Henry Harrell"s Blog: July 21 Green Energy News

Headline News:

Just as the Trump Administration was celebrating its “Made in America Week,” the Financial Times reported that CSX is not planning to buy new locomotives to haul additional coal. In fact, it is laying off 700 workers. Its CEO told the Financial Times that “Fossil fuels are dead,” and that “coal is not a long-term issue” for the company. [CleanTechnica]

CSX train (Photo: Don O’Brien, flickr.com, Creative Commons)

Governor Phil Scott affirmed Vermont’s commitment to meeting the state’s long-term goal of getting 90% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050, and he created a commission to advise him on the best way to do it. He asked the 21-member commission to report back to him with an action plan by July 31, 2018. [Valley News]
A report by energy market analysts EnAppSys says renewable energy sources set a host of records in the UK in the second quarter of 2017. Renewable energy was up 56% from the same period last year. Meanwhile the report also showed coal plants struggled in the quarter and produced less than 2% of total generation. [Power Engineering International]
Under a newly approved settlement agreement between Microsoft Corp and utility Puget Sound Energy, the tech giant will be able to purchase clean energy from the wholesale market to power its Puget Sound facility in Washington state. Under the terms of the contract, Microsoft will buy only carbon-free energy. [North American Windpower]
Germany’s offshore wind farms delivered to the grid 8.48 TWh of electricity in the year’s first six months, Deutsche Windguard figures show. German offshore wind has already produced more electricity in 2017 than in the whole of 2015, which had 8.29 TWh. About 900 MW of new offshore capacity is expected to be added in 2017. [reNews]

Henry Harrell"s Blog