WHICH STATES ARE AMERICA'S ENERGY EFFICIENCY LEADERS?

WHICH STATES ARE AMERICA'S ENERGY EFFICIENCY LEADERS?

Top 10 States, 10 States Needing Most Improvement, Most-Improved States Highlighted: AK, AZ, CA, CT, KS, LA, MD, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NE, NY, NC, ND, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, VT, WA, WV, WY

Category: Investment, Renewable Energy

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Air Force Wind Turbines at Radar Station Convert Nay-Sayers to Cheerleaders

Here’s a crazy lede from a press release about Air Force wind turbines that came out earlier this week: “Change is blowing into Cape Cod Air Force Station as the 6th Space Warning Squadron receives two new wind turbines.” Crazy, because just a couple of years ago the U.S. Department of Defense expressed serious national security concerns about radar interference from wind farms, and now here they are plunking down a couple of wind turbines right in the middle of a radar station. However, before the alarm bells go off, take a look at what’s changed over the past couple of years.

First off, let’s note that the full lede in that press release goes like this:
“Change is blowing into Cape Cod Air Force Station as the 6th Space Warning Squadron receives two new wind turbines here saving an estimated $1 million in annual energy costs.”

The two turbines are expected to slash electricity costs at the station in half and pay for themselves in about twelve years. After that, they will provide the station with free electricity for up to 13 years, assuming they reach their 20-25 lifespan.

The press release is a bit vague on the details but apparently the station currently receives electricity from an oil-fired power plant. From that benchmark the Air Force expects that the two turbines combined will cut carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxide emissions by 2,000 metric tons per year.

So, what’s changed? In this instance, perhaps nothing. There are different kinds of radar systems for different purposes. This one is for “space situational awareness” and for tracking sea-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles as well as satellites, and it’s possible that wind turbines don’t make a difference for that kind of system.

In general, though, wind turbines are recognized as a threat to radar operations, and by the mid-2000's it became obvious that the growing wind industry in the U.S. was on a collision course with military radar systems. In response, the Department of Homeland Security commissioned a study on radar interference from wind turbines that was released in 2008.

The study noted that the conventional solution was location-based, meaning simply that wind turbines could not be located anywhere near a radar station.

That’s a rather primitive approach to solving a high-tech problem, and sure enough the study recommended exploring technological rather than geographical solutions.

Fast-forward just three years and you’ll see that one is at hand, at least in the UK. Within the past year, the UK’s Ministry of Defence has worked out a big deal with wind farm developers that has “unlocked” 4 gigawatts (GW) worth of blocked wind farms.

Something must be up in the U.S., too, because just last August the Department of Defense signed a memorandum of understanding with the Department of the Interior to explore the potential for wind power and other forms of alternative energy on millions of acres of land at western military bases.

Meanwhile, a U.S. company called Aveillant has come up with a new radar system for air traffic control at airports that it calls a Holographic Radar, which uses 3-D imagery to distinguish between airplane wings and turbine blades.

In any case, if radar systems can be redesigned to coexist with wind turbines, perhaps a technological solution will soon be at hand to ensure that wind turbines can coexist more safely with birds, too.

Managing the Magnitude of the Smart Grid

The envisioned, next-generation smart grid is an evolution that builds on decades of accumulated engineering lessons learned to make the ways that we deliver and receive electricity more intelligent, robust and reliable. But utilities, industry, policymakers and even consumers must not underestimate what is being undertaken here. The smart grid is not just a next step; it’s an interrelated range of steps—and, sometimes, leaps—that are all pointed toward the same set of revolutionary goals

It’s that potentially overwhelming magnitude of the enterprise that makes the emerging smart grid so complex and daunting. Consider the layers of change that are being carried out.
Let’s start with the shift from one-way to two-way power flow within a region of the grid. Instead of unidirectional power flowing—usually from a central-station plant to some sort of business or residential consumer—the long-range vision for the smart grid is predicated on bidirectional power flow, anywhere across the network. In this model, augmented with significantly more robust technologies for distributed generation and secure, real-time information exchange, any power user could also be a power producer. This shift also demands substantial change in regulations and business processes, as there are brand-new questions to be worked out in terms of who shoulders the costs of interconnection and how players on both ends of connections are to be equitably compensated.

Now let’s look at the proposed transition to a truly interstate and even international grid, in which power and information could be exchanged from one region to another. This, too, constitutes dramatic and multidimensional change. For example, the United States is today served by, effectively, three grids that are comprised of mostly proprietary systems that are purchased, deployed and operated more than 3,000 independent utilities, each with their own processes and legacy infrastructures. The smart grid envisions power and information flowing flexibly across existing regional jurisdictions, and that demands interoperability across equipment interfaces, data formats, content definitions, measurement units, etc.

These are historic changes that, in the end, stand to add up to ground-breaking benefits in terms of reliably satisfying unprecedented demand for power, reducing carbon footprint, keeping energy costs in check, enabling new business models and empowering consumer choice in the way power is used. The world’s smart-grid stakeholders will not only have to keep their eye on those long-term goals; for the smart grid to come about efficiently, they also will need to institute technology, business-process or regulatory changes within context of a comprehensive, long-range plan.

IEEE 2030® “IEEE Guide for Smart Grid Interoperability of Energy Technology and Information Technology Operation with the Electric Power System (EPS), End-Use Applications, and Loads,” for example, was created with just such a system-of-systems orientation. The document provides a roadmap to interconnection and interoperability, interface by interface across the grid. Utilities can use IEEE 2030 to inform their smart-grid infrastructure plans, and vendors can use it to help craft product strategies for the smart-grid market opportunity.

The basic model of electricity production, distribution and consumption has not fundamentally changed since the power industry’s inception, but the smart grid is brining new engineering principles, technological capabilities and business relationships into play. This is a journey that will ultimately have to play out over decades.
It will take leadership, the will to invest and take risk and commitment to a long-range plan to make it happen.

Memo to Federal and State Highway Agencies: Keep CMAQ Funds On Track to Cut Pollution

Congress included an innovative program in the 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) that for over 20 years has helped clean up the environment by providing funds for transportation projects designed to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) funds are provided to states based on the population of local areas in “non-compliance” or those “seeking to maintain compliance” with strict national standards for ozone and carbon monoxide set up under the landmark Clean Air Act. In the first 10 years of the program the number of person days of unhealthy air quality declined by 38 percent nationally with California leading the pack for spending funds and accounting for 97 percent of that improvement.
But MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century), passed by Congress June 29th, included a number of provisions that put CMAQ funds in immediate jeopardy and could siphon as much as half of the program’s annual $3.3 billion funding away from regions facing public health threats due to air pollution by providing “flexibility” to states on how the money is spent.

Such implementation would eviscerate CMAQ as an important tool for preserving public health, diverting investments in projects that reduce pollution from tailpipes through technologies such as new rail cars and buses as well as diesel vehicle retrofit projects. CMAQ funds have gone towards improved public transit, traffic signalization and other traffic flow improvements, trip reduction and ride-sharing initiatives, and bicycle facilities.

Thankfully, federal and state highway administrations can stay the course towards cleaner air, and guidance from the U.S. Transportation Department can make sure we the public know what is happening with our tax dollars. In this spirit earlier this week the NRDC, along with seven other organizations, sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood urging him to implement the law to maximize CMAQ’s effectiveness and to direct his staff to ensure states continue to use CMAQ for projects that actually clean the air and improve public health for the sake of our communities and environment. We recommended that:
State highway agencies be required to hold a 30-day comment period before diverting funding from regions with significant air pollution since accountability and transparency is the least taxpayers deserve in exchange for the additional latitude the new law provides; andFHWA issue a special rule allowing substantial flexibility in determining what sources localities and states can use to provide the newly required local match. Under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, CMAQ funds did not need to be matched.
When the EPA established new ground-level ozone standards in 2008 they mapped areas that have met or not met (attainment vs. nonattainment) the standards. The map is splattered with nonattainment areas from coast-to-coast, putting millions of Americans, especially those in major metropolitan areas, at risk from breathing air that contains ozone, a component of smog pollution that can trigger a variety of respiratory-related health problems, and is especially dangerous to people with lung disease, asthmatics, children, older adults and people who are active outdoors.

Ground-level ozone also damages vegetation and ecosystems, leads to reduced agricultural crop and commercial forest yields, reduced growth and survivability of tree seedlings, and increased susceptibility to diseases, pests and other stresses such as harsh weather. The science is also clear that particulate matter or soot, especially fine particles, can cause severe health damage as well which explains a laudable change to CMAQ -- 25 percent of the money must be used to reduce such pollution in states challenged by it.
EPA’s Final Nonattainment Areas for the 2008 Ozone Standards

I urge lawmakers to continue putting every penny of available CMAQ funds into improving our air quality, the original intent of the program. Those of us who breathe air can't afford the environmental or health-related consequences of not doing so.

Tidal Power Capacity Potential in the UK Estimated at 153 GW

There are 153 GW of potential tidal and wave power capacity in the UK, according to a new report from the Crown Estate. The new report was commissioned to help predict the future of the technology.

The report from the Crown Estate underlines the enormous energy potential in the UK’s marine environment. To harness this enormous 153 GW of tidal power capacity, there are three primary types of technology that will be needed — tidal stream devices, tidal range barrage schemes, and tidal range lagoon schemes.

“The report predicts tidal stream devices could produce 95 terawatt hours (TWh) a year from 32GW of installed capacity, tidal range barrage schemes could supply 96 TWh/year from 45GW of capacity, and tidal range lagoon schemes could produce 25TWh/year, drawing on 14GW of capacity.”

And there is also the potential for “27GW of wave energy capacity, which could produce 69TWh of electricity a year.”

The authors of the report say that the figures for the different technologies should be interpreted separately, and that all of the results remain theoretical for now.

According to Rob Hastings, the director of the Crown Estate energy and infrastructure portfolio, the report is intended to be a reference to help in the development of the industry and associated policies.
“While the science of wave and tidal resource assessment is still emerging, and future work will clarify the resources that are practically available, it is clear that wave and tidal energy could contribute substantially to the UK’s electricity needs,” he said.

“Improving understanding about the extent and locations of resources will help to accelerate development in a sustainable way.”

The UK’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, recently visited the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney and had this to say:

“[EMEC is a huge asset to the development of wave and tidal energy in the UK and has helped secure UK leadership in the global market.
“The UK has the largest wave and tidal resource in Europe, which could produce 20 per cent of current UK electricity demand and cut carbon emissions.”

US 'Solar Zones' in Place, Ready for Big Projects

The Obama administration on Friday gave final approval to a plan that opens up 285,000 acres in 17 zones in six Western states for streamlined utility-scale solar power development. The Department of the Interior said the fast-track sites are “characterized by excellent solar resources, good energy transmission potential, and relatively low conflict with biological, cultural and historic resources.”

The Programmatic Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development doesn’t limit such power plants to the solar energy zones, but the benefits to siting projects in them will be substantial. The government’s major land caretaker, the Bureau of Land Manaagment, has committed to “facilitating faster and easier permitting in the SEZs, improving and facilitating mitigation, facilitating permitting of needed transmission to the SEZs, encouraging solar development on suitable adjacent nonfederal lands, and providing economic incentives for development in SEZs.”

image via BrightSource Energy

The Department of the Interior said that if fully built out, solar projects in the zones could produce some 23,700 megawatts of electricity, enough to power around 7 million American homes.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed the Record of Decision codifying the plan in Las Vegas on Friday, joined there by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), proving that even in the face of a recalcitrant Congress, the executive branch has tools to make things happen.

“Energy from sources like wind and solar have doubled since the President took office, and with today’s milestone, we are laying a sustainable foundation to keep expanding our nation’s domestic energy resources,” Salazar said in a statement. “This historic initiative provides a roadmap for landscape-level planning that will lead to faster, smarter utility-scale solar development on public lands and reflects President Obama’s commitment to grow American made energy and create jobs.”

image via the White House
There are zones in six states, but that’s a little bit misleading: Of the 285,000 acres, more than half – 147,910 – are in California’s Riverside County, which borders Orange County on its western flank and then stretches all the way east across the Mojave and Colorado deserts to Arizona.

Pre-Obama, no big solar energy projects had been permitted on public lands. But according to the Interior Department, under Obama 33 renewable energy projects have been approved for construction on or involving public lands, including 18 solar plants, seven wind farms and eight geothermal plants. In May, the first of those big projects –  Enbridge Silver State North, a 50-megawatt solar PV array 40 miles south of Las Vegas – went online.

Windstrument Wind Turbine Provides Renewable Energy With its Orchid-like Design

Asahi Kasei Plastics N.A. is working with Unified Energies International to develop the Windstrument, a wind turbine that aims to bring affordable renewable energy to the world.

The Windstrument is developed for both residential use and utility-scale projects, including entire communities, industrial centers, and agricultural groups. The rooftop or pole-mounted system is affordable, quiet, powerful, bird-safe, and scalable. The device was extensively tested in Jacobs/Ford Detroit wind tunnel and field tested for over 3 years in one of the harshest climates on earth. Thanks to its beautiful orchid-like design (which can be adapted to local environments), the Windstrument is anything but an eyesore.



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