The Land of the Rising Sun is living up to its nickname. According to a new report from the SolarSuperState Association, Japan added 76 annual watts per-capita of solar PV capacity in 2014, placing second just below Qatar and dwarfing gains made by the…
Read MoreFifteen states led by coal-rich West Virginia asked a federal court to stall Obama administration rules intended to cut the use of fossil fuel for power plants and slow climate change.
The request on Thursday is the first move by states to block President Barack Obama’s landmark initiative. It would freeze current regulations as they work to undo the new rules.
The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants by 32 percent by 2030, based on 2005 emission levels, by requiring states and utilities to emit less carbon by using less coal and more solar power, wind power and natural gas.
Read MoreFifteen states led by coal-rich West Virginia asked a federal court to stall Obama administration rules intended to cut the use of fossil fuel for power plants and slow climate change.
The request on Thursday is the first move by states to block President Barack Obama’s landmark initiative. It would freeze current regulations as they work to undo the new rules.
The Clean Power Plan aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from U.S. power plants by 32 percent by 2030, based on 2005 emission levels, by requiring states and utilities to emit less carbon by using less coal and more solar power, wind power and natural gas.
Read MoreDisappointment spread across Tarun Singh’s face when he saw that parts of his solar power microgrid in eastern India’s Bihar state had been stolen.
Batteries meant to store energy stood disconnected from solar panels and drained of essential acid at the site in Kayam village. Singh, chief executive of Veddis Solars Pvt., said he hadn’t been paid the rent due on the small plant since February.
“I’m on the verge of saying goodbye to the state,” he said in an interview at Kayam, surrounded by cobwebs and grime in a control room that’s supposed to be kept clean. Singh, who’d flown from his southern Indian base in Hyderabad to inspect the grids, said he’d consider relocating the equipment.
The episode sheds light on some of the challenges facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for a $94 billion expansion of solar power. While Modi’s ambition has led billionaires such as Foxconn Technology Group’s Terry Gou to pledge investment, the question remains whether the 750 million Indians living on less than $2 per day can afford or will embrace green energy.
Read MoreDisappointment spread across Tarun Singh’s face when he saw that parts of his solar power microgrid in eastern India’s Bihar state had been stolen.
Batteries meant to store energy stood disconnected from solar panels and drained of essential acid at the site in Kayam village. Singh, chief executive of Veddis Solars Pvt., said he hadn’t been paid the rent due on the small plant since February.
“I’m on the verge of saying goodbye to the state,” he said in an interview at Kayam, surrounded by cobwebs and grime in a control room that’s supposed to be kept clean. Singh, who’d flown from his southern Indian base in Hyderabad to inspect the grids, said he’d consider relocating the equipment.
The episode sheds light on some of the challenges facing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for a $94 billion expansion of solar power. While Modi’s ambition has led billionaires such as Foxconn Technology Group’s Terry Gou to pledge investment, the question remains whether the 750 million Indians living on less than $2 per day can afford or will embrace green energy.
Read MoreChina is being encouraged by three industry groups to double the nation’s solar-power goal for 2020 to make up for shortfalls from nuclear and hydropower projects, while India’s installed capacity of solar power could reach 75 GW by 2020. Meanwhile Kenya is installing 75 MW of wind and geothermal while Turkey looks to add 2 GW of wind power capacity ahead of schedule. Stories below.
China Advised to Double Solar Goal to Fill Nuclear, Hydro Gap
China is being encouraged by three industry groups to double the nation’s solar-power goal for 2020 to fill a gap forecast to emerge because nuclear and hydropower are due to fall short of targets.
The world’s biggest solar market needs 200 gigawatts of such capacity by then, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
China Photovoltaic Industry Association, Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association and China Renewable Energy Society, which act as conduits between the government and industry, jointly wrote the document and advised the energy authority in the State Council.
Read MoreChina is being encouraged by three industry groups to double the nation’s solar-power goal for 2020 to make up for shortfalls from nuclear and hydropower projects, while India’s installed capacity of solar power could reach 75 GW by 2020. Meanwhile Kenya is installing 75 MW of wind and geothermal while Turkey looks to add 2 GW of wind power capacity ahead of schedule. Stories below.
China Advised to Double Solar Goal to Fill Nuclear, Hydro Gap
China is being encouraged by three industry groups to double the nation’s solar-power goal for 2020 to fill a gap forecast to emerge because nuclear and hydropower are due to fall short of targets.
The world’s biggest solar market needs 200 gigawatts of such capacity by then, according to a document seen by Bloomberg.
China Photovoltaic Industry Association, Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association and China Renewable Energy Society, which act as conduits between the government and industry, jointly wrote the document and advised the energy authority in the State Council.
Read MoreNew Zealand has built an international brand on environmentalism and the great outdoors. So it is unsurprising that the country generates over three quarters of its electricity from renewable sources, second only to Iceland in the OECD. Presently, the …
Read MoreNew Zealand has built an international brand on environmentalism and the great outdoors. So it is unsurprising that the country generates over three quarters of its electricity from renewable sources, second only to Iceland in the OECD. Presently, the …
Read MoreWith North Carolina’s renewable energy mandate under assault from Republican legislators, green groups seeking to save it have found an unlikely ally: the state’s hog industry.
Smithfield Foods Inc. and other companies that raise and slaughter pigs have put aside decades of disagreements and united — for the moment — with environmentalists to defend the only state law in the nation that lists swine manure as a renewable resource.
Smithfield has been the target of lawsuits, petitions and political campaigns for stashing hog manure in football-field size lagoons or spraying it on farm fields. Now the company says it has found a way to green its process: capturing the biogas rising off the manure and using it to make electricity.
Unless, that is, a Republican-led drive succeeds to rescind tax incentives and requirements for utilities to use renewable energy.
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