The US wind industry is booming, with a record 29.6GW under construction and in advanced development as of the end of this year’s third quarter.

That’s according to a new report from the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), which suggests the renewable technology is increasingly winning the business of major utilities and big brands, which see it as an affordable, clean and reliable form of generation.

Wind power’s year-over-year construction and advanced development activity in the US is up 27% in 2017.

Utility-owned projects include American Electric Power’s 2GW Wind Catcher project in Oklahoma, Alliant Energy’s 500MW New Wind II project in Iowa and Xcel Energy’s 300MW Dakota Range projects.

Fortune 500 companies such as Target and General Motors are also driving demand – the report suggests they believe the low, stable price of wind makes business sense and can help cost-effectively meet sustainability goals.

Tom Kiernan, the CEO of AWEA, said: “Wind power’s value to investors, utilities and corporate purchasers is clear: fixed-cost clean energy at competitive prices.

“The high level of wind under construction and in advanced development shows we are on track to deliver 10% of America’s electricity by 2020, along with $85 billion (£64.5bn) in economic activity and 50,000 new jobs.”

The European Investment Bank (EIB) has approved a total of €6.5 billion (£5.8bn) of new financing for 36 projects across Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

Around €1.5 billion (£1.3bn) will be spent financing for Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, which is planned to cross Greece, Albania and the Adriatic Sea before coming ashore in Southern Italy to connect to the Italian natural gas network.

The project is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, an initiative identified as a strategically important component within the EU’s energy policy.

The EIB also approved a $2 billion (£1.45bn) initiative to address the limited issuance of green bonds in developing countries most vulnerable to a changing climate.

Financing will also go ahead for a new 17MW wind farm in Lower Austria, construction of a hydropower plant in Georgia and a number of medium-sized renewable energy projects across Africa.

New backing for energy distribution includes the roll-out of smart meters in Spain, improving the reliability of existing distribution networks in Italy and construction of a new waste-to-energy plant in the Scottish city of Dundee.

Transport across the continents will also be upgraded to reduce carbon emissions and increase the number of people travelling on public transport, rather than in more pollution-intensive private vehicles.

Bans on single-use plastics will slow growth in global oil demand.

That’s the forecast from BP’s latest Energy Outlook, which suggests the phasing out of plastic bottles, carrier bags and straws at both governmental and commercial levels is likely to significantly affect how the fuel source is used.

Oil accounts for nearly two-thirds of the growth in non-burned uses of energy such as plastics and chemical manufacture, with natural gas providing much of the remainder.

Despite this, the energy multinational says oil will continue to be popular until it peaks towards the end of the 2030s.

Renewables will be the fastest-growing source of energy up until 2040, with global clean capacity expected to swell by five times its current volume to meet around 14% of the world’s primary energy consumption.

The energy giant says fossil fuels are still likely to play a major role, with oil and gas expected to continue to account for more than half of supply worldwide.

This is mainly due to soaring demand from developing nations, which could expand by as much as a third.

Even though coal’s share of consumption is forecast to fall to 21% by 2040, BP says this slack will largely be taken up by natural gas and global carbon emissions are still expected to rise by a tenth over the next two decades.

The firm believes 320 million of the world’s two billion cars will be electric by 2040, making up around 15% of all cars globally.

Spanish utility giant Iberdrola plans to invest €32 billion (£28.3bn) in the energy sector between 2018 and 2022 to build solid foundations for sustainable growth in the future.

The firm is still confident in the UK’s heat and electricity industry and plans to spend nearly a fifth of the aforementioned funding on British shores.

In terms of the remainder, 38% will be spent in US Dollars, 25% in Euros and 18% in Brazilian Reais.

It forecasts net profit in 2022 of up to €3.7 billion (£3.3bn), says more than 90% of this amount will be allocated to regulated activities or long-term contracts.

Around €15.5 billion (£13.7bn) will be invested in expanding, smartening and strengthening grid networks, €11.5 billion (£10.1bn) will be spent on renewables and €2.8 billion (£2.5bn) will go to generation and retail.

The remaining €1.4 billion (£1.2bn) will be allocated to contracted generation.

As a result of these investments, the business expects renewable capacity to increase by 24% from now to 36.2GW.

It says its storage capacity will grow from 80GWh to 100GWh by 2022 and predicts its contracted generation capacity will grow to 10.6GW, more than 82% above current figures.

Ignacio Galan, Chairman of Iberdrola and ScottishPower, said: “Despite recent political and regulatory uncertainty, the UK remains a core investment destination for our company.

“We will focus on increasing our renewable energy capacity, enhanced grid networks and smart technology for customers.”

The amount of renewable electricity produced in 2017 could have powered the whole of Britain in 1958.

That’s according to new research from Imperial College London and power group Drax, which shows the 91TWh of electricity used by 52 million Brits six decades ago could have been powered by the 96TWh of renewable power produced last year.

A quarter of the power on the UK grid in 2017 came from biomass, hydro, wind and solar.

Wind generation played a significant role as it soared to 45% – higher wind speeds and the completion of several onshore and offshore facilities contributed to record-breaking output.

Carbon emissions from electricity consumption fell 12% last year, equivalent to taking a seventh of the UK’s cars off the road.

Lecturer Iain Staffell from Imperial College London said: “Generation from coal continues to fall and is now the preserve of colder months as opposed to being the mainstay of generation as it was in 1958.

“60 years ago, the power system emitted 93 million tonnes of carbon dioxide – in 2017 renewables managed to produce the same amount of electricity by emitting just three million tonnes.”

The IFC is to provide $200 million (£143.4m) in financing to help develop, build and operate a thermal power plant in Brazil’s Port of Sergipe.

The plant, which will be owned by Centrais Elétricas de Sergipe, is expected to increase access to reliable and affordable power, boosting the country’s long-term competitiveness and sustainable economic growth.

The project comprises a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal, a four-mile natural gas pipeline, a 1.5GW combined-cycle gas turbine power plant and an electricity transmission line.

The plant’s annual electricity generation will be equivalent to approximately one million individual residential consumers and it is expected to help cut about 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually by displacing oil and diesel-fired generation.

The post IFC provides $200m for Brazilian port’s power plant appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

National Grid has launched a new 48-hour energy forecasting tool to help consumers see when the carbon intensity of electricity generation in their region will be the lowest.

The software, which was developed in partnership with Environmental Defense Fund Europe and WWF, predicts over the next 24 hours, North East England and South Scotland will be providing the greenest electricity in the UK.

Its creators say the tool will help people better understand when their electricity will be greener by detailing the generation mix at different times of the day, meaning businesses and home owners can then decide when is best to make use of their distributed power sources.

The website includes a league table allowing users to find out where the greenest regions are across the country and to understand why that is.

Duncan Burt, Director of the System Operator at National Grid, said: “This tailored information can tell people in advance when’s best to turn on the washing machine, load the dishwasher or charge the car, helping everyone to use power when it’s cleanest and most likely more cost efficient.”

The launch of the software comes only weeks after National Grid revealed the country went more than three days without using any coal-fired electricity.

The post National Grid launches 48-hour green energy regional forecast appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

The UK’s wind generation has overtaken nuclear output throughout an entire quarter for the first time on record.

Using data from National Grid, researchers from Imperial College London found wind power was the second most productive form of power generation across the first three months of 2018.

The UK’s 8,886 onshore and offshore turbines produced 18.8% of the UK’s total energy mix over the period, followed by 18.7% from nuclear power plants.

Gas made up the largest proportion of the mix at 39.4%, with coal power continuing to fall, totalling 9.8% of generation in the quarter.

Solar power produced significantly less than wind at around 2%.

Wind generation peaked on the 17th of March as the nation’s turbines produced more than 14GW of power for the first time on record, supplying 47.3% of the entire country’s demand.

Analysts from the university said the data shows fears about whether wind can be relied upon during a cold, calm spell seem to be unfounded – wind farms operated at a minimum of 4.4GW during the recent cold snap.

All renewable technologies combined provided 26% of power over the quarter, reaching around half if nuclear is also taken into account.

Rob Gross, Director of the Centre for Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College London, said: “This milestone shows that renewables can play a significant role in the electricity mix of the UK and we have also seen that wind can make a substantial contribution when demand is high and there are problems with other power stations.

“We have shown what is possible. What is needed now is continued commitment from government to ensure that renewables remain viable for investors as subsidies are scaled back and removed.”

The post UK wind power tops nuclear over a whole quarter for first time appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Solar tariffs in several markets have hit record lows over the last two years, with deflation rates hitting 50% in regions such as Chile, Mexico, India and Saudi Arabia.

That’s according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), which suggests in 2017, the levelised cost of solar dropped 15% year-on-year to £64.2/MWh.

The statistics show a total of 98GW of solar was installed globally in 2017, an increase of 31% from the previous year – China provided a significant proportion of this, at 53GW.

The Asian nation claims it has set records for installing the largest operational solar project in the world, the 1,547MW project in Tengger, as well as the largest floating solar installation, reaching 150MW.

India, which announced it plans to increase renewable energy capacity to 275GW by 2027, also set a number of new solar milestones.

It has nearly completed the 2,225MW Bhadla solar industrial park and the State of Gujarat is planning a 5,000 MW project.

The country has already built what it claims is the world’s largest rooftop solar unit, totalling 19MW in Punjab.

The post Certain nations see solar tariffs drop by as much 50% in last two years appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

The government has signed a £200 million Nuclear Sector Deal to make the UK’s energy mix more diverse and affordable.

The deal aims to drive cleaner economic growth, promote new opportunities in the sector and develop the technology and skills needed to maintain the UK’s position as a nuclear energy leader.

The industry has vowed to reduce the cost of new nuclear build projects by 30% before 2030 and cut the cost of decommissioning old nuclear sites by 20% by this time.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said the deal includes a £32 million boost from government and businesses to kick-start a new advanced manufacturing programme, as well as £86 million for strengthening the national fusion technology platform at the UK Atomic Energy Authority’s Science Centre in Culham, Oxfordshire.

The government also committed to increasing the proportion of women working in the sector from 22% to 40% by 2030 and said it would help smaller companies access higher value contracts and new markets.

It will offer around £44 million for research and development funding to support the development of advanced modular reactors and launch a new review to look at ways to accelerate the clean-up of old nuclear sites.

Business and Energy Secretary Greg Clark said: “Nuclear energy not only fuels our power supply, it fuels local jobs, wages, economic prosperity and drives UK innovation.

“This Sector Deal marks an important moment for the government and industry to work collectively to deliver the modern Industrial Strategy, drive clean growth and ensure civil nuclear remains an important part of the UK’s energy future.”

The post UK signs £200m sector deal to boost nuclear industry appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Renewables’ share of UK electricity generation increased to a record quarterly high of 30.1% in the first part of this year.

That’s according to new statistics from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which show this was 4% higher than recorded in the first quarter of last year, mostly due to increased capacity and higher wind speeds.

Renewable electricity capacity was a record 41.9GW in the first quarter of 2018, an increase of 11.2% on the same period a year earlier.

Total energy production was 1% lower than in the first quarter of 2017, despite increased oil output and record high output from wind, solar and hydro.

Of the electricity generated in the first quarter of 2018, coal accounted for 9.4%, whilst gas accounted for 39.9% and nuclear generation accounted for 17.9%.

The post UK’s renewable generation hit quarterly record of 30.1% at start of 2018 appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Around 95% of young people don’t believe enough is being done by adults to tackle the damaging effects of climate change.

That’s according to a new survey conducted by the Energy Institute, which polled 1,300 young people between the ages of seven and 19 years old about their energy and climate change concerns.

As many as 70% said they think about climate change a lot and take actions to mitigate it in their daily life.

Of those surveyed, 80% would like renewables to be the largest component in the future electricity mix and 70% would like to have an electric car when they’re old enough to drive.

Despite this, only 38% want to have a job in the future in which they can make a difference in energy or climate science.

Energy Institute CEO Louise Kingham said: “These findings reveal a switched-on generation ready and willing to take responsibility for humankind’s impact on the planet.

“Not only do the majority already take action on climate change in their daily lives and favour low carbon solutions on the electricity grid and on the roads but more than a third of them express an interest in a career in energy and climate change.”

The post Young people ‘don’t think adults are doing enough on climate change’ appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

The UK’s recent hot weather and blue skies have seen energy generated from solar panels briefly become the UK’s top source of electricity.

That’s according to National Grid, which shows although new solar installations have significantly slowed as a result of subsidy cuts over the past year, a run of clear, sunny days has resulted in a series of successes for the sector.

For around an hour on Saturday, solar was the UK’s main source of electricity, producing a share of more than 27%.

The record for weekly solar generation was broken between the 21st and the 28th of June, when it produced 533GWh of power – during this period, solar generated more than 75GWh on five of the seven days.

Duncan Burt, Director of System Operations at National Grid, said: “During the past 12 months alone, we have seen renewable generation records broken and we expect this trend to continue, as technology advances and we find new ways to accommodate and manage more wind and solar power on our network.”

The post Sunny skies see solar surge across UK appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Industrialising innovative wind turbine foundation technology could help cut installation costs by 40%.

That’s according to a wind industry partnership seeking to demonstrate how the installation costs of offshore wind foundations could be slashed by making ‘suction-bucket technology’ more widespread.

The consortium, which includes Siemens Gamesa, Universal Foundation and Aalborg University, has been awarded €3.8 million (£3.35m) via the Danish Ministry of Energy, Utilities and Climate.

The technology involves upturned buckets sitting on the seabed able to provide a foundation for offshore infrastructure – they are quicker, easier and cheaper to install than deep monopiles, as well as easier to remove during decommissioning.

The consortium has already helped design a next-generation suction-bucket concept with an 8-by-8-metre prototype having been fabricated.

The prototype will now be used for the offshore trial installation campaign.

Søren Andreas Nielsen, Head of Research and Development at the Universal Foundation, said: “We all share the view that suction technology provides some obvious installation advantages, both in terms of environmental impact and costs.

“Cost of fabrication and supply security continue as one of the challenges to overcome for suction-buckets.”

The post Industrialising wind turbine tech ‘could cut installation costs by 40%’ appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

The UK has gone a thousand hours without needing coal generation so far this year.

That’s according to new figures released by MyGridGB, which show the country hit the milestone early this morning.

The data shows the amount of coal-free time in 2018 has already eclipsed the figures from 2017 and 2016, in which there were only 624 and 210 coal-free hours respectively.

In 2012, coal supplied around 40% of the country’s electricity – this year it has provided less than 6%, illustrating the rapid decline of the polluting fuel source.

A spokesperson at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The UK leads the world in tackling climate change and this shows the time of unabated coal fired electricity is being ended by a cleaner, greener future increasingly powered by renewable energy.”

The UK went without coal for three days in a row for the first time earlier this year.

The post UK hits milestone of 1,000 coal-free hours appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has launched a consultation to seek views on the future of support for small-scale, low carbon electricity generation.

The call for evidence seeks to identify the challenges and opportunities presented by small-scale low carbon energy projects in contributing to government’s objectives for clean, affordable, secure and flexible power.

It also seeks information on the role for government and the private sector in overcoming these challenges and making the most of these opportunities.

The evidence gathered from this call for evidence will allow government to decide how to proceed after the closure of the Feed-In Tariff scheme in April 2019.

This call for evidence is aimed at individuals and groups with “any interest in the small scale, low carbon industry”.

This consultation closes at 11:45pm on the 30th of August 2018.

The post Government launches consultation on small-scale, low carbon power generation appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Electricity users in Massachusetts will save as much as $1.4 billion (£1.08bn) over the next 20 years from the first commercial-scale offshore wind farm in the US.

That’s according to a letter released by the state’s Department of Energy Resources, which expects the 800MW Vineyard Wind project to deliver power at a price that lowers monthly energy bills by between 0.1% and 1.5%.

Joint developers Avangrid Inc and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners expect to provide power and renewable energy credits for 6.5 cents (5p) per kilowatt-hour.

The state department says this levelised price over the term of the contracts makes the project about 18% cheaper than other alternatives.

Construction is expected to begin in 2019, with the project entering operation by 2021.

It is forecast to reduce the state’s carbon emissions by more than 1.6 million tonnes per year, the equivalent of removing 325,000 cars from the road.

Lars Thaaning Pedersen, CEO of Vineyard Wind, said: “Federal tax credits and a long-term power purchase agreement were part of the equation that helped the wind project offer an attractive price to the benefit of consumers.

“The general consensus was that it would take a while for new markets to reach levels we’ve seen in Europe and the US seems to be doing this pretty fast.”

The post Giant wind farm to save US energy users $1.4bn in next 20 years appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Coal consumption in the US in 2017 reached its lowest levels in 25 years.

That’s according to new statistics from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), which show the 661 million tonnes of coal used to generate electricity in 2017 was the lowest yearly volume of coal consumed since 1983.

This was 36% or 376 million tonnes lower than in 2008, when US coal production peaked.

The share of shipments made by truck has gone from 12% in 2008 to 9% in 2017, coinciding with declines in Appalachian production.

Many of these facilities, which were a relatively short distance from the mines. have closed or reduced their consumption of coal, so it now has to be transported longer distances.

Nearly 70% of the coal consumed in the power sector last year was shipped at least in part by rail, with the remainder shipped by river barge, truck and other methods – this is largely because it has to be transported longer distances due to changes in where it is produced.

The UK has gone a thousand hours without needing coal generation so far this year.

The post US coal consumption hits 25-year lows appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

A new online tool has been launched to help the UK reverse the trend of declining renewable installations in commercial real estate.

Property technology firm arbnco claims the reason installations of distributed clean energy sources have slowed since the start of the year is due to owners’ inability to evaluate the feasibility of all renewable options available to a specific building.

The cumulative generation capacity installed at non-domestic properties has grown by just 10% in the last year, down from nearly 60% the year before.

The firm warns this could prevent the UK from reaching its carbon reduction targets – it says its new service will assess what technology would suit a site, based on location, construction, size and energy consumption.

It will look at the options of ground-mounted solar, roof-mounted solar, wind, biomass heating, battery storage and combined heat and power generation from biomass and gas.

Dr Parag Rastogi, Lead Building Physicist at arbnco, said: “arbn renew rapidly analyses the feasibility and business case for seven renewable technologies tailored to the specific building, equipping commercial real estate owners and managers with the information needed to make a decision on what combination of renewable technologies would be most beneficial.”

The post Online tool launched to boost renewables in commercial real estate appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.

Renewable energy generated 88% of Brazil’s entire demand in June.

Clean power sources such as wind, biomass, solar and hydro accounted for 81.9% of Brazil’s installed capacity of energy generation at the time, according to a new report from the country’s Ministry of Mines and Energy.

The nation’s total electrical generation capacity reached 160GW in June, if distributed generation is also taken into account.

Hydropower is still the country’s main source of energy, creating 63.7% of the month’s electricity, followed by 561 biomass plants creating power from organic fuels such as sugarcane, rice husk and wood waste.

Wind farms account for 8.1% of the energy produced in June, with solar facilities contributing around 1%.

The post Renewables powered 88% of Brazil in June appeared first on Energy Live News - Energy Made Easy.