QUICK NEWS, Sept. 16: THE ENERGY TRANSITION TAKES SHAPE; A LABOR-ENVIRO CALL FOR NEW ENERGY, NEW WIRES; ADVANCES IN WATER POWER

THE ENERGY TRANSITION TAKES SHAPE Sun and Wind Alter Global Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind

Justin Gillis, Sept. 13, 2014 (NY Times)

"...Germans will soon be getting 30 percent of their power from renewable energy sources. Many smaller countries are beating that, but Germany is by far the largest industrial power to reach that level…It is more than twice the percentage in the United States…[It] is driving down costs faster than almost anyone thought possible…Electric utility executives all over the world are watching nervously as technologies they once dismissed as irrelevant begin to threaten their long-established business plans. Fights are erupting across the United States over the future rules for renewable power. Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset…A reckoning is at hand…The word the Germans use for their plan is…energiewende, the energy transition. Worldwide, Germany is being held up as a model…But it is becoming clear that the transformation, if plausible, will be wrenching. Some experts say the electricity business is entering a period of turmoil beyond anything in its 130-year history, a disruption potentially as great as those that have remade the airlines, the music industry and the telephone business…” click here for more

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A LABOR-ENVIRO CALL FOR NEW ENERGY, NEW WIRES Labor, Environmental Leaders Back Wind Energy Transmission Line

Sept. 15, 2014 (Public News Service)

“…[T]he winds of change are blowing in Missouri, as more people speak out in favor of a plan to build a high-voltage wind energy transmission line through the state [including the Sierra Club, which] says the line, which would transfer 3,500 megawatts of power from wind farms in Kansas, would help the state move away from its reliance on coal [and meet the mandate] that the state's utilities generate at least 15 percent renewable energy by 2021…The Public Service Commission is accepting comments on the plan, and is expected to make a final decision toward the end of December. Gerald Nickelson, president of the IUE-CWA Local 86114… says in recent years, more and more contracts have come from wind farms, and he believes the transmission line would be a major economic boon for the state...The project, known as the Grain Belt Express, is one of five long-haul transmission lines planned across the country by Houston-based Clean Line Energy Partners. Construction is expected to begin in 2016.” click here for more

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ADVANCES IN WATER POWER Wave Energy Research Progressing

Joanna Schroeder, Sept. 11, 2014 (Domestic Fuel)

“The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the funding of up to $4 million for continued wave energy technological research and monitoring efforts. Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center (NNMREC) faculty will also share in another $3.25 million grant to improve ‘water power’ technologies that convert the energy of waves, tides, rivers and ocean currents into electricity…The new funding will allow NNMREC to develop an improved system for real-time wave forecasting; create robotic devices to support operations and maintenance; design arrays that improve the performance of marine energy conversion devices; improve subsea power transmission systems; and standardize approaches for wildlife monitoring. Federal officials said the overall goal is to reduce the technical, economic and environmental barriers to deployment of new marine energy conversion devices...Significant progress has been made in how to process, permit and monitor wave energy technology as it emerges from the laboratory to ocean test sites, and ultimately to commercial use. Wave energy’s sustainable generating potential equates to about 10 percent of global energy needs.” click here for more