Renewables

In one of its last actions for the year, Congress passed a bill extending a variety of tax breaks, including the Production Tax Credit (PTC) through the end of 2014. The PTC, along with many other tax breaks in the bill, had expired at the end of 2013. The extension will allow them to be […]

With the landslide re-election of Governor Jerry Brown, California looks certain to continue its suite of low-carbon policies, including the AB32 cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases, energy efficiency programs funded to the tune of a billion dollars a year, and its renewables portfolio standard (RPS) of 33% by 2020. In fact, Gov. Brown has suggested […]

Spurred by large utility-scale projects and healthy growth in residential installations, the U.S. added 1.3 GW of solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity in the third quarter of 2014, according to the latest US Solar Market Insight Report published by the Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research. The 1,354 MW of utility, commercial, and residential PV […]

NextEra Energy Inc. and Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. (HEI)—two companies with substantial renewable energy resources—agreed on Dec. 3 to combine in a transaction valued at roughly $4.3 billion. Currently, NextEra Energy’s principal subsidiaries include Florida Power & Light Co. (the third-largest electric utility in the U.S.), and NextEra Energy Resources (North America’s largest producer of […]

The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed carbon rules for existing power plants amassed more than 1.6 million remarks before the public comment period ended on Monday. Here’s a snapshot of what states, regulators, industry groups, and environmental alliances told the agency about its Clean Power Plan.  States Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, […]

E.ON—a major investor-owned energy supplier that manages facilities across Europe, Russia, North America, Brazil, and Turkey—announced this week that it will embark on a new corporate strategy focused on renewables, distribution networks, and customer solutions, while combining its power generation, global energy trading, and exploration and production businesses into a new, independent company. “We are […]

The western Arizona desert has become a popular location for constructing large solar projects. The sunshine is plentiful and there are large tracts of non-prime farmland available that make building

Like many small countries, Albania is dependent on a specific generation type for the majority of its electricity. In the case of this mountainous nation of 3 million people, it’s hydropower. Roughly 98% of

We’ve all heard the phrase “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Hometown BioEnergy (HTBE) offers a case in point. The plant uses vegetable-processing waste and livestock manure in an

In 2001, the year that the world’s largest offshore wind farm was conceived, the outlook for offshore wind was foggy. A paltry 95 MW of capacity had been installed worldwide—mostly in Denmark—and a

The Solana Generating Station ( solana in Spanish means “sunny spot”) is built on a 1,920-acre site near Gila Bend, about an hour’s drive west of Phoenix. According to Abengoa, which owns the facility

Over the past few years, wind generation projects have become prominent features of the North American landscape and of the utility infrastructure. In spite of their variable production load onto the grid

China on Wednesday issued a key energy strategy that sets obligatory 2020 targets for renewables and nuclear power use and urges increased natural gas consumption—but which also caps coal consumption.  The State Council’s Energy Development Strategy Action Plan covers the period between 2014 and 2020. It caps annual energy primary consumption at 4.8 billion metric […]

State renewable energy standards (RPSs) may be threatened by the expiration of federal tax credits, according to research from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBL). Lab scientist Galen Barbose, speaking at the annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC) in San Francisco, presented the results of a joint study between LBL and […]

Power system demands are changing to put a premium on flexible grid operations, and gas-fired power is the best choice for increasing flexibility. Such was the sense of a panel presentation to utility regulators at the 126th annual meeting of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) in San Francisco this week. “The electric […]

The U.S. Census Bureau released data on Nov. 18 showing that revenues for electric power generation industries that use renewable energy resources grew 49% from 2007 to 2012, while fossil fuel electric power generation industry revenues decreased 6.7% during the same time period. Fossil fuel revenues continued to dwarf renewable totals, bringing in $79.7 billion […]

Events over the past year—turmoil in the oil-rich Middle East and the Russian-Ukraine gas crisis—along with uncertainty for nuclear power and pervading energy poverty worldwide show that the energy system is “under stress,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) says in its freshly released World Energy Outlook 2014 (WEO-2014). Despite technology and efficiency improvements, without actions […]

Reaching an unexpected climate breakthrough, the U.S. and China in a joint statement on Wednesday each announced new targets to slash carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.  President Barack Obama set a new target to cut U.S. carbon emissions between 26% and 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. Chinese leader Xi Jinping, meanwhile, said his country […]

On Nov. 5, The Babcock & Wilcox Co. (B&W) announced that its board of directors has unanimously approved a plan for the tax-free spin-off of the company’s power generation business to B&W’s shareholders, in the process forming two independently traded companies. In its third-quarter earnings call the following day, company executives emphasized that the two […]

A federal court in Michigan on Oct. 31 dismissed the $950 million antitrust suit filed against three Chinese solar photovoltaic (PV) panel manufacturers by bankrupt firm Energy Conversion Devices (ECD). ECD, which at one time was the world’s largest manufacturer of thin-film solar panels, was forced into Chapter 7 liquidation in 2012 after Chinese firms […]

The decision to eliminate coal-fired power plants and the implementation of an aggressive feed-in tariff program puts Ontario’s electricity system in the spotlight. Download a pdf of this sponsored report, written by Global Business Reports: GBR_ONTARIO_PWR_1114_sm

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) serves as the gatekeeper to wholesale power markets in interstate commerce. The process to obtain and retain authority to sell into these markets at market-based rates (MBR) can be onerous. Any failure to fully comply with FERC’s regulations could result in participation restrictions and civil penalties of up to […]

This August, in a bid to bolster its latent geothermal energy industry, Indonesia passed new laws that allow geothermal exploration in protected areas such as forests. Located in the Ring of Fire—a string of volcanoes and fault lines around the Pacific Basin—the archipelago has estimated potential geothermal resources of up to 29 GW. State power […]

India’s Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) in September issued a proposal to vastly increase the county’s reliance on solar photovoltaic (PV) generation, taking installed capacity from its current 2.6 GW to more than 20 GW over the next five years. Following on the nation’s ambitious-but-troubled ultra-mega coal plant build-out—only one has come online, […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a notice of data availability (NODA)—making additional information and ideas available for public comment—and it has also proposed carbon goals for areas in Indian Country and U.S. territories. Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, explained the two actions related to […]

Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, Oct. 23–24, the European Council (EC) agreed on the 2030 climate and energy policy framework for the European Union (EU), calling on all countries to come forward with ambitious targets and policies. The EC endorsed a binding EU target of at least a 40% reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions by […]

Before the polar vortex earlier this year, several severe cold weather events had presented comparable power generation operational challenges. POWER ranks those events here in terms of loss of generation capacity. Common themes observed in both severe and lesser cold weather incidents involve constraints on natural gas fuel supplies to generating plants, and generating unit […]

Unbundled Renewable Energy Credits and the Benefits of Standardization Unbundled renewable energy credits and certificates (RECs) separate the renewable, or green, component of energy from the actual

Kelly Speakes-Backman Every day there is increasing evidence that we need to accelerate our nation’s transition to a cleaner energy infrastructure. The American Climate Prospectus released by the Risky