QUICK NEWS, May 22: APPLE TURNS TO SUN; EU WIND CAN LEAD ECONOMIC RECOVERY; CHINA’S NEW GRID MAY ONLY MEET OLD NEEDS

APPLE TURNS TO SUN Apple Planning Solar Installations To Power North Carolina Data Center

18 May 2012 (Solar Industry)

“Responding to criticism that its operations relied heavily on fossil fuels, Apple plans to power its main data center entirely on renewable energy by year-end…The company will build two solar projects near its data center in North Carolina that will supply a total of 84 GWh of electricity annually…”

“SunPower Corp. and Bloom Energy are reportedly supplying the equipment for the project, which will cover 250 acres…Apple also says it plans to convert its other two data centers to coal-free electricity.”

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EU WIND CAN LEAD ECONOMIC RECOVERY EU Leaders: Wind Energy Is Part Of Solution To Europe's Economic Woes

21 May 2012 (North American Windpower)

“European leaders…[believe] wind energy can help lead to more jobs and economic growth.

“In 2010, the wind energy sector's growth rate was twice that of the European Union's (EU) gross domestic product. Furthermore, although the EU's overall unemployment rate rose between 2007 and 2010, over 50 new jobs were created in the European wind industry daily, according to the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA).”

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[Christian Kjaer, CEO, EWEA:] "EU funds must be leveraged - for example, through the European Investment Bank, and by potentially using structural funds - towards technologies that can make a significant and immediate impact on jobs, while reducing Europe's fuel import bill…Onshore wind energy offers the greatest short-term stimulus potential, followed by offshore wind energy and investments in electricity infrastructure.”

“According to EWEA, wind energy and its benefits must be prioritized in the EU's 2014 to 2020 budget - which is currently under discussion - and more research and development funding is needed in order to bring costs down and allow wind energy to reach its potential.”

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CHINA’S NEW GRID MAY ONLY MEET OLD NEEDS China Is Developing a Grid Better for Coal Than Renewables; The new electricity grid will make it hard for China to meet its greenhouse gas and energy-intensity goals

Lisa Friedman/ClimateWire, May 16, 2012 (Scientific American)

“China will fail to meet its carbon and energy intensity targets unless it makes dramatic changes to its electricity grid, China Power: Benefits and Costs of the 'Strong, Smart Grid finds…While newer and in many ways more technologically advanced than the U.S. grid, China's system is nevertheless being built to perpetuate the use of coal and large hydropower projects…One key finding: China's engineers are developing a grid that is more likely to connect to coal than to renewables…

“…China pledged to lower its carbon intensity 40 to 45 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, while moving to non-fossil fuels for about 15 percent of its energy. It has since spelled out specific short-term targets, like providing 9.5 percent of the country's energy through renewables by 2015…But unless those mandates are coupled with better planning and a more transparent system, the end result will be expensive and continue to have a big carbon footprint…[R]esearchers found that China is on a path to ‘squander’ 400 billion yuan ($63.2 billion) annually by 2020, even as its coal-fired power plants emit ‘more carbon than the entire U.S. economy.’”

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“The Chinese government recently announced that it is building an 800-kilovolt power line to deliver wind and solar energy thousands of miles and that could eventually be the world's largest-capacity transmission line. According to the Transition Energy report, though, the near-exclusive focus on an ultra-high-voltage transmission network as the system's backbone fails to take the electricity consumer's role into account…[and therefore] the cost and emissions from China's electric power generation could more than triple by 2030…

“…[T]wo-thirds of the power is owned by industry, so the State Electricity Regulatory Commission is toothless. The state grid lacks control over pricing but retains strong influence over how rates are structured -- a system resulting in a disproportionate amount of money going to the state grid itself…[T]here is little incentive to invest in best-generation technologies…Price reform, the report authors say, is critical for rapid deployment of efficiency technologies…China will [also] need the establishment of a power planning agency charged with overseeing environmental and economic goals as well as power-generating targets…”

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