QUICK NEWS, August 3: STILL ROCKIN’ TO STOP NUKES; WIND STORAGE SEEKS SANDSTONE; BRAZIL BUYS BIG INTO SUN; CONTROLLING AIRLINE EMISSIONS

STILL ROCKIN’ TO STOP NUKES
Sun and Wind and Rock 'n' Roll: A Three-Decade Journey
Clint Wilder, August 1, 2011 (Clean Edge)

"News item: Several months after a crippled nuclear reactor disaster that shocked the world and upended long-term global energy strategies, a group of prominent rock musicians have scheduled a historic benefit concert on August 7, 2011. Performers led by Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Crosby Stills & Nash, the Doobie Brothers, and John Hall, under the banner Musicians United for Safe Energy (MUSE), plan to raise funds and awareness against nuclear power, and in favor of clean-energy sources like solar and wind."

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""That very same paragraph, with a different concert date, could have been written 32 years ago – simply substituting Three Mile Island for Fukushima as the nuclear disaster, and New York City’s Madison Square Garden for Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California as the concert venue. This same group of musicians (Browne, Raitt, Hall, and Graham Nash) formed MUSE and played what was actually a series of five concerts in New York in September 1979, with a subsequent record album (yes, on vinyl) and concert film release. They also helped lead a Sunday afternoon rally on the Battery Park Landfill in Manhattan attended by 200,000 people…"


WIND STORAGE SEEKS SANDSTONE
270MW Iowa compressed air project cancelled
James Quilter, 1 August 2011 (Windpower Monthly)

"A planned 270MW wind project utilising compressed-air energy storage has been cancelled…The Iowa Stored Energy Project (ISEP)… near Des Moines, would have taken wind energy produced during off-peak times and stored it in sandstone as compressed air…However, geological studies have shown the sandstone at the site is not suitable for the size of the project…[but] Bob Schulte — who led the assessment…— said that the concept was still sound…"

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"…[E]conomic studies performed for ISEP show that…[it] can be cost effective compared to conventional generation alternatives and supportive of additional wind-energy development…[T]he decision only reflected the ISEP project…[A]n announcement over further projects [will] be taken at a later date."


BRAZIL BUYS BIG INTO SUN
SER Plans 600 Megawatts of Solar, Competitive Pricing By 2017
Stephan Nielsen, July 18, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

"SER - Sistema de Energia Renovavel, a new venture in Brazil, is planning to build 600 megawatts of solar plants by 2020 and expects the technology to be competitively priced with other energy sources within six years…SER will have completed its first 5-megawatt photovoltaic plant in the country’s northeast next year…

"Almost none of Brazil’s electricity is generated by solar power, mainly because the
equipment is expensive…This may change if the government increases its support and manufacturing costs continue to come down…"

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"It costs about 2.5 million euros ($3.6 million) to install a megawatt of photovoltaic power in Europe, and may cost more for SER’s Brazil project because the panels will need to be imported…There are other cheaper renewable energy technologies available in Brazil…Wind farms cost about $2 million a megawatt and can generate 75 percent more electricity than similarly sized sun-powered facilities…

"…Solar radiation levels in Brazil’s sunny northeastern states of Bahia, Paraiba, Rio Grande do Norte and Ceara, where SER plans its projects, reach 6.5 kilowatt hours a square meter a day…[It’s] worst areas are much better than [Spain’s] best…One possible panel provider for SER’s projects is Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar Inc. (FSLR) that has a partnership with Spain’s solar company Assyce Fotovoltaica Sociedad Ltda., which owns the other half of SER."


CONTROLLING AIRLINE EMISSIONS
Europe Moves to Limit Aviation Emissions, China Follows; EU and China to Begin Limiting Flight Emissions While U.S. Airlines Fight Regulations
Melanie Hart, August 1, 2011 (Center for American Progress)

"China is hoping its aviation emission efficiency measure will qualify as an "equivalent measure" under the EU's emission trading scheme, which will monitor and cap carbon emissions for all flights that touch down in European territory.

"The global aviation community has been trying to establish some sort of global aviation emission reduction system through the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO, since 1997. Unfortunately, that process has been a complete failure…Europeans decided to take the lead by incorporating aviation emissions into their own cap-and-trade system…Starting January 2012, the commission will monitor and cap carbon emissions for all flights that touch down in European territory…"

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"U.S. airlines are seeking an exemption to the European system by arguing that the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, or ETS, violates the Chicago Convention, which grants individual countries ‘complete and exclusive sovereignty’ over their own domestic airspace, and the U.S.-EU Open Skies Agreement…[and have] filed a lawsuit to challenge the third-party country extension plan...

"China is also making waves…and China and the United States are undoubtedly watching one another to see if they can divide the Europeans on this issue...Unlike the United States, however, the Chinese are making an effort to meet the Europeans halfway. And our refusal to offer any sort of positive engagement is giving China added bargaining power on aviation emissions while eroding U.S. leadership on global climate change..."