Top Stories
BP to proceed with relief well after tests.—reliability
high.
"BP Plc will proceed with a relief well to kill its blown-out Gulf of
Mexico well, the top U.S. spill official said on Friday. 'Everybody is
in agreement that we need to proceed with the relief well,' retired
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said. 'The question is how to do it.'
... after running pressure tests, BP and U.S. officials agree that the
relief well is needed to plug the well 13,000 feet beneath the seabed,
Allen said. The relief well is only about 45 feet from reaching the
Macondo well. Reuters
story. [This
is the end of the discharge phase of the Macondo disaster. The cleanup
phase will continue for a while. The litigation phase has begun and
will continue for decades.]
In Weather Chaos, a Case for Global Warming.—reliability
high.
"Seemingly disconnected, these far-flung disasters are reviving the
question of whether global warming is causing more weather extremes.
The collective answer of the scientific community can be boiled down to
a single word: probably. 'The climate is changing,' said Jay Lawrimore,
chief of climate analysis at the National Climatic Data Center in
Asheville, N.C. 'Extreme events are occurring with greater frequency,
and in many cases with greater intensity.' He described excessive heat,
in particular, as 'consistent with our understanding of how the climate
responds to increasing greenhouse gases.' ... most researchers trained
in climate analysis, while acknowledging that weather data in parts of
the world are not as good as they would like, offer evidence to show
that weather extremes are getting worse." See The
New York Times. [Related item under
Science below.]
Companies,
Industries, Markets and Supply Chains
Tata Power explores geothermal, launches
energy efficiency programme.—reliability high.
"India's largest private energy company Tata Power is in the process
of exploring opportunities for the development of geothermal power,
managing director Prasad Menon said in the company’s latest quarterly
financial statement. ... The company's energy efficiency programme is
also planned to become available to its customers this month, after
recently gaining approval from the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory
Commission. The Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) mechanism will spur
further development of renewable energy projects in India by Tata
Power." More on the company's plans. See NewNet.
An Update on GE’s $200M Smart Grid Challenge.—reliability
medium.
"Last month, General Electric announced it would be taking submissions
from inventors and entrepreneurs seeking a piece of a $200 million
smart grid investment fund ($100 million from GE, and $100 million from
partner venture firms including Kleiner Perkins and Foundation
Capital). ... If you're an entrepreneur and you've yet to submit your
killer idea, you'll be happy to hear that GE is keeping its
'Ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid' open through Sept. 30, and
is promising to give $100,000 five winners in the areas of renewables,
smart grid and eco-buidlings." Gives examples of some of the ideas
submitted. From The
GigaOM Network.
To Cut Demand for Electricity, Some
Customers Agree to Unplug.—reliability high.
How demand response programs are capping peak demand in New York.
"Electricity use is up sharply this summer, but in a windowless room
near Albany that is the nerve center of New York State’s grid,
controllers have noticed that something else is not rising: peak load."
Demand response "is a commercial transaction with a protocol planned
long in advance. On the afternoon before an anticipated surge in
demand, e-mails, faxes and phone calls go out alerting those who had
already agreed that it is time for them to unplug. ... Companies that
recruit buildings or property owners to participate are paid by the New
York Independent System Operator or by the local utility. The prices
have been running $12 to $13 per kilowatt of reduction." Examples of
specific companies' participation. See The New
York Times. [Useful information
about savings from demand response.]
Europe’s First All-LED Industrial Plant
Opens in The Netherlands.—reliability high.
"The LED lighting revolution achieved another victory with the opening
of an industrial plant lit exclusively with LEDs. Located in Etten
Leur, the Netherlands, the full-service consumer products packaging
plant is owned and operated by Kompak. All interior and exterior
lighting fixtures feature Cree XLamp® LEDs and were developed and
installed by LedNed, a Dutch LED lighting pioneer. ... According Steven
Nijweide, project manager at Kompak, the use of LED illumination
throughout the plant has shown a 20,000 KWh reduction in electricity
usage when compared to conventional lighting, translating into nearly
135,000 kilogram annual carbon offset." Press release has more details
of LED systems used. From Business
Wire.
Government and
Regulation
Energy Funds Went Unspent, U.S. Auditor Says.—reliability
medium.
"The recession is lingering, and so is the unspent stimulus money that
was meant to help end it. The latest example is the $3.2 billion that
Congress voted in February 2009 as part of an economic stimulus package
to simultaneously provide jobs and improve energy efficiency through
block grants to states and cities. Only about 8.4 percent of the money
had been spent by the beginning of this month, according to an audit
released on Friday by the inspector general of the Energy Department,
and it has produced or saved only about 2,300 jobs as of the second
quarter of this year. ... In the new audit, the inspector general,
Gregory H. Friedman, found that New York City, which got the biggest
award, $80.8 million, had spent only $1.5 million, or less than 2
percent. But that was better than Chicago, which got $27.6 million and
spent under $40,000, or 0.1 percent." Gives some of the reasons
bureaucracy was unable to handle the funds. From New
York Times Green blog.
Science and
Economics
Climate scientists in race to predict where
natural disaster will strike next.—reliability high.
"The world's leading climate scientists will gather this week in the
United States to hammer out plans to set up an early warning system
that would predict future meteorological disasters caused by global
warming. ... Scientists say events like these will become more severe
and more frequent over the rest of the century as rising greenhouse gas
emissions trap the sun's heat in the lower atmosphere and bring change
to Earth's climate and weather systems. However, their ability to
pinpoint exactly where and when the worst devastation will occur is
still limited. The aim of the Colorado meeting is to develop more
precise predictive techniques to help pinpoint the location and
severity of droughts, floods, and heatwaves before they happen and so
save thousands of lives." From The
Guardian.
