QUICK NEWS, June 28: THE GRID IS READY NOW FOR NEW ENERGY; WHERE’S WHITE HOUSE SOLAR?; BUDDING NC NEW ENERGY BOOM; NAT’L ENERGY POLICY NEEDED – GAO

THE GRID IS READY NOW FOR NEW ENERGY
Wind energy integration: Some fundamental facts
Tom Gray, June 23, 2011 (Into The Wind)

"...[American Wind Energy Association] Manager of Transmission Policy Michael Goggin [posted a comment on an article by Stephen Lacey about innovative ways utility system operators are working to integrate wind, a variable source of electricity generation, with other parts of their systems. Goggin reminded readers] of some basic facts [about wind integration including]…

"…[1] There has always been a large amount of variability and uncertainty on the power system (chiefly from electric demand changing and from conventional power plants experiencing unexpected 'forced outages,' taking 1000+ MW offline instantaneously…"

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"…[2] Adding even a large amount of wind or solar energy to the grid typically only adds a small incremental amount to overall power system variability, as most of the variability introduced by wind or solar is cancelled out by opposite changes in other sources of variability, and…

"…[3] Grid operators have a number of tools to deal with variability and uncertainty on the power system today, and those tools can be readily used to deal with the incremental variability and uncertainty that comes from adding large amounts of wind or solar to the grid."

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"…[N]ew technologies like demand response are being developed to provide grid operators with even more tools to manage all types of variability on the power system…[but already] large amounts of wind and solar are being efficiently and reliably integrated onto the grid today. More than 15% of the electricity comes from wind in Ireland, Spain, Portugal, and Denmark; in the U.S., 8% of electricity on the main Texas grid and more than 15% of the electricity produced in Iowa last year came from wind energy.

"…[G]rid operators only need to balance the aggregate supply and demand for electricity on the grid. A common misconception is that the variability of each individual resource on the grid needs to be managed…[D]edicated storage or a dedicated 'backup' power plant…or combining several resources to create a virtual power plant or a microgrid [is good but over] 100 years ago we built a power grid that combines all sources of variability on the grid so that I can turn my air conditioner on and off without having a dedicated battery or other backup system attached to my house, just as a large coal or nuclear plant can be built without building dedicated backup to step in when that plant experiences an unexpected outage; trying to dis-aggregate the grid would be a step backwards…"


WHERE’S WHITE HOUSE SOLAR?
Solar Remains Missing From White House Rooftop As Deadline Arrives
Jessica Lillian, 21 June 2011 (Solar Industry)

"…Last October, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu and Council of Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley…[said] a PV array and a solar water heating system would be installed on the roof of the White House. A competitive procurement process to select the projects' installers was set…The self-imposed deadline for completion…was the end of this spring [which was June 21]…

"…[T]he DOE's [June 20] blog post…An Update on White House Solar Panels and Our Solar Program, focused on the broader solar-focused projects that the department is currently undertaking…[and said the demonstration solar project] at the White House is just ‘one component of the Energy Department's larger, ambitious SunShot Initiative to reduce the total installed cost of solar energy systems by about 75 percent before the end of the decade…’"

Artist's concept of what it could look like (click to enlarge)

[Ramamoorthy Ramesh, Director, SunShot Initiative and Solar Energy Technologies Program:] "The Energy Department remains on the path to complete the White House solar demonstration project, in keeping with our commitment, and we look forward to sharing more information - including additional details on the timing of this project - after the competitive procurement process is completed…"

"Ramesh also highlighted the DOE's Rooftop Solar Challenge, which is designed to streamline solar project installations' administrative processes, and SunShot Incubator, which aims to scale up innovative manufacturing technologies."

click thru to petition the White House to act

"Although some solar sector professionals have derided efforts to see solar on the White House as a distracting publicity stunt, others [such as 350.org] insist that the completion of the promised project would send a demonstrative global signal about the administration's commitment to the deployment of renewable energy."

[Rhone Resch, president/CEO, Solar Energy Industries Association:] "Putting solar on the roof of the nation's most important home is a powerful symbol calling on all Americans to rethink how we create energy…"


BUDDING NC NEW ENERGY BOOM
NC 'clean energy' firms jump to 1,800 in less than a year
Rick Smith, June 22, 2011 (WRAL-TV)

"Passage of the Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS) law in 2007 by the North Carolina General Assembly and incentives from the federal government are helping create a growing ‘clean industry’ in the state…North Carolina is now home to 1,792 companies focused on renewable energy, and the state is the site for 1,829 renewable energy systems, according to [2011 North Carolina Clean Energy Data Book from the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association]…

"The number of companies jumped from 1,100 last fall to nearly 1,800…And these numbers [from the group’s first effort to catalog the state’s clean energy projects] could be low…[T]he Association has reported that the clean energy sector employs 12,000 people in 2010, up from 10,000 in 2009. A report on 2011 employment will be issued in November.

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"The existing renewable energy projects have the potential to generate more than 2,809 megawatts of power. That’s enough for 561,000 homes, based on 1 megawatt per 200 households…More projects are in the works…The data, which is broken down in the report for each of the state’s seven economic development zones, is conservative, according to Julie Robinson, a spokeswoman for the group…

"By category, the state has…[1] 33 biomass projects with a generating capacity of 551 megawatts…[2] 836 geothermal projects [megawatts not available]…[3] 67 hydroelectric projects with a generating capacity of nearly 1,900 megawatts…[4] 829 solar projects with just over 59 megawatts of generating capacity…[5] 64 wind energy projects with 300 megawatts of potential capacity…"

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"Some companies, governments and other institutions are also moving to embrace so-called ‘LEED’ standards (leadership in energy and environmental design) for energy efficiency buildings…770 LEED buildings covering just over 77 million square feet have been constructed…Another 770 Energy Star-rated buildings also have been built. They cover nearly 52.8 million square feet.

"The group calculated as well just how many homes and manufactured homes have the potential to be upgraded for energy efficiency. Nearly 1.2 million homes built before 1970 could be upgraded. The state has nearly 598,000 manufactured homes…"


NAT’L ENERGY POLICY NEEDED – GAO
House Bill Would Cut Clean Energy and Efficiency Programs by 40 Percent; Appropriations bill puts renewable energy and efficiency funding about $1 billion below current levels, roughly equaling dollars doled out in 2005
Elizabeth McGowan, June 21, 2011 (SolveClimate News via Reuters)

"…In the midst of this season's budget travails, the Government Accountability Office has issued [Climate Change: Improvements Needed to Clarify National Priorities and Better Align Them with Federal Funding Decisions] recommending what likely seems obvious to even casual observers of congressional politics — the need to replace a piecemeal approach to climate and energy with a national plan…[T]he GAO spells out a two-step solution that is probably easier written on paper than actually accomplished.

"First, federal authorities need to set clear strategic climate change priorities that identify specific roles and responsibilities of key federal entities involved in the enterprise."

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"Second, those same authorities have to assess how effective they are now at not only defining and reporting federal climate change funding but also lining up that funding with agreed-upon priorities. Those practices will have to be polished so Congress and the public can fully grasp how the government spends money designated for climate change."

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"The trick is that before embarking on step one, entities that fall under the executive branch such as the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, the Office and Management and Budget, and Office of Science and Technology Policy have to consult with Congress and collaborate with relevant federal agencies and interagency coordinating bodies.

"And that looks to be a daunting challenge if those tasked with GAO's recommendations refer to the baffling maze of a chart…[in the report showing the] federal climate change program as complex and crosscutting…"