Superior technology and competitive pricing are the tools natural gas deployed to bump coal off the leading position for power generation in the US. Well, turnabout is fair play. Now renewable energy is applying the same workbox to put the screws on natural gas. It’s not just happening in the power generation space. A new renewable hydrogen project in California could also shake natural gas loose from its grip on energy for building systems, including cooking, laundry, heating, and cooling. Somewhat ironically, the main source for hydrogen currently is natural gas. Renewable alternatives are beginning to emerge, though. One pathway is to use biogas instead of fossil gas. Another is to “split” hydrogen from water using an electrical current powered with wind, solar, or other renewables. Water splitting, aka power-to-gas, is beginning to take hold globally and that’s the basis for the new California project. The work pairs Southern California Gas Co. (aka SoCalGas) and German power-to-gas specialist Electrochaea in something called biomethanation. That’s fancyspeak for a complex process that starts with generating renewable energy — in this case, solar power — and using it to split hydrogen gas from water. The next step is where things get tricky. The hydrogen is doped with carbon dioxide and sent to a bioreactor stocked with water-dwelling microorganisms.

Clean Technica 15th Aug 2019 read more »

An onshore wind company is taking legal action against the Government in a row over how it auctions off contracts to support low-carbon energy production. Banks Renewables, which develops onshore wind farms, has applied for judicial review and claims that the auction rules discriminate against onshore wind projects. Onshore wind is the cheapest renewable energy source in the UK, providing 10pc of the country’s electricity, but providers are blocked from taking Government subsidies and banned from competing in the state-backed clean energy contract auctions. The auctions relate to contracts under which the state guarantees developers of low-carbon energy projects a fixed price for their electricity. Durham-based Banks Renewables, part of Banks Group which runs coal mines in the UK, said that the exclusion of fully consented onshore wind farms from the auction process was “against the public interest [and] prevents consumers from benefiting from the lower energy prices that would result from their inclusion”.

Telegraph 16th Aug 2019 read more »

Researchers have developed a high-resolution geospatial method of assessing the solar potential of all buildings in the EU and concluded rooftop PV could provide a quarter of the bloc’s electricity needs. The scientists say grid parity for rooftop solar has been reached outside eastern member states with cheap fossil fuel electricity.

PV Magazine 16th Aug 2019 read more »

A council-owned solar farm has smashed generation targets in its third year of operation, taking its overall income to £4 million. The 12.4MW solar farm at Toggam Farm in Lakenheath generated 12,631MWh of electricity in the past year, surpassing its target of 11,591MWh. This saw West Suffolk Council receive an income of £1.5 million from the farm, £100,000 more than expected. The income – its highest from the farm – came from a combination of selling electricity to the grid and income from Renewable Obligation Certificates.

Solar Power Portal 15th Aug 2019 read more »

How Melbourne revolutionized how cities can switch to renewable power. Sick of waiting for broader policy to change, the Australian city helped finance a massive wind farm by making a commitment to 10 years of renewable purchases. The city’s manager of urban sustainability explains how your city can do it, too. As a local government in Australia, Melbourne, has no policy control or ownership of our electricity generation assets or grid. Globally, we are seeing the lack of national and international action kick city governments into action. This is a good thing. We’re already leading, despite the obstacles. In Melbourne, where I’m the manager of urban sustainability, we’re tired of waiting for state and federal policy to move. So, we set out to find a new way for the city and other large energy users in Melbourne to take voluntary action to accelerate the removal of carbon from the grid.

Fast Company 15th Aug 2019 read more »

British Gas is today celebrating one of the largest combined green energy contracts to date, after more than 4,500 Catholic churches and suppliers signed up to source renewable gas and power from the utility. The company announced today that it has reached a deal with the Catholic Church’s energy procurement group, Inter-diocesan Fuel Management (IFM), which covers 2,800 churches from 20 of the 22 Catholic dioceses in England and Wales, including landmarks such as Westminster, Nottingham, and Plymouth cathedrals.

Business Green 16th Aug 2019 read more »

Workers Seize the Shipyard That Built the Titanic, Plan to Make Renewable Energy There. The closure of the last shipyard in Belfast would end centuries of ship building in the city. A group of workers are demanding the U.K. nationalize the yards.

Vice 14rh Aug 2019 read more »

London’s Goldsmiths University will look to install “significantly” more solar PV as part of a new series of pledges in response to the climate emergency. The university’s new warden, Frances Corner, this week announced a series of measures that form an overall initiative for the establishment to become carbon neutral by 2025. It has joined other universities in the UK as declaring a climate emergency, and it intends to use rooftop solar PV as a means of reducing its own contribution to climate change.

Solar Power Portal 14th Aug 2019 read more »

A family-owned company with interests in renewables, mining and property is behind a legal challenge that is threatening to derail government plans for the next wave of offshore wind farms. The Banks Group, which wants to build more onshore wind turbines in Scotland, confirmed yesterday that it was behind the judicial review. It has accused the government of unlawfully discriminating against onshore farms by only offering subsidies to more expensive offshore projects. Ministers have already had to delay a competition to award the subsidies, known as contracts for difference (CFDs), to offshore projects while they try to see off the judicial review. The group claims that the exclusion of onshore wind farms from the CFD process “is against the public interest, prevents consumers from benefiting from the lower energy prices that would result from their inclusion and . . . does not comply with EU or UK law”.

Times 16th Aug 2019 read more »

FT 16th Aug 2019 read more »

The world’s largest wind turbine blade has arrived in the UK for testing at the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult facility in Northumberland.

Energy Voice 16th Aug 2019 read more »

The value of the taxpayers’ stake in the mothballed BiFab fabrication yards has been slashed by £13m. BiFab’s yards in Methil and Burntisland are currently mothballed as they battle to secure work on a £2bn offshore wind farm off Fife. Figures have emerged showing the Scottish government loaned BiFab £19m in 2017-18 and then converted this into shares in the loss-making business. But Audit Scotland has ruled this equity stake is now only worth £6m. Details of the loans to BiFab only go up to the end of March last year and the Scottish government declined a request from BBC Scotland to clarify the total amount invested in BiFab to date. The Scottish government pointed out the loans were used to try and secure the yards’ future when hundreds of jobs were at stake.

BBC 16th Aug 2019 read more »

The wind farm which contributed to a massive blackout was awarded nearly £100,000 in compensation after being ordered to reduce its output the day immediately after the power cut, the Telegraph can reveal. Nearly one million homes and businesses were left without electricity last Friday when Hornsea Wind Farm and Little Barford gas-fired station went off grid within minutes of each other. After getting back online, National Grid ordered Hornsea to reduce the electricity it supplied the network on Saturday night and Sunday morning entitling its owners, Orsted, to compensation.

Telegraph 15th Aug 2019 read more »

A coalition of 130 MPs, including 35 from the Conservative Party, has called on Boris Johnson to alter the UK’s planning and energy policies to better support the growth of onshore wind. In a letter sent to the Prime Minister this week, the MPs state that “onshore wind energy is vital to our aim of achieving our climate targets at least cost and the inspiring vision of a before-2050 net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target”. The document highlights the decision taken by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in 2015 to exclude onshore wind assets from the Government’s Contracts for Difference (CfD) process – a move which industry body RenewableUK claims will stifle future growth in installations – as one which should be overturned on the road to net-zero. It goes on to argue that the National Planning Policy Framework should be amended to help the uptake of small onshore arrays with a capacity of 5MW or less. At present, such developments are subject to a different and more lengthy process than other renewable and low-carbon projects. Moreover, the development of these small projects can be halted by one formal objection.

Edie 15th Aug 2019 read more »

Abstracts of 42 Peer-Reviewed Published Journal Articles From 12 Independent Research Groups With 77 Different Authors Supporting the Result That Energy for Electricity, Transportation, Building Heating/Cooling, and/or Industry can be Supplied Reliably with 100% or Near-100% Renewable Energy at Difference Locations Worldwide.

Stanford University (accessed) 16th Aug 2019 read more »