QUICK NEWS, February 7: Climate Change May Threaten Power Delivery; Solar Job Boom Speeds Up; Record Orders For Biggest U.S. Wind Builder

Climate Change May Threaten Power Delivery Climate change may overload US electrical grid: study

February 6, 2017 (PhysOrg)

“As the planet warms due to climate change and hot days become more common, the US electrical grid could be unable to meet peak energy needs by century's end…The cost to upgrade the US electrical grid so it could cope with peak demands may be on the order of $180 billion, said [Climate change is projected to have severe impacts on the frequency and intensity of peak electricity demand across the United States from Arizona State University. The current study looks at] the effect of ever-more frequent and intense heat when it comes to peak electricity demand, or the maximum amount of electricity a given area would need at one time…These jumps in peak electricity demands…may require substantial investments by US electricity grids into peak electricity generating capacity…Much of the costs to upgrade the grid would involve capacity, storage and transmission investments—not simply the cost of generating electricity…If the world continues to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, without any major effort to mitigate the damage caused by greenhouse gases, the United States' peak electrical needs could rise by as much as 18 percent…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet

Solar Job Boom Speeds Up Solar Accounts for 1 in 50 New U.S. Jobs in 2016; National Solar Jobs Census finds solar employment increased in 44 of the 50 states, grew by 25 percent nationwide

February 7, 2017 (The Solar Foundation)

“…The American solar workforce grew at a historic pace in 2016…[and] outpaced the overall U.S. economy by 17 times as it increased by over 51,000 jobs, for a total of 260,077 U.S. solar workers…[S]olar jobs increased in 44 of the 50 states in 2016, showing that solar industry growth is truly a nationwide phenomenon…[led by California, Massachusetts, Texas, Nevada, and Florida. Job] growth in 2016 took place in all job sectors, including a 26 percent growth in manufacturing companies to 38,121 jobs nationwide. Installation jobs increased by 14 percent to a total of 137,133 jobs. Project development jobs increased by 53 percent to 34,400 jobs, while sales and distribution jobs increased by 32 percent to 32,147 jobs…Nine percent of solar workers nationwide are veterans, compared to 7 percent in the overall U.S. workforce…[and] the percentage of solar workers who are women increased from 24 percent in 2015 to 28 percent in 2016, the percentage of African-American solar workers increased from 5 percent to 7 percent, and the percentage of Latino/Hispanic solar workers increased from 11 percent to 17 percent…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet

Record Orders For Biggest U.S. Wind Builder GE Announces Record Onshore Wind Orders for 2016

February 7, 2017 (GE Renewable Energy)

“…[GE Renewable Energy today secured over 7 GW in onshore wind orders in 2016…[and] over $3B of orders in the fourth quarter alone, partly thanks to a strong market in the US…[GE also] signed agreements in 19 countries around the world, including orders in Japan, India and Germany…[It] booked orders in Greece and Saudi Arabia for the first time ever. GE’s onshore wind installed base now stands at nearly 57,000 MW of global capacity…[Among GE’s major milestones in 2016 were completing construction of 30 turbines in] the first of a three-phase wind project in southeast India…[agreeing] to install approximately 250 MW of wind energy across 12 future project sites throughout Germany…[securing] five-year Digital Wind Farm services contracts for two wind farms in central Japan…[and closing deals in Turkey] for 120MW of installed capacity…” click here for more

click to enlarge

Tweet