Growth in Indian solar capacity outpaces coal in financial year 2017-18 (April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018)

The addition of new solar capacity outpaced the commissioning of new coal plants in India for the first time. While coal plants still account for 57 per cent of India’s power generation capacity, the commissioning of 5000 MW of new coal plants in FY2017-18 (April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018) was about half the capacity addition of solar.

Coal plant additions declined by 28 per cent in the 2017-18 financial year compared to the year before. Non-hydro renewables now accounts for over 19 per cent of India’s installed capacity, with solar capacity growing by 89 per cent between March 2017 and March 2018.

Further information: Solar Energy Was the Only Power Source in India to Grow Year-Over-Year in FY 2017-18. Mercom India, April 24, 2018.

"Electric buses are hurting the oil industry"

About 279,000 barrels a day of fuel won’t be needed this year mostly due to the fact that China adds a London-sized electric bus fleet every five weeks.

"Buses with battery-powered motors are a serious matter with the potential to revolutionize city transport—and add to the forces reshaping the energy industry. With China leading the way, making the traditional smog-belching diesel behemoth run on electricity is starting to eat away at fossil fuel demand."

"The numbers are staggering. China had about 99 percent of the 385,000 electric buses on the roads worldwide in 2017, accounting for 17 percent of the country’s entire fleet. Every five weeks, Chinese cities add 9,500 of the zero-emissions transporters—the equivalent of London’s entire working fleet, according Bloomberg New Energy Finance."

All this is starting to make an observable reduction in fuel demand. And because buses consume 30 times more fuel than average sized cars, the electric buses' impact on energy use so far has become much greater than that of the EV passenger sedans sold so far.

“China is ahead on electrifying its fleet because it has the world’s worst pollution problem. With a growing urban population and galloping energy demand, the nation’s legendary smogs were responsible for 1.6 million extra deaths in 2015, according to non-profit Berkeley Earth.”

Read on at: "Electric buses are hurting the oil industry". Bloomberg Technology, April 24, 2018.

See also: 100% percent electric buses to be in Chinese city by end 2017. Using Renewables, November 22, 2017.

The U.K. recently went for 55 hours without using coal power

A boat passes between wind turbines near London (Source: Bloomberg)

Coal, which fueled the world’s biggest economies for more than a century, is increasingly losing out to renewables. For example, no coal was used for power generation by stations in the U.K. between 10:25 p.m. (GMT) on Monday 16 until 5:10 a.m. on Thursday 18 April 2018, according to grid data compiled by Bloomberg.

At that time most of the power came from wind (33.7%) and gas (28.7%). Low-carbon sources, which include nuclear and hydropower with renewables, at times generated 60 percent of U.K.’s power.

The U.K. was an early adopter of renewable energy and has more offshore wind turbines [at least 30] installed than any other country. It also has fields of solar panels that are meeting more and more demand as old traditional power plants close permanently. The government aims to switch off all coal plants by 2025 and has given renewables priority access to the grid.

Read more:
The U.K. just went 55 hours without using coal for the first time in history. Bloomberg, April 19, 2018.
The UK just went 55 hours without using coal for power. GreenMatters, April 20, 2018.

"Low income homes to be offered 'no-cost' solar and batteries"

Source: One Step off the Grid

“A new solar and storage scheme aims to tackle the problem of “power poverty” in Australia head on, by offering low income households around Australia the option to install both solar and battery storage for no upfront cost.

The scheme, unveiled by “solar marketplace” ShineHub on Wednesday morning, will initially be open to 1000 households across all states except the Northern Territory and Tasmania.

Households that sign up – people can register their interest via the ShineHub website – will be given the opportunity to install between 3-10kW of rooftop solar PV and 5.7-22.8kWh of battery storage, depending on their consumption profiles and energy needs.”

Read on at: Low income homes to be offered “no-cost” solar and batteries. One Step off the Grid, April 18, 2018.

Kidston renewable power plant: solar, wind, pumped hydro.

Kidston Solar and Pumped Hydro Project, (owned by Genex Power whose director is Simon Kidston), is being constructed at and near the abandoned Kidston Mine site and there is a plan to add wind power to the project. The location is 270km NW of Townsville, Queensland. The 250MW pumped storage hydro will be between two old mine pits that are at different elevations (pictured above and explained below).

Source: The Internet.

The construction of large scale solar, just to the west of the reservoirs, has begun with the completion of the 50MW project that commenced production of electricity in December 2017 and is already making considerable amounts of money. Construction of the second stage large scale solar project of 270MW and the wind farm will start later. The second stage solar farm will integrate with the pumped hydro plant to power the pumping.

Kidston Renewable Energy Hub solar + pumped hydro plan (source: Genex Power)

The 150MW wind farm will be located on a neighbouring escarpment some 350m above the surrounding topography, and about 40 turbines will stretch out for a distant of 21kms. Kidston says the wind would be stronger at night and compliment the output of the solar farm. Its combination of solar and wind power together with pumped hydro storage would be world-leading and reach the renewables “holy grail” of 24/7 dispatchable power.

Kidston would not be drawn on costs, but said the combined project would deliver reliable, dispatchable power at a significant discount to a new coal fired power station. This view is shared by Windlab, which says its own combination of wind, solar and battery storage, the Kennedy Energy Hub, will be significantly cheaper than coal.

Together, with the Kennedy Energy Hub just 80kms to the south - potentially a mega installation of 1200MW - it means that Queensland could be host of the world’s two leading renewables plus storage projects.

Read more:
Genex seeks "holy grail" of renewables - wind, solar, pumped hydro. RenewEconomy, April 5, 2018.
Renewable, reliable energy from an old, abandoned mine site? - that's gold. Australian Renewable Energy Agency, November 17, 2017.

Australian grown coffee for Australians

Jaques coffee from Queensland (Photo: Julie May)

Australia is one of the few regions in the world free of the most serious coffee diseases, coffee berry borer disease and coffee leaf rust. Thus, noxious pesticides are not used on Australian coffee, enabling the farmers to use natural production systems with some producing organic coffee.

Current production of Australian coffee occurs between northern Queensland and as far south as Coffs Harbour in New South Wales. Australia has around 600,000 coffee trees, growing on 200 hectares with potential production of 300 tonnes. At this time, production of Australian coffee is not enough to keep up supplies to the big Australia-wide supermarkets. In addition, the Australian coffee growers and roasters find it difficult to compete with imported coffee.

A list of some of the Australian grown coffee available for mail order:
- NQ Gold Coffee, Qld: https://nqgoldcoffee.com.au/.
- Mackellar Range Coffee, NSW: http://mackellarcoffee.com.au/
- Jaques Coffee, Qld: https://www.jaquescoffee.com.au/
- Mountain Top Coffee, NSW: http://www.mountaintopcoffee.com.au/
- Ewingsdale Coffee, NSW: http://www.ewingsdalecoffee.com.au/coffee
- Skybury, Qld: http://www.skybury.com.au/skybury-cafeandroastery/coffee-range
- Zentveld’s, NSW: https://shop.zentvelds.com.au/
- Mount Mee Coffee, Qld: http://www.mountmeecoffee.com.au/
- Bun Coffee, NSW: (250g $14 - also available at David Jones) http://www.buncoffee.com.au/

References:
Australian Grown: http://www.midcoast.com.au/~keno/Coffee/Homegrown.html
Australian Speciality Grown Coffee: https://australianspecialtycoffee.com.au/whats-future-australian-subtropical-coffee/
Search for a cup of Australian coffee…: http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2015-07-08/search-for-a-good-cup-of-australian-coffee-grinding-away/6603076

Royal Australian Navy goes renewable with a microgrid in WA

Installing battery storage at HMAS Stirling (Image: Carnegie)

“When it comes to running the nation’s largest naval base, security and stability are generally pretty important. And not just around electricity supply. That’s why the Department of Defence has decided to plunge headlong into renewable energy, teaming up with ARENA and West Australian company Carnegie on a project to make HMAS Stirling, 61 km south of Perth, the nation’s first military installation with its own energy microgrid.”

It will be “the world’s first renewable energy integrated microgrid that has the option of receiving wave energy [Perth Wave Energy Project] and will produce both power and desalinated water for the base. The Project will involve the construction and integration of 2 MW of photovoltaic solar capacity, a 2MW/0.5MWh battery storage system and a control system and will include augmentation of the grid connection.”

“It highlights the growing interest of military organisations worldwide in investing in renewable energy as a way of increasing energy security and stability.”

Read more:The Navy goes renewable. Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), July 31, 2017.

London vehicle fleets being upgraded to electric

1. Royal Mail and 2. UPS (United Postal Service) electric vehicles (Source: BBC News & Electrek)

With the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) to come into effect in London on 8 April, 2019, delivery vehicles and taxis are making the change to electric vehicles. The ULEZ is for central London and is the same area as the Congestion Charging Zone. Vehicles without the required low exhaust emission standards will be charged for entering the zone. Cameras record all vehicles’ number plates on all roads entering the zone. Britain is to ban the sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040.

1. Royal Mail’s all electric postal vans have started delivering mail from the central London depot. They were first trialled early in 2017 and started delivering in the following December.

2. UPS (United Postal Service) has one of the largest fleet of vehicles in the world and is looking at the prospect of going all electric. It has deployed a new smart-grid technology to support its growing EV fleet in London. The delivery company currently operates 170 trucks out of its central London site and 65 of them are electric.

3. Electric London taxi and 4. Harrods' old and new electric delivery vans (Source: The Verge & IPWEA)

3. From December 2017, the first fully-certified electric taxis (black cabs) could be flagged down on the streets of London. The rollout of the so-called TX eCity London Taxi from the London Electric Vehicle Company will be gradual, with only a handful of the new taxis on the road initially. But the LEVC hopes the number of electric taxis operating across London will grow to the hundreds in 2018.

4. The iconic retailer Harrods of London has gone full circle to re-introduce electric power to its fleet 100 years after they first used electric delivery vans. The electric van is based on the existing Nissan NV200 series, with a modified drivetrain derived from the Nissan LEAF - it is the e-NV200.

Read more:
Royal Mail’s new electric vans unveiled. BBC News, August 23, 2017.
‘It’s the beginning of the end’ for internal combustion engines, says UPS as it updates its fleet to electric. Electrek, March 30, 2018.
Taking London’s new electric taxi for a ride. The Verge, December 5, 2017.
Harrods electric van proves everything old is new again. IPWEA, April 20, 2017.