Headline News:
- Across Europe, the price of building an offshore wind farm has fallen 46% in the last five years, 22% percent last year alone. Costs now average $126/MWh, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That’s below the $155/MWh price for new nuclear developments in Europe and closing in on the $88/MWh price tag on new coal plants. [Bloomberg]
Turbine in the Block Island wind farm (Photo: Eric Thayer / Bloomberg)
- According to the energy market analysis firm RepuTex, “clean” coal technologies will not be commercially viable before 2030 without government subsidy. In Australia, the rising price of gas, coupled with the falling cost of energy storage, has made renewable energy the least expensive source of reliable power generation. [The Guardian]
- Georgetown, Texas, is now one of the first cities in the US to run on 100% renewable energy. The milestone is met after the city ended a long-term power contract in 2012, and found new options from power suppliers in West Texas and the Panhandle that would provide renewable energy, such as solar and wind power. [Austin American-Statesman]
- A growing crisis in the Australian electricity market led to wholesale power prices more than doubling in a year, to at least twice what they were under the much-maligned carbon price. Analysis by the University of Melbourne’s Climate and Energy College said it nearly tripled in coal-reliant Queensland and New South Wales. [Daily Advertiser]
- In Hawaii, the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative is now drawing energy from 272 Tesla power packs to provide electricity after dark. The Tesla’s power packs are expected to save KIUC 1.6 million gallons of diesel fuel annually, cutting costs from 15.5¢/kWh to a price fixed at 13.9¢/kWh for the next 20 years. [South China Morning Post]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
March 9 Green Energy News posted first on Green Energy Times
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