Wall Street Journal: Chinese Solar Firm Hanergy Loses Ikea Partnership
A Chinese solar-equipment manufacturer at the center of a probe by Hong Kong regulators has lost a high-profile partnership with Ikea Group to sell solar panels in Europe.
Ikea said on its website that its deal with the solar-panel maker, Hanergy Thin Film Power Group Ltd., ended Oct. 31 and that it would have a “new and even more attractive offer” for solar panels next year. A spokesman for Hanergy’s parent company said he couldn’t immediately comment.
Hanergy Thin Film sells rooftop solar-power kits to residential customers at Ikea stores in Europe, mostly in the U.K. The kits sell for around £5,200 (US$8,000) and come with a promise to cut typical household electricity bills in half.
KTVZ: Legal Marijuana Grows Can Trigger Blackouts, Warns Utility
Legal indoor marijuana growing operations are a new electrical safety concern in both Oregon and Washington, as they can overload the power grid and even cause blackouts, Pacific Power officials said Wednesday
"What most people don't realize is that growing marijuana is a very intense power use," said Roger Blank, Pacific Power's director of safety. "From a power use standpoint, even a small operation of four plants with standard lights is like hooking up 29 refrigerators that run 24/7."
Guardian: You’re Failing on Green Energy, Tory Ex-Minister Warns Cameron
David Cameron’s chief climate change adviser has warned that the government is “clearly failing” in key policy areas and needs to regain the confidence of investors in green technology, in the runup to next month’s crucial global summit in Paris.
Lord Deben, chairman of the U.K.’s independent committee on climate change, told the Observer of his concerns, particularly regarding the continued waste of energy from drafty homes and the failure to exploit the potential of renewable heat technology.
Vox: What Critics of the Keystone Campaign Misunderstand About Climate Activism
There is a strain of hostility toward the Keystone campaign among Beltway wonks and journos that is, let's just say, underdetermined by the substantive critiques they offer. Take this high dudgeon from Stephen Stromberg on the Washington Post editorial page. He deems the campaign so "irrational and insulting," so "capricious and immature," that it "should have offended those who care" about clean energy. Lawsy mercy!
Nonetheless, it isn't all concern trolling. Plenty of people of good faith, even those who share a concern over climate change, are skeptical of, or at least puzzled by, the Keystone campaign. They all have versions of the same question: why this? It doesn't seem like that big a deal in terms of carbon emissions. So why so much angst and organizing, so much wearying persistence, over this?
Forbes: Moody's Downgrades Mississippi Power's Credit Rating, Again
Last week, Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Mississippi Power’s credit rating, the second time the ratings agency has downgraded the utility company in less than three months.
Mississippi Power, a utility subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Company, has struggled to contain the fallout from the problems encountered at a power plant under construction in Kemper County, Miss.
The Kemper plant, which is slated to become the first large-scale coal gasification generator in the United States, has suffered a series of delays and cost overruns. It is now expected to cost $6.2 billion, almost three times more than it was supposed to cost.