QUICK NEWS, November 25: 100% NEW ENERGY GRID CAN BE STABLE; GLOBAL AMAZON WEB SERVICES POWERED BY WIND; CHURCH VS. UTILITY IN NORTH CAROLINA SOLAR DISPUTE

100% NEW ENERGY GRID CAN BE STABLE An All Wind, Water, and Solar Grid Will Be Stable Without Batteries

Charles Q. Choi, 23 Novmber 2015 (IEEE Spectrum)

“The U.S. electrical grid could rely completely on solar, wind, and water power, and existing low-cost methods of storing energy [rather than giant battery farms]…Previous research suggested that the U.S. and the world] could get 100 percent of its energy from [New Energy] by 2050…[S]cientists created a 3-D global weather model to predict how much electricity wind, water, and solar power could generate in [an all-electric U.S.] between 2050 and 2055…[and] modeled a variety of ways to store this energy…[They concluded all the raw energy] could come from wind, water, and solar, with no need for coal, oil, natural gas, biofuels or nuclear power…[and] existing low-cost ways of storing clean energy [like pumped hydro and consumer geothermal] could suffice, in combination with ‘demand response’ programs where consumers are given financial incentives to turn equipment down, or off, when the power supply is limited or when the grid needs balancing…” click here for more

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GLOBAL AMAZON WEB SERVICES POWERED BY WIND Amazon's Ohio Wind Energy Farm to Power AWS Worldwide

Sejuti Banerjea, November 25, 2015 (Zacks)

“Last year, Amazon committed to gradually switch to using 100% renewable energy for the entire Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure that powers its cloud computing services globally…[and it] recently announced its plan to construct a 100-megawatt (MW) wind farm in Ohio to power its data centers with clean energy…Expected to become operational in May 2017, this facility will supply energy to the electrical grid that powers the existing and upcoming AWS data centers…According to AWS, about 40% of the power consumed by its worldwide infrastructure will come from renewable sources by the end of the next year…[Other tech giants hae alwo been attracted to long term fixed price Neqw Energy contracts. Apple] claims that its iCloud online service is powered with 100% renewable energy…[Microsoft] signed a deal with EDF Renewable Energy…[Google’s Alphabet] currently powers about 35% of its operations with renewable energy…” click here for more

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CHURCH VS. UTILITY IN NORTH CAROLINA SOLAR DISPUTE Church Fights Duke Energy For 3rd Party Solar Energy

Jon Camp, November 24, 2015 (Eyewitness News/Raleigh, North Carolina)

“…[Faith Community Church is living the story of David and Goliath in] going up against Duke Energy…[The church] teamed up with the environmental advocacy group NC WARN to install solar panels on the church's roof…NC WARN paid for them and is selling back the power to the church for half of what Duke Energy was charging…[I]t may be against state law. North Carolina is one of four states that doesn't allow 'third party sales' of solar energy. Only regulated utilities can sell power and Duke has questioned whether NC WARN is breaking the law…[NC WARN says this is a test case to open the state’s rooftop solar industry. A Duke spokesperson said] the company isn't opposed to third party sales in principle but says the model doesn't always put consumers' best interests first…” click here for more

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