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Tag:

energy supply

Duke Energy – Bad Headlines and the Public Good

Duke Energy – Bad Headlines and the Public Good

written by The Vote Solar Initiative

It’s been a bad news kind of week for Duke Energy. First, several major investors in the utility – which is the largest electric power holding company in the United States – urged fellow shareholders to fire four Duke directors over the company’s coal ash spill in early February. A letter filed Tuesday by one of those investors stated that the directors “have failed to fulfill their obligations of risk oversight as members of a committee overseeing health, safety, and environmental compliance at the company.” This call for accountability comes two months after 39,000 tons of coal ash and 24 million gallons of contaminated water leaked from a storage pond at Duke Energy’s shuttered Eden power plant in North Carolina. (We’d be remiss to let this post go without reminding folks that, in contrast, when there’s a huge solar spill, it’s just called a ‘nice day’). The coal ash spill has brought about legislative hearings, a federal criminal investigation, and involvement by the EPA – and the very slow process of cleaning up the toxic sludge is expected to incur massive costs, with the question remaining: who will pay?

Duke Energy is taking heat in Florida as well, where ratepayers face a $3.2 Billion (with a ‘B’) bill for two ill-fated nuclear power plants: the soon-to-be decommissioned Crystal River Plant and the proposed-then-canceled Levy County plant. In the words of one impassioned local columnist, “Customers who are captives of monopoly utilities never should bear the multibillion-dollar cost of screw-ups by their power company.”

Companies like Duke Energy are given that special monopoly to serve the public good – and it’s safe to say this week’s headlines do not have it living up to its end of the bargain.

The public Duke Energy serves DOES want more control over their energy supply and electricity bills with solar power. Yet the utility has been stating publicly that it wants to weaken North Carolina’s net metering program for rooftop solar. We’re using Duke as the example here, but it’s hardly acting alone among American utilities. If energy customers in Florida, North Carolina or anywhere else in the U.S. want to take energy matters into their own hands by investing in clean, local solar power, utilities should be serving that demand – not standing in the way.

It’s worth highlighting that it’s not all bad news out of our utilities. Duke Energy has made its own significant investments in solar power. In fact, North Carolina ranks among our nation’s leaders in solar, although that solar is almost entirely in the hands of the utility via large-scale solar projects, including a recently-announced 300MW RFP. Duke’s neighbors at Georgia Power also just issued an RFP for a whopping 495 MW of PV below the cost of their fossil and nuke alternatives.

Utilities are increasingly seeing the value of this non-polluting (vs. coal), easily deployed (vs. nuclear) and increasingly cost-competitive (vs. all) resource — which is great! We just ask that they not do it at the expense of individual consumers choice and solar rights. Utilities know solar is a good deal; their customers should be able to get in on that deal too.



April 18, 2014 0 comment
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Waste Facility to Triple the Amount of Trash Recycled

written by Walter Wang

A new plant in Glendale, Arizona promises to triple the amount of trash the city recycles each year when it begins operations in April. The facility, which is being built by Chicago-based company, Vieste, will be located on 6 acres of Glendale’s landfill, just a few miles west of the University of Phoenix stadium.

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January 24, 2014 0 comment
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Majority of Americans Uninformed About Fracking, Survey Finds

written by Yale Environment 360

Most Americans are uninformed and lack opinions on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process used to extract oil and gas from rock formations, a new survey says.

Fifty-eight percent of people surveyed specifically reported that they knew nothing at all about

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November 25, 2013 0 comment
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Australia’s Renewable Energy Journey in Numbers

written by Walter Wang

The age of the fossil fuel is dying out, and the time for energy efficiency is rising. Thanks to a combination of the depletion of available fossil fuel resources and a global shift towards cleaner, greener fuels, it won’t be long before coal, oil and natural gas will be taught in school history lessons.

The focus instead has now shifted to renewable

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October 4, 2012 0 comment
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Fusion Power Plants

written by Walter Wang

Fusion power is the power generated by nuclear fusion processes. In fusion reactions two light atomic nuclei fuse together to form a heavier nucleus (in contrast with fission power which breaks up a heavier nucleus to release power). In doing so they release a comparatively large amount of energy arising from the binding energy due to the strong nuclear force

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June 7, 2012 0 comment
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Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions For the New Energy Era

written by Yale Environment 360

Is there movement already under way in the world of industry which will outstrip the painfully slow progress of the political world in facing up to the challenge of climate change? Amory Lovins certainly thinks so and his recent book, Reinventing Fire: Bold Business Solutions for the New Energy Era, explains why. Lovins is the co-founder, chairman and chief scientist

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March 1, 2012 0 comment
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Massive Solar PV Farm Opens in Germany

written by Walter Wang

A 78 MW part of a 148 MW photovoltaic solar farm was completed on September 24. The project was developed by Saferay, which is based in Berlin, while the plant occupies a former open pit mining area near Senftenberg in Eastern Germany.

According to a Global Solar Technology magazine,

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October 3, 2011 1 comment
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Billionaires Get Behind Cleantech Funding

written by Walter Wang

It’s the fall, and the discontent of American billionaires, like that of New York Mets fans, is rising. Not only has laconic investment guru Warren Buffett demanded that the U.S. levy more taxes on the privileged, i.e., super-wealthy people like him; but also another group of billionaires (or at least hundreds-of-millionaires) has

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September 28, 2011 0 comment
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Smart Energy Country Profile – South Africa

written by Walter Wang

South Africa is changing rapidly, and the ANC government of Jacob Zuma has big plans. This blog will examine the changing picture in terms of its energy supply and its plans to become a primary supplier to the growing global fuel cell industry.

The South African economy is closely tied to the

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September 19, 2011 2 comments
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UN’s IPCC Releases 900-Page Renewable Energy “Bible”

written by Walter Wang

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes its first-ever comprehensive review of low-carbon energy sources and potential, a 900-page “Bible” on renewable energy.

Word snuck out last week that the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

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May 10, 2011 1 comment
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Top Ten Feed-In Tariff Initiatives Globally

written by Walter Wang

Feed-in tariffs, also known as renewable energy payments, are known as a type of policy mechanism that is designed to promote the inclusion of sources of renewable energy to assist in the acceleration toward grid parity. Most feed-in tariffs have three main provisions – guaranteed access to the grid, long term electricity contracts, and perchance prices

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April 13, 2011 2 comments
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Ontario’s FIT, MicroFIT Projects Subject to New Fees

written by

As of March 15, Ontario’s green energy producers will be subject to a new set of fees for applications they make for feed-in tariff (FIT), microFIT, and other renewable power projects. The province has a rapidly-expanding market for solar, wind, and other clean power sources that has created thousands of kilowatts (kW) of green energy and boosted the careers of workers in these

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March 10, 2011 1 comment
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Investing in Greener Economy Could Spur Growth: U.N.

written by Walter Wang

(Reuters) – Channeling 2 percent, or $1.3 trillion, of global gross domestic product into greening sectors such as construction, energy and fishing could start a move toward a low-carbon world, a report launched on Monday said.

The investment would expand the global economy at the same rate, if not higher, as

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February 21, 2011 1 comment
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Carleton U’s New Green Building Sports Rooftop PV Installation

written by

Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario has completed construction of its new seven-story Canal Building, which contains a number of environmentally-friendly features, including 10 kW solar installation and a green roof. The building, the first of a pair that sits near the Hartwell Locks on the Rideau Canal, received five out of a possible five “globes” on the stringent

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January 27, 2011 0 comment
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