By Kari Lydersen, Energy News Network
A report released last week by Moody’s Investor Services found that five of Exelon’s six Illinois plants are at “high risk” and/or more extreme “red flag” risk for both heat and water stress. Exelon’s Quad Cities plant on the Mississippi River, meanwhile, is considered at high risk of flooding. Other Midwestern plants are also considered at high risk for heat and/or water stress, including the Davis-Besse plant in Ohio, NextEra Energy Resources’ Point Beach plant in Wisconsin, NextEra’s Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, Entergy’s Palisades plant in Michigan and Northern States Power Company’s Monticello plant in Minnesota, which is also at high risk of flooding. Continue reading here.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik: The Fort Calhoun nuclear power station in Nebraska was severely damaged by flooding in 2011 and shut down a few years later.
NUCLEAR FUSION RESEARCH
Department of Energy Announces $29 Million in Fusion Energy Technology Development, DOE News Release. Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $29 million in funding for 14 projects as part of the Galvanizing Advances in Market-aligned fusion for an Overabundance of Watts (GAMOW) program.
NEBRASKA IN THE NEWS HERE
Korean group buying into 852 MW of US wind farms, Renewables Now
A group of South Korean infrastructure investors has agreed to buy a 49.9% stake in an 852-MW portfolio of US wind farms in a deal with an implied aggregate enterprise value of USD 1.5 billion.
About the Nebraska wind farm Included in the purchase: The 118–turbine Prairie Breeze Wind Energy Farm located in Antelope, Boone, and Madison counties began commercial operation in March 2014. Maximum capacity is 200,600 kilowatts (or 200.6 megawatts). The average annual output could power 60,000 homes. Omaha Public Power District has committed to buy the total 200.6 megawatts. Source: Wind Energy Generation in Nebraska, Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy
BLOOMBERG NEW ENERGY FINANCE
Solar brings 45% of world’s new power capacity in 2019 – BNEF, Renewables Now
With record 118 GW of commissioned capacity, solar photovoltaic (PV) was the main new power generation technology source in 2019, accounting for 45% of the world’s newly-installed capacity, BloombergNEF (BNEF) says.
ØRSTED
Orsted, the World’s Offshore Wind Giant, Gets Serious About Solar, Greentech Media
Ørsted’s intense focus on offshore wind makes its push into solar all the more noteworthy, signaling a coming era of renewable energy “majors” capable of building the full range of technologies. When the Permian Energy Center comes online next year, Ørsted will be the first company to own U.S. plants spanning solar, onshore wind, offshore wind and battery storage.
Archived Nebraska News Story: Ørsted completes the onshore Plum Creek Wind project
REPURPOSING COAL ASH BASIN SITES FOR SOLAR DEVELOPMENT
Solar energy project planned for Snyder County coal ash basin site, PennLive.com
The project is funded entirely with private capital but the owners say they will receive a federal investment tax credit. “The process associated with repurposing these basins maintains their environmental integrity while allowing the land to be repurposed in a safe, effective way,” the developers say.
SEARCHABLE DATABASE OF POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENTS
LevelTen Energy flips the switch on global PPA marketplace, PV Magazine
For corporates with a global footprint, there is now a single place to view and compare the risk and value of each PPA available in North America and Europe.
GTECH
The Next Step for Corporate Sustainability: 24/7/365 Carbon-Free Energy Matching, Greentech Media. Corporations increasingly want locally generated renewable power that matches their consumption in near-real-time. Move over REC, and make way for the GTECH.
ELECTRIC TRUCKS
Electric trucks are gaining ground over natural gas in the waste industry, Utility Dive
Natural gas-powered vehicles have been the industry’s preferred form of alternative fuel for years, but while investments continue, 2020 is shaping up to be the year that electric breaks through.
CIRCULARITY FOR EV BATTERIES
Tesla’s co-founder is pioneering a circular system for electric vehicle batteries, GreenBiz
Redwood Materials is a startup founded by former Tesla chief technology officer JB Straubel. The company, featured in a lengthy Wall Street Journal article over the weekend, has a plan to take scrap metal from EV battery production and use that for the raw materials of other EV batteries. By sourcing leftover materials from current factories, the company can help lower the cost of batteries and also reduce considerable waste. Redwood Materials is already working with Panasonic (Tesla’s battery partner) to take scrap metal from the Gigafactory in Nevada. Straubel says that in 10 years he thinks the company can deliver battery materials for half the cost of mined materials.
VALUE OF STORAGE
Going beyond Order 841 to more meaningful FERC storage policy, Utility Dive article contributed by Sean Baur, engineering manager for GlidePath and a 2020 fellow with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute. Only with more fundamental changes can wholesale markets start to recognize the full value of storage, and finally allow it to fairly compete evenly with the resources it will need to replace as part of a larger clean energy transition.
BNEF Infographic – Corporate procurement of clean energy through green tariffs:
The “Green New Deal,” which seemed to spring out of nowhere, has captured the attention of many of us who recognize that the need to prevent runaway climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. Its inspiring title calls to mind an era when our country worked together to pull out of a depression. Its main proponents are young people—who better than the up-and-coming generation to demand that the former one leaves behind a world that is habitable? And, it calls for action on a scale that aligns with the best available science.
Puerto Rico passes 100% renewable energy bill as it aims for storm resilience,
