Jobs boom in USA States with wind power development
The job growth in 2015 is primarily attributable to more wind project development and construction, requiring more than 38,000 employees.
Texas leads the nation with over 24,000 wind energy employees.
US wind power jobs hit record, up 20 percent in 2016 ‘Wind rush’ fuels hiring boom, delivers more consumer savings AWEA, DENVER, April 12, 2016 — American wind power supported a record 88,000 jobs at the start of 2016—an increase of 20 percent in a year—according to the U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report, Year Ending 2015, released today by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA). Strong job growth coincided with wind ranking number one as America’s leading source of new generating capacity last year, outpacing solar and natural gas.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper joined in the release at a Vestas wind turbine component factory near Denver, saying “In 2015, Colorado ranked fifth in the nation for wind power capacity additions. An investment in the wind power industry and in wind projects generates new jobs, economic development in rural counties and clean air benefits to all Coloradans.”
“Wind power benefits more American families than ever before,” said Tom Kiernan, CEO of AWEA. “We’re helping young people in rural America find a job close to home. Others are getting a fresh chance to rebuild their careers by landing a job in the booming clean energy sector. With long-term, stable policy in place, and a broader range of customers now buying low-cost wind-generated electricity, our workforce can grow to 380,000 well-paying jobs by 2030.”
Each new wind turbine typically avoids over 4,200 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year, (equal to nearly 900 cars’ worth). U.S. wind energy avoided 132 million metric tons in total CO2 emissions last year, equal to eliminating all electric power sector emissions from Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Colorado.
Wind energy also greatly reduces a variety of health-harming air pollutants, including smog-causing sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), which helps reduce asthma attacks and other respiratory issues. That displaced an estimated 176,000 metric tons of SO2 and 106,000 metric tons of NOx in 2015, representing $7.3 billion in avoided health costs last year alone.
The AWEA U.S. Wind Industry Annual Market Report Year Ending 2015 provides a comprehensive look at the entire U.S. wind energy landscape, offering industry trends, statistics, company rankings and the market picture through 2015. A comprehensive press kit here includes more detailed releases on specific findings, videos, infographics, and up-to-date photos of wind turbines across America…….. http://www.awea.org/MediaCenter/pressrelease.aspx?ItemNumber=8736
Wind power in America in a big way, and transmission grid development
US Wind Energy Juggernaut: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet (CT Exclusive Interview), Clean Technica, April 4th, 2016 by Tina Casey The American Wind Energy Association will release its much anticipated annual report on April 12, and the group’s CEO Tom Kiernan provided CleanTechnica with some advance insights during a one-on-one phone chat last week. Hint: it’s gonna be big.
Kiernan also discussed two recent major milestone developments in the US wind industry, one being the construction of the nation’s first ever offshore wind farm — which will finally open the floodgates to developing the immense Atlantic Coast wind resources — and the other involving the Energy Department in what will be the biggest ever renewable energy project in the US.
The 2015 American Wind Energy Association Report
AWEA has already teased some info for its 2015 annual wind energy report to the press, underscoring the sector’s reduction in carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen emissions:
Electricity generated by wind in 2015 displaced an estimated 176,000 metric tons of SO2 and 106,000 metric tons of NOx, representing $7.3 billion in avoided health costs last year alone.
AWEA provides third-party statistics that suggest wind sector growth has contributed to a total US power sector emissions drop down to 1995 levels, while average electricity rates dropped — yes, dropped — 5.5 percent below 2009.
The group also states that “wind energy is the most cost-effective energy source to comply with the Clean Power Plan” put forth by President Obama last summer, and in the interview Kiernan emphasized that wind also provides the US with a pathway for honoring its Paris COP21 global climate pledge.
Among other tidbits, AWEA’s 2015 statistics reveal that the US is now #1 in global wind energy production.
During his conversation with CleanTechnica, Kiernan provided this additional teaser for the 2015 report:
There will be some exciting news about jobs growth…for example wind technicians [maintenance, service and repair positions] is now the fastest-growing profession in the country…
The group has also has some big news about private sector, non-utility wind investments and it has scheduled another preview announcement about the report for April 7, so stay tuned for that.
Offshore Wind Ready For Its Closeup
CleanTechnica’s conversation with Kiernan began with a discussion of the soon-to-be-completed Block Island wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island. Offshore wind energy development faces some technological challenges compared to onshore, so getting “steel in the water” is a major development for the industry:………
Biggest Ever Clean Power Project In The US
The other big development is the Energy Department’s announcement that it will get behind the proposed 700-mile megawatt Clean Line Plains & Eastern transmission line, designed primarily to transport electricity from Oklahoma and Texas wind farms through Arkansas to Tennessee and points east.
At 4,000 megawatts, Plains & Eastern counts as the biggest renewable energy project so far in US history. By way of comparison, the Hoover Dam hydropower plant clocks in at 2,000 megawatts of capacity.
The other striking thing about the project is the Energy Department approval (check out theTennessee Valley Authority for an idea of the scale and impact of major federally sanctioned energy initiatives).
As described by Kiernan, federal involvement provides wind with the same procedural advantages that other conventional forms of energy have long enjoyed:
It’s important for building momentum for [wind] transmission projects throughout the country…conventional power has long term, proven regulatory processes that are speedier. This is the first one for clean energy…it’s a very important step for the industry. This is a transformational project.
US Wind Energy Rising………http://cleantechnica.com/2016/04/04/us-wind-energy-takes-off-with-transmission-offshore-farm/
Future’s children will blame us for those wrong energy decisions
We are making the wrong energy choices for future generations, Guardian, Andrew Simms, 8 Apr 16
Our children’s children will not thank us for investing so heavily in technologies like nuclear at the expense of safer, low-carbon options “……It’s easy to see the superficial political attraction of projects like Hinkley C – they look like big, simple solutions to a problem. They’re technologically shiny, highly visible, seemingly easy to keep an eye on and have large, influential lobbies behind them.
With so much seemingly in its favour, it says a lot about the state of the nuclear industry that Hinkley C is heading south faster than a great snipe in migration. In a new report for theIntergenerational Foundation, co-published with the New Weather Institute, I found the economic case alone for new nuclear to be as leaky as a plastic bag of plutonium.
Discounting the untold extra billions, typically hidden and underwritten by the public, required by nuclear reactors to pay for complex security, disposal of radioactive waste, insurance (and, perversely, liabilities from under-insurance), over the course of its initial 35-year contract period, Britain could save at least £30-£40bn on electricity generated by solar and onshore wind with their costs steadily falling.
The costs for nuclear generation, meanwhile, have been doing exactly the opposite. From a government estimate of £5.6bn in 2008, by the time EU officials signed off the deal to build Hinkley C just six years later, the expected construction cost had risen to over £24bn. As obstacles, the burden of the financial architecture for the deal is only beaten by the problems with the technology itself which was meant to be state-of-the-art and a flagship for its operator EDF.
A range of renewable energy options are readily available that prove to be cheaper, safer, more secure, quicker to deliver and, overall, better value for Britain. Yet, instead of grasping this option, the government seems to have gone out of its way to hamper renewables by slashing support and creating a capricious, unstable policy environment…….
If we really are to have policies for the long term and with future generations in mind, we need to ensure energy choices are made to protect and promote their interests. A rational, evidence-based, intergenerational energy system won’t just emerge from political rhetoric, it needs to be designed and based on clear principles.
Such principles would include having an energy system most likely to preserve a climate convivial for future generations; a system with the least toxic environmental burden and which maximises ancillary economic benefits such as local jobs, manufacturing and services.
As an opening bid, here’s a set of intergenerational design criteria to aid intelligent, future energy planning. They are:
- Employment and broader economic return on investment – how much value to the broader economy does investment in different technologies bring; in other words, what is its economic multiplier effect?
- Environmental return on investment – how efficiently does an investment lower carbon emissions and minimise other toxic pollutants and contribute to a healthy environment?
- Energy return on investment – how much energy is generated for the amount of money invested to produce that energy?
- Security return on investment – how much does the technology contribute to domestic energy security and what other security risks does it carry?
- Transition return on investment – how does it contribute, comparatively to the speed and scale of deployment of low carbon energy generating capacity?
- Conviviality return on investment – the degree to which a technology can be responsive to and supportive of a society’s or a community’s own vision and pathway for its development, and that of future generations.
Paul Massara, is the chief executive of the energy supplier, RWE npower. Reflecting on the prospect of Hinkley C, he commented: “We will look back and think that nuclear was a expensive mistake. It’s one of those deals where my children, and my children’s children, are going to be thinking ‘was that a good deal’?”
It’s easy to imagine what conclusion they will come to, and the bewilderment they will feel at why better options were not more aggressively pursued. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/07/we-are-making-the-wrong-energy-choices-for-future-generations
Report: £40bn in savings, if UK scrapped Hinkley nuclear, and went for renewables instead
The report says that at £24bn, Hinkley Point C would be the “most expensive building on Earth”, and argues that the new reactors would pass not just economic costs to future generations, but the burdens of nuclear waste and climate change because nuclear is not quick enough to build at scale to stave off dangerous global warming
Scrapping Hinkley for renewable alternatives would save ‘tens of billions’
Solar and wind would generate the equivalent power to Hinkley over the plant’s planned lifetime for £40bn less, says analysis comparing future costs, Guardian, Adam Vaughan, 5 Apr 16, Scrapping plans for new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point in Somerset and building huge amounts of renewable power instead would save the UK tens of billions of pounds, according to an analysis that compares likely future costs.
The Intergenerational Foundation thinktank calculated that Britain would pay up to £40bn less for renewable alternatives that would generate the equivalent power to Hinkley over the plant’s planned lifetime.
A final investment decision by EDF on the nuclear power plant’s expansion is expected in May. The deal involves the government committing £92.50 per megawatt hour over 35 years for its electricity output, more than twice the current wholesale price.
But a report published on Tuesday by the thinktank, which campaigns on fairness between generations, found that onshore windfarms would cost £31.2bn less than Hinkley, and solar photovoltaic power £39.9bn less over 35 years to build and run. The estimate is based on both the value of subsidies paid by the taxpayer for the electricity and the cost of building the infrastructure.
The analysis is based on the government’s ‘contracts for difference’ subsidy levels for the technologies and projections by Bloomberg for how the cost of wind and solar power will fall in the future.
Andrew Simms, one of the report’s co-authors, said: “The government’s current plans for new nuclear power will break spending records, and pass both high costs and large, unknown economic risks onto every UK child for generations to come.
But, readily available, cheaper, safer and quicker renewable energy options would help Britain live both within its economic and environmental means, while also protecting and providing for future generations.”
The report says that at £24bn, Hinkley Point C would be the “most expensive building on Earth”, and argues that the new reactors would pass not just economic costs to future generations, but the burdens of nuclear waste and climate change because nuclear is not quick enough to build at scale to stave off dangerous global warming………
Renewable power has grown in the UK to the point where more electricity was generated from biomass, wind, hydro and solar power in 2015 than nuclear power stations. But it is unlikely the Intergenerational Foundation’s report will shift minds in government, which has cut subsidies for both solar and wind power while pressing ahead with the Hinkley project.
The analysis assumes the level of subsidy for solar and wind under the contracts for difference subsidy regime would remain constant, though in reality this would likely decrease as more capacity was built……. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/05/scrapping-hinkley-for-renewable-alternatives-will-save-tens-of-billions
In a fully accountable marketplace, wind power is the leader
The best renewal would be the creation of a level playing field where all energy sources bear their own costs and all subsidies are removed.
In a fully accountable marketplace, challenger fuels like wind will do very well because they cost less when all costs are counted. The incumbent fuels fear that accountability—for good reason.
Market forces choose wind power http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/274890-market-forces-choose-wind-power By Former Rep. Bob Inglis (R-S.C) 1 April 16 As a staunch believer in free markets, I don’t pick winners and losers- I let the market do that for me. And right now, the free market is telling me wind power is a big part of America’s energy future.
There will always be people who hold on to old technology even while the evidence mounts around them that the new is better. Time and time again, history proves that those who refuse to be forward-looking get left behind. Whether it’s buggy whip manufacturers scoffing at the Model T Ford or someone hunting for a pay phone, some people just can’t adapt to the times.Here’s what happened for wind power in 2015. It was the year’s largest source of newly installed electric capacity, beating solar and natural gas by significant margins. Wind made up 35 percent of all new electricity that came online last year.
We see this progress in state after state: Iowa generated 31 percent of electricity with wind in 2015, while 12 states created at least 10 percent.
Or how about this: America continues to be the best in the world for wind energy production. We should be proud that the United States is number one on the list, beating China, Germany and every other country. Continue reading
Farmers turn to solar power for an economic “crop”
Farmers Quit Corn; Grow Solar Power, Triple Pundit, by Leon Kaye on Friday, Apr 1st, 2016 One of the arguments used against solar power deployment is the amount of space needed for all of those solar panels. Although one study has shown that 0.6 percent of all land in the U.S. would be needed to completely electrify the country, the fight still goes on, even as solar and wind power technologies continue to increase in efficiency while decreasing in costs.
The fight is also occurring in counties across the U.S., as landowners and farmers seek new ways to generate revenue. Most of rural America has missed out on the economic revival that has conjoined technology and urbanization in many cities, so these counties are also seeking new ways to generate tax revenues. Farmers, of course, have also taken a hit due to the ongoing slump in global commodities.
The controversy over farmers having the right to sign contract with solar and wind power companies is now taking center stage in North Carolina.
The combination of the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS), which requires utilities operating in the state to generate some electricity from renewables, along with its booming tech culture, has turned the Tar Heel State into a solar powerhouse. In fact, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says North Carolina ranks third in the nation amongst U.S. states in total solar capacity. Last year, the installation of over 1,100 megawatts of solar power placed North Carolina in second nationally in new solar generation.
And much of this power is generated in rural counties across the state, from the northern border with Virginia to along the South Carolina state line. According to Solar Strata, one company that is riding North Carolina’s solar boom, these new solar farms are appearing on farmland where crops such as tobacco, peanuts, cotton and corn can no longer earn enough money for farmers to keep their land. Other sites are appearing on fallow land that has not been farmed in years. Companies such as Solar Strata pay rent to these farmers, with contracts that often last as long as 20 years. As quoted by one farmer who was interviewed by Joe Ryan of Bloomberg, “It gives me a way to keep the farm . . . and pass it to my grandchildren.”…….http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/04/harvesting-solar-offers-farmers-stable-incomes/
Saving the family farm – through farming the wind
In many cases, lease payments from turbines are the difference between keeping a farm and selling off the land.
Jason Wilson of Calhan, CO, told me, “The wind farm allowed us to be able to keep our family farm. We had come to a point where it no longer made financial sense to keep the property even with its vast sentimental value. The wind farm balanced the financial viability with the sentimental value, allowing the family farm to be passed on to the next generation.”
wind farms bring other opportunities for employment. Wind turbine technician is the fastest growing occupation in the country and presents another employment avenue for people who enjoy rural lifestyles.
How does wind help the family farm stay in the family?, http://www.aweablog.org/how-does-wind-help-the-family-farm-stay-in-the-family/ Greg Alvarez, 22 Mar 16, During my tour through Colorado wind power last week, I often heard how wind helps keep the fabric of rural communities intact, allowing them to thrive.
Land lease payments make it possible for family famers and ranchers to keep their businesses running, expanded tax revenue provides resources to buy new emergency services equipment, and wind farms bring well-paying jobs to the community, meaning young people don’t have to leave home to find a good career.
Millions in financial resources for rural communities
New data released today allows us to quantify these sorts of anecdotes: landowners with wind turbines on their property now receive a total of $222 million in lease payments every year. Overall, landowners in six states currently receive over $10 million each year in lease payments, and 26 states have landowners that receive over $1 million.
This revenue acts as a drought resistant cash crop for family farmers and ranchers, providing a stable source of income they can count on when productivity declines because of drought or other causes. It also helps protect them from commodity price fluctuations, a frequent source of frustration in the agricultural world.
Real world impacts
In many cases, lease payments from turbines are the difference between keeping a farm and selling off the land.
Jason Wilson of Calhan, CO, told me, “The wind farm allowed us to be able to keep our family farm. We had come to a point where it no longer made financial sense to keep the property even with its vast sentimental value. The wind farm balanced the financial viability with the sentimental value, allowing the family farm to be passed on to the next generation.”
The Wilson farm sits on the plains at the base of Pike’s Peak. It’s a beautiful, serene place started by Jason’s great-grandfather in the 1940’s. Jason will be taking over the operation in the coming years, and his family explained they had no doubt this transition is only possible because of the lease payments they receive in exchange for hosting wind turbines.
Tax revenue helps communities thrive
Land lease payments aren’t the only source of revenue from wind farms; they also help expand the tax base. In many states, wind increases property tax funds by millions of dollars. For example, in Colorado increased property tax revenue from wind could near $19 million a year by 2030.
When our team visited a wind farm in the northeastern part of the state, in a town called Peetz, we heard that the local fire department had been using hand-me-down trucks in poor condition from other counties. Some locals joked that the old fire trucks couldn’t make it up a hill. However, after a wind farm was built, the resulting tax base expansion enabled the town to purchase brand new trucks.
Since around 70 percent of American wind farms are located in rural communities where median household incomes are lower than overall U.S. median incomes, lease payments and added tax revenue are doubly important. Overall, wind farm investment in such areas has exceeded $101 billion.
Wind farms mean local jobs
A final component in this economic picture concerns the jobs wind farms bring to a community.
In many rural areas, jobs are limited to agricultural professions. Young people that may want to pursue a different livelihood are often forced to move away because of a lack of options, even if they don’t want to leave their families and hometowns.
However, wind farms bring other opportunities for employment. Wind turbine technician is the fastest growing occupation in the country and presents another employment avenue for people who enjoy rural lifestyles.
Our team met with a wind farm operations and maintenance crew in Peetz, CO, and many of its members fell exactly into this category. Working as a wind turbine technician provided them with well-paying jobs while also allowing them to stay in the town they grew up in and loved, in close proximity to their extended families. The crew told us this option simply wasn’t available before the wind farm was built.
There are a multitude of different ways wind power brings resources and opportunities to local communities. Even better, the dollar amounts and job numbers will only increase as we continue to grow this American energy source, which will help rural towns thrive along the way.
Transition to renewable energy sector: the goal of these North American Oil and Gas Workers
Amid Price Plunge, North American Oil and Gas Workers Seek Transition to Renewable Sector TruthOut, 03 April 2016 00:00By Candice Bernd, “…….after years of working in an industry that one top climate scientist has called “the biggest carbon bomb on the planet,” Hildebrand came to realize that he was not the only oil worker in Alberta who felt “guilty about developing the infrastructure that is creating climate change.”
Opportunity in the Oil Plunge
Last spring, when oil prices began to fall, Hildebrand banded together with like-minded coworkers and began building an oil and gas worker-led nonprofit called “Iron & Earth,” which officially launched this month during a press conference in Edmonton. Through the nonprofit, the oil sands workers hope to help others who have been laid off diversify their skill sets and facilitate the necessary training to transition them to the renewable energy sector. They also want to help incorporate renewable energy projects into oil sands workers’ current scope of work…….
“We are a group of workers who not only want to diversify our work scope based on job need, but also based on a values-based mission, to ensure that we’re creating and building a future that’s going to be sustainable,” Hildebrand told Truthout. “The drop in oil prices was certainly a catalyst to help amplify these conversations, and created the pressure to … create a catch-all organization that’s going to make projects happen and get workers’ hands on some renewable energy projects.”
Moreover, not every oil worker with experience in Alberta’s oil sands needs to retrain in order to transition to the renewable sector, according to Hildebrand, who says a lot of trades are “directly transferable.” Hildebrand has worked on several renewable energy projects himself, including a biomass plant and the wind farm weather station that inspired him during his apprenticeship. “I didn’t require any retraining for that. All I required was the blueprints and the steel, and the facility to build it,” he said.
From Oil Sands to “Solar Skills”
Iron & Earth’s first project is its “Solar Skills” campaign to facilitate the retraining of 1,000 laid-off electricians from Alberta’s oil industry, to help build 100 solar installations on public buildings throughout the province beginning this fall. In the future, as the group takes on different campaigns focused on geothermal, biomass, biofuel and wind energy, they hope to attract other kinds of oil and gas workers, such as pipefitters and iron workers, as well as workers from other building trades, to retrain in those sectors………http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/35477-amid-price-plunge-north-american-oil-and-gas-workers-seek-transition-to-renewable-sector
British churches going for renewable energy
Hundreds of UK churches set to go green, switch to renewable energy-charities LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – More than 400 churches in the United Kingdom plan to switch to clean energy providers for their light and heat, shifting spending of 1 million pounds ($1.4 million) to renewables from fossil fuels, two Christian charities said on Wednesday.
The move is part of the Big Church Switch, an initiative launched in February by charities Christian Aid and Tearfund, which urged UK churches and households to use clean sources of energy instead of carbon-emitting fossil fuels.
Their online platform connects those who sign up with energy experts, promising to find them the best renewable deal by negotiating with energy providers.
“As individuals and churches we have a choice in how we treat the earth, how we spend our money, how we power our homes and our buildings,” David Walker, the Anglican bishop of Manchester, said in a statement.
“By creating technology which can turn wind and sunshine into clean and renewable energy, humans continue to benefit from the gift of creation. Making the most of this bountiful harvest is a common sense way for us to roll back the ravages of climate change and ensure we are taking an active role in being part of the solution.”……..http://www.reuters.com/article/us-energy-renewables-church-idUSKCN0WW1QG
China is building a national electricity grid
Like the US, China wants a national electricity grid. Unlike the US, China’s just building it. Vox, by David Roberts on March 30, 2016, Wind and sunlight are often concentrated in sparsely populated, remote areas. Getting wind and solar power to the population centers where it’s needed involves building long-distance power lines. Lots of them.
Earlier this week I wrote about a new long-distance power line in the US and the long, slow path it took to win approval. It was proposed in 2009; construction is expected to begin next year and finish in 2020. Like everything involving electricity in the US, it had to navigate a skein of overlapping jurisdictions, multiple state and local authorities, and federal rules. Every landowner and stakeholder had their say.
Like the US, China aspires to build a comprehensive national grid that can carry energy from where it’s generated to where it’s needed. Unlike the US, China isn’t forcing each piece of that system to go through a Byzantine series of bespoke processes and reviews. It’s just building, building, building like crazy.
China’s renewable energy is bottled up
China has the same problem the US does: Its most concentrated wind and sunlight are found in remote areas (in the north and west), distant from the populous industrial cities where the power is needed (in eastern coastal regions).
For years, the government has pushed a rapid buildout of renewable energy; the country now boasts the highest renewable energy growth rates and the most wind and solar capacity of any country in the world.
But now it has, at least temporarily, overbuilt. In those energy-dense regions, there is more wind and solar capacity than there is transmission to carry it. So a lot of that power is going unused.
China’s transmission lines will be big, and hooking up wind and solar will be mandatory
Because everything is bigger in China, the country is not building mere high-voltage transmission lines, like those being built (slowly) in the US. It’s building ultra high-voltage (UHV) lines.
By way of comparison: The US Plains & Eastern Clean Line, the high-voltage direct-current line from Oklahoma to Tennessee I wrote about the other day, will run at about 600 kilovolts, give or take. UHV lines run at 800kV, even up to 1000kV.
Building a countrywide grid is one of the government’s top priorities. According to Reuters, “China currently has 17 UHV transmission lines in operation or under construction.”…………http://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/11332900/china-long-distance-transmission
Global electricity network – China’s plan
China Unveils Proposal for $50 Trillion Global Electricity Network
BEIJING — China has unveiled a proposal for a $50 trillion global electricity network that would help fight pollution and the effects of climate change.
The plan envisions linking existing and future solar farms, wind turbines and electricity plants in Asia, Europe, Africa and the Americas, according to the head of State Grid Corporation of China.
The proposal is in its initial stages and would require huge investment from around the world. If it goes ahead, it would be the world’s largest infrastructure project. It could be operational by 2050, according to backers.http://www.nbcnews.com/business/energy/china-unveils-proposal-50-trillion-global-electricity-network-n548376
China eyes export opportunities for global super grid BEIJING, March 31. China’s biggest power transmission company has signed deals with three Asia-Pacific investors to help push its ambition to build a cross-border energy super grid that will help combat climate change, integrate renewable energy sources and boost exports.
http://in.reuters.com/article/china-power-grid-idINL3N173205
R** China’s State Grid envisions $65 trillion world power network
Could a global network be the world’s best bet for overcoming resource scarcity, pollution and climate change?
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/chinas-state-grid-envisions-65-trillion-world-power-network/news-story/385fc93c6fb9aa3236505a44f1be66d1
Co-operation on super grid – China, Pakistan, South Korea
Pakistan, China working to build interconnection power grid: Secy BEIJING – The Ministry of Water and Power and State Grid Corporation of China are working closely to build an interconnection power grid between Pakistan and China so that both the countries could tap each other’s energy potential, said Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power Muhammad Younus Dagha in Beijing on Thursday.
Speaking at the Global Energy Interconnection Conference, the secretary said once the grid was completed, Pakistan would be able to meet its energy demands as per its requirements.http://nation.com.pk/business/01-Apr-2016/pakistan-china-working-to-build-interconnection-power-grid-secy
‘Asia Super Grid’ eyed by Softbank boss takes embryonic step Softbank Group Corp.’s hopes of building a cross-border power grid in Northeast Asia got a welcome nod March 30 when a feasibility study was agreed in Beijing.
SBG, along with State Grid Corp. of China, Russia’s power transmission and distribution company PJSC Rosseti and Korea Electric Power Corp. of South Korea, hopes the grid fired by renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power will be operating by around 2020.http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201603310070.html
Both Coal and Nuclear Electricity Generation Will Be Severely Affected By Hotter Climate
HOW A HOTTER CLIMATE DESTROYS THERMAL ELECTRICITY GENERATION Earth Techling, BY SUSAN KRAEMER MARCH 30, 2016Both hydropower and conventional thermal combustion electricity is depleted in a hotter new climate.
A new paper published at Nature Climate Change, Power-generation system vulnerability and adaptation to changes in climate and water resources provides a comprehensive look at how two categories of power generation will be impacted by climate change on a global level.
The study looked at both thermal power stations (that depend on the combustion of fossil fuels, biomass or uranium), and also at hydropower systems.
Hydropower relies directly on abundant flow in falling water from mountain snow melt, while each type of thermal energy requires a lot of water to boil to make steam to drive turbines, and water to cool off the boiled water as it is discharged.
Unlike solar PV and wind power, thermal electric power stations are totally dependent on adequate water supplies, at cool water temperatures
The estimates in the study are based on an assumption that 80% of the world’s electricity is generated thermally – coal, gas, nuclear, biomass – with an additional 17% generated using hydropower. (Only 3% of global energy comes from PV and wind, according to the study*.)
(*The figures originated from a 2009 paper from the IEA – so it’s based on 2008 data. The IEA has been fairly notorious for undercounting renewables for some time, as the adoption rate has increased exponentially, so in the future, it is unlikely that 80% will still be thermal.)
As of now, however, of all water taken from rivers and lakes; the percentage used in thermal power generation amounts to about 50% in the UK and about 40% in the US.
With so much electricity generation so dependent on water, the study shows just how vulnerable is the world’s combustion-based energy supply in a hotter, drier world, when water will be warmer and droughts and heat waves longer and more frequent in many regions.
The paper is one of several that look at the impact of a hotter climate on thermal electricity generation, between coal, gas, biomass and nuclear. Two more quantify the effects on electricity costs.
How rising temperatures cause rising cost: droughts reduce cheap hydropower
As Californians have just experienced, hotter temperatures have already begun to result in the droughts long predicted for the entire Southwest US by climate scientists as the 21st century continues to warm.
What California has just seen is that when droughts deepen, mountain reservoirs and lakes and rivers dry up, and hydropower dries up with them………
How thermal power is reduced as water temperatures increase:
The changes that higher temperatures bring not only deplete water flow, impacting hydropower, but also act to warm the water that is needed to cool discharged water from thermal power plants. This warmer water, both in rivers and the ocean, also reduces electricity production.
Because of rules governing environmental degradation, thermal plants that essentially boil water must shut down if the water used for cooling gets too warm.
Discharged water temperature is monitored to ensure that coal and nuclear plants don’t discharge water that is too hot, endangering wildlife in surrounding waterways.
But already in 2007, during a heat wave that contributed to river water reaching an astounding 90 °F, the Tennessee Valley Authority had to shut down a nuclear plant due to hot river water in Kentucky.
During the heat wave in Europe in 2003 and 2006; 17 nuclear plants across Germany, France, Spain and Romania had to idle production or shut down entirely because the waterways normally used to cool down boiled water coming out of the electricity plants was too warm to discharge hot water into.
Shutting down or idling plants reduces generation and raises electricity prices because the lowered output of electricity results in higher prices per unit of generation
Paper assesses global costs of thermal generation in a hotter water future
In a third paper published at Norges Handelshøyskole, Electricity Prices, River Temperatures and Cooling Water Scarcity, a future of higher costs for thermal electricity is predicted as a direct result of the warmer water temperatures caused by climate change. In the longer term, these costs could become unsupportable.
The study co-author Øivind Anti Nilsen estimated that even as little as a one degree rise in average river temperatures will result in almost a 4% percent increase in electricity prices, over the course of a week.
“The analysis shows that higher temperatures lead to reduced production in power plants and hence higher electricity costs. Prices shoot up”, explained Nilsen, a co-author of the paper, and professor at the Department of Economics at Norges Handelshøyskole.
“The higher the temperature, the lower the power plant’s efficiency. Prices therefore rise in line with the temperature,” said Nilsen
“Many people who work on the effects of climate change have overlooked these price effects and their implications,” he said.
These increasing costs of climate change will be felt in the US as much as in Europe, because in the US, the thermal energy industry accounts for as much as 40% of all freshwater withdrawals, according to the US Department of Energy
This effect will only continue to increase in the future, as the world sees more frequent and hotter heat waves. Yet the world continues to build thermal plants that are dependent on a diminishing resource – cool water.
The Arabian Gulf region already has one of the highest ocean temperatures in the world, reaching above 95°F in the summer. Despite this inability to act as a cooling resource, the Arabian Gulf is to provide the cooling for two proposed nuclear plants, a 1 GW nuclear plant from a Russian manufacturer, and another much larger one, comprising four adjoined 1.4 GW units, that is made in Korea.
So, which regions will be most affected?
“In particular the US, southern South America, southern Africa, central and southern Europe, Southeast Asia and southern Australia are vulnerable regions,” said Dr Michelle van Vliet, a researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and lead author of Power-generation system vulnerability and adaptation to changes in climate and water resources.
“This is because declines in mean annual streamflow are projected combined with strong increases in water temperature under changing climate.”
One more reason to abandon thermal combustion for making electricity. http://earthtechling.com/2016/03/how-a-hotter-climate-destroys-thermal-electricity-generation/
“Clean coal” technology is not working
Technology to Make Clean Energy From Coal Is Stumbling in Practice, NYT, By IAN AUSTEN MARCH 29, 2016 OTTAWA — An electrical plant on the Saskatchewan prairie was the great hope for industries that burn coal.
In the first large-scale project of its kind, the plant was equipped with a technology that promised to pluck carbon out of the utility’s exhaust and bury it underground, transforming coal into a cleaner power source. In the months after opening, the utility and the provincial government declared the project an unqualified success.
But the $1.1 billion project is now looking like a green dream.
Known as SaskPower’s Boundary Dam 3, the project has been plagued by multiple shutdowns, has fallen way short of its emissions targets, and faces an unresolved problem with its core technology. The costs, too, have soared, requiring tens of millions of dollars in new equipment and repairs.
“At the outset, its economics were dubious,” said Cathy Sproule, a member of Saskatchewan’s legislature who released confidential internal documents about the project. “Now they’re a disaster.”……….http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/business/energy-environment/technology-to-make-clean-energy-from-coal-is-stumbling-in-practice.html?_r=0
Public-private council launched to turn Fukushima into green energy hub
JIJI MAR 28, 2016 FUKUSHIMA – A public-private council tasked with devising measures to turn Fukushima Prefecture into a renewable energy hub has been set up in the city of Fukushima. …. (subscribers only) http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/28/national/social-issues/public-private-council-launched-make-fukushima-renewable-energy-hub/#.Vvtazpx97Gh
1 This Month
Shut down the radiation-damaged Heysham nuclear reactors now
To see nuclear-related stories in greater depth and intensity – go to https://nuclearinformation.wordpress.com
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
Say No to NASA’s Reckless Nuclear Reactor on the Moon
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