Green Energy

Wind is good, no matter what some people might say, and it has the capacity to generate an awful lot of energy if enough investment is pumped into the infrastructure. Scottish power definitely believes that, and has announced that it will be selling off its conventional energy generation business to focus all of its attention on generating power from the wind. It’s the first major British energy company to do so.

Scottish Power has already shut down all of its coal power plants over the past decade, so all the non-windy stuff it had left were some gas and hydro-electric power stations. They’re being sold off to Drax for £702 million, and includes hydro-electric power schemes in Lanarkshire and Galloway, the Daldowie Fuel Plant (one of the largest sludge drying centres in Europe) and four power stations in England: Damhead Creek in Kent, Rye House in Hertfordshire, Shoreham in West Sussex and Blackburn Mill in Blackburn.

The current portfolio of wind turbines produce enough energy to power 1.2 million homes, and Scottish Power plans to invest a further £5.2 billion to double that capacity over the next four years. Which is good. Clean energy is good, though it still seems a bit to have sold off its stake in hydro-electric power. But you know, at least it’s not burning off fossil fuels.

Chief executive Keith Anderson said:

“This is a pivotal shift for Scottish Power as we realise a long term ambition. We are leaving carbon generation behind for a renewable future powered by cheaper green energy.

From today we can focus solely on making energy generation cheaper, cutting carbon quicker, building smart grids and connecting customers to renewable [sources].”

Retail giant Walmart signed a deal for 233 MW of utility-scale wind power from EDP Renewables, the companies announced Tuesday.

The deal with Bentonville, Arkansas-based Walmart includes three wind farms—all developed, owned and operated by EDP Renewables—in the states of Illinois and Indiana. The PPA details are as follows:

• 123 MW from the Bright Stalk Wind Farm (a 205 MW project in McLean County, Illinois, with start of operations expected in 2019;
• 60 MW from the Headwaters II Wind Farm (a 200 MW project in Randolph County, Indiana, with start of operations expected in 2020;
• 50 MW from the Harvest Ridge Wind Farm, formerly Broadlands Wind Farm (a 200 MW project in Douglas County, Illinois, with start of operations expected in 2019.

“Walmart has a goal to be supplied by 100 percent renewable energy and sourcing energy from wind farms developed by partners like EDP Renewables is a core component in the mix,” said Mark Vanderhelm, vice president of energy for Walmart.  “Wind energy is an important part of our energy portfolio, and Walmart plans to continue our efforts to pursue renewable energy projects that are right for our customers, our business, and the environment.”

“The declining cost of renewable power has led to an increase in clean energy procurement from companies like Walmart in recent years.  The continued commitment from corporate entities in procuring renewable energy speaks volumes about the importance and value of securing fixed, competitive pricing over the long-term,” said Miguel Prado, EDP Renewables North America CEO.  “EDP Renewables appreciates its partnership with Walmart and commends the company in its efforts to source all of its energy from renewable sources.”

EDP Renewables operates 797 MW of wind energy projects in Illinois and with the addition of the Bright Stalk Wind Farm and the Harvest Ridge Wind Farm, EDPR will further increase its footprint in Illinois, surpassing 1,200 MW of operational capacity by the end of next year.

EDPR also operates 801 MW of wind energy projects in Indiana.  With the completion of the construction of the 200 MW Meadow Lake VI Wind Farm, EDPR will exceed 1,000 MW— or 1 GW—of operational capacity by the end of 2018.

A recent report by the Wind-Solar Alliance indicated that large companies procured nearly four GW of utility-scale wind and solar in the U.S. through August of this year, breaking the previous high mark by 750 MW.

Wind energy is becoming a hot topic across the state, and the Illinois Commerce Commission said its growth has provided benefits from stabilizing energy costs to reducing carbon dioxide emissions and making the power grid more resilient.

Still, many challenges lie ahead, panelists said during a policy session last week.

The most significant issue is limitations companies face when trying to establish new wind farms. The necessity of using existing infrastructure to transport

energy produced limits the available areas for wind farm projects.

“Wind energy is one of the fastest growing sources of renewable energy in the United States and, in 2017, provided more than 6 percent of Illinois’ electric generation,” acting Illinois Commerce Commission Commissioner Anastasia Palivos said. “The state still has more wind power potential and about 600 megawatts of additional capacity is either under construction or in advanced development.”

As the energy sector moves to include more wind power, panelists said that could include the expansion of infrastructure.

In addition to discussions on the possibility and limitations for wind farms, members also discussed how wind farms create tax revenue for communities, create jobs, and lower property taxes, as well as provide economic development dollars.

Illinois’ revised Renewable Portfolio Standard calls for 25 percent of the state’s energy to be generated from renewable resources by 2025, of which 75 percent must come from wind and solar, said Elizabeth McErlean, an associate for Steptoe & Johnson LLP.

Homes and businesses in Bloomington-Normal planning to use solar energy are getting a price break.

Solar Bloomington-Normal 2.0 is a program through the Ecology Action Center and the company Straight Up Solar. It pledged to lower energy costs to all new customers by offering a 10-cent-per-watt rebate once it reached its maximum benchmark of 350 kilowatts. It recently achieved that milestone, bringing the number of homes and businesses with solar panels in the community to more than 60.

Straight Up Solar, the Ecology Action Center, and the Midwest Renewable Energy Association first combined in 2016, to sign up 30 homes and businesses to install solar panels. The program returned in May.

“We are hoping people realize that when it costs them less the more people participate, they will have a stronger incentive to share the information with other people to talk to their friends and their family and their coworkers about it,” EAC assistant director Larissa Armstrong said.

She added the group has hosted informational sessions to shed more light on solar energy.

The final session is 6 p.m. Tuesday at the EAC offices, 202 W. College Ave., Normal.

“We’ve had hundreds of people come to the presentations,” Armstrong said. “For whatever reason, it wasn’t the right time for them to go solar right now, but they still wanted to learn more about it, so they can share that information with other people who they know might be interested.”

Armstrong added the rebate will save the average homeowner up to $900, while solar energy users can expect to see a return on investment within six to 10 years, thanks to the combination of price breaks from group purchases of solar panels and federal and state incentives.

File under this one under D for Do as I do, not as I say. For all of President* Trump’s bluster over bringing back all the coal jobs, the US Department of Energy is still pursuing its renewable energy mission with gusto — at the expense of coal, of course. In the latest development, the agency announced plans to distribute $46 million in funding for new projects that position solar power as key player in the more resilient and secure electricity grid of the future.

In its pitch for proposals, DOE cites the “vital role” that solar power can play in “strengthening the nation’s ability to withstand disruptions, including cyber threats and natural disasters.”

U bet!

Natural Disasters And Grid Resiliency

The new $46 million investment in taxpayer dollars is especially interesting, in consideration of the power delivery disasters touched off last year by hurricanes Irma and Maria followed up by this year’s twin blows of Florence and Michael.

Local utilities are looking at a months-long recovery period for parts of Florida that were practically blown off the map by Micheal, mirroring the hit that Puerto Rico took last year.

Speaking of Puerto Rico, it didn’t help matters early on when a tiny company based in Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s tiny Montana hometown won a major restoration contract, even though it barely had any prior work under its belt (that would be Whitefish Energy, if you already didn’t guess), but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms (on top of another can of worms, but that’s a whole ‘nother can of worms).

The Solar Power Edge

Solar technology lends itself to hyper-local power generation, as evidenced by the plethora of solar panels springing up on rooftops all over the country.

Solar panels may seem as fragile as glass, but the resiliency of a recent solar installation on St. Croix — which was also in the path of Maria — demonstrates that PV [photovoltaic] installations can recover relatively quickly from storm damage.

Last spring the Energy Department took a hard look at the mess in Puerto Rico and recommended a more diverse and distributed approach to power generation, with a healthy dose of renewable energy mixed in.

PV installations are also easily scalable and transportable, and even portable. Once in place, they don’t need additional — and dangerous — fuel convoys to keep the juice flowing, a factor has stimulated a lot of interest within the US Department of Defense.

Distributed energy generation received a $50 million funding love tap from the Energy Department last fall. The monies went to establish a new Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, with a mission to do this:

…develop and validate innovative approaches to enhance the resilience of distribution systems – including microgrids – with high penetration of clean distributed energy resources (DER) and emerging grid technologies at regional scale.

$46 Million For Resilient Solar Power

It looks like the folks over at the Grid Mod Lab haven’t let any grass grow under their feet. Yesterday’s $46 million funding announcement from the Department of Energy supports the lab’s mission with a focus on solar power:

With more and more solar generation coming online every day, grid operators need the tools and technologies to ensure that the electric grid is resilient and energy services are delivered to critical infrastructure. These projects will develop and validate control strategies, real-time system monitoring, robust communications and other technologies to make solar power at the bulk power and distribution levels more resilient.

A resilient and reliable electricity grid is essential not only to the security of the infrastructure powering our economy, but also to the everyday lives of all Americans…

Ya don’t say!

More Bad News For Coal

The new PV funding announcement comes under the acronym ASSIST for Situational Awareness and Resilient Solutions for Critical Infrastructure.

The goal is to “strengthen the integration of solar on the electricity grid, especially at critical infrastructure sites, improve the resilience of the nation’s electricity grid, and streamline technology transfer challenges:”

Solar generation can play a critical role in ensuring continuity of service at these sites during widespread disruptions from either man-made or natural threats. These projects will help to develop tools that enhance the situational awareness of solar systems on both the distribution and transmission grid and validate technologies that improve the security and resilience of the grid.

None of this is good news for the struggling US coal industry, which has historically relied on large scale, centralized power generation customers to keep the mines humming.

The shortcomings of coal power production were also in full display in the aftermath of Florence as leftover ash from coal power production flooded into waterways in North Carolina (btw that’s far from the first time that the byproduct of coal power production has featured in an environmental disaster — anyone remember the Tennessee coal ash spill of 2010?).

More to the point, episodes like Maria and Michael underscore the central problem facing a nation faced with the reality of climate change, as major storms grow more frequent and more intense. Large, centralized power plants can hunker down to avoid storm damage, but power lines are highly vulnerable. Getting power back into hard-hit areas is not so much a challenge for capacity as it is for distribution.

The ASSIST program deals with a related problem. When one part of a large, interconnected grid experiences a catastrophic disruption, the ripple effect can spread throughout an entire region — like, say, the entire northeastern region of the US.

ASSIST funding will go to two related areas. One is an early stage program aimed at developing “unique and innovative solutions that increase grid operators’ situational awareness of solar PV systems deployed throughout the electricity system at strategic locations.” The idea is to keep the grid moving by coordinating fleets of solar installations in various locations.

The second area pursues projects that are already working towards the field validation phase:

Field tests should demonstrate how these solutions can enhance resiliency of the grid with high penetrations of solar systems. These solutions should identify the strategic location of solar PV systems that will ensure that critical infrastructure will have power during widespread disruptions from either man-made or natural threats.

Interested? Get your letter of intent over to the Energy Department by the close of business on November 14 to qualify for a piece of the $46 million pie.

Meanwhile, CleanTechnica is reaching out to Duke Energy for an update on the impact of hurricanes Florence and Michael on its power generating facilities in North Carolina. The company still relies on coal but is also an early solar power adopter, so stay tuned for more on that.