Also Noted: Cognitive computing and much more... My Electric Avenue producing high quality deliverables
As sales of electric vehicles (EV) increase, there is a need to assess the potential impact that a cluster of EVs may have in a local area served by one electricity substation. In the event of all EVs being recharged at the same time, and without any preparation, the load on the local electricity network may exceed the substation capacity. My Electric Avenue is studying the impact the recharging of electric vehicles may have on the local electricity network and has received its six-month independent review. Article
SCC complicates AEP asset transfer and merger
American Electric Power (AEP) has received approval from the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to transfer the AEP Ohio-owned portion of John E. Amos Plant Unit 3 to Appalachian Power. The Virginia SCC also approved the merger of Wheeling Power with Appalachian Power, but denied transfer of 50 percent of the 1,600 MW Mitchell Plant to Appalachian Power. Article
Solar land use requirements on target
As more consumers are switching to solar, NerdWallet has released its findings for the best states for residential solar energy.
"We combined four factors that are most important for average homeowners contemplating solar," explained NerdWallet's Laura Zulliger, the report's author, in an email to FierceEnergy. "SEIA and SEPA's rankings only include solar capacity by state and by utility company." Article News From Across the Energy Industry:
1. Wind will stall in 2013
2. FirstEnergy blames Clean Energy Law for ethics breach
3. Secrets of SCE's EV customers revealed
Today's Top News 1. Nuclear SMRs a game of risk
A shift to small modular reactors (SMR) is unlikely to breathe new life into the U.S. nuclear power industry, according to a report issued today by the nonprofit Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER), since SMRs will likely require tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies or government purchase orders, and create new reliability vulnerabilities and serious concerns in relation to safety and proliferation. The IEER report focuses on light water reactor (LWR) SMR designs, the development and certification of which the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is already subsidizing. The report contends, "SMR proponents claim that small size will enable mass manufacturing in a factory and shipment to the site as an assembled unit, which will enable considerable savings in two ways. First, it would reduce onsite construction cost and time; second, mass manufacturing will make up in economies of volume production what is lost in economies of scale. In other words, modular reactors will be economical because they will be more like assembly-line cars than hand-made Lamborghinis…SMRs will still present enormous financial risks, but that risk would be shifted from the reactor site to the supply chain and the assembly lines. Shifting from the present behemoths to smaller unit sizes is a financial risk shell game, not a reduction in risk." SMRs will lose the economies of scale of large reactors. The report notes that "nuclear reactors are strongly sensitive to economies of scale: the cost per unit of capacity goes up as the size goes down. This is because the surface area per kilowatt of capacity, which dominates materials cost and much of the labor cost, goes up as reactor size is decreased. Similarly, the cost per kilowatt of secondary containment, as well as independent systems for control, instrumentation, and emergency management, increases as size decreases…For these reasons, the nuclear industry has historically built larger and larger reactors in an effort to benefit from economies of scale…large size reductions imply significant increases in unit cost due to loss of economies of scale." The report questions whether mass manufacturing cost reduction can make up for the cost escalation caused by loss of economies of scale. "SMRs are a poor bet to solve nuclear power's problems and we see many troubling ways in which SMRs might actually make the nuclear power industry's current woes even worse," said Arjun Makhijani, Ph.D., nuclear engineer and president, Institute for Energy and Environmental Research. "SMRs are being promoted vigorously in the wake of the failure of the much-vaunted nuclear renaissance. But SMRs don't actually reduce financial risk; they increase it, transferring it from the reactor purchaser to the manufacturing supply chain." For more:
- see the report |
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2. ETLG a wake-up call for policy makers
An increasing number of public/private partnerships and individual companies are developing groundbreaking technologies to assist in the safe provision of reliable and cleaner energy. The Energy Technology Leadership Group (ETLG)—a new group to promote smarter, safer energy through the use of the most innovative technologies across the energy spectrum including fossil, solar, hydro, wind, biofuels, and geothermal—will help educate members of Congress and various federal agencies and regulators about these technological advances, to assist them in drafting more accurate legislation and regulations. "All too often, well-intended legislative or regulatory efforts have unintended and potentially negative consequences because they are based on inaccurate or incomplete information," said Bryan Tackett, senior advisor at PD Frazer Associates and executive director of ETLG. "ETLG will engage in an ongoing, open dialogue with policy framers and lawmakers…Through our work, we will contribute to a more comprehensive approach to smarter, safer energy development and delivery." ETLG member companies are concerned about a variety of legislative and regulatory issues that can have an adverse impact on the safety and security of the energy sector as a whole, including energy efficiency; carbon capture and storage; cybersecurity; pipeline safety; clean up, abatement and reclamation; tax and other incentives for technology innovation; and social license and related corporate social responsibility. "Few public policy decision-makers realize how many North American firms have developed world-class technology addressing safer water filtration, new pipeline monitoring software systems, enhanced oil recovery and reclamation methodologies, or more efficient transmission of renewable power from source to grid," Tackett said. "ETLG has been created to address how its members can work with Congress and the Administration to promote further public/private engagement at a time when it's most needed." For more:
- visit this website Read more about: Energy Technology Leadership Group, PD Frazer Associates
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3. World Cup to boost Brazil's solar market
A stable economy and booming energy sector are drawing investors away from the stagnant North American and European solar photovoltaic (PV) markets towards Brazil's potential-laden domestic market, according to research from Frost & Sullivan, where companies from Spain, Portugal, Italy, the United States and China are already seeking to establish a foothold in the market through partnerships. This market excitement is likely to fuel even higher foreign investments with market revenues predicted by Frost & Sullivan to reach a whopping $431.1 million in 2017 -- a compound annual growth rate of 71.2 percent. The 2014 FIFA World Cup is expected to give a huge boost to the market, with PV anticipated to account for 25 MW of power in the event's solar stadia. The opportunities from these mega events are backed by Brazil's natural advantage of extremely high incidence of solar radiation throughout the year. In 2013, its minimum annual solar radiation is 30 percent higher than the maximum annual solar radiation in Germany. Resolution 482 mandates net metering to prevent low-voltage consumers from being burdened by high electricity tariffs and opens up the market for the distributed generation segment. "Resolution 482/2012 will expand the use of mini- and micro-generation and the products/credit instruments for acquisition and equipment installation," said Frost & Sullivan energy and environmental research analyst Vinicius Vargas. "Centralized and distributed generation is tipped to overtake the isolated generation segment, and participants are targeting the former since the government is more likely to back these niches." When all is said and done, the market will be best served by targeting medium- and large-voltage consumers (retail, shopping malls, and large infrastructure clients) and encouraging them to self-generate energy, according to Frost and Sullivan. For more:
- see this article Read more about: Solar power, Frost & Sullivan
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4. Obama signs hydropower bills into law
President Obama has signed into law the Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act (HR 267) and the Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act (HR 678) designed to expand U.S. hydropower production by improving and streamlining the licensing process for small hydropower projects. The bills received strong bipartisan support passing unanimously in the Senate and nearly unanimously in the House earlier in the year.  | | Credit: Dwight Burdette/Wikimedia Commons | The Bureau of Reclamation Small Conduit Hydropower Development and Rural Jobs Act will improve the permitting process for small and conduit hydropower projects on Bureau of Reclamation facilities. The Hydropower Regulatory Efficiency Act will increase the small hydro exemption to 10 MW from 5 MW and remove conduit projects under 5 MW from FERC jurisdiction and increase the conduit exemption to 40 MW for all projects. Further, the law provides FERC the ability to extend preliminary permits and requires it to examine a two-year licensing process for non-powered dams and closed loop pump storage. In 2012, hydropower provided the majority of the nation's renewable electricity, with 100,000 MW of installed capacity from coast to coast. The industry employs approximately 300,000 workers and is fed by a supply chain of over 2,500 companies. Navigant Research estimates that 60,000 MW of hydropower could be added with the right policies in place, while creating 1.4 million cumulative jobs. This legislation unlocks some of that potential. "These bills are an excellent step to unlocking the tens of thousands of megawatts of untapped hydropower capacity that can provide millions of Americans greater access to affordable, reliable electricity," said Linda Church Ciocci, Executive Director of the National Hydropower Association. For more:
- see this article Related Article:
Hydropower growth slows, value remains high Read more about: hydropower, President Obama
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5. Falling solar costs driving deployments
The average cost of going solar continues to fall across the country, according to research by the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), which examined more than 208,000 PV systems installed between 1998 and 2012, as well as preliminary data from the first half of 2013.  | | Credit: Mhassan Abdollahi/Wikimedia Commons | According to the research, the average installed price of residential and commercial PV systems completed in 2012 decreased by a range of roughly $0.30/W to $0.90/W, or 6 to 14 percent, over 2011, depending on the size of the system. Historically, installed PV prices have declined an average of 5 to 7 percent per year from nearly $12/W in 1998, with particularly sharp reductions occurring since 2009. Recent price declines can be attributed in large part to falling module prices, which fell by $2.6/W from 2008 through 2012. Over the longer-term, installed system prices have fallen due to reductions in non-module costs, including inverters, mounting hardware, permitting and fees, and other costs, according to LBNL. Market-building policies that target non-module or "soft" costs represent a significant opportunity for continued price reduction. "Because of smart policies, including the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and net energy metering, solar is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States," said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). "…there is now more than 8,500 MW of cumulative solar electric capacity in the United States." For more:
- see the report Related Articles:
Solar PV prices falling
NJ drives 1/3 of U.S. solar Read more about: Solar power, U.S. Department of Energy
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Also Noted Quick news from around the Web. > The future of big data: cognitive computing. Article
> Using IT to create a faster, more agile business. Article
> The cheaper clouds get, the more we buy. Article
> Cyberattacks against critical infrastructure doubled in first half of FY 2013. Article
> AirWatch buys Motorola Solutions' Mobility Services Platform unit. Article > New Judges Added! Fierce Innovation Awards 2013: Energy Edition - Deadline: August 23 Have your product reviewed by executives from San Diego Gas & Electric, National Grid, Midwest Energy Cooperative, and more. This awards program recognizes the innovative companies and products defining the future of the energy & smart grid industries. Applications due 8/23. Apply Today! > AESP ONLINE CONFERENCE - CSI Online: Codes, Standards and Improvements - August 20, 12- 4pm ET Join us online this August 20, 12- 4pm ET, for a series of 4 presentations focused on current issues and emerging trends in building and appliance codes and standards. Attend from anywhere you have internet! Eight speakers share their expert insights. Find out more at AESP.ORG. Register at https://m360.aesp.org/event.aspx?eventID=83194 > 2013 Smart Grid Hiring Trends Study Zpryme Smart Grid Insights and Smart Grid Careers would like to invite hiring managers or employees who play an active role in hiring, recruiting and/or retaining employees for Smart Grid roles in the U.S. to participate in the 2013 Smart Grid Hiring Trends Study. Participants receive a FREE Executive Summary and a discount on the report. Get started here. > VERGE San Francisco - October 14-17 - Palace Hotel, 2 New Montgomery Street San Francisco, CA 94105 VERGE SF (Oct 14-17) will connect the brightest business innovators, entrepreneurs, and leading public officials to illuminate the business opportunities created by radical efficiencies in energy, building, water and transportation technologies. VERGE tracks include: New Energy Systems, Next-Gen Buildings, Resilient Cities, Smarter Logistics, Sustainable Mobility and the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. Discover the future of disruptive sustainability and network with a unique audience of leaders from corporations, startups, cities, nonprofits, academia and public policy. Save 10% with our discount code VSFFE - Learn More.
| > Whitepaper: (Frost & Sullivan) Enterprise Content Management Energy Industry: Increase Safety And Reliability, Decrease Costs And Damages The energy sector has seen spectacular failures in recent years, in terms of human life, the environment, and costs to the companies and communities as they rely on paper-based information and processes. This Frost & Sullivan paper looks at the need for enterprise content management to increase safety and reliability, and reduce costs and damages. > Whitepaper: IDC: Nuclear Power Generation at the Crossroads This IDC Energy Insights white paper, sponsored by EMC, examines the future of nuclear power across the globe; analyzes the role of IT in the design, permitting, construction, operation, and decommissioning of nuclear power plants; and provides recommendations to plant owners on ensuring a secure and robust IT infrastructure. > Whitepaper: IDC: Using Information Intelligence to Improve Projects in the Energy Sector In this IDC Energy Insights white paper, sponsored by EMC, the author provides an overview and recommendations about the management of the asset life cycle, from planning all the way through to decommissioning. Systems and tools that support a project framework that can leverage information from a multitude of sources to drive decision making are also discussed. > Whitepaper: IDC: Reducing Risk in Oil and Gas Operations This IDC Energy Insights white paper, sponsored by EMC, explores the operational risks faced by oil and gas companies in today's business and regulatory environment, and how the right information technology can help mitigate those risks. This paper mainly focuses on risk experienced by everyday well, pipeline, and plant operations. | |
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