MORE NEWS, 3-11 (SEC/INTERIOR CALLS FOR WIND; VIRGINIA IS FOR SOLAR; CONTROVERSY ON THE WIRES; CCS – JUST TOO COSTLY)

SEC/INTERIOR CALLS FOR WIND
Salazar pushes for wind energy
Dina Cappiello and H. Josef Hebert (w/Matthew Daly and Mary Clare Jalonick), March 9, 2009 (AP)

"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday that the waters off the Atlantic coast hold some of the country's greatest wind energy potential, and he promised to move aggressively to develop plans to exploit the resource…Salazar called for the creation of "renewable energy zones" to smooth development of offshore wind projects and to spur solar energy in the Southwest and onshore wind energy in the Great Plains…

"Salazar said that states like New Jersey and Delaware are "raring to go" with wind energy projects. But he acknowledged that officials in other coastal states, such as Massachusetts, are divided…A $1 billion project to erect 130 giant wind turbines off Cape Cod has long been opposed by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., who has argued it would kill birds, endanger sea life and imperil the area's tourism and fishing industries. The state's Democratic governor, Deval Patrick supports it."

It took the entire Bush administration for his DOI to produce guidelines on offshore wind and wave energies. Meanwhile, Europe built over 20 offshore wind installations. (click to enlarge)

"Salazar on Monday said the project "makes sense… From what I know of the Cape Cod wind project it is a good project…" …When asked about opposition, Salazar…it is a "false choice" to pit aggressive development of renewable energy against the protection of the country's wildlife and treasured landscapes…

"…Salazar said he wants to…Review objections to oil and gas leasing in Alaska's Bristol Bay and the Chukchi Sea…Take another look at a Bush administration regulation allowing loaded firearms in national parks… Resolve a 12-year-old Indian trust lawsuit in which the government is accused of swindling Native Americans…

"Salazar said that on many issues involving the Interior Department, the Bush administration took short cuts that didn't fully account for science. He said the presidential memorandum signed Monday by President Barack Obama would help to restore science at the department on issues ranging from climate and energy to endangered species…"


VIRGINIA IS FOR SOLAR
Group focuses on solar energy resources
Susan Elzey, March 10, 2009 (Register and Bee via GoDanRiver)

"Members of OPEC Not! learned about “green roofs” Monday night, but no one is going to be rushing out to buy solar panels…Fred Wydner, agricultural development director for Pittsylvania County, addressed the pros and cons of harvesting the sun through solar panels during the presentation…but the conclusion was that the “green roofs” are still too expensive…

"Wydner…predicted that by 2012 to 2015, prices will come down and be more feasible for homeowners to use…Solar energy has a long history, he noted. The first solar technology was developed in the seventh century B.C. and the first solar collector built in 1767 by Horace de Saussure in Switzerland. The first commercial solar water heater was built by Clarence Kemp in Baltimore in 1891."

click to enlarge

"There is a long list of pros for the use of solar energy, Wydner said…On the con side, Wydner said there is a concern about the “miniscule” amount of cadmium that can leach into landfills and the problem of “insolation,” or the relatively low concentration of solar energy available per unit area as the energy arrives from the sun.

"According to Wydner’s calculations on the Sun Power Web site, it would cost a homeowner with an 1,800-square-foot home in the Danville area $38,000 to install a solar paneling system on a roof. A tax credit of $11,400 would bring the net cost down to $26,600…The solar energy would reduce the home’s electricity bill by 25 percent to $105.01 per month. Financing the system for 25 years would add about $115 to the monthly bill…"


CONTROVERSY ON THE WIRES
Huge wind-energy transmission line proposal gets mixed reaction around state
Leslie Brooks Suzukamo, March 9, 2009 (Twin Cities Pioneer Press)

"The Great Plains have been called "the Saudi Arabia of wind energy." But because the windiest areas tend to be sparsely populated, much of that wind power might go unused without a way to move the energy to where the people are.

"Now a Michigan company is proposing to build a 765-kilovolt transmission line called "The Green Power Express" from the gusty Dakotas through Minnesota to Chicago. The 3,000-mile project, which is estimated to cost $10 billion to $12 billion, could be among the first of a new generation of energy superhighways that help the Midwest feed the nation's appetite for renewable energy."

click to enlarge

"But not everyone agrees that wind energy should be an exportable commodity like corn or soybeans. And…transmission lines are a much harder sell, drawing opposition from local landowners, environmentalists and even some renewable-energy advocates.

"The nation is seeing the biggest push for new transmission lines since the rural electrification projects of the 1930s…Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, introduced a bill last week to speed up approval of transmission projects for renewable energy, with a call to reserve 75 percent of new transmission for renewable energy in areas such as the Great Plains, Texas and the West.

"His legislation wouldn't allow lines to pass through states without letting those states contribute their renewable energy. If state regulators move too slowly, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission would step in."

An alternative, larger scale proposal put forward by U.S. grid operators. (click to enlarge)

"Most renewable energy advocates are delighted…But others characterize the push for high-voltage lines as misguided, expensive and unnecessary…The support for massive projects such as the Green Power Express will override carefully developed state regulations that call for the least-cost alternatives, say critics…

"In southeastern Minnesota, landowners and residents have organized to oppose a transmission project called CapX 2020… backed by 11 regional utilities…The Citizens Energy Task Force was created to fight CapX 2020, and it also opposes the Green Power Express, fearing both will act as Trojan horses to bring in power from coal plants in the Dakotas instead of wind power…"


CCS – JUST TOO COSTLY
Costs to keep U.S. carbon storage from coal elusive
Timothy Gardner and Bruce Nichols (w/Jeffrey Jones and Marguerita Choy), March 5, 2009 (Reuters)

"Capturing carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, the biggest U.S. source of the main greenhouse gas, is unlikely to play a big role in President Barack Obama's immediate plans…despite billions of dollars in incentives…Obama's economic stimulus package contained $3.4 billion for…development of carbon capture and storage, the fancy name for trying to store emissions of carbon dioxide permanently underground.

"And he wants to join the country with the rest of the developed world in setting mandatory carbon limits. His short-term goal would cut emissions to 1990 levels by 2020."

Complicated and costly. (click to enlarge)

"But many experts say burying carbon from coal-fired power plants will still be in its infancy for years beyond 2020…Development of the technology has been slow…Burying carbon dioxide from power-plant coal is costly because it requires the addition of equipment to siphon the gas from a huge volume of emissions…Due to the economic crisis, early efforts likely will focus on lower-cost targets such as oil refineries, gas processing plants and ethanol distilleries, which emit purer, easier-to-capture streams of carbon dioxide..

"…[C]arbon allowances in a U.S. cap and trade program would have to hit $50 to $100 per ton to support building capture equipment at coal-fired plants…Capturing the major share of the carbon pollution emitted by burning coal is more likely a mid-century proposition, as Obama seeks by then to cut emissions even more - 80 percent…"