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Showing posts with label Alternative Energy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alternative Energy. Show all posts

2/16/22

European Energy Crises: How to Solve Europe’s Energy Crisis - by Sam Buchan

Amidst the backdrop of a frenzied world tour to secure contingencies in the event of a catastrophic energy crisis, EU representatives attended the 9th U.S.-EU Energy Council. Still, throughout all the statements and optimistic tweets pointing to vague targets like greater “cooperation,” the solution seemed elusive.

Political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic must acknowledge that the status quo got Europe into the crisis today. They would be wise to change course both through their action and their words immediately.

Read more at: How to Solve Europe’s Energy Crisis | RealClearEnergy

1/20/22

USA-Alternative Enegy: Solar panels and battery storage are the future of how the U.S. gets its power

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released its latest findings this month as part of its multi-year Storage Futures Study. The 45-page report, NREL’s sixth in this series, is filled with surprisingly good news. According to the agency’s modeling of high storage scenarios, solar could meet the country’s energy needs by 2050. The NREL modeled five different scenarios, ranging from a reference scenario that “follows all reference assumptions for cost and technology evolution through 2050” to a Zero Carbon scenario that heavily relies on storage but also shows the U.S. energy grid emitting no carbon whatsoever by 2050, with emissions slashed 95% by 2035. The Zero Carbon scenario proved surprisingly robust compared with other scenarios, such as a future in which natural gas costs are high but battery costs are low.

The Zero Carbon scenario proposes a world in which gas-fired generation is eliminated and daily storage instead does the job of providing ‘round-the-clock power generation, factoring in storage options that exceed the four-hour capacity of the most commonly used storage technologies from today, such as eight-hour and 10-hour batteries. A prior report put forth the estimate that storage could increase fivefold by 2050 to 125 GW or more. The latest study from NREL puts that number even higher at between 213 GW to 932 GW, depending on the scenario. The U.S. certainly appears to be heading in the right direction when it comes to storage. According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. could have 10 times its 2019 amount of 1,650 MW of battery storage installed by 2024, putting the capacity at 16.5 GW.

Read more at: Solar panels and battery storage are the future of how the U.S. gets its power

11/20/21

Aircraft Industry: Rolls-Royce says its all-electric aircraft 'is world's fastest'

Rolls-Royce believes its Spirit of Innovation plane could be the world's fastest all-electric aircraft.

The firm - whose aerospace headquarters are based in Derby - said the plane reached a top speed of 387.4 mph (623 km/h) during test runs at an experimental aircraft testing site.

Read more at: Rolls-Royce says its all-electric aircraft 'is world's fastest' - BBC News

11/9/21

Alternative Energy: We Can Love Electric Cars, But Let's Not Spurn Biofuels - by Dan Morgan

The Biden administration, the European Union, China and General Motors want to make battery-powered electric cars the champion of motorists worldwide.

At the same time, U.S. and European agricultural interests and investors are pouring serious money into biofuels that go into cars and trucks running on liquid fuels.

Read more at: We Can Love Electric Cars, But Let's Not Spurn Biofuels - The Globalist

11/1/21

Global Warming: Could a technological fix save the planet from climate change?

UN climate experts were unanimous in their latest report published in August: Unless we keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the earth will be racked by heatwaves, cyclones and storms, entire species will be wiped out, and large swathes of humanity will have to leave their homes when coastal settlements go underwater.

As despair growths about humanity’s ability to avoid this fateful threshold, researchers are looking at geoengineering as a potential means of reversing the damage.

“Geoengineering is a way of using various technological tools to cancel out the environmental effects of human actions,” explained Sofia Kabbej, a researcher in the Climate, Energy and Security Programme at France’s Institute of International and Strategic Relations.

Read nore at: Could a technological fix save the planet from climate change?

5/29/21

Two sides of the coin: More electric cars on the road will mean increased mining for what goes in their batteries

With all major auto manufacturers bringing electric vehicles into production in an effort to catch up to the popularity of Tesla, there will be a rising demand for metals and other resources necessary for the manufacture of millions of new batteries. This raises concerns about the environmental and social impact of more intense mining operations

Read more at: More electric cars on the road will mean increased mining for what goes in their batteries | CBC Radio

5/23/21

USA - Alternative Energy: Turn off the gas: is America ready to embrace electric vehicles?

In Detroit, auto plants have for decades churned out trucks built with Motor City steel and fueled by gasoline. But this week’s rollout of the Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck offered a vision of the future in America’s automotive heartland: aluminum-clad pickups running off of electric powertrains with lithium batteries.

An electric model of the nation’s best-selling vehicle at an accessible $40,000 has the potential to shift the auto industry’s course, and do more to advance the transportation sector’s electrification than any recent development, analysts say.

Read more at Turn off the gas: is America ready to embrace electric vehicles? | Automotive industry | The Guardian

1/19/21

Car Industry Alternative Energy: Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced

Batteries capable of fully charging in five minutes have been produced in a factory for the first time, marking a significant step towards electric cars becoming as fast to charge as filling up petrol or diesel vehicles.

Electric vehicles are a vital part of action to tackle the climate crisis but running out of charge during a journey is a worry for drivers. The new lithium-ion batteries were developed by the Israeli company StoreDot and manufactured by Eve Energy in China on standard production lines.

Read more at: Electric car batteries with five-minute charging times produced | Electric, hybrid and low-emission cars | The Guardian

9/23/20

Electric Cars: Tesla’s value drops $50 billion as cheaper batteries three years away

Investors slashed $50 billion from Tesla Inc’s market value on Tuesday (22 September) despite CEO Elon Musk’s promise to cut electric vehicle costs so radically that a $25,000 car that drives itself will be possible, but not for at least three years.

Nothing Musk discussed about batteries is a done deal,” said Roth Capital Partners analyst Craig Irwin. “There was nothing tangible.”

Tesla’s new larger cylindrical cells will provide five times more energy, six times more power and far greater driving range, Musk said, adding that full production is about three years away.

To help reduce cost, Musk said Tesla planned to recycle battery cells at its Nevada “gigafactory,” while reducing cobalt – one of the most expensive battery materials – to virtually zero. It also plans to manufacture its own battery cells at several highly automated factories around the world.

Shares in two battery suppliers to Tesla, South Korea’s LG Chem and Japan’s Panasonic Corp, fell after the announcement.

Increasing the EU’s domestic supply of critical raw materials and cutting external dependencies got top billing in a new European Commission strategy on Thursday (3 September), as the bloc started to get serious about its Green Deal and digital agenda.

Tesla will produce the new battery cells initially on a new assembly line near its vehicle plant in Fremont, California, with planned output reaching 10 gigawatt-hours a year by the end of 2021. Tesla and partner Panasonic Corp now have production capacity of around 35 gWh at the Nevada battery “gigafactory”.

Tesla aims to rapidly ramp up battery production over the next years, to 3 terawatt-hours a year, or 3,000 gigawatt-hours – roughly 85 times greater than the capacity of the Nevada plant. Musk said Tesla could supply batteries to other companies.

As automakers shift from horsepower to kilowatts to comply with stricter environmental regulations, investors are looking for evidence that Tesla can increase its lead in electrification technology over legacy automakers who generate most of their sales and profits from combustion-engine vehicles.
While average electric vehicle prices have decreased in recent years thanks to changes in battery composition, they are still more expensive than conventional cars, with the battery estimated to make up a quarter to a third of an electric vehicle’s cost.

Some researchers estimate that price parity, or the point at which electric vehicles are equal in value to internal combustion cars, is reached when battery packs cost $100 per kilowatt hour (kWh).

Tesla’s battery packs cost $156 per kWh in 2019, according to electric vehicle consulting firm Cairn Energy Research Advisors. 
 
Read more at:  Tesla’s value drops $50 billion as cheaper batteries three years away – EURACTIV.com

1/17/20

Automobile industry: Exclusive: Volkswagen to buy 20% of Chinese battery maker Guoxuan amid electric push

VW Hatchback electric
Volkswagen AG is set to take a 20% stake in Chinese electric vehicle battery maker Guoxuan High-tech Co Ltd, two sources told Reuters, as the German firm accelerates its electric push into the world’s largest auto market.

The deal would mark Volkswagen’s first direct ownership in a Chinese battery maker and comes as the Wolfsburg-based automaker strives to meet a goal of selling 1.5 million new energy vehicles (NEVs) a year in China by 2025, including plug-in hybrid cars.

The top foreign automaker in China plans to acquire the stake in Shenzhen-listed Guoxuan via a discounted private share placement in the coming weeks, the two sources with knowledge of the matter said. Based on Guoxuan’s market capitalization of $2.8 billion, a 20% stake in the company at present is worth about $560 million.

The deal’s details have been mostly finalized and the two firms are waiting for new Chinese regulatory rules on private share placements that will provide a more flexible pricing mechanism and shorter lock-up periods for majority shareholders, said one of the people, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Read more: Exclusive: Volkswagen to buy 20% of Chinese battery maker Guoxuan amid electric push - sources - Reuters

2/7/19

EU Alternative Clean Energy - Windpower: Europe adds 2.6 GW of offshore wind in 2018

Irish Windpark
The European offshore wind industry added 2,649 MW of net capacity in 2018, the bulk of which in the UK and Germany, but saw installations drop 15.8% from the record 2017, show statistics by WindEurope, released today.

The capacity additions bring Europe’s total offshore wind capacity to 18,499 MW, coming from 105 plants in 11 countries. A total of 409 wind turbines across 18 wind farms started generating power in 2018. Most of the machines were installed in the UK and Germany -- 1,312 MW and 969 MW, respectively. The two countries accounted for 85% of Europe’s fresh offshore wind capacity and were followed by Belgium with 309 MW and Denmark with 61 MW.

“The technology keeps developing. The turbines keep getting bigger. And the costs keep falling. It’s now no more expensive to build offshore wind than it is to build coal or gas plants,” WindEurope’s CEO Giles Dickson said.

In the past year, EUR 10.3 billion (USD 11.7bn) of projects, representing 4.2 GW of capacity, reached final investment decisions (FIDs). The investment amount is 37% higher in annual terms compared to 2017, while the capacity covered rose by 91% due to the quickly falling costs. This amount has supported the 4.2 GW of projects, that are expected to come online in the next couple of years.

A Danish offshore Windpark
WindEurope highlighted in the statistics that turbines and wind farms are getting larger, with the average turbine size reaching 6.8 MW last year, or 15% greater than it was in 2017. The biggest offshore wind turbine, MHI Vestas Offshore Wind's machine with a capacity of 8.8 MW, was switched on at the 657-MW Walney 3 Extension offshore wind farm in the UK. In terms of manufacturers, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (BME:SGRE) and MHI Vestas were responsible for 95% of all connected turbines in 2018, with shares of 62% and 33% respectively.

According to WindEurope’s data, six offshore wind parks are currently being built in Europe, among which is the 1,218-MW Hornsea 1 in the North Sea, the first offshore complex globally with a capacity exceeding 1 GW.

WindEurope’s CEO pointed out that more governments are “recognising the merits of offshore wind,” giving Poland as an example and its plans to add 10 GW by 2040, while there are still some that are not taking advantage of offshore wind’s potential, including Sweden and France.

Read more: Europe adds 2.6 GW of offshore wind in 2018

11/13/18

Aircraft Industry - Alternative Energy: Electric flying taxi service - Lilium poaches key hires from Audi, Airbus - by Jonathan Shieberby

Major Changes Are Coming In The Aircraft Industry
Lilium, the developer of a new electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle for a novel flying taxi service, has poached some pretty big former executives from Airbus and Audi as it builds out its technology and gets ready to bring its service to market.

Mirko Reuter, the former head of automated driving at Audi, has come on board as the head of autonomous flight at Lilium. Jakob Waeschenbach, who worked as the head of equipment installation at Airbus, and Rochus Moenter, former vice president of Airbus’ finance and leasing group, have joined Lilium as head of aircraft assembly and general counsel and head of legal, respectively.
 
Co-founded in 2015 by Daniel Wiegand, Sebastian Born, Patrick Nathen and Matthias Meiner, 

Lilium’s vision is to create a network for its proprietary vertical take-off and landing vehicles that will slash the costs of air travel and can ostensibly take a passenger from Paris to London in about an hour.

Read more: Electric flying taxi service Lilium poaches key hires from Audi, Airbus | TechCrunch

5/7/18

Solar Power Future Bright: New Estimates Show Rapid Growth in Off Grid Renewables - by Irena

The supply of electricity from mini-grids and small solar devices, such as solar home systems and solar lights is growing especially fast.

This part of the energy sector, including power generation from these sources, is often missing from official energy statistics. But evidence of their growing importance can be seen in solar panel import statistics and development project databases.

During 2017, IRENA collected detailed data about off-grid power developments to determine current estimates of off-grid capacity. Data sources included biannual market surveys from the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association, the OECD-DAC development project database, national and regional power plant databases, off-grid data gathered via IRENA questionnaires, and information obtained from organisations such as REN21 and the Alliance for Rural Electrification.

New data from IRENA shows that about 115 million people worldwide currently rely on the basic energy services provided by solar lights, while another 25 million obtain a higher level of renewable energy services through solar home systems or connection to a solar mini-grid. In addition to solar power, over 6 million people are currently connected to hydropower mini-grids, while another 300,000 people use biogas power.

The supply of electricity from mini-grids and small solar devices, such as solar home systems and solar lights is growing especially fast. This part of the energy sector, including power generation from these sources, is often missing from official energy statistics. But evidence of their growing importance can be seen in solar panel import statistics and development project databases.

During 2017, IRENA collected detailed data about off-grid power developments to determine current estimates of off-grid capacity. Data sources included biannual market surveys from the Global Off-Grid Lighting Association, the OECD-DAC development project database, national and regional power plant databases, off-grid data gathered via IRENA questionnaires, and information obtained from organisations such as REN21 and the Alliance for Rural Electrification.

Read morL New Estimates Show Rapid Growth in Off-Grid Renewables - Modern Diplomacy

11/19/17

Electric Vehicles: Tesla unveils electric Semi truck, new Roadster

American automaker Tesla unveiled a new electric semitractor-trailer simply called the Semi, and a roadster at an event in Hawthorn, California, U.S., on Nov. 16. CEO Elon Musk stated that production for the Semi would commence in 2019 and customers can put down a $5,000 deposit for the electric truck.

Read more: Tesla unveils electric Semi truck, new Roadster

11/3/17

The Netherlands: Microsoft Signs New PPA for Wind Farm Electricity in the Netherlands - by Alyssa Danigelis

Microsoft signed a PPA with the Swedish state-owned energy company Vattenfall to purchase all the electricity produced from a new 180-megawatt wind farm being built in the Netherlands, according to an announcement this week. The farm will be located in the Wieringermeer polder, near Amsterdam, next to Microsoft’s data center operations.

The 10-year deal, one of the largest wind PPAs in the Netherlands, is Vattenfall’s first with a data center outside Nordic countries. Nuon, part of Vattenfall, will be responsible for constructing and operating the wind farm. Eventually the company plans to expand the project to include 100 windmills, according to Microsoft. “That will allow the production of approximately 1.3 billion kilowatt hours of renewable electricity,” the announcement says.

The tech giant’s data center operations in the Netherlands are a regional hub for Microsoft Cloud service customers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and beyond. Vattenfall and Microsoft already had a partnership prior to the PPA — the energy company uses Microsoft’s cloud-based tools for its business operations including the enterprise platform Azure for analytics.

Lately Microsoft has been on a roll with renewable energy. Last month the company signed a deal for 100% of the energy produced by GE’s new 37-megawatt wind farm in Ireland. Recently Microsoft opened a pilot for a data center in Seattle that uses integrated fuel cells and natural gas rather than power from the electrical grid. The company’s Cloud Infrastructure and Operations team hopes the fuel cells can one day work with renewable biogas instead.

The Wieringermeer site currently has 93 turbines that are set to be replaced with more powerful machines, Wind Power Monthly reported. “Combined with an adjacent extension the project’s additional capacity of 115 MW, Wieringermeer will have 100 turbines in total with a total capacity of 295 MW when completed,” reporter Craig Richard wrote. “Vattenfall will own 82 of these turbines, the nearby Energy Research Center of the Netherlands will own 17, and the remaining turbine will be reserved for local residents, the developer said.”

Construction on Vattenfall’s new wind farm is planned to start next year. The partners expect additional generation capacity to become available in 2020. Once the project is completed, it will likely be one of the largest wind farms in the Netherlands.

Read more: Microsoft Signs New PPA for Wind Farm Electricity in the Netherlands - Energy Manager Today

10/27/17

Germany -Alternative Energy: Self-driving bus starts first route in Germany

German railway company Deutsche Bahn has introduced an autonomous bus to drive passengers along a pre-programmed route in Bavaria. In case of an emergency, a human driver can take control with a joystick.

The electric vehicle delivered its first passengers on Wednesday in Bad Birnach, Bavaria, starting on its eight-minute route from the town's hot springs to the central area and the railway station. The EZ10 bus has six places to sit and can take in a further six standing passengers, and the ride is free of charge.

It's the first time a self-driving bus has been incorporated in Germany's public transport system.

Among the first group to ride the self-driving bus was Richard Lutz, the head of the German railway giant Deutsche Bahn (DB), the company behind the pilot project.

Read more: Self-driving bus starts first route in Germany | News | DW | 26.10.2017

10/9/17

EU - Alternative energy : Almost 90% of new power in Europe from renewable sources in 2016 - by Adam Vaughan

A sign of the EUs rapid shift away from fossil fuels
Renewable energy sources made up nearly nine-tenths of new power added to Europe’s electricity grids last year, in a sign of the continent’s rapid shift away from fossil fuels.

But industry leaders said they were worried about the lack of political support beyond 2020, when binding EU renewable energy targets end.

Of the 24.5GW of new capacity built across the EU in 2016, 21.1GW – or 86% – was from wind, solar, biomass and hydro, eclipsing the previous high-water mark of 79% in 2014.

For the first time windfarms accounted for more than half of the capacity installed, the data from trade body WindEurope showed.

Wind power overtook coal to become the EU’s second largest form of power capacity after gas. .

Germany installed the most new wind capacity in 2016, while France, the Netherlands, Finland, Ireland and Lithuania all set new records for windfarm installations.

Read more: Almost 90% of new power in Europe from renewable sources in 2016 | Environment | The Guardia