Saturday, July 30, 2016
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Bloomberg: One Nation, Fueled by Natural Gas
Bloomberg - One Nation, Fueled by Natural Gas http://bv.ms/2ad2ruo
BBC News: Hinkley Point: New hitch for UK nuclear plant deal
Politicians falter at the brink of approving massive pork barrel project.
Hinkley Point: New hitch for UK nuclear plant deal - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36903904
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Monday, July 25, 2016
Bloomberg: Hitachi U.K. Nuclear Plant Should Get Less Than EDF, Panel Says
Hitachi Ltd. should be paid less for the power from its planned nuclear plant in North Wales than Electricite de France SA has been promised for reactors in western England, a panel of U.K. lawmakers said, seeking to keep a lid on energy prices paid by consumers.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/2aGloVT
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Friday, July 22, 2016
Bloomberg: Brookfield, Appaloosa in Joint Bid for SunEdison TerraForm Stake
Brookfield Asset Management Inc. and Appaloosa Management LP are joining forces to bid for SunEdison Inc.'s stake in TerraForm Power Inc.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/2aBAQms
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Tuesday, July 19, 2016
BBC News: Hottest June ever recorded worldwide - NOAA
Hottest June ever recorded worldwide - NOAA
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Sunday, July 17, 2016
Bloomberg: Clean-Coal Project Slammed by Watchdog Gets Late U.S. Reprieve
A Texas clean-coal project was given more time to persuade the Obama administration to keep backing it, even after Summit Power LLC missed a midnight deadline to line up financing and a government investigator warned the endeavor was on shaky ground.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/29AQ3Xu
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Friday, July 15, 2016
Bloomberg: U.S.-Backed Clean Coal Project Hits Milestone, Utility Says
Southern Co. said it started producing gas from coal at its $6.75 billion Kemper power plant, a milestone in the company's six-year effort to complete the facility plagued by delays and cost overruns.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/29Cn2Hp
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Bloomberg: Canada to Introduce National Carbon Price in 2016, Minister Says
Canada will have a national price on carbon emissions by the end of this year, Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/2agyLfk
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Fwd: Massachusetts Community Solar Industry at Risk Due to Regulatory Changes - Renewable Energy World
From: "Rebecca Nichols" <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Jul 15, 2016 1:41 AM
Subject: Massachusetts Community Solar Industry at Risk Due to Regulatory Changes - Renewable Energy World
To: "Monty Bannerman" <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>
Cc:
Massachusetts Community Solar Industry at Risk Due to Regulatory Changes
More and more people are interested in 'going solar,' but most people cannot put solar panels on their roof. Imagine this: you want to go solar, get an on-site assessment, and find out that your roof is not adequate due to tree shading, direction of the roof, or age of the roof. Over the last couple of years, community solar has emerged as a solution to this problem. Community solar involves building off-site solar arrays that produce enough energy for dozens or even hundreds of homes. Households and small businesses within ~30 miles of the array can secure a share and receive a credit on their utility bill for the energy it produces.
Community solar projects are democratizing access to solar by allowing customers to see solar savings on their bill — not just the people who have an ideal roof. A series of studies have found that only 22 percent to 27 percent of residential buildings are suitable for hosting solar panels. For the remaining 73-78 percent of buildings unsuitable for onsite solar, community solar broadens access to a local, renewable energy source. Community solar takes advantage of economies of scale and optimal site locations to generate more energy for each dollar invested in solar.
While Massachusetts has put in place legislation that allows community solar to exist, recent legislation put the community solar industry at risk in three ways:
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First, while small on-site residential systems don't count toward the state's net metering caps, community solar is limited by caps on net-metered solar installations. Legislation passed in April this year issued an emergency cap increase, but we've alreadyhit the caps again, meaning new community solar installations have stalled.
Second, recent legislation also cut the net metering credit rate, or value the utilities place on energy produced by community solar projects, by 40 percent. Residential and municipal projects were exempt from the 40 percent cut, but community solar was directly impacted.
Third, the Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) incentive framework reached its limit earlier this year. SREC programs allow solar owners to sell credits to electricity suppliers who need to meet requirements for renewable energy production. The Department of Energy Resources (DOER) issued an extension for some, smaller projects as a short-term patch, but has been slow to implement the next SREC program.
Given community solar's advantages of accessibility and affordability for consumers, it is unclear why community solar stands to lose under the current political framework. Community solar can do away with many of the hassles of rooftop solar. Relay Power, a Boston-based community solar company, has heard time and again that their customers were surprised when they learned about the benefits of community solar. One Relay Power community solar participant, Emily Hurley, was excited that she was able to go solar without the trouble of installing rooftop panels: "Our house is over 100 years old so the rafters can't support the weight of panels, but we were able to go community solar."
Despite her roof being unsuitable for panels, Emily can still access $5,000+ in savings on her energy bills by participating in community solar. Emily noted that, "if more people knew about it, more people would use it."
For as much progress as the solar industry has made in recent years, residential solar remains the option for the fortunate, with the remainder of households unable to access it. At a time when Massachusetts is grappling with balancing ratepayer affordability and accessibility, all while staying on track to meet legally mandated emissions reductions, community solar is an ideal solution.
"Community Shared Solar is the democratization of solar for those folks that did not hit the ideal solar house lottery," said Pat Cloney, the previous CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. "It seems fair that not just government and commercial organizations or lucky residents should have access to solar. Anyone and everyone that wants it should have access to it." Policymakers need to realize the benefits of community solar, rather than just sticking with incentives for residential solar.
While it seems increasingly unlikely that the legislature will uphold their promise of a truly comprehensive energy bill, DOER has the opportunity to take urgent action to design and implement a new program so that solar investments will continue without disruption. In order to ensure community solar has equal opportunity to finance projects, DOER must put a clear framework in place to replace the SREC-II program. Regardless of what framework DOER chooses (block grant, SREC-III, etc.), it is most critical for action to be swift and for the underlying economics to support community solar as equivalent to rooftop solar.
Climate Action Business Association, a Boston-based business group, views development of the next SREC program to be the first and biggest priority for the community solar industry. So long as policymakers are slow to act, community solar projects are at risk of being put on hold. We urge DOER to provide economic certainty and support for community solar that acknowledges the industry's economic and societal benefits.
By lowering the barriers to entry, community solar presents a transformative way to broaden the market for solar power. We should invite community members to come together to build our clean energy future, not isolate them from accessibility.
Lead image credit: Department of Transportation | Flickr
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
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Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Flavour changing neutrinos give insight into Big Bang
Flavour changing neutrinos give insight into Big Bang - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36776167
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Fwd: Ontario and First Nations Announce Agreement-in-Principle for Sale of Hydro One Shares
From: Ontario News <newsroom@ontario.ca>
Date: Tue, Jul 12, 2016 at 9:11 AM
Subject: Ontario and First Nations Announce Agreement-in-Principle for Sale of Hydro One Shares
To: mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com
| |||||||||||||||||||
Follow Us On TwitterSouthern Company subsidiary acquires Lamesa Solar Facility in Texas | News | Southern Company
Monty
http://www.southerncompany.com/news/2016-07-07-lamesa.cshtml?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=PHOTON+Newsletter+-+International+edition+from+July+12%2C+2016&newsletter=PHOTON+Newsletter+-+International+edition+from+July+12%2C+2016
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Monday, July 11, 2016
Saturday, July 9, 2016
Bloomberg: Faster Rooftop Solar Growth to Cut Demand From Biggest U.S. Grid
Rooftop-solar panels are being installed in the region covered by the biggest U.S. power grid at a faster pace than expected. That will accelerate the shift away from large generators.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/29n8Jtu
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Bloomberg: In Negative-Yield Era, Whopping Data Can’t Stop Treasuries Rally
The strongest U.S. labor report in eight months was no match for investors waiting in the wings for a chance to buy long-maturity Treasuries.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/29DfZTh
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Rocky Mountain Power seeks new option to meet needs of large customers with renewable energy goals | Energy Central
Another uility move to keep choke hold on solar.
Fwd: Corporations Are the New Drivers for Renewable Energy Growth - Renewable Energy World
From: "Rebecca Nichols" <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Jul 8, 2016 11:37 PM
Subject: Corporations Are the New Drivers for Renewable Energy Growth - Renewable Energy World
To: "Monty Bannerman" <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>
Cc:
Corporations Are the New Drivers for Renewable Energy Growth
In mid-May, The Dow Chemical Company said that it was raising its 2025 corporate clean energy target from 400 MW to 750 MW. Launched in 2015, Dow's original 2025 sustainability goals included using 400 MW of clean power but after meeting the target in just one year, Dow reset the goal to 750 MW. The company said it is the first company in the U.S. to power manufacturing sites with renewable energy at this scale.
Image: NRG and Dow's 10-year PPA will provide clean energy from the 150 MW Goat Mountain I and II wind farms, which will power Dow's Freeport, Texas facilities.Credit: NRG.
NRG's Erik Linden declined to disclose the price Dow will pay per kilowatt-hour (kWh) or the financial terms of the deal. He said that NRG's deal with Dow will be "solely wind" but that NRG has similar solar power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Whole Foods and Unilever.
Dow's announcement is not unusual. According to a May 2016 report from law firm Orrick, from 2012 to 2015, contracted capacity under corporate PPAs doubled year-over-year. Even more telling, in 2015, corporate PPAs exceeded 50 percent of the overall PPA market - more than traditional utilities.
Gigi John, one of the authors of the Orrick report, "Corporate PPAs - Market Trends and Opportunities," said that PPAs of this type are more than a trend. He called 2015 a "watershed moment" and said that he and his colleagues wrote the report because "everybody needs to understand how PPAs work."
Figure 1: Publicly announced contracted capacity of corporate PPAs, Green Power Purchases, Green Tariffs, and outright project ownership in the U.S. and Mexico 2012-2016. Updated May 10, 2016. Credit: Rocky Mountain Institute / Business Renewables Center.
How Do They Work?
When an entity other than a utility purchases power directly from a power generator, that's a corporate PPA. There are two types: a physical PPA in which the power is actually delivered to the buyer or a virtual PPA in which the corporation purchases the output of a renewable energy plant that may not be located adjacent to its facilities.
Orrick's John said that buying power from a generator instead of a utility isn't part of a corporate business model so the report helps to highlight some of the "pain points" that both developers and corporations may encounter when developing a deal.
First, from the corporation's perspective, it may come as a surprise that certain credit requirements are necessary. "This gets into things that big fortune 100 companies aren't used to procuring," said John. A corporation would generally require its own suppliers to prove credit-worthiness but they aren't used to having to prove their own, which a developer will need in order to sign a deal with, for example, the tax-equity partner.
From the developer perspective the same is true, said John. Developers need to determine how much they need from a corporation to get the deal done. Since "there is no utility on the back end to provide all of this wonderful credit support," said John, developers need to ask themselves, "what can I live with for this off-taker, what will tax equity live with? How do I structure something that is good enough for them?"
Another issue that needs to be worked out contractually is what happens when the renewable energy generator is curtailed and produces no power. Curtailments occur when there is too much power being produced for the grid to accept - at these times the electricity spot price goes negative and wind turbines are generally shut down. John explained that corporations might ask "why would I ever have to pay dollars or 'true up' financial differences when there is no product?"
When these situations occur, explained John, it doesn't mean that the corporation has stopped using power, just that the power it is using is generally very cheap. So contractually it is really about figuring out how to structure the deal, said John: "So I [the corporation] got really cheap power because there was too much on the grid so I need to give a little back to the developer to keep the economics ok," he explained.
Along those same lines, one of the newer pain points for developers is settling the basis between two different spot markets. In certain situations, a generator is feeding into the grid at one interconnection point but the off-taker is using power from a different connection point. For developers, the problem is this: "If I put energy on the grid here at this connection point but I am settling here, how do I manage this basis between the two because there can be natural swings," said John, adding that this is "a big issue."
Why Not RECs?
Legally from the perspective of a utility, because renewable energy certificates (RECs) represent the attributes of renewable energy, corporations could simply purchase RECs and be able to claim that their operations are powered by clean energy. While that was happening in the earlier days of renewables, the rise of corporate PPAs again points to an evolving industry.
First, said John, with a PPA a corporation can "point to a wind farm and say 'that's my wind farm, all my energy comes from there,'" but he thinks corporate PPAs are actually more about the price of renewable energy. The sustainability officer in a corporation might be satisfied with RECs but "the CFO steps in and looks at the economics," he said.
John said that the CFO views the deal differently, thinking "If I do a 10-year, 15-year, 20-year deal, then what does my 20-year horizon look like for power prices?" With that in mind, the corporate renewable PPA becomes a way to "hedge against the future to make sure I can lock in the power prices," he said. "You can't do that with just RECs."
Up to now, corporate PPAs have mostly been done with wind projects in markets where there is a lot of liquidity and price transparency, said John, like the ERCOT market in Texas. "But there is no reason that I can think of that you couldn't do it with solar," he said, adding that the C&I deals that are being done today are very different from those that were done in 2013.
"I learn something on literally every PPA," said John.
In 2015 corporate buyers contracted for almost 3.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy PPA capacity, according reports, and that number is expected to grow again in 2016. Keep your eye on the corporate renewable energy procurement and if you are a developer looking for an offtaker, you might try calling up CFOs of large corporations and see if they want in on the deal.
Thursday, July 7, 2016
Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
Fwd: RWE’s Innogy to focus on power grid investment - Power Engineering International
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Rebecca Nichols <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Wednesday, July 6, 2016
Subject: RWE's Innogy to focus on power grid investment - Power Engineering International
To: Monty Bannerman <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>
RWE's Innogy to focus on power grid investment
RWE's newly-named renewables and power distribution subsidiary Innogy is ready to make heavy investments in its power grids, according to Chief Executive Peter Terium.
Terium told shareholders the news as the company's management prepares to list shares in the unit by the end of the year.
The Germanutility separated itsrenewable power generation, distribution and retail businesses from its troubled thermal and nuclear power generation operations last year.
The exact size of the Innogy listing will depend on market conditions but could exceed a minimum of 10 per cent that RWE has defined, Terium said.
According to Reuters Innogy has plans to invest up to $7bn (EUR7bn) between 2016 and 2018, mainly in its grids, as old equipment needs to be made fit for the digitalised nature of energy generation and usage of the future.
"The key to succeed in this environment is flexibility and speed to adapt," Terium said, citing partnerships with international energy service companies.
Analysts expect the sale of 10 per cent of Innogy to bring in about EUR2bn, which would give the entity a market value of EUR20bn, nearly three times that of RWE now.
--
Bloomberg: Pound Slides Past $1.30 to Lowest in Three Decades: Chart
The drop deepened for sterling. After stabilizing early last week following the post-Brexit tumble, the pound fell for the fourth day in five Wednesday, nearing its lowest level since 1985.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/29gE3Gb
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Monday, July 4, 2016
Sunday, July 3, 2016
Bloomberg: Natural Gas Fills the Gap as Coal Drops Out of U.S. Power Market
Five years ago, opponents of newly proposed clean-air rules sounded dire warnings of blackouts and surging electricity prices if coal-burning plants were shuttered.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/293V9eG
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Saturday, July 2, 2016
Bloomberg: Oil Climbs Following the Biggest Quarterly Gain in Seven Years
Oil rose, following the biggest quarterly gain since 2009, amid speculation policy makers will act to limit the fallout from the U.K.'s vote to leave the European Union.
To read the entire article, go to http://bloom.bg/29he7zi
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Friday, July 1, 2016
Fwd: Navigant Research: U.S. Expected to Deploy 77.3 GW of Distributed Renewables by 2025 - Power Engineering
From: "Rebecca Nichols" <rvan@tnag.net>
Date: Jul 1, 2016 8:49 PM
Subject: Navigant Research: U.S. Expected to Deploy 77.3 GW of Distributed Renewables by 2025 - Power Engineering
To: "Monty Bannerman" <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>
Cc:
U.S. Expected to Deploy 77.3 GW of Distributed Renewables by 2025
A report from Navigant Research forecasts the deployment of 77.3 GW of distributed renewables between 2016 and 2025, with solar power driving the majority of capacity additions. The report examines the U.S. market for distributed renewables, with forecasts by state for photovoltaic (PV) solar, distributed wind, and biogas.
Distributed renewables technologies have unique characteristics that can act as generation and/or load control on the grid, yet they each represent a dynamic resource that is challenging the industry's prevailing business models and operating procedures, Navigant said.
"The deployment of distributed renewables in the U.S. is heavily concentrated in a few states, and the top 10 markets are expected to deploy 89 percent of new capacity," said Roberto Rodriguez Labastida, senior research analyst with Navigant Research. "As distributed renewables continue to evolve from their identity as fringe generation resources to become the workhorse of the power sector, it is important that all electricity sector stakeholders execute a new strategy around renewables in order to remain relevant."
The report notes that policy continues to affect deployment of distributed renewables in the country. Tax credits and renewables mandates, which have served to reduce the upfront costs of renewables and increase the value of renewably produced electricity, will likely be phased out. Additionally, Navigant says, policies like net metering may be altered to ensure they reflect the true value of distributed renewables.
IDC Energy Insights New Report: Utility Field Workforce — Building the Agile Workforce
Utilities are asset-driven companies that require a flexible and agile workforce to maintain the assets. Being agile involves being able to respond effectively and rapidly to unplanned events. IDC Energy Insights examines what it takes for utility companies to build an agile workforce by detailing the benefits realized from deployment of today's more sophisticated mobile workforce management applications. Read More...
A free executive summary of the U.S. Distributed Renewables Deployment Forecast can be downloadedhere.
