NewEnergyNews: QUICK NEWS, November 7: SUN COULD SHINE FOR JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA; OCEAN WIND ADVANCES IN DELAWARE; NEW YORK GOES BIG ON NEW TRANSMISSION

NewEnergyNews

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

Every day is Earth Day.

YESTERDAY

  • TODAY’S STUDY: WHAT UTILITIES THINK
  • QUICK NEWS, May 21: U.S. EMISSIONS DROP AS ELECTRICITY OUTPUT RISES; THE SPACES BETWEEN THE WINDS; WTO RULES FOR IMPORTED SUN

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    GET THE DAILY HEADLINES EMAIL: CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS OR SEND YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO: herman@NewEnergyNews.net

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    THE DAY BEFORE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: THE BEST UTILITIES FOR SUN
  • QUICK NEWS, May 20: INSURANCE COMPANIES PREPARE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE; UK’S GREEN BANK BRINGS THE BIG BUCKS; UTILITY GOES FOR BETTER SUN, WIND FORECASTS

    • THE DAY BEFORE THE DAY BEFORE

  • Weekend Video: Spray On Solar
  • Weekend Video: Wind In The Rural Landscape
  • Weekend Video: What Dark Snow Means

    • THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-WHERE NEW ENERGY NEEDS TO BE
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-KUWAIT’S POSSIBLE SOLAR
  • FRIDAY WORLD HEADLINE-WHAT INDIA WIND NEEDS

    • AND THE DAY BEFORE THAT

  • TTTA Thursday- HOW CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL WORKS
  • TTTA Thursday-HOW WOMEN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
  • TTTA Thursday-POLITICS AND THE EPA
  • TTTA Thursday-THE ENORMOUS LED OPPORTUNITY

    • THE LAST DAY UP HERE

  • TODAY’S STUDY: THE NEW INTELLIGENT ENERGY EFFICIENCY
  • QUICK NEWS, May 15: MINNESOTA’S SOLAR AMBITIONS IN CONTEXT; RHODE ISLAND’S FIGHT OVER OCEAN WIND; VC MONEY FOR SMART GRID STEADY

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

  • NEW BILLS AND NEW BIRDS in Colorado's recent session (May 20, 2013) by Anne Butterfield (Boulder Daily Camera via NewEnergyNews)

    Out with the old and in with a new. Gone are the five feet of snow from April and May - and in with this sudden summer heat. The feeder and fountain in view from this keyboard are graced with migratory birds such as Evening Grosbeak, Spotted Towhee and one Ruby-Throated hummingbird that loved on that sugar water when all fragrant things were cloaked by heavy snow. And in Denver, flown from the coop are all our state legislators from their tightly compressed legislative session. What have they gotten done?

    “This has been an extraordinary legislature,” said a seasoned Democratic fundraiser in Denver, Sallyanne Ofner by Facebook message. The range of work was wide:

    For civil unions came a meaningful redress of the wrong-headed vote of 2006 to limit marriage to one man and one woman. Now LGBT couples can commit for life and legally reap respect and due benefits.

    Firearm safety has been enhanced with popular universal background checks on purchases plus size limits on high capacity magazines.

    On behalf of rape victims, parental rights of attackers over the children they spawn have been severed, and sexual assault victims have access to a payment program for their medical needs.

    One gripping disappointment was the failure to repeal the costly and conspicuously racist death penalty in Colorado.

    Also disheartening: the failure to pass seven out of nine bills to regulate hydraulic fracturing. A notable failure was minimum fines for serious spills -- needed apparently because spills now don’t invoke the maximum fines allowed. The 30-hour spill that erupted in mid-February near Fort Collins still has not been fined, according to the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. The Governor has ordered a formal review of how fines are imposed.

    Also targeted was a ban on energy industry employees from serving on the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to regulate their own companies - failed. Lawmakers also failed to require more frequent inspections at Colorado’s tens of thousands of wells, though they did secure budgeting for 11 more inspectors and a lower spill amount threshold at which companies must report. More health and water testing around fracking areas? Also failed.

    Visiting The Camera this week, representatives from the Colorado Oil and Gas Association lamented the session as being polarized, and that legislators with no knowledge of industry surprised them with a slew of bills that COGA hadn’t seen much less collaborated on. This came off poorly as they and their 23 lobbyists certainly know that the session is compressed and filled with the slew of matters just mentioned.

    Coming this fall is still more action on fracking, in a rule making session by the Air Quality Control Commission. Judging by the Governor’s oft-stated goal to see “zero” fugitive emissions from natural gas infrastructure, let’s hope the AQCC can screw some new regulations to the sticking point.

    On the bright side for clean energy, Boulder’s own Will Toor is uniquely proud of a suite of successful bills for electric vehicles that led his agency, South West Energy Efficient Project, to launch Colorado to a leading grade of A- among six western states for EV’s. New bills included extended rebates for private purchases of EV’s and conversions of hybrids. For state and local governments to purchase EV’s, life cycle costs may now be considered as well as contracting through energy service companies to have EV’s paid for through fuel savings. PACE financing for commercial buildings and parking lots was expanded to cover charging stations. Also, apartment buildings and HOA’s will have to allow charging stations. And to address an old sore spot, a decal program will have EV owners pay a $50 tax per year for road maintenance and the construction of more public charging stations.

    We will see more charging stations – this comes with nice timing as Consumer Reports just named the Tesla Model S the best car. And as Colorado’s electric power sector cleans its emissions, the use of EV’s will leverage reductions in emissions from transportation.

    But that electric sector still has serious business leftover. Colorado has until June 7th to persuade the Governor to act on the gloriously debated SB 252 that would require rural electric providers to get 20 percent of their power from renewables. Since coal costs have about doubled over 10 years and Tri-States’ coal-rich power expenses have risen four times faster than sales, SB252 needs to pass for pocketbooks and to deal with that horrific new 400 ppm of CO2 in our atmosphere.

    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:

  • Lies, damned lies and politicians (October 8, 2012)
  • 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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    Pay a visit to the HARRY BOYKOFF page at Basketball Reference, sponsored by NewEnergyNews and Oil In Their Blood.

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    • Wednesday, November 07, 2012

    QUICK NEWS, November 7: SUN COULD SHINE FOR JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA; OCEAN WIND ADVANCES IN DELAWARE; NEW YORK GOES BIG ON NEW TRANSMISSION

    SUN COULD SHINE FOR JERSEY, PENNSYLVANIA New Study Finds that Solar Power Is a Bargain for Ratepayers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania

    5 November 2012 (PR Newswire via RenewablesBiz)

    “…[S]olar power in New Jersey and Pennsylvania delivers value to the electric grid that exceeds its cost by a large margin, making it a bargain for energy consumers…Energy providers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania are required to buy certain amounts of solar power each year. They pay a premium for that solar power in the form of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates, or SRECs, and pass this premium cost on to ratepayers.

    “…[A Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association (MSEIA) and Pennsylvania Solar Energy Industries Association (PASEIA) study by consulting firm Clean Power Research] found that solar power delivers a total levelized value ranging from $256 to $318 per MWh (25.6 cents to 31.8 cents per kWh)…”

    “…[T]his includes a premium value in the range of $150 to $200 per MWh (15 cents to 20 cents per kWh), above the value of the solar electricity generated. The SRECs in New Jersey currently cost about $60/MWh (6 cents per KWh), and in Pennsylvania they cost about $20/ MWh (2 cents per KWH)…[A] value that exceeds its cost by 50% to over 100%...

    “Research concluded that…distributed solar power delivers…Lower conventional electricity market prices due to reduced peak demand…Valuable price hedge from using a free, renewable fuel rather than variably-priced fossil fuels…Avoided costs of new transmission and distribution infrastructure…Reduced need to build, operate and maintain natural gas generating plants…Reduced outages due to a more reliable, distributed electric power system…Reduced future costs of mitigating the environmental impacts of coal, natural gas, nuclear, and other generation…[and] Enhanced tax revenues associated with local job creation, which is higher for solar than conventional power generation…”

    OCEAN WIND ADVANCES IN DELAWARE NRG Energy gets lease for offshore Delaware project

    Carl Levesque, Octtober 26, 2012 (Wind Energy Weekly)

    “The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has reached agreement on a lease for commercial wind energy development in federal waters covering 96,430 acres that are located approximately 11 nautical miles off the coast of Delaware…

    “The agreement marks the first lease completed under Interior’s “Smart from the Start” approach to facilitate environmentally responsible offshore wind development along the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) by identifying wind energy areas in a coordinated, focused approach with extensive environmental analysis, public review and large-scale planning…”

    “The lease grants NRG Bluewater Wind Delaware LLC the exclusive right to submit one or more plans to BOEM to conduct activities in support of wind energy development in the lease area. The company may submit a plan to conduct site assessment activities, such as the installation of a meteorological tower or meteorological buoy, as well as submit a construction and operations Plan (COP) to propose construction of the actual wind facility and cabling to shore.

    “In its original project nomination, NRG Bluewater proposed a 450-MW project off the coast of Delaware, although ther project scope could change…The project’s path to completion, however, has been complicated by business factors…Late last year NRG cancelled the power purchase agreement with Delmarva Power for the project’s electricity…[and] decided not to continue with its offshore wind power business, which it acquired in 2008 with the purchase of Bluewater Wind…[but the new] lease will make the project all the more appealing to potential partners or buyers…”

    NEW YORK GOES BIG ON NEW TRANSMISSION NY panel offers plan for up to 3,200 MW of new generation, transmission

    Carl Levesque, October 26, 2012 (Wind Energy Weekly)

    “…The five-member Energy Highway Task Force…gave New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo a blueprint that includes 13 recommended actions to advance the governor's push to modernize the state's energy system [that will add as much as 3,200 MW of electric generation and transmission capacity as well as renewable power generation through public and private investments totaling about $5.7 billion.]…

    “…Cuomo, during his state of the state address in January, outlined an “Energy Highway Initiative” to improve the system…The task force created the blueprint after reviewing feedback from 85 entities, including the state's investor-owned utilities, private developers and investors…[Actions would] involve stakeholders from the private sector, state agencies and investor-owned utilities, along with the New York Power Authority, Long Island Power Authority and the New York Independent System Operator…[and] begin by the end of 2012 or early 2013.”

    “The recommended actions…Build $1 billion worth of electric transmission projects totaling more than 1,000 MW of capacity…[and]Advance up to $800 million of investments in electric generation, transmission, and distribution to enhance reliability, safety and storm resilience.

    “…[The state would] execute new contracts for up to $250 million with renewable energy developers under the renewable portfolio standard to leverage an additional $425 million in private-sector investment…Build up to $35 million worth of strategic transmission upgrades…[for] additional renewable energy development in northern New York…[prepare for] offshore wind development in the Atlantic Ocean…[and invest] $100 million...for smart grid technologies…[and] demonstration of new technologies in power grid system operations, security and energy storage.”

    posted by Herman K. Trabish @ 6:04 AM

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