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A region in the Pacific Northwest of the United States is on high alert because of concerns about a possible invasion of bitcoin (BTC) miners. The state has previously experienced an influx of Chinese bitcoin miners, due to decreasing electricity prices. Bitcoin Bull-Run Could Revive Interest in Mining, Officials Warn Per the Seattle Times, bitcoin’s bull-run is putting the public utility districts (PUD) in Central Washington on high alert, monitoring for suspiciously high power bills. PUD officials claim crypto miners from China have come to the region to take advantage of its low hydroelectricity prices. Such developments worry the Columbia...

If the official definitions of renewable energy were logical, renewable energy would be defined as energy that does not emit CO2 and that is not using a resource in danger of running out anytime soon. But the definitions written into the laws of many states are not logical. Hydroelectric energy is mostly banned because the environmental movement hates dams. Nuclear is banned ... Both nuclear and hydro don't emit CO2. Hydro doesn't need fuel. Nuclear fuel is cheap and plentiful. A large number of prominent global warming activists, such as James Hansen, Michael Shellenberger, and Stewart Brand have declared that...

Biofuels are often touted as an alternative to fossil fuels, but many depend on raw materials that would quickly become scarce if production were scaled up. As an alternative to these alternatives, the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) has found a way to potentially produce 30 million barrels of biocrude oil per year from the 34 billion gal (128 billion liters) of raw sewage that Americans create every day. According to PNNL, the problem with using sewage as a source material for biocrude is it's too wet and requires drying before more conventional processes can handle...

Renewable energy advocates like to point out that the cost of renewable fuels, like solar power, have dropped substantially in the last few years. The cost of solar power for instance has fallen by more than two-thirds since 2009. Yet for all the excitement about renewable power, the reality is that the entire energy sector has essentially been in a state of deflation for the last decade. The notable drop in oil prices over the last two years aside, costs of producing oil both in the U.S. and in many parts of the world have fallen dramatically. The phase out...

Electricity prices in Ontario officially increased Sunday and the rate hike is expected to push up the average household hydro bill by 3.4 per cent. The Ontario Energy Board (OEB) announced the rate increase on Oct. 15 for winter months, which will impact most households and small businesses. Effective Sunday: The price for off-peak hours goes up 0.3 cents to 8.3 cents/kWh. The price for mid-peak hours goes up 0.6 cents to 12.8 cents/kWh. The price for on-peak hours goes up 1.4 cents to 17.5 cents/kWh. Sunday's rate hike means the on-peak price of electricity has jumped 77 per cent...

Houston is oil and gas country, but hydroelectric power is coming to the region through Lake Livingston. The East Texas Electric Cooperative, or ETEC, broke ground Wednesday on the new 24-megawatt hydroelectric plant will power about 12,000 eastern Texas homes and generate about $1 million annually for the city of Houston for the right to use city facilities at the lake. The power plant at the existing Lake Livingston dam is scheduled for completion in 2018. The plant is rarity for Texas as a state with limited water resources and with hydroelectric plants already built decades ago along many of...

It comes down to this: Which do we think is more important, families or fish? ...With different policies over the last 20 years, all of this could have been avoided. Droughts are nothing new in California — the state has suffered from them for centuries. The difference now is that government policies are making it much worse. Despite the awareness around this issue, liberals continue to develop and promote policies which allow much of California’s rainfall to wash out to sea. Specifically, these policies have resulted in the diversion of more than 300 billion gallons of water away from farmers...

Congress has reserved that authority for states, but Democrats have elbowed in. Today the Department of Interior announced new fracking regulations for federal and Indian lands, issuing the first nationwide federal regulations of the booming industry. The regulations include rules about wastewater disposal, standards for well construction, and requirements for disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking fluid. But for years, states have competently overseen fracking. DOI’s redundant rules accomplish little, though they do give the federal government a new opportunity for overreach and meddling. “This is a solution in search of a problem,” says Dan Kish, senior vice...

Well done Costa Rica, well done. The Cental American country has achieved a major clean energy milestone, meeting 100 percent of its power demand with renewable energy for 75 straight days. “The year 2015 has been one of electricity totally friendly to the environment for Costa Rica,” the state-owned power supplier Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) said in a press release. The ICE says the country's zero-emission milestone was enabled thanks to heavy rainfalls at four hydroelectric power facilities in the first quarter of 2015. These downpours have meant that, for the months of January, February and so far March,...

NN.COM › Earth Matters › Energy Now is the time to invest in real geothermal energy Thousands of drilling rigs are idle. Why not put laid-off roustabouts to work drilling for renewable energy? By: Lloyd Alter Sun, Feb 22, 2015 at 12:17 PM 13Facebook 52Twitter 0Pinterest 0Google+   Hey, if we can drill for oil, we can drill for heat. (Photo: Getty Images, Roustabouts at Spindletop) In a recent post on ground source heat pumps, I purposely used a photo of a geothermal installation in Iceland to make the point that geothermal energy was a very different thing. Many complained...

A new HVDC line will let Europe store more wind energy in Norway’s hydropower system Norway’s hydropower reservoirs make up nearly half of Europe’s energy storage capacity. European grid operators need energy storage to cope with an ever-mounting, always-shifting torrent of wind power. See the connection? So does Norway. In December, engineers will energize a new subsea power cable that will begin to bridge the gap between need and opportunity, greatly expanding European power systems’ access to Norway’s hydropower-rich power grid. The 240-kilometer cable across the Skagerrak Strait separating southern Norway and northern Denmark is Norway’s first new power link...

...The first is the Mosul Dam, which stretches across the Tigris River in a valley north of Mosul, Iraq. As dams go, this one is a civil engineering horror. The dam was captured on Aug. 7 by the Islamic State, and retaken 10 days later by... Should the two-mile-wide dam fail, which is likely, Mosul would be wiped out and the damage would extend to Baghdad. Loss of life could reach 500,000, and millions could be deprived of water and power: an immense catastrophe piled on the daily pain of Iraq. The second dam, in southern Africa on the Zambezi...

Forecasts for the water supply at nearly every major water gauge in the states of California and Nevada were less than half of average seasonal norms as of February 5. The water supply situation has not materially improved since the governor of California declared a state of emergency on January 17. Several dry years have left California dealing with low water supply. The driest December on record has resulted in nearly 60% of the state now classified as being in a condition of extreme drought, the second-worst category in the U.S. drought monitor index. According to the California Department of...

Enbridge Inc., through an anonymous numbered company, is seeking to build an undisclosed number of hydroelectric projects — many on salmon-bearing rivers and creeks on traditional aboriginal territories — in B.C. and Alberta, The Vancouver Sun has learned. Enbridge says they are part of the company’s green energy plans and are not being built to power pumps for the company’s proposed 1,177-kilometre Northern Gateway pipeline from Alberta to Kitimat. But a spokesman indicated Enbridge’s motives are indirectly linked to the $6.5-billion pipeline. Ivan Giesbrecht said that during public consultations on the pipeline, the company heard many demands that it support...

The waters of the Blue Nile have for millennia flowed down from the Ethiopian highlands enriching the countries on its banks. The rocks that make up its riverbed have been eroded by Ethiopia's past and now that the construction of Africa's largest hydro-electric dam has begun, these same rocks are helping to build the country's future. The Grand Renaissance Dam project was announced last year by the Ethiopian government, in a unilateral move that is not sitting very well with its upstream neighbors. Egypt and Sudan say Ethiopia is threatening their greatest natural resource. If construction stays on schedule the...

The Department of Interior plans to destroy four dams on the Klamath River in Northern California so salmon can swim further than 180 miles up the river. But these dams provide water and flood protection to thousands of humans who also live along the river. Clean energy from these hydro dams supply electricity to 70,000 residents in the area. Despite a lack of scientific evidence that dam removal will help the fish, or any study on the human impact of dam removal, the DOI is pressing forward to have the dams destroyed. When their own scientist, Dr. Paul Houser, questions...

A federal agency is holding public "scoping" meetings this week for a large hydroelectric dam project proposed for the Susitna River. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was to take public testimony about the Susitna dam project starting Monday evening in Anchorage. The public meetings are the first step for a required federal Environmental Impact Statement. Through the environmental review, the federal government determines whether and under what conditions to issue a license for the project. The latest cost estimate to build the dam is $4.3 billion, but some legislators think that is on the low side. The Legislature last year...

Peshawar, 9 August 2011, the process of land purchase has been started for Pitrand Hydro Power Project (PHPP), Abbottabad / Azad Kashmir, and all other hurdle would also be removed in a smooth manner to pave the way for early initiation of construction work on this project. The Commissioner Hazara Division Mr. Khalid Khan Umerzai gave this assurance to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PHPP, General (Retd.) Farrukh Javed who called on him at the Commissioner House, Abbottabad, on Tuesday . The District Coordination Officer, Abbottabad, Syed Zaheer-ul-Islam, the PHPP General Manager Administration and Land Acquisition, Col. Ali Shan...

Venezuela will soon begin rationing electricity in several regions because of recurring power outages, the country's energy minister said Wednesday. Ali Rodriguez said he has ordered authorities to start scheduling rolling blackouts in affected regions and informing residents when they will be implemented. He did not provide details or say how many of Venezuela's 24 states would be affected. The plan was presented three days after Venezuelan officials announced measures aimed at saving electricity. They say power consumption must be reduced by 10 percent and have warned that hefty surcharges will be imposed on consumers who don't reduce usage. Venezuela...

A combined power deal between Minnesota and Wisconsin will kick off the construction of a new dam in northern Manitoba. The deal is worth $4 billion and will see Manitoba Hydro sell 475 megawatts southward starting in 2015. To meet that demand Hydro will have to build the $5.6-billion Keeyask Generation Station on the lower Nelson River 175 kilometres northeast of Thompson. “This is the largest dollar sale of exports that we’ve had in the history of Manitoba Hydro in absolute dollar terms,” Premier Greg Selinger said Wednesday. “We like to think of it as Manitoba’s oil, but more sustainable...