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Federal report boosts plan to remove 4 dams on Calif river

9/19/2022

 
Federal regulators on Friday issued a final environmental impact statement that supports the demolition of four massive dams on Northern California’s Klamath River to save imperiled migratory salmon. The staff's recommendation, which largely echoes an earlier draft opinion, tees up a vote on the roughly $500 million project by the five-member Federal Energy Regulatory Commission later this year. The removal of the four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River — one in southern Oregon and three in California — would be the largest dam demolition project in U.S. history. - ABC News

Criticism intensifies after big oil admits ‘gaslighting’ public over green aims

9/19/2022

 
Criticism in the US of the oil industry’s obfuscation over the climate crisis is intensifying after internal documents showed companies attempted to distance themselves from agreed climate goals, admitted “gaslighting” the public over purported efforts to go green, and even wished critical activists be infested by bedbugs. The communications were unveiled as part of a congressional hearing held in Washington DC, where an investigation into the role of fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis produced documents obtained from the oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. - Guardian
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This artificial island will power 3 million European households

9/19/2022

 
Denmark, the nation that built the world’s first offshore wind farm, has agreed to an ambitious plan for another global first – an energy island in the North Sea which could eventually be capable of supplying energy to a history-making 10 million homes. The move will create a critical boost to the world’s offshore wind capacity. - WE Forum

In 'aggressive' step toward clean energy, Hawaii is closing its only coal power plant

9/1/2022

 
Hawaii is getting ready to say goodbye to its only coal power plant on Sept. 1 as part of its "aggressive push to renewable energy," according to the state's top energy official. The state received its final shipment of coal last week to the AES Hawaii power plant, located on the western side of Oahu, and  s looking toward new solar and battery storage energy projects. "It's the first large fossil fuel power plant that we're retiring," said Scott Glenn, chief energy officer at Hawaii State Energy Office. "The rest of the country is also grappling with this and we don't have the tools that the rest of the country does. ... (As an island chain) we can't reach out to others for help. It's an important step for Hawaii, and I also think it's going to be something that other states look to."- USA Today

Micro hydropower system for building applications, usable with solar

9/1/2022

 
apanese startup Yumes Frontier has developed a micro-hydroelectric power generation system that uses small amounts of water in factories, buildings, and water purification plants. “Our system was conceived to utilize unused water pipes and is aimed at reducing electricity bills in commercial and industrial buildings,” a company spokesperson told pv magazine. “The system can be used in different kinds of commercial and industrial buildings, provided a few conditions are met. For example, a minimum flow rate of 4L/s and a water drop from a height of more than 4 meters. And if these conditions are met, it may even be installed in residential buildings or houses. - PV Magazine
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Solar ‘tax’ removed from Diablo Canyon extension proposal, advocates say

9/1/2022

 
Solar advocates said that a so-called "monthly tax" on rooftop solar customers that was included in a proposal to extend the life of a nuclear power plant in California has been removed from the legislation at the urging of industry supporters. The Solar Rights Alliance said that the authors of Senate Bill 846, Gov. Gavin Newsom's push to approve a $1.4 billion loan to keep the Diablo Canyon Power Plant running, clarified that the legislation "will not impose a solar tax on the solar energy produced and consumed" by solar customers. The Environmental Working Group also joined the last-minute push against a potential "nonbypassable solar tax of up to $60 a month" that the group attributed to utility interests.
- Renewable Energy World 
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Wind and Solar Are Saving Texans $20 Million a Day

8/21/2022

 
In a year of record-high prices for fossil fuels, as lawmakers consider new policies that can help fight inflation, renewable energy is already helping to shield Americans from steep jumps in their electricity bills. For example, in Texas, even as some observers have incorrectly blamed renewables for the state’s strained power grid, more than a third of electricity in the first half of 2022 came from wind and solar projects. Wind and solar have both set records already this year. High production from renewables and high fossil fuel prices together mean wind and solar are having an outsized impact on lowering energy costs. Based on benchmark natural gas prices, RMI estimates that, on average, wind and solar projects in Texas have avoided $20 million per day in fuel that otherwise would have been needed for fossil fuel-based power plants to meet electricity demand.- RMI
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The world’s largest offshore wind farm is about to officially launch

8/21/2022

 
The 1.32 GW Hornsea Two will dethrone the 1.2 GW Hornsea One as the largest operating offshore wind farms in the world. It’s 462 square kilometers (178 square miles) in size, and it will power more than 1.3 million homes. Hornsea Two is off the east coast of England and was developed and is owned by Danish wind giant Ørsted. It features 165 Siemens Gamesa 8 megawatt (MW) turbines; most of the wind turbines’ blades were manufactured at Siemens Gamesa’s factory in Hull. All of Hornsea Two’s wind turbines are now commercially operational. The entire project will be fully commissioned after the final reliability runs are completed, and that’s expected later this month. - Electrek
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Saudi Aramco: Oil giant tops own record with $48.4bn quarterly profit

8/21/2022

 
Saudi oil giant Aramco has broken its own record with a $48.4bn (£40bn) profit for the second quarter of 2022. It is a 90% year-on-year increase and marks the biggest earnings for the world's largest energy exporter since its public listing three years ago. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has seen oil and gas prices skyrocket. Russia is one of the world's biggest exporters but Western nations have pledged to curb their dependence on the country for their energy needs. According to Bloomberg, the Saudi oil giant's figure represents "the biggest quarterly adjusted profit of any listed company". As well as the record profits, the state-owned Saudi energy giant announced it would keep its dividend unchanged at $18.8bn for the third quarter. - BBC

New Climate Maps Show a Transformed United States

8/21/2022

 
According to new data from the Rhodium Group analyzed by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine, warming temperatures and changing rainfall will drive agriculture and temperate climates northward, while sea level rise will consume coastlines and dangerous levels of humidity will swamp the Mississippi River valley. Taken with other recent research showing that the most habitable climate in North America will shift northward and the incidence of large fires will increase across the country, this suggests that the climate crisis will profoundly interrupt the way we live and farm in the United States. See how the North American places where humans have lived for thousands of years will shift and what changes are in store for your county. - ProPublica
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Four Ways the Inflation Reduction Act Speeds Shift to a Cleaner, More Affordable Energy Future

8/21/2022

 
The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a once-in-a-career opportunity, permanently shifting the course of both the US economy and global climate to a better future. And it represents the culmination of decades of work by RMI — our experts and analysis played a direct role advancing key provisions — along with countless other NGOs, businesses, communities, scientists, and policymakers The full implications of the nearly 800-page bill continue to be assessed. But early modeling suggests its incentives will drive dramatic emission reductions: at least 40 percent by 2030, just shy of US commitments to lower emissions by half in that time. - RMI

New US Climate Law Will Reduce Carbon Emissions & Make Electricity Less Expensive Economists Say

8/21/2022

 
U.S. consumers are expected to save money on their electricity bills under the nation’s first comprehensive climate law—perhaps more than $200 billion over the next decade, economists project. Even utilities are talking about eased prices at the same time they are detailing new clean energy investments. The potential price drop flies in the face of an argument made by climate action foes for years—that a move to cleaner power will mean higher energy prices for U.S. homes and businesses. Instead, the Inflation Reduction Act signed this week by President Joe Biden will direct government support to companies that invest in and generate carbon-free power, lowering their costs in a way that will enable them to pass those savings to their customers, analysts say. - Inside Climate News
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Boston aims to eliminate fossil fuels in new buildings

8/21/2022

 
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday her intent to file legislation that potentially would allow for the elimination of fossil fuels in new construction or major renovations, following in the footsteps of regulations in New York City, Seattle and Washington, D.C. The city’s pursuit of such building standards follows Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, R, signing a major climate bill last week. The state law establishes a pilot program that will allow 10 municipalities to create local policies restricting the use of fossil fuels in new construction projects. Those policies intend to spur the adoption of cleaner technologies to power buildings, such as electric heat pumps. - Smart Cities Dive

Emerging small reactors projected to provide 90 GW of nuclear power to US grid by 2050: NEI survey

8/21/2022

 
The push for carbon-free energy will drive the growth of small modular reactors, or SMRs, with 300 of them expected to be online by 2050 supplying 731 TWh of power, according to the results of a survey the Nuclear Energy Institute conducted with a subset of its member utilities and released Aug. 5. - Utility Dive

The Oil and Gas Industry’s Methane Problem in Four Charts

8/21/2022

 
As the likes of Shell and ExxonMobil continue to generate bumper profits this year, the oil and gas industry’s windfall stands in stark contrast to two crises gripping the world: soaring inflation and climate change. Shareholders are certainly reaping the benefits of the record earnings in the form of buybacks and dividends. But the planet would gain from oil and gas companies spending more to lower their carbon footprint, specifically methane emissions.- BNEF
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What Is the Keystone XL Pipeline?

4/16/2022

 
The Keystone XL pipeline extension, proposed by TC Energy (then TransCanada) in 2008, was initially designed to transport the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel, tar sands oil, to market—and fast. As an expansion of the company’s existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been operating since 2010 (and continues to send Canadian tar sands crude oil from Alberta to various processing hubs in the middle of the United States), the pipeline promised to dramatically increase capacity to process the 168 billion barrels of crude oil locked up under Canada’s boreal forest. It was expected to transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. From the refineries, the oil would be sent chiefly overseas—not to gasoline pumps in the United States. - NRDC
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AZ regulators deny SRP gas plant expansion, citing community impacts and insufficient supporting evidence

4/13/2022

 
​The Arizona Corporation Commission on Tuesday voted 4-1 to deny an 820-MW expansion at a gas plant proposed by Salt River Project. Regulators said there was insufficient evidence in the record to make a decision, and the expansion would put too much pressure on the nearby, historically-Black community of Randolph. - Utility Dive

Powell’s looming power problem

4/12/2022

 
Over the last two decades, climate change-induced drought and increasing water demand have depleted Lake Powell substantially: It is now less than one-fourth full. As water levels drop, so, too, does the potential energy of the falling water. That, in turn, lowers the turbines’ generating capacity and power output. In the 1990s, the dam produced as much as 7,000 gigawatt hours per year, enough to power nearly 600,000 homes. Last year, it was down to just 3,000 gigawatt hours. - HCN
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SRP’s baffling, costly natural gas expansion (Op-Ed)

4/7/2022

 
The U.S. power generation market has changed dramatically over the past five years. Natural gas has been bleeding market share to cheaper sources of electricity, which include solar, wind, and even nuclear. At roughly $5 per MMbtu, the price of natural gas today is more than double what it was just two years ago. Even at half of that price, natural gas has been unable to compete with solar in the Southwest. - AZ Capitol Times
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Why geothermal energy is being viewed as a viable alternative to fossil fuels (8:30)

4/7/2022

 
President Biden and the European Union on Friday announced new plans to enable Europe to become less dependent on Russian oil and gas. But for now, the Russian invasion has opened up much larger questions over our dependence on fossil fuels and the need to develop cleaner renewable energy. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on how and why geothermal energy is attracting new interest. - PBS Video
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Gas Prices May Be Rising But You’re Still Not Paying for the True Cost of Driving

3/26/2022

 
But nonetheless, as politicians try to bring down the cost of gas, I want to take a moment to reflect on the true cost of driving. That cost includes not just the price of a vehicle and filling up the tank but also the costs that operating it impose on society, including pollution that drives climate change. Calculating the damage done by pollution and other factors such as traffic and accidents—what economists call externalities—is a fraught process, and economists don’t necessarily agree about all the variables. But one thing is true under any reasoned consideration: driving costs society much more than you’re paying to do it. - Yahoo / Time
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Why geothermal energy is being viewed as a viable alternative to fossil fuels

3/26/2022

 
President Biden and the European Union on Friday announced new plans to enable Europe to become less dependent on Russian oil and gas. But for now, the Russian invasion has opened up much larger questions over our dependence on fossil fuels and the need to develop cleaner renewable energy. Science correspondent Miles O'Brien reports on how and why geothermal energy is attracting new interest. - PBS
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Radical Plan to Make Earth's Deepest Hole Could Unleash Limitless Energy

3/16/2022

 
Since its launch in 2020, a pioneering energy company called Quaise has attracted some serious attention for its audacious goal of diving further into Earth's crust than anybody has dug before. Following the closure of first round venture capital funding, the MIT spin-off has now raised a total of US$63 million: a respectable start that could potentially make geothermal power accessible to more populations around the world. The company's vision for getting closer to the center of the Earth is to combine conventional drilling methods with a megawatt-power flashlight inspired by the kind of technology that could one day make nuclear fusion energy possible here to edit. - Science Alert
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Forecast: 8 Million Energy Jobs Created by Meeting Paris Agreement

3/15/2022

 
Quickly switching to renewables will create 5 million more jobs by 2050 than sticking to fossil fuels will, according to projections. - EOS
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Renewables make up nearly all of Texas’ new generating capacity.

3/6/2022

 
Texas' love affair with renewable energy is undeniable. But even after another banner year for clean energy in the state, a market redesign, fueled by political rhetoric from state leaders, could thwart future deployment, experts say. Wind and solar accounted for nearly all new generating capacity added to the Texas grid in 2021, according to newly released market data. S&P Global Market Intelligence notes that power plant operators added 8,139 MW of new generating capacity to the ERCOT market last year -- 42% came from wind and 40% from solar. Natural gas-fired additions made up 13% of the new capacity. Nationally, wind and solar made up a slightly smaller share of new generating capacity -- 41% and 36%, respectively -- of the 27,959 MW of capacity added. - Renewable Energy World
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