Wind

Driven by the booming growth of generation from hydro, wind, and solar photovoltaics (PV), generation from renewables on a terawatt-hour basis is set to surpass that from natural gas and double nuclear’s share by 2016, becoming the world’s second-most important global electricity source after coal, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Cape Wind, North America’s first offshore wind farm, got $200 million in conditional funding from a Danish pension fund on Tuesday to help it reach financial closure this year.

Several power companies, state commissions, and trade groups have filed briefs with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit challenging parts of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) Order 1000, a rule they argue will lead to high costs for consumers and diminish the authority of state and regional regulators. Meanwhile last week, the White House issued a memo directing federal agencies to improve siting and permitting process to help modernize the nation’s grid.

One of the first concrete-composite floating platform wind turbines in the U.S. was last week deployed off the coast of Castine, Maine. The project’s launch, led by the University of Maine (UMaine), is a milestone for a nation whose 4,000 GW of offshore wind energy potential lies in deep water—but has no grid-connected commercial offshore wind farms yet.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) will on July 31 put up for auction 164,750 acres offshore Rhode Island and Massachusetts for commercial wind energy leasing. The auction will be the first ever competitive lease sale for renewable energy on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) and it marks "the true beginning of an offshore wind market" in the U.S., experts said.

Investments into Australia’s power sector enable the industry to meet the collective goal of becoming a cleaner, greener nation. Download the report.

Five companies have filed letters of intent with North Dakota’s Public Service Commission (PSC) outlining proposals to start construction this year on wind farms that would add almost 686 MW of wind power capacity.

Domestic content requirements that require some generators to source up to 60% of equipment from the Canadian province of Ontario under its feed-in-tariff (FIT) program are inconsistent with international trade rules, officials from the World Trade Organization’s (WTO’s) highest court said on Monday.

Panelists at a House hearing today refuted varied claims concerning if and how increased natural gas and renewables generation pose widespread challenges to the reliability of the electric grid. Some pointed to ineffective rules in the restructured wholesale power market and the failure of conventional power plants as being more of a threat to grid reliability.