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BrightSource Adds Storage To Solar In Bid To Even Out Power Supply

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The intermittent nature of solar power has long been its most obvious weakness. What happens when the sun stops shining? People still need power.

One California-based solar company, BrightSource Energy, says it has developed a way to solve the problem. On Monday the company announced that it will be including its SolarPLUS thermal energy storage technology to several of its concentrated solar power (CSP) solar plants. The storage units will allow power from the sun to be stored for the evening when the sun is no longer shining but demand is up. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 29, 2011 at 2:00 PM

Bloom Boxes Make Up New Fuel Cell Energy Center

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There are many uses for natural gas, the abundant resource that is emerging as America’s 21st century gold rush.

Hill International, a global construction risk management group, will be using natural gas to power another relatively new technology: fuel cells. Invented by Bloom Energy, the solid oxide fuel cell boxes–known as Bloom Boxes–will be grouped in a cluster and powered by natural gas to create the Red Lion Energy Center in New Castle County, Delaware, the companies announced on Monday. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 29, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Duke Energy Requests $310 Million Increase In Customer Electricity Rates

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North Carolina residents may see a bump in their electricity bills this spring.

Duke Energy announced today that it reached a preliminary agreement with North Carolina Public Utility Commission staff on an approximately $310 million increase in the customer base rates, about a 7.2% increase. If approved by the North Carolina PUC, the rate increase–based on 10.5% return on equity (ROE) and 53% equity component of capital structure–will take effect February 2012. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 23, 2011 at 11:30 AM

Smart Meter Resistance Continues: Why Don’t Utilities Tell A Better Story?

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Nobody has ever accused utilities of being good at marketing. This lack of sales sophistication continues to haunt the industry. As you will read below, utilities around the country are facing complaints that the consumer benefits of smart meters don’t justify the cost. That’s because utilities have foolishly focused only on bill savings, failing to connect smart meters to reliability. This is particularly ironic in Connecticut, where policymakers and the public alike are up in arms about outages. Yet the state’s largest utility is only now starting to talk about the reliability benefits from grid modernization.

Even though at least 25% of U.S. homes and businesses already have a smart meter, the concept continues to face resistance in other parts of the country, according to an Associated Press story. Privacy and health concerns are often part of consumers’ fears. But the most difficult hurdle, it turns out, is documenting consumer benefits. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 22, 2011 at 9:00 AM

States Pass Feds In Encouraging Renewable Energy

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State-based targets for green electricity generation have been so successful in developing renewable energy projects that any current proposals for a federal clean energy standard could require little or no additional capacity, according to a leading academic.

Ryan Wiser, a scientist specializing in electricity markets and policy at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said recent data showed that any proposed federal RPS would require fewer additions than were seen in 2008-10 to meet state-based Renewable Portfolio Standards targets. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 22, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Making Turkey Less Foul

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As Americans stock up on Turkey meat for Thanksgiving dinners, farmers scramble to feed those families. When its all over, they will be left with not only some profit but also with mounds of a less heartwarming byproduct: turkey litter.

Of the various kinds of poultry, turkeys produce substantially higher amounts of waste because they tend to be larger. Having recognized this several years ago, the US Department of Agriculture has been encouraging farmers to convert turkey litter into energy by using the methane gas in the waste to create electricity. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 20, 2011 at 9:00 AM

Delaware Basin Panel Delays Vote On Gas Drilling

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Plans to open the Delaware River basin to natural gas drilling were set back on Friday when an interstate regulator announced the last-minute postponement of a meeting that was scheduled to vote on a draft policy that would allow thousands of gas wells into the densely populated region.

The Delaware River Basin Commission, which is charged with ensuring water quality in the watershed between Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Delaware, said it was postponing the meeting scheduled for Monday, November 21 to allow “additional time for review” by the five commission members. Read an EPA hydraulic fracturing water quality study here. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 18, 2011 at 1:00 PM

Booming Gas Industry Faces Production Tax In Pennsylvania

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Plans to tax the booming natural gas industry in Pennsylvania were the focus of dueling bills among state lawmakers on Wednesday, with proposed tax rates varying between one and three percent of revenue from production.

A bill passed by the Republican-controlled Senate late Tuesday would tax the industry at about 3 percent, while a House amendment being debated Wednesday seeks a rate of 1 percent, which would be the lowest of any gas-producing state. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 16, 2011 at 2:00 PM

Voting With Their Dollars: Customers Resist Power Switching

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Most Pennsylvania residents are aware that they can shop for electricity suppliers other than their utilities but only about a quarter have switched away from default suppliers more than two years after the state began restructuring its retail power market, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission heard on Thursday.

The panel held a special en banc hearing in its ongoing retail markets investigation which aims to boost competition and consumer choice in reforms that are being closely watched across the US as a model of deregulation. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 14, 2011 at 6:00 AM

Fracking Critics Blast New Plan For East Coast Gas Drilling

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Opponents of a new plan to open the Delaware River basin to natural gas drilling renewed their attack on the proposal, saying it fails to determine whether public water supplies will be contaminated by gas extraction.

Environmental groups said the Delaware River Basin Commission, an interstate regulator charged with maintaining water quality in the four-state basin, has ignored their calls for a cumulative impact study on whether aquifers would be polluted by toxic chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking“), a process that has facilitated the current boom in obtaining gas from shale beds in many U.S. states. Keep reading →

 /  Published November 9, 2011 at 2:30 PM
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