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Calif. governor signs 40 climate-related measures
Newsom noted that the state had just gone through an extended heat wave that shattered 1,000 previous records. It’s among the reasons the climate bills are needed, he said. “If you don’t believe in science, you have to believe your own eyes,” Newsom said in Vallejo, south of Napa. “If you don’t believe in global warming, maybe you now believe in global heating. I mean, the hots are just so much hotter. The dries are so much drier, extreme weather, extreme drought, extreme floods.” [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
Biden Pledges $50 Million for Floating Wind Turbines Off US Coasts
The Biden administration on Thursday set a new goal for deploying floating wind turbines in deep waters off US coasts and unveiled nearly $50 million in initiatives designed to propel the nascent technology. The effort is aimed at positioning the US to be a world leader in selling and using floating wind turbines that can generate electricity in deep waters outside the reach of conventional equipment that must be installed in the seabed. [ read more … ]
Biden plans floating platforms to expand offshore wind power
“Today we’re launching efforts to seize a new opportunity — floating offshore wind — which will let us build in deep water areas where turbines can’t be secured directly to the seafloor, but where there are strong winds that we can now harness,” White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy said at a news conference Thursday. Deep water areas in the Pacific especially have potential to vastly expand offshore wind energy in the U.S., McCarthy and other officials said. McCarthy acknowledged that the floating technology is at an early stage. [ read more … ]
Out to Sea: On a Floating Wind Farm (NYT Sept. 29, 2021)
The photographer Andrew Testa and I recently visited a floating wind farm off a fishing port in northeast Scotland. Floating turbines are a new frontier in the fast-growing offshore wind industry.
Here’s what we saw: [ read more … ]
Biden administration launches floating offshore wind initiative with 15 GW target by 2035
While the U.S. has been slow to develop fixed-bottom offshore wind, the Biden administration aims to be a leader in floating offshore wind technology by building on its previous goal of adding 30 GW of offshore wind by the end of this decade. The Floating Offshore Wind Shot, led by the departments of Energy, Interior, Commerce and Transportation, aims to slash the cost of floating wind technology. [ read more … ]
NREL To Manage New Wind Energy Competition
“The FLOWIN Prize will bring the United States closer to achieving the goals of the new Floating Offshore Wind Shot,” said Amy Robertson, NREL’s offshore wind energy group manager and the lead technical advisor on the prize. “Prize competitors will help bridge the gap between offshore wind energy potential and the development and deployment of commercial-scale floating offshore wind energy in U.S. waters.” Although no commercial-scale floating offshore wind power projects have been constructed in the United States yet, mass-manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure could make floating offshore wind energy more cost effective. [ read more … ]
Solar Energy
Solar Panels Floating in Space Could One Day Power Your Home
Longi Green Energy Technology Co., the world’s biggest solar technology manufacturer, will send panels into space as the first step in plans to test the feasibility of harnessing the sun’s power in orbit and transmitting it back to Earth. The Xi’an-based clean energy giant, which has helped China dominate the solar industry and drive down costs, will also study the use of its products in harsher environments, and assess their suitability for use in space programs, it said in a statement. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology also launched a space solar program after a $100 million grant in 2013, while teams in nations including Japan, Russia and India are also studying the possibilities [ read more … ]
Energy Storage
How the climate law may change energy storage
The Inflation Reduction Act offers new incentives for energy storage in the U.S., but ongoing supply chain and grid interconnection troubles may prevent a nationwide boom in coming years for the technology, according to a new report. Published this week by Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association (ACP), the analysis found that more grid-scale storage came online in the second quarter of 2022 than in any previous April-June period. The residential sector broke all-time records, with more U.S. homes installing energy storage records than in any other quarter, the groups said. [ read more … ]
Grid
Inside the ‘proving ground’ for a clean energy grid
The facility — run by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) — tests weaknesses and breaking points of poles, wires, cables, towers and other equipment that make up the nation’s power transmission and distribution system. Answers to such tests will help utilities calculate how harsher weather may shorten the lives of critical components, a vital mission for the industry as U.S. power grids face ever-fiercer assaults from extreme weather, said Andrew Phillips, EPRI vice president of transmission and distribution infrastructure, as he recently led a reporter around the laboratory grounds. [ read more … ]
Biden Administration
In Detroit, Biden pledges that ‘the great American road trip is going to be fully electrified’
“America is confronting the climate crisis with American workers leading the way,” Biden said. “It used to be to buy an electric vehicle you had to make all sorts of compromises. Not now. … It is all changing. Today, if you want an electric vehicle with a long range, you can buy one made in America.” The president, traveling with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, also promoted the progress being made on the administration’s goal of installing more than 500,000 electric vehicle chargers, using $7.5 billion Congress authorized earlier in Biden’s term. [ read more … ]
Air Pollution
In ‘Cancer Alley,’ Judge Blocks Huge Petrochemical Plant
Louisiana activists battling to block an enormous plastics plant in a corridor so dense with industrial refineries it is known as Cancer Alley won a legal victory this week when a judge canceled the company’s air permits. In a sharply worded opinion released Wednesday, Judge Trudy White of Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District in Baton Rouge noted that the residents in the tiny town of Welcome, where the $9.4 billion petrochemical plant would have been built, are descendants of enslaved Africans. “The blood, sweat and tears of their ancestors is tied to the land,” Judge White wrote. “Their ancestors worked the land with the hope and dream of passing down productive agricultural untainted land along the Mississippi to their families.” [ read more … ]
Markets
Democrats shame Big Oil in hours long hearing
Between April and June, Exxon reported almost $18 billion in earnings. Chevron and Shell reported more than $11 billion. And BP reported $8.5 billion. Printed on a large poster and placed behind the seat of House Oversight and Reform Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), those numbers loomed in the background for almost the entirety of the panel’s four-hour Thursday hearing on the oil and gas industry. Maloney’s message: While gas prices soared, so did oil and gas company profits.
[ read more … ]
BlackRock-Backed Biofuel Firm Says Timid Lenders Slow New Tech
Enerkem Inc.’s waste-to-clean energy technology has attracted big name shareholders like BlackRock Inc. and Suncor Energy Inc. but its running into a roadblock in a quest for commercial loans. “It’s very difficult to find banks or ESG funds, which are willing to support new technologies,” said Dominique Boies, the biofuel company’s chief executive and financial officer in an interview. Lenders want to see a decade of data on production, but “it’s new technology, so it’s not been operating for 10 years.” [ read more … ]
EVs
The Affordable Electric Vehicle Is Still Mostly Fantasy
Much has been written about unctuous car salesmen adding “market-adjustment” fees to capitalize on the current supply-demand imbalance of vehicles. But while that’s certainly an issue, most electric machines are getting pushed up to luxury-car levels far earlier — before even leaving the factory. In July, the average US starting price for a battery-powered vehicle — the figure shown in car commercials and marketing materials — was $47,636. The average sticker price for EVs that were actually made and shipped to dealerships, however, was $61,251, almost one-third higher, according to Edmunds. It’s not that auto companies don’t have affordable electric cars; it’s just that they aren’t making them, choosing instead to crank out more lavish (and profitable) versions. [ read more … ]
Tesla Shifts Battery Strategy as It Seeks U.S. Tax Credits
Tesla Inc. is pausing its plans to make battery cells in Germany as it looks at qualifying for U.S. electric vehicle and battery manufacturing tax credits, people familiar with the matter said. Making more batteries domestically could help Tesla qualify for additional tax breaks available under the Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the IRA, which President Biden signed into law last month. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.