QUICK NEWS, 12-16: LA’S SUN-POWERED PORT; HAWAII’S GEOTHERMAL; KANSAS UTIL BUILDING WIRES, BUYS WIND; IS NY NAT GAS FRACKING SAFE?

LA’S SUN-POWERED PORT
Port of Los Angeles Completes One Megawatt Solar Project on Rooftop of World Cruise Center; Larger Than a Football Field, Thousands of Panels Will Increase Energy Capacity and Reduce 22,800 Metric Tons of Carbon Dioxide
December 9, 2010 (Port of Los Angeles)

"The Port of Los Angeles has completed its World Cruise Center solar rooftop project, a 71,500 square foot, one megawatt system capable of generating approximately 1.2 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) energy grid.

"The solar photovoltaic installation, which is expected to result in an annual $200,000 energy cost savings, is the first phase of a multi-location solar power program that will eventually produce 10 megawatts of solar system generation capacity. The $10.8 million project includes a total of 1.16 million square feet of rooftop solar panels, larger than the size of a football field. Three additional project phases are slated for completion over the next five years…"

The "Love Boat" waiting room gets solar panels. (click to enlarge)

"Over the solar system's lifetime, it will reduce roughly 22,800 metric tons of carbon dioxide entering the atmosphere, the equivalent of cutting the annual greenhouse gases of 4,367 cars…"

A close-up of the panels (click to enlarge)

"The system is comprised of 5,140, 210-watt solar modules. It was installed by the Energy Alternatives Division of San Jose-based Cupertino Electric Inc. The roof-mounted system, which collects and converts solar radiation to electrical energy, features high-efficiency crystalline modules and utilizes a self-ballasted racking system that does not penetrate the terminal’s existing roof. Electricity generated is then routed back to the LADWP through an existing electric meter at the World Cruise Center facility…Home of the original “Love Boat” in the 1970s, the…solar panel project is part of a $42 million upgrade at the World Cruise Center…

"…Alternative Maritime Power (AMP), currently used at some container ship terminals, will soon be available so that cruise ships can ‘plug in’ to shoreside electrical power instead of running on diesel power while at berth. Depending on the size of the ship, estimates are that AMP will reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions by one ton (2,000 pounds) and reduce 85 percent of sulfur oxide (SOx) emissions out of the air each day a ship is at berth and plugged in…"


HAWAII’S GEOTHERMAL
Hot Stuff: Magma at Shallow Depth Under Hawaii
December 13, 2010 (Science Daily)

"Ohio State University researchers have found a new way to gauge the depth of the magma chamber that forms the Hawaiian Island volcanic chain, and determined that the magma lies much closer to the surface than previously thought…The finding could help scientists predict when Hawaiian volcanoes are going to erupt. It also suggests that Hawaii holds great potential for thermal energy.

"…For her honors thesis, [Julie Ditkof, an undergraduate in earth sciences at Ohio State,] took a technique that her advisor Michael Barton, professor of earth sciences, developed to study magma in Iceland, and applied it to Hawaii…"

Hawaii is at the heart of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where geothermal energy is omnipresent. (click to enlarge)

"…[Ditkof] discovered that magma lies an average of 3 to 4 kilometers (about 1.9 to 2.5 miles) beneath the surface of Hawaii…a [more] shallow depth [than] anywhere else in the world…Barton determined that magma chambers beneath Iceland lie at an average depth of 20 kilometers.

"While that means the crust beneath Hawaii is much thinner than the crust beneath Iceland, Hawaiians have nothing to fear…The crust doesn't get consumed by the magma chamber…[but] floats on top…"

There has so far been very little geothermal development in Hawaii. (click to enlarge)

"…[Barton] and Ditkof determined that there is one large magma chamber just beneath the entire island chain that feeds the Hawaiian volcanoes through many different conduits…Researchers could use this…to regularly monitor pressures inside the chamber and make more precise estimates of when eruptions are going to occur…[but,] ultimately, the finding might be more important in terms of energy."

[Barton”] "Hawaii has huge geothermal resources that haven't been tapped fully…[though you would] have to drill some test bore holes. That's dangerous on an active volcano, because then the lava could flow down and wipe out your drilling rig."


KANSAS UTIL BUILDING WIRES, BUYS WIND
Westar Energy to Expand Wind Energy Portfolio; New Agreements to More Than Double Westar's Wind Energy
December 14, 2010 (Westar via MarketWire)

"…Westar Energy and two wind development companies have reached tentative agreements for Westar to purchase [369 megawatts of wind energy-generated] electricity produced by them at Kansas wind farms to be developed. On Nov. 10, Westar filed with the Kansas Corporation Commission for approval of the purchase agreements…

"Westar is entering into a contract to purchase 201 MW of energy from the Post Rock Wind Farm to be developed by Wind Capital Group…The project plans to use General Electric 1.5 MW wind turbines. A contract with Duke Energy Generation Services will be for about 168 MW of wind energy produced at the Ironwood Wind Power Project site…already owned by Westar, but which Westar made available to developers. The current contract accounts for about one-third of Ironwood's 500 MW potential. The project plans to use Siemens 2.3 MW wind turbines which will be supplied by the recently opened Siemens nacelle facility in Hutchinson…"

Kansas is affluent with wind assets. (click to enlarge)

"The wind projects will be constructed and operated by the wind developers with Westar agreeing to purchase 100 percent of the electricity they generate through long-term agreements. Both projects are scheduled to begin construction in 2011 and be in service by the end of 2012. The first 200 MW of wind resources contemplated in the agreements will satisfy Westar's renewable energy needs through 2015. With the additional 169 MW, Westar will be well on its way to meeting the 15 percent renewable energy requirement that becomes effective in 2016.

"Westar Energy owns 149 MW of wind generating capacity at its Central Plains and Flat Ridge Wind Farms and has previous power purchase agreements for 146 MW of wind energy. Westar Energy also purchases about 6 MW of electricity produced using landfill gas through an agreement with Waste Management Inc. from a Topeka landfill."

The Prairie Wind Transmission system will be able to unify wind resources across the state and exchange wind power with Oklahoma, making wind less variable. (click to enlarge)

"In 2009, Kansas passed a renewable energy standard that requires investor-owned utilities to commit to renewable energy equal to 10 percent of their average summer peak. The renewable energy standard increases to 15 percent in 2016 and 20 percent in 2020. Under the law, Westar Energy's 10 percent requirement is about 500 MW.

"Wind energy development historically has been limited because of transmission constraints. Westar Energy is a leader in Kansas, working [on a multiyear expansion of] transmission infrastructure needed to support the development of wind energy…[I]n the past year, Westar placed into service more than 90 miles of new high-voltage transmission between Wichita and Salina and is building a new high-voltage line from Rose Hill to the Oklahoma state line by mid-2012. In addition, Westar Energy is a 50 percent owner of…[Prairie Wind Transmission LLC’s] 345 kilovolt line that will connect a substation near Wichita to a new substation northeast of Medicine Lodge and extend south to Oklahoma…[and has committed] to build several new transmission projects over the next decade…[as approved by] the Southwest Power Pool…"


IS NY NAT GAS FRACKING SAFE?
New York’s Ban On Gas Fracking: Time For Drillers To Shoulder The Burden Of Proof
Christopher Helman, December 13, 2010 (Forbes)

"New York Gov. David Paterson…signed a bill that will ban natural gas drillers from using the practice known as hydraulic fracking when developing fields in the gas rich Marcellus Shale. Environmentalists are happy at the ban. Energy companies are happy that the ban wasn’t for longer… [Though] the fears over the effects of fracking are far overblown, the U.S. has plenty of natural gas that does not happen to lay beneath the water shed of our most populous city. Natural gas is cheap and plentiful right now–so this is a fine time to stop…[and] sort out the implications of fracking.

"…[C]itizens in Texas and Pennsylvania say it’s responsible for polluting their groundwater…[F]racking–the injection of millions of gallons of water and sand with a smattering of chemicals–has been in use for decades. In the case of the Marcellus shale, where gas is trapped in tight rock formations, fracking is the only known way of fracturing the rock to allow the gas to escape. If done right, in a wellbore that is properly completed and cemented to prevent any gas from leaking out… the practice is virtually guaranteed not to pollute groundwater. In the Marcellus Shale the gas zone is thousands of feet deeper than the water aquifers–and the rock in between famous for its impermeability–fracking fluids will not naturally migrate that far up…"

click to enlarge

"The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the issue. The New York ban comes on the heels of last week’s announcement by the EPA that wells drilled and fracked by Range Resources in the Barnett Shale of northern Texas had contributed to the pollution of water aquifers. Range Resources says the aquifer pollution wasn’t caused by work on their wells at all but by natural influx of shallower gas up into the water…

"…[H] ere’s the thing–the concerns of regulators can’t be dismissed just because of their politics. The concerns of homeowners can’t be dismissed just because it’s so unlikely that fracking polluted their water. If the gas drillers want to put this debate to rest and get on with developing America’s monumental gas resources, they are going to have to figure out how to make everyone…satisfied that the practice is acceptable."

click to enlarge

"…[C]ompanies, like Halliburton, that lead the market for fracking, need to publicly reveal all the chemical components that go into the stuff and give the rationale for why they are used. The companies, like Range Resources and Chesapeake Energy, that are drilling the Marcellus and other shale formations, need to talk with regulators and agree to industry-wide minimum standards covering the drilling, completion and fracking of wells.

"Now is the time to do it. Gas prices are low and the nation has more than enough supply to meet our 27 trillion cubic feet of annual demand. Drillers don’t much care about the New York ban because they have plenty of other places to develop–and in many areas of the Marcellus, Barnett and Haynesville shales they’re being forced to drill just to hold onto their acreage. They wouldn’t mind at all if the ban helps push up gas prices on the margin. If adding precautions and oversight adds to the costs and worsens the economics of gas drilling, so be it. All costs get passed on to the consumer anyways. Including the cost of peace of mind."