Renewable

For the Big Oil majors, the portfolios are shifting considerably over the next decade toward natural gas and low breakeven oil, but they also are eyeing more penetration in renewables as investor sentiment toward carbon hardens, Wood Mackenzie researchers said Monday.

In the increasingly competitive market for renewable natural gas (RNG), a unit of Michigan-based DTE Energy on Thursday acquired two landfill gas-to-energy projects in the Houston area.

Michigan’s DTE Energy plans to add more natural gas-fueled power generation as part of a broader plan to cut the company’s carbon emissions by more than 80% by 2050.

Portland, OR-based NW Natural named industry veteran Frank Burkhartsmeyer as its CFO. Most recently, Burkhartsmeyer was CEO at Avangrid Renewables and a senior vice president at Iberdrola Renewables U.S. Prior to his stint in the renewables sector, he held various director-level positions with PPM Energy and PacifiCorp when they were U.S. subsidiaries of ScottishPower. Burkhartsmeyer holds an MBA from the University of Oregon.

Portland, OR-based NW Natural named industry veteran Frank Burkhartsmeyer as its CFO. Most recently, Burkhartsmeyer was CEO at Avangrid Renewables and a senior vice president at Iberdrola Renewables U.S. Prior to his stint in the renewables sector, he held various director-level positions with PPM Energy and PacifiCorp when they were U.S. subsidiaries of ScottishPower. Burkhartsmeyer holds an MBA from the University of Oregon.

General Electric (GE) and Rosemead, CA-based Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) on Monday unveiled what they said is the world’s first battery-natural gas turbine hybrid system at an SCE electric generation site in the Los Angeles area. It marked the first of two units GE will provide the Edison International utility this year.

Researchers at University of California, Irvine, (UCI) reported advances that allow increased reliance on intermittent renewable sources of electric power at the UCI International Colloquium on Environmentally Preferred Advanced Generation late last month.

U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2016 fell more than anywhere else in the world, down 3% year/year, driven by a flood of shale natural gas supply and renewable power increasingly displacing coal, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said.

The growing shift to more reliance on renewable resources for electric generation in California has put nearly 10,000 MW of natural gas-fired generation sources in a state of flux for grid planners in the state.