GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

  ROTTERDAM —  Less than six months after adopting a  moratorium on large-scale solar arrays ,   lawmakers may adopt similar ordinances temporarily blocking the construction of battery storage and wind energy systems in town. The town’s Energy Advisory Committee recently recommended the moratoriums in order to provide time to update existing town code regulating the energy systems. Currently, the town does not have any regulations pertaining to battery energy storage systems, and its laws pertaining to wind energy date back to 2008. Supervisor Mollie Collins said on Friday that it’s possible the town adopts the moratoriums, but noted a decision has yet to be made as officials continue to research if the action is needed or if lawmakers can simply adopt state-recommended regulations for the systems. “I don’t know if we’ll do a moratorium or not, but we definitely have to update our code,” she said. “The technology is changing quickly and we just don’t have it in ...

  It would be a boon to Americans and to our allies abroad. A lthough   the United States has massive resources of oil and natural gas, Americans now face energy scarcity, an electric grid that is less reliable, and shortages of natural gas and oil — all of which have imposed higher prices on consumers and the economy. Worse, none of this had to happen. This is an entirely avoidable reversal of America’s energy renaissance, which began in the first decade of the 2000s. It transformed the United States from a net energy importer (of oil and natural gas) into an energy-independent and then energy-dominant state. The next Republican administration will surely start using our nation’s abundant resources to provide people with more affordable energy. This means repairing the damage done in the past couple of years and making America a place where energy companies want to do business. Rather than encourage energy companies to take advantage of this abundance, the Biden administratio...

  Open in app  or  online   “Try as they might, the  Times  and the DOE cannot wish away the physical limits of the sprawling network they so desperately want to expand. Their wished-for expansion won’t happen  because it can’t happen .”   Robert Bryce   47,300 Gigawatt-Miles From Nowhere The NY Times and DOE use a silly metric to promote an impossible-to-achieve expansion of the electric grid. MAY 26     SHARE   H.L. Mencken, the  dyspeptic journalist and literary critic  who had his heyday in Baltimore about a century ago, coined several memorable lines. Among his most enduring: “For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.” Mencken’s line came to mind after reading an editorial in the  New York Times  called “ We Desperately Need a New Power Grid. Here’s How to Make It Happen .” The piece began: “To tap the potential of renewable energy, the United States needs to dramati...

  For many Texas Republicans these days, renewable power is about as welcome as a porcupine at a nudist colony. In the state capitol in Austin, Republicans are targeting wind and solar power with a slate of bills that would clamp down on renewable projects by, among other things, adding additional environmental requirements and excluding them from a state tax break. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who effectively controls the legislative agenda, has vowed that lawmakers won’t leave Austin this month without approving legislation that would spur the construction and maintenance of conventional power plants, calling renewable energy a “luxury.”  Across the U.S ., renewable-energy projects have slowed in part due to  local opposition that has thrown uncertainty into previously routine permitting and development .  The potential turnaround is especially sharp in Texas , a state known for its open business policies that is now home to  America’s greatest concentration of ...

  Updates on the March 28 wind turbine fire in Rexville/West Union NY - THE WELLSVILLE SUN VIDEO: West Union/Rexville wind turbine comes down in controlled demolition - THE WELLSVILLE SUN

  How many warnings does it take before the Biden Administration wakes up to the risks from its climate policies to the U.S. electric grid? The latest came this month from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), and please pray the wind keeps blowing. NERC’s summer reliability assessment forecasts that no less than two-thirds of the U.S., including most everyone living west of the Mississippi River, could experience power outages. Texas and most of the Midwest should have enough power to meet demand—assuming they don’t experience any sizzling hot and still summer days. Texas last summer narrowly averted a power outage by leaning on businesses to curtail operations. The state has since added enough solar to power about 200,000 homes. But demand has grown by even more, and the sun doesn’t shine at night. NERC forecasts a 19% probability of a grid emergency at 8 p.m. Do Texans feel lucky? One new variable this summer is the Environmental Protection Agency’s recentl...

I am detecting a trend. Here's yet another rejection of Big Wind, this one from Ireland: "The project would have consisted of seven wind turbines with likely heights of up to a maximum of 150 metres…Cork County Council turned down planning permission on Friday, May 5.”   https://t.co/DBCVRKRnfN

  As discussed here many, many times, the big problem with generating electricity from wind and solar sources is that they are intermittent. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. And sometimes they don’t work for days on end. The times when both wind and sun fail at the same time for multiple days tend to be concentrated in the very coldest days of the winter. This poses a huge problem for central planners’ dreams of “net zero” electricity. Try to solve the problem with grid-scale batteries, and suddenly you’re talking wildly unaffordable costs in the trillions of dollars. Not to worry. Recently everywhere talk has emerged of a new and seemingly easy solution to the problem of intermittency. Have you heard of it? It’s the “Virtual Power Plant.” I mean, today pretty much everything can be “virtual” if you want it to be. We have the “virtual” meeting, the “virtual” office, and the “virtual” school — even “virtual” reality. So why not a “virtual” power plant? But, in the cont...