Energize Weekly, October 2, 2019 Facing the prospect of electricity shortages as soon as 2021, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) staff has proposed extending the life of four natural gas-fired power plants that use ocean water for cooling. On Oct. 24, the CPUC is set to rule on the…
Energize Weekly, October 2, 2019 Nuclear power generation was up 2.4 percent worldwide in 2018 to 2,563 terawatt-hours (TWh) from 449 operable reactors, according to the World Nuclear Association, an industry trade group. There were 55 reactors under construction in 2018, with five new construction starts and nine new reactors…
Energize Weekly, October 2, 2019 The operating life span for U.S. wind farms has increased by more than a third to 30 years in the last two decades, according to a survey and analysis by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The increasing lifetime of the wind projects is improving the…
Energize Weekly, October 2, 2019 World energy consumption is projected to grow by 50 percent by 2050, with most of that demand coming from growing Asian economies, according to the federal Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Outlook. “Energy consumption was greater in Asia than in any other region in…
Energize Weekly, September 25, 2019 The U.S. market for “smart home” devices will more than triple by 2025, reaching $75 billion, according to data analytics company GlobalData. The growth will be driven by the increased use of smart thermostats, which consumers see as an energy-saving device and utilities as one…
Energize Weekly, September 25, 2019 The U.S. wind industry has a strong supply chain, a solid investment pipeline and growing employment, but could face a downturn in the 2020s from natural gas, low growth in electricity demand and the loss of federal tax incentives, according to a U.S. Department of…
Energize Weekly, September 18, 2019 Rooftop solar arrays could economically provide a quarter of the electricity currently being consumed by European Union (EU) countries, according to a study by the EU’s Joint Research Centre. The researchers used satellite-based geospatial data to calculate the available roof space in the EU –…
Energize Weekly, September 18, 2019 Seattle’s ambitious plans for electrifying the city’s transportation sector could destabilize the metropolitan area’s electric grid by the addition of large numbers of electric trucks and buses, a study finds. The study by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in collaboration with Seattle City Light offers…
Energize Weekly, September 11, 2019 Global wind turbine orders in the second quarter of 2019 were 111 percent year-over-year to 31 gigawatts (GW) of capacity and set a new quarterly record, according to industry analyst Wood Mackenzie. The 31 GW of orders easily outstripped the previous record of 13.2 GW…
Energize Weekly, September 11, 2019 The number of oil and gas rigs operating in the U.S. – on land and offshore – fell in September to less than 900 for the first time since 2017, according to the Baker Hughes North American Rig Count. There were 898 rigs operating on…
Energize Weekly, September 11, 2019 After a sharp decline in electric vehicle (EV) sales in July – the first drop in 30 months – Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) cut its sales forecast for the year by 6 percent to 1.5 million vehicles. EV sales in July were down nearly…
Energize Weekly, September 11, 2019 Natural gas prices in the Permian Basin are being bolstered as new takeaway pipeline capacity is opening in the western Texas fields. The natural gas price at the Waha Hub in western Texas reached $1.55 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on Aug. 15, the…
Energize Weekly, September 11, 2019 Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has added energy services company MIECO Inc. as its first non-rural electric cooperative member, clearing the way for the association to be regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). In July, Tri-State, which serves 43 electric cooperatives in four…
Energize Weekly, September 4, 2019 The Hawaiian Electric Company has issued a call for more than 900 megawatts (MW) of renewable generation projects – one of the largest procurements ever undertaken by a U.S. utility, the company said. The bid proposal calls for 594 MW of solar for Oahu, 135…
Energize Weekly, September 4, 2019 The Colorado oil and gas industry is facing uncertain times as new state and local drilling regulations take hold, industry executives say, even as the state’s governor, Jared Polis, dismisses those concerns. That was the divide in sharp display the Colorado Oil and Gas Association’s…
Energize Weekly, September 4, 2019 Dominion Energy has launched a program to replace diesel school buses in Virginia with electric buses starting with 50 vehicles in 2020 and then a second phase – adding 200 buses each year through 2025 – with the ultimate goal of replacing all diesel buses…
Energize Weekly, September 4, 2019 Average electricity prices in the U.S. edged up three-tenths of a percent in the most recent 12-month rolling period, which ended in May 2019, compared to the previous 12-month span, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). There were, however, sharp regional and state…
Energize Weekly, September 4, 2019 Sixteen mines in the Powder River Basin (PRB), which covers northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana, supply more than 40 percent of the coal produced in the U.S., and the bulk of that production is controlled by four companies, according to an analysis by the federal…
Energize Weekly, August 28, 2019 The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board of directors at their August meeting approved a $10.6 billion budget for 2020 and a resource plan that could include up to 14 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity by 2038. The TVA, a federal agency, provides electricity to…
Energize Weekly, August 28, 2019 The U.S. had one the largest absolute increases in oil and natural gas production for a single country in history in 2018, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). In 2011, the U.S. had already surpassed Russia as the world’s largest producer of natural…
Energize Weekly, August 28, 2019 The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), in cooperation with university researchers and major auto manufacturers, has launched a $50 million program to develop electric and alternative-fuel technologies for trucks and off-road vehicles. The research projects will focus on gaseous fuels – including natural gas, bio-power…
Energize Weekly, August 28, 2019 Vistra Energy said it will close four Illinois coal-fired plants, with 2,000 megawatts (MW) of capacity and 300 employees, by the end of the year to meet new state pollution rules. The Illinois Multi-Pollutant Standard (MPS) sets caps on emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen…
Energize Weekly, August 28, 2019 Major U.S. shale operators, thanks to strong oil prices and more efficient operations, posted a sharp turnaround in the second quarter of 2019, showing positive cash flow for the first time on record, according to Rystad Energy, an Oslo-based energy consultant. In the second quarter,…
Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 Imports of silicon solar cells and modules rebounded in the first quarter of 2019 after a sharp drop when the Trump administration announced it would impose tariffs on them in January 2018. Photovoltaic (PV) module imports averaged 644,000 kilowatts (kW) a month in the first…
Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 World energy production – spurred by coal and natural gas – was up 2.2 percent in 2017 to 14,035 million tons oil equivalent (Mtoe) when compared to 2016, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Coal and natural gas output were each up by more…
Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 Portugal’s first photovoltaic (PV) solar auction has led to a record low-cost contract of $16.54 a megawatt-hour (MWh), narrowly besting the previous record, a recent Brazilian power purchase agreement (PPA) for $16.95 a MWh. “With the levelized cost of utility-scale PV in Southern Europe now…
Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 Xcel Energy has received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to turn its Renewable Connect pilot into a full-time program and merge it with another of the company’s renewable programs, Windsource. Xcel plans to add 180 megawatts (MW) of wind generation and 50 MW…
Energize Weekly, August 21, 2019 The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has filed an unprecedented protest with federal regulators seeking to block the bid by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association to move from state to federal rate regulation. Tri-State, which wants to shift rate regulation to the Federal Energy Regulatory…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 The U.S. wind industry hit a record for construction and project development in the second quarter of 2019 with nearly 42,000 megawatts (MW) of projects being built or in advance development, according to an American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) market report. The 20,908 MW of…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 A record for daily U.S. natural gas consumption – 44.5 billion cubic feet (Bcf) – was set on July 15 as a heat wave took hold of the Midwest and Eastern Seaboard, according to S&P Global Platts. The previous record of 43.1 Bcf was set…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 The annual pace of residential energy storage in Europe is set to double in the next six years with total of 6.6 gigawatts of capacity on the continent by 2024 – a fivefold increase from 2018, according to a Wood Mackenzie analysis. Annual deployments are…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 High corn prices and high inventories have squeezed operating margins for Midwest ethanol plants to multiyear lows in the first half of 2019, with an average margin of 3.5 cents a gallon, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The high prices and inventories…
Energize Weekly, August 14, 2019 The economics for electric vehicles (EVs) and renewable energy charging have become so competitive that in the future, the price of oil will have to be no more than $10 a barrel to compete, according to analysis by Paris-based BNP Paribas. The analysis – Wells,…
Energize Weekly, August 7, 2019 Corporate solar acquisitions had a near-record-breaking year in 2018 led by Apple and Amazon, according to industry trade group Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). In all, 1,144 megawatts (MW) were installed, the second highest year after 2017. The figure includes projects owned by companies and…
Energize Weekly, August 7, 2019 U.S exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which have been steadily rising, hit 4.7 billion cubic feet a day in May 2019, as exporters added a growing European market to their Asian base. In 2019, the U.S. became the third largest LNG exporter in the…
Energize Weekly, August 7, 2019 Electricity demand during the July heat wave that covered the Midwest and Atlantic coast led to the highest electricity peak – 704 gigawatts (GW) – in two years, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The heat wave, which also brought high humidity, extended…
Energize Weekly, August 7, 2019 North American utility mergers and acquisitions rebounded in the second quarter of 2019, hitting $12.3 billion, a 55 percent increase over the year’s first quarter, according to the accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Still, the second quarter of 2019 was 47 percent lower than…
Energize Weekly, August 7, 2019 Energy storage worldwide will grow 122-fold, to nearly 1,110 gigawatts (GW) by 2040 as battery prices fall and their use expands – but growth may also create supply chain challenges. These are the views of two recent analyses, one by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF)…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 Global solar photovoltaic (PV) installations are set to reach a record 114.5 gigawatts (GW) in 2019, up nearly 18 percent from 2018, according to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables. The Chinese PV market, the world’s biggest, is slowing down as the government makes changes to its…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 Investment in the oil sector was $16.9 billion in the second quarter of 2019 – a 36 percent drop year-on-year and down 23 percent from the first quarter of 2019, according to Drillinginfo, an industry data analyst. The industry raised $3.4 billion from public stock…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 Almost half of the major U.S. electric utilities filed rate cases with state regulators in 2018 – the highest number since 1983 – with nearly 90 percent seeking rate increases, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The rate increase requests were driven mainly…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 A handful of coal-dependent communities and counties could suffer severe financial burdens as policies to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases and deal with climate change are implemented, according to a study by the Brookings Institution and Columbia University. Twenty-six counties in 10 states rely…
Energize Weekly, July 31, 2019 After more than two years of sometimes acrimonious negotiations, fights before a state utilities commission and lawsuits, the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has agreed to terms allowing one of its rural Colorado cooperatives to leave next year. Four days after filing the agreement with…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Two American Electric Power (AEP) subsidiaries are seeking state regulatory approvals to purchase nearly 1.5 gigawatts (GW) of wind power under development in Oklahoma at a cost of $2 billion. The subsidiaries – Southwestern Electric Power Co. (SWEPCO) and Public Service Co. of Oklahoma (PSO)…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) unplanned crude oil production outages hit a four-year high in the first half of 2019, according to the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA). The outages averaged 2.5 million barrels a day for the six-month period, the highest level…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Zurich-based ABB is paying $470 million to unload its solar inverter business to Italian solar inverter maker Fimer Spa, as price pressures dog the market. ABB said it will take an after-tax nonoperational charge of $470 million with about 75 percent going to Fimer as…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 In a sign of the shifting fortunes in the utility industry, on the same day came news of the largest coal-fired plant closure in nearly a decade and the largest U.S. offshore wind contracts ever. On July 18, American Electric Power (AEP) agreed to close…
Energize Weekly, July 24, 2019 Natural gas, despite growing concerns about its role creating greenhouse gases, continues to provide “quick wins” for carbon emissions reductions and clean air improvements, according to a study by the International Energy Agency (IEA). In the United States, for example, there has been a 70…
Energize Weekly, July 17, 2019 Chinese renewable energy investment dropped 39 percent in the first half of 2019 to $28.8 billion when compared with the same period in 2018, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF). The 2019 six-month figure was the lowest since 2013 and is the result of…
Energize Weekly, July 17, 2019 U.S. crude oil and petroleum liquids production hit a new record in April of 12.2 million barrels a day, according to the federal Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Petroleum Supply Monthly. It is the first time U.S. production has surpassed 12 million barrels a day and…
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