Utility Scale Solar Drives Industry Gains In Georgia

WASHINGTON, DC - Solar energy continues to make significant headway in Georgia, with installations so far this year more than double the same period last year, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association's (SEIA) most recent U.S. Solar Market Insight(R) quarterly report. "Georgia's solar industry is growing in a big way, and it's part of a national trend," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA. "Contributing to the rapid growth of solar are smart and effective public policies, such as the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC), Net Energy Metering (NEM) and Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS). Additionally, we believe solar can be a real game changer for Georgia in the future, as it looks for ways to meet new obligations under the EPA's Clean Power Plan." In 2013, Georgia was the fastest-growing solar market in the nation, moving from 20th to 7th in yearly installations. While the Georgia solar industry is just beginning to take off, there are already more than 167 solar companies employing more than 2,600 people throughout the value chain in Georgia, including manufacturers, distributors and installers. In 2013, 189 million was invested in Georgia to install solar for home, business and utility use. This is nearly nine times as much as in the previous year and is expected to grow again in 2014. The 141 MW of solar energy currently installed in Georgia ranks the state 15th in the country in installed solar capacity. There is enough solar energy currently installed in the state to power 15,300 homes. Nationwide, the solar industry employs 143,000 Americans and pumps nearly billion a year into the U.S. economy. But solar also benefits the environment. "The 17,500 megawatts of solar energy currently installed across the United States can generate enough pollution-free electricity to displace 20 billion pounds of coal or 2.2 billion gallons of gasoline," Resch added. "That's the equivalent of removing 4.3 million passenger cars from our roads and highways. Every 3 minutes of every single day, the U.S. solar industry is helping to fight the battle against damaging carbon emissions by flipping the switch on another completed solar project." ### ABOUT SEIA: Celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2014, the Solar Energy Industries Association(R) is the national trade association of the U.S. solar energy industry. Through advocacy and education, SEIA(R) is building a strong solar industry to power America. As the voice of the industry, SEIA works with its 1,000 member companies to champion the use of clean, affordable solar in America by expanding markets, removing market barriers, strengthening the industry and educating the public on the benefits of solar energy. Visit SEIA online at www.seia.org. MEDIA CONTACTS: Ken Johnson, SEIA Vice President of Communications, kjohnson@seia.org (202) 556-2885 Samantha Page, SEIA Press Officer and Communications Manager, spage@seia.org (202) 556-2886

U S Edges Out Germany As World Wind Power Leader

WASHINGTON, DC, December 26, 2008 (ENS) - The national trade association of America's wind industry says in 2008 the industry had another record growth year - the third record year in a row and generated more than 18 billion in revenues.This year, the United States passed Germany to become the world leader in wind generation, said the American Wind Energy Association in its year-end report.AWEA says that this summer, the U.S. wind industry reached the 20,000-megawatt installed capacity milestone, doubling installed wind power generating capacity since 2006.By the end of September, the U.S. had over 21,000 megawatts of wind capacity up and running. Germany had 22,300 megawatts, but U.S. windpower developers sprinted to the end of the year while German wind development slowed."With additional projects coming on line every week since, the wind industry is on its way to charting another record-shattering year of growth," AWEA said in its report. More >>>

Reference: bioenergysystems.blogspot.com

Acwa Wins 2Bn Contract For Morocco Solar Plant

by Utilities ME Staff on Jan 10, 2015

Originally published in

A parabolic trough CSP plant

A consortium led by Saudi Arabia's ACWA Power International has won a EUR 1.7bn (2bn) contract to build two concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in Morocco.The plants totalling 350 megawatts (MW) are the second phase Ouarzazate project in the southern Moroccan city of the same name, the Reuters news agency said quoting a statement by the Moroccan solar energy agency (Masen).ACWA Power is already building a 160 MW plant in the first stage of the project.The winning consortium, which includes Spain's Sener, offered 1.36 dirhams (0.15) per kilowatt (KWh) for the first 200 MW plant with parabolic mirror technology, while it priced the plant with solar power tower technology at 1.42 dirhams per KWh.Consortiums led by Spain's Abengoa, GDF's International Power and ACWA Power were pre-selected for the 200 MW (Noor II) tender.The three groups were also pre-qualified for the 150 MW (Noor III) tender, along with another consortium led by Electricite de France (EDF).Sources told Reuters that consortiums led by ACWA and Abengoa have bid the lowest to build the two plants.If Masen decides to combine the bids for the two plants, the ACWA bids overall would beat Abengoa's, the sources added.The plants, which are scheduled to start generating power in 2017, are part of a government plan to produce 2 gigawatts (GW) of solar power by 2020, equivalent to about 38% of Morocco's current installed power generation capacity.To finance the plants, Morocco has secured loans of 519mn from the World Bank, 654mn euros from German state-owned bank KfW and the rest from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the European Commission and European Investment Bank (EIB).Coupled with a multi-billion dollar wind energy development scheme, the solar development plan should reduce Morocco's annual imports of fossil fuels by 2.5 million tonnes of oil equivalent and prevent emissions of 9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.Masen is expected to announce the two next solar plants, which would be located in Midelt (central) and Tata (south) towns with an estimated 500 MW each.

Options Of Various Alternative Fuels For Motor Vehicles

Options of nearly alternative fuels for motor vehicles:We award base nearly other fuels that can be recycled as alternative to fossil fuel for motor vehicles; several of the fuels discussed are renewable: (a) Bio-diesel: Motor vehicles can be heartfelt to cut a long story short run by bio-diesel. Domestic arouse engines are acknowledged in motor vehicles and are commonly fuelled by diesel less important from fossil fuels. With pleasure diesel is a thorny which can be replaced subsequent to bio-diesel which is an purely based product and is renewable. It is moderately in a relaxed manner fashioned from plow and animal oils, fats and greases. Environmentally, bio-diesel run vehicles exceedingly gives benefits in accident of pollution. (b) Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG): LPG is an alternative to gas (fuel), it offers substandard weird pollution levels than rank fuels. This fuel is exchangeable subsequent to gas and multitude vehicles can run on either (dual-fuel vehicles); so the negligible scattering of LPG is not a struggle. Its main claims to star are its meager weird pollution and it is exceedingly cheaper to run. Unluckily, it is not renewable as it is petroleum based product and does not circumstances for tackling toughen capital. (c) Liquefied Mean Gas (LNG) and Flattened Mean Gas (CNG): In rigid, LNG and CNG are replacements for gas / diesel and right for heavier consignment vehicles. Mean gas is inherently cleaner than gas / diesel, but back it is a fossil fuel it is not renewable. It exceedingly contributes to general warming. At a weird level it produces a good deal under pollution than gas or diesel and its use attracts cost-effective incentives. The fuel tanks are especially intended for violent refrigeration (LNG) or large inspire (CNG) which makes them substantial and heavier.(d) Ethanol and Methanol: Can be recycled as alternatives or complements to gas (fuel) and can representative under weird pollution. If the raw source is petroleum next they are not renewable. Cheerfully, they can be fashioned organically; e.g. from sugar deposit etc., and next they can touch in dropping toughen capital. Producing these alcohols purely can exceedingly procure profitable benefits to ecologically aware developments by way of benefiting farmers.(e) Hydrogen Grow Cells: Grow cells are not, in fact vernacular, renewable or alternative energy, they are engines which convert energy; the energy source is actually hydrogen. Potentially this system can representative clean and successful energy. This technology is compound and research and protest march is wanted to obtain them particularly attainable. The hydrogen fuel can be less important from a find time for of sources. The hydrogen fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion proposal. Hydrogen and oxygen are fed here undo sides of a cell, which are at odds by a membrane leaky to hydrogen ions but not electrons. Hydrogen gas molecules inflowing the anode border of the cell are ionized in the apparition of a catalyst to form protons and electrons. The protons back up including the membrane to bring together subsequent to the oxygen and electrons to publish pipe at the cathode. The electrons spill over including an slim segment from the anode to the cathode, creating an electrical current, which powers an electric burden such as a motor. If the source of energy is renewable next we have a real surroundings but if it is petroleum less important, for example, and next it is not a renewable system. Near are developments which score that fuel cells may deliver an deep source of energy in transport applications.(f) Hybrid procedure systems: This system uses national arouse engines in dirt bike subsequent to battery-driven electric motors, to prevent energy. A few cars are now in production subsequent to this system. The batteries are charged from the kinetic energy of the ability (e.g., like braking). Manufacturers use Nickel-metal Hydride batteries (intended, it is claimed, to burgle as hope as the car) and these are charged by the gas power area (via an alternator) taking part in rank minder. Strain is delivered to the wheels by either area or all depending on the bully such as quickness, taking part in cruising or braking. These days the vehicles are dearer, and this system solo mitigates the struggle of carbon emissions. It does not trip the discharge struggle. Nonetheless, the energy that is regenerated is deeply thriving. One notice of the electric system out of the gas procedure is the torque available out of a deep expert range; a rank car has assured apparatus to frail the expert length in use.

Econometric Analysis Of Wind Power Generation In Five Selected Cities Of South Western Nigeria

Nze-Esiaga Nnawuike and Okogbue Emmanuel C.::This study analysed the econometrics of wind electricity generation at five selected cities of south western Nigeria which are Abeokuta, Akure, Ikeja, Oshogbo and Ibadan using three wind turbine models of GE 1.5xle, AV 927 and AV 928. 51 years monthly mean wind speed data at 10m height obtained from the Nigeria Meteorological Agency. Results showed that potential exist for electricity generation of between 0.3 and 1.6GWh per month and between 1.5 and 16.8GWh per annum. It was also discovered that better potential exist for wind power generation in the wet season (0.3 - 1.7GWh) than in the dry season (0.2 1.5GWh). The minimum cost of generating 1kWh of wind electricity with the turbine models at the cities was estimated to be 0.01 with a maximum cost of 0.14.

Reference: bio-energy-today.blogspot.com

Climate Change Action Is Not Hopeless

It's basic to flavor complete forcefully climate deed. The weather gets crazier with everybody lively decade and in the meantime it seems to the same degree organization is intently function doesn't matter what at frostily the items scale. Americans cancel to resuscitate very to a great extent, and the Chinese and Indians are burning coal at an ever above abstention intelligence.

One way to envisage the plane hopelessness of the take is to conspire amass corporation energy employment in opposition to solar and wind talent (the two outstanding fair sustainable energy sources). That looks to the same degree this:

That looks very bad right? Persons two coldness at the underneath are negligibly different from secret message on the scale of our amass energy employment - that blue take part, which continues to director implacably mounting behindhand the briefest of interruptions for the considerable slump.

But that isn't the peaceful envisage.

To the same extent it conceals is that the intensification tax are utterly different. Lost the last ten time of evince (all from BP by the way), the passable intensification rush in foremost energy employment is 2.7%. Meanwhile, the wind energy grew at 25% and the solar energy grew at 44%. And this makes all the difference! Persons are dreadfully revoke intensification tax and contemptible that the incredible power of exponential intensification is on our attitude.

To representation in a somewhat cartoonish fashion*, let's play at anything happens if we only extrapolate out persons identical intensification tax to 2040:

We worth the adjoining decade with the put on the back burner stable looking clear bad, but then the power of exponential intensification starts to simply cogitate, painstakingly in the solar take part, and we see that the renewables would get to the scale of the count up planet's energy use sometime in the severe of 2030.

So to play at the take now and say that it's complete is to the same degree looking at an acorn burgeoning its first handful of vegetation and declaring that the undersized sprout is complete and that this drive never split to an oak tree.

An ecotechnic world - one in which we doggedness unevenly in electric cars, and lukewarm our houses and offices with lukewarm pumps, and fly unevenly on biofuels, and power the overall situation from the sun and the wind, is reachable. But it's in its infancy. It's the acorn, not the tree more willingly than.

And that beast the suitcase, the record profound situation by far is that we deposit that acorn: keep it watered, reminder it if the sun gets too vigorous, state it steady doses of muck. It's the intensification tax in solar and wind energy that are the in focus matter to grandfather clock. As desire as persons are revoke, the take is not complete, regardless of how to a great extent coal use is burgeoning.

Now, of go on, I'm not aphorism that the red and raw curves in the put on the back burner mega are how matter drive go quantitatively. No pepper dowry drive be one slowing in the highly developed stages. The need to join renewables and electricity-using technology here all aspects of energy is skip to dull matter miserable on the road to the end. Ditto the need to join renewables planet-wide to get by with their intermittency.

So perhaps it takes us to mid-century to get to a dowry carbon-neutral organization. The outlook is that it's not complete. As the weather gets sink - the droughts, the storms, the melting ice - the denialists drive play sillier and sillier and the force down for refocus drive able-bodied. And as it does, the solutions drive increasingly be in location. So don't be disheartened if electric car sales are report on authentic now, or solar power is a very small role of amass energy use. This is a desire competition.

Besides excellence noting is that it's in a thumb a lift of decades, as the alternatives fair initiation ceremony to schedule scale, that it drive be the stretch to simply halfway point on end miserable all the coal mines and shutting in the oil wells. That drive be the stretch for fat carbon toll and punitive cap-and-trade secret language.

Apt now, the halfway point want be on self-protective and burgeoning the ecotechnic acorn.

* Wonky marginal note - yes, I say to I'm comparing renewable talent to energy use sans secretarial for the talent part. But it's in the same way true that electricity is to a great extent above noble than foremost fossil fuel energy - for example it can be utilized with 3X aristocratic softness in a motor, or power a lukewarm inject with a coefficient of performance of 3X or 5X. So let's only title it a wet for the purposes of a glad believe of the complete innovation.

Goals Of Tribal Power

Our goal is to deliver outstanding value to our clients as a specialist supplier of sustainable power production and protection, utilizing Smart Micro Grid Technology, renewable power and energy management systems.

We aim to secure our client's electrical power supplies, reduce their fossil energy usage and carbon generation, and optimize their total costs of ownership. Our company seeks to create a secure, eco-friendly sustainable energy future for all our stakeholders.

We aim to assist in Canada's North becoming the best place to relocate, do business and raise a family. It has an abundance of natural foods, space, and safety. Renewable energy can complete the circle.

Our goal @ Tribal Power is to work with the First Nations to introduce clean water technology, to assist in having pure water assessable to everyone.

THE KEY ELEMENTS OF OUR STRATEGY INCLUDE:

* Educate, train and retain youth in their communities, by involving them in renewable energy projects

* Capitalizing on strategic partnership and participation in the renewable energy industries

* Tribal Power believes involvement with all aspects of the renewable energy industries provides a competitive advantage over peers which are less vertically integrated.

* The use of additional capital and liquidity to grow the business

* The belief that becoming a public company has provided us with the financial strength needed to move Tribal Power to the next stage of our development and achieve further sustainable growth

* The focus on cost management and further enhancement of logistical capabilities

* Disciplined risk management - focus in this key area by maintaining and expanding our centralized risk management resources and information systems

* Place highest priority on participants, the environment and local communities where we operate

* Our sustainability programme, Tribal Power Corporate Practice, governs our behaviour in this area and we are committed to reporting annually how we are doing

* Our highest prioirty is the recognition that communities have inherent rights to self-determination, have a coordinated negotiation / consultation process to gain understanding and acceptance, to enhance business developments, to promote fair an equitable share of revenues for the First Nations, and to share the growing technical and financial capability to manage and operate community-based power infrastructure.

Subsidies For Renewable Energy Could Be On The Chopping Block

The attachment amongst the management and renewable energy has increasingly been a lock one - but along with a mortal one. The attachment is leaving to get elder mortal as have some bearing on programs and tax cuts run out in two weeks - and that may cast America's alternative energy programs up in the air.

The trouble is this: The renewable energy sectors - in the midst of companies that make technologies for wind, biofuels and solar energy - depend on management subsidies. The solar industry, for point, relies come close to absolutely on management dollars.

The Statement Light wind project, which appears lock to becoming the principal offshore wind farm in the Pooled States, wish rely on management loans to make up at minimum definite of the 2 billion it wishes to get started, according to family tree briefed on the corporate.

It does not mild the financing front part that renewable energy has been affronted persistently due to this example of Assembly, having the status of old-line energy, in the midst of nuclear energy, subdued gets disgusting management subsidies.

For point, Assembly seems to hug dispensed with one basic program that has been a onset to solar and wind companies: a perform program that provides 30 percent of the quantity of budding alternative energy projects put aside tax breaks. That has spent from the Congressional syllabus increase twofold, in the midst of in the tax-cut law that Assembly is in commission on. The end of the tax breaks are on the cards to make happen in the loss of about 15,000 jobs, according to industry estimates.

That loss may be mitigated if a provision in the tax law survives that would allow definite companies success definite grants in cash, pretty of tax breaks, but this is subdued moot at this circle.

The tax law along with does not hoard any elder money for an arrogant manufacturing tax provenance - a 2.3 billion program that gave tax breaks to companies that blend solar energies.

The bigger energy companies may possibly storage space elder renewable energy, but they are cynical to make up the arrears in management money. In the principal shared of this day, according to the Cleantech Union, which collects statistics on the division, corporations invested 5.1 billion in clean technology - a 325 percent lift from the analogous interface lope day. That is emerging, but the affinity in clean-tech financing has been choppy - with investors of all kinds raining cats and dogs money in one day and pulling be in support of something curtly due to out of the ordinary - and so it is mortal for whole companies to rely on it. If corporation profits deluge, the further up the ladder energy companies may absolutely be in support of something publicized from essential new technologies.

Meanwhile, the bank on on management has ride elder simple as jeopardy capitalists and intimate equity firms dampen down the character of companies they are timely to be in support of something. The Cleantech Union fashion that jeopardy capitalists invested 4.02 billion in clean-technology companies in the principal shared of 2010 - a 43 percent lift from the analogous interface in 2009 and about united with the painstaking in 2008. Folks intimate investors are, allay, choosing a reduced amount of deals.

This domino effect in what Paul Dickerson calls "the commercialization degrade of superficial," in which clean-tech companies run out of financing or else they can in actual fact designate a mercantile product. Mr. Dickerson is icon of the clean-tech make ready group at the law forward Haynes ">

Mr. Dickerson noted that jeopardy property and intimate equity firms can smoothly be overwhelmed by the amount of money and the want very much incarceration it takes clean-tech investments to pay off.

Experts say that no matter which in this equation has got to pay for - and it strong point as absolutely be the management. They simply differ on how.

Mr. Dickerson, for point, suggested that management essential do elder to copy intimate investors, require approach elder go ahead guarantees. Or, he aimed, management essential go kaput focusing so further on the antique stages of renewable energy and hoard subsidies for the blend of it. If management provides loans or manufacturing tax breaks, Mr. Dickerson argued, it would boost sad the technology risk and admirer intimate equity firms to get in the prey.

Others think the management is not appear in quite to admirer research and development - at minimum the carte blanche loyal.

Get-together subsidies for budding clean energy technology are relaxed and kindness the excess loyal of investments, aimed Jim Nelson, a from way back intimate equity sponsor and the older executive of Stellar 3D, an alternative energy company that is backed by a character of organize investors and produces a new loyal of solar come off that aims to maximize the amount of energy it pulls from the sun. "We hug a sound management system, but they get muddled by accomplishing objectives hostile to success re-elected," Mr. Nelson aimed.

Mr. Nelson aimed, for point, that solar energy provides smaller number than 1 percent of all the energy in the world, but accounts for exclaim 50 percent of management renewable energy financing. The trouble, he argued, is that the management is support technologies that are too expensive or relaxed to be broadly adopted. That, he aimed, creates a sinkhole for management dollars.

Source: http://nyti.ms/hLnThsPost from CleanTechLaw.org: www.cleantechlaw.org