Energy

China may be the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases but it’s also the biggest green economy.

Now Beijing has asked local governments across the nation to submit proposals for “non-grid-connected” (ie off-grid) solar power generation projects, whose total scale exceeds targets set under the current 5 year plan by 50%.
The development comes at a time when international demand for solar panels is weak and industry overcapacity and corporate losses are severe, said state-owned media. It would help domestic solar panels and parts makers, but analysts said implementation would bypass the powerful power distribution monopoly State Grid Corp.
The National Energy Administration this week,demanded all the provinces and municipalities to submit implementation proposals, the China Securities Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.…

Here is an idea that ought to be included in Revolution, the new JJ Webber series, on NBC.

When I was writing my book OFF THE GRID I travelled all over visiting people – this picture was taken in an Amish community in Kentucky where electricity was banned – only motive power is allowed.

What you see here is true green energy:- the horse eats grass and produces energy. Several homes in this community have adopted horse-power. As the horse turns the treads, motive power is generated via the red tube to power an icebox, washing machine, or any other motor. …

Be Warned.

The World Economic Forum has launched their Energy for Society initiative, “which seeks to engage citizens in a discussion about the future of the energy industry.”

The initiative is supported by a new online platform with 24 case studies that “demonstrate corporate best practices for meeting the world’s growing energy needs while improving living standards for those with limited access to energy.”

Twenty global energy companies signed on to the initiative. Leaders of the companies agreed on five principles – supplying secure and affordable access to energy, having efficient energy systems, upholding responsible citizenship in communities, contributing to economic development and promoting energy literacy.…

Just a few days ago 10 per cent of the world’s population faced a series of power cuts – India’s Northern and Eastern grids came to halt and 600 million people were confronted with the delicate state of their nation’s electricity grid.
The reason for the power failure is complex, and you can read more detail below, but essentially it came down to one thing: the power system had recently been transformed from a system to move electricity around this massive country into a system to trade electricity.
“Power stations, which earlier had to be very sensitive to shifts in demand within their region over the course of the day, can now export their surpluses to where its needed,” the Economic Times proudly announced today. “But the pricing mechanisms and regulatory frameworks need to match up with the physical development. Bigger systems require better regulatory oversight – the costs of failure can be huge in a large system,” it says.
These days, India has something approaching one national grid, since a decision last decade to bolt together several regional grids. And the connections joining these sub-grids together are both too complex to be managed easily, and insufficient to handle partial failures elsewhere in the system.
The solution is to diversify the power supply from the current state-owned monopolies to allow private investment of every size and kind – particularly the establishment of micro-grids based on renewable energy, which could be partially connected to the main system and would add huge resilience were the same thing to happen again in the future.…