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May 7

A Clean Energy REIT: Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure

On April 18th, Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure Capital (NYSE:HASI) IPOed on the New York Stock Exchange.  HASI is one of only two publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) dedicated to sustainable infrastructure.   The other such sustainable REIT is Power REIT (NYSE:PW), which I have written about extensively.  PW is both illiquid and involved in significant litigation, two factors which may put off the conservative investors who gravitate towards REITs.

In December, Power REIT purchased the land under the 5.7MW True North Solar Farm in Salisbury, MA. Photo Source: Power REIT

HASI, on the other hand, has market capitalization approximately ten times larger than PW, and traded over five million shares on its first day. That is about as many shares as PW trades in nine months.  HASI’s liquidity will fall as its shares enter the hands of long term investors, but the company will remain far more liquid than PW.

via A Clean Energy REIT: Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure – Forbes.

May 5

A Clean Energy Paradise In The Pacific

When people think Hawaiian paradise, usually beaches, sun and trade winds come to mind. The price of energy? Not so much.

The state actually has the highest electric rates in the nation, approximately 2 to 3 times higher than the average price on the mainland. Given these high rates and the relatively mild climate, it makes sense that Hawaii’s customers are among the lowest monthly consumers of electricity at 585 kWh per month. However, despite low energy use, Hawaii’s customers still have the highest electric bills in the nation, at a whopping $203 per month on average. That’s 20 percent higher than the next highest state’s average bill!

It’s appropriate, then, that the Aloha State is on the forefront of policy measures intended to lower energy bills by looking to energy efficiency and renewable energy. Hawaii’s sunny days, coupled with its extraordinarily high cost of electricity, make going solar a relatively attractive option. And, not to mention, a much cleaner option given that the state relies on petroleum to generate over 75 percent of its electricity. In fact, Hawaii ranks third in the nation for total installed solar electric capacity per capita. However, the upfront cost of installation remains a significant barrier to widespread adoption of clean energy technologies. Access to financing is limited to those with stellar credit, and there is little incentive for renters to pay for energy upgrades to properties they don’t own. In Hawaii, solutions that work for renters are especially important since over 40 percent of the state’s residents rent.

via A Clean Energy Paradise In The Pacific.

May 1

Is the Typical NDIC Bakken Tight Oil Well a Sales Pitch?

In this post I present the results from dynamic simulations using the typical tight oil well for the Bakken as recently presented by the North Dakota Industrial Commission (NDIC), together with the “2011 average” well as defined from actual production data from around 240 wells that were reported to have started producing from June through December 2011.

This post is an update and extension to my earlier post “Is Shale Oil Production from Bakken Headed for a Run with “The Red Queen”?” which was reposted here.

The use of the phrase “Typical Bakken Well” by NDIC as shown in Figure 01 is here believed to depict what is to be expected from the average tight oil well.

The results from the dynamic simulations show:

If the “Typical Bakken Well” is what NDIC recently has presented, total production from Bakken (the portion that lies in North Dakota) should have been around 1.1 Mb/d in February 2013, refer also to Figure 03.

Reported production from Bakken by NDIC as of February 2013 was 0.7 Mb/d.

Actual production data shows that the first year’s production for the average well in Bakken (North Dakota) presently is around 55% of the “Typical Bakken Well” presented by NDIC.

The results from the simulations anticipate a slowdown for the annual growth in oil production from Bakken (ND) through 2013 and 2014.

via The Oil Drum | Is the Typical NDIC Bakken Tight Oil Well a Sales Pitch?.

May 1

Verizon’s $100M Fuel Cell and Solar Power Play : Greentech Media

Verizon has just pledged $100 million to the premise that solar power and fuel cells can pay for themselves over time. On Tuesday, the telecommunications giant said it would invest $100 million in a combination of solar PV projects from Total’s SunPower, and natural gas-fueled fuel cells from ClearEdge’s UTC, at nineteen sites in seven states.

The deployment puts Verizon in the company of corporate giants such as Apple, Google, Microsoft, AT&T and others that are adding renewable power and on-site generation assets to their mix of energy resources. In Verizon’s case, the investment is also a test bed for proving that clean energy investments make business sense across a range of environments, from corporate offices to data centers and network switching hubs

via Verizon’s $100M Fuel Cell and Solar Power Play : Greentech Media.

Apr 30

Fuel Cells 2013: Bloom Energy’s Reality Distortion Field : Greentech Media

First, here’s an updated list of the top three profitable, publicly held fuel cell firms:

1.

2.

3.

How do you assess the health of an industry? Is it whether it’s growing? Profitable? Innovating? Winning market share from competing technologies?

And where does that leave the fuel cell industry?

If you look at the financials of the publicly traded fuel cell firms, the story is stark. This is a lackluster, loss-filled business. It’s been like that for decades.

via Fuel Cells 2013: Bloom Energy’s Reality Distortion Field : Greentech Media.

Apr 22

International Energy Agency Shows Coal Power Is Growing Faster than Solar or Wind

Despite remarkable growth, solar and wind power aren’t making a dent in carbon emissions, says a new report from the International Energy Agency. Coal consumption is growing too fast to offset any gains from renewables.

According to the report, solar power capacity increased by 42 percent, and wind increased 19 percent during 2012. In comparison, coal only grew by 6 percent over the last two years. But because the total installed capacity of coal power was already huge, the amount of coal capacity added was much larger than that of solar and wind power. Even the increase in natural gas consumption hasn’t decreased the use of coal worldwide (see “Coal Demand Falls in the U.S., Rises Everywhere Else”).

via International Energy Agency Shows Coal Power Is Growing Faster than Solar or Wind | MIT Technology Review.

Apr 17

Hydrogenics Secures Utility-Scale Energy Storage Project

Hydrogenics, an Ontario-based fuel cell equipment manufacturer, inked a deal with E.ON, Germany‘s largest investor-owned electric utility, to install a 1 megawatt “power-to-gas” energy storage system in Hamburg, Germany.

The energy storage system will produce hydrogen using excess power generated from renewable energy, primarily wind power. The Hydrogenics‘ system will include the world’s largest proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer stack. Currently, the fuel cell installation at the SolVin plant in Antwerp, Belgium boasts the world’s largest PEM stack.

via Hydrogenics Secures Utility-Scale Energy Storage Project – Forbes.

Apr 14

An update from the ethanol/RINs battleground: hitting physical markets

A few updates from the intersection of RINs and ethanol. It’s starting to look like there have been physical market reactions to the rising price of RINs.

First of all, the price of RINs, after being enormously volatile a few weeks ago, has quieted down. The price of 2013 corn ethanol RINs has stabilized near 75-80 cents per RIN, though it moved up to almost 90 cents on Tuesday before an EIA report showing rising ethanol output — which if the RIN is ultimately separated from the ethanol by the latter being blended — was at a nine-month high. This is far less than the peak levels of more than a dollar of a few weeks ago, but obviously a lot more than the price of 2012 RINs at the start of the year (before 2013 started trading) of just a few cents. The expectation is that until the EPA finalizes its proposed Renewable Fuel Standard mandate for 2013, the market will mostly bide its time.

via An update from the ethanol/RINs battleground: hitting physical markets « The Barrel Blog.

Apr 14

EU on Track to Meet 2020 Solar, Wind, Renewables Targets, But…

EU on Track to Meet 2020 Solar, Wind, Renewables Targets, But…

The newest European Union (EU) statistics from Eurostat show its member nations are on track to meet their renewables targets but will need a new policy boost to keep up the pace.

Watching the EU’s cumulative progress toward its “triple twenty by 2020” targets is important because its leaders, especially Germany and Spain, set the benchmark for policy support of renewables internationally.

The EU’s “triple twenty by 2020” standard is aimed at getting 20 percent of their power from renewables, improving efficiency 20 percent, and cutting greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent.

The EU renewables mix is composed of onshore and offshore wind, photovoltaic solar, concentrating solar and solar hot water, hydro, wave, and tidal power, geothermal, and biomass used to generate electricity or produce biofuels.

The March 27 Report from the Commission to the European Parliament said policies to date have “resulted in strong growth.” Renewables accounted for 12.7 percent of the EU’s energy in 2010 and “the majority of Member States already reached their respective 2011/2012 interim target.”

One exception: The report found efforts to meet the EU’s requirement that each state’s transportation sector be 10 percent biofuel-powered by 2020 to be “too slow.” It added, however, that “further specific policy intervention” to drive that transition is not needed.

But because the policies that have driven progress to date require a ramping growth trajectory, it said, “current policies alone will be insufficient to trigger the required renewable energy deployment.”

The report recommended policy advances in three areas:

Falling short of the 2020 renewables targets will have “major consequences,” the report said, because

  • Renewables are the foundation on which emissions reductions and efficiency advances will be built
  • Only with renewables can the EU transition from fossil fuel dependence to energy supply security and sustainability
  • Falling short of binding targets could trigger European Commission infringement procedures against individual states
  • Impeding renewables deployment would slow innovation and scaling and prevent EU technologies from achieving the competitive pricing necessary to win a place in the international market.

Apr 14

Report: Solar takes 100% share of new US grid-connected electricity in March – PV-Tech

Report: Solar takes 100% share of new US grid-connected electricity in March – PV-Tech

Solar energy has achieved a milestone after it emerged that for the first time, solar accounted for all new utility electricity capacity added to the grid in the US in March.

The landmark was revealed the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s March Energy Infrastructure Update — which focuses exclusively on larger facilities and does not include energy generated by net-metered installations.

It found that 44MW of PV capacity was installed last month following the start-up of seven new projects located in California, Nevada, New Jersey, Hawaii, Arizona, and North Carolina.

The report also reveals that solar had a strong presence in the first quarter of this year with 537MW of PV added to the grid in the US during the three-month period.

“This speaks to the extraordinary strides we have made in the past several years to bring down costs and ramp up deployment,” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). “Since 2008, the amount of solar powering US homes, businesses and military bases has grown by more than 600 percent—from 1,100MW to more than 7,700MW today. As FERC’s report suggests, and many analysts predict, solar will grow to be our nation’s largest new source of energy over the next four years.”

FERC’s report also shows that solar represents one of the fastest growing energy sources in the US, driven partly by the falling cost of solar power systems. Indeed, SEIA reveals that the cost has dropped by nearly 40% over the past two years making solar much more affordable.

“In 2012, the U.S. brought more new solar capacity online than in the three prior years combined,” Resch added. “These new numbers from FERC support our forecast that solar will continue a pattern of growth in 2013, adding 5.2 GW of solar electric capacity. This sustained growth is enabling the solar industry to create thousands of good jobs and to provide clean, affordable energy for more families, businesses, utilities, and the military than ever before.”

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