Category Archives: Wind

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Postcard from the Energiewende: Setting Sail on the Sun Ship

The Sun Ship. The world's first commercial PlusEnergy building, Freiburg, Germany. (© 2012 Osha Gray Davidson)

 

For three weeks in late April and early May, I traveled throughout Germany* researching that country’s energiewende, literally, “energy change” — a transformation from a fossil-fuel economy to a renewable-energy economy (that produces only small amounts of green house gases). Germany has by no means completed the transition. But it is on the way.

Most remarkably, especially coming from the United States where politics has become polarized and toxic, Germany’s ambitious goal is supported by all major political parties. The only debate is over how to get there and how fast to go.

In the coming weeks, I’ll be publishing a series of articles about the Energiewende tour (as I like to think of it) at InsideClimate News. Later the articles will be expanded into a multi-media eBook, with photos, videos, slideshows with narration and recorded interviews with some of the major actors in Germany’s attempt to build an economy that is both environmentally and economically sound.

 

* The trip was funded, in part, by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, where I was a 2012 Climate Media Fellow.

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FERC Chairman: U.S. Should Study the German Renewable Energy Economy

Energy Brief:

The head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) said today that the U.S. should pay attention to how Germany manages its vibrant renewable energy sector.

“We should be able to learn from them,” said FERC Chairman, Jon Wellinghoff, at the Arizona Solar Summit held in Phoenix today and yesterday. “We haven’t pursued that extensively.”

Germany is considered one of the world leaders in renewable energy. Twenty percent of that country’s electricity comes from renewable sources, primarily wind and solar power. In the United States, just five percent of our electricity comes from those sources.

Wellinghoff told participants at today’s meeting that FERC is looking for ways to expand renewable power.

In the video below Wellinghoff answers this question from the floor: “When we talk about renewable energy, have we looked at Germany? Have we looked at their grid? Have we studied the dynamics of how all this solar, which is about 3% of the total energy in Germany, how that’s working, how it’s not working? Are there any lessons to be learned from the way Germany is managing [renewable energy]? ”

The two-day Solar Summit was hosted by Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Conner School of Law and organized by Kris Mayes, the former Chair of the Arizona Corporation Commission (which sets utility rates in the state), and current director of the Program on Law and Sustainability at the ASU School of Law.

 

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Opportunities for Utility-Scale Solar Power on Contaminated Lands

Solar project build on a former landfill, Ft. Carson, CO.

Siting issues are some of the largest impediments to expanding the role of solar power in our energy mix. Environmentalists argue that there’s enough already-disturbed lands to build on without damaging or destroying intact ecosystems.

Data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) bolster the green position. According to the EPA’s RE-Powering America’s Land program, there are nearly 15 million acres of contaminated land across the U.S. This total includes brownfields, abandoned mines, Superfund sites and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act areas. A significant portion of this total is suitable for utility-scale solar projects or wind farms.

In the video below, the EPA’s Lura Matthews talks about the potential for developing renewable energy sources on these lands.



For more information:

RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative Management Plan (pdf)

Renewable Energy Interactive Mapping Tool (pdf)

EPA Fact Sheet (pdf)

Lura Matthews, EPA, interviewed at PV America 2011