Renewables

Continually falling costs and tightening emissions regulations are set to drive huge growth in global renewable energy capacity despite flagging support for subsidies in Europe and the U.S., says a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The BNEF report projects global spending on new power generation will be around $7.7 trillion through 2030, […]

Under rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on June 2, 2014, existing fossil fuel–fired U.S. power plants must comply with state-specific goals to lower carbon pollution from the power sector by 2030, while modified and reconstructed power plants will be subject to technology-based performance standards. The EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” rule affecting existing […]

RWE AG is Europe’s third-largest electricity and fifth-largest gas marketer, with holdings in upstream oil and gas production, power grids, and energy trading. Its German power subsidiary has been the utility poster child for the effects of the Energiewende, the transformation of the Germany power system away from nuclear and coal toward renewable energy and […]

At the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) annual meeting this week in Las Vegas, the tone was one of collaboration with partners from Washington to distributed generation companies. Those partnerships will be needed as the investor-owned utility (IOU) industry fights not so much a war on coal as a war for mindshare and wallet share in […]

With quickly approaching deadlines for achieving renewable portfolio standard goals, the likely lapse of a critical exemption this month may increase the challenges for meeting those mandates. Approximately four years ago the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took the first step in regulating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electric generating units (EGUs) by promulgating the […]

Economic and population booms forecast for several countries in the oil- and gas-rich Middle East are forcing a reassessment of those countries’ historic reliance on fossil fuels and a new focus on securing sustainable electricity and water supplies.  The Middle East is a region of extremes. While some countries enjoy opulent wealth, others are some […]

The world’s first floating wind turbine array could be installed offshore of northeast Scotland by 2017 if a project recently unveiled by Kincardine Offshore Windfarm Ltd. proceeds as planned. The joint project between Pilot Offshore Renewables and the construction giant Atkins entails the installation of eight turbines on semi-submersible platforms about 8 miles off the […]

Last year, the U.S. exported nearly twice the amount of wood pellets it sent overseas in 2012—and almost all of it went to Europe for heat and power needs. This trend has gained momentum since 2009, when the European Commission (EC) enacted its 2020 climate and energy package, and will possibly continue in the long […]

Most issues concerning resource adequacy have arisen in the context of restructured wholesale and retail electric markets, rather than from traditionally regulated electric markets, a new study from the Electric Markets Research Foundation (EMRF) suggests.  The nonprofit EMRF,  established in 2012 by “academics and other experts” to fund studies on electric market issues, notes in […]

NRG Energy’s shopping spree, which has seen it become the nation’s largest merchant generator through a string of acquisitions, continued this week as subsidiary NRG Yield announced on June 4 that it has agreed to acquire the mammoth Alta Wind facility in Tehachapi, Calif., from Terra-Gen Power LLC. The Alta Wind farm has an operating […]