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Are transmission lines holding America back? – The Washington Post

12 Oct

Local is the way to go! More resilient, more reliable.

That’s why a growing number of people who work in the industry are now questioning whether massive, centralized clean-energy projects really are the future. What good are huge solar farms in the desert if you can’t get them wired? Perhaps smaller, distributed sources of clean energy — rooftop solar panels, say, or small turbines — that don’t need fancy new transmission lines are a more promising option.

“It’s long been conventional wisdom that it’s much easier and cheaper to build those big plants,” Allan Schurr, vice president of strategy and development at IBM’s energy and utilities group, told me. “But, when we interviewed customers, we found a strong appetite for individuals having control over their own energy future.” As an alternate model, Schurr points to Germany, where well-crafted incentives for rooftop panels have transformed the cloudy nation into a solar leader. And there’s a lot of untapped potential here: the National Renewable Energy Lab has estimated that we have 661,000 megawatts of rooftop-solar resources here in the United States.

via Are transmission lines holding America back? – The Washington Post.

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Genkai Nuclear Plant Shuts Down in Japan – NYTimes.com

5 Oct

Still, the shutdown came as the government was renewing a push to restart reactors that were idled after the nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi in March. Kyushu Electric said that inspection work had been carried out on a valve of the condenser in question on Tuesday, raising the possibility that human error had triggered the shutdown.

“As we saw in Fukushima, cooling systems are central to the safety of nuclear reactors,” said Chihiro Kamisawa, a researcher at the Citizens’ Nuclear Information Center, an antinuclear organization.

via Genkai Nuclear Plant Shuts Down in Japan – NYTimes.com.

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Rancor Grows Over Planned Oil Pipeline From Canada – NYTimes.com

28 Sep

The State Department concluded last month that the project, Keystone XL, would cause minimal environmental impact if it is operated according to regulations, and the proposed operator, TransCanada, has said the nearly 2,000-mile line would create 20,000 jobs in the United States.

And just what ARE the chances that the pipeline will be operated according to regulations?

Opposition groups around the country, though, said the federal study did not consider the effects of a major spill, while supporters said the nation’s economy had continued to worsen through summer and fall, making Keystone XL all the more crucial.

via Rancor Grows Over Planned Oil Pipeline From Canada – NYTimes.com.

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Japan Knows How to Power down – NYTimes.com

26 Sep

Still, Japan has shown what can be done, quickly, to overcome an energy crisis. It’s a good lesson for the United States, with its fragile electric grid, huge power needs and raging fossil-fuel addiction: Consumption doesn’t always have to go up.

I repeat: Consumption doesn’t always have to go up.

via In Japan, the Summer of Setsuden – NYTimes.com.

Dear Big Coal: You’re Not Above the Law | Common Dreams

22 Sep

On Friday, two public interest groups asked the attorney general of Delaware to revoke the charter of Massey Energy, a company they call a criminal enterprise.

“Massey Energy operates outside the law,” says Lorelei Scarbro, who lives a few miles from the West Virginia’s Upper Big Branch mine, which is owned and operated by Massey Energy. Scarbro traveled to Delaware to speak in support of revoking the Massey charter. “The people of Appalachia are collateral damage; they believe it’s okay to wipe out a whole culture.”

via Dear Big Coal: You’re Not Above the Law | Common Dreams.

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Energy Demand Is Expected to Rise 53% by 2035 – NYTimes.com

21 Sep

Renewable sources will be the fastest-increasing energy category in the next 25 years, said the report, which was prepared by the information agency. Renewable energy demand will climb 2.8 percent a year over the period and will make up 15 percent of the total in 2035, up from 10 percent in 2008.

via Energy Demand Is Expected to Rise 53% by 2035 – NYTimes.com.

How Energy Drains Water Supplies – NYTimes.com

21 Sep

The worries in Texas bear out what an increasingly vocal group of researchers has been warning in recent years: that planners must pay more attention to how much water is needed in energy production.

“Water and energy are really linked,” said Henrik Larsen, a water policy expert with the DHI Group, a research and consulting firm based in Denmark. “If you save water, you save energy, and vice-versa.”

Experts call this the “water-energy nexus.” It takes huge quantities of water to produce electricity from a plant powered by nuclear energy or fossil fuels, and it also takes lots of energy to pump and process the water that irrigates fields and supplies cities.

via How Energy Drains Water Supplies – NYTimes.com.

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Japan to build floating wind farm near Fukushima nuclear plant ‹ Japan Today

17 Sep

Japan plans to build a floating wind farm near the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant as part of the country’s disaster reconstruction effort, a government official said Thursday.

Tokyo is seeking ways to reduce its reliance on atomic energy following the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl, and is eying the Pacific coast of Fukushima Prefecture, the official said.

via Japan to build floating wind farm near Fukushima nuclear plant ‹ Japan Today: Japan News and Discussion.

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This seagull opposes nuclear energy

11 Sep

IMGP3156rd

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Agency Struggles to Safeguard Pipeline System – NYTimes.com

10 Sep

The little-known federal agency charged with monitoring the system [167,000-mile system of hazardous liquid pipelines] and enforcing safety measures — the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration — is chronically short of inspectors and lacks the resources needed to hire more, leaving too much of the regulatory control in the hands of pipeline operators themselves, according to federal reports, an examination of agency data and interviews with safety experts.

They portray an agency that rarely levies fines and is not active enough in policing the aging labyrinth of pipelines, which has suffered thousands of significant hazardous liquid spills over the past two decades.

via Agency Struggles to Safeguard Pipeline System – NYTimes.com.

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