The Climate Crisis Spikes Home Insurance Price

The numbers people at insurance companies say the costs of extreme weather impacts on homeowners will spike. From YaleClimateConnections via YouTube

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How To Beat The Crisis

From Greenpeace International via YouTube

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New Support For Hydropower )){js=d.createElement(s);js.i

Including new environmental protections and integration of wind and solar. From U.S. Dept. of Energy via YouTube

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Energy Sec. Granholm On The Big Apple’s Big Greening

The strong new federal financial and policy support makes this move possible is available to cities, towns, and individuals all across the country. From U.S. Dept. of Energy via YouTube

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Data From The Global EV Boom

New EV sales remain strong in established economies and are doubling and tripling in emerging economies. From the International Energy Agency via YouTube

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Ghost Forests May Haunt Climate Deniers

Sea level rise, coastal flooding, salt in the mud, trees die, and only bare stumps and dry twigs remain. From CBS News via YouTube

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New Energy Took The World In 2022

‘Beginning of the end’ for fossil fuels: Global wind and solar reached record levels in 2022, study finds

Sophie Tanno, April 12, 2023 (CNN)

“A boom in wind and solar has pushed the amount of electricity produced by renewable energy to record levels last year [and the use of coal, oil and gas to produce electricity is expected to fall in 2023], according to a new analysis…This would mark the first year to see a decline in the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity, outside of a global recession or pandemic [suggesting levels of planet-heating pollution from fossil fuel electricity generation may have already peaked…Nearly 40% of global electricity is now powered by renewables and nuclear energy…

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Wind and solar made up 12% of global energy generation in 2022, up from 10% the previous year…Solar energy was the fastest-growing source of electricity in 2022 for the 18th year in a row, rising by 24% compared to the previous year. Wind generation increased by 17%...[I]n 2023, clean energy will be able to meet the total growth in electricity demand…Coal power remained the single largest source of electricity across the globe, accounting for 36% of global electricity production in 2022. This is because overall demand for electricity rose…” click here for more

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Law And The Global Climate Crisis

These laws have formed a foundation to fight climate change

John Letzing, April 14, 2023 (World Economic Forum)

“Nearly four decades ago, a US senator proposed legislation to draw up a national strategy for studying and addressing climate change. It quickly went nowhere…[But the steady construction of climate laws] around the world over the years has created the legal footing necessary to confront the threat of physical and financial destruction…[A Grantham Research Institute/Columbia Law School database] puts the cumulative number of global climate laws and policies at 3,145. It stretches back to Japan’s 1947 Disaster Relief Act to recent entries like] a UK plan to decarbonize and domesticate energy production, and Türkiye’s policy bid to ramp up the production and use of hydrogen…

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EU member states just approved a plan requiring that all new cars sold there must be emissions-free by 2035…[The historic legislation and policies crucial for climate progress] share a focus on curbing pollutants, fossil fuels, and the damage they can unleash…[from the Clean Air Act passed in the US in 1963 to Norway’s 1976 law to prevent products from damaging health and [the environment, and France’s law supporting nuclear power that made it] the advanced economy with the lowest emissions per capita…

Climate policy is a boring necessity drawn up in backrooms…It’s been nudged forward by decades of international efforts to spur discussion and pool global knowledge, setting crucial guideposts along the way for domestic lawmakers…[The UN’s International Panel on Climate Change included 743 experts from around the world in environmental physics, energy efficiency, and economics who] tend to be both profoundly committed and broadminded…[But the] recent UN panel report found that there’s very little remaining chance of limiting warming to the crucial threshold of 1.5°C, barring dramatic emissions reductions…” click here for more

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Tipping Points Loom As Solutions Emerge

There is never a time to stop working to turn back the climate crisis but it is clear the change is gaining momentum. First Stop Burning. From American Museum of Natural History via YouTube

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The Answer Is In The Energy Sector

New Energy will keep electrons flowing in 2050’s net zero emissions economy. From the International Energy Agency via YouTube

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Heat And The Global Climate Crisis

Weather is about immediate impacts, climate is about long-term trends. Weather happens in a place, climate happens to the planet. Weather is hot sometimes and cold sometimes, the climate has been slowly and steadily getting hotter for over a century. From via YouTube

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ORIGINAL REPORTING: Better Planning For A Better Power System

Duke, APS planning reforms show ways to work with stakeholders to meet emerging power system needs; Better integrated planning can lower rates and transform the resource mix for any power provider, an RMI analysis found.

Herman K. Trabish | February 28, 2023 (Utility Dive)

Editor’s note: Efforts continue in many states to find ways to expand the power system’s resource mix.

The energy transition’s new resources, technologies and voices require the utility integrated resource plan, or IRP, to be better, many planners and analysts say.

An IRP is the strategy a utility submits to its regulators every one to three years in most states for investing in reliable affordable power and meeting its policy goals and obligations. But new approaches, like those being explored by Arizona Public Service, or APS, and Duke Energy Indiana, are needed to meet upward pressures on rates, stakeholder calls for clean energy options and equity, and federal and state policies, many regulators and stakeholders agree.

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“Market forces are shaping utility resource portfolios,” acknowledged Commissioner Pat O’Connell of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. “But this moment of change is an opportunity to go big on high-level IRP reforms with more analysis of more factors,” he added.

For APS, “the changing landscape requires transparency with stakeholders in the IRP process,” said APS Vice President of Resource Management Justin Joiner. “That means coming to planning sessions with stakeholders without answers, because two heads are better than one, and decisions about affordability, reliability and clean energy can best be reached with diverse stakeholder viewpoints,” he added.

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Reform efforts to introduce best practices like all-source solicitations, distribution system planning, and engaging new voices could add more work for already overburdened utility planners and regulators, some said. But developing integrated system planning with state-of-the-art modeling that optimizes solutions to today’s reliability and affordability challenges will be easier than undoing bad planning decisions, others responded.

Utility “planning processes are being stretched and challenged” to meet the power system’s emerging dynamics, according to a new report from independent analyst RMI. But utilities, regulators and stakeholders can “shape the future electricity system” by “reimagining” IRP “rules and guidelines,” to make planning more comprehensive, transparent, and aligned with policy, RMI said… click here for more

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Major Western Transmission Project Finally Gets Green Light

Massive transmission line will send wind power from Wyoming to California; After 18 years, the TransWest Express line receives final approval.

Gabriela Aoun Angueira, April 17, 2023 (Grist)

“…[After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, the Bureau of Land Management, or BLM, gave final approval to begin building the $3 billion, 732-mile TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line] capable of sending power from what will be the largest onshore wind farm in North America to western states…[It] will deliver three gigawatts of power from the 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project, which broke ground this year in a former coal-mining community in Wyoming, to grids in Arizona, Nevada, and California…

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…[C]omplicated permitting processes can slow the country’s transition to clean energy…Projects built on federal lands are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which dictates the environmental review process. NEPA does not include time limits for when environmental reviews must be completed…[and the] TransWest Express crosses four states, through both public and private lands, and required approvals from various federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, as well as some determined property owners…

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…[Despite support for permitting reforms by Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm,] substantive changes have not yet materialized…[House Republican permitting reform in the Lower Costs Energy Act were so antithetical to clean energy goals that it] was a “nonstarter” in the Senate…[TransWest Express delivered wind[ could be particularly impactful for California…TransWest Express LLC, a subsidiary of Anschutz Corp., which also owns the wind farm project, said it expects to complete the project by 2028.” click here for more

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Monday Study – Transmission Queue Clog Getting Worse

Queued Up: Characteristics of Power Plants Seeking Transmission Interconnection

Joseph Rand, Rose Strauss, Will Gorman, Joachim Seel, Julie Mulvaney Kemp, Seongeun Jeong, Dana Robson, Ryan Wiser, April 2023 (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

High-Level Findings

Developer interest in solar, storage, and wind is strong

 Over 10,000 projects representing 1,350 gigawatts (GW) of generator capacity and 680 GW of storage actively seeking interconnection  Most (~1260 GW) proposed generation is zero-carbon  Hybrids comprise a large share of proposed projects

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Completion rates are generally low; wait times are increasing

 Only ~21% of projects (14% of capacity) from 2000-2017 reached commercial operations by the end of 2022  Completion rates are even lower for wind (20%) and solar (14%)  The average time projects spent in queues before being built has increased markedly. The typical project built in 2022 took 5 years from the interconnection request to commercial operations1, compared to 3 years in 2015 and <2 years in 2008.

Proposed capacity is widely distributed across the U.S.

 Substantial proposed solar capacity exists in most regions of the U.S.; 947 GW of solar active in queues  Wind capacity is highest in NYISO, the non-ISO West, PJM, and SPP, with increasing share of offshore projects  Storage is primarily in the West and CAISO, but also strong in ERCOT, MISO, and PJM; much in hybrid configurations  Only 82 GW of gas capacity active in the queues, less than 10% of active solar capacity

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Typical Interconnection Study Process and Timeline

• A project developer initiates a new interconnection request (IR) and thereby enters the queue • A series of interconnection studies establish what new transmission equipment or upgrades may be needed and assigns the costs of that equipment • The studies culminate in an interconnection agreement (IA): a contract between the ISO or utility and the generation owner that stipulates operational terms and cost responsibilities • Most proposed projects are withdrawn, which may occur at any point in the process • After executing an IA, some projects are built and reach commercial operation

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There has been a substantial increase in annual interconnection requests (both in terms of number and capacity) since 2013; over 700 GW added in 2022 alone

Over 2,000 GW (2 TW) of generation & storage capacity active in queues; Especially strong developer interest in solar (~947 GW) and storage (~680 GW), including hybrid

62% (1,262 GW) of total capacity in queues has proposed online date by end of 2025; 13% (257 GW) already has an executed interconnection agreement (IA)

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Interest in hybrid plants has increased over time: Hybrids comprise 52% of active storage capacity (358 GW), 48% of solar (457 GW), and 8% of wind (24 GW)

Only 21% of all projects proposed from 2000-20171 had reached commercial operations by the end of 2022 – 72% had withdrawn from queues

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After falling from a 2012 peak, the typical duration from interconnection request (IR) to interconnection agreement (IA) increased sharply since 2015, reaching 35 months in 2022

Typical duration from IA to commercial operations date (COD) has increased modestly since 2007, except in CAISO where recently built solar projects took 4-6 years after securing an IA

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Conclusions

As of the end of 2022, there were over 10,200 projects seeking grid interconnection across the U.S., representing over 1,350 GW of generation and an estimated 680 GW of storage.

• Solar (947 GW) accounts for >70% of all active generator capacity in the queues, though substantial wind (300 GW) and gas (82 GW) capacity is also in development. 113 GW of offshore wind is currently active in the queues.

• Considerable standalone (325 GW) and hybrid (~358 GW1) storage capacity has also requested interconnection.

• The combined capacity of solar and wind now active in the queues (~1,250 GW) approximately equals the total installed U.S. power plant fleet capacity, and is greater than the estimated 1,100 GW needed to approach a zero-carbon electricity target2.

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• Capacity in queues is widespread across U.S. but some states dominate: Texas has 13% of proposed solar, storage, and gas, and 7% of proposed wind; New York has 23% of all proposed wind (mostly offshore); California has 14% of proposed storage.

• Hybrids now comprise a large – and increasing – share of proposed projects, particularly in CAISO and the West. 457 GW of solar hybrids (primarily solar+battery) and 24 GW of wind hybrids are in the queues.

• The majority (62%) of capacity in the queues is proposed to come online before 2025, and some (13%) already has an executed interconnection agreement (IA).

• The time projects spend in queues before reaching COD is increasing. For the regions with available data3, the median duration from IR to COD has doubled from 20 MW.

• Ultimately, much of this proposed capacity will not be built. Historically only ~21% of projects (and only 14% of capacity) requesting interconnection from 2000-2017 have reached commercial operations. As well, late-stage withdrawals may be on the rise…

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The Greenhouse Gas Emissions Of The World’s Rich

The top 1% of emissions come from people who generate 1000 times more CO2 than the bottom 1%, and the world’s richest 1% create ten times the emissions of the rest of the world’s richest 10%. From the International Energy Agency via YouTube

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Time For Wall Street To Make Climate Changes

It’s time to turn investors away from fossil fuel financing. From National Sierra Club via YouTube

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California’s Hills Alive With Colors of Climate Crisis

The super bloom is a beauteous indicator of how weird the climate has become. From Today via YouTube

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