Europe's largest wind farm, with 140 turbines, operated at less than a quarter of its capacity in 2009.

Researcher says that government subsidies are to blame.

More than half of Britain’s wind farms are operating at less than 25 percent capacity because they’re installed in areas without a continuous breeze, according to an academic study reported by the Daily Mail.

The study was based on official data provided by energy regulator Ofgem.

The worst locations cited in the study were a 9-turbine wind farm at Blyth Harbour in Northumberland, northern England, which managed to reach only 4.9 percent of its capacity, and a 4-turbine operation at Chelker reservoir in North Yorkshire operating at 5.3 percent capacity.

More than $400,000 a year can be earned in subsidies from one turbine operating at 30%.

Europe’s largest wind farm, located near Glasgow, ran at less than 25 percent capacity, according to research of the data from 2009.

The analysis was carried out by Michael Jefferson, a professor of international business and sustainability at the London Metropolitan Business School.

Jefferson placed the blame squarely on government subsidies, which he says encourage firms to site their operations badly because of their rush to take advantage of financial incentives. British consumers currently pay an extra £1 billion ($1.56 billion) per year on their fuel bills in order to subsidize the government’s push toward it’s renewable energy goals.

“There is a political motivation to drive non-fossil fuel energy, which I very much respect, but we need more focus,” Jefferson said. He suggests that stimulus funds should be reserved only for the windiest of projects in order to ensure that taxpayers are getting the most bang for their buck.

Operations that fall below 25 per cent should be deemed ineligible for renewable subsidies. “That would focus the mind to put them in a sensible place,” he said.

Britain has 2,906 wind turbines spread over 264 sites with a further 7,000 turbines planned for the next 12 years.

Jefferson has written extensively on energy policy, including contributions to various UN bodies. He was the Deputy Secretary-General of the World Energy Council for 10 years, where his work with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change led to a certificate for his contributions to their award of a Nobel prize.

As election season heats up, Obama took on Republicans who he says would rather “stand on the sidelines” than do what’s necessary to create jobs.

President Barack Obama tours the ZBB Manufacturing Facility in Menomonee Falls, Wis., and is shown the battery making process by ZBB President and CEO Eric Apfelback, left, and ZBB employee Lonnie Mages, August 16, 2010. (White House Photo/Chuck Kennedy)

While visiting a Wisconsin battery plant that he touted as the future of renewable energy in America, US President Barack Obama predicted that his administration’s clean energy policies will create 800,000 jobs in the next two years.

The President also harshly criticized political opponents who blocked some of his administration’s policies in Congress.

“There are folks in Washington right now who think we should abandon our efforts to support clean energy,” Obama told the crowd at ZBB Energy Corporation’s manufacturing facility. “They’ve made the political calculation that it’s better to stand on the sidelines than work as a team to help American businesses and American workers.”

Obama toured ZBB Energy Corporation’s manufacturing facility, which received $1.3 million in Recovery Act State Energy Program loans in order to fund a $4.5 million factory renovation to triple their capacity to manufacture flow batteries and power systems.

President Barack Obama speaks to workers following a tour at ZBB Energy Corporation in Menomonee Falls, Wis. ZBB is a leader in the design and manufacture of advanced energy-storage products. August 16, 2010. (White House Photo/Chuck Kennedy)

“We expect our commitment to clean energy to lead to more than 800,000 jobs by 2012,” Obama declared. “And that’s not just creating work in the short term, that’s going to help lay the foundation for lasting economic growth.”

The advanced zinc bromide flow batteries and intelligent control platforms manufactured by ZBB, are crucial components to building a smart energy grid and expanding the commercialization of electric vehicles. They allow users to cut costs by shifting energy use to off-peak hours and bank intermittent sources of energy like the sun and wind for future use.

Obama highlighted the major advances America has made in battery technology in just a few short years. “I just want everybody to understand –just a few years ago, American businesses could only make 2 percent of the world’s advanced batteries for hybrid and electric vehicles — 2 percent.  In just a few years, we’ll have up to 40 percent of the world’s capacity.”

"Solar Energy is Now the Better Buy" after reaching a "Historic Crossover" according to a new study.

The costs for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems have fallen steadily while construction costs for new nuclear power plants have been rising over the past decade, which now makes electricity generated from new solar installations cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear power plants, according to a new report published by a retired Duke University professor.

Moreover, the report continues, solar costs are projected to continue its decline over the coming decade while nuclear costs are expected to rise further.

The report, “Solar and Nuclear Costs — The Historic Crossover: Solar Energy is Now the Better Buy,” was compiled by John O. Blackburn, Professor Emeritus of Economics and former Chancellor of Duke University, along with a student, Sam Cunningham.

Electricity generated from solar PV is now being sold by commercial developers to the utility companies at 14 cents or less per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while nuclear plants in the planning stages will be incapable of offering electricity cheaper than 14-to-18 cents per kWh, according to the report.

“The delivered price to customers would be somewhat higher for both sources,” the study notes.

Solar photovoltaic resource potential. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)

Cost estimates for new nuclear plants have risen dramatically since the much-heralded “nuclear renaissance” began during the past decade, says Blackburn. “Projects first announced with costs in the $2 billion range per reactor have seen several revisions as detailed planning proceeds and numerous design and engineering problems have emerged. The latest price estimates are in the $10 billion range per reactor.”

But Rod Adams, author of the Atomic Insights Blog, rejected the report and criticized the basis of the study, saying that the report’s nuclear cost projections rely on a paper written by a lone researcher with unclear qualifications. Mark Cooper’s “brief biography states that he has a ‘PhD from Yale’ but it does not specify his field of study. It indicates he is an ‘acivist/advocate’ with a rather wide range of interest areas including telecommunications regulations and energy consumer issues,” he writes. Adams also listed a number of papers on the subject which he says were ignored by Blackburn’s report.

“For many years the U.S. nuclear power industry has been allowed to argue that ‘there is no alternative’ to building new nuclear plants,” Blackburn’s report concludes. “This is just not true.”

TNK-BP is Russia's third largest oil company and has nearly 100,000 employees.

BP’s embattled CEO, Tony Hayward, is about to be reassigned to TNK-BP, a joint venture in Russia.

After much speculation and many reports in the press that Hayward’s days were numbered, the company finally announced on Tuesday that he will step down from his position as chief executive officer effective Oct. 1.

“The BP board is deeply saddened to lose a CEO whose success over some three years in driving the performance of the company was so widely and deservedly admired,” said BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.

BP also announced a record $17 billion quarterly loss as a result of costs related to the spill.

“The Gulf of Mexico explosion was a terrible tragedy for which — as the man in charge of BP when it happened — I will always feel a deep responsibility, regardless of where blame is ultimately found to lie,” Mr. Hayward said in a statement.

In an ironic twist, Bob Dudley, who is set to replace Hayward as BP’s CEO, was formerly the chief executive at TNK-BP before a bitter dispute resulted in him being ousted from Russia by the Kremlin.

BP maintains a share in the Kovytka field located in Eastern Siberia, which is said to be one of the largest undeveloped natural gas fields in the world.

Hayward’s new position will be as a non-executive director on the board of TNK-BP, Russia’s third-largest oil company. BP owns a 50% stake in TNK-BP.

BP CEO Tony Hayward.

BP is scrambling to rebuild it’s devastated image in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion which killed 11 rig workers and caused oil to leak into the Gulf of Mexico.

Comments made by Hayward in the early days of the spill response –such as “I would like my life back” and that the spill was “relatively tiny” compared to the size of the Gulf of Mexico– erupted into a public relations nightmare for the company which they have yet to recover from.

Dudley, an American, is said to be a softspoken character, and BP hopes that he can broadcast a positive image to both the government and the public as it launches a major restructuring process aimed at getting what was once Britain’s largest company back on its feet.

Dudley was in London on Monday to attend the board meeting discussing the company’s reshuffling and Hayward’s severance package. Hayward will receive a $1.6 million payoff – a year’s salary.

“The tragedy of the Macondo well explosion and subsequent environmental damage has been a watershed incident,” Svanberg said in a statement. BP will be a “different company going forward, requiring fresh leadership,” he said.

China has knocked the U.S. out of the top spot –a position it held for more than a century– as the world’s biggest energy consumer, according to new data from the International Energy Agency.

China consumed 2,252 million tons of ‘oil equivalent’ last year, which is about 4 percent more than the 2,170 million tons the U.S. consumed. Oil equivalent is the term used by the IEA to bring all forms of energy into a comparable form, including crude oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydropower, wind and solar power.

Projections were for China not to overtake the U.S. for another 5 years, but the takeover occured faster than expected with the effects of the global recesssion causing the U.S. economy to decline at a time that the Chinese economy was continuing to expand at a double-digit pace. Energy consumption in the U.S. flatlined while China continued to consume more.

Energy consumption in the U.S. was double that of China’s just a decade ago.

The U.S. still remains the world’s largest energy consumer per capita, with the average American using 5 times more energy than the average Chinese citizen.

“The fact that China overtook the U.S. as the world’s largest energy consumer symbolizes the start of a new age in the history of energy,” IEA chief economist Fatih Birol was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.

China relies on coal for much of its electricity generation, which accounts for why China already passed the U.S. as the world’s largest polluter several years ago.

The U.S. still remains comfortably in the lead in terms of crude oil consumption, with a consumption rate of 19 million barrels of oil per day. China currently consumes only nine million barrels of oil per day, although their consumption rate continues to climb.

Over the next 15 years, China’s electricity demand is expected to increase by 1,000 GW – equivalent to the total U.S. electricity output today.

"BP needs to tell us what it will do if the well bore is compromised and 100,000 barrels per day of oil spills into the ocean," Markey said.

An internal BP document released by U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) today revealed that the worst-case scenario spill rate could be 100,000 barrels –or 4.2 million gallons– per day – substantially higher than the numbers originally released to the public.

“Right from the beginning, BP was either lying or grossly incompetent. First they said it was only 1,000. Then they said it was 5,000 barrels. Now we’re up to 100,000 barrels,” Markey said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

"This document raises very troubling questions about what BP knew and when they knew it," says Congressman Ed Markey.

Markey said that the company submitted the documents to Congress at a time when the leak was estimated at only 5,000 barrels a day, and BP told congressmen that the worst case scenario would be 60,000 barrels a day.

The scenario, according to the undated documents, can occur if the wellhead and blow-out preventer are removed from the well. “If we have incorrectly modeled the restrictions – the rate could be as high as (about) 100,000 barrels per day,” the document stated, although those numbers are considered to be “low probability worst case.”

A BP spokesman acknowledged that the document containing the flow rate estimates appeared to be genuine, but pointed to the fact that the calculations only applied to a scenario where the blow-out preventer is removed.

Markey, however, remained unconvinced. “Even if we can’t know for certain the condition of the well bore, we should have known how much oil could flow from it  -  BP did,” Markey added.

Mr. Markey cited Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen’s Thursday press briefing where the Admiral alluded to the fact that the condition of the well bore remains unknown. “I think that one thing that nobody knows is the condition of the well bore from below the blowout preventer down to the actual oil field itself,” said Admiral Allen. “And we don’t know… if the well bore has been compromised or not.”

“This document raises very troubling questions about what BP knew and when they knew it. It is clear that, from the beginning, BP has not been straightforward with the government or the American people about the true size of this spill,” Markey, the Democratic chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, noted in a statement released together with the document.

Markey also pointed out that BP has so far had a poor record of dealing with worst-case scenarios.

"We will not rest until justice is done," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

BP stock drops 15%, sheds $20 billion in value, as the market reacts to the continuing turmoil in the aftermath of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Justice Department has launched a criminal probe of the BP oil spill. “We will prosecute to the fullest extent of the law anyone who has violated the law,” Holder told reporters today in New Orleans. “We will not rest until justice is done.”

Federal agencies, including the FBI, are participating in the probe.

Among the many statutes the DOJ is reviewing are:

• The Clean Water Act, which carries civil penalties and fines as well as criminal penalties;
• The Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which can be used to hold parties liable for cleanup costs and reimbursement for government efforts;
• The Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Endangered Species Acts, which provide penalties for injury and death to wildlife and bird species; and,
• Other traditional criminal statutes.

“There is one thing I will not let be forgotten in this incident: In addition to the extensive costs being borne by our environment and by communities along the Gulf Coast, the initial explosion and fire also took the lives of 11 rig workers. Eleven innocent lives lost,” Holder said in a prepared statement. “As we examine the causes of the explosion and subsequent spill, I want to assure the American people that we will not forget the price those workers paid.”

According to government estimates, the spill has already leaked between 20 and 44 million gallons of oil.

“If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response,” he said.

The Justice Department has already demanded that the involved parties, including BP, Transocean and Halliburton, preserve all documents related to the disaster.

BP's stock has fallen dramatically since the April 20 explosion on one of its oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico.

The aftermath of the April 20 explosion which took place on the BP-operated Horizon Deepwater rig was labeled as the “greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history” by President Barack Obama today.

Shareholder Reaction

The companies involved in the oil spill witnessed a sharp selloff of their shares today in response to the criminal probe. BP and Halliburton each suffered a loss of nearly 15 percent, while Transocean saw their shares plummet nearly 12 percent.

BP shares have fallen 40 percent since the explosion, erasing nearly $75 billion of value in the process. Shares in BP shed $20 billion today alone.

Analysts estimate that BP will suffer between $4 billion to $25 billion in losses when all is said and done. The total bill will vary greatly depending on the length of time it takes to cap the spill.

As if the news for BP couldn’t get any worse.

A scheduled fire-command system test at Pump Station 9, about 100 miles south of Fairbanks, triggered an unexpected opening of relief valves, and caused an unspecified volume of crude oil to overflow a storage tank into a secondary containment.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) was completely shut down after an unknown quantity of oil overflowed from a 55,000-barrel storage tank at a pumping station. Environmental officials say that as much as several thousand barrels of oil may have escaped into the containment area.

Unexpected valve openings at PS 9 forced BP to shut down the entire Alaskan Pipeline to prevent an oil spill from escaping the containment zone.

The containment area has the capacity to hold over 100,000 barrels of oil, and no spillage escaped beyond the containment zone, according to a spokeswoman for pipeline operator, Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. (APSC). Fortunately, nobody was injured, however, approximately 40 workers were evacuated for precautionary reasons.

Alaskan officials say they are concerned that some of the vapors can potentially start a fire and have dispatched spill response crews to the scene.

BP, who owns 47 percent of APSC, is its largest shareholder. Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips also hold a stake in the pipeline. TAPS, stretching over 800 miles, conveys oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez, Alaska and was built between 1974 and 1977.

Last month a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, uncontrollably flooding the region with thousands of barrels of oil per day. That disaster, deemed by many to be the worst oil spill in American history, has already cost over $700 million in cleanup and untold ecological damage.

Energy Consumption Projection for the South, by Source, 2007-2030.

Aggressive adoption of energy efficiency measures in the Southern portion of the U.S. would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, lower utility bills, conserve many natural resources and offset the amount of expected growth in energy demand over the next two decades, according to a new study released today by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Duke University’s Nicholas Institute.

Although only 36 percent of the country’s population resides in the South, they consume a considerably larger share of energy per capita compared to the rest of the U.S.

The region “consumes 43% of the nation’s electric power, 40% of the energy consumed in residences, and 38% of the energy used in commercial buildings,” the report found.

The study listed the following reasons why the South is so much more energy consuming than the rest of the nation:

• the region’s historically low electricity rates,
• significant heating and cooling loads that characterize many southern states,
• relatively weak energy conservation ethic (based on public opinion polls),
• below average expenditures on energy-efficiency programs.

“An aggressive commitment to energy efficiency could be an economic windfall for the South,” according to the co-lead researcher of the study, Dr. Marilyn Brown of the Georgia Institute of Technology. “Such a shift would lower energy bills for cash-strapped consumers and businesses and create more new jobs for Southern workers.”

Energy-Efficiency Potential by Sector, in 2020 and 2030.

By committing itself to improving its energy efficiency in the industrial, commercial and residential sectors, the South’s economy would stand to create 380,000 new jobs while lowering utility bills by more than $40 billion. In addition, the projected jump in the region’s energy demand  of 13% within the next 20 years according to estimates released by the Energy Information Administration, would be offset by implementing policies requiring higher efficiency standards.

Improved energy efficiency policies include revamped appliance standards and building codes, as well as creating incentives to retrofit energy-guzzling buildings.

Among the three energy demand sectors in the American South, the potential for improved energy efficiency is greatest in the commercial building sector in terms of percent energy reductions, while the industrial sector has the largest absolute energy saving, according to the study.

“In addition,” the report concluded, “it is estimated that 49 GW of new power plant capacity would not need to be built in the South, if aggressive Energy-Efficiency Policies were implemented instead. At the same time, Energy-Efficiency Policies could conserve 90 billion gallons of water that would otherwise be consumed in processes related to energy generation, in the year 2030.”

The full report can be viewed here.

A weakened dollar and renewed tensions over pending sanctions against Iran caused a huge surge in the price of crude oil futures during Tuesday trading in New York.

The U.S. dollar slipped against the euro as the feel in the market was that the European currency had dropped too far in recent weeks in the wake of Greece’s economic problems. When the dollar falters, traders usually pour more of their money into commodity investments.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s meeting with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in an effort to lobby support from Gulf states and China for sanctions against Iran also heightened tensions in the oil-rich region. Iran is OPEC’s second-largest producer of crude oil.

Crude oil for March delivery rose $2.88 to settle at $77.01 a barrel at the close of floor trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Trading was rather light on Tuesday with Asia celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The 4 percent spike was the largest percentage gain since late September.