Prairie Island Indian Community planning to set up large renewable energy project, keen to be rid of nuclear power plant and nuclear wastes
Prairie Island Indian Community nuclear concern powers net zero carbon emissions plan,
Catharine Richert, Prairie Island Indian Community, Welch, Minn., August 1, 2022 , Growing up on the Prairie Island Indian Community reservation, Calais Lone Elk had a plan — a set of steps burned in her mind and logged with her school to help her find her family in the event of an explosion at the nearby nuclear power plant.
“If you went to school and something happened out here, where do you meet your parents? Where do you reconnect with your family? Because you can’t come back here,” she said. “Those are things that I don’t think are normal.”
Lone Elk is 37 now, and still constantly reviewing her escape plan for an emergency at the nearby power plant.
It sits just 700 yards away from her community of 100 homes, its powerlines lining backyards and main thoroughfares.
For Lone Elk and others living in Prairie Island, concerns about the nuclear power plant’s safety are a source of low-grade daily stress. Despite official assurances, many people believe it’s bad for their health to be living so close.
“We all have a plan, whether we voice it or not. We all have an idea of what we have to do or what we need to do. And we all know that we have to go up-wind of that nuclear plant,” Lone Elk said
But it’s also a physical reminder of the environmental injustices endured by Native people for generations, said tribal council vice president Shelley Buck.
“Since this plant was created, our energy history here has been focused on the power plant and the nuclear waste that is stored right next door to us,” she said.
Today, the Prairie Island Community is seeking to disentangle itself from a power plant it never wanted. It’s created a $46 million plan to produce net zero carbon emissions within the next decade.
Buck said it’s an ambitious step toward being a sovereign nation that’s energy sovereign, too.
“To do a big project like net zero really helps us change that narrative into something positive showing how energy can be used as a positive force,” she said. “By offsetting or eliminating the carbon that we produce, it’s a positive for everybody.”
Why not go big?’
Prairie Island members are descendants of the Mdewakanton Band of Eastern Dakota. They made their home in southern Minnesota, but lost that land in 1851 in the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux.
It wasn’t until 1934 that the land on the banks of the Mississippi just north of Red Wing became a federally recognized reservation.
The Prairie Island power plant was issued its first operating license in 1974, and it was renewed in 2011. Initially, tribal members say the plant was described to them as a steam power plant. It’s one of two nuclear power plants, the second in Monticello, that Xcel says are critical to its plans of producing carbon-free electricity by 2050, and is considered safe by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
In the early 1990s, Xcel Energy asked the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency permission to store nuclear waste there — at least temporarily until a permanent repository at Yucca Mountain opened, a plan that has since stalled due to local opposition.
As a child, Mikhail Childs remembers his father protesting the prospect of storing nuclear waste so close to the reservation.
“Some of the earliest memories I have are of protestors standing in the road, blocking semi-trucks hauling nuclear waste,” he said. “The way [my dad] explained it to me was that all this land we reside on is sacred … We believe that in our creation story, the creation took place just miles down the river.”
But here’s the twist, and it’s an important one: Through all these years of living with a nuclear power plant next door, Prairie Island hasn’t been powered by the energy generated there, said Buck. The community just recently started getting natural gas from Xcel.
It’s a logistical detail that she said prevented the tribal community from being eligible for the Renewable Development Fund, a pot of state money financed by Xcel customers for renewable energy projects for Xcel service areas, she said.
Then in 2020, a legislative change allowed Prairie Island to tap $46 million from the fund for the project.
While the tribe had toyed with doing wind power and other renewable projects in the past, a large amount of funding created the opportunity to do more.
“Why not go big?” said Buck.
One goal, different solutions
And by big, Buck is referring to a plan that aims to eliminate 20 million pounds of carbon annually through a raft of renewable energy and efficiency upgrades. Prairie Island’s Treasure Island Resort and Casino is the largest energy user on the reservation.
The plan involves multiple ways of achieving that goal, said Andrea Thompson, who has been hired by the tribe as the project’s energy program manager. …………………………………..
Their plan involves constructing a 10-to-15 acre solar array that aims to reduce carbon emissions by more than 550,000 pounds annually, phasing out natural gas in favor of geothermal energy and electrification, and promoting zero-emission and energy efficiency residential upgrades………………………….. more https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11069613/Global-warming-trigger-nuclear-war-financial-crisis-extinction-level-pandemic-2070.htm
Latest Research – Baseload generators such as Sizewell C nuclear power plants are not needed in an all-renewable future and their use would simply increase costs
Latest Research – Baseload generators such as Sizewell C nuclear power
plants are not needed in an all-renewable future and their use would simply
increase costs. Sizewell C is much more expensive and slower to build than
proven and reliable alternative low carbon solutions say elite Energy Think
Tank. Professor Mark Barrett, from UCL, who has modeled the comparative
costs of nuclear and renewable power, using hour-by-hour wind and solar
data with 35 years of weather data , said: “Nuclear power is more
expensive and slower to build than renewables, particularly offshore wind.
7 GW of wind will generate about 40% more electricity than Hinkley at about
30-50% of the cost per kWh and will be built in half the time. Neither wind
nor nuclear plant operates all the time, so both will need backup. Modeling
shows the total cost of a renewable generation to be less than nuclear and
to be just as able to provide continuous power even with wind and solar
droughts.”
100% Renewables 26th July 2022
Baseload nuclear power not needed in an all-renewable future – Claverton Energy Research Group
Sizewell C is much more expensive and slower to build than proven and
reliable alternative low carbon solutions say elite Energy Think Tank
Latest Research – Baseload generators such as nuclear power plants are
not needed in an all-renewable future and their use will almost certainly
increase overall costs to consumers says elite Claverton Energy Group of
experts.
Professor Mark Barrett, from UCL, who has modeled the comparative
costs of nuclear and renewable power, using hour-by-hour wind and solar
data with 35 years of weather data , said: “Nuclear power is more
expensive and slower to build than renewables, particularly offshore wind.
7 GW of wind will generate about 40% more electricity than Hinkley at about
30-50% of the cost per kWh and will be built in half the time. Neither wind
nor nuclear plant operates all the time, so both will need backup. Modeling
shows the total cost of a renewable generation to be less than nuclear and
to be just as able to provide continuous power even with wind and solar
droughts.”
Claverton Energy Group 20th July 2022
Greencoat Capital UK to greenwash nuclear power?
Greencoat Capital is considering creating a nuclear investment fund to take
a stake in EDF’s proposed Sizewell C plant in Suffolk. The renewables
investment manager is eyeing a move into nuclear that could lead to the
fund investing in Hinkley Point C, under construction in Somerset, and the
existing Sizewell B plant. Bankers working for EDF and the UK government
are seeking investors to join them in funding the construction of Sizewell
C, which could power 6 million homes and is expected to cost at least £20
billion. Richard Nourse, Greencoat Capital’s founder, said: “My feeling
is that there’s a huge amount of money required. When you need a huge
amount of money, you normally have to price it to go, and therefore it will
be potentially an interesting investment. Given nuclear will be a
fearsomely complex and technically demanding area for UK pension funds to
evaluate risk, we see an opportunity for Greencoat to be a trusted adviser
and manager of funds.”
Times 16th July 2022
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/investment-firm-readies-nuclear-fund-j7xtbdqxl
No need for miracle technologies to rapidly decarbonise energy
Most of the world can switch to renewable energy without destabilizing
power grids, at low cost, and relying almost entirely on existing
technologies, according to a new Stanford University study.
With countries facing record-high fuel prices, energy blackmail from Russia, up to seven
million deaths per year due to air pollution, and an endless parade of
climate disasters, there’s no need for “miracle technologies” to put
things right, writes Stanford civil and environmental engineering professor
Mark Z. Jacobson, in a post for The Hill.
“By electrifying all energy sectors; producing electricity from clean, renewable sources; creating
heat, cold, and hydrogen from such electricity; storing electricity, heat,
cold and the hydrogen; expanding transmission; and shifting the time of
some electricity use, we can create safe, cheap and reliable energy
everywhere.”
Jacobson’s study covered the 145 countries that account
for 99.7% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and relied solely on onshore
and offshore wind, various solar technologies, geothermal, hydropower,
small amounts of tidal and wave energy, and different forms of storage. The
transition would cost about US$62 trillion, he says. With annual energy
cost savings of $11 trillion, the investment would pay back in less than
six years.
The Energy Mix 13th July 2022
Nuclear would do little to solve gas issue in Germany
Germany’s vice chancellor has defended the government’s commitment to ending the use of nuclear power at the end of the year
Independent UK Via AP news wire 12 July 22, Germany’s vice chancellor on Tuesday defended the government’s commitment to ending the use of nuclear power at the end of this year, arguing that keeping its few remaining reactors running would be complex and do little to address the problems caused by a possible natural gas shortfall.
government officials argue that natural gas isn’t so much a factor in generating electricity as in fueling industrial processes and providing heating.
“Nuclear power doesn’t help us there at all,” Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, who is also the economy and climate minister and is responsible for energy, said at a news conference in Vienna. “We have a heating problem or an industry problem, but not an electricity problem — at least not generally throughout the country.”
Germany shut down three nuclear reactors in December and the remaining three are due to cease production at the end of this year as part of a long-running plan to phase out conventional power plants in favor of renewable energy.
In this year’s first quarter, nuclear energy accounted for 6% of Germany’s electricity generation and natural gas for 13%, both significantly lower than a year earlier. Germany has been getting about 35% of its gas from Russia.
Habeck said the legal certification for the remaining reactors expires at the end of the year and they would have to be treated thereafter as effectively new nuclear plants, complete with safety considerations, and the likely “very small advantage” in terms of saving gas wouldn’t outweigh the complications.
Fuel for the reactors also would have to be procured, and Scholz has said that the fuel rods are generally imported from Russia………….. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ap-nuclear-green-party-berlin-olaf-scholz-b2121180.html
Greenpeace and other NGOs call for a green reconstruction plan for Ukraine
Activists from Greenpeace raised a replica wind turbine, close to the
venue of the Ukraine Recovery Conference today in Lugano, in a call for
recovery efforts to be based on sustainable energy systems, not nuclear or
fossil fuels. As donors meet to discuss reconstruction after the Russian
invasion, Greenpeace together with Ecoaction and more than 45 Ukrainian
civil society organisations is calling for a green reconstruction plan.
Ukrainian non-governmental organisations have developed guiding principles
to ensure that Ukraine’s green post-war reconstruction delivers
sustainable economic development and is beneficial to people and nature.
Greenpeace 4th July 2022
Renewables supply nearly half of German power demand in first half 2022
Renewable energy has supplied roughly half of Germany’s electricity
demand for the first half of 2022, new data has shown, boosting the amount
of renewables in the mix by six percentage points compared to the same
period in 2021. Germany’s Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research
Baden-Württemberg (ZSW) and the Federal Association of Energy and Water
Management (BDEW) said on Monday that renewables had covered around 49% of
gross domestic electricity consumption over the period. In a joint press
release, the organisations said that the main contributor to the increased
renewables output was a “significant increase” in onshore wind and
solar capacity – each generating around one-fifth more electricity than
in the same period in 2021.
Renew Economy 6th July 2022
In France, drought, and multiple problems in nuclear power plants add energy crisis to the climate crisis.
In the midst of the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis is taking precedence
over the environmental crisis. On Thursday, the government called on the
French to reduce their consumption by 10% in 2 years. On Sunday, EDF, Total
and Engie even deemed it necessary to make efforts “immediately”. Their
fear: a real risk of cuts this winter. when the drought and the multiplication of problems in nuclear power plants add crisis to crisis.
Indeed, it is not only Russian oil and gas that will be missing from the
European energy mix in the future. Declining flow in rivers is a problem
for hydropower plants.
And even worse, the state of the French nuclear
fleet raises many concerns. Called to satisfy 40% of electricity
consumption in France, it has suffered from the health crisis to the point
that production fell by 8.7% in 2020 compared to 2019, falling to a level
that had not been observed since the late 1990s.
All this has delayed maintenance operations. And now we suddenly discover corrosion where we did
not expect it on 12 reactors, which were automatically shut down. It is
therefore half of the 56 French reactors which are out of service for a
certain time. A hard blow impossible to compensate for immediately with the
major projects intended in the long term to increase the share of renewable
energies in our energy mix.
La Depeche 27th June 2022
International Energy Agency stresses that energy efficiency must be at the forefront of climate policies
With the world facing an almost unprecedented energy crisis, the
International Energy Agency (IEA) aims to once again put energy efficiency
at the forefront of policymakers’ agenda. During its 7th Global Energy
Efficiency Conference hosted in Sonderborg, Denmark, the IEA has sought to
convince policymakers worldwide of the merits of energy efficiency policies
while providing a policy toolkit to go with it.
“Energy efficiency is a
critical solution to so many of the world’s most urgent challenges,”
said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. According to an IEA
analysis presented during the conference, the world could achieve massive
energy savings by the end of the decade through increased ambition while
simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions.
Euractiv 8th June 2022 https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/iea-presents-energy-efficiency-push-to-make-russias-gas-oil-obsolete/
World can make massive energy savings, reduce emissions through energy conservation measures
| With the world facing an almost unprecedented energy crisis, the International Energy Agency (IEA) aims to once again put energy efficiency at the forefront of policymakers’ agenda. During its 7th Global Energy Efficiency Conference hosted in Sonderborg, Denmark, the IEA has sought to convince policymakers worldwide of the merits of energy efficiency policies while providing a policy toolkit to go with it. “Energy efficiency is a critical solution to so many of the world’s most urgent challenges,” said Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director. According to an IEA analysis presented during the conference, the world could achieve massive energy savings by the end of the decade through increased ambition while simultaneously reducing CO2 emissions. Euractiv 8th June 2022 https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/news/iea-presents-energy-efficiency-push-to-make-russias-gas-oil-obsolete/ |
Spain and Portugal stand out from the European Union, in slashing energy bills because of their high renewable energy use
Spain and Portugal have broken ranks with the EU to allow themselves the
space to slash their energy bills by 40 per cent. The move is being allowed
because both southern European countries have a large amount of renewable
energy and aren’t as reliant on fossil fuels as the rest of the Continent.
MSM 31st May 2022
Canada can achieve 100% zero-emission electricity by 2035 – with renewable energy, storage, energy efficiency , and interprovincial transmission
| Canada can achieve 100% zero-emission electricity by 2035 with an electricity system that prioritizes renewable energy, storage, energy efficiency, and interprovincial transmission and avoids the pitfalls of nuclear generation, fossil gas, carbon capture and storage, and carbon offsets, the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) concludes in a modelling study released this week. And the authors note two equally important dimensions of the transition: decolonizing power to benefit Indigenous peoples, and engaging with communities at the outset to save precious time and money. “At a time when energy security and affordability are top of mind for many Canadians, this report shows that a clean electricity pathway based on renewables offers an affordable option for ambitiously reducing emissions while meeting increasing electricity demand,” the Foundation writes. The Energy Mix 27th May 2022https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/05/27/canada-can-hit-100-zero-emission-electricity-by-2035-without-nuclear-ccs-report-finds/ |
UK’s energy policy (for a nuclear ”renaissance”) ignores the fastest and most cost-effective measure – SAVING ENERGY
| Andrew Warrant: Energy policy is big news again. Initially, because fuel prices are rocketing, and set to rise even more this autumn. Plus the invasion of Ukraine has precipitated a determination to minimise the amount of gas and oil purchased in future from Russia. These two factors have prompted Prime Minister Boris Johnson to devise a new energy security strategy. Published last month, its reception was uniformly dismissive. Not so much because of the energy supply sources it concentrated upon but mainly because it entirely omitted any serious consideration of the policy area deemed most capable of providing swift cost-effective solutions. Saving energy. The Times’ editorial was unsparingly contemptuous. The UK government’s new energy security strategy amounted to “little more than a glorified press release.” The “eye-catching announcement” of eight new nuclear power plants offers “no analysis of why Britain had succeeded in starting construction on just one new reactor in the 16 years since Tony Blair announced a nuclear renaissance.” It added: “What is certain isthis new nuclear programme will not bring energy bills down any time soon. if ever. Instead, it will push bills up as the costs of construction are passed on to consumers. Nor will it do much in the near term to reduce Britain’s reliance on Russian oil and gas given that it takes at least a decade to build a nuclear power station.” While no doubt well-intentioned, Rishi Sunak’s attempts to alleviate the cost of living – including through a £150 council tax rebate for most homes and a £200 loan towards energy bills – have been overly complicated and badly targeted. And, as Helen Barnard of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has pointed out, the £2.4bn the Treasury lost cutting fuel duty would have covered the cost of insulating a third of all social housing in the country. “Theconsultancy E3G has calculated that new energy efficiency measures could reduce the heating bills for poorly insulated homes by an average of £500 and end the UK’s dependence on Russian gas (which is admittedly quite limited) within a year. There is a very revealing explanation for why no new plans are being proposed. It is that “this is not being imposed on people and is a gradual transition following the grain of behaviour. The British people are no-nonsense pragmatists who can make decisions based on the information.” But if an Englishman’s home really is his castle, then why did fears for COVID 19 lock everybody inside their castle? If we want people to support delivery of a collective good like energy security or climate mitigation, then it is sensible to see it as collective action. And for Government to lead it. The parallel with the pandemic is spot on.Energy in Buildings and Industry 18th May 2022 https://eibi.co.uk/article/collective-spirit-required-to-ensure-energy-security/ |
EU hits fast forward on renewables, including “massive deployment” of solar
Spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European Commission unveils massive scaling-up and speeding-up of renewable energy, with solar as the “kingpin.” The post EU hits fast forward on renewables, including “massive deployment” of solar appeared first on RenewEconomy.
EU hits fast forward on renewables, including “massive deployment” of solar — RenewEconomy
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