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Coal Versus Gas Power Generation Dynamics: Who’s Buying and Who’s Selling?

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With natural gas competing more strongly than ever with coal for power generation due to near commodity price parity, the mergers and acquisitions market for utilities has entered rarely charted territory.

Of the coal or natural gas utility merger and acquisition deals done in the last 18 months, there were probably 10 times that amount worked on but not closed, John Dingle, Partner at management consulting firm Thorndike Landing told the Platts Utility M&A Conference held June 25th – 26th in New York. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 5, 2012 at 11:15 AM
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IEA Releases First Ever Renewable Energy Market Report

Source: International Energy Agency

Coalition Urges Clean Energy Goals for New Administration

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As presidential candidates prepare positions on energy policy, a coalition of U.S. citizen groups is calling for the phase-out of natural gas, coal and nuclear power in favor of a more aggressive adoption of renewable-energy sources.

Thirty-six local organizations who say they represent 1.1 million members reject President Obama’s “all of the above” approach to energy policy, saying it perpetuates the dominance of fossil fuels while avoiding what they call the “real solutions” of clean energy. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 5, 2012 at 8:30 AM

EIA: New Pipeline Could Lower Natural Gas Costs in New York City

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Future natural gas transportation costs to New York City could be reduced with the expansion of the existing Texas Eastern Transmission pipeline from Linden, New Jersey to Manhattan, New York (see map here). On May 22, 2012, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)-the main jurisdictional authority over the construction of interstate natural gas pipelines in the United States-approved an 800,000 million British thermal unit (MMBtu) per day, or 800,000 dekatherms per day, expansion of the pipeline.

This project is slated to begin service in November 2013 and represents one of the biggest transportation service expansions in the Northeast during the past two decades. The project could have the following effects on the New York City market: reduce reliance on oil-fired generators, enhance the reliability of natural gas supplies, and lower transportation costs-especially in the winter. Spectra Energy secured firm transportation agreements for this expansion with these customers: Consolidated Edison (170,000 MMBtu per day); Chesapeake Energy Marketing, Inc. (425,250 MMBtu per day); and Statoil Natural Gas LLC (204,750 MMBtu per day). Keep reading →

 /  Published July 3, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Solar Contractor Sees a Brighter Future

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Jeanine Cotter’s two-hour commute from her San Francisco home to her job as in-house counsel at software maker Intuit gave her plenty of time to think — mostly about how much she disliked commuting. “It was nonproductive time,” says Cotter, age 46, who began making the drive in 2000. Those lost hours, combined with the demands of her work, made it difficult for her to meet her family’s needs. “It was hard to find balance,” recalls the mom of three. Having seen entrepreneurs in action — small business was the core of Intuit’s customer base — Cotter admired their flexibility, and she began itching to start her own company. Around 2004, conversations with her parents and husband, all of whom had experience in renewable energy, got her thinking about solar contracting.

 /  Published July 3, 2012 at 2:20 PM

Optimistic Realism in Commercializing Biofuels

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The theme of this year’s recent Advanced Biofuels Leadership Conference was “Go Big, Stay Strong,” an allusion to the move of biofuels out of the lab and into commercialization.

But the theme emerging from the remarks of the more than 100 biofuel executives who spoke at the conference was that biofuel companies should execute this “go big” strategy in carefully considered steps rather than in giant leaps and that the key to staying strong is to hedge their bets at every opportunity, including by increasing the range of feedstock, product and financing options. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 3, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Nuclear Concerns, Policy Fuel California Energy Storage Boom

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California energy regulators believe energy storage capacity could reach up to 8,000 MW by 2020, and could be further accelerated by renewables targets and the ongoing closure of one of two of the state’s nuclear power plants.

Michael Gravely, deputy chief of R&D at the California Energy Commission said he anticipated “fairly substantial amount of increase in services” in energy storage to balance the grid and integrate renewables over the next decade. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 3, 2012 at 8:30 AM

It’s the Planning, Stupid! How Utilities are Messing up their Smart Grid Communications

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Communicating with customers has become a big part of the smart grid conversation, but according to a new survey from Distributed Energy Financial Group (DEFG), utility smart grid communications efforts are below average and 40% of survey participants rated them “ineffective.”

DEFG’s online survey included more than 200 energy professionals, almost one-third of them from utilities. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 2, 2012 at 3:30 PM

Offshore Wind Energy Developers Focus on Northeast US Shores

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Offshore wind power has become a significant component of several European countries’ electricity generation portfolios and now the US is looking to expand the power generating capacity of wind beyond its coastline.

The economics can be complex – particularly if the production tax credit expires at the end of 2012 – but offshore wind has the potential to become an affordable source of electricity for some of the largest US markets. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 2, 2012 at 1:30 PM

‘The American Economy Does Not Have an Oil Addiction’

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It’s the 1 million barrel per day question.

By 2035, US petroleum imports could drop as low as one in every four barrels consumed, but achieving that much import reduction depends heavily on raising vehicle mileage standards. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 2, 2012 at 11:00 AM
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