QUICK NEWS, March 9:A NATIONAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM EMERGING; NEW ENERGY WILL CUT POWER BILLS FOR BIGGEST U.S. GRID; FLORIDA SINKING IN THE CLIMATE CHANGE IT DENIES
A NATIONAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM EMERGING Ameren, others prepare grid for wind energy
Jacob Barker, March 8, 2015 (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
“…[U]tilities and independent transmission developers are investing…billions of dollars in the nation’s grid…Regulators and experts say the higher returns are necessary to prepare the grid for a coming build-out of wind power in the sparsely populated Great Plains that is wired to urban areas…[W]ind energy, as well as solar energy from the desert Southwest, will become even more important if President Barack Obama’s plan to cut carbon emissions becomes a reality. Experts say a more resilient grid will be needed to both transport renewable energy and accommodate changes brought on by the closing of coal-fired power plants…The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which regulates electricity transmission…[is holding talks on reliability risks to the grid due to changes…[After it] offered higher profit rates to utilities to spur them to invest more...new transmission investment increased fivefold from 1997 through 2012, to a total of $14.1 billion…The bigger issue for getting the grid ready for the future of energy production may be the same problem that has always dogged it: It takes a long time, and residents don’t like the high-voltage power lines running through their backyards and farm fields…” click here for more
NEW ENERGY WILL CUT POWER BILLS FOR BIGGEST U.S. GRID Largest U.S. Grid Operator Finds Wind Energy Saves Consumers Money Under Epa's Clean Power Plan
Michael Goggin, 5 March 2015 (American Wind Energy Assoication)
“Using wind energy will reduce the cost of complying with EPA’s Clean Power Plan by billions of dollars, particularly if natural gas prices increase, according to detailed new analysis…by PJM, the grid operator for 60 million people in 13 Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states…PJM compared scenarios in which PJM states fully met their Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirements versus a lower scenario in which only currently planned renewable plants were built, reducing the amount of available renewable energy by around 20 million MWh per year…With more renewable energy available, the cost of operating the power system under EPA’s Clean Power Plan decreased by around $200 million in 2020, $800 million in 2025, and $1.2 billion in 2029, while wholesale electricity costs for consumers decreased by $2.4 billion in 2025 and $4.1 billion in 2029…PJM also found that the benefits of renewable energy were even more pronounced in a scenario with higher natural gas prices…PJM found a combination of greater use of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and new gas generation provided gross production cost savings of $1.6-2.3 billion per year under its base gas price assumption, while those savings grew to $2.3-3.8 billion per year if natural gas prices were 50 percent higher…” click here for more
FLORIDA SINKING IN THE CLIMATE CHANGE IT DENIES Ravaged by climate change, Florida reportedly bans term ‘climate change’
Terrence McCoy, March 9, 2015 (Washington Post)
“It is one of the profound ironies of climate change that a state besieged by its effects — where coastal islands face existential threats and daily floods render major thoroughfares difficult to navigate — is also populated by powerful politicians who express deep suspicion of the relevant science…[Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) said he doesn’t believe human activity is causing it. Former Governor/Republican Presidential Contender Jeb Bush called himself a skeptic. And Republican Governor Rick Scott’s]… aversion to discussions of man-made climate change has been brought to bear on [the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), which is] charged with protecting a state that already exhibits many of the changes scientists predict will overtake other coastal regions…[Its officials] have been restricted from using the terms ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ in official correspondence…[It is a policy activists called ‘criminal’ because] Florida is a peninsula with 1,200 miles of coastline…[It is the climate change] canary in the coalmine…” click here for more
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home