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Posts from the ‘Electricity’ Category

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 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 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

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.”

Mar 19

Austin Energy’s Value of Solar Tariff: Could It Work Anywhere Else?

Last fall, Austin Energy become the first utility in the U.S. to offer a “Value of Solar Tariff” (VOST) to its residential electricity customers.

The VOST rate is presented as an alternative to net metering, the bill credit mechanism that has driven most customer adoption of solar in the U.S. today. Some utilities elsewhere in the country are looking to ditch net metering and jump on the VOST bandwagon. But will that be a good tradeoff for current and future solar customers?

Let’s take a look at Austin Energy’s VOST and see how it might work in places that’s aren’t as, well, “weird.”

Here’s how the Austin VOST works: When a residential customer, let’s call her Sally, goes solar in Austin Energy’s service area, she is automatically signed up for the VOST.  Sally continues to pay a monthly energy bill based on how many kilowatt-hours of electricity she and her family consume.  However, now that she has a solar energy system, she is also given a credit for each and every kilowatt-hour her system generates. That credit is subtracted off Sally’s total monthly electricity bill. According to Austin Energy, the VOST rate is set up to more fairly reward solar system operators for the energy they produce. A VOST may soon be developed for commercial customers as well.

via Austin Energy’s Value of Solar Tariff: Could It Work Anywhere Else? : Greentech Media.

Feb 11

Wind industry installs almost 5,300 MW of capacity in December

Approximately 40% of the total 2012 wind capacity additions (12,620 MW) came online in December, just before the scheduled expiration of the wind production tax credit (PTC). During December 2012, 59 new wind projects totaling 5,253 MW began commercial operation, the largest-ever single-month capacity increase for U.S. wind energy. About 50% of the total December wind capacity additions were installed in three states: Texas (1,120MW), Oklahoma (794 MW), and California (730 MW).

Wind plant developers reported throughout 2012 increasing amounts of new capacity scheduled to enter commercial operation before the end of the year. To qualify for the PTC last year, wind projects had to begin commercial operation by December 31.

On New Year’s Day, Congress enacted a one-year extension of the PTC and also relaxed the rules. Under this extension, projects that begin construction before the end of 2013 are eligible to receive a 2.2 ¢/kWh PTC for generation over a 10-year period.

via Wind industry installs almost 5,300 MW of capacity in December – Today in Energy – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Feb 10

A New Path on Emissions

In his second inaugural address, President Obama promised to take on climate change as a priority in his second term. “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,” he said at the start of one of the longest passages devoted to a single subject in the speech.

But the president did not detail exactly how he intended to act, given the hostility in Congress and industry to taxes on carbon dioxide emissions or any broad-gauged legislative effort to address the problem. Officials said that he would put some flesh on the bones of his promise in his State of the Union address next week and in his budget proposal.

Mr. Obama has a limited number of administrative options for cutting climate-altering gases and meeting his public pledge of reducing United States greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020.

On Wednesday, the World Resources Institute offered a helpful guide to how the administration might keep the president’s promise. The report, “Can the U.S. Get There from Here?” lays out a series of policy steps the administration can take without Congressional action or approval.

via A New Path on Emissions – NYTimes.com.

Feb 6

The most important chart in energy

There’s a chart you’ve never heard of that perfectly represents how inefficient the power grid is and how much we need more distributed energy solutions. Agencies responsible for the reliability of the grid, including the California System Independent System Operator CAISO, use what are called Load Duration Curves, or LDCs, to plan investments and monitor efficiency. The area under the LDC see image below represents the energy demanded by the system and the curve illustrates the relationship between energy use and generating capacity needs.

via The most important chart in energy — Tech News and Analysis.

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