Renewables

Australia in July became the first nation to abolish a price on carbon, after the Senate passed the Abbott government’s repeal bills by a vote of 39–32. Yet the country’s carbon conundrum continues because Prime Minister Tony Abbott must still get his Direct Action Plan, a proposed replacement for the country’s emissions trading scheme, to […]

EU Doles Out €1 Billion in Funding for Renewable Projects Under NER 300. The European Commission on July 10 awarded €1 billion ($1.34 billion) to 19 renewable energy projects and a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project under its NER 300 program. The projects will cumulatively raise European Union (EU) renewable energy production by about […]

Despite stagnant economic growth globally, primary energy consumption surged in 2013, with growth for nuclear power and renewables in power generation expanding at above-average rates, BP said in its recently released Statistical Review of World Energy 2014. According to the report, world power generation grew 2.5% in 2013, slightly up over 2012 (which saw 2.2% […]

Geothermal generation is clean, renewable, and cost-effective over the long term, and the U.S. has vast untapped geothermal resources. So why is it still operating on the sidelines?   For the U.S. geothermal energy industry, 2013 ended on a positive note. Cyrq Energy’s Dale Burgett geothermal plant, a 4-MW unit in southwest New Mexico, began […]

The El Arrayán Wind facility—located about 250 miles north of Santiago on the Chilean coast—was officially opened on Aug. 26 during a ceremony that included Chile’s president, Michelle Bachelet. “El Arrayán is the biggest wind farm in Chile and we are pleased at what we can achieve when we use the natural resources the earth […]

Geographically and politically, Texas and Germany are on opposite sides of the world, but both believe strongly in competitive energy markets, and both have largely deregulated their power industries. Now both are reconsidering their market designs. Its easy to think that Germany and Texas could not be more different. One is northern, cold, and Old […]

A significant reform of Germany’s aggressive renewable energy laws passed its final hurdle on July 11, setting the country on a more market-based path toward future growth. The bill was developed and approved by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government of Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. Because they are the two largest parties, the legislation was […]

The 2014 POWER Plant of the Year makes history, both as a project and as our cover story. The Plant of the Year award goes to the most interesting, usually new, plant in the previous year. Sometimes it’s a

Zeng Ming, Duan Jinhui, Wang Liang, Gu Shanshan In 2013, urbanization in China reached 53.73%. Urbanization has become an important field for national reform. On the one hand, urbanization is effective for

California has set an ambitious target of connecting 1.3 GW of energy storage to the grid by 2020. In October 2013, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) mandated that 200 MW of this goal come in