Category Archives: wind energy

A big blow for Big Coal in Wisconsin

by s1cx54s Posted on April 24, 2013

A big blow for Big Coal in Wisconsin

By John Upton

Department of Energy

The Nelson Dewey coal plant along the Mississippi River will be shut down.

Wisconsinites will be breathing a lot easier after another coal-fired power plant is shuttered and two more are overhauled to reduce air pollution.

The coming improvements are courtesy of the EPA’s latest legal victory over polluting coal-plant operators. The EPA and the Sierra Club reached a settlement with Wisconsin Power and Light Company and other utilities following allegations of Clean Air Act violations.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Under the settlement, filed in federal court in Madison on Earth Day, the utilities will be assessed a civil penalty of $2.45 million for alleged violations of air pollution laws over the years. …

But the big-ticket item in the settlement is the nearly $1.2 billion the utilities are spending to keep the largest of the coal plants operating by adding more modern pollution controls. …

By agreeing to stop burning coal at the Nelson Dewey plant in Cassville and two of the three boilers in Sheboygan, that means 590 megawatts of coal will be retired, or the equivalent of one large modern coal plant.

Statewide, including other coal plant settlements, the Sierra Club estimates that over 1,500 megawatts of coal power have been retired, or about 17% of the state’s fleet of coal plants.

“Over the last several years, Wisconsin has effectively begun to transition away from our oldest, dirtiest sources of coal-powered electricity and made way for 21st-century clean energy technology,” said Jennifer Feyerherm, a Sierra Club organizer, in a statement. “Today’s settlement marks yet another victory for clean air and healthier Wisconsinites.”

The EPA says the new settlement agreement will save lives, prevent lung and heart disease, and reduce haze and acid rain. 

As David Roberts has explained, it’s not only pollution laws that are causing problems for coal in the U.S. Coal just isn’t as economical as it used to be. It’s cheaper to burn natural gas nowadays, and prices of solar and wind power have also been plummeting.

Too bad Wisconsin has been lagging behind in wind energy. Time to start ramping that up.

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A big blow for Big Coal in Wisconsin

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, ONA, Plant !t, solar, solar panels, solar power, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on A big blow for Big Coal in Wisconsin

Fracking drives potentially explosive demand for potentially explosive ammonia factories

by Emil8up51 Posted on April 20, 2013

Fracking drives potentially explosive demand for potentially explosive ammonia factories

By John Upton

Shutterstock

The U.S. could soon be home to a lot more ammonia factories — not a comforting thought after a deadly explosion at an ammonia fertilizer plant in Texas on Wednesday evening. You can blame the fracking boom.

Ammonia is used to produce fertilizer, industrial explosives (like those used in mining), plastics, and other products. It’s becoming cheaper to produce in the U.S. because one of its main feedstocks is natural gas, and natural gas, in case you haven’t heard, is being fracked here at a breakneck pace and sold for bargain-basement prices.

Australian company Incitec Pivot this week announced [PDF] that it will be building a hulking new $850 million ammonia facility in Waggaman, La., just outside New Orleans. Construction could begin within six weeks, with the plant expected to come online in 2016. The announcement is being characterized by Australia’s media as a blow for the manufacturing sector Down Under, but Incitec Pivot can’t resist the siren song of cheap American natural gas.

From Australia’s The Age:

[Incitec Pivot] Chief executive James Fazzino said the boom in shale had enabled a “step change” in US gas prices.

“[The plant] takes our North American business and any future expansions back to US gas economics,” he said. “This is vital to this project because 80 per cent of the cost of making ammonia is gas.”

He’s not the only one who’s smelling opportunity. U.S.-based Mosaic announced in December that it may build a $700 million ammonia plant in St. James Parish, La. U.S.-based CHS Inc. said in September that it would construct a $1.2 billion ammonia plant in North Dakota. Also in September, Egypt’s largest company, Orascom Construction, said it would spend $1.4 billion to build a fertilizer plant in Iowa.

ICIS, a news source for the petrochemical industry, explains the trend:

Nitrogen fertilizer production in the US was in a state of decline, but is now in a period of transition. After 20 years of rising raw material costs and players closing and relocating plants, there is renewed impetus among domestic producers to invest in their own country.

Rather than looking to other regions, producers of ammonia and urea are eyeing new opportunities on US shores for the first time since the 1990s. According to engineering contractor ThyssenKrupp Uhde, this is the dawn of a new era with plenty of opportunity.

“The high demand for fertilizer plants in the US is clearly a consequence of the shale gas boom,” says Klaus Noelker, head of process department for ThyssenKrupp Uhde’s Ammonia and Urea Division.

The history of ammonia production and storage is littered with spectacular accidents. The owners of the Texas facility had previously assured regulators that their operation posed no serious safety risks. From The Dallas Morning News:

West Fertilizer Co. reported having as much as 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia on hand in an emergency planning report required of facilities that use toxic or hazardous chemicals.

But the report … stated “no” under fire or explosive risks. The worst possible scenario, the report said, would be a 10-minute release of ammonia gas that would kill or injure no one. The second worst possibility projected was a leak from a broken hose used to transfer the product, again causing no injuries.

The new planned ammonia facilities will be a lot bigger than the one in West, Texas. Here’s hoping they’ll also be a lot safer.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Fracking drives potentially explosive demand for potentially explosive ammonia factories

Posted in Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, Safer, solar, solar panels, Uncategorized, wind energy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Fracking drives potentially explosive demand for potentially explosive ammonia factories

Wisconsin left way, way behind in wind energy boom

by jiigy3e Posted on April 19, 2013

Wisconsin left way, way behind in wind energy boom

By John Upton

The state of Wisconsin is seriously lagging in the wind power boom that’s sweeping much of the rest of the nation — and it’s not because it lacks for wind.

From Midwest Energy News:

In 2012, a year that saw a nationwide surge in wind farm installations as developers rushed to beat expiring tax credits, Wisconsin added only 18 megawatts of capacity.

By comparison, Michigan and Ohio, with much lower wind potential, had already installed 138 MW and 308 MW in just the first three quarters.

Compared to other Midwestern states, Wisconsin ranks at the bottom in both wind projects under construction and in queue, according to the American Wind Energy Association.

Challenges to wind energy have come from nearly every level of government.

Shutterstock

/ Ralf BroskvarA coal-fired power plant pumping out pollution in Sheboygan County, where a small town is worried about the health effects of four proposed wind turbines.

Gov. Scott Walker (R) has pushed legislation that would hamper wind developments, and some state lawmakers and local officials have also tried to throw roadblocks in front of the wind industry.

The town of Sherman, Wis., for example, is kicking up a fuss over a wind developer’s application to build four wind turbines, enough to power 4,000 homes. Town officials have asked the state to impose a moratorium on pending wind farm applications.

From the Sheboygan Press:

[U]nder state law, town leaders were given 45 days … to review the developer’s application to ensure it’s complete. Once the application is deemed complete, they’ll have another 90 days to hold a public hearing and then vote to approve or reject it.

But Sherman Town Chairman William Goehring said town officials feel that the state-imposed time line should be put on hold given unresolved questions about potential health risks with wind farms and a lack of clarity under state law on how wind farms can meet noise standards.

Never mind that there’s no scientific evidence that wind turbines make people sick (though they do make some people annoyed).

When will the Badger State pull its head out of the snow and join the rest of the nation in the wind- and solar-powered energy and jobs boom?

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Wisconsin left way, way behind in wind energy boom

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Silly New York town board drops ban on talking about fracking

by donkorleone842 Posted on April 19, 2013

Silly New York town board drops ban on talking about fracking

By John Upton

Shutterstock /

Michael G McKinne

No, you crazy members of the town board of Sanford, N.Y. No, you cannot ban people from asking you to ban fracking during town board meetings.

The board members grew weary of constantly hearing from constituents on the controversial practice of hydrofracking for natural gas. Fracking is not currently allowed in New York, but if that changes, residents of the town, which is near the border of the heavily fracked state of Pennsylvania, fear that their community would be one of the first fracked and their water supply one of the first poisoned.

So the board passed a law in September that banned anybody from mentioning the issue during public comment periods at its meetings. Instead, the board members suggested that fracking opponents put their concerns in writing to the town clerk for review.

Which was obviously illegal. After the Natural Resources Defense Council and Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking to reverse what had been dubbed a “gag order,” the town board relented. It voted last week to rescind the obviously illegal order.

From an NRDC blog:

With its action, the Town Board has rightly recognized the validity of residents’ concerns about this controversial heavy industrial activity moving into their backyards, and the need for their local representatives to hear them.  This is especially important in light of the board’s history of support for fracking.  This is a vindication of the right to free speech.  And it sends a message to communities everywhere.  As Americans, we have the right to speak up when we feel threatened.  And it is our government’s responsibility to listen.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Silly New York town board drops ban on talking about fracking

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Wind produces almost twice as much power as nuclear in California

by Natalia681 Posted on April 16, 2013

Wind produces almost twice as much power as nuclear in California

By John Upton

Shutterstock

/ Tim MessickBlowing away the competition in California

When winds were at their strongest in California this month, wind turbines were providing the state with nearly twice as much electricity as nuclear reactors.

The Golden State saw a surge in new wind farms last year, taking its wind power capacity to 5,544 megawatts. That put it second in the nation behind Texas, which has more than 12,000 MW of installed wind capacity.

From the Los Angeles Times:

California also ranks second in the U.S. in the amount of employment associated with the wind industry, with more than 7,000 jobs, the [American Wind Energy Association] said.

Nationally, wind energy production grew 28% in the U.S. last year in what AWEA describes as the industry’s best year to date.

“We had an incredibly productive year in 2012,” said Rob Gramlich, interim chief executive of AWEA. “It really showed what this industry can do and the impact we can have with a continued national commitment to renewable energy.”

The wind isn’t blowing everywhere all the time, so actual electricity production from wind turbines is never as high as total capacity. But storms earlier this month pushed wind power generation in California above 4,000 MW. From Greentech Media:

Winds that reached over 90 miles per hour on mountain ridges blew down through the wind farms in California’s Altamont, San Gorgonio, and Tehachapi Passes and across the state’s wind installations, raising their outputs to a record-shattering 4,196 megawatts on [the evening of April 7], according the California Independent System Operator …

Peak wind output came at 6:44 PM. Total system generation was 23,923 megawatts at the time, making wind 17.5 percent of the state’s electricity supply.

The total system peak output was 27,426 megawatts at 4:07 p.m. that afternoon. In the hour before that, with the total system producing 23,145 megawatts, California got 6,677 megawatts of its electricity, or 28.8 percent, from renewables.

By comparison, the state has two nuclear power plants. Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors are capable of producing up to 2,200 MW of power. San Onofre hasn’t generated any electricity since January 2012, when radiation leaked into the ocean from damaged tubes, although regulators are considering allowing operations to resume soon at reduced capacity.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Wind produces almost twice as much power as nuclear in California

Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, solar, solar panels, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Wind produces almost twice as much power as nuclear in California

Michigan neighbors sue to shut down new wind farm

by Shelby Morris Posted on April 10, 2013

Michigan neighbors sue to shut down new wind farm

By John Upton

Lake Winds Energy Park

Lake Winds Energy Park sure looks peaceful, but 17 neighbors claim otherwise.

Neighbors of a 56-turbine wind farm built last year in Mason County, Mich., have filed a lawsuit claiming that the turbines have negatively affected their health and wealth and should be shut down.

The lawsuit [PDF], filed by 17 property owners in a community along the east shore of Lake Michigan, alleges that Lake Winds Energy Park keeps them awake at night and has left them fatigued and stressed, unable to concentrate properly, and stricken with headaches, dizziness, nausea, and ringing and aching in the ears. They also say it has decreased their property values. They are seeking financial payouts and a shuttering of the facility.

Power plant developer Consumers Energy told MLive that it has met all permit requirements and is working to reduce the turbines’ impacts on neighbors:

Consumers Energy is reprogramming some of its turbines to account for the possibility that “shadow flicker” — a strobe effect when sunlight passes through moving blades — may carry further than earlier models predicted. The reprogramming should be complete by Monday, April 15, the company said. Wind turbines have shadow-flicker detection systems intended to stop blades from rotating when the sun hits them at an angle that affects neighboring residents.

Once a relative anomaly on the American landscape, wind farms have been popping up all over in recent years, helping the country move away from fossil fuels.

But with the growth of the wind sector has come a growing number of complaints about the shadows, flickers, and weird pulsing noises generated by turbines. A self-published 2009 book gave birth to the term “wind turbine syndrome,” a sickness characterized by the same ailments listed in the lawsuit.

Many scientists question whether such a syndrome even exists. For a paper published in this month’s Journal of Environmental Health [PDF], researchers reviewed a number of studies on the issue and found no evidence in the scientific literature that wind turbine syndrome is real. They did, however, find that wind turbines can be seriously annoying for neighbors:

At present, a specific health condition or collection of symptoms has not been documented in the peer-reviewed, published literature that has been classified as a “disease” caused by exposure to sound levels and frequencies generated by the operation of wind turbines. It can be theorized that reported health effects are a manifestation of the annoyance that individuals experience as a result of the presence of wind turbines in their communities.

Nonetheless, complaints of this supposedly debilitating syndrome have been growing since the term was introduced, mostly afflicting residents in communities where organized campaigns have been waged in opposition to wind energy farms. That led Australian researchers to conclude recently that people who live near wind turbines are being fooled into experiencing symptoms that the turbines do not actually cause.

We wish the people of Mason County the best of health. We trust they are not feigning sickness just to shut down a clean power source that they do not like, and we hope that efforts by wind energy companies can help reduce annoyances while still delivering a steady stream of renewable energy. We need that renewable energy to escape the clutches of fossil fuels — and we all know how sick the fossil fuels have made us and our world.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Michigan neighbors sue to shut down new wind farm

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Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

by Roger Frost Posted on April 8, 2013

Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Congratulations are in order for Italy, which last week acquired 43 wind and solar energy companies.

But this was not the result of a public scheme designed to reign in carbon emissions or put Italians in control of their energy future. It was the court-ordered consequence of an organized crime investigation — the biggest ever seizure of Mafia-linked assets.

From Agence France-Presse:

Italian police have seized assets worth $1.7bn from a Sicilian renewable energy developer in the biggest ever seizure of mafia-linked assets.

The police said on Wednesday that the assets, which include 43 wind and solar energy companies, 98 properties and 66 bank accounts, belonged to Vito Nicastri, a 57-year-old businessman nicknamed the “Lord of the Wind” for his prominent role in the business.

“This is a sector in which money can easily be laundered,” Arturo de Felice, head of Italy’s anti-Mafia agency, told SkyTG24 news channel.

“Operating in a grey area helped him build up his business over the years,” De Felice said.

It might be tempting to feel sympathetic toward a guy who pours ill-gotten funds into renewable energy. That temptation might evaporate, however, once you find out about some of the awful crimes he is accused of committing. Such as murdering his pregnant girlfriend. And it’s not just that the Mafia was investing crime proceeds in renewable energy — it was scamming the public out of subsidies intended to promote wind energy. From The Independent:

Nicastri … invested money made from extortion, drug sales and other illegal activities for the Sicilian Mafia’s most sought-after fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, who is believed to be the [Mafia syndicate] Cosa Nostra’s head boss.

In 2010, it emerged that Cosa Nostra was attempting to take millions of euros from both the Italian government and the European Union by snatching the generous grants on offer for investment in wind power and environmentally-friendly business.

General Antonio Girone, then head of the national anti-Mafia agency DIA, said Mr Nicastri had built up a huge alternative energy business at the behest of the organised crime syndicate.

In addition to halting the giant eco-scam, Italian prosecutors said the seizure of 66 bank accounts, as well as property and businesses, would be another body blow to Cosa Nostra’s leadership, which is already reeling from dozens of high-profile arrests in the past ten years.

So congratulations, Italians. Courtesy of the ongoing takedown of a reportedly very bad person, you have become the collective owners of some serious renewable energy generation capacity.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

Posted in ALPHA, alternative energy, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

by paczaizmon Posted on April 8, 2013

Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

By John Upton

Shutterstock

Congratulations are in order for Italy, which last week acquired 43 wind and solar energy companies.

But this was not the result of a public scheme designed to reign in carbon emissions or put Italians in control of their energy future. It was the court-ordered consequence of an organized crime investigation — the biggest ever seizure of Mafia-linked assets.

From Agence France-Presse:

Italian police have seized assets worth $1.7bn from a Sicilian renewable energy developer in the biggest ever seizure of mafia-linked assets.

The police said on Wednesday that the assets, which include 43 wind and solar energy companies, 98 properties and 66 bank accounts, belonged to Vito Nicastri, a 57-year-old businessman nicknamed the “Lord of the Wind” for his prominent role in the business.

“This is a sector in which money can easily be laundered,” Arturo de Felice, head of Italy’s anti-Mafia agency, told SkyTG24 news channel.

“Operating in a grey area helped him build up his business over the years,” De Felice said.

It might be tempting to feel sympathetic toward a guy who pours ill-gotten funds into renewable energy. That temptation might evaporate, however, once you find out about some of the awful crimes he is accused of committing. Such as murdering his pregnant girlfriend. And it’s not just that the Mafia was investing crime proceeds in renewable energy — it was scamming the public out of subsidies intended to promote wind energy. From The Independent:

Nicastri … invested money made from extortion, drug sales and other illegal activities for the Sicilian Mafia’s most sought-after fugitive, Matteo Messina Denaro, who is believed to be the [Mafia syndicate] Cosa Nostra’s head boss.

In 2010, it emerged that Cosa Nostra was attempting to take millions of euros from both the Italian government and the European Union by snatching the generous grants on offer for investment in wind power and environmentally-friendly business.

General Antonio Girone, then head of the national anti-Mafia agency DIA, said Mr Nicastri had built up a huge alternative energy business at the behest of the organised crime syndicate.

In addition to halting the giant eco-scam, Italian prosecutors said the seizure of 66 bank accounts, as well as property and businesses, would be another body blow to Cosa Nostra’s leadership, which is already reeling from dozens of high-profile arrests in the past ten years.

So congratulations, Italians. Courtesy of the ongoing takedown of a reportedly very bad person, you have become the collective owners of some serious renewable energy generation capacity.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

tweets

, posts articles to

Facebook

, and

blogs about ecology

. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants:

johnupton@gmail.com

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Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

Posted in ALPHA, alternative energy, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LG, ONA, solar, Uncategorized, wind energy, wind power | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Italy seizes wind and solar trove from Mafia

Two new bills aim to save California farmland from rampant sprawl

by gorso6 Posted on April 3, 2013

Two new bills aim to save California farmland from rampant sprawl

By Susie Cagle

California’s super-productive farmland is being overrun by development projects. Sprawly exurban housing development and even solar projects threaten to gobble up all the Golden State’s arable land. As of 2007, California was home to more than 25 million acres of cropland, but that’s shrinking by more than 1 percent each year, according to the American Farmland Trust.

All’s not lost, though: Two proposed bills could give a boost to California agriculture big and small, and potentially change the way the Golden State develops over the coming years.

First up: The Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act, AB 551. This would set up an optional program for counties to give residents breaks on their property taxes so long as they’re using the land to grow food. “One of the biggest obstacles to expanding urban agriculture within California is access to land. This legislation provides an incentive to private landowners to make more land available for urban agriculture, while at the same time enabling them to do so at a lowered cost, which is especially critical for the viability of commercial urban farms,” according to San Francisco based urban think tank SPUR.

For non-city dwellers, the California Farmland Protection Act, AB 823, packs a much bigger punch. The bill would require that developers protect one acre of farmland for every acre they build on, either by buying it themselves or bankrolling the purchase by another entity.

From the bill:

Dependent on land and natural resources, California agriculture is uniquely vulnerable to global warming. Global warming poses a serious threat to California agriculture with rising temperatures, constrained water resources, increases in extreme weather events, reduced winter chilling hours, and rising sea levels.

California agriculture is also uniquely positioned to provide climate benefits by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Research funded by the State Energy Resources Conservation and Development Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research program found that an acre of irrigated cropland emits 70 times fewer greenhouse gas emissions than an acre of urban land.

This bill wouldn’t just protect farms: It’s also an incentive to build more densely in a state that’s had a long history of serious suburb love. Save California farmland and grow its cities, all in one fell swoop? Yes, please.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Two new bills aim to save California farmland from rampant sprawl

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Texas cities roping in more wind energy

by Guadalupe Williams Posted on April 3, 2013

Texas cities roping in more wind energy

By John Upton

Shutterstock / Brandon SeidelThe electricity that powers Dallas is about to get a whole lot windier.

Something refreshing is about to blow into Dallas, Houston, and other oil-soaked Texan cities: wind energy. Lots of wind energy.

A wind-farm boom has been brewing in the blustery Texas panhandle, where wind turbines now provide 9.2 percent of the state’s electricity. That figure is growing quickly, with more than $3 billion expected to be spent on new wind generation during the next two years alone. Meanwhile, Sustainable Business reports that the world’s most powerful battery system is helping to store wind energy produced during off-peak times so that it can be sold when demand for electricity is highest.

But the state’s biggest cities are in the east, far away from the graceful wind turbines and snazzy batteries of the west, making it difficult to deliver the renewable energy into most of the state’s homes and offices.

That bottleneck will ease by the end of the year, when the state completes a scheduled $6.8 billion effort to double the capacity of power lines from western wind farms to its eastern municipalities. That will provide an even bigger market and new incentives for potential wind power developers eying opportunities in the Panhandle.

Again from Sustainable Business:

Texas leads the nation in installed wind capacity and grew 18% last year, adding over 1800 MW for a total of 12.2 gigawatts across more than 40 projects. Wind supplies 9.2% of all electricity generated in the state.

Texas is #3 in the country for the green jobs, with 227,532 in 2012.

Until now, utility Excel Energy has bought most of Texas’ wind energy, but the new transmission lines will finally be able to carry power from wind plants in the western part of the state to all metropolitan areas, including Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

So forget black gold, Texans! Your future is paved with … invisible gold. Or something.

John Upton is a science aficionado and green news junkie who

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Texas cities roping in more wind energy

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