Per Capita Residential Electricity Sales in the U.S. Have Fallen Since 2010
Following sustained growth through 2010, U.S. residential electricity sales have declined in both absolute and per capita terms. Although changes in the weather are a key driver of year-over-year fluctuations, energy efficiency improvements and economic factors have contributed to the decline in per capita residential electricity sales since 2010. Residential electricity sales per household declined even more than the absolute or per capita declines, decreasing 9% between 2010 and 2016. At th...
Droughts and Blackouts: How Water Shortages Cost India Enough Energy to Power Sri Lanka
India is making great strides to aggressively expand its renewable energy capacity. But the country's power sector remains highly reliant on thermoelectric plants, with high demand for water for cooling. That means that droughts, like the one caused last year by weak monsoons, can shut off the power, hampering the economy and potentially endangering lives. To understand the impact and extent of these shutdowns in the thermal power sector, we compiled and analyzed over 1,400 Daily Outage Repor...
U.S. Fuel Ethanol Production Continues to Grow in 2017
Through the first six months of 2017, U.S. weekly ethanol production averaged 1.02 million barrels per day (b/d), an increase of 5% over the same period in 2016. On a weekly basis, U.S. ethanol production set a record of 1.06 million b/d in the week of January 27, 2017, and it has averaged near or above 1 million b/d in every week of 2017 except for a few weeks in April, when ethanol plants typically undergo seasonal maintenance. If ethanol production remains relatively high through the second h...
Retail Price of Regular Gasoline Forecast to Average $2.38 Per Gallon this Summer
In the latest Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts that the U.S. retail price for regular gasoline will average $2.38 per gallon (gal) this summer (April through September). If realized, it would be the second-lowest summer average gasoline price since 2005. The forecast price for this summer is slightly higher than the 2016 summer average of $2.23/gal but lower than the forecast presented in the April 2017 Short-Term Energy and Summer Fuels Outlook . Cha...
Black & Veatch-Designed Microgrid to Power Innovation at Shell Technology Center in Houston
Black & Veatch, a leader in the design and deployment of clean energy-producing microgrids, has been selected by Shell International Exploration & Production Company, Inc. to perform engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) on a new microgrid system at Shell’s Technology Center in Houston. The microgrid will incorporate solar photovoltaic and a natural gas fueled reciprocating engine as well as advanced battery storage technology and other elements to create a s...
U.S. Petroleum Refinery Capacity Continues to Increase
As of January 1, 2017, U.S. operable atmospheric crude distillation capacity reached 18.6 million barrels per calendar day (b/cd), 1.6% higher than at the beginning of 2016, according to EIA's annual Refinery Capacity Report. This increase in operable capacity was slightly lower than last year’s increase of 2.0%. The capacities of secondary units that support heavy crude oil processing and production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, including thermal cracking (coking), catalytic hydro...
U.S. Petroleum Refinery Capacity Continues to Increase
As of January 1, 2017, U.S. operable atmospheric crude distillation capacity reached 18.6 million barrels per calendar day (b/cd), 1.6% higher than at the beginning of 2016, according to EIA's annual Refinery Capacity Report. This increase in operable capacity was slightly lower than last year’s increase of 2.0%. The capacities of secondary units that support heavy crude oil processing and production of ultra-low sulfur diesel and gasoline, including thermal cracking (coking), catalytic hydro...
Study Shows India Can Integrate 175 GW of Renewable Energy into Its Electricity Grid
The U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has confirmed the technical and economic viability of integrating 175 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy into India's grid by 2022. Working with the Ministry of Power and USAID - with co-sponsorship from the World Bank (ESMAP) and the 21st Century Power Partnership - NREL; Power System Operation Corporation, Ltd. (POSOCO); and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) produced the study Greening the Grid: P...
SynTech Bioenergy Announces Opening of Hawaii Office
HONOLULU, HI.- SynTech Bioenergy, a Denver-based renewable energy technology company, has opened their first Hawaii office for sales and field service in Honolulu. The office will support local installations of SynTech Bioenergy's technology for delivering clean energy through advanced thermal conversion of biomass and other waste materials. The office will be headed by Dr. Chris Guay, who has over 15 years of experience working in the renewable energy industry. Dr. Guay was born and raise...
DOE Awards $15.8M for 30 Projects Aimed at Hydrogen Fuel Cells for Light-Duty Vehicles
The Department of Energy recently awarded about $15.8 million for 30 new research projects that it said are "aimed at discovery and development of novel, low-cost materials necessary for hydrogen production and storage and for fuel cells onboard light-duty vehicles." The announcement said more than 2,000 fuel cell vehicles have been sold or leased in the United States since 2015. Such vehicles "consume 95 percent less petroleum per mile than conventional internal combustion engine vehicles,"...