NOW can we have funds for renewable energy?

[boutons_deux]

Rooftop Solar Cost Compe ive with the Grid in Much of the U.S.

According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the cost of putting solar panels on a typical American house has fallen by some 70 percent over the last decade and a half. And a recent report from Deutsche Bank shows that solar has already achieved so-called “price parity” with fossil fuel-based grid power in 10 U.S. states.

Deutsche Bank goes on to say that solar electricity is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than average electricity-bill prices in all but three states by 2016—assuming,that is, that the federal government maintains the 30 percent solar investment tax credit it currently offers homeowners on installation and equipment costs.

But therein could lie the rub. The federal tax credit for residential solar installations expires in 2016, and it’s anybody’s guess whether and to what extent the Republican-dominated Congress will renew it. Legislative analysts report that while Congress is unlikely to abandon the program entirely, big cutbacks could be on the way.

But Deutsche Bank maintains that even if the credit is reduced to 10 percent, solar power would still achieve price parity with conventional electricity in some 36 states by 2016.

Meanwhile, homeowners in states where additional local incentives are available and there’s lots of sunshine—such as across the Southwest—may in fact already be able to power their homes cheaper with the sun than from the grid. Homeowners looking to go solar should check out the Database of State Incentives for Renewable and Efficiency (DSIRE), a free online database of all the different state and local incentives for solar and other forms of renewable energy.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...SA_SP_20141208

[boutons_deux]

Report: Distributed-Renewables Disruption Will Reduce Utility Revenues By Up To $123 Billion A Year By 2025




The ongoing growth of distributed renewable energy generation throughout the US and Europe will see utility-company revenues reduced by as much as $123 billion a year by 2025, according to a new report from the consulting company Accenture.

That new report — led the Digitally Enabled Grid report — clearly states that if the utilities wish to maintain a market share comparable to that of today, the companies will need to “fundamentally transform their business models.”

http://cleantechnica.com/2014/12/29/report-distributed-renewables-disruption-will-reduce-utility-revenues-us123-billion-year-2025/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaig n=Feed%3A+IM-cleantechnica+%28CleanTechnica%29

I expect huge, transformative breakthrough(s) in battery tech (high density storage, cheaper, smaller, longer life), which will allow Ms of home and businesses with sufficient solar to go off-grid.

[CosmicCowboy]

WTF are you talking about?

That's what state and federal taxes on fuel are for.

Subsidized my ass. We already pay for them.

Fuel taxes can't even pay to maintain the roads we have, much less build new ones.

The interstate highway system as we know it was originally built as a function of national defense to allow convoys including tanks to easily navigate across country to critical locations.

[boutons_deux]

The Gas Tax Is Running on Empty





Over the next decade the fund has a projected shortfall of $170 billion. The White House is pushing a plan that would generate four years of highway funds in part by closing some corporate tax loopholes. Republicans strongly oppose the idea.

First passed in 1956 to pay for the more than 40,000 miles of road in the Interstate Highway System, it’s been stuck at 18.4¢ a gallon since 1993—the longest it’s ever gone without an increase.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...way-trust-fund

Repugs will very certainly up the federal highway fund funding and fedaral roads, bridges, they up everything.

[cantthinkofanything]

The Gas Tax Is Running on Empty



Over the next decade the fund has a projected shortfall of $170 billion. The White House is pushing a plan that would generate four years of highway funds in part by closing some corporate tax loopholes. Republicans strongly oppose the idea.

First passed in 1956 to pay for the more than 40,000 miles of road in the Interstate Highway System, it’s been stuck at 18.4¢ a gallon since 1993—the longest it’s ever gone without an increase.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles...way-trust-fund

Repugs will very certainly up the federal highway fund funding and fedaral roads, bridges, they up everything.

What if they buildided more toll roads?

[boutons_deux]

What if they buildided more toll roads?

new roads aren't the problem or solution. it's maintaining current roads and bridges.

The Repugs will block ALL solutions, ALL progress. It's their ideology. Govt cannot be allowed to serve the nation's needs.

privatization always works, is always better the govt (except when taxpayers bail out private losers)

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/terriha...tcy-on-sh-130/

[cantthinkofanything]

new roads aren't the problem or solution. it's maintaining current roads and bridges.

The Repugs will block ALL solutions, ALL progress. It's their ideology. Govt cannot be allowed to serve the nation's needs.

privatization always works, is always better the govt (except when taxpayers bail out private losers)

http://blog.mysanantonio.com/terriha...tcy-on-sh-130/

Just build the toll roads and leave the others as is or spend whatever is left to improve them.

[boutons_deux]

Just build the toll roads and leave the others as is or spend whatever is left to improve them.

[boutons_deux]

Why 2015 Will Be the Year of Solar Energy

The Year Solar Caught On in the U.S.

2014 has been the start of consumers and utilities alike understanding the positive impact solar can make. GTM Research expects about 6.5 GW of solar energy to be installed in the U.S. in 2014, enough to power nearly 1.1 million homes. But over half of those installations fall in a relatively small area in California and Arizona, so this isn't a nationwide trend -- yet.

You can see below that 10 states (not including Hawaii, where solar has long been cost-compe ive) are now seeing residential solar systems cost-compe ive with the grid, and by 2017 the estimated number jumps to 28 states. In 2015, a growing infrastructure from solar installers will bring solar to new states, expanding the industry's reach.






http://www.dailyfinance.com/2014/12/...-solar-energy/

[Winehole23]

Swamp coolers?

The notion of a giant utility regarding the melting and refreezing ice cubes as a realistic way of storing power would have seemed fanciful a few years ago—or even 12 months ago.

But next year, pursuant to a deal announced with utility Southern California Edison in November, Ice Energy will install 2,000 of its $10,000 Ice Bear units throughout Orange County, California. Erected adjacent to air conditioners, they use cheap electricity at night to turn tap water into a 450-pound ice block. During the day, refrigerant liquid is funneled from air conditioners through the Ice Bear, which cools it off and sends it back to the AC unit. The process saves an amount of electricity equivalent to taking a 5-ton commercial air conditioner offline for six hours. “We’re able to provide cooling without using any electricity other than using the fan,” says chief executive officer Mike Hopkins. (Watch a video on how the machines work below.) In all, the Ice Bears will provide SCE with the equivalent of 26 megawatts of storage capacity—enough to power several thousand homes for a few hours.

http://www.slate.com/articles/busine...ergy_here.html

[Winehole23]

In addition to Ice Energy, SCE contracted with three large companies that provide different varieties of battery-based storage: 100 megawatts of free-standing battery capacity from AES , 50 megawatts of battery systems that fit inside buildings from Advanced Microgrid Solutions, and another 85 megawatts of storage from Stem, which relies on advanced predictive analysis to dial building and battery usage up and down.



What’s so great about storage? After all, batteries and the Ice Bear don’t create new power. But they’re less noisy and intrusive than power plants—and provoke much less NIMBYism. The Ice Bears, for example, reside unobtrusively on roofs and in mechanical rooms near existing air-conditioning equipment. They start up more rapidly than power plants. And they make it easier for systems to manage the rising amount of intermittent energy coursing through the system—wind power that ebbs in calm periods and solar power that goes dark at night. “It allows you to store energy at times when it is either less expensive to generate, or is cleaner energy, and then discharge it when you have a need for it,” SCE’s Cushnie says.



This is good news for companies like Ice Energy, but also for other en ies in the business of providing power. The Imperial Irrigation District, which provides electricity and water to California’s Imperial Valley, was ordered to increase its reliability as part of a settlement after a blackout in 2011. A few years ago, says Bruce Townsend, superintendent alternative energy at the Imperial Irrigation District, the only way to do so “would have been through fossil-fuel generation.” But instead of building a new gas-powered plant, IID is constructing a20 megawatt battery.

[boutons_deux]

Wind power saved the Texas power grid from the Polar Vortex

Texas is a wind power superstar. The state went from 184 megawatts of wind capacity in 2000 to 12,212 megawatts in 2012, and I'm sure that when the 2013 numbers are out, we'll see a much higher number.

That compares very favorably to the wind power #2 state, which is Caliofornia with 5,549MW in 2012, less than half the wind capacity of Texas.



This investment in clean energy saved Texas' bacon during the polar vortex that dropped temperatures across most of North-America (check out these amazing photos for 'Chiberia'). After all, record cold weather means record energy demand; on Tuesday at 8 a.m. CST, demand reached a never seen before peak of 57,277 megawatts.

Thankfully: "Sufficient generation and higher wind output from West Texas wind farms boosted the state's electric supply Tuesday compared to Monday when the grid operator declared an emergency as power plants shut unexpectedly, reducing supply."

Texas is not the only state where wind played a crucial role in the past few days. The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) has a piece about it here.

http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-...ar-vortex.html

[RandomGuy]

What a deceptive article.

Boutons...

Do you know why, or do I need spell it out?

Oh please.

Dazzle us with your critical thinking skills.

[RandomGuy]

Fuel taxes can't even pay to maintain the roads we have, much less build new ones.

The interstate highway system as we know it was originally built as a function of national defense to allow convoys including tanks to easily navigate across country to critical locations.

Correct. We have kept building new roads for decades, without increasing the taxes meant to maintain them.

Not hard to see that system running a deficit, as our infrastructure is doing nationally.

We will need to spend money to keep our country from literally falling apart. I wonder who has to die to make the Norquist motivated dumbassery of never raising taxes for any reason whatsoever into the "also ran" idea it deserves to be?

http://www.economist.com/news/united...s-bridging-gap
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...structure.html

Estimated required maintenance spending by 2020:
3.6T

http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/

[boutons_deux]

"Fuel taxes can't even pay to maintain the roads we have, much less build new ones"

It worked fine for about 50 years, then the Repugs got into power in the early 90s, and, since then, they have accelerated America's (infrastructure) decline while protecting/enriching BigCorp and 1%.

What's your solution, O Adored Businessman?

[boutons_deux]

"Estimated required maintenance spending by 2020:
3.6T"

estimated wasted on MIC corporate welfare by 2020: $2.5T

then add in all the $Ts avoided/evaded by BigCorp and the 1%.

America is EXTREMELY wealthy, can pay for all its solutions, but the plutocratic oligarchy has ed America.

[Winehole23]

...

[boutons_deux]

Repugs will block it, but anyway ...

Obama administration sets agenda to modernize energy infrastructure

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced plans to modernize the country's aging energy infrastructure and make it more resilient to challenges ranging from extreme weather to changing domestic energy production.

The Quadrennial Energy Review, more than a year in the making, recommends a program that would accelerate natural gas pipeline replacement, modernize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and award up to $350 million to help states improve the reliability of their electricity delivery.

The report, which is the administration's first attempt to analyze the country's energy systems, highlights several opportunities to overhaul and invest in U.S. energy transmission, storage and distribution networks and offers policy recommendations for lawmakers and officials.

The massive expansion of domestic oil and gas production, and the ensuing congestion on rails and waterways to transport these fuels, and the rapid boom in renewable energy have major energy policy implications, as does the vulnerability of the electrical grid to extreme weather and cyber attacks, the report said.

Addressing these issues "will require action by many parties in the private sector, and coordinated public sector action at the federal, state, and local levels," the White House said in a fact sheet.

President Barack Obama called for the launch of the QER when he announced his Climate Action Plan in June 2013.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...e=domesticNews

[Wild Cobra]

Repugs will block it, but anyway ...

Obama administration sets agenda to modernize energy infrastructure

The Obama administration on Tuesday announced plans to modernize the country's aging energy infrastructure and make it more resilient to challenges ranging from extreme weather to changing domestic energy production.

The Quadrennial Energy Review, more than a year in the making, recommends a program that would accelerate natural gas pipeline replacement, modernize the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and award up to $350 million to help states improve the reliability of their electricity delivery.

The report, which is the administration's first attempt to analyze the country's energy systems, highlights several opportunities to overhaul and invest in U.S. energy transmission, storage and distribution networks and offers policy recommendations for lawmakers and officials.

The massive expansion of domestic oil and gas production, and the ensuing congestion on rails and waterways to transport these fuels, and the rapid boom in renewable energy have major energy policy implications, as does the vulnerability of the electrical grid to extreme weather and cyber attacks, the report said.

Addressing these issues "will require action by many parties in the private sector, and coordinated public sector action at the federal, state, and local levels," the White House said in a fact sheet.

President Barack Obama called for the launch of the QER when he announced his Climate Action Plan in June 2013.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/...e=domesticNews

Demonrats just love to spend other people's money.

[boutons_deux]

Demonrats just love to spend other people's money.

ideologically blinded assholes can't see for the in the eyes. EVERYBODY agrees the US electrical grid is both antiquated AND cyber-attack vulnerable.

[Winehole23]

http://fs-unep-centre.org/sites/defa...y_findings.pdf

[Winehole23]

The first of these charts, showing the drop in the cost of batteries, is from a study in Nature Climate Change by Bjorn Nykvist and Mans Nilsson. The second, showing the fall in the cost of installing solar panels for electricity generation, is from a report by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories.


These are the two pieces to the global energy revolution. Solar power, after decades of being much too expensive to replace conventional electricity sources, has fallen exponentially in cost. That will allow countries to build solar farms instead of new coal- and gas-burning power plants. At first, the change will come in sunny locales, and in poor countries where energy is expensive. Eventually, though, almost every country will start building solar on a mass scale. The shift is already happening.


Batteries are the other piece of the renewables puzzle. They solve two huge problems -- transportation, and electricity generation intermittency. You can’t really power cars with solar panels, so to replace oil as a fuel for ships and cars, solar will need some energy-dense storage medium like batteries. Also, solar panels can’t generate electricity at night, so batteries help solve this problem.


Importantly, both of these technologies are experiencing relatively steady cost reductions. That implies that progress is due not to huge new breakthrough technologies, but to learning curves. The more solar and batteries we build, the better we get at building them. That means that we don’t have to hope and pray for big breakthroughs -- we just have to wait for the costs to fall enough.

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...getting-better

[Winehole23]

Perhaps the biggest surprise last year came from smaller countries that often don't register on charts like the one above. For the first time, more than half of the world's annual investment in clean energy came from emerging markets.

Even more telling is that the world has reached a turning point, and is now adding more power capacity from renewables every year than from coal, natural gas, and oil combined. That trend continued in 2015 despite crashing fossil fuel prices.


And since clean energy is also getting cheaper, the world got more bang for each buck. Investment dollars rose 4 percent last year, while the new capacity added for wind and solar jumped 30 percent.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...he-unthinkable

[Winehole23]

The U.S. solar installation sector employs 77% more people than the domestic coal mining industry.

Since 2014, solar installation has created more jobs than oil and gas pipeline construction and crude petroleum and natural

gas extraction combined.

http://www.thesolarfoundation.org/wp...obs-Census.pdf

[RandomGuy]

http://www.bloombergview.com/article...getting-better

Pretty much.

The big advantage of renewables for developing countries, is that you don't really have to have a fuel distribution chain to support power plants. PV and wind don't even require water to operate.