Energy Update

Late last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in the U.S. proposed to expedite the issuance of original hydropower licenses for certain qualifying facilities at existing non-powered dams and closed-loop pumped storage projects.

Analysts at Huajin Securities in China said they expect newly installed capacity nationwide for 2018 to be somewhere between 21 and 22 GW, and that the wind power curtailment rate would continue to drop. Newly installed capacity for wind power is expected to continue to grow steadily over the next two years, while the proportion of the country’s total power sourced from wind is expected to continue to increase as well.

(Tue, 05 Feb 2019) U.S. exports of ethane have increased from nearly nothing in 2013 to an average of 260,000 barrels per day (b/d) through the first 10 months of 2018, accounting for about one-sixth of U.S. hydrocarbon gas liquids exports. Ethane is a key feedstock for petrochemical manufacturing. The United States became the world’s top exporter of ethane in 2015, surpassing Norway, the only other country to ship ethane internationally. In 2014 and 2015, all U.S.

It is a bit ironic to visit a solar farm on a foggy, overcast morning, but you have to take whatever weather you are given – in New Orleans in early February. At least it wasn’t raining, which was definitely in the forecast just the day before.