The report focuses on the US and China cases, which have driven the cumulative installed PV capacity increase of 100% between 2009 and 2011 and project a considerable growth within the next few years. In the US, solar PV technology is expected to reach grid parity for some PV projects in 2014, and by 2017 most regions in the country are expected to reach grid parity in alignment with average electricity prices in the residential sector. China is also due to witness similar developments, with grid parity for solar expected to reach in most regions by 2015-2016.

Solar PV accounts for around 14% of the global renewable energy capacity and it is the fastest growing clean energy source in the world, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 56.4% over the past five years. Between 2010 and 2011, 44.3 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity came online, up from 14.8 GW installed during 2008 and 2009.

The report predicts Europe will lose market share to India and China as the two Asian countries have announced ambitious PV targets and have introduced favorable policies to boost the development of alternative energy. The global solar PV installed capacity will continue to grow at a CAGR of 20.2% 2011-2020, to reach 362,842 MW by 2020.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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India’s emissions rose by 8.7 percent, passing Russia to become the world’s fourth-biggest emitter (behind China, the U.S., and the European Union). Such increases offset a reduction in emissions in the EU and the U.S., where a sluggish economy and an increased shift from coal to natural gas contributed to a 1.7-percent decline in carbon emissions.

“The new data provide further evidence that the door to a two degrees Celsius trajectory is about to close,” said Fatih Birol, IEA’s chief economist, citing concerns among scientists that emissions must begin being significantly reduced by 2020 to prevent potentially destabilizing temperature increases of more than 2 degrees C.

According to the report, the burning of coal accounted for 45 percent of total energy-related carbon emissions, followed by oil (35 percent) and natural gas (20 percent).

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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The most commonly studied process for CO2 capture and removal are amines. In Norway for example, the CO2 Technology Center at Mongstad began construction in 2009, and was scheduled for completion early in 2012. It was to include two capture technology plants (one advanced amine and one chilled ammonia), both capturing flue gas from two sources. In addition, it would have included a gas-fired power plant and refinery cracker flue gas (similar to coal-fired power plant flue gas). Total capacity was to be 100,000 tons of CO2 per year. The project was delayed to 2014, 2018, and then indefinitely. At 80% completion, project cost rose to USD 985 million.

This small-molecule catalyst, dubbed “Cyclen,” mimics carbonic anhydrase, which separates, captures, and transports CO2 out of our blood and other tissues as part of the normal respiration process. Carbonic anhydrase is the fastest operating natural enzyme known. For years, researchers have considered adapting it to capture carbon emitted in industrial operations. But carbonic anhydrase cannot take the heat in the intense conditions of industrial processes. Hot, high-pH flue gas quickly degrades it.

The Livermore team’s best designer molecule behaves like carbonic anhydrase but has so far indicated that it is one tough cookie. “In fact,” Aines said, “it has turned out to be thermodynamically stable. It is far more rugged than we had expected.”

A team performing quantum molecular calculations led by computational biologist Felice Lightstone examined potential candidate molecules. They determined optimal designs to protect the essential zinc ion in the molecule that activates the catalyst. Synthetic chemist Carlos Valdez took the next step. Only about 2 percent of the computationally derived structures made it to the synthesis state. Newly synthesized molecules were tested by chemist Sarah Baker and her team to determine their kinetic behavior and stability. The team made nine catalysts in a year and a half. The name for the finalist comes from the chemical term for the ring around the zinc ion.

“Our tests effectively determined Cyclen’s chemical kinetics,” Aines said. “Pilot tests at the Babcock & Wilcox Power Generation Group in Ohio will push Cyclen to measure its industrial kinetics.”

One challenge with Cyclen remains. The catalyst is designed to create a monolayer that clings to a gas-water interface much as mosquito larvae do. However, the Cyclen layer is too thin and some of the CO2 is able to pass through it without being captured.

For further information see Catalyst.

Article appearing courtesy Environmental News Network.

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The university is offering an online program called Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies exploring emerging technologies that offer a new way to produce, distribute and store energy.

“Determining which technologies work and can be brought to market mass-scale is an urgent challenge for engineers and businesses,” said Michael McGehee, associate professor of materials science and engineering and the academic director of the certificate program.

The program will help participants to get a better grasp of the entire energy landscape and the fundamentals of how emerging technologies work. They will also learn about opportunities to develop and market new technologies. The program requires the completion of four courses from a portfolio of six or more courses covering topics including photovoltaics, solar energy, biofuels, batteries, and shale gas.

Students can take each course at their own pace, provided they complete it within 90 days from enrollment. Participants who successfully complete the program receive a professional certificate in Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies. To find out more, go here.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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Like rollover minutes on a cell phone, net metering gives solar energy customers fair credit on their monthly utility bills for electricity they put on the grid for others to use. California’s program has allowed over 100,000 homes, businesses, schools, and public agencies to go solar and lower their energy costs. This in turn supports thousands of jobs statewide and reduces the need for expensive, polluting fossil-based power plants.

California law caps the amount of net metering that utilities must make available to their customers. The outpouring of public net metering support comes as the CPUC considers taking action to allow more Californians to participate under that cap. The state’s major utilities are opposing the proposal, instead supporting a plan that would cut the amount of net metering participation by half. The Commission could make a final decision on the issue later this week – the issue is on the agenda for the May 24 public hearing.

Go CPUC go!

A number of major organizations joined us in calling for public action, including: 350.org, CREDO Action, Environment California, Sierra Club, Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“People care deeply about this issue. They want California to continue to go solar, and they agree that Californians should get fair credit for doing so,” said Annie Carmichael, Policy Director at the grassroots organization Vote Solar.”We hope that state policymakers will listen to their constituents and ensure continued access to this energy bill-saving, job-creating backbone of California’s growing solar economy.”

“With electricity bills constantly rising, it’s no surprise that Californians are responding strongly to this call to preserve access to a cheaper, safer, cleaner energy option. It’s past time for utilities to ditch dirty, out-dated fossil fuels that burden their customers with asthma and other deadly health problems and embrace clean, cost-effective rooftop solar,” said Evan Gillespie, Campaign Director for Sierra Club’s My Generation Campaign.

“We hope that the more than 27,000 CREDO Action members who signed this petition send a strong message to the CPUC,” said Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager with CREDO Action. “Californians strongly support solar energy and policies to confront climate change. We don’t want our state’s leadership and solar industry growth to be undermined by unfair electric utility loopholes.”

“California’s solar industry employs more than 25,000 Californians and has driven $10 billion of private investment — and net metering is central to that success,” said Sara Birmingham, Director of Western Policy for the Solar Energy Industries Association. “For jobs and investment to continue, the looming net metering program cap can’t slam the brakes on California homes, schools and businesses going solar.”

“Net metering is clear and simple way for Californians to help solve the climate crisis,” said Jamie Henn, Communications Director for the climate campaign 350.org. “With the impacts of climate change already being seen across California — from melting glaciers in the Sierras to increased wildfires outside of Los Angeles — utilities should be facilitating the public’s desire for more clean energy, not thwarting it.”

“To remain the country’s clean energy leader and to give all Californians the right to invest in solar, policy makers must act now to expand California’s local solar market twelve-fold by 2020—as called for by Governor Brown,” said Michelle Kinman, Clean Energy Advocate for Environment California. “Expanding the state’s successful net metering program is a critical step towards achieving this goal.”

A recent poll conducted for Vote Solar showed that an overwhelming majority (86 percent) of California voters support making net metering more widely available. In addition to the 60,000 Californians who contacted the CPUC directly, the net metering expansion proposal is supported by a broad range of stakeholders including: the Division of Ratepayer Advocates, the California Farm Bureau Federation, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and former Assembly Speaker Pro Tempore Fred Keeley who authored the original California net metering legislation.

A HUGE thank you to all who participated in the action! Your overwhelming support blew us away. Who knew when we set our original goal of 20,000 messages that you’d all go so much farther. Now let’s get it across the finish line at the CPUC later this week . . .

Vote Solar is a non-profit grassroots organization working to fight climate change and foster economic opportunity by bringing solar energy into the mainstream.

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You try to explain the profound applications: smart appliances that talk to the power grid, consumer clubs that sell energy savings, your car serving as a power plant. But the conversation then becomes one about fascinating toys, not a world change.

A new paper by Joseph Stanislaw, independent senior energy advisor at Deloitte, eloquently gets to the real meaning of smart grid. Moving beyond the gadget talk, he describes the bigger picture, how new energy efficiency and smart technologies will democratize energy.

Energy efficiency could have “a greater impact on the global energy picture than any other development,” according to the paper, titled Energy’s next frontiers: How technology is radically reshaping supply, demand and the energy of geopolitics.

“The breakthroughs have been stunning, and often elegant in their simplicity. Among the least appreciated technologies are those that empower companies and individuals to understand and manage—and thus significantly reduce—their energy consumption. Last year, venture capitalists invested $275 million—up 75% from 2010—in start-ups that make software and other technologies to manage energy use,” the paper says.

Stanislaw explains how smart technologies are bringing about ‘the Power of One’ in the energy game. No longer passive receivers, consumers and businesses become active choosers; hence they influence the kind of generation plants we build – or if we build them at all – simply by the way they use electricity. Our market signals, not central planning, shape the infrastructure we build.

The Power of One idea often gets lost in political discourse about energy. Debate tends to focus on wind power tax incentives, solar trade wars, the pros and cons of hydraulic fracturing and access to public lands to drill oil.

But when it comes to electricity, it will be the Power of One that changes the playing field most by giving the individual control over energy, much the way the Internet gave us control over information. As a result, even if governments fail to act effectively, corporations and individuals now have the ability to “make a radical difference in their own consumption—and thus to materially influence the broader energy game,” the paper says.

More specifically Stanislaw explains: “The new energy-related software and hardware on the market and in development—smart meters, smart appliances, demand management programs, and so forth—liberate individual actors from being at the mercy of broader forces.” This liberation, or shifting of control over energy decisions from nations to individuals, transforms what has come to be known as ‘the Great Game’ – the wrangling of nations over energy supply.

While the Great Game previously focused on oil, technology is the new prize.

“The ‘Great Game of the 21st Century’ is the technology continuum driving along the development curve from 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0—with each version coming faster than the one before. The future is one of continuous research and development, informed investment job creation, and greater energy security—without sacrificing the environment,” the paper says.

Rapid-fire technology change heightens the need for sustainability planning by businesses, he adds. And the ability to collect and understand data about energy becomes increasingly important. Whether the company makes shoes or semi- conductors, energy is part of its business. All companies become energy companies in a smart grid world.

Stanislaw describes a “virtuous energy cycle” that occurs for households and companies that pursue efficiency: They save money and protect the environment. Moreover, “the consumption of energy is no longer just an economic act—this is becoming a conscious act and an act of conscience. This will likely intensify in the coming years.”

Stanislaw’s paper is a good read. See it here.

Elisa Wood is a long-time energy writer whose work appears in many of the industry’s top magazines and newsletters. She is publisher of the Energy Efficiency Markets podcast and newsletter.

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In a series of tests in Cornwall in western England, researchers from the University of Exeter used 28 traps to capture 1,200 animals on the ground beneath street lights and in darker areas between the lights.

According to their findings, published in the journal Biology Letters, invertebrate predators and scavengers were more common underneath the lights, even during the daylight hours.

Thomas Davies, a researcher at the University of Exeter and lead author of the study, said these findings suggest that nocturnal behavior is affecting habitat preference overall, and could have implications for critical ecosystem services, including pollination and the breakdown of organic matter.

“It’s amazing how long we’ve been using street lighting and artificial lighting, and how little research has been done on the impact of those lights on the environment,” he told BBC News.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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“This is an outstanding event for BELECTRIC and the photovoltaics industry in general,” said Bernhard Beck, CEO of BELECTRIC, which employs over 2,000 people.

“Much of that which is today seen as standard in the photovoltaics industry was researched, developed and brought to market readiness by BELECTRIC,” added Chief Sales Officer Martin Zembsch.

The company’s innovations have been key to the integration of renewable energy into the grid. It has developed grid-stabilizing solar power plants that have taken the functionality of solar power generation to the level of large conventional power plants.

Article by Antonio Pasolini, a Brazilian writer and video art curator based in London, UK. He holds a BA in journalism and an MA in film and television.

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Writing in the journal Nature Geoscience, a team of scientists calculated that coastal seagrass beds can store up to 83,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer, compared with 30,000 metric tons of carbon per square kilometer in typical forests.

While seagrasses occupy less than 0.2 percent of the world’s oceans, they account for more than 10 percent of all the carbon trapped in the sea. Seagrasses have a unique ability to store carbon in their roots and soil in coastal areas, the study showed.

In some regions, they found, seagrass beds have stored carbon for thousands of years. “Seagrasses only take up a small percentage of global coastal area, but this assessment shows that they’re a dynamic ecosystem for carbon transformation,” said James Fourqurean, a scientist at Florida International University and lead author of the study.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

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The reason why an EV’s price has to come down is made clear by a recent New York Times piece that examines the return on investment of an EV against a similar energy efficient vehicle. For instance, the $31,767 (after tax credits) Volt payback period is estimated at 26.6 years compared to the $19,925 Chevy Cruze Eco. For this reason the EV market is highly dependent upon a small group of “affluent green” consumers rather than a broader customer base.

The major culprit for the excessive price of the EV is the cost of the battery which can be over 35 percent of the vehicle’s cost. To be sure, some battery developers have announced technological breakthroughs that would halve that cost. But a breakthrough of that type will not be commercially available for five to ten years.

To shorten this delay, French OEMs Mia Electric and Renault are spearheading a business model that may prove attractive to more mainstream drivers. To reduce upfront costs, Mia and Renault have set up options where EV drivers can purchase the EV without buying the battery. Instead, EV owners will rent the battery at a cost of around $50 to $100 a month. Although the total costs over time are still significant, the business model allows for a more affordable initial purchase price and reduces the financial risk to EV owners, in that the battery is guaranteed for life.

Mia began production of its EV in June of 2011 and since then has sold over 1,000 of the cars at a little over €15,000 (after state incentives). The battery rents for €49/month. Four EVs from Renault, all with battery rental plans, have reached European markets with estimated prices from €7,000 for the small urban Twizy, to €21,000 for the larger Fluence Z.E. sedan. Europe’s largest automaker, Volkswagen, may also adopt the business model when it releases its EV offerings next year.

The battery leasing model certainly presents an opportunity for OEMs to make initial prices more competitive with other fuel efficient vehicles. However no maker selling plug-in models in the United States has indicated it will start a leasing program here. In an interesting development, Nissan has indicated it may lease batteries, but also just in Europe, where its Leaf will compete against the ZOE, which is made by Nissan’s European partner Renault. The ZOE is set to sell at half the cost of the Leaf, thanks to the battery leasing program.

U.S. OEMs could be wary of bearing the financial and legal burdens inherent in leasing a technology with so many perceived unknowns, or perhaps the automakers assume the economics of owning a vehicle and leasing its fundamental power source are too confusing for consumers. (The familiar telecom model of buying a subsidized handset and paying a monthly service fee would indicate otherwise.) At any rate, if the European programs boost sales, you can be sure the model will make its way across the Atlantic.

Article by Scott Shepard, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

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