Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Alternative Clean Energy Roundup: 24 September 2014

L.A., Houston, Philadelphia mayors vow more action on climate change
22 September 2014 - Mayors of three of the nation’s largest cities are pledging to take more action against climate change by implementing new projects to curb greenhouse gas emissions and persuading other leaders to do the same.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Houston Mayor Annise Parker and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter will announce the new initiative Monday in New York in advance of a United Nations climate summit being held this week.

Under the plan, the mayors will commit to set or renew aggressive targets for their cities’ greenhouse gas reductions, develop new standards to track and report pollution sources at least once a year, and draft or update climate action plans with specific strategies to control global warming and adapt to its effects. read more>>>

Advanced buoys offer real-world offshore wind data
September 16, 2014 - Offshore wind is a new frontier in U.S. renewable energy and, despite its tremendous potential to product power, limited information has been available -- until now.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy has purchased two 20,000-pound buoys complete with the latest in meteorological and oceanographic equipment to enable more accurate predictions of the power-producing potential of winds that blow off U.S. shores, according to Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) who is operating and managing the buoys. The buoys are expected to improve offshore turbine performance in the near term and reduce barriers to private investment in large-scale offshore wind energy development in the long term. read more>>>

Nationally Renowned Green Builders Collaborate with University of Missouri Energy Efficiency Research Consortium to Build High Performance Home
September 15, 2014 - Following the success of the first Proud Green Home located near Atlanta, Georgia, a new high performance home, The Proud Green Home of St. Louis, is under construction to deliver sustainable benefits to its owners and to educate and inspire building professionals and consumers about the benefits of building and living green.

ProudGreenHome.com has partnered with Hibbs Homes, Verdatek Solutions, Curtiss W. Byrne Architect, and the High Performance Buildings Research Center, part of the Midwest Energy Efficiency Research Consortium at the University of Missouri-Columbia, to build the five-bedroom, 3,700 square-foot, Prairie-style home. Designed by architect Curtiss W. Byrne, the home in Wildwood, Missouri is expected to meet a number of prominent green building standards, including: read more>>>

Construction begins of world’s largest floating solar power plant
12 September 2014 - Construction of the world’s largest floating solar power plant will begin this month in Kato City, Japan.

Kyocera TCL Solar LLC will develop and operate the utility-scale floating solar power plants which will utilise Ciel et Terre’s Hydrelio floating solar platforms in two installations totalling 2.9MW. The plants will be located at Nishihira Pond and Higashihira Pond in Kato City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. The 1.7MW plant at Nishihira Pond will be the world’s largest solar power generating system installed on water.

Kyocera and Century Tokyo Leasing jointly established Kyocera TCL Solar LLC in August 2012 with the express aim of constructing and operating multiple utility-scale solar power plants in Japan with the aid of the country’s Feed-in Tariff system. So far, the company has constructed 28 solar power plants, of which 11 are now in operation. read more>>>

aleo solar unveils new high-power module
10 September 2014 - aleo solar has presented a new high-power module which the company says generates yields of around ten percent higher than those produced by conventional PV modules.

Since being acquired by the Taiwanese solar company Sunrise Global Energy in the spring of this year, aleo has reopened its production plant in Prenzlau under German-Taiwanese management and has now released its monocrystalline 300 watt high-power module.

“We have improved our module and cell technology even more and brought together our best components to create the new aleo high-power PV module. read more>>>

New rotor control system for higher wind turbine yield
17.09.2014 - The Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands (ECN) and wind turbine manufacturer XEMC-Darwind have developed a new control system for wind turbines, which makes it possible to build larger wind turbines that produce up to 13 % more energy.

The new system is based on individual pitch control and allows the three rotor blades to be controlled and adjusted individually. For this, a computer programme constantly monitors the wind load and adjusts blade positions accordingly. Tests performed according to IEC standard showed that this reduced the load on the wind turbine blades by at least 20 %. read more>>>

German Village Produces 500% of its Energy from Renewable Sources
09/16/14 - Wildpoldsried, a Bavarian village of about 2,600 residents, is leading the way in Germany’s extraordinary renewable energy transformation. Over the past 17 years, the village has invested in a holistic range of renewable energy projects that include 4,983 kWp of photovoltaics, five biogas facilities, 11 wind turbines and a hydropower system. As a result, the village has gone beyond energy independence – and it now produces 500% more energy than it needs and profits from sales of the surplus power back to the grid.

Renewable energy projects in Germany have gained enormous traction in recent years, propelled by government subsidies that are designed to lower costs, reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and move the nation entirely away from nuclear power; this transformation is known as the Energiewende. As a result, Germans will soon be getting 30 percent of their power from renewable sources—that’s twice as much as U.S. households receive. read more>>>

Promoting Green Economy For Sustainable Development
Sep 16, 2014 - In June 2012, over 140 heads of state and government representatives from around the world converged at the Brazilian city of Rio to deliberate on how to protect the environment and make the earth better.

At the various meetings, the participants agreed on the need to protect and preserve the environment for the future and canvassed a number of ideas on how to achieve this, one of which is the transition to a green economy. This was reflected on various sections of the outcome of the deliberations.

Noted on numbers 39 and 40 of the outcome of the Rio deliberations was the summary: read more>>>

Barnes & Noble

ABB Solution to Enable Kodiak Island to Integrate More Renewable Energy and Stabilize Power Supply
September 15, 2014 - ABB, the leading power and automation group, will install its PowerStore, an integrated commercial flywheel technology to integrate with a battery system on Kodiak Island in Alaska to enable the integration of more renewable energy from an expanded wind farm to its microgrid and also to address stability challenges that will arise from a crane upgrade being undertaken to enhance its port operations.

The project is being undertaken on behalf of Kodiak Electric Association (KEA), an electric cooperative owned by residents of the Island. read more>>>

Global shift to renewable power urgently needed, IRENA says
08 September 2014 - Speeding up the adoption of renewable energy technologies is the most feasible route to reduce carbon emissions and avoid catastrophic climate change, says a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

This first edition of REthinking Energy–which draws on worldwide research and analysis by the intergovernmental agency and reviews progress in the world’s transition to a sustainable energy future–focuses on the global power sector and how technological advances, economic growth and climate change are transforming it. read more>>>

"We don't need no stinkin' grid" will be the mantra of the developing world, professor says
Sep 11, 2014 - A Clemson University professor told a group of experts during a recent meeting in Bangladesh that solar panels will soon revolutionize energy production the same way computer chips brought about the information revolution.

In an interview preceding the meeting he said solar energy will lower air pollution and greenhouse gases, while stimulating struggling economies and empowering impoverished people around the globe.

About 1.5 billion people worldwide lack access to electricity and another 1 billion have intermittent access. Providing basic education, healthcare and life skills all depend on electricity, Singh said. He is calling for new monetary policies and business models to hasten the spread of solar power. read more>>>

Consumers to invest $625B in renewable energy resources
September 17, 2014 - Electric utilities are facing disruptive new technology trends that are altering their traditional relationship with residential customers, according to Navigant Research, and it's called distributed energy resources (DER), which are now more affordable and have stimulated growing interest and adoption by residential customers who see an opportunity for greater control of their energy consumption.

Innovations in renewable distributed power generation, along with attractive new financing mechanisms, are providing residential customers with new options to manage their energy use and generate their own power. read more>>>


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.