Ontario sets record for daily wind production – pays to export it.

Supporters hailed the Desertec Industrial Initiative as the most ambitious solar energy project ever when it was founded in 2009. Major industrial backers pledged active involvement, politicians saw a win-win proposition and environmentalists fawned over Europe’s green energy future. For a projected budget of €400 billion ($560 billion), the venture was to pipe clean solar power from the Sahara Desert through a Mediterranean super-grid to energy-hungry European countries.
Today, a scant three years later, there is still little to show for the project but the ambition.

h/t peterj

And a bunch of them live in Germany;

EOn continues to struggle under German energy policy, with gas generation made “barely profitable” by pro-renewable market arrangements and nuclear generation slashed and taxed by government decree.
[…]
One problem is that renewable generation is given priority access to the grid when it is available. This sometimes prevents gas-fired generation from operating during peak hours and has altered the economics of gas to such an extent that it is now “barely profitable to operate,” said CEO Johannes Teyssen. “In most European markets, the gross margin for gas-fired units is approaching zero or is indeed already negative.”
“Paradoxically, this benefits carbon-intensive lignite-fired assets which are more harmful to the earth’s climate, whereas flexible, climate-friendlier assets are barely profitable,” said Teyssen.
Moreover, the company does not benefit from good enough renewable performance to balance this negative effect of the energy transition. Despite the issue outlined above, oil, gas and coal produced 61% of EOn’s power generation and brought in €1.2 billion (69%) of pre-tax earnings from generation. Renewables produced 11% of power, but reported an operating loss of €67 million that actually reduced pre-tax earnings by 3%.

h/t Eric A.

Via Tim Blair;

A consortium led by French nuclear group Areva has ditched a A$1.2 billion concentrated solar thermal project after the federal government pulled critical funding.
The Solar Dawn consortium, which includes developer Wind Prospect, has been plagued with problems since winning $464 million in federal funding through the Solar Flagship program to develop a 250-MW solar thermal plant in Queensland’s outback.

If only the technology existed to enable research into such things before investing…

Unlike the owners of most solar systems, Google was eager to learn about how its system performed. Six months after installing its system, Google learned it was only getting about half of the power it expected.
That was the first shock.

h/t Carol

“… if BP can’t bring cellulosic ethanol to market, can anyone?”

Heh.

Via

16 Fisker Karmas at the Port of Newark in New Jersey, submerged in seawater by Hurricane Sandy, caught fire.

Wind turbine makers are stalling decisions on whether to invest in new manufacturing plants in the UK, pending clarification from the government on its future energy policy. Several large companies, including Siemens, General Electric and Mitsubishi, are pondering building manufacturing plants in the UK, but will make no decision without firmer assurances from the government. The repeated insistence from Osborne that the UK’s energy future lies with the gas industry – a new “dash for gas” is under way, with the government clearing the path for 20 new gas-fired power stations – has unsettled renewable energy investors. “The constant talk about gas is not reassuring for us,” one wind investor, who could not be named, told the Guardian.

As is so often the case, an article best read from the bottom up.
Related.

Factory has yet to ship out a single battery…

Workers at LG Chem, a $300 million lithium-ion battery plant heavily funded by taxpayers, tell Target 8 that they have so little work to do that they spend hours playing cards and board games, reading magazines or watching movies.
They say it’s been going on for months.
“There would be up to 40 of us that would just sit in there during the day,” said former LG Chem employee Nicole Merryman, who said she quit in May.

Just another in a growing list.
Via

A solar company that got a multi-million-dollar grant from the Department of Energy earlier this year announced Wednesday that it will file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the second taxpayer-backed green energy company to file for bankruptcy this week.

Related – As it struggled, A123 showered Democrats with donations, hired pricey lobbyist

Master race.

Merkel’s government decided to shut down the country’s eight oldest reactors immediately and speed up the phase-out of the remaining reactors. Nuclear power’s share of the German energy market has since declined from 23 percent to about 17 percent, with renewable energies shooting up from 20 percent to a quarter.
Now, however, complaints are growing about the rise in costs of electricity, particularly for lower-income families.
Germans already pay some of Europe’s highest electricity prices, averaging about 24 euro cents (31 US cents) per kilowatt hour compared with about 13 euro cents in France or 14 euro cents in Britain, according to EU figures.

h/t Dan

Awkward!

The first intriguing fact is that the simple act of increasing battery capacity from 24 kWh in the basic BEV to 40 kWh like you find in an entry level Tesla Model S effectively eliminates the life cycle emissions advantage. While a BEV-24 will reduce emissions by roughly 16% over the life of the vehicle, a BEV-40 will only reduce emissions by 3%. If you upgrade to a BEV-60 to combat range anxiety you suffer an emissions penalty of 13.6% and if you upgrade to a top of the line BEV-85 the emissions penalty rises to 34.3%.

Via

Bloomberg;

A123 Systems Inc. (AONE), a maker of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for electric cars, filed for bankruptcy after failing to make a debt payment that was due yesterday. […] A123, which received a $249.1 million federal grant in 2009 to build a U.S. factory, needed a financial lifeline after struggling with costs from a recall of batteries supplied to Fisker Automotive Inc., the plug-in hybrid luxury carmaker.

Breitbart;

A Danish wind turbine company whose subsidiaries received over $50 million in U.S. stimulus dollars announced on Friday it has cut more than 800 jobs in the United States and Canada this year and may be forced to lay off another 800 employees in North America.

h/t Maz2

The watermelons are breaking open – “Soviet-style” green subsidies for wind farms must be scrapped because turbines are blighting local communities, the new Environment Secretary said on Tuesday.

Financial Post:

After a fantastic run spanning a few years, the renewable energy sector has taken a number of hits recently, which suggests its inevitable march as the energy source of the future is far from certain.
“It’s pretty bleak — there is no way to sugar coat it. But I wouldn’t call it a lost cause,” says Matt Horne, director of climate change at the Pembina Institute.
While all sectors have ups and downs, there is a fear that renewables’ weaknesses could lead to structural changes, as policymakers no longer have the luxury of supporting and extending subsidies at a time of fiscal austerity.

Think of the billions that might have been saved if only policy makers had done their homework.
h/t Kevin B

Spiegel;

Just over a year ago, Chancellor Angela Merkel set the bold goal of increasing the number of electric cars in the country to 1 million by 2020. But today there are only 4,600 of them driving on German roads, a mere 0.01 percent of all registered cars, despite years of research. So much for a high-voltage success story.

h/t John Lewis

Tora! Tora! Tora!

The Navy’s plan that is under consideration would cover Ford Island’s 4,000-foot runway and 14 acres of adjoining land with 60,000 solar-energy panels. The goal is to convert at least 50% of the Navy’s energy demands to alternative sources by 2020.
The Pacific Aviation Museum has opposed the proposed project because it says it does not respect the runway’s significance in American history.
“Consider the hue and cry should a 60,000-panel project be located at Gettysburg or Valley Forge,” the museum said in a written statement.

Kathy Shaidle, in the comments – “Who’s up for a Dealey Plaza wind farm?”

Congressional Budget Office;

“Given current prices for vehicles and fuel, in most cases the existing tax credits do not fully offset the higher lifetime costs of an electric vehicle compared with those of an equivalent conventional vehicle or traditional hybrid.”

Related:

Toyota Motor Corp has scrapped plans for widespread sales of a new all-electric minicar, saying it had misread the market and the ability of still-emerging battery technology to meet consumer demands.

Government Motors doesn’t have that luxury – GM’s discounts on the Volt are more than four times the industry’s per-vehicle average, according to TrueCar estimates.