Wind
GM Buys Michigan Wind Power
General Motors will buy wind power to green its facilities in Michigan, joining rival Ford in bringing renewables to the US auto industry. GM will source 300GWh of wind from Michigan utility DTE, under the latter’s MIGreenPower scheme designed to give corporations a mechanism to procure renewable power to set against their own consumption. Read […]
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is Poised to Transform the Clean Energy Industry
Even as the Trump administration has introduced policies to undermine U.S. renewables, China is making a long term pivot that will transform its expansive energy infrastructure. The largest infrastructure project in history, BRI includes a vast economic “belt” made up of six overland corridors and a new “Maritime Silk Road” linking a chain of seaports […]
U.S. East Coast is Going All In on Offshore Wind Power
Three northeastern US states signed up for a cumulative 1,200 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind power, and hinted at even more ambitious goals in the future. Read the entire article at Quartz. On May 23, Massachusetts’s awarded its first offshore-wind contract to Vineyard Wind for a 800 MW, 100-turbine farm to be built further […]
Hawaii Aims for 100% Renewable Energy, Other States Watching
How to incorporate solar and wind while keeping the electricity grid stable is a key question. Read the entire article at Scientific American. When it comes to generating renewable electricity, Hawaii is leading other states in almost every category. It gets 33 percent of its electricity from rooftop solar and has 60 utility-scale renewable energy […]
From Oil to Solar: Saudi Arabia Plots a Shift to Renewables
Life in Saudi Arabia has long been defined by the oil that flows from the kingdom. Over decades, the vast wealth it pumped out paid not just for gleaming towers and shopping malls but also for a government sector that employs a majority of working Saudis. Now, Saudi Arabia is trying to tie its future to […]
Wind Power Blows Past Coal in Texas
Wind power surpassed coal last month to become the second-largest electricity source in Texas, yet another milestone in the state’s march toward greater reliance on renewable energy. Read the entire article at the Houston Chronicle. When a 155-megawatt wind farm in West Texas began commercial operation this month, it helped push the state’s […]
Germany Breaks Record: 85% of Energy Comes From Renewables
Read the entire article at EcoWatch. Germany’s “Energiewende” (the country’s low-carbon energy revolution) turned another successful corner last weekend when renewable energy sources nearly stamped out coal and nuclear. Thanks to a particularly breezy and sunny Sunday, renewables such as wind and solar, along with some biomass and hydropower, peaked at a record 85 percent, or […]
Big Oil Replacing Offshore Rigs with Wind Turbines
Big oil is starting to challenge the biggest utilities in the race to erect wind turbines at sea. Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Statoil ASA and Eni SpA are moving into multi-billion-dollar offshore wind farms in the North Sea and beyond. They’re starting to score victories against leading power suppliers including Dong Energy A/S and Vattenfall AB in competitive […]
Six Countries Lead the Way in the Renewable Energy Boom
Clean energy continues to overtake fossil fuels as the main source of new energy investments around the world. About 70 gigawatts of new solar generation and 59 gigawatts of new wind power came online in 2016. This amounts to $287 billion in new clean energy investments in 2016, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. We can see […]
The Whole System Cost of Renewables
Dramatic cost reductions mean wind and solar can now compete on price with conventional sources of energy in many parts of the world. This turns the spotlight onto the so-called “whole system costs” of integrating renewables into the electricity system, which include backing up intermittent generation and strengthening grids. In a report published this week, […]
