Webinar: Storage Technologies - Comparison and Synergies

September 25, 2018

 12:00PM Eastern

In his award-winning technical paper at this year's HydroVision Voith's Dr. Klaus Krüger presented a comparison of li-Ion batteries and pumped storage for bulk energy storage in terms of raw material costs and CO2-Footprints. In this webinar he will give an exclusive summary of his findings expanded by an interesting outlook on how synergies between both technologies could be leveraged.

To sign up for this free webinar visit: https://event.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1208740&tp_key=10599476c2&sti=ws

California Senate Green-Lights Key Energy Storage Bill

Posted by Betsy Lillian -August 30, 2018

Today, the California Senate passed S.B.700, a bill that could result in nearly 3 GW of behind-the-meter energy storage systems at schools, farms, homes, nonprofits and businesses in California by 2026, according to the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA).

The bill was passed today with a preliminary 25-13 vote and passed on Wednesday by the Assembly with a final vote of 57-18. It now heads to the governor’s desk for his consideration, says CALSSA.

The resulting program established by the bill would be on par with the highly successful program California set in motion with the Million Solar Roofs Initiative back in 2006, the association notes.

For the rest of the story visit: 

Tunxis Community College Offers Energy Management Program

Ali Jackman, ERS for Zondits, September 6, 2018

Zondits recently sat down with Eric Gribin, Program Coordinator of the Energy Management Program at Tunxis Community College, to discuss how their program is shaping the clean energy workforce of the future. The Associate of Applied Science Degree in Energy Management is a unique two-year workforce training program that prepares students for rewarding careers in the “clean energy” sector.

What was the inspiration to start the Energy Management Program?
In 2009, five Connecticut community colleges were awarded a SOAR (Sustainable Operations, Alternative and Renewable Energy Initiative) grant. Norwalk Community College hired me to develop the BEST (Building Efficiency & Sustainable Technology) 1-year certificate program. We focused on sustainable building, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. During my first semester at NCC, I discovered a unique 2-year degree program at Lane Community College in Eugene, OR, that focuses on energy analysis for commercial buildings. I knew that a program like this needed to exist near New York, Boston, Hartford, etc. So I decided to work to develop a commercial building energy degree program here in Connecticut.

For the rest of the story visit: http://zondits.com/article/16039/a-zondits-interview-tunxis-community-college-offers-energy-management-program

 

The $3 Billion Plan to Turn Hoover Dam Into a Giant Battery

By Ivan Penn.

Hoover Dam helped transform the American West, harnessing the force of the Colorado River — along with millions of cubic feet of concrete and tens of millions of pounds of steel — to power millions of homes and businesses. It was one of the great engineering feats of the 20th century.

Now it is the focus of a distinctly 21st-century challenge: turning the dam into a vast reservoir of excess electricity, fed by the solar farms and wind turbines that represent the power sources of the future.

For the rest of the story visit: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/07/24/business/energy-environment/hoover-dam-renewable-energy.html

Webinar: California’s Pioneering Policies for New Homes: Greater Efficiency with Required Solar Energy

Tuesday, September 11, 2018, 1-2:15pm ET

 

 

In May, California became the first state to require new homes to include solar power. Unsurprisingly, the announcement of this path-breaking decision has been met with considerable interest and curiosity. This webinar will put the requirement into context by describing the California Energy Commission’s efforts over time to improve the energy efficiency of new homes by strengthening building codes and encouraging the installation of solar energy systems, which laid the groundwork for the recent solar requirement. The webinar will explain the requirement, how it will be implemented, and how other states might adopt similar policies. The webinar will also discuss California’s attempt to adopt a carbon metric in future cycles of the state’s building energy efficiency standards and the implications for buildings in the state. There will be opportunity for audience questions.

 

For a brief infographic describing California’s new residential building energy efficiency standards, see http://www.energy.ca.gov/title24/2019standards/documents/2018_Title_24_2019_Residential_Standards.pdf

Presenters:

• Maziar Shirakh, Technical Lead for Zero Net Energy (ZNE) Building Energy Efficiency Standards, California Energy Commission

• Danny Tam, Mechanical Engineer, California Energy Commission

To Register visit: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1101477947186448386

Declining Battery Storage Costs Raise Questions About The Role Of Natural Gas

July 17, 2018
Author: Seth Mullendore, Clean Energy Group | Project: Resilient Power Project

Evidence is building in support of battery storage as a serious challenger to the perceived dominance of natural gas in our current and future energy system. Batteries are beginning to complete head-to-head with natural gas peaker plants, and they’re starting to win.

Peaker plants are designed to fire up whenever electricity demand rises above the level that baseload fossil plants, nuclear, and renewables can satisfy – think hot summer days when air conditioners are turned up full blast or cold winter nights when heating demand skyrockets. There are more than 1,000 peakers currently in operation across the U.S. Most of these are powered by natural gas, and many of them are located in communities already burdened by poor air quality and public health issues.

For the rest of the story visit: https://www.cleanegroup.org/declining-battery-storage-costs-raise-questions-about-the-role-of-natural-gas/

Skyscrapers could soon generate their own power, thanks to see-through solar cells

A solar window created by scientists at Michigan State University in East Lansing reached an efficiency of 5% using organic photovoltaics.

RICHARD LUNT/MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

By Robert F. Service Jun. 28, 2018 , 11:00 AM

Lance Wheeler looks at glassy skyscrapers and sees untapped potential. Houses and office buildings, he says, account for 75% of electricity use in the United States, and 40% of its energy use overall. Windows, because they leak energy, are a big part of the problem. "Anything we can do to mitigate that is going to have a very large impact," says Wheeler, a solar power expert at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.

A series of recent results points to a solution, he says: Turn the windows into solar panels. In the past, materials scientists have embedded light-absorbing films in window glass. But such solar windows tend to have a reddish or brown tint that architects find unappealing. The new solar window technologies, however, absorb almost exclusively invisible ultraviolet (UV) or infrared light. That leaves the glass clear while blocking the UV and infrared radiation that normally leak through it, sometimes delivering unwanted heat. By cutting heat gain while generating power, the windows "have huge prospects," Wheeler says, including the possibility that a large office building could power itself.

For the rest of the story visit:
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/06/skyscrapers-could-soon-generate-their-own-power-thanks-see-through-solar-cells

Webinar: Building Markets: Energy Storage in Massachusetts and Offshore Wind in Rhode Island

August 9, 2018

1:00pm — 2:30pm ET

This webinar highlights two winning programs from CESA’s 2018 State Leadership in Clean Energy Awards: Massachusetts’ Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) Program, and Rhode Island’s Block Island Offshore Wind Farm.  

In Massachusetts, the Advancing Commonwealth Energy Storage (ACES) Program was created to jump-start the state’s energy storage industry by piloting innovative, broadly replicable energy storage demonstration projects with multiple value streams, thereby priming Massachusetts for increased commercialization and deployment. ACES will demonstrate nine storage use cases to accelerate the adoption of storage technologies, provide benefits to customers and utilities, and highlight market and regulatory barriers. The 26 demonstration projects supported by the ACES program will collectively add 32MW/83MWh to the grid where only 4MW/7MWh currently exists.

For more info and to register visit: https://www.cesa.org/webinars/building-markets-energy-storage-in-massachusetts-and-offshore-wind-in-rhode-island/?date=2018-08-09

CREATE College Readies Largest Rooftop Solar Array in Wisconsin

By Irina Ivanova  MoneyWatch  June 20, 2018, 9:03 AM

In New York or California, $1 million can get you a middle-of-the-road house in a trendy part of town. At Wisconsin's Madison College, that could just about pay your electric bill for a year.

The community college, which has about 37,000 students, spends about $1 million every year to power the main building on its Truax Campus. So to keep costs down, the college started construction this month week on a massive solar rooftop project. It's set to be the biggest solar project in Wisconsin when it's completed in the fall.

"It's about 20 tractor-trailers' worth of equipment," said Ken Walz, a Madison College instructor who is leading the project.

For the rest of the story visit: 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wisconsin-readies-largest-solar-panel-array-in-state-madison-college/

Webinar: The Future of Electrification and What It Means for Clean Energy

Tuesday, June 26, 1-2pm ET 

 

 

There is great potential for electricity to replace liquid and solid fuels for transportation, industrial processes, agriculture, and heating and cooling. In April the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) published the U.S. National Electrification Assessment, which examines four possible pathways of how electrification could proceed in the coming years and decades. In the report’s most ambitious scenario, electricity's share of total energy supply would rise from 19 percent today to 50 percent by 2050.

 

In this webinar, Francisco de la Chesnaye, Senior Program Manager at EPRI, will present the report’s findings and discuss the potential implications for state renewable energy initiatives. There will be opportunity for audience questions.

For more info visit:https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/270973932131618305