Thread: Fossil Fuel Alternatives

They should ban these solar cells as they will cause electricty to be almost free eventually.
first off you will get everyone having heating or Ac on all year round .
Companies will desalinate seawater and irrigate huge desserts, causing massive upheavals in nature the weather / climate, a surge in the earths population and all the extra polution.

All the fake scare stories that you alarmists are claiming for today and co2 will then come true .

Originally Posted by S Landreth

brainchild

Sorry that should read brainfart. Shaking my head in disbelief. Even considering the Netherlands are really densely populated.

Quadrofoil is an electric hydrofoiling personal watercraft (PWC), which provides the most economically efficient and completely environmentally friendly mode of recreational marine transportation. Due to hydrofoiling and patented steering technology, riding feels like flying on water and provides an entirely new and thrilling water experience.

The watercraft operates quietly and doesn’t produce any waves or emissions, which makes it suitable for lakes, rivers, seas as well as marine protected areas, where most motor boats and personal watercrafts are prohibited. It has a top speed up to 40 km/h (21 knots) and a range of up to 100 km (54 nautical miles) and can be fully charged in under 2 hours.

Quadrofoil

New superconductor-powered wind turbines could hit Australian shores in five years

Australian scientists are developing wind turbines that are one-third the price and 1,000 times more efficient than anything currently on the market to install along the country's windy and abundant coast.

New superconductor-powered wind turbines could be installed off the coast of Australia within the next five years to finally take advantage of the country’s 35,000 km of coastline, which offers up some of the best wind resources in the world.

Developed by a team at the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, the wind turbines are a significant improvement on current technology. Right now, wind turbines cost about $15 million each to construct, and are super-heavy and tough to ship. They also require a whole lot of maintenance because they're run using a complex, heavy, and costly piece of machinery called a gear box.

“In our design there is no gear box, which right away reduces the size and weight by 40 percent,” said lead researcher and materials scientist Shahriar Hossain. “We are developing a magnesium diboride superconducting coil to replace the gear box. This will capture the wind energy and convert it into electricity without any power loss, and will reduce manufacturing and maintenance costs by two thirds.”

Superconductors are a class of materials that have been getting a lot of attention this year due to their potential to completely revolutionise power systems and batteries as we know them. Right now, these systems generate power by running an electric current through a copper conduction loop, but during this process up to 10 percent of the energy is lost due to resistance. This, and the fact that the copper wire decays quickly, means our current power systems are relatively inefficient with short lifespans.

But superconducting materials generate no electrical resistance, which means they're able to store electricity with no loss of energy. The current is also able to circulate over and over indefinitely, even if power is turned off. The Australian team is making their superconducting coil out of magnesium and boron, both of which are cheap, durable and easy to make.

The team estimates that their superconductor wind turbines will cost just $3-5 million each to build, because by next year, the magnesium diboride coil will cost just $1 per metre to manufacture.

“Australia desperately needs sustainable energy sources. Wind is cheap, clean and we can get it on rainy and sunny days,” he said. "And considering Australia has more than 35,000 km of coastline, there is ample room for offshore wind farms. With industry support, we could install superconducting offshore wind turbines off the coast of Australia in five years, no problem.”

World's Largest Solar Farm Goes Online In California | IFLScience

Another giant solar farm has been constructed on desert lands in California, stealing the title of the largest solar plant in the world. The farm, which is called Topaz, recently went online after its final 40-megawatt phase was completed, making it the first 500-plus megawatt solar plant to be up and running in the US.

Located in San Luis Obispo County on California’s Carrizo Plain, Topaz consists of a whopping nine million solar panels sprawling across 9.5 square miles of land. This sets it apart from the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California’s Mojave Desert, which creates energy by directing sunlight towards a central boiler using thousands of mirrors. While it generates a lot of green energy, the Ivanpah farm has received a lot of criticism because the intense sunlight has been scorching wildlife, in particular birds. Topaz, however, does not use mirrors but photovoltaic solar panels instead.

Construction of the $2.5 billion project began two years ago, but it wasn’t anticipated to be finished until early next year. The company behind the project, First Solar, said that the plant should generate 550 megawatts, which is enough to supply around 160,000 average homes. What’s more, it will also remove 377,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Topaz’s location was chosen after proximity to existing electrical transmission lines, land use and environmental sensitivities were all taken into consideration. According to First Solar, the farm is located on “disturbed farm land” with limited productivity, miles away from the more sensitive areas in the Carrizo Plain National Monument.

Topaz might hold the title for the world’s largest solar farm at the moment, but it will be overtaken possibily as early as next year when the Solar Star plant achieves full capacity, which should generate almost 580 megawatts. Both Solar Star and Topaz are owned by MidAmerican Solar.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

New superconductor-powered wind turbines could hit Australian shores in five years

Australian scientists are developing wind turbines that are one-third the price and 1,000 times more efficient than anything currently on the market to install along the country's windy and abundant coast.

New superconductor-powered wind turbines could be installed off the coast of Australia within the next five years to finally take advantage of the country’s 35,000 km of coastline, which offers up some of the best wind resources in the world.

Developed by a team at the Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, the wind turbines are a significant improvement on current technology. Right now, wind turbines cost about $15 million each to construct, and are super-heavy and tough to ship. They also require a whole lot of maintenance because they're run using a complex, heavy, and costly piece of machinery called a gear box.

“In our design there is no gear box, which right away reduces the size and weight by 40 percent,” said lead researcher and materials scientist Shahriar Hossain. “We are developing a magnesium diboride superconducting coil to replace the gear box. This will capture the wind energy and convert it into electricity without any power loss, and will reduce manufacturing and maintenance costs by two thirds.”

Superconductors are a class of materials that have been getting a lot of attention this year due to their potential to completely revolutionise power systems and batteries as we know them. Right now, these systems generate power by running an electric current through a copper conduction loop, but during this process up to 10 percent of the energy is lost due to resistance. This, and the fact that the copper wire decays quickly, means our current power systems are relatively inefficient with short lifespans.

But superconducting materials generate no electrical resistance, which means they're able to store electricity with no loss of energy. The current is also able to circulate over and over indefinitely, even if power is turned off. The Australian team is making their superconducting coil out of magnesium and boron, both of which are cheap, durable and easy to make.

The team estimates that their superconductor wind turbines will cost just $3-5 million each to build, because by next year, the magnesium diboride coil will cost just $1 per metre to manufacture.

“Australia desperately needs sustainable energy sources. Wind is cheap, clean and we can get it on rainy and sunny days,” he said. "And considering Australia has more than 35,000 km of coastline, there is ample room for offshore wind farms. With industry support, we could install superconducting offshore wind turbines off the coast of Australia in five years, no problem.”

They better start building a distribution system now if they plan on using this source of electricity. Having a home near the Columbia river gorge I pass by hundreds of wind turbines regularly, many of these turbines never turn as the electrical distribution system from the turbines to the grid will not handle nearly full electrical production.

Time for an update. I started this thread with a Tesla in the first post. It has been modified, somewhat.

Tesla's New 762hp Model S P90D With ‘Ludicrous’ Speed Upgrade Does 1/4 Mile In 10.9 sec!

So Tesla has been trying to find a way to make the Model S P85D even faster, like there was an actual person thinking that the electric bi-motor slingshot needed a stronger kick.

Elon Musk announced the new ‘Ludicrous’ Speed Upgrade for the P90D, which makes the Internet’s favorite drag-racer 10% faster from zero to 60mph, now scoring a 2.8 seconds with a quarter mile time of 10.9 seconds!

That’s right; the Model S P90D ‘Ludicrous’ is now officially a 10-second car with Elon Musk saying that his new toy can achieve 1.1g during acceleration, which feels faster than falling.

___________

They are a bit concerned,……from Alberta Oil

Is Tesla’s Model-S the Beginning of the End for Oil?

Why battery technology could drive the electric vehicle to new heights – and disrupt the fossil fuel industry in the process

The Tesla Model-S is one of the most beautiful and interesting automobiles to ever get made. It might also be one of the most dangerous. That’s because it’s managed to do something that no other electric vehicle has ever achieved: become an object of desire. Previous generations of electric cars, from the Nissan Leaf to GM’s famous (and infamous) EV-1, have tended to be high on cost and low on drivability. But the Model-S managed to bridge that divide, and as the reviewers at Car and Driver said in their review of the car, “it dispels conventional thinking about EVs – it’s a glimpse of the future.”

_____________

Surprising Countries Where Solar and Wind Are Booming

Renewable energy is taking off in both wealthy and developing economies.

Across the globe, renewable energy is expanding faster than fossil fuels. It’s even taking off in countries that may surprise you.

“Once again in 2014, renewables made up nearly half of the net power capacity added worldwide,” says Achim Steiner, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme. After a two-year dip, they’re attracting more investment. Hydropower generates the largest share of renewable energy, followed by wind and biomass, but solar is growing the fastest.

Some countries are obvious leaders. The U.S. and China had the greatest installed capacity for producing power from wind in the last two years, while Germany and China had the most from solar panels, according to the U.S. Department of Energy and Ren21, an international nonprofit group.

__________

Envision Solar Wins Contract To Supply Portable EV Chargers To State Of California

Envision Solar, a renewable energy and electric vehicle charging company based out of San Diego, has been awarded a contract in the State of California to provide portable electric vehicle (EV) chargers to various state and local government agencies, according to a recent email sent to CleanTechnica.

The contract — which is a part of the climate change–related plans announced by re-elected Californian Governor Brown in January — will allow essentially government employees in the Pacific state to recharge their EVs at work using solar energy, if so desired.

____________

5 Bold and Beautiful Solar Projects From Around the World

China is building its largest solar plant covering 6,301 acres in the Gobi desert and with capacity to provide electricity to 1 million households.

This is just another record breaker for China. But there’s good reason.

In a recent Greenpeace East Asia investigation, we found that air pollution levels have improved in the first six months of 2015, though still remain below global and domestic standards. Once completed the new solar plant will cut standard coal use by 4.26 million tons every year, reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide by 896,000 tons and 8,080 tons, respectively, according to state-run Xinhua news agency.

1. PS20 Solar Tower Plant: Spain

Looking more like a enlightened being bursting from a holy church, this tower which sits at Sanlucar la Mayor outside Seville, Spain can provide electricity for up to 6,000 homes.

2. Solar Systems on Hospital in Bihar: India

At Tripolia Hospital, Patna, India they have installed simple concentrated solar power (CSP) systems to create steam, which they use to sterilize all their medical equipment and laundry. The hospital also has solar photovoltaic systems to generate electricity for some buildings and outdoor lights and solar thermal systems to create hot water for bathing patients and preparing medicine. The various solar systems also cater for the 200 staff who live on campus, as well as up to 250 inpatients.

3. Solar Panels in the Aeroesbing Renewable Heat Station: Denmark

In Aeroe, a renewable energy island south of Denmark, straw is combined to solar panels to heat the cooperators. One third of the straw production of the island is thus used, heating 500 households. The area is also used as land for cattle grazing.

4. Solar Photovoltaic Power Plant in Tangtse: India

The 100 kWp stand-alone solar photovoltaic power plant at Tangtse, Durbuk block, Ladakh. Located 14,500 feet AMSL in the Himalaya, the plant supplies electricity to a clinic, a school and 347 houses in this remote location, for around five hours each day.

5. Solar-powered Reverse Osmosis Plant: India

Parama Ram, 23, maintains the photovoltaic panels that power the desalination plant in Kotri Village, Rajasthan. The plant produces mor than 3000 liters of drinking water per day from the brackish groundwater reserves in the area. Parama lives above the plant and is one of its biggest advocates, personally persuading 100 of the 150 families that now collect the ‘sweet’ water to trust that the system was clean. Like many of the villagers, he would often have to drink the saline ground water before the plant was installed.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

World's Largest Solar Farm Goes Online In California | IFLScience

This is a way forward if it can be combined with some way of storing energy. In the meantime it has at least the advantage that it will produce most of its energy when aircons need it.

MeyGen

The world’s largest tidal energy project, capable of powering nearly 175,000 homes in the U.K. with 400 megawatts of power, will break ground next month in northeast Scotland. Atlantis, majority owner of the MeyGen project, announced that its flagship project had met all the conditions required to start drawing down finance through the U.K.’s Renewable Energy Investment Fund.

The completed project will have 269 sunken turbines, according to Atlantis, which expects to have about 60 of these installed and delivering power by 2020.
In the announcement to investors, Atlantis said: “The major construction and supply contractors to this iconic project have commenced design, engineering and procurement works in readiness for commencement of onshore construction at the project site in Caithness in January 2015.”

Tim Cornelius, Chief Executive Officer of Atlantis, said that Lockheed Martin’s project-specific 1.5 megawatt turbines were scheduled to be delivered on time for construction purposes. In November, the MeyGen project was awarded the first-ever Navigator Award at the International Conference on Ocean Energy, in recognition of the “project’s significant contribution to global marine renewable industry.”

Scotland is trying hard to harness all forms of renewable energy as part of its goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity demand from renewables by 2020. The wind-rich country is home to around a quarter of Europe’s total offshore wind capacity. In October, the Scottish Government approved four huge new offshore wind farms that could produce more than 2.2 gigawatts of power, enough to power 1.4 million homes.

A Zero-Emissions House That Charges Itself and Your Electric Car Too

Architecture firm Snøhetta has put its stamp on some pretty high profile places, with some very high profile projects: The Oslo Opera House, of course, and the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York City. Soon enough, their overhaul of Times Square will cater to the 400,000-plus pedestrians that walk through the site every day.

The firm, which has main offices in Oslo, Norway, and New York City, works on some quieter projects too, like this ZEB Pilot House, situated in a less-than-glamorous industrial stretch of Larvik, Norway, some 80 miles south of Oslo. Even though it’s out of the limelight, the ZEB house—a collaboration between Snøhetta and the Research Center on Zero Emission Buildings—could have a major impact on residential architecture going forward: Not only is it a zero emissions house, it’s a “plus house,” meaning it actually produces excess energy. It’s enough that an electric car could drive for 12,500 miles on the surplus energy from the ZEB.

Most of this happens through the solar panel roof, which is tilted at at 19-degree angle towards the southeast, to capture as much light as possible. A 45-degree angle would have actually been the optimum position, said lead architect Anne Cecilie Haug, but that would have made the house cartoonish in scale and difficult to build. Settling on the best angle for capturing light over a long period of time “took all this back and forth with the engineers and us,” she says. But the tilted roof can be modified and applied to other buildings in new orientations. A home in Australia, for instance, would need to tilt north. And buildings with different functions might want to capitalize on certain times of day. “An office building would want to harvest more electricity in the middle of the day when everyone’s running their computers,” Haug says of a building that might want a flatter angle, to catch noon light.

Because solar energy is most efficient when used in real time (when panels are harvesting electricity), the ZEB house is especially enabled by connected home gadgets. Using a smartphone to turn on the washing machine while you’re at work means the house can power itself off available daylight, rather than stored energy. Or smart thermostats (with the help of geothermal heating and a heat exchange system connected to the home’s gray water recycling) can remember to conserve electricity for Friday nights, to optimize heating when families are home.

Tricked out as it is, the ZEB Pilot House is ultimately designed for people, so Snøhetta was careful to include a series of organic, but still energy-saving touches, like beeswax-laminated aspen wood in the bedrooms. The wax reacts with natural moisture in the air, helping to keep the room temperature steady. The concrete and bricks supporting the solar roof came from the “Norwegian version of eBay” and can naturally trap heat and cool air, conserving some energy from the house’s heating and cooling system. “We tried to make an outdoor and indoor situation which felt like real home,” Haug says. “It’s a very high tech house, but we were working a lot to make it feel homey, make it feel like somewhere you can live.”

Scotland could be fossil fuel-free by 2030, says report | Environment | The Guardian

A fossil fuel-free Scotland is not only technically achievable but could prove a cheaper and safer option than pursuing fossil fuel-based development, according to a new WWF-backed report.

The study by consultancy giant DNV-GL tested the viability of the Scottish government’s current policy goal of decarbonising the country’s electricity generation by 2030, setting a target of bringing carbon intensity down from 271 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour to 50g CO2/kwh.

The target is separate to the goal of providing 100% of electricity demand from renewables by 2020, which still allows for coal and gas to remain on the grid.

The 2030 decarbonisation policy assumes carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology will be operating at scale, fitted to 2.5GW of gas power plants. WWF deems this a risky strategy considering there are no commercial-scale CCS operations in the UK and the government has yet to decide a winner for its £1bn commercialisation competition for the technology between the Peterhead CCS project and the White Rose project at Drax.

However, the report says CCS is not needed to decarbonise Scotland’s electricity sector and concludes “a renewables-based, efficient, flexible, electricity system is perfectly feasible by 2030” given Scotland’s abundance of wind and wave energy resources and strong tradition of engineering innovation.

While electricity production accounts for around a third of Scotland’s emissions, renewables are already the country’s biggest electricity generator - outstripping nuclear, coal and gas - and in November wind turbines alone produced more than 100% of the country’s domestic electricity needs.

Denmark Sets World Record For Wind Power Production

Denmark has been long been a pioneer in wind power, having installed its first turbines in the mid-1970s when oil shocks sent the import-dependent nation on a quest for energy security. Thirty-seven years later, the country has set a new world record for wind production by getting 39.1 percent of its overall electricity from wind in 2014. This puts the Northern European nation well on track to meet its 2020 goal of getting 50 percent of its power from renewables.

Originally Posted by S Landreth

It does sound crazy.

Yes it does. But this is Elon Musk. He has never started anything, that did not sound totally crazy.

He is estimated at 12 Billion $ at the moment, fast rising. Right now he is building a Mega-Factory, the largest factory in the world for this kind of batteries. And it is only the first out of a series he is planning. He expects the battery business of Tesla alone to become a multi Billion $ per year business. Storage of regenerative energy is the missing cornerstone of reusable energy and he believes this will be it.

Of course he is also building a Giga-Factory for solar panels. Producing a gigawatt capacity of panels per year. Which is supposed to be only the first of a series of factories.

some competition for the Tesla powerwall

all this is good , as it will drive innovation and prices

Benz to power houses too


Daimler follows Tesla lead to charge houses using electric-vehicle technology
The world’s oldest car company has set its sights on becoming the world’s newest household and industrial energy supplier.

While Tesla has stolen the headlines by suggesting it will sell its Model S batteries to help houses store off-peak and renewable electricity, Daimler already has a lithium-ion battery working on Germany’s electricity grid and will go fully commercial in September.

With no German government support for electric vehicles, Daimler has changed tack to help recoup decades of research and plans to offer battery storage set-ups for heavy industry, mid-sized facilities like supermarkets and, soon, households.

Its ACCUmotive subsidiary already has its first large industrial storage setup, with Daimler christening it a “stationary energy storage”, which sounds a lot like the thinking – and practice – behind stationary internal combustion engines.

Daimler founded ACCUmotive in 2009 to develop and sell (even internally) the lithium-ion batteries for plug-in hybrid and electric smarts and Mercedes-Benz models.

Its first stationary energy storage setup is operated by a German electricity joint-venture, Coulomb, to stabilize the Saxony Kamenz power grid by smoothing out the peaks and troughs in power delivery.

It uses 96 lithium-ion modules with more than 500kWh of energy storage, though it plans to expand that to 3000kWh within weeks.

“Mercedes-Benz energy storage systems are the best proof that lithium-ion batteries made in Germany are a model for the future, and not just in cars,” Mercedes-Benz Cars head of electrics/electronic development and E-Drive, Harald Kröger, said.

“With our comprehensive battery knowhow at Deutsche ACCUmotive, we can accelerate the energy revolution both on the road and in the power of businesses and households.

“What we have already proven over millions of kilometres travelled in the most adverse conditions, such as heat and cold and rain and snow, we bring to create the best technology for stationary use.

Daimler and its subsidiaries have been working on repurposing its zero-emissions road-car technologies for industrial and household purposes since 2012, he said.

“We have opened up new growth opportunities with our entry in to the new business field of stationary energy storage for industrial and private clients.”

It already has more industrial plans, including a system for EnBW in retail banking, and is chasing wider distribution around the planet.

“The system developed by Daimler Business Innovation goes far beyond industrial use.

“The operation in mid-trade, such as supermarkets, can also benefit enormously from stationary energy storage by using buffering during consumption peaks, such as on hot days,” he said.

"It is also suitable for private use, so it can be that households can mate it with their own photovoltaic systems, catching the excess solar electricity with virtually no loss.”

It already has test units running for both light industrial, commercial and private use, with private battery modules able to store 2.5kWh and the industrial versions taking 5.9kWh.

“For the private sector, up to eight modules can be combines to give 20kWh of storage, and they can be scaled for commercial and industrial use,” he said.

ACCUmotive has already delivered more than 60,000 lithium-ion batteries and employs more than 250 people near Stuttgart.
Published : Friday, 29 May 2015

Benz to power houses too - motoring.com.au

We all know that the sun is the greatest sustainable energy source on earth. Since more than over 40 years the Technology helps us to transform this source into power. The problem is the low efficiency: 80% of installed PV panels worldwide have a performance of 15% or lower; but if the panels are not tracked with the sun, the average of annual tilt losses add up to minus 70%.

“We can squeeze more juice out of the sun.”

The Concept

We've been through a long research and creative process, from early studies, concepts and sketches to 3D models, calculations and prototypes, loads of Ball lens studies, through to measuring the performance and the energy transmission values. Through these tests we reached the conclusion that the perfect shape of the ball lens not only has excellent energy transmission, but also the capability to concentrate diffuse light.

____________

The KymoGen Wave Energy Generator is a source of clean, renewable power that will change the world of green energy.

The KymoGen is a platform that will float offshore, tethered to a mooring. When a wave approaches, the platform will rise, pulling on the mooring tether. As the wave passes, the platform resets to its original position for the next wave. The mooring tether is attached to a drive system inside of the KymoGen. When the mooring tether is pulled, it spins a flywheel, which will provide constant power between waves. The energy is then transferred to a generator.

___________

Viaducts with wind turbines, the new renewable energy source

Wind turbines could be installed under some of the biggest bridges on the road network to produce electricity. So it is confirmed by calculations carried out by a European researchers team, that have taken a viaduct in the Canary Islands as a reference. This concept could be applied in heavily built-up territories or natural areas with new constructions limitations.

The Juncal Viaduct, in Gran Canaria, has served as a reference for Spanish and British researchers to verify that the wind blowing between the pillars on this kind of infrastructures can move wind turbines and produce energy.

The study is based in models and computer simulations, which were carried out by researcher Oscar Soto and his colleagues in Kingston University (London). Researchers have presented the wind turbines as porous discs in order to evaluate the air resistance and test different kind of configurations.

"As natural, the more surface is swiped by the rotor, the more power can be produced; however, it was seen that in small turbines the power rate per square meter is higher", explains Soto, who considers that the configurations with two identical turbines would be the most viable to be installed in viaducts.

If only produced power was evaluated, the best solutions would be the installation of two wind turbines with different sizes - in order to embrace the maximum available space-, or even a matrix of 24 small turbines - due to their power production per surface unit and low weight-, but concerning to viability, the best option is the one which includes two medium sized wind turbines.

Results confirm that each viaduct presents specific energy possibilities and wind potential. In the Juncal Viaduct case, the evaluated power would be about 0,25 MW per wind turbine. So, with two turbines, the total power output would be 0,5 MW, which is classified in the medium-power range.

"This would be the equivalent to 450-500 homes average consumption", says Soto, who adds: "This kind of installation would avoid the emission of 140 tons of CO2 per year, an amount that represents the depuration effect of about 7.200 trees".

This research has been promoted by the Canarian company ZECSA. Researchers from Vigo University have taken part to analyze the electrical connections needed to develop the project, along with other researchers from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria University, who were in charge of the integration in the scope of renewable energies ".

In fact, the study has been published in the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews and it is framed in PAINPER, a public infrastructures exploitation plan to boost the use of renewable energies.

"PAINPER is an initiative which emerges from the difficulties seen in the implantation of this kind of energies in heavily built-up territories, as well as protected areas with low available space for new installations", says Aday C. Martín, manager at ZECSA, who considers that renewable energy produced in wind turbines under viaducts could be added to energy from other wind, solar, geothermal and biomass installations.

_____________

Rooftop solar, battery storage to dominate Australian grid

Rooftop solar and battery storage will account for more than half of Australia’s electricity needs by 2040, reducing the need for fossil fuel generation, as the share of fossil fuels falls by more than half to around 40 per cent.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance says Australia’s power sector will fundamentally change over the next two decades, as households and businesses turn to rooftop solar and storage and utilities shift to renewables to replace ageing coal and gas plants.

It is part of a massive global shift, with more than $3 trillion being invested in small-scale solar and battery storage worldwide, as the global energy system becomes largely decentralised.

The report predicts more than 50 per cent of Australia’s generating capacity will be located “behind the meter” by 2040, meaning that consumers will become “pro-sumers”, generating and consuming their own electricity. BNEF predicts 37GW of small-scale solar PV – mostly on rooftops – and 33GW of battery storage will be installed by then.

Wind power generates 140% of Denmark's electricity demand

Unusually high winds allowed Denmark to meet all of its electricity needs – with plenty to spare for Germany, Norway and Sweden too

So much power was produced by Denmark’s windfarms on Thursday that the country was able to meet its domestic electricity demand and export power to Norway, Germany and Sweden.

On an unusually windy day, Denmark found itself producing 116% of its national electricity needs from wind turbines yesterday evening. By 3am on Friday, when electricity demand dropped, that figure had risen to 140%.

Interconnectors allowed 80% of the power surplus to be shared equally between Germany and Norway, which can store it in hydropower systems for use later. Sweden took the remaining fifth of excess power.

“It shows that a world powered 100% by renewable energy is no fantasy,” said Oliver Joy, a spokesman for trade body the European Wind Energy Association. “Wind energy and renewables can be a solution to decarbonisation – and also security of supply at times of high demand.”

____________

Buffett Scores Cheapest Electricity Rate With Nevada Solar Farms

Warren Buffett’s Nevada utility has lined up what may be the cheapest electricity in the U.S., and it’s from a solar farm.

Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s NV Energy agreed to pay 3.87 cents a kilowatt-hour for power from a 100-megawatt project that First Solar Inc. is developing, according to a filing with regulators.

That’s a bargain. Last year the utility was paying 13.77 cents a kilowatt-hour for renewable energy. The rapid decline is a sign that solar energy is becoming a mainstream technology with fewer perceived risks. It’s also related to the 70 percent plunge in the price of panels since 2010, and the fact that the project will be built in Nevada, the third-sunniest state.

“That’s probably the cheapest PPA I’ve ever seen in the U.S.,” Kit Konolige, a utility analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence in New York, said Tuesday. “It helps a lot that they’re in the Southwest when there’s good sun.”

The power-purchase agreement for energy from First Solar’s Playa Solar 2 project was the cheapest offered to NV Energy this year for new power plants. The utility also agreed to pay 4.6 cents a kilowatt-hour for power from SunPower Corp.’s 100-megawatt Boulder Solar project, the best price offered last year.

Both 20-year, fixed-rate contracts were submitted to Nevada’s Public Utilities Commission for approval July 1.

“When compared to existing solar contracts and to other fossil-driven generation,” the rates are “very reasonable,” the utility said in the filing.

__________

Belize to adopt 100% renewables plan

The Caribbean nation of Belize is aiming to use renewable energy to source 100 per cent of its energy needs.

The announcement follows the country’s decision to join the Carbon War Room’s high profile Ten Island Challenge.

The new target will see Belize source 89 per cent of its electricity via clean energy resources by 2033 with the longer term goal being 100 per cent.

The new plan will see a scaling up of wind energy infrastructure complementing the country’s substantial hydropower.

Energy efficiency retrofits will also be a central part of the new plan.

The Belize Ministry of Energy, Science & Technology and Public Utilities’ representative Senator Joy Grant said: “Belize is extremely pleased to join the Ten Island Challenge. As a regional leader in the use of renewable energy, this partnership with the Carbon War Room and Rocky Mountain Institute will allow Belize to make significant strides in realizing its renewable energy production target of 89 per cent in the electricity sector by 2033.”

Belize currently receives about 60 per cent of its electricity via hydroelectric and biomass and the other 40 per cent is supplied via fossil-fuel-fired power plants and generators.

The Ten Island Challenge was started by the Richard Branson backed environmental NGO The Carbon War Room, with the Rocky Mountain Institute and the Clinton Climate Initiative.

___________

World’s first all-electric ferry running 365 days per year in Norway

The world’s first all-electric battery-powered ferry is now running 365 days per year in Norway.

The emission-free Ampere ferry won the “Ship of the Year” award at the SMM trade show in September last year and secured a 10-year license to operate the Lavik-Oppedal route in south-west Norway beginning in 2015.

The vessel has an all-electric powertrain, with two electric motors each with 450 kilowatts of capacity.

The ferry has a capacity of 120 cars and 360 passengers and travels at about 10 knots.

I look at the huge roof areas of the industrial estates and wonder why they are not putting solar panels on them to produce their own power. Rather than take up land to generate power from the sun why not use roof areas, particularly large ones ?

Originally Posted by birding

I look at the huge roof areas of the industrial estates and wonder why they are not putting solar panels on them to produce their own power. Rather than take up land to generate power from the sun why not use roof areas, particularly large ones ?

Like this?





The PacMac-like arrangement of panels produces 1 megawatt of power, or about 900 times the typical home installation.

EU banned Chinese solar power imports because Germans could not compete with the Chinese. There goes EU environmental policy, if there was one.

Almost every Aldi Süd store has one of these




and here is a headoffice

Originally Posted by Exit Strategy

EU banned Chinese solar power imports because Germans could not compete with the Chinese. There goes EU environmental policy, if there was one.

So there are no more solar panels in Europe?

EU = Death