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Top Stories
‘This Noise That Never Stops’: Wind Farms Come to Brazil’s Atlantic Coast
At night, blinking red dots fill the sky, and the sound of whooshing rotating blades is everywhere — constant reminders of the wind’s abundant presence here on Brazil’s Atlantic coast and its harvesting as a natural resource. At daybreak, towers rising nearly 400 feet peek out high above the canopy of palm trees, like gigantic dandelions. [ read more … ]
Offshore Wind, Long Delayed in U.S., Gets a Lift in New England
Massachusetts and Rhode Island selected developers to install 1,200 megawatts of wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean, setting the stage for large-scale power generation projects off the U.S. coast. Avangrid Inc. and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners jointly won a Massachusetts auction to build an 800-megawatt wind farm south of Martha’s Vineyard and a transmission line to bring the power to shore, according to a statement Wednesday. Rhode Island chose Deepwater LLC for a 400-megawatt power plant. Costs for the projects weren’t disclosed. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Mail call! Finish up, FERC
A new letter from 16 Democratic senators calls on FERC to finish up its rule to allow distributed energy resources to connect to the grid. The letter, led by Sheldon Whitehouse and Ed Markey, concerns the integration of DERs and renewable aggregators into capacity and energy markets. [ read more … ]
Vineyard Wind would put 100 turbines off Mass. coast
Massachusetts has selected an 800-megawatt project as the state’s debut in offshore wind, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) announced yesterday. The installation, called Vineyard Wind, would place about 100 turbines — or fewer, if the technology advances — starting 14 miles off Martha’s Vineyard. It’s the first project selected under an offshore wind procurement set up by the Baker administration, but it’s also the largest single offshore wind project ever approved by any state. [ read more … ]
Competition drives nuclear industry to look for millions in subsidies
New Jersey this week became the fourth state to offer subsidies to its aging nuclear plants, setting off a debate about whether taxpayers and rate payers should help the industry compete against natural gas power plants and ever cheaper wind and solar energy. Critics say the $280 million a year in aid for New Jersey’s three nuclear plants could distort electricity markets and would be better spent to reward new “clean energy” generation projects. [ read more … ]
Capacity prices nearly double in largest U.S. power market
The cost of ensuring adequate available generation in the nation’s largest power market surged as power plant operators raised offer prices to offset lower energy revenues and fewer new natural gas plants coming online. PJM Interconnection yesterday said clearing prices for capacity across much of its 13-state footprint nearly doubled to $140 per megawatt-day (MWd) from $76.53 last year. The increase means consumers in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest will pay about $2.3 billion a year in additional costs to keep air conditioners running in 2021-22. [ read more … ]
New Jersey’s new renewables law will take some pushing, and some cash
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed a bill yesterday to double the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 50 percent and enshrine his ambitious offshore wind targets into law. It was a major step toward delivering on his campaign pledge to turn the Garden State into a clean energy juggernaut. [ read more … ]
In an internal memo, the White House considered whether to simply ‘ignore’ federal climate research
White House officials last year weighed whether to simply “ignore” climate studies produced by government scientists or to instead develop “a coherent, fact-based message about climate science,” according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post. The document, drafted Sept. 18 by Michael Catanzaro, President Trump’s special assistant for domestic energy and environmental policy at the time, highlights the dilemma the administration has faced over climate change since Trump took office. [ read more … ]
Oil giants to tell judge everyone adds to warming
Lawsuits that blame oil companies for damaging cities in California by sharpening climate change should be tossed out to avoid a cascade of similar cases, according to legal arguments being made by an oil company today. Lawyers for Chevron Corp. plan to make that assertion at a hearing that could determine whether the cases filed by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland go forward. Judge William Alsup in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco will decide whether to dismiss the lawsuits against the world’s five biggest oil companies: Chevron, BP PLC, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.