Tag Archives: clean power

One State Generates Much, Much More Renewable Energy Than Any Other – and It’s Not California

At-a-Glance

A new batch of data about the country’s electricity generation shows the increasing dominance of one state as the clean energy leader. No, it’s not California. It’s Texas. For more, read One State Generates Much, Much More Renewable Energy Than Any Other – and It’s Not California.

Key Takeaways

  • Texas has produced more gigawatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources than any other state for several years running, thanks largely to wind energy.
  • In 2022, Texas generated 136,118 gigawatt-hours from wind and utility-scale solar, most of it from wind. The runner-up was California with 52,927 gigawatt-hours, most of it from utility-scale solar, according to the Energy Information Administration.
  • If we include all renewable energy – like hydropower, biomass, and others – then Texas is still the leader with 138,538 gigawatt-hours, followed by Washington, whose 91,148 gigawatt-hours mostly came from hydropower, and then California, which also has a lot of hydropower, with 89,473 gigawatt-hours.
  • If we include all carbon-free electricity sources, including renewables and nuclear, the leader is again Texas, with 180,145 gigawatt-hours, followed by Illinois with 124,055 gigawatt-hours, most of it from nuclear.
  • Another important part of the conversation is rooftop solar. Add small-scale solar to the state totals, Texas would still be ahead, but the lead wouldn’t be quite so big. California dominates in small-scale solar with 23,094 gigawatt-hours, which is about seven times the number from Texas.

Path to 100% Perspective

The latest data on electricity generation in the U.S., while encouraging, shows that there is much work to be done if the country is to achieve 100% renewable energy. Passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in August 2022 could be the spark that is needed and act as a key driver in the energy transition. The most important element of the IRA is its tax credits, which have a history of being effective. Tax credits lower the upfront capital investment cost of clean power and incentivize renewable electricity production. This will encourage companies to invest increasingly in clean energy technologies and technologies accelerating the progress to the net-zero goal.

Pathways to clean power

At-a-Glance

The coming years will see a monumental shift in the way that mining operations are run. With the clock ticking fast and the first net-zero deadline of 2030 steadily approaching, mining companies will need to make drastic changes to their power systems away from diesel and fossil fuels and toward green renewable energy sources. For more, read Pathways to clean power.

Key Takeaways

  • Mining companies are setting ambitious emissions reduction goals, with many of them pledging to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. To meet these targets, all methods of producing clean energy need to be considered.
  • Wartsila is helping mining companies decide on the ideal power generation mix of green energy technologies using dynamic modeling and energy optimization to create personalized solutions for individual operations.
  • Wartsila enters historical data concerning production and power demand into the PLEXOS modeling tool to create a dynamic simulation of how a mining operation would function using a mix of different green energy types.
  • Once a plan is in place, Wartsila uses its GEMS Digital Energy Platform to identify a starting point in the energy management system to drive the optimal energy mix so decarbonization can happen.
  • The GEMS platform has been used at sites such as B2Gold’s Fekola mine in Mali, where it integrates and optimizes a hybrid energy solution – energy storage technology, a solar array, and a power generator – which led to improved power reliability and reduced emissions, fuel consumption, and operational costs of the mining operations. 

Path to 100% Perspective

The mining industry is looking for ways to improve the carbon footprint of its operations today. Because mining operations are energy intensive, this represents a significant challenge, but decarbonization is possible with a carefully planned approach. Various options are available for making a positive impact on carbon emissions. Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are increasingly being utilized, but they represent only part of the solution. Energy storage, flexible and efficient power generation, and future carbon-neutral fuels are other available solutions. Using technologies like the GEMS Digital Energy Platform can help mining companies come up with a decarbonization roadmap that makes sense for them and future proofs their assets.

Total Sees Oil Demand Peaking Before 2030 in Power Switch

At-a-Glance:

French energy giant TotalEnergies SE expects global oil demand to peak before the end of this decade, as more nations crack down on fossil fuels and promote cleaner power in transport and industry to mitigate global warming. Total’s 2021 Energy Outlook, which takes into account new net-zero pledges made by countries including the U.S. and China, assumes crude demand will plateau before 2030 and then decline. To learn more, read, “Total Sees Oil Demand Peaking Before 2030 in Power Switch.”

Key Takeaways:

  • Total’s Momentum scenario, which is based on environmental targets and policies announced worldwide, points to a 2.2 to 2.4-degree increase in global temperatures by the end of the century.
  • This year’s report “considerably” raises the company’s forecasts for global solar and wind investments by the middle of the century to electrify transport as governments increasingly ban the sale of internal combustion vehicles.
  • Meanwhile, natural gas is seen keeping its role as a transition fuel, especially as carbon dioxide and methane emissions are increasingly reined in.

Path to 100% Perspective: 

According to the IEA’s landmark 2050 roadmap, there is a viable pathway to build a global net zero emissions energy sector by 2050, but it is narrow and calls for a transformation in how energy is produced, transported and used globally. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recommends that to limit global warming to 1.5C°, global CO2 emissions should decline by 45% by 2030 in comparison to 2010 and reach net zero by 2050.

Meanwhile, the price of electricity does not need to increase when power systems move to net zero. Utilities are shifting from a costly operational expenditure (opex) model, where capital is continually drawn into fuelling and maintaining legacy inflexible coal, oil, and gas plants – to a new model where up-front capital expenditure (capex) is invested in predictable, low maintenance, renewable energy technology. Flexibility creates the conditions where renewable energy is the most profitable way to power our grids: ensuring back-up power is available when there’s insufficient wind or solar – and earning rewards from capacity mechanisms.

 

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Should Google and Microsoft focus on sourcing their own 100% clean power or cleaning up the dirtiest grids?

At-a-Glance:

Major companies with ambitious clean energy goals face a complicated set of options for how they ought to prioritize their efforts over the coming decade. Should they make their own electricity supply as clean as possible, or should they focus first on cleaning up the dirtiest power grids? To learn more, read, “Should Google and Microsoft focus on sourcing their own 100% clean power or cleaning up the dirtiest grids?”

Key Takeaways:

  • Google’s 24/7 clean energy pledge, made a year ago, which sets a 2030 deadline for powering its data centers and corporate campuses with 100 percent carbon-free energy every hour of the year.
  • Microsoft followed up earlier this year with a 100/100/0 pledge to match 100 percent of its corporate power consumption with zero-carbon resources 100 percent of the time by decade’s end.
  • Maximizing corporate carbon reductions has been gaining traction in recent years: investing in clean energy projects based on their ​“emissionality,” or their ability to directly reduce carbon emissions

Path to 100% Perspective: 

Clean energy goals along with clean energy investments is accelerating the decarbonization journey by putting a focus on decreasing carbon emissions. Google and Microsoft have been making headlines for their clean energy efforts for several years. Each organization has been able to promote their 100% achievements within the past five years. The path to 100% renewable energy does not look the same for every organization, community or region, but the steps to decarbonization are similar. Investing in renewable energy as well as clean-technology is consistently producing clean energy solutions as well as additional pledges and milestone accomplishments.

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Study: California can Reach a Decarbonized Electric Grid Affordably and Reliably by 2045

At-a-Glance:

California can eliminate carbon emissions without markedly increasing the cost of electricity while preserving the reliability of the state’s grid, according to an analysis published in the online journal, Issues in Science and Technology. To learn more, read “Study: California can Reach a Decarbonized Electric Grid Affordably and Reliably by 2045.”

Key Takeaways:

  • The study employed three different models of California’s electricity system to quantify the costs of a variety of future scenarios for new sources of clean, reliable electric power.
    • Each team’s model determined how much electricity would cost under a variety of scenarios.
    • The models also considered the physical implications of building the decarbonized grid, examining questions like how much infrastructure would be required; how quickly the state would need to build it; and how much land would be needed.
    • While each team approached the challenge differently, they all produced similar results that kept the cost of generation and transmission between 7 and 10 cents per kilowatt hour, comparable to the current costs of generation and transmission for California’s investor-owned utilities.
  • While the teams found that renewables like wind and solar will remain critical to the state’s path toward decarbonization, California will need to tap into clean electricity that is available on demand, for as long as it is needed, whenever it is needed.
    • Known as “clean firm power,” this type of energy includes geothermal and nuclear power as well as natural gas that utilizes carbon capture and storage technology to sequester CO2.
    • Clean fuels such as hydrogen manufactured with no life-cycle emissions could also be added to the mix.

Path to 100% Perspective:

Meeting California’s goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2045 while ensuring affordable and reliable power is a tremendous challenge. This analysis shows the potential of Power-to-Gas technology, in conjunction with energy storage, as a source of firm carbon-neutral power that can help the state achieve an optimal, decarbonized power system while keeping costs low for ratepayers and ensuring a secure supply of electricity.

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Renewable Electricity Set To Power Past Coal And Gas By 2025

At-a-Glance:

Global economic growth has dropped this year because of COVID-19 and the energy sector has been among the hardest-hit, with oil prices at one point turning negative as demand slumped.

However, one part of the energy industry has defied the downturn – and is set to post record growth this year and next. Cost reductions and sustained policy support are set to drive strong growth in renewable energy. By 2025, renewables will have usurped coal to become the biggest source of electricity generation globally. To learn more, read “Renewable Electricity Set To Power Past Coal and Gas By 2025.” Reading this article may require a subscription.

Key Takeaways:

  • The International Energy Agency (IEA) Renewables 2020 report says that almost 200GW of new clean power capacity will be installed in 2020, almost 90 percent of all new power capacity around the world.
  • Renewable electricity generation will increase by 7 percent globally in 2020, underpinned by the record new capacity additions, the Agency says. This growth comes despite a 5 percent annual drop in global energy demand, the largest since World War II.
  • India’s renewable energy sector is set to double in 2021.
  • Global growth in renewable capacity in the first 10 months of 2020 is already 15 percent higher than the same period last year, despite the pandemic, and growth is set to continue.
  • But while renewables in the power sector are going from strength to strength, the COVID crisis has hit electric vehicles and renewable heat hard

Path to 100% Perspective:

As wind and solar power become increasingly cost-competitive, investments in traditional, inflexible base load plants such as large coal, nuclear, and gas combined-cycle plants are declining. This signals an end to the era of large, centralized power plants that run on fossil fuels.

Global financial trends reflect this dramatic shift, with renewable generation attracting more investment dollars than fossil-powered generation year after year. In 2018, investment in renewable power capacity was about three times higher than the amount invested in new coal- and gas-fired generation combined, according to the global renewable energy organization REN21. Worldwide investment in renewables has exceeded $230 billion for nine years in a row.

 

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An $11 trillion global hydrogen energy boom is coming. Here’s what could trigger it

At-a-Glance:

Storing fuel in salt caverns isn’t new, but hydrogen’s growing role in decarbonization has revitalized interest in the concept. The Advanced Clean Energy Storage project in Utah aims to build the world’s largest storage facility for 1,000 megawatts of clean power, partly by putting hydrogen into underground salt caverns. The concept is quickly gaining momentum in Europe. To learn more, read “An $11 trillion global hydrogen energy boom is coming. Here’s what could trigger it.

Key Takeaways:

  • With the cost of renewables such as solar power falling, green hydrogen is being touted as one part of the energy mix that will lead toward decarbonization, with applications ranging from consumer and industrial power supplies to transportation and spaceflight.
  • By 2050, U.S. demand for hydrogen could increase anywhere from 22 million to 41 million metric tons per year, up from 10 million today, according to a study released this month by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
  • Bank of America believes hydrogen technology will generate $2.5 trillion in direct revenue — or $4 trillion if revenue from associated products such as fuel cell vehicles is counted — with the total market potential reaching $11 trillion by 2050.

Path to 100% Perspective:

Hydrogen has a high potential of becoming the fuel of the future, helping societies move towards decarbonization. Because hydrogen was not used as a power generation fuel in the past, the technologies to combust and use it in different applications need to be developed. Hydrogen burns with air to produce water, without any carbon emissions. It is perfect for use in 100% clean energy portfolios.

 

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Missing Pieces of Decarbonization Puzzle Realized

Jussi Heikkinen, Director of Growth & Development, Americas
Wärtsilä Energy Business

These are exciting times as the renewable energy future is a focus for so many organizations and governments around the world, as indicated by attendance of the Wärtsilä sponsored webcast hosted by GreenBiz on November 19, 2020, Missing Pieces of Decarbonization Puzzle Realized. Emerging technologies are moving closer to reality, which makes ambitious energy goals more realistic and the path to 100 percent renewable energy is now within reach.

A place where the transition to renewables has progressed quite far already is California. The lessons learned along the way have been plentiful, but powerful nonetheless. The record-breaking heat wave that swept across the western part of the country and caused a series of blackouts in the Golden State, offered additional modelling opportunities to demonstrate the most effective mix of energy to accommodate any extreme weather situation during the transition, and to meet clean power mandates.

The big challenge facing California and the rest of the world is how to integrate renewables into the grid while building security of supply and a sustainable power system with an affordable plan for everyone involved.

That’s why Wärtsilä launched its Path to 100% initiative. We believe a 100% renewable energy future is possible, practical and financially viable so we assembled a community of experts to produce solutions based on science and engineering. This fall, we published a white paper that describes the Optimal Path to decarbonization for California using new hourly load data provided by this summer’s extreme heatwave.

In the whitepaper, Path to 100% Renewables for California, we modelled an approach for  California to reach its climate and clean power goals faster, at a lower cost to ratepayers, all while maintaining system reliability.

The “Optimal Path“ includes renewable carbon neutral fuels – hydrogen and synthetic methane. Curtailed renewable electricity is used in the process with water to produce hydrogen, and carbon is captured from air to produce synthetic methane with hydrogen. These fuels are used in power plants to provide a long term energy storage for seasonal and weather management needs. In the Optimal Path scenario, Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) commitments would actually be reached by 2040, five years ahead of schedule.

Generation costs in the “Optimal Path” scenarios are between 50 and 54 dollars per megawatt hour in 2045, while these costs would be almost 3 times higher if California opted to use only solar, wind and storage to build the power system. This cost difference is excessive and not beneficial for industries or households to pay. Additionally, carbon emissions are at net zero in 2045 in both scenarios.

How can California get on the Optimal Path to a renewable energy future? One recommendation is to recognize carbon neutral fuels – as presented above – to be counted as renewable for RPS purposes. This would enable the utilities to start looking for ways to invest and use such fuels to the benefit of California.

Another state aggressively pursuing renewable energy goals is Texas. Co-presenter and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Principal of Market Design and Development, Kenneth Ragsdale shared the Lone Star State’s progress on integrating renewables into the power system.

Climate Imperative’s Executive Director, Bruce Nilles offered a big picture perspective on electricity generation capacity and the commitments needed to accelerate decarbonization.

To watch the recorded presentations from Wärtsilä, ERCOT as well as Climate Imperative and download presentation materials, register today for the Missing Pieces of Decarbonization Puzzle Realized webcast.

Top Solar States Per Capita 2012 vs. 2020 — CleanTechnica Report

At-a-Glance:

CleanTechnica has developed a new report on the top solar power states per capita, by comparing the results from the first half of 2020 with the results from 2012. Also note that this report does not include all 50 states, unlike the previous one, because the data back in 2012 didn’t include all 50 states. It just included the top 25 states in terms of overall solar power capacity. For the full 2020 ranking, see this report. To learn more, read “Top Solar States Per Capita 2012 vs. 2020 — CleanTechnica Report.”

Key Takeaways:

  • Two things to note in the two charts. First, how much solar power capacity per capita has increased in each of these states. Secondly, how the rankings have shifted around.
    • Nevada rose from #3 in 2012 to #1 in 2020
    • California rose from #6 in 2012 to #3 in 2020
    • North Carolina rose from #11 in 2012 to #5 in 2020
  • The US Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) has some interesting “quick facts” on each state in the country. Below are a few comparative highlights:
    • California-first in the nation
      • Total Solar Investment in State: $68,148.93 million.
      • Solar Companies in State: 2,006
    • North Carolina-second in the nation
      • Total Solar Investment in State: $8,999.31 million.
      • Solar Companies in State: 216
    • Arizona-fifth in the nation
      • Total Solar Investment in State: $12,772.41 million.
      • Solar Companies in State: 307
  • North Carolina jumped up the charts from #7 to #2. New Jersey had almost the opposite result, dropping from #3 to #7.

Path to 100% Perspective:

These future power systems will need four cornerstones to maintain reliable power in the clean power system of the future. The “Generation Cornerstone” is foundational to a 100% renewable future when wind and solar farms will generate most electricity. The “Constant Balance Cornerstone” keeps power flows on the grid balanced, minute by minute by collecting excess power in short-term battery-style energy storage with typical durations of one hour or less that continuously charge and discharge as needed to supply constant, reliable power. The “Daily Shift Cornerstone” ensures the lights stay on by shifting overbuilt renewable power during the day to meet load and charge storage, and discharging that stored energy at other times of the day when it’s needed. The “Reliability Cornerstone” ensures system reliability by using flexible generation to make up the difference.

 

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