Regulators at the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) put their stamp of approval late last week on a new surcharge unfairly penalizing customers that go solar. The state’s utilities charge customers a monthly fee to help pay for solar-panel rebates and to purchase clean energy to meet the state’s 15% by 2025 renewable energy standard. Until now, those fees were charged based on a customer’s energy use—if you use more power, you pay more of a fee—so that when customers went solar and started feeding a lot of excess clean energy back to the grid via net metering, they would pay less in renewable energy fees. That framework makes sense given that solar customers have already paid thousands of their own dollars to install solar arrays, and are reducing the grid’s need for things like transmission and distribution lines.

Last Friday, however, the ACC, led by Commissioner Brenda Burns, changed the fee structure to require that Arizona solar customers pay a fee not tied to their net consumption from the grid, but instead based on the amount of power they would have bought if they didn’t have solar. (You can read an Arizona Republic article on the decision here.) Sure, that new fee may be only be a few bucks per month for a residential customer with solar, but it treats solar customers differently than others and adds uncertainty regarding how much customers will save when they are deciding whether to go solar. And for commercial customers that use a lot of electricity but also generate a lot with solar, this change in the fee structure could end up costing a lot.

Arizona policymakers often say they want to make their state to make a leader in solar energy production, but how will they get there if they put in place unfair solar disincentives like this one?

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

Related posts:

• Arizona Renewable Energy Standard Legal?
• With Incentives Cut, is Going Solar in Arizona Still Worth it?
• Arizona Lands Major Solar Power Plant
• New Mexico Court Strikes Down Surcharge For Revenue Lost To Energy Efficiency
• PG&E and SunRun Give Home Solar a Major Shot in the Arm

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers recently released a study examining the future of the U.S. electric grid.  MIT concluded that developing a modern grid through the anticipation of needed improvements can facilitate the integration of renewable energy resources, accommodate a growing number of electric vehicles, improve resiliency, and enhance efficiency.

The President and his Administration agree on the importance of a modernized grid – and in June the National Science and Technology Council released A Policy Framework for the 21st Century Grid.  The Policy Framework provides a roadmap to ensure that all Americans benefit from investments in the Nation’s electric infrastructure, and it features four policy pillars:

• Enabling cost-effective investments to catalyze the development and deployment of new technologies and infrastructure;

• Unleashing the potential of innovation in the electricity sector through a greater focus on standards and interoperability;

• Empowering consumers and enabling informed decision making by responsibly expanding access to energy usage information;

• Securing the grid from cyber-attacks and improving its recoverability in the event of one.

The Administration is taking a number of concrete steps to put these principles into action, building on the Department of Energy’s $4.5 billion in Recovery Act investments that are improving grid performance across the Nation. For example:

• The Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utility Service is investing up to $250 million in cost-effective smart grid technology in rural America by June 2012.

• To advance flexibility and interoperability within the grid, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released its Draft Standards Framework 2.0 for public comment.

• The Administration has also launched Energy.Data.gov, an open government platform that brings together free high-value datasets and tools, maps,and apps to increase awareness of and deepen insights into our Nation’s energy performance.

• And through its “microgrid” initiatives, the Department of Defense is working to test distributed generation and electricity distribution systems that will help enhance the security and efficiency of military bases both at home and abroad.

To empower consumers and foster innovation, the Administration will continue to promote the common-sense idea that consumers should be able to get access to and download their own energy usage information. That’s why U.S. CTO Aneesh Chopra recently issued the Green Button challenge to industry—and utilities in California are already stepping up.

In a similar spirit, I am excited to see this week’s announcement from the Biggest Energy Saver competition, which challenged electric utility customers in Texas to reduce their energy use. The top 10 percent of consumers cut their electric use by an average of 26 percent – and the grand prize winners in each region won a Chevy Volt.

And finally, the Administration is working to improve the overall quality and timeliness of electric transmission infrastructure permitting through the interagency Rapid Response Team for Transmission.

In his Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, President Obama outlined a vision for safely and responsibly developing energy supplies while providing consumers with choices to reduce costs and save energy. In addition, as MIT’s new study confirms, modernizing our electric infrastructure is essential to America’s clean energy future.

Article by Nick Sinai, Senior Advisor to the U.S. Chief Technology Officer

Related posts:

• “The Grid” – not quite electrifying, but it’ll give you a jolt
• 2012: International Year of Sustainable Energy For All
• The Energy of Entrepreneurs
• Protecting the Nation’s Electric Grid from Cyber Threats
• Revitalizing American Manufacturing

By December the city of Austin in Texas will have a 30-megawatt solar project feeding into its grid.

Built in Webberville, about 20 miles east of downtown Austin, this Austin Energy project has already seen 7,000 out of 140,000 solar modules installed over the last few weeks.

The farm will span 380 acres and will produce enough renewable energy for more than 5,000 homes.

Austin Energy, the 9th largest public power utility in the country, said in its blog that it has a contract to purchase all the energy produced by the site for a 25-year period. The farm will include an observation deck so that visitors can have a bird’s eye view of the place.

They will also receive education material about solar and be able to see historical photos outlining the development of the project, described as the largest in the country.

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.

Related posts:

• Texas, Home to Big Oil, Takes Shine to Solar Power
• Making Homes Greener in Austin, Texas
• New Chinese Wind Farm Plans to Generate 1000 MW of Wind Energy
• Top Ten Reasons Austin, Texas is a Cleantech City
• Pump That Body! Generating Renewable Energy From the Human Body

Despite sometimes being in competition, the relationship between natural gas and the power grid is destined to become more intertwined. As an ally, natural gas is cleaner than coal, is an abundant domestic resource for generating energy, and its profile in providing steady output to offset the variability of renewable power will greatly increase as the clean energy portfolio expands. As a foe, natural gas is a leading alternative to electricity for cooking, heating homes and water, drying clothes, and even in transportation.

During last week’s Utility of the Future conference hosted by Kema, natural gas played a prominent role in many of the discussions focusing on how utilities can become more efficient, sustainable, and reliable. Combined cycle natural gas plants are seen as the most cost-effective partner in expanding the use of solar and wind power, and GE is betting big that the synergies between the technologies will play a leading role in reducing the carbon footprint of power generation.

Echoing this sentiment is an exhaustive study by MIT trumpets the potential of natural gas in CO2 emissions reductions. “Natural gas-fired power capacity will play an increasingly important role in providing backup to growing supplies of intermittent renewable energy, in the absence of a breakthrough that provides affordable utility-scale storage,” report the MIT study. Currently the cost of natural gas generation sets the price in many regions for energy storage or other alternatives to compete in the ancillary services market.

Thanks to the lessening interest in coal and nuclear power because of environmental concerns, natural gas exploration is experiencing a renaissance in the U.S., with many calling for investment in domestic and foreign pipelines. Several of the conference speakers expressed reservations about investing in natural gas infrastructure if carbon reductions requirements aimed at 2020 and beyond would eventually reduce demand for natural gas.

Natural gas proponents have called for the rapid expansion in tapping the huge reserves contained within the Marcellus shale deposit using hydraulic fracturing. The concerns over the environmental impact of fracking are growing by day including at the EPA, but a roundtable panel was dismissive saying on several occasions that fracking occurs well below the water table and that it was “only a PR problem.”

However, the MIT report is spot on recognizing the simple fact that to get the mix of corrosive chemicals and water used in fracking into the ground and the gas out of the ground, you have to penetrate the water table. The report states that “There is, however, evidence of natural gas migration into freshwater zones in some areas, most likely as a result of substandard well completion practices by a few operators… [and] additional environmental challenges in the area of water management, particularly the effective disposal of fracture fluids.

While burning natural gas has the potential to play a leading role in making the grid more sustainable and reliable, the acquisition of that gas must be equally viewed as reducing the environmental impact.

Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

Related posts:

• Talking to Electric Vehicles
• Reading the Wind = Using Less Coal
• The Natural Gas Grid – The Other Grid
• Earthships: Get rid of your utility bills with off-grid homes
• Carbon Emissions – no effect on climate change?

A recent debate on EU energy policy for post-2020 concluded that a 45% renewable energy target for 2030 would create the future policy-stability that is necessary for the alternative energy sector.

According to a post on European Wind Energy Association’s blog, these new energy policies must be drawn-up today and not in 2020 when current targets expire.

The post calls attention to two key facts: the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the record emissions in 2010, which reached the highest level in history. As Guardian journalist Fiona Harvey noted, recessions do not necessarily mean fewer emissions.

Renewable energy can fill the gap left by the retirement of nuclear, and there is more than enough of it, according to the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

There are threats to the transition to alternative energy, though. Cheap gas supply is one of them and, to counter that, policy makers need to fix renewable energy targets beyond 2020. There is a large enough fossil fuel supply to alter the climate beyond sustainable levels, Niels Ladefoged, a member of Connie Hedegaard’s European Commission for Climate Action cabinet, warned.

Another topic discussed during the debate was the necessary modernization of the grid to meet future energy demand. Grids need to be extended, upgraded and better connected, it was said, although there is no agreement as to how it can be done since new grid design depends on a future energy system.

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.

Related posts:

• Bipartisan Group of Senators Introduce Renewable Electricity Standard
• European Commission Will Not Target Tougher Carbon Measures
• US Wind Energy Suffers in 2010, Cost-Competitive with Natural Gas in 2011
• Experts Highlight Importance of Energy Efficiency
• Video: Too Dirty For College

A surge in hydroelectric power caused by a heavy spring flow in the Columbia River in the U.S. Northwest has forced authorities to shut down nearby wind energy operations for several hours a day to ease the stress on regional electric grid, triggering conflict between the two renewable energy sectors.

The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal authority that operates the massive dams on the river, has ordered wind generators to shut down because dialing back hydroelectric generators could harm juvenile salmon now moving down the river in their spring migration to the sea.

So far, the area’s rapidly growing wind power industry been unable to feed nearly 75,000 megawatt hours of electricity into the grid, or about 15 percent of their production, and executives say the cutbacks are costing them millions of dollars as a result of contract violations and lost tax and energy credits.

Wind energy advocates allege that BPA is using the salmon as an excuse to keep hydroelectric power filling the grid. “This is not about fish, and it’s not about reliability; It’s just about economics,” said Rob Gramlich, senior vice president of the American Wind Energy Association.

Article appearing courtesy Yale Environment 360.

Related posts:

• Questioning Electric Car Battery Safety
• Brazil Reaches 1 GW in Wind Power Generation
• Niagara Hydropower Project Reaches New Milestone
• Heat Wave Demonstrates Limitations to Wind Power
• Niagra Falls Springs Hydropower

Scientists at the Madagascar Biodiversity Center have a new tool to help them study species that are being threatened by deforestation – reliable clean power. Volunteers have installed solar panels that prevent the loss of valuable research time during occasional power outages while simultaneously reducing the center’s carbon footprint.

The center, which was founded by Dr. Brian Fisher from the California Academy of Sciences in 2004, promotes the understanding and preservation of Madagascar’s plant and animal life. An estimated 80 percent of the species are unique to the island, which has suffered severe biodiversity loss in recent years due to deforestation.

But the doctoral students and researchers who collect samples in the field and bring them back to the Biodiversity Center have been hindered by power outages due to rainstorms, or when the power demand exceeds the capacity of a grid that is largely powered by diesel generators.

Volunteers from solar manufacturer SunPower of San Jose and from the non-profit Vote Solar initiative in San Francisco worked with solar company Energie Technologie to to make the long journey to install the 7.8 kilowatt system. The new solar energy system is one of the largest on the island and provides nearly all of the power for the Center. Small rooftop photovoltaic systems are instrumental in providing power in remote locations where there is no power grid.

While laws are in place to protect Madagascar’s forests, poachers routinely remove trees that are burned to make charcoal and sold to businesses for cooking fuel. In many places on the island, electric power to use for cooking is either too inconsistent or not available.

After installing the solar panels at the Center, Dr. Fisher and the volunteers went to the village of Ranobe to meet with civic leaders to discuss locations to install solar and other methods of protecting the fragile ecosystem. Education and cooperation with village leaders is seen as critical to slowing down the rate of biodiversity loss. An estimated 90 percent of the island’s natural habitat has been destroyed, and poachers continue to damage and remove protected species.

More than 100 villagers attended the meeting. Participants, often slow to implement change, showed an eagerness and willingness to protect the forest and explore new infrastructure to be used for healthcare and for a lighting system to secure protected areas from poachers.

Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

Related posts:

• Value of Conserving Habitats Could be Worth $500B Annually to World’s Poor
• Power to the People: Can Egypt Create Sustainable Wealth?
• Restored Forests Capture More CO2 Than Timber Plantations
• Cost of Solar Energy Lower Than Usually Reported, Study Says
• Are Solar Panels More Efficient Than Plants?

While electric vehicles are only being delivered by the hundreds today, plans for clusters of fast DC charging stations around major cities and along highways are fully underway. During the next 18 months it may be more of a challenge to find enough cars to warrant the chargers’ existence than it will be for EV drivers to find a fast charge station.

DC chargers (which are not Level 3 chargers, as some folks mistakenly have called them), can charge a vehicle at up to 10 times faster (50-80 kilowatts) than the top Level 2 rate. They are being installed across the country, largely thanks to you, the American taxpayer. The theory is that knowing that there exists a place where you can charge in less than half an hour is a great pacifier for prospective EV owners who would otherwise be susceptible to “range anxiety.”

In Oregon, a federally-funded contract was recently awarded to AeroVironment to install 8 chargers along highway 5 in the southern part of the state. At $80,000 per installation, the freedom to drive electric to Ashland comes at a significant cost. Another federal grant will see up to two dozen fast charging stations in northwest Oregon.

Similarly, San Diego (60 DC chargers), San Francisco (20), Philadelphia (22) as well as Chicago and Houston are also in the midst of installing equipment, mostly subsidized through state or local grants.

DC charging faces an uphill battle not only because of the high cost, but also because of a lack of compatible EVs and the potential impact on the grid. Thus far only the Nissan Leaf can work with the fast chargers if buyers request the DC charging option be installed at the factory at a cost of at least $700. Plug-in hybrids like the Chevrolet Volt and upcoming Toyota Prius Plug-in don’t have much need for DC charging given their smaller batteries, and the Coda Automotive EV won’t support DC charging either. The Mitsubishi i-MiEV will have a DC option when it arrives in select markets at the end of the year.

The emphasis for Level 1 and 2 charging has been on smart charging EVs by managing the flow of electricity to emphasize off-peak charging, DC charging is the antithesis of this concept since it is high power, and usually not overnight.

The good news is that using battery storage to buffer against peak DC charging. Several vendors, including hardware companies and automotive OEMs, that participated in last week’s EV Infrastructure USA conference in San Diego acknowledged that storing energy off-peak in batteries connected to charging stations is a necessary part of the DC charging equation.

There was considerable debate about the efficacy of Level 2 charging, which is the vast majority of the equipment currently installed, with folks offering DC charging or even charging via a standard 110V outlet as more cost effective solutions. 350 Green, an EV charging services company that has landed several large contracts in U.S. cities, claims that DC charging is cheaper to deliver by the kilowatt – but that assumes a steady flow of customers during the day and into the evening.

DC charging will likely grow even faster once the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) chooses a standard. The equipment currently being installed is based on the CHAdeMO internationally-supported hardware specification, but SAE has been dragging its wheels in acknowledging CHAdeMO or picking another standard, which would be fairly disastrous for the industry.

Article by John Gartner, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

Related posts:

• Growing EV Industry Still Divided Over DC Charging
• Fast Vehicle Charging Goes by Many Names
• What Energy Efficiency Type are You?
• DC Charging Could Accelerate Grid Impact
• EV Charging Stations Being Built by Major U.S. Retailers

As a Boulder resident, I am loosely participating in the SmartGridCity project run by our local electric utility, Xcel Energy. I say “loosely” because the extent of my participation has been the few times I logged into my online account to see a more granular view of my energy consumption. On this website, I could see into my daily energy usage in as small as 15 minute increments. I will admit that this was an interesting experience as it gave me a better idea of what devices in my home caused my electricity usage to spike. For example, I saw a huge jump in kilowatt hours every morning when I took a shower, most likely due to the energy needed to power my electric water heater. Since that water heater resides in a closet, it is basically out of sight and out of mind when I think about my electricity consumption.

While I found this service of the SmartGridCity project to be interesting and informative, it fell short of impacting my behavior and thought patterns with regards to how I use electricity. I wanted to see my electricity usage in real time, so I was consistently made aware of the impact by behaviors had on my electricity bill. Therefore, I decided to fill out a survey to qualify for an In-Home Smart Device trial, so I could see my energy usage at all times without needing to log-in to a website. Unfortunately, my home did not qualify and my interest in SmartGridCity began to wane.

Much has been written about the poor execution of the SmartGridCity project, primarily how Xcel has been passing the cost of the project on to its customers by including it in their monthly bills well before the cost saving benefits of the program had been demonstrated. While this is an obvious concern, I believe that a greater focus on educating its customers about how to use the technologies of SmartGridCity would have helped to make the project more successful. By providing more tools to help its customers monitor and manage their energy consumption and understand the project, the backlash over increased rates may have been less severe.

Currently, the project is focused on getting customers to enroll in off-peak pricing plans, in which customers pay less per kilowatt hour during time periods when overall electricity demand on the grid is lower, or tiered pricing plans, in which customers pay more per kilowatt hour after they have reached a certain monthly threshold for electricity usage. While I applaud Xcel for helping its customers save money and attempting to reduce demand during peak hours, these incentive plans do little in terms of utilizing smart grid technology to educate consumers on their energy consumption. In the next phase of the project, I hope to see more installations of In-Home Smart Devices and an expansion of customer education programs to help make the residents of SmartGridCity smarter about how they use electricity.

Article by Brian Davis, appearing courtesy the Matter Network.

Related posts:

• In Rio, Making Cities Smarter
• Stimulus Update: Smart Grid Funding Guidelines Released
• IBM’s New Smarter Buildings Solution: More BAM from Your BMS
• Sustainable Building: Win Up to $5M in Greener House Contest
• Stimulus Update: Inching Towards Smart Grid Funding Guidelines

What if we, as individuals, could contribute to renewable energy simply by working out? Imagine hitting the gym, getting into your zone, achieving optimal heart rate and… putting electricity back onto the grid.

Not only is it a pretty cool concept, it’s becoming a reality.

All those Stairmasters, elliptical trainers, running machines, bikes, etc., are powered by electricity. Add in lighting, sound systems, hair dryers and many of the other amenities included with a gym membership and it’s no wonder gyms use a lot of energy. Heck, my old gym was a converted single-screen movie theater that retained the screen and projector and showed movies for our workout pleasure. Though I have to admit, electrical use aside, that was much nicer than looking at the sweaty person next to me.

Seattle-based Resource Fitness has developed the technology to help keep both people and the planet healthy at the same time.

Their “plugOutt” technology converts an exerciser’s kinetic energy into electricity and sends the power to the grid. Their equipment uses a standard three-prong plug that plugs into a standard outlet. It’s more efficient than storing energy in batteries, and it eliminates the need for an inverter.

At Portland, Oregon’s Green Microgym, all their machines were purchased from Resource Fitness. They’ve found that people generate about 30 to 60 watt hours per workout. Thirty watt hours can power an iPad for three hours, and 60 watt hours can power a stereo for an hour. Hey, it’s not a lot, but it’s better than nothing.

When all the machines are in use, like during a spin class, Green Microgym generates more power than it draws, but on the whole, the gym doesn’t create enough electricity to meet all its own demands. “Still,” says owner Adam Boesel, “every little bit helps.”

I agree. As technology improves, there will be more ways to think outside the box. The Green Microgym example is one way that individuals and businesses came to together to find an innovative way to reduce energy usage.

What a way to combine their brain power with their physical power.

Article by Kimberly Caulfield, appearing courtesy Xcel Energy Blog.

Related posts:

• Analysis Suggests Ways to Dramatically Increase Wind Farm Output
• How Net Metering Leads to Low Energy Bills
• Pump That Body! Generating Renewable Energy From the Human Body
• Owens Corning to Lighten Load on Wind Turbines with New Blade Fabric
• Braking of Subway Trains To Generate Power for Electricity Grid