NewEnergyNews: QUICK NEWS, January 9: CAPE WIND OCEAN POWER GETS BOOST; INDIA SOLAR GROWING SLOWLY; YEAR LOOKS GOOD FOR EFFICIENCY

NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

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  • Holiday Weekend Reading: NEW ENERGY IN CHINA

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    THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: INTEGRATING NEW ENERGY
  • QUICK NEWS, May 24: SO AFRICA TO BUILD A GIGAWATT OF WIND; LUCKY CORRIDOR FOR NEW MEXICO NEW ENERGY; MEGAWATT TEST OF CIGS THIN FILM

    • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: THE BENEFITS OF WIND AND SOLAR TOGETHER
  • QUICK NEWS, May 23: AN ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ MOVE TO NEW ENERGY; BRAINTRUST GOES AFTER SOLAR PRICE; INTERIOR APPROVES WIND ON INDIAN LAND

    • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • TODAY’S STUDY: EUROPE’S PV TO 2016
  • QUICK NEWS, May 22: APPLE TURNS TO SUN; EU WIND CAN LEAD ECONOMIC RECOVERY; CHINA’S NEW GRID MAY ONLY MEET OLD NEEDS

    • AND THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • TODAY’S STUDY: BANKS ON COAL
  • QUICK NEWS, May 21: A FIGHT FOR SUN IN TEXAS; NRG LAYOFFS HERALD FADING PTC HOPES; WHAT WORRIES GRID OPERATORS MOST

    • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

  • SUNDAY WORLD HEADLINE- CHINA STARTS WORLD’S BIGGEST TRANSMISSION
  • SUNDAY WORLD HEADLINE- SOLAR’S IMPACT ON GERMAN OCEAN WIND
  • SUNDAY WORLD HEADLINE- INDIA WIND GETS A GOLDMAN SACHS BILLION
  • SUNDAY WORLD HEADLINE- HOW KOREA IS LIKE DENMARK

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    Anne B. Butterfield of Daily Camera and Huffington Post, is a biweekly contributor to NewEnergyNews

  • Colorado's Elegant Solution to Fracking (April 23, 2012)
  • Anne Butterfield (Huffington Post via New EnergyNews)

    Eventually those local moratoriums against fracking will expire in Boulder, Longmont and Erie. And residents will worry anew about toxic fracking operations inching up on schools and neighborhoods in pursuit of a product that goes "poof" the instant it's used. Nice value ~ not.

    And it's timely that the University of Colorado at Denver School of Public Health just announced a study which finds that air pollution within a half mile of frack-ops have toxic emissions five times over federal safety standards, causing elevated life time cancer risks and respiratory and neurological effects for nearby residents. Rep. Diana DeGette is now urging the Environmental Protection Agency to consider Colorado's study as they finalize air standards for fracking.

    It has also just come out that fracking is inching up on agriculture to compete for Colorado's water. Taking only .08 of a percent per year, it's a smidge for sure, but that water gets so polluted it must be disposed in a way that removes it from the hydrologic cycle. And that's not pretty when we're looking down the craw of a new drought kicked off with an historic climate change induced heat wave plus a horrifying wildfire this season.

    Permanently voiding precious Colorado water out of the hydrologic cycle feels even worse in view the fact such water can be lost for naught when the depletion rate on fracking wells is 63-85 percent in the first year, according to Dave Hughes of the Geological Survey of Canada. This can mean fruitless water waste when drilling down the slippery slope of diminishing marginal returns.

    But Colorado will need all the more gas, as the Clean Air Clean Jobs Act requires Xcel Eenrgy in Colorado to soon retire 900 megawatts of coal burning capacity. The act also requires that the natural gas used for recouping that coal-fired capacity comes from in state (see page 18 here). That puts upward pressure on fracking all over the state. This means more tangles between fracking and populated areas, and more permanent loss of precious Colorado water. It seems like Colorado may have backed itself into a box canyon, where residents are cornered with fracking risks to land, air, water and health.

    But there's an elegant pathway to reducing Colorado's need for natural gas -- by using the sun in a familiar technology that is at least two times more efficient than solar photovoltaics. It's good old fashioned solar thermal - those rooftop panels that heat water.

    Colorado could amend the CACJA to promote solar thermal as a jobs intensive domestic energy supply that works with natural gas to heat homes, buildings, water and industrial processes. This could free drilling companies to sell excess Colorado gas out of state for much higher prices (see page 8 here), possibly gaining crucial industry support for this intrusion of renewables into their market. Higher profitability, less contentious drilling and more renewable energy jobs is the hope.

    In all of North American, Colorado is "ground zero" for the best conditions for producing huge benefits from solar thermal. It's the sunshine, cold ground water, high heating loads, renewables-savvy population and existing industry that can, if the state takes on robust targets, lead the nation in an industry that swaps jobs and skills in place of burning money. And burning money is what we do when we burn costly fuels that go poof the instant they're used.

    A robust Colorado plan for solar thermal could put the clean air and clean jobs back into the so-called, gas-friendly Clean Air Clean Jobs Act.

    And in case anyone has forgotten ~ there are huge economic risks with shale gas, a.k.a. the fracking boom, as the resource is almost certainly not as profitable, resourceful or as clean as hyped by industry. On deeper review, it's promising to be an economic bubble.

    Fracking is supposedly going to make our nation 100 years of cheap gas, as, amnesiac members of Congress and the President are wont to say. But various geological experts such as the Potential Gas Committe have poured cold water all over that flaming hype, detailing how the supply could be as little as 21 or even 11 years. And Arthur Berman, a widely regarded petro-geologist has commented that the industry reminds him of the sub prime mortgage mess and wrote, "U.S. shale plays share many characteristics with the gold rushes.... Both phenomena result from extreme promotion. Anyone can join. Every participant believes that they will get rich. Great amounts of capital are destroyed as entrants try to get a position. The bonanza is exhausted sooner than most expected and few profit in the end."

    So if you are one of the thousands of Coloradans who are waking up to the nightmare of fracking in your community - go online and read the Colorado Solar Thermal Roadmap. Then find every political leader you can to talk about it. Colorado would be wise to use its natural solar resources to hedge against an over-reliance on gas, one that shall expand as the CACJA requires. And coal with its rising prices is on the wane nationwide as well, which means the demand for gas will be a pressure cooker loaded with risk for our energy security, economy, and environment.

    Author's note: Want to support my work? Please "fan" me at Huffpost Denver, here (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anne-butterfield). Thanks.

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    Anne's previous NewEnergyNews columns:

  • Colorado's Elegant Solution to Fracking (April 23, 2012)
  • Shale Gas: From Geologic Bubble to Economic Bubble (March 15, 2012)
  • Taken for granted no more (February 5, 2012)
  • The Republican clown car circus (January 6, 2012)
  • Twenty-Somethings of Colorado With Skin in the Game (November 22, 2011)
  • Occupy, Xcel, and the Mother of All Cliffs (October 31, 2011)
  • Boulder Can Own Its Power With Distributed Generation (June 7, 2011)
  • The Plunging Cost of Renewables and Boulder's Energy Future (April 19, 2011)
  • Paddling Down the River Denial (January 12, 2011)
  • The Fox (News) That Jumped the Shark (December 16, 2010)
  • Click here for an archive of Butterfield columns

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    Some details about NewEnergyNews and the man behind the curtain: Herman K. Trabish, Agua Dulce, CA., Doctor with my hands, Writer with my head, Student of New Energy and Human Experience with my heart

    email: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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    Your intrepid reporter

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      A tip of the NewEnergyNews cap to Phillip Garcia for crucial assistance in the design implementation of this site. Thanks, Phillip.

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    • Monday, January 09, 2012

    QUICK NEWS, January 9: CAPE WIND OCEAN POWER GETS BOOST; INDIA SOLAR GROWING SLOWLY; YEAR LOOKS GOOD FOR EFFICIENCY

    CAPE WIND OCEAN POWER GETS BOOST
    Cape Wind edges ahead after PPA victory
    Paul Garrett, 3 January 2012 (Windpower Monthly)

    "National Grid US is free to buy power from the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind farm, after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court…upheld a disputed power purchase agreement (PPA).

    "The deal was challenged by the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound on the grounds that it would result in much higher electricity prices than other renewable-energy options…[The Court found that the] benefits of PPA-1 outweighed its costs…[siding] with an earlier decision by the Department of Public Utilities that the 15-year PPA should stand."

    A Massachusetts voter (click to enlarge)

    "The Alliance’s president and CEO Audra Parker…maintained that the Cape Wind project would never be built.

    "Cape Wind president Jim Gordon said the ruling was a ‘big boost’ for the 130-turbine project, which has had a decade-long gestation period and is to be located 4-11 miles offshore from Cape Cod in the Atlantic Ocean. However, with a buyer still to be found for the remaining 50% of its output, its future remains uncertain."


    INDIA SOLAR GROWING SLOWLY
    India to Build 400 Megawatts of Solar, Two-Thirds Less Than Plan
    Natalie Obiko Pearson, December 30, 2011 (Bloomberg News)

    "India will complete 400 megawatts of solar power connected to the grid this fiscal year, two-thirds less than previously forecast by state and central governments…[It] has so far built 180 megawatts during the year ending March 31…

    "Gujarat had planned to build more than 900 megawatts during the fiscal year as part of a regional solar program…In addition, the central government’s Solar Mission had a forecast of 302 megawatts…"

    (from WikiCommons - click to enlarge)

    "The mission involved 150 megawatts of operations awarded by auction, 98 megawatts of rooftop developments and 54 megawatts of capacity under a program to consolidate state-level projects.

    "India’s renewable energy capacity has grown 20 percent in 2011 to 22,447 megawatts…Wind farms made up most of the increase, adding a total of 2,827 megawatts."


    YEAR LOOKS GOOD FOR EFFICIENCY
    Energy Efficiency in 2012: Forecast Is Mostly Sunny
    Steven Nadel, January 6, 2012 (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)

    "Looking forward into 2012, I see more reasons for optimism than pessimism. Many states and utilities are committed to ramping up their energy efficiency programs…The private market continues to invest in energy efficiency, although efforts have been slowed by the economic downturn. New energy-efficient products continue to enter the market and energy efficiency is one of the hot areas for “Cleantech” investments…

    "At the federal level, new vehicle and equipment efficiency standards will be issued in 2012. Fuel…economy standards for passenger vehicles will be finalized…raising these standards to an average of nearly 50 mpg by 2025. Final decisions are due from DOE on standards for 13 products…And recent EPA regulation updates on emissions of toxic pollutants, along with other pending regulatory updates for power plants, will encourage utilities to look at efficiency investments as an alternative to upgrading aging power plants."

    click to enlarge

    "A major driver in 2012 will be the state of the economy. Our economy is finally growing again, although too slowly…[E]nergy efficiency can contribute to job growth…The Brookings Institute estimates that there are about 2.7 million clean economy jobs in the U.S., including about half a million added over the 2003-2010 period…While there are many reasons for optimism in 2012, all is not rosy…[ARRA] funding will end in early 2012…Policymaking in Washington is paralyzed…[and] the energy savings realized are still modest relative to the cost-effective opportunities.

    "…[ACEEE] will be working to advance three themes in 2012…assisting and encouraging states, utilities, and others who are interested in increasing their energy efficiency efforts…documenting what works (and what doesn’t) so that programs and policies can be as effective as possible…[and] laying groundwork for the future…"

    posted by Herman K. Trabish @ 6:44 AM

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