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Advanced E.V. Batteries Move From Labs to Mass Production
For years, scientists in laboratories from Silicon Valley to Boston have been searching for an elusive potion of chemicals, minerals and metals that would allow electric vehicles to recharge in minutes and travel hundreds of miles between charges, all for a much lower cost than batteries available now. Now a few of those scientists and the companies they founded are approaching a milestone. They are building factories to produce next-generation battery cells, allowing carmakers to begin road testing the technologies and determine whether they are safe and reliable. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
Renewable sources powered 88.5% of MidAmerican Iowa customers’ energy in 2021
MidAmerican Energy provided 88.5% of customers’ annual power needs from renewable energy last year, the Iowa Utilities Board has verified. That’s five percentage points higher than 2020, according to a Monday news release from the utility. MidAmerican, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, has proposed investing $3.9 billion in additional wind, solar and other renewable energy, with a goal to meet 100% of its customers’ annual power needs with low-carbon sources by 2025. [ read more … ]
Iowa farmer sues to stop new wind turbine projects
A member of an east-central Iowa group that wants to restrict where wind turbines can be erected has sued the Tama County Board of Supervisors, alleging it violated the state’s open meetings law. The group wants a judge to temporarily halt new turbine projects, according to court records. The Tama County Against Turbines coalition formed in March in response to a proposed wind farm that, combined with another recent wind farm that is under early construction, has the potential to triple the number of turbines in the county to more than 180. [ read more … ]
Solar Energy
Western solar boom threatens wildlife’s home on the range
It was not long after Wyoming’s first large-scale solar project came online in 2019 that the antelopes made themselves known. More than 1,000 pronghorns — the “American antelope” — galloped onto Wyoming’s Highway 372 that winter, terrifying drivers and biologists alike. The animals would typically migrate over public land, but with the 700-acre Sweetwater Solar farm blocking their way, they took the highway.
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Transmission
Midwest wind energy transmission line gets supersized
The developer of a planned high-voltage transmission line from Kansas to Indiana yesterday announced that the project is being expanded in response to strong demand for wind energy from customers in the region. Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, which purchased the Grain Belt Express project in 2018 and took over its development, plans to increase the line’s capacity 25 percent to 5,000 megawatts and boost its midpoint delivery capacity at a Missouri converter station fivefold to 2,500 MW.
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States
Extreme heat pushes highs over 110 in Texas as power grid nears brink
A serious summer heat wave is baking Texas with record temperatures and high humidity. Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings blanket much of the Lone Star State, with the National Weather Service calling the conditions “extreme” and “dangerously hot.” On Sunday, more than a dozen record highs were set throughout the state as temperatures soared as high as 113 degrees. Houston shot up to 105 degrees, matching its highest temperature ever recorded in July. [ read more … ]
Texas grid avoids blackouts with voluntary cutbacks amid scorching heat
Texas’s power grid operator held off from imposing rolling blackouts on Monday using voluntary cutbacks and appeals to conserve energy as scorching triple-digit temperatures hit much of the state.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) warned of a potential shortage in reserves “with no market solution available.” Its website showed the operator entered late afternoon with about 3,600 megawatts of operating reserves – which could power three-quarters of a million homes. [ read more … ]
Texans Are Asked to Conserve Power as Extreme Heat Threatens Electric Grid
Texas officials asked residents to conserve electricity Monday as extreme heat blanketed much of the state and threatened the power grid capacity. With temperatures in Texas forecast to reach as high as 112 degrees Monday, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, an organization that runs most of the state’s power grid, asked Texans to turn up their thermostats one or two degrees and to not run major appliances from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. local time Monday. Ercot, the organization, said in a statement Sunday night that extreme heat in the state had fueled a record surge in electricity demand.
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Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.