The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) this month proposed an order requiring the state’s investor-owned utilities to procure 1,325 megawatts (MW) of grid-scale energy storage (excluding large-scale pumped storage) by 2020. The procurement targets address three grid storage domains: transmission-connected, distribution-connected, and behind-the-meter and are designed to dramatically increase the amount of advanced energy storage capacity on the state’s electric system and to catalyze market transformation in the emerging energy storage industry.

Energy storage is a suite of technologies that capture and store energy for use at a later higher value time.  Energy can be stored in many ways: chemically (e.g. batteries), gravitationally (e.g. pumped hydro, pictured here), mechanically (e.g. flywheels) and thermally (e.g. molten salt).  On the electric grid, where supply must always equal demand, energy storage increases efficiency by avoiding expensive transmission and distribution upgrades and substituting for the most polluting “peaker” power plants. Energy storage is also expected to play a key role in enabling the grid to integrate large quantities of variable renewable energy resources such as solar and wind.

Climate change projections indicate that rainfall in the Amazon could decrease 40-45% by the end of the century if temperatures rise 5 ° to 6 ° C, according to a new report released this week by the Brazilian Panel on Climate Change, a national scientific body that gathers, synthesizes, and evaluates scientific information on climate change. Climate scenarios also suggest a future increase in extreme and prolonged drought events, especially in the Amazon, Cerrado and Caatinga regions. The implications of these projections are profound: The most biodiverse rainforest in the world could turn into a savanna, and such a dramatic decrease in rainfall would severely impact hydropower production. (More than 90% of new large hydro in Brazil is planned for the Amazon). This report will likely add to the intense debate around Brazil's hydropower expansion program and its social, environmental, and economic impacts

Projected Impact of Climate Change on Rainfall in Brazil
(Source: Brazilian Panel on Climate Change)

Mauricio Tolmasquim, chief of the Brazilian government's Energy Research Company, EPE, told Reuters it was "unlikely" the government would proceed with plans to build four new nuclear plants by 2030 to meet rising demand for electricity.

The 50 most-polluting U.S. power plants emit more of the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide pollution than every nation except six worldwide, according to a new report released by the Environment America Research and Policy Center. The report, America's Dirtiest Power Plants, finds that of the nearly 6,000 electricity generating facilities in the United States, most of the U.S. power sector's global warming pollution comes from a handful of exceptionally dirty power plants: About 30% of all power-sector carbon dioxide emissions in 2011 came from the 50 dirtiest power plants; about half came from the 100 dirtiest plants; and about 90% came from the 500 dirtiest plants.The report includes a list of the top 100 dirtiest power plants in the U.S.

Non-traditional renewable energy technologies (NRETs) —solar, wind, geothermal, ocean, small-scale hydropower, and advanced bio-energy—together with improvements in energy efficiency—are now ready to play a major role alongside hydropower in meeting the energy needs in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to a white paper recently released by the Inter-American Development Bank. The authors note that the costs of these technologies are falling rapidly, and in many cases are competitive with fossil fuels. Globally, the scale of recent developments in renewable energy suggests that a historic energy transformation is underway. NRETs —assembled in large power plants as well as widely decentralized small systems— are rapidly diversifying the energy economies of many nations.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto presented his long-awaited energy reform proposal in August. Worldwatch Institute analyzes it here.

The latest edition of Greenpeace's Energy Revolution study for Brazil (in Portuguese) offers an ambitious outlook for the development of solar photovoltaic (PV). The report projects that the country could install as much as 2.8 GW of photovoltaic solar capacity by 2020, up to 24 GW by 2030, and up to 100 GW by 2050. (More on Brazil's solar PV outlook here). Overall, the study projects that the country's electricity mix in 2050 could consist of hydropower (40%), wind (21%), solar PV (13%), solar thermal (10%), biomass (7%), natural gas (7 %), and tidal (1%).