Wind and solar power are disrupting electricity systems
Almost 150 years after photovoltaic cells and wind turbines were invented, they still generate only 7% of the world’s electricity. Yet something remarkable is happening. From being peripheral to the energy system just over a decade ago, they are now growing faster than any other energy source and their falling costs are making them competitive with fossil fuels. BP, an oil firm, expects renewables to account for half of the growth in global energy supply over the next 20 years. It is no longer far-fetched to think that the world is entering an era of clean, unlimited and cheap power. About time, too.
Southern Water partners with Veolia to turn sludge into renewable energy
In an effort to further reduce its carbon footprint, Southern Water is turning to sewage to boost renewables generation. At present, the water and sewage company generates 17 percent of its electricity demand from 16 combined heat and power (CPH) sites, with total renewable electricity generation currently totaling 48.3GWh. With new Veolia combined heat and power (CPH) engines installed at its treatment facilities in Hampshire and Kent, Southern Water will be well equipped to expand its renewables portfolio.
The new projects at Hampshire and Kent have seen Veolia implement project design, installation and operation of biogas cogeneration units, which converts wastewater from Southern Water’s 39,000 kilometers of sewage networks into biogas through anaerobic digestion (AD).
Tesla wants to lower your electricity bill with a battery for your home
Tesla is best known as the maker of luxurious, ludicrously fast electric vehicles. But the company’s larger effort is to diminish reliance on fossil fuels and enhance opportunities to create renewable energy. Some stations in the automaker’s quick-charging system are already solar-powered. Last fall Tesla purchased SolarCity, America’s largest solar energy service provider. Now the brand wants to bring the option of alternative power to your home.
One of the means for accomplishing this is the new Tesla Powerwall, a 14 kWh battery pack that can store enough solar energy to run a 1,000-square-foot house for a day. Solar panels work only when the sun is shining, so quality batteries are key for nighttime or cloudy-day use of the electricity they create. The Powerwall can also be used to store energy bought from the grid during lower-price off-peak hours for use whenever you want. It can also store surplus solar energy that can, in many locales, be sold back to local utility companies. It can even act as a backup power source for your house in case of an outage or emergency, even if you don’t have a solar array, storing electricity to use if the grid is down, much like a silent generator.
Tesla plugs big batteries into PG&E’s electric grid
A row of tall white boxes by the side of a Sierra foothills highway could represent a key piece of California’s future electric grid. Made by Tesla, the boxes contain thousands of battery cells — the same cells that power Tesla’s luxury cars. But at this installation, at a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. substation in Browns Valley (Yuba County), the batteries soak up electricity whenever it’s cheap and feed it back onto the grid when demand hits its daily peak.
The project, operational since the start of the month, represents a collaboration between PG&E and Tesla on one of California’s biggest energy goals: storage.
Veolia CHP adds to renewable generation from food waste
Veolia has increased its capacity for generating renewable energy from food waste with a contract to design and manage a 520kWe biogas-fired combined head and power (CHP) energy plant for Rose Hill Recycling in Gloucestershire.
The CHP plant is fuelled by the biogas derived from mixed food waste collected from across the Cotswolds and will save around 1750 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year. The new CHP will increase the use of resources and make the site energy self-sufficient using renewable energy.
Wind briefly sets record as source for electricity in U.S.
Wind briefly powered more than 50 percent of electric demand on Feb. 12, the 14-state Southwest Power Pool (SPP) said, for the first time on any North American power grid.
SPP coordinates the flow of electricity on the high voltage power lines from Montana and North Dakota to New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana.
Wind power in the SPP region has grown significantly to over 16,000 MW currently from less than 400 megawatts in the early 2000s and is expected to continue growing. One megawatt can power about 1,000 homes.
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