Renewable energy targets are now a defining feature of the global energy landscape, according to a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). Renewable Energy Target Setting, launched on the side lines of IRENA’s ninth Council meeting, finds that 164 countries have adopted at least one type of renewable energy target, up from…

Renewable energy accounted for 9.8% of total domestic energy consumption in 2014. This marks the highest renewable energy share since the 1930s, when wood was a much larger contributor to domestic energy supply. Renewable energy use grew an average of 5% per year over 2001-2014 from its most recent low in 2001. The increase over…

Republican and Democrat governors pressed U.S. Senate and House leadership yesterday to extend critically important tax incentives used to grow wind energy and keep good-paying manufacturing jobs here at home. Washington Democrat Gov. Jay Inslee and Iowa Republican Gov. Terry Branstad, Chairman and Vice Chairman respectively of the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition, co-signed a letter…

A new report from Navigant Research analyzes the North American market for light duty plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), including detailed geographic forecasts of PEV sales by U.S. state, metropolitan statistical area (MSA), Canadian province, Canadian city, and selected U.S. utility service area. With more than 133,000 PEVs sold in 2014, North America is currently the…

Global Electric Transformer Market 2015-2019 research report says growing significance of renewable power generation will spur growth in the electrical transformer market for next few years with ABB, Alstom SA, General Electric (GE), and Siemens AG featured as key vendors in the industry. Development of next-generation transformers is one of the major trends upcoming in…

According to a new report by Timetric’s Construction Intelligence Center (CIC), the major economies in the Americas will invest over US$792 billion in power generation projects in the coming years to increase generating capacity by 380 GW. The United States heads the 13 countries analyzed with projects valued at almost US$388 billion, followed by Canada…

Germany will become the world’s leading market for annual offshore wind turbine installations in 2015, with the country set to add an impressive 2,071 megawatts (MW) this year, an almost fourfold increase from the 529 MW added in 2014. According to research and consulting firm GlobalData’s latest report, global annual offshore wind installations will more…

A concerted push for clean-energy innovation is the only way the world can meet its climate goals, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its latest flagship energy technology report. The report, Energy Technology Perspectives 2015 (ETP 2015), shows that despite a few recent success stories, clean-energy progress is falling well short of the levels…

AWS Truepower’s Wind Trends Bulletin Annual Review provides wind plant owners, investors, and operators with a high-level analysis of wind resource performance influenced by climatic fluctuations. This aids in identifying potential issues with wind plant under-performance. Highlights of the 2014 Annual Bulletin include the following findings: winds were normal to above normal, with some exceptions,…

Editor’s note: The Department of Energy released its Quadrennial Energy Review (QER), which explores options for modernizing the nation’s energy grid in a secure and cost-competitive manner. It also identifies vulnerabilities in the system and proposes policy recommendations and investments to replace and expand infrastructure where appropriate. Links to the review’s summary and full report…

As a complement to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) recently released Wind Vision report, a new paper summarizes the lessons learned from actual power systems operational practice, along with some of the most relevant and comprehensive wind integration studies conducted during the past several years. In the years since the DOE’s “20% Wind Energy by…

China continued to deploy wind power at a remarkable rate, installing an estimated 23.3 gigawatts (GW) in 2014, a 45% increase over 2013. China accounted for 45% of the 51 GW installed globally in 2014, representing $94.6 billion in revenue. This is the most wind ever installed by a single country in a single year,…

American wind industry jobs and turbine deployment regained momentum heading into 2015, the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) reported in releasing its 2014 results in the U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report. The U.S. wind industry added 23,000 jobs in 2014, boosting the sector’s total to 73,000 jobs. 2015 began with 12,700 MW of wind…

MAKE expects another strong year for North America in 2015 with more than nine gigawatts (GW) of wind power additions, buttressed by higher growth in the U.S. that offsets a slight annual decline in Canada. A late 2014 extension of the U.S. Production Tax Credits (PTC) helps to maintain momentum in the U.S. market through…

The Canadian Wind Energy Association (CanWEA) acknowledges the release of the report, Understanding the Evidence: Wind Turbine Noise by the Council of Canadian Academies (CCA). CanWEA will be fully reviewing the CCA report, which adds to the significant body of literature already available on the subject of wind turbines and human health. The CCA report…

As Governor Jay Nixon and state lawmakers prepare Missouri’s new energy plan, a first-of-its-kind report recently released shows that the state’s vibrant and growing clean energy industry employs nearly 40,000 workers at more than 4,400 establishments. “Clean Jobs Missouri,” and the associated www.cleanjobsmissouri.org website, were commissioned by non-partisan groups Missouri Energy Initiative and Environmental Entrepreneurs,…

As the cost of wind energy has dropped by more than half in just five years, there has been a steady increase in U.S. businesses, governmental agencies, and universities making direct investments in wind power to lock in low prices and reduce their carbon footprints. “Successful brands and businesses increasingly see low-cost wind power as…

A new report from Navigant Research analyzes the global market for energy storage enabling technologies (ESETs) across four distinct market segments: utility-scale storage, community storage, residential storage, and commercial storage, including global market forecasts through 2024. The supporting technologies associated with energy storage systems include power conversion (primarily focused on inverters), system-level software and controls,…

Editor’s Note: Technavio, a global technology research and advisory company, has released a report on the Global Wind Turbine Gearbox Market for 2015-2019. The report covers current and future growth prospects, and can be downloaded in full here. — A gearbox, as a part of a wind turbine, is used to step-up the rotor speed…