New 146 Megawatt Wind Farm in Missouri Reveals the Future Beyond Fossil Fuels
Atchison County, Missouri has just dedicated the new Farmers City Wind Power Project, consisting of 73 turbines that produce 146 megawatts of clean power, enough for 33,000 homes. In stark contrast to the destruction caused by fossil fuel harvesting, the massive renewable energy project will coexist with farmland, which will continue to yield corn and soybeans.
Between the poverty and health impacts of mountaintop coal mining in Appalachia and the devastating effect of BP’s oil spill on businesses on the Gulf Coast, large numbers of Americans have sacrificed their well being to the risks involved in digging fossil fuels out of the earth. The Atchison wind project shows that large scale energy projects don’t have to be the enemy of the local economy, environment, and public health.
The wind farm was constructed by Iberdrola Renewables, and it occupies about 14,000 acres leased from 44 different landowners. However, the actual footprint of the project only takes up about 1% of that land. That’s a win-win for the landowners, who can continue farming while also getting income from the leases. Like conventional fossil fuel harvesting, the wind farm also pays taxes that support local roads and schools. Atchison County Commissioner Marlin Logan noted in a recent press release that the wind project has already provided an economic boost to the county, as well as a boost for civic pride in being the host of locally produced energy.
A $100 Million Pool for Solar Financing
PG&E Corporation, the California utility holding company, has created a $100 million tax equity fund to finance residential solar installations by SunRun, a San Francisco startup that leases photovoltaic arrays to homeowners.
The fund managed by a PG&E subsidiary, Pacific Energy Capital II, is the largest single solar leasing pool to date, according to the company, and marks the growing interest of utilities in the renewable energy financing business.
“We’re in somewhat of a unique position in that roughly half of the nation’s rooftop solar installations are in our service territory,” Brian Steel, PG&E’s senior director of corporate strategy, said in an interview. “We’re at the proverbial ground zero of these new technologies and so perhaps more than any utility holding company in the country we have a strategic imperative to get ahead of the curve through having a propriety seat at the table with a partner like SunRun.”
Quantum Dots Could double Solar Efficiency
Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin are hot on the heels of a discovery that could more than double the efficiency of solar cells. The trick is to use tiny nanoscale crystals called quantum dots to capture more of the available energy in sunlight, including energy at the high end of the scale. The researchers estimate that the use of high energy sunlight could boost efficiency from its present rate of about 31% for conventional solar cells, up to a whopping 66%.
What this all means is the potential for solar energy to become cost-competitive with fossil fuels at an increasingly rapid pace. Paired with next-generation flywheels and other new energy storage technologies, intermittent sources such as solar and wind can provide an energy stream that is every bit as steady and reliable as oil, coal, or natural gas.
Gearing up for an Industrial Biomass Boom
How long will the biochar produced by Preseco’s biomass reactor keep carbon out of the atmosphere?
Probably at least until the next ice age, according to technical manager Sampo Tukiainen. Unearthed cooking pits formerly used by roving bands of hunters in the region still contain the char generated by their cooking fires.
“Bugs cannot digest it so it stays in the ground,” Tukiainen said. “And putting this carbon back into the soil makes it more productive.”
Preseco’s system — a collection of boilers, valves, computers and pipes — sits in a open-air workshop in Lempaala, just north of Helsinki. At one end, a technician vacuums up wood chips with a giant shop vac. The chips then get treated, plunged into a furnace heated to 800 degrees Celsius, and then converted to whatever combination of byproducts someone might want: biochar, which can be sold as fertilizer or industrial grade renewable carbon for 250 Euros a ton; plant vinegar, a biopesticide; natural gas; heat for regional district heating systems; tar; or carbon credits.
Scientists Call for a New Strategy for Polar Ocean Observation
In a report published in Science, a team of oceanographers, including MBL (Marine Biological Laboratory) Ecosystems Center director Hugh Ducklow, outline a polar ocean observation strategy they say will revolutionize scientists’ understanding of marine ecosystem response to climate change. The approach, which calls for the use of a suite of automated technologies that complement traditional data collection, could serve as a model for marine ecosystems worldwide and help form the foundation for a comprehensive polar ocean observation system.
The complexity of marine food webs and the “chronic under-sampling” of the world’s oceans present major constraints to predicting the future of and optimally managing and protecting marine resources. “We know more about Venus than we do about the Earth’s oceans,” says Ducklow. “We need an ocean observation system analogous to meteorological monitoring for weather forecasting, but it’s harder to do in the ocean.”
Major climate decisions may come from ozone treaty
Governments moved closer Friday to curbing the use of chemicals commonly used as coolants in refrigerators, air conditioners, hair spray and other household items in what some say would be among their biggest climate decisions ever.
The obscure round of U.N. ozone treaty talks in Geneva, which few people are following, laid the groundwork this week for a possible decision in Uganda in November to halt the promotion of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are manmade chemicals not found naturally in the environment, and are considered greenhouse gases.
The U.S., Canada and Mexico gave the talks a boost by joining the small island nations of Micronesia and Mauritius in petitioning to amend the ozone treaty known as the 1987 Montreal Protocol to drastically cut production and use of HFCs.
By 2050, scientists predict HFCs could account for 20 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases.
EU To Close Dirty Coal Plants By 2024
Old coal-fired power plants in Europe must be closed by the end of 2023 if their owners are not prepared to fit equipment to filter out acidifying pollutants, European Union member countries agreed on Friday, two sources in the talks said.
All other power stations must start planning to cut out pollutants such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides that damage human health and soil and water quality.
But countries that are struggling to get the industry cleaned up can get a delay until June 30, 2020, under the informal deal on the Industrial Emissions Directive, the sources added.
European ambassadors in Brussels approved the deal, which was reached in informal talks with the European Parliament late on Wednesday. It must be formally approved by parliament in the coming weeks before becoming law, but the sources say that is almost certain.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Hey, I was born in Atchison County! It’s rarely in the news at all and is hardly a hotbed of progressivism of any sort, so it’s nice to see this.
Ck out …wiki like database of climate change related events
http://climatesignals.org/
Price of oil just went up….
Gulf Oil Spill Causes Other Nations To Rethink Drilling
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/20/gulf-oil-spill-causes-oth_n_618881.html
Amazing Flooding Video: Trans Canada Highway is Torn Apart!
http://www.accuweather.com/index.asp
I’d just like to point out that, when costing fossils properly — which is to say, including well-known externalities — solar is ALREADY cost-competitive with fossils.
The tag line is this:
Fossils today are as cheap as they’re ever going to be;
Renewables today are as expensive as they’re ever going to be.
More about the EU dirty coal law
Power stations that operate into 2024 and beyond must start cutting out pollutants such as sulphur and nitrogen oxides that damage human health and soil and water quality, under the deal on the Industrial Emissions Directive.
Though the rules do not cover carbon dioxide emissions, they have an indirect impact by allowing big emitters to keep going.
Krahmer said the deal, which was formally approved by EU ambassadors on Friday, improved the regulation of most industrial installations. But he described the opt-outs for coal-fired power plants as a “European tragedy.”
Countries that are struggling to get the industry cleaned up can get a delay until June 30, 2020, under the deal which weaves together and updates six complex air quality laws with the old Large Combustion Plant Directive.
“Allowing Transitional National Plans for a whole decade is nothing else than legalising air pollution from ancient coal-fired power plants,” said Krahmer.
Under the “limited lifetime” derogation for individual power stations, they must close by the end of 2023 or after 17,500 hours of operation, whichever happens first.
The deal must be formally approved by parliament in the coming weeks before becoming law, but sources say that is almost certain.
LOOPHOLES
The deal replaces another set of existing laws, which contain so many loopholes that many of the 52,000 European installations have managed to avoid cleaning up.
The quest for new rules has been slowed by a row between countries such as Britain and Poland, which have many old coal-fired plants, and others led by Germany that have already invested millions in cleaning up.
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE65H3L520100618?sp=true
Business as usual: Record high temperatures cause blackout in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, ironically powered by petroleum.
The skyrocketing demand for demand for electricity to power air conditioners forced eight power turbines to go off line causing several Saudi cities to lose their power, said the Saudi Electricity Company.
”Blackouts are taking place this summer because of an increase in the electrical loads,” company official Ahmed al-Dubekhi said in a recent statement.
Speaking before the turbine failures, he maintained that the company was prepared for the spikes in demand.
…
Last week, temperatures of up to 126 degrees (52 Celsius) pushed power stations in Kuwait to 99 percent of their production capacity of around 11,000 megawatts.
On Sunday, Kuwait’s Parliament recommended to cut the working day for public sector employees in order to conserve energy and a parliament discussion of the country’s power problems is slated for next week.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/06/21/world/AP-ML-Saudi-Sizzling-Summer.html?_r=1&hp
Weekly Address: Republicans Blocking Progress
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktWiD6Jl9zs
Corporate Gas Drilling Buries Indonesian Town in Methane Mud (Video)
http://www.truth-out.org/java-a-city-swallowed-mud60615
Interesting take on Obama….
Nobel prize for Obama was ‘ridiculous’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8751865.stm
#6 Doug, imagine when we switch to the electric car and we get these blackouts….
Sour Showers: Acid Rain Returns–This Time It Is Caused by Nitrogen Emissions
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=acid-rain-caused-by-nitrogen-emissions
paulm says: June 21, 2010 at 3:52 pm
[blah-blah]
Imagine what happens when gasoline is $10+N/gallon and we’ve not bothered to capitalize an alternative because we believe in magic, pink, fluffy unicorns.
Price of food just went up…
unprecedented agriculture flooding in West Canada.
Southern Alberta flood fears continue as more rain is forecast
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100621/CGY_flood_monday_100621/20100621/?hub=CalgaryHome
from #12, take note WitsEnd….
“The consequences are grave: Nitric oxide (NO) rises from farms, power plants and vehicles, for instance, in the upper Midwest and drifts toward New England forests where nitric acid (HNO3) in the rain leaches important plant nutrients like potassium, calcium and magnesium from the soil, Schlesinger says. Researchers at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in White Mountain National Forest, N.H., found evidence of this rain and reported that it may cause a reduction in cold or stress tolerance in some tree species including red spruce and sugar maple. ….
…. researchers at the University of Minnesota reported in 2008 that atmospheric nitrogen deposition reduced plant species numbers in the state’s prairie grasslands by 17 percent.
paulm “Doug, imagine when we switch to the electric car and we get these blackouts”
You likely have still electricity in your car battery – “energy 2 grid storage” and this could be used to power household devices. Diffrent distributed energy storage or electrical substations can also add up and help to stabilize energy security in certain scenarios, i.e. downed power lines. The energy system becomes less vulnerable with decentralized – distributed energy devices/sources.
If you are clever enough you have a solar panel and a storage device around to compensate for power outages. If not you somewhere in your community. This is the ultimate energy security. Just look at disasters, energy supply breaks fast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Load_balancing_%28electrical_power%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_energy_storage
Local power: tapping distributed energy in 21st-century cities
http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-16-local-power-tapping-distributed-energy-in-21st-century-cities/
Green Marines: Camp Lejeune Buys Into Solar Power
So many of these panels have gone up in one neighborhood that the community is quickly becoming the largest in the continental U.S. to heat water with solar energy.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127985314
47 killed when explosion rips through China mine
BEIJING — At least 47 miners were killed Monday when an explosion ripped through a coal mine in central China, the government said.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gqwDmz_zJ8Tou1CqcFXqQRuIX6DAD9GFLURO0
Israel hit by heatwave as temperatures reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit in Eilat
Heaviest heatwave in 3 years hits the southern Israeli city; vacationers and Eilat residents warned to avoid the sun and spend the toasty days in the shade with plenty of water.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-hit-by-heatwave-as-temperatures-reach-122-degrees-fahrenheit-in-eilat-1.297492
Heatwave causes Qalqiliya crop fires
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=293614
Northern Ireland heatwave blamed for fish deaths in reservoir
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland-heatwave-blamed-for-fish-deaths-in-reservoir-14850069.html
Heatwave in Middle East no cause for panic
http://gulfnews.com/news/region/heatwave-in-middle-east-no-cause-for-panic-1.644445
China flood chaos persists
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SioRur503U8&feature=player_embedded
West Africa’s “slow-motion” famine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9KE–0r1rY&feature=channel
Flood damage ‘extensive’ in southern Saskatchewan
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100621/medicine-hat-100621/20100621/?hub=TorontoNewHome
Flood warnings for eastern, southern Nebraska
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/state-and-regional/nebraska/article_c8db5af8-7d72-11df-a391-001cc4c002e0.html
Weeping Water Creek Breaks Record Flood Stage
http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=12684858
New Caribbean disturbance 93L a major concern; flooding in Asia kills over 200
Figure 4. Video of the Billings tornado shows an impressive debris cloud
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1513
Life of plastic solar cell jumps from hours to 8 months
http://www.physorg.com/news196355743.html
EU sees solar power imported from Sahara in 5 years
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65J1ZO20100620
“Hidden Antarctic lake links to alien life”
http://www.unspecial.org/UNS633/UNS_633_T13.html
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Vostok
Prokaryote your post rate is almost that of Joe’s!
I hope you will consider contributing to climatesignals.org
“Prokaryote your post rate is almost that of Joe’s!”
I hope this is a good sign ;)
“I hope you will consider contributing to climatesignals.org”
The website looks intersting, but no clue about social bookmarking – how to contribute.