Advanced Energy Perspectives

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2015 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research. 

Photo courtesy of RES Americas. 

China continued to deploy wind power at a remarkable rate, installing an estimated 23.3 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, bringing China’s cumulative wind capacity to over 114 GW. For comparison, all of Europe installed an estimated 12.8 GW last year, representing modest growth over the 12 GW installed in 2013. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.

Several technologies can be used to store energy on the electricity transmission and distribution grid, including pumped storage hydro (PSH), compressed air energy storage (CAES), electrochemical batteries, flywheel systems and thermal energy storage systems. Electricity is then generated during peak hours by releasing the water through a hydro turbine. CAES stores energy by using an electric motor to drive an air compressor that fills a storage facility (typically an underground cavern) with compressed air.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2015 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research. 

International marine construction companies are seeing a bonanza of new projects as countries around the world approve massive new terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) – for imports in most cases, and for exports from North America, Australia, and some Southeast Asian countries. Altogether, this frenzy of port building – at a price tag of around $10 billion apiece – could amount to hundreds of billions of dollars in investment over the next decade as seaborne trade in LNG climbs to meet rising demand, particularly in the energy-hungry countries of China, India, and other Asian nations.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2015 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research. 

Drivers searching for parking are estimated to be responsible for about 30% of traffic congestion in cities. Historically, cities, businesses, and property developers have tried to match parking supply to growing demand for parking spaces. It has become clear, though, that simply creating more parking spaces is not sufficient to address the problem of congestion. New approaches using smart parking systems look to provide a more balanced view of parking that better manages the relationship between supply and demand.  

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) plan to regulate carbon emissions is just the latest challenge facing the U.S. electric power system. Technological innovation is disrupting old ways of doing business and accelerating grid modernization. Earlier this year, AEE released Advanced Energy Technologies for Greenhouse Gas Reduction, a report detailing the use, application, and benefits of 40 specific advanced energy technologies and services. This post is one in a series drawn from the technology profiles within that report.

Plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) are emerging as an important vehicle platform in the United States and globally. PEVs are powered completely or in part by rechargeable batteries. PEVs include battery electric vehicles (BEVs) such as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S, which need to be recharged through external power sources, and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs) such as the Chevy Volt and Toyota Prius Plug-in, which contain both a battery and a gasoline-powered engine. BEVs typically have ranges of about 100 to 250 miles, while PHEVs have electric-only ranges of about 20-40 miles, after which they operate on gasoline like regular hybrid vehicles.