mini-grids.

Source: irenanewsroom.org

Tesla’s New Powerpack Battery Storage Project in Southern California Is the Largest on Earth

Photo: Tesla
Photo: Tesla.com

Mira Loma, California — Tesla cut the ribbon on a massive battery storage facility in the Southern California desert, 60 miles east of Los Angeles on Monday.

The Powerpack project, a joint venture with local electricity provider, Southern California Edison (SCE), will support grid operation during peak hours and improve the integration of renewable energy resources.

“This project is exactly in line with our mission to accelerate sustainable technology and sustainable energy broadly for the world,” Tesla Chief Technology Officer, JB Straubel, said.

“Storage is a piece that’s been missing on the grid since the grid was invented, so thanks to these technologies, we’re right at the turning point of being able to deliver storage and use renewables — solar, wind, and others — that can power people’s needs for longer parts of the day,” Straubel said.

The Powerpack is a commercial-scale variation of Tesla’s consumer-level Powerwall battery product. It loads up on energy from the sun and from the electric grid during off-peak hours. One Powerpack pod at the Mira Loma site contains 16,000 lithium-ion battery cells each, providing more than 210 kWh per pack.

Noting that this type of technology was not possible five or 10 years ago, Straubel said the amount of storage the Powerpacks at Mira Loma provide is unprecedented considering its relatively small footprint.

“The Mira Loma site can provide the equivalent energy storage of several hundred acres of solar panels,” Straubel said, adding that the facility “is able to to fit into this tight footprint right next to existing substations, and doesn’t really take up any substantial new land.”

“And every piece of this product — the battery, the battery modules, the power electronics, the inverters — was assembled by Tesla workers right here in the US,” Straubel said, seeming to nod to President Donald Trump, who has made examples of US companies that have sent manufacturing jobs overseas.

The Powerpacks are manufactured at Tesla’s massive Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.

SCE awarded Tesla the contract for the Mira Loma project last fall, but Tesla has been plugging away at building its energy business for some time. To date, 300 megawatt-hours worth of Tesla batteries have been deployed in 18 countries.

Source: businessinsider.com

Hangzhou Fengling Finishes 200 MW Solar-Aquaculture Project

Photo: Pixabay
Photo-illustration: Pixabay

The developer connected the massive installation to the grid earlier this month in eastern China, roughly 150 kilometres south of Shanghai.

The panels were mounted on piles above the surface of the Changhe and Zhouxiang reservoirs in Cixi, Zhejiang province.

The Hangzhou-based company invested approximately 1.8 billion yuan ($262.6 million) in the project, which spans about 299.5 hectares.

It did not reveal the solar panel supplier.

In an online statement, the Cixi municipal authorities hailed the project as a “new model” for solar-aquaculture projects, as the PV modules were deliberately spaced far apart to allow enough sunlight to penetrate the water, which is critical for the growth of the fish beneath the surface.

Construction started in late June and wrapped up in December.

The project is expected to annually generate about 220 GWh of electricity, or enough to cater to the needs of roughly 100,000 homes.

A unit of utility State Grid built two 110 kV substations for the project.

The installation is considerably larger than a similar 120 MW project that was completed last May in Poyang county, Jiangxi province.

Source: pv-magazine.com

Offshore Wind Energy in U.K. Far Ahead of Lower-Cost Target

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

The winds of change are blowing harder in the U.K. The price of energy generated by offshore wind farms has been falling steadily, and ahead of schedule too. Costs have fallen 32 percent since 2012, bringing them below a target of £100 per megawatt-hour previously set by the U.K. government and utilities.

Wind energy wasn’t expected to reach that threshold until 2020, according to the annual Cost Reduction Monitoring Framework report issued by the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapault advocacy group.

Set in 2012, the £100-per-MWh goal ultimately proved conservative, thanks to a variety of factors. The implementation of larger-capacity turbines quicker than anticipated is the likely the largest contributing factor to the cost reduction, according to the report. Other major factors cited by the report included increased competition among wind-farm developers and lower cost of capital.

The number of sites with the potential for development into wind farms now significantly exceeds the funding available from the U.K. government for such projects, the report said. This forced developers to cut costs more aggressively.

As a result, offshore-wind projects finalized in 2015 and 2016 achieved average energy costs of £97 per MWh, compared to £142 per MWh for those finalized in 2010 and 2011. In November 2016, the U.K. government announced its timing for a second round of auctions to distribute funds for new offshore wind-farm projects, to begin in April 2017.

The Offshore Renewable Energy Catapault believes further cost reductions can be achieved as these new projects are approved, but it calls for the government to devise a “set of cost-reduction priorities, timescales, and monitoring processes” to focus the effort.

Governments and utilities are now starting to see the results of years of steady decline in renewable-energy prices. In the U.S., both solar and wind are now cheaper than natural gas, according to the annual Levelized Cost of Energy analysis conducted by investment bank and research firm Lazard.

The renewable sources were found to undercut fossil fuels without subsidies, albeit only in utility-scale installations. Factoring in subsidies lowers the effective cost of electricity produced by wind and solar installations even further.

Source: greencarreports.com

London Taxi Company Poised to Rev Up £300m Coventry Electric Cab Factory

Photo: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

The London Taxi Company (LTC) is set to open its £300m electric black cab factory in Coventry in March with a view to producing its first vehicles for the UK market later this year, according to reports.

Speaking to Reuters, the Chinese-owned company’s chief executive Chris Gubbey revealed more than 600 workers had already been hired at the facility, which is expected to create 1,000 jobs once completed.

The expanded manufacturing facility is set to produce up to 36,000 of the company’s TX5 hybrid black cab models each year. The low emission cars include back-up petrol engines but are designed to travel up to 70 miles on electric power alone, curbing running costs, air pollution, and carbon emissions. The factory will also focus on EV research and development.

Gubbey reiterated plans for the company, which was taken over by Chinese manufacturer Geely in 2013, to expand production in order to sell the low emission vehicles in Europe from next year.

The move comes amid growing concerns about levels of air pollution in the UK capital, where this month the Mayor Sadiq Khan has issued alerts to residents about high levels of NO2 in the city.

A recent survey by LTC also suggested London cabbies are keen to switch to lower emissions models before tougher emissions regulations come into force in 2018.

In related news, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is reportedly set to introduce electric vehicle charge points at some of its European petrol stations, while rival Total is also considering installing battery chargers at its fuelling stations in France.

As the acceleration towards electric vehicles continues apace, charging points are likely to be first installed at Shell filling stations in the UK and Netherlands later this year, according to the Financial Times, which also reports that Total is “studying the viability” of similar roll out at its facilities in France.

Shell’s director of downstream business did not say how many charge points would be installed, but told the FT the oil giant was looking at rolling out battery charging facilities in a number of countries, as well as undertaking research into other fossil fuel-substitutes such as hydrogen and biofuels.

Source: businessgreen.com

EIB Group Increases Support to Czech Republic by One Third to EUR 619 Million in 2016

Foto-ilustracija: Pixabay
Photo: Pixabay

The European Investment Bank Group provided EUR 619 million in new loans, guarantees equity in the Czech Republic in 2016, of which EUR 526 million from the EIB and EUR 93 million from its subsidiary the European Investment Fund (EIF).

The operations included five operations under the European Fund for Strategic Investments, part of the Investment Plan for Europe. Total investments triggered by these five operations alone amounted to nearly EUR 2 billion or 1.06% of the country’s GDP.

“2016 was a successful year for us in the Czech Republic. We managed to increase our financing in the country by a third compared to 2015. Our investments were aimed at reducing disparities in regional development, strengthening economic competitiveness and improving people’s living standards while using innovative financing,” said Vazil Hudák, EIB Vice-President responsible for the Bank’s operations in Central European countries, who presented the results in Prague.

In the strategic infrastructure sector, the EIB lent CZK 3 billion (some EUR 111 million) to the Czech Republic’s Energy Transmission Network Company (ČEPS a.s.) to finance the reinforcement and modernisation of the country’s electricity transmission network. This project supports the implementation of ČEPS’s 2016-2020 investment programme that involves 25 transmission schemes with voltage levels ranging from 110 kV up to 400 kV, including IT and communication systems. The network upgrading measures are geographically dispersed throughout the country.

The EIB also signed five intermediated loan contracts amounting to EUR 392.5 million with Czech financing institutions. These intermediaries – Česká spořitelna, a.s., ČSOB, a.s., ČSOB Leasing, a.s., Komerční banka, a.s. and SG Equipment Finance, a.s. – are using the EIB funds to finance projects carried out by SMEs, midcap companies and municipalities in the fields of local infrastructure, environmental protection, energy, R&D, innovation and services, including tourism. Two of the financial intermediaries, Komerční banka, a.s. and SG Equipment Finance, a.s., are using the EIB funds to increase youth employment by partly targeting firms that hire or train young people.

The EIF committed EUR 93 million in two equity, four guarantee and three microfinance operations, catalysing 636 million in new investments.

Source: eib.org

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