Clean Economy Weekly

By Rob Dieterich ~ December 1, 2017 The biggest grid battery. The lowest renewable power price. This week, we look at some records relevant to the clean economy’s future—records that were made to be broken, repeatedly. Let us know what you think of Clean Economy Weekly. Comments are welcome at rob.dieterich@insideclimatenews.org.  Everything’s bigger in Australia Credit: Tesla    South Australia has a big new battery—the world’s largest—and it's already helping boost grid reliability as the Southern Hemisphere's summer begins. Tesla has bragging rights. The company installed 100 megawatts (MW) in under 100 days, just as CEO Elon Musk promised with his or-else-it’s-free flourish. More important, perhaps, the storage industry has a shiny new example of how batteries and renewables complement each other. The Tesla system is adjacent to the 315 MW Hornsdale Wind Farm, operated by France’s Neoen. Wind turbines will charge the battery system, which is split into two sections: one for short-term grid support, the other for slightly longer-term needs, such as shaving peak demand. Greentech Media has a story on what the project says about industry trends, here. ABC reports here that it's already helping meet demand as temperatures rise. The Tesla deal came after blackouts in the region last year and early this year. South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill is trying to boost electricity reliability and increase the use of renewables. He has tangled with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who has backtracked on a national clean energy target. South Australia is also moving ahead with a concentrating solar power plant with enough storage to generate 150 MW of power for eight hours after the sun goes down. Bloomberg discusses the South Australia battery here. Engadget has a story here explaining how Tesla got a running start on Musk’s wager before the contract signing started the 100-day clock.   KEY QUOTE: The Tesla installation “sends the clearest message that South Australia will be a leader in renewable energy with battery storage.”  —South Australia Premier Jay Weatherill E-bikes: Not just for delivering takeout Credit: Fernhay    If you’re eagerly anticipating the adoption of electric vehicles, don’t ignore the growing popularity of electric bikes. They’re selling at a pace of around 35 million a year, according to Navigant Research. That makes global sales of electric cars—forecast at 1.15 million this year—seem a bit paltry. The e-bike, with its ability to carry groceries or deliver people to work without so much sweating, is being used in place of cars by more and more city dwellers, The New York Times says, here. UPS, meanwhile, is testing a battery-powered bike-and-trailer setup in London for package delivery. The electric boost is actually in the trailer, which can carry up to 440 pounds without requiring any extra effort from the rider. CleanTechnica describes how the London system works, here. Navigant’s e-bike research is here. KEY QUOTE:  “We think of these as an alternative to cars, not as an alternative to bicycles.” —Sandra Wolf of Reise & Müller, maker of the Packster e-bike, which can carry two small children or a lot of cargo How low can you go?  Credit: Christopher Irwin/CC BY-NC 2.0  The cost of wind and solar power has dropped so fast that it can be a challenge to keep track of new lows. Mexico recently set a new record for wind power at 1.77 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). The bid, from Italy’s Enel, involves power from two wind projects totaling 289 megawatts (MW). The record low for solar stands at 1.79 cents per kWh, the price Abu Dhabi-based Masdar bid for a 300 MW project in Saudi Arabia, announced in October. Greentech Media has a story here, and Electrek has a story here that includes a chart showing how the cheapest solar power price has fallen from 8.3 cents per kWh since 2013. KEY STAT: The average price of the successful bids in the Mexican auction, which procured 1,792 MW from 14 wind and solar projects, was 2.05 cents per kWh. Solar’s teaching moment Credit: Lincoln Barbour     As clean energy gets cheaper, solar panels are rising on school rooftops across the country. Superintendents did the math and found they could save their districts money—and benefit the environment and teach students about energy and technology at the same time. Some 5,500 K-12 schools in the U.S. now use solar power, and their solar capacity has almost doubled in the past three years, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. InsideClimate News reporter Lyndsey Gilpin has the story, here. Lyndsey also wrote about the New York City Housing Authority’s plans to bring 25 megawatts of solar to public housing rooftops, here. KEY QUOTE: “People are excited about the environmental benefits, and the curriculum development, but what has moved the needle is the economics.”  —Devin Welch, vice president of business development for Sun Tribe Solar, a solar panel installer in Virginia Shell promises to do better Credit: Eric Piermont/Getty Images      Royal Dutch Shell, the second-largest publicly traded oil company, says it will cut its net carbon footprint in half by 2050. In a letter to the UN’s climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, Shell CEO Ben van Beurden says his company will address emissions from its own operation, from its suppliers and—most notably—from the use of its products. He says the company will strive to: develop biofuels and commercialize hydrogen; generate solar and wind power; support the adoption of electric vehicles; promote natural gas for power and transport; and pursue carbon capture. Shell also committed to spending as much as $2 billion a year on wind, solar and hydrogen and on EV charging stations. That would be a large increase, according to a New York Times story, here, but still less than a tenth of the oil giant’s total investment dollars. The UN announcement of Shell’s initiative is here, and the letter is here. KEY QUOTE: “They are ahead of their competitors in recognizing that the days of oil dependence are numbered.”  —Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign in Washington Wind beats coal—in Germany (and Texas) Credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images    For the first time, Germany’s onshore and offshore wind turbines have produced more electricity this year than power plants that burn hard coal. Wind generation also exceeded nuclear for the first time, Bloomberg reports, citing the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems. The capacity of wind and solar facilities in Germany has grown so much, it now greatly exceeds any type of fossil fuel generation. The Bloomberg story is here. Not to be outdone, Texas chalked up it's own wind vs. coal victory last week. With a new 155-megawatt wind farm, the state's wind power capacity now exceeds that of coal. The Houston Chronicle has the story, here. KEY STAT: Even as the output of hard coal plants fell by 14 percent in Germany, use of cheaper soft lignite plants showed a small 0.3 percent increase, according to Fraunhofer ISE. Dams and damage in the Balkans Credit: Andrej Isakovic/AFP/Getty Images    From Slovenia in the north to Albania in the south, hundreds of hydroelectric projects are planned across the Balkans, and construction is underway at 187 sites, according to the Guardian. Large facilities—high dams—are subject to government review, but projects of less than 10 MW may require no environmental assessment at all. Some of those small projects can have a big impact on wildlife and the environment, as entire rivers and streams get rerouted. The Guardian story is here. KEY QUOTE: Small projects “divert water through pipelines away from the river and leave behind empty channels where the river had been. For many species of fish and insects like dragonflies and stoneflies, it is the end.”  —Ulrich Eichelmann, director of RiverWatch, an environmental group that has studied river systems in the Balkans Every dollar you donate to InsideClimate News will be matched through Dec. 31thanks to a generous challenge grant from the Democracy Fund, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. Your contribution today can help ICN receive as much as $28,000 through this dollar-to-dollar matching grant. Click here to donate today! 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