Global Renewable Investment Exceeds New Fossil Fuel Capacity By $40 Billion In 2011

Renewable energy is big business around the world.  In fact, it is bigger business than building new fossil fuel generation capacity and by quite a bit.

Global investment in renewable energy soared in 2011, setting a new record of $257.5 billion and exceeding by $40 billion the amount invested in new fossil fuel capacity.  http://www.worldwatch.org/continued-growth-renewable-energy-investments.  Investment was up 17% from 2010, another strong year for renewable energy investments around the world, when $220 billion was put into new renewable energy projects.

Solar had an extraordinary year in 2011 when it attracted $147.4 billion; wind followed in second place at $83.8 billion.  Biomass and biofuels attracted $10.6 billion and $6.8 billion respectively.  Solar's global investment boom is driven by a price decline of about 50% in 2011.

China led the world with $52 billion of renewable energy investments and the US was second at $51 billion, during 2011.  Uncertainty about the extent of future investments in the US has been created by conservative Republican attacks on renewable energy, with the issue of extending the Production Tax Credit for wind a flash point.

But global investment trends into renewable energy are so big that renewable energy's prospects for remaining a global economic powerhouse are bright, no matter the outcome of political battles within the US during 2012.

Anna University Latest Update on Revaluation Result

19/10/2012 @ 5:30 Pm : Latest Result Status Update

The latest info. that Anna University,Chennai May/June 2012 Revaluation Results is Likely to be announced By Today(19.10.2012) Or Tomorrow (20.10.2012)

Next Result Status Update : By 8:15 Pm Or Before

For More Details, Check It Out:http://www.rejinpaul.com/2012/09/anna-university-mayjune-2012.html

Stunning Fact: 40% of Corn and 14% of Soybean Crops Used For Biofuels

All energy choices have strengths and weaknesses, and all have impacts on the environment.  That is true of biofuels too.

For example, ethanol is completely domestic, and we don't fight wars to access the Iowa corn crop.  Quite a strength.

But 40% of US corn and 14% of our soybean production is now consumed to make biofuels, a lot of biofuels. Corn farmers have been big winners from booming ethanol production.  But not all impacts of ethanol are positive for all Americans.

Ethanol production increased from 13.3 billion gallons in 2010 to 13.9 billion gallons in 2011. Production is equal to nearly 10% of US gasoline consumption.http://www.eia.gov/biofuels/issuestrends/. Biodiesel production in 2011 was sharply up from 2010 and 2009 and nearly reached 1 billion gallons.

Corn farmers have been big winners from booming ethanol production, raising their incomes and the value of their land.  But not all impacts of ethanol are positive.  Diverting 40% of the corn crop to biofuels raises food prices, though by how much is contentious, raises feed costs for some farmers, and impacts water.

Corn consumes lots of water and run-off from corn fields can pollute waters.  Indeed, the impact of corn ethanol production on water is likely greater than gas production--one more example of how the massive focus on gas drilling as supposedly the greatest threat to water is mistaken.

Gas-fueled Electricity Competition Roars: Residential Customers Can Save Up To $300 By Switching To Competitive Supplier

How many times do you have a guaranteed way to save $300 per year with one phone or web contact? Not often. But electricity competition is offering savings up to $300 to residential electricity customers of Duquesne Light, the electric utility serving the Pittsburgh region.

Here's the math. Current regular residential customers of Duquesne Light are paying $69.23/month for electricity generation or 9.89 cents per kilowatt-hour. There are 26 companies competing for their business.

To name just three, Direct Energy will provide the same service for $51.80/month; First Energy for $44.45; and Just Energy for $43.75/month. Monthly savings can exceed $25. These real bargains are partially the result of sharply lower natural gas prices that have yielded greatly reduced wholesale electricity prices during 2012 that competitive suppliers are now passing through to retail customers.

Indeed, electricity generation prices offered by competitive suppliers in the Pittsburgh region are about 2 cents per kilowatt-hour or 25% lower in nominal dollars and 70% lower in constant or inflation adjusted dollars than what Duquesne Light charged for generation in 1996, the year Pennsylvania enacted the Electricity Competition and Customer Choice Act.

In the Pittsburgh region, customers can also switch to 100% Pennsylvania wind power supplied by Community Energy and save money, compared to staying a generation customer of Duquesne Light.

Customers in nearly all parts of Pennsylvania can save money by shopping for electricity or purchase green power.  It's easy to do and more than 1.86 million Pennsylvania electricity customers have done it.  To go power shopping, take a look atwww.papowerswitch.com and at www.choosepawind.com.

Gas Generation To Go Down 10% But Wind Up 13%: How Is Gas Killing Renewable?

New wind construction faces one major threat in 2013, and its not gas.  Gas-fired electricity is projected to decline 10% in 2013, as a rising gas price causes gas to lose market share to coal-fired generation. Instead the one threat endangering wind projects in 2013 is the expiration of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) at the end of 2012.

Despite the battle over the wind PTC, with Governor Romney favoring its expiration and President Obama favoring its renewal, actual electricity production by America's wind farms is projected by EIA to be 13% higher in 2013 than in 2012, reaching 420 million kilowatt-hours per day.  That will be enough electricity to supply about 15.5 million homes.  www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/tables/?tableNumber22=#.

The increased production in 2013 will mostly result from a full year of operations of the 10,000 megawatts of new wind farms being completed in 2012. In addition, some new wind will be built in 2013, even if the PTC is not renewed, but estimates put 2013 without the PTC at around 2,000 megawatts, a new build number that would be the lowest in many years.

If wind production increases by 13% in 2013 and gas declines by 10%, as the EIA projects, that will be yet one more fact demonstrating that gas is not killing renewable energy.  After all, wind will increase, even as gas generation retreats. And the slow down in new wind construction likely in 2013 would be caused by the expiration or late renewal of the PTC.

Even with 2013 right around the corner, the recent EIA projections for 2013 production from coal, gas, and wind may still prove wrong.  But the forecast is built on the established facts that coal and gas compete intensely for market share and that already constructed wind farms run no matter what are the prices of coal or gas.

Wind farms run no matter what the prices of coal or gas are, because the zero-fuel cost of wind generation and wind's other operational cost advantages means that wind generation has the lowest production costs of all generation sources, with the possible exception of solar. Wind generation will produce power at a cost almost always below the wholesale electricity market price and will be profitable in nearly all hours of the year.  The same cannot be said of gas and coal plants.

Coal and gas power plants have much higher production or operating costs than wind and most other renewable generation sources.  They will run or not, depending primarily on the price of their fuel and the price of electricity.

The fact that wind farms low production costs mean that they run once built is why wind's generation market share will tend not to decline or be as volatile as coal or gas.  From year-to-year the same wind farms will operate at approximately the same production levels.  But gas and coal plants actual production can vary substantially year-to-year, depending on the fuel prices of each, and so the generation market shares of both will follow to some extent price changes in natural gas and coal.

Next year's rising wind and solar generation and falling gas generation, all in the same year, will be one more demonstration that attacks on gas for killing renewable energy are factually challenged!

In Pittsburgh Region, Wind Power Costs Less Than Traditional Electricity Generation

Cleaner need not be more expensive but can be cheaper. The latest example of cheaper and cleaner comes in electricity products.  Compared to the "default rate" paid to Duquesne Light by customers who do not shop, customers save 10% by switching to Community Energy's 100% Pennsylvania wind power product.

Gas Displacing Diesel At Drilling Rigs: Another Big Example Of Cheaper & Cleaner

Though its environmental impacts are much less than oil or coal, reducing the environmental footprint of gas production further is certainly possible. Some improvements increase costs but reduce risk.  But still other ways of reducing the impact of gas on the environment actually cut costs.  They are outright cleaner and cheaper.

Substituting natural gas for diesel fuel to operate drilling rigs is a powerful example of cleaner and cheaper. Brian Murphy of Ensign Energy Services calculates that running a drilling rig on gas costs $1,322 per day,

Natural Gas Generation Projected By EIA To Decline 10% But Coal To Rise 7% In 2013

Judged by usage of gas and coal to make electricity, 2013 is shaping up to a bad year for gas and a good one for coal. And the price of gas tells the whole tale.

Since 2008, falling gas prices fueled a 45% surge in usage of natural gas to make electricity, but that bull run is projected to screech to a halt in 2013.  www.eia.gov/forecasts/steo/tables/?tableNumber=22#.  Gas prices rising from the 2012 depths also mean a 10% decline in gas generation during 2013, with daily gas-fired production projected by the EIA to drop from 3.4 billion kilowatt-hours to 3.06 billion kilowatt-hours each day.

Stunning Fact: Gas Prices Will Determine Whether 21,000 Megawatts Or 141,000 Megawatts Of Coal Retires, According To Blockbuster New Study

The extent and intensity of gas versus coal competition is simply astonishing, as the respected Brattle Group documents in a new study. http://www.brattle.com/_documents/UploadLibrary/Upload1081.pdf.

Brattle predicts that 59,000 to 77,000 megawatts of coal plants will retire by 2016, if gas prices are around $4.30 in 2015 or roughly 20% of the nation's coal fleet and 7% of total, current US generation of all types. The latest estimate is about twice its previous number.

New Paper By Levi of CFR Refutes NOAA Colorado Methane Leak Study

Science is an interactive process made rigorous through replication of results and critical examination of data and methodology.  A methane leakage paper authored by scientists at NOAA and the University of Colorado and now a critical paper that refutes its conclusions provide are an example of the scientific process at work

ANNA UNIVERSITY MAY/JUNE 2012 REVALUATION RESULTS | 2ND,4TH,6TH,8TH SEMESTER ANNA UNIVERSITY,CHENNAI REVALUATION RESULTS

Expectation:

Anna University 2nd,4th,6th,8th  Semester May/June 2012 Revaluation Results are expected to hit Websites By Third Week Of October 2012 Month 
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15/10/2012 @ 7:00 Am : Latest Result Status Update

Last Date For Paying Anna University,Chennai Nov/Dec 2012 Examination Fees is Revealed as 15.10.2012 ... So The Very Big Question From Students Is "any Possibilities for Anna University,Chennai May/June 2012 Revaluation  Results Today (i.e) 15/10/2012 (Monday)" - we got an latest info. that result processing  is Still going on...and There is no possibilities for results today(15.10.2012) - AU,Chennai Revaluation results will be published by Third Week Of October 2012

If Any Changes in Above Schedule Let You Know As Soon as possible

Stunning Fact: Nitrogen Oxide Pollution Levels Drop 32% Since 2008 & America's Great Air Clean Up Quickens

EPA's nitrogen oxide data tell a powerful tale and offer another example of why today often is better than the nostalgically remembered "Good Old Days." In terms of air quality, all of us are much better off today than 4 years ago and the pace of improvement is quickening.

Indeed, America is more rapidly than ever returning our air to a quality not breathed in 80 or more years.  One marker of the wonderful cleaning of America's air is the decline of nitrogen oxides, a leading cause of human illness, and regulated by the Clean Air Act.

The Incredible 5-Year Revolution In How America Generates Electricity & What It Means In The Fracking Wars

The impossible sometimes happens.  That is the lesson of the revolutionary changes in how electricity is generated in the USA since 2008.

Indeed, as of January 2008, not a single expert said that by 2012 gas and non-hydro renewable energy would increase their generation market shares by 51% and 76% respectively, while coal would lose 25% of its share. Those thoughts were not thought.  They were impossible.

But that's exactly what has happened in the last 4 years--an incredible revolution in the electricity industry.
www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.cfm?t=epmt_1_01.

THE INNOVATIONAL BLOG: Anna University, Chennai 2008,2009 &2012 Batches, ...

THE INNOVATIONAL BLOG: Anna University, Chennai 2008,2009 &2012 Batches, ...

Anna University, Chennai 2008,2009 &2012 Batches, erstwhile Anna University(B.tech Petroleum Engineering)

Anna University Nov/Dec 2012 Exam Notification, Exam Timetable, Payment Of examination Fees Notification annauniv.edu

                                                                             ANNA UNIVERSITY

                    CHENNAI – 600 025

                    EXAMINATION NOTIFICATION

                      Common To All Colleges In Tamilnadu

November / December 2012 University examinations for all semesters for the          
Affiliated Colleges / University Colleges of Engineering of Anna University, Chennai for all U.G. and P.G. Courses are scheduled to commence as detailed below:

Practical Examinations : 29.10.2012
Theory Examinations : 16.11.2012
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Applications will be available  from 8th October 2012

Last Date For Payment Of Examination Fees : 15/10/2012

Pay Through Respective Colleges (ie) Contact College Officials