Center of Excellence for Clean Energy

Guide to governors on supporting energy sector during pandemic

Posted on Tuesday, March 31, 2020

The National Governor’s Association (NGA) has prepared a memo that provides guidance to governors on how they can best support and protect the energy industry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The March 25 memo highlights three areas governors should consider to ensure energy continuity and shares the current energy industry response to COVID-19:

Ensuring critical energy infrastructure employees can be identified and credentialed in the event of a shelter in place order
Priority access to testing, personal protective equipment (PPE) and cleaning supplies
Access to waivers for fuel carriers and Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDL) to move critical utility supplies

New bill to help WA ranchers losing land to solar farms

Posted on Friday, March 20, 2020

Washington ranchers, farmers and state agencies are learning that certain land features make them ideal for renewable energy projects.

Ranchers are losing land to solar farms, but help is on the way.

Leases canceled from the Department of Natural Resources are hurting ranchers. But a new bill would compensate those forced off public land for more profitable uses.

New solar cells reach an efficiency record

Posted on Thursday, March 19, 2020

New designs for perovskite-silicon solar cells have reached a conversion efficiency of 27.7 percent.

The use of solar photovoltaic cells as a renewable energy source is booming, as the technology becomes more efficient and less expensive. Stacking perovskite solar cells on top of silicon ones is one way to increase the amount of sunlight harnessed, and now researchers at Australian National University (ANU) have broken a new efficiency record for these tandem solar cells.

Already outperforming most commercially available solar cells, which hover around the 20-percent efficiency mark, these are based solely on silicon, and that technology is expected to bump up against its maximum upper limit in the next few years.

Solar project to benefit low-income communities

Posted on Wednesday, March 18, 2020

An innovative solar project in Toledo, Ohio, will do triple duty when it’s completed this spring. It will provide renewable power to a nearby axle factory. It will use otherwise unproductive land. And hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sale of the project’s electricity will benefit nearby low-income communities.

A joint project in Toledo by the port authority, a community foundation and local industry earmarks profits for community needs.

Wind surpasses hydro as most used renewable

Posted on Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Wind is now the top renewable source of electricity generation in the country, a position previously held by hydroelectricity.

Annual wind generation totaled 300 million megawatthours (MWh) in 2019, exceeding hydroelectric generation by 26 million MWh. Wind generation has increased steadily during the past decade, in part, because the Production Tax Credit (PTC), which drove wind capacity additions, was extended. Annual hydroelectric generation has fluctuated between 250 million MWh and 320 million MWh in the past decade, reflecting a stable capacity base and variable annual precipitation.

Recycling old wind turbines

Posted on Monday, March 16, 2020

It’s difficult to recycle a gigantic wind turbine. The blades are built to withstand extreme weather, from scorching desert heat to hurricane-like winds, and that means their life almost always ends in a landfill. In Europe alone, about 3,800 blades will be removed every year through at least 2022, according to BloombergNEF, as the oldest turbines reach retirement age.

A Danish startup aims to turn old turbines into a material that can address a different environmental threat: noise pollution.

Successful battery farm stabilizes local grid

Posted on Sunday, March 15, 2020

The battery backup Elon Musk built has saved South Australia tens of millions of dollars.

Musk’s Australian solar and wind farm powers rural South Australia, with a population density between Wyoming and Alaska.

South Australia experienced a near total blackout in 2016, after 80,000 lightning strikes and at least two tornadoes.

The push for renewable energy was blamed for the extent of the blackouts. As the head of batteries at Tesla, Musk said he was sure the company could do better, and he jumped in to promise his team would.

Centralia tests transition from coal plant closure

Posted on Sunday, March 15, 2020

The TransAlta coal plant in Centralia will fully close down by 2025, as part of an agreement that will see $55 million invested to help the community prepare for the transition.

The Centralia agreement is an example of an unusually well-funded, long-planned transition. Unlike many coal plant closures today, it was forged not because the company was going out of business but as a political deal to address climate change.

The TransAlta coal plant’s closure will be a win for environmentalists and left-leaning lawmakers who want to fight climate change. The town, however, will lose a significant taxpayer. And nearly 200 people will lose their jobs.

Local officials say they are excited about new wind and solar projects backed by TransAlta and others, which have sprung up independently of the agreement, but those will create a fraction of the jobs and tax base that the coal plant has historically provided. And attempts to bring new businesses to the area have so far been disappointing.

Energy storage, essential for long-term climate goals

Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Consolidated Edison and National Grid are experimenting with energy storage in New York.

ConEd is in the middle of several major projects to advance the state’s distributed grid, while working to add 300 MW of energy storage by 2023.

Storage is essential to New York’s long-term climate goals, ConEd REV Demonstration specialist Alison Kling said. It can be used as grid support, including for particular feeders, real power, reactive power, or as part of broader non-wires alternative goals, but it will also be important in the long-term as the state continues to add more renewable energy onto its grid.

255-MW U.S. hydro portfolio sold to Hull Street Energy

Posted on Tuesday, February 11, 2020

A U.S. private equity firm, Hull Street Energy, has sealed a deal to buy a 255-MW portfolio of 31 hydroelectric facilities from a joint venture between Enel Green Power North America and GE Energy Financial Services.

Read more: Enel, GE JV sells 255-MW US hydro portfolio to Hull Street Energy (renewablesnow.com)