Long Islander's Blog – February 2017 Archive (21)

Vaclav Smil: Batteries Need to Get Big—Like, Enormous—for Solar Power to Shine

They need to store an order of magnitude more than anything yet seen



By Vaclav Smil

It would be a lot easier to expand our use of solar and wind energy if we had better ways to store the large quantities of electricity we’d need to cover gaps in the flow of that energy.

Even in sunny Los Angeles, a typical house roofed with enough photovoltaic panels to meet its average needs would still face daily shortfalls of up to about 80 percent of…

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Added by Long Islander on February 27, 2017 at 3:30pm — No Comments

John Droz: Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 27, 2017

Sample of contents:

Greed Energy Economics:

NYS is paying 11 wind and solar power projects 2X more in subsidies than electricity generated

Duke Energy says solar power will cost N.C. customers $1 billion too much

End IRS Abuse of Wind PTC

Electric Vehicles: Are the Costs Worth the Benefits?

Retiring worn-out wind turbines could cost billions that nobody has

Former Oklahoma Governor Says Wind Energy Tax Breaks Were a…

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Added by Long Islander on February 27, 2017 at 10:27am — No Comments

Time Sensitive: Dept of Energy Seeking Public Comment on Maine Offshore Wind

Meeting dates and written comment deadline are highlighted below. Perhaps the new DOE will take public input seriously.

EA-2049: UNIVERSITY OF MAINE’S NEW ENGLAND AQUA VENTUS I, AN OFFSHORE WIND ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION PROJECT, OFFSHORE MONHEGAN ISLAND IN THE GULF OF…

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Added by Long Islander on February 26, 2017 at 6:26pm — 2 Comments

Offshore wind companies' job just got a lot harder with the election of Donald J. Trump.

The stakes are big. Dong, Statoil, Deepwater and other companies secured a total of 11 leases to build offshore wind farms. To move forward, developers will need permits from multiple agencies and, in some instances, federal grants to refurbish ports. For instance, Deepwater’s 30-megawatt wind farm off Rhode Island benefited from a $22.3 million U.S. Transportation Department grant to upgrade piers and terminals for use as a staging area.…

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Added by Long Islander on February 26, 2017 at 6:25pm — No Comments

Lisa Linowes: DOE - Breaking the Federal Arm of the Wind Industry (MUST READ)

In the coming months, we recommend the new administration take action to reset the priorities of the DOE including:

Reviewing and eliminating DOE efforts that fall outside core proficiencies. Identify and defund activities aimed at wind advocacy.

Discourage funding of wind-related research where the costs can and should be borne by private industry.

Halt efforts by the DOE to assert federal authority over states with regard to transmission expansion.

Please…

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Added by Long Islander on February 26, 2017 at 6:24pm — No Comments

'Harsh conditions' help force shutdown of Sable Island wind project

Good luck in the Gulf of Maine. Of course the harshest conditions for wind turbines are when the public becomes informed and when the subsidies run out.

Environment Canada launched the pilot project in 2000 — which would have seen the five wind turbines generate energy onto the grid of the island known for its shifting sand dunes and fragile environment.

But when Parks Canada took over management of the 40-kilometre-long island when…

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Added by Long Islander on February 23, 2017 at 8:30am — 1 Comment

Mass Gov joins coalition of governors asking President Donald Trump to support renewable energy

The wind industry spin machine is spinning away like never before and all the crooks are reacting to President Trump like vampires do sunlight. Hopefully President Trump is well aware that "grid modernization" means nothing more than building shipping facilities for the subsidy leeches in the wind industry.…

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Added by Long Islander on February 22, 2017 at 6:29pm — 2 Comments

Mainebiz: Bill to protect Monhegan's iconic scenery would effectively 'kill' offshore wind pilot project

With a power purchase agreement already approved by the Maine Public Utilities Commission in 2014 and the Mohegan test site designated in 2009 by the Maine Department of Conservation being approved, Dagher told committee members the Aqua Ventus project has avoided trip-ups that led to other projects being dropped by DOE.

Both Aqua Ventus and the Ohio project are in line for $40 million in funding, contingent on reaching specific milestones and subject to continued congressional…

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Added by Long Islander on February 20, 2017 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

MUST READ: Behind LePage’s energy policy lurks a foe of solar and wind

LaBrecque’s relationship with the governor is frustrating for renewable-power advocates. LaBrecque has the freedom to promote what they see as an extreme, anti-solar and anti-wind agenda in the name of the governor.......LaBrecque said he’s likely to start a paid, part-time position later this year to formally represent the governor in pushing his energy agenda. He said it would be separate from the Governor’s Energy Office, which is functioning with an acting director since Patrick Woodcock…

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Added by Long Islander on February 19, 2017 at 11:54am — 3 Comments

Landowners should be wary of wind contracts

Are you curious to know why so many landowners will not sign easements? I have spoken to landowners living in industrial wind energy installations from Adair to Lake Park to Webster City to Primghar. I also have heard from folks in Kansas, Missouri, Vermont and Oklahoma. While you can find people who are pleased with their experience, I have heard statements such as:

• “We had to put in soundproofing windows – it helped some.”

• “If we knew then what we know now, this (wind…

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Added by Long Islander on February 19, 2017 at 11:54am — 1 Comment

PPH - Battle lines over renewable energy drawn in New Hampshire

Groups led by Americans for Prosperity support a bill that would pull the state out of the nine-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/12/battle-lines-over-renewable-energy-drawn-in-new-hampshire/

Added by Long Islander on February 13, 2017 at 9:01am — No Comments

Oped: Wind energy project bad fit for Monhegan

The initial concept was a one-eighth scale floating turbine for two periods of five months each. Now it is two approximately 600-feet-high industrial turbines for at least the next 20 years. The only complete impact study done to date was based on the much smaller turbines. Talk about “bait and switch.”…

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Added by Long Islander on February 12, 2017 at 4:30pm — No Comments

Lisa Linowes: Wind PTC: End the 4-Year Development Window (IRS guidance reversible)

This essay is the second in a series aimed at exposing abuses by the Obama administration in its effort to force wind power on the public. 

“The IRS expanded the two-year development window to four years [from two years to give] … developers countless ways in which to secure the full PTC and never experience the…

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Added by Long Islander on February 10, 2017 at 8:56am — No Comments

PPH - New force in Portland politics: Emily Figdor and Steven Biel

Figdor ran Environment America’s global warming program from 2005 to 2010, before moving to Maine........From 2010 to 2014, Figdor led the environmental advocacy group Environment Maine.............Figdor is now the platform campaign manager for MoveOn.org...............

http://www.pressherald.com/2017/02/09/new-force-in-portland-politics-packs-a-one-two-punch/

Added by Long Islander on February 9, 2017 at 9:40am — 2 Comments

Trump's energy inner circle takes shape

President Trump is expected to soon fill key White House energy jobs — relying on Washington energy insiders and former staffers to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) to help shape his administration's environmental agenda.

One such former aide, George David Banks, is expected to take on the White House international energy and environment portfolio in the National Security Council, according to sources close to the administration.

In that position, he's expected to play a leading role…

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Added by Long Islander on February 9, 2017 at 9:02am — No Comments

Press Herald: Maine lawmaker proposes ban on wind turbines near Monhegan

They hope to erect two floating towers that would hold turbines with blade tips that could reach 600 feet above the water. ..........................…

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Added by Long Islander on February 9, 2017 at 9:00am — 1 Comment

Increase in Maine electricity delivery costs sends bills soaring for big businesses

Again, we see the media fail to link the building of transmission lines to wind projects.

New England utilities, including CMP, have been on a building spree to upgrade the high-voltage lines that move power from state to state. Some of the construction is meant to upgrade obsolete equipment. Other work is needed to meet new requirements for reliability and security, and to prevent…

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Added by Long Islander on February 8, 2017 at 10:29am — 1 Comment

BDN - Houlton’s municipal electric utility to unplug from Maine grid

PORTLAND, Maine — Houlton’s municipal electric utility on Tuesday received final approval to disconnect from the northern Maine power grid and connect directly with Canadian lines.

Houlton Water Co. is in the final stages of securing a $5.4 million loan to fund about 11 miles of new power lines connecting it directly to the electric grid maintained by New Brunswick Power, which it expects to complete by the end of 2018.…

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Added by Long Islander on February 7, 2017 at 2:39pm — No Comments

John Droz: Energy & Environmental Newsletter: February 6, 2017

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

How world leaders were duped into investing billions over manipulated global warming data

The “Wind and Solar Will Save Us” Delusion

Proposed Wyoming Bill Outlaws Wind Energy

Wind Energy – A Runaway Failure for Nearly 4 Decades

Coal Plants Shutdown Raised Electricity Rates, & Fails to Reduce Pollution

“Green Champion” China is Building New European Coal Plants

Japan plans to build 45…

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Added by Long Islander on February 6, 2017 at 8:31am — No Comments

BDN - EUT questions electricity program staff (Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting)

The center’s report in January revealed that a single supplier, Constellation and its corporate predecessors, had won every bid to be the program’s energy supplier since its inception. As part of its agreement with Maine PowerOptions, Constellation, a subsidiary of energy behemoth Chicago-based Exelon, pays all of the program’s operating expenses, including the salaries of the quasi-state electricity consortium’s staff.…

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Added by Long Islander on February 4, 2017 at 5:35pm — 2 Comments

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Maine as Third World Country:

CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power

 

Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.

Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT

******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********

(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/

Not yet a member?

Sign up today and lend your voice and presence to the steadily rising tide that will soon sweep the scourge of useless and wretched turbines from our beloved Maine countryside. For many of us, our little pieces of paradise have been hard won. Did the carpetbaggers think they could simply steal them from us?

We have the facts on our side. We have the truth on our side. All we need now is YOU.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

 -- Mahatma Gandhi

"It's not whether you get knocked down: it's whether you get up."
Vince Lombardi 

Task Force membership is free. Please sign up today!

Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law

Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future

"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."

https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/

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