GOLDEN CRESCENT AND 1000 ISLAND NEWS

  The End of Magical Thinking and the Need for 24/7 Guest Op-Ed: Rethinking Gigawatt Scale—Is Bigger Still Better in the USA? Generated by ChatGPT, which used as much power to make this as it would take to completely charge your cellphone.   Can it be possible that the hottest nuclear reactor design in the United States right now is not a sexy Small Modular Reactor (SMR) or an exotic advanced reactor but a BBR: Big Boring Reactor? Specifically, I’m talking about Westinghouse’ flagship AP1000 reactor. I and a few other nuclear activists have been jumping up and down about how in the wake of the Vogtle build in Georgia finally coming on line, we need to turn around and build more AP1000s. I’m also used to these entreaties falling on deaf ears. For so long the chorus for new-builds in the US was “Small Modular Reactors and Advanced only.” I certainly did not have Jigar Shah, Director of the Loan Program Office (LPO) at the Department of Energy tweeting about a recent surge in int...

  Statewide blocks and limits put the nationwide goal to reach 100% clean energy by 2035 at risk   Elizabeth Weise Karina Zaiets Ramon Padilla Suhail Bhat USA TODAY   February 27, 2024   A nationwide  analysis by USA TODAY  revealed a trend that threatens to derail U.S. clean energy goals:  local governments are banning  new utility-scale wind and solar power  faster than they’re building it. Learn more: US counties are blocking the future of renewable energy: These maps, graphics show how The US has massive wind and solar energy potential In areas where the wind blows faster and more consistently, turbines can make more electricity. Hover and zoom around the country in the maps below to explore potential for wind and solar energy generation. Energy potential isn't mapped in some areas (gray) that are already off-limits for federal, ecological, military or other uses. In addition to other restricted areas, these maps exclude areas that are to...

  February 28 , 2024   (Here is a graph – courtesy of Grid Brief -- showing the electric generation power source mix for New York State from  February 20 through February 27) New York-ISO   Natural gas, hydro, and nuclear kept the lights on in the Empire State. Wind contributed something – for a couple of days. Total generation flagged slightly over the week.   Governor Kathy Hochul  appointed   two new members of the state’s Public Service Commission: Denise Sheehan, who has previously served as a commissioner for the Department of Environmental Conservation, and Uchenna Bright, an alumna of the Natural Resources Defense Council, which helped push for the premature closure of the Indian Point nuclear power plant in the state, further fragilizing New York’s grid.

  Uncertainty over government electricity policies and the energy transition are spooking the market, driving an undervaluation of Calgary-based independent power producer TransAlta Corp .  says the company’s chief executive. TransAlta announced a $150-million share buyback program Friday to help turn that around, and share prices climbed by around 6.2 per cent in response, to $10.08 .  The company also reported   a loss attributable to common shareholders of $84-million compared with a loss of $163-million a year earlier. Falling power prices have conspired with  regulatory uncertainty on three fronts  to shake investor confidence, chief executive John Kousinioris said in an interview: the federal government’s proposed clean-electricity regulations and, in Alberta, the government’s market structure review and its  ban on renewable project approvals. Mr. Kousinioris said people are expecting the industry to do a better job of growing renewables to meet...

  SACRAMENTO, California — California Democrats proudly authored nation-leading clean energy goals that forced the automobile industry to go electric and shaped global climate policy. Then the bill came due. There is intensifying political pressure on state lawmakers to do something about utility bills  that have shot up by as much as 127 percent over the last decade.  Climate spending — from wildfire prevention to building out transmission capacity and paying for renewables — is partly to blame. “Californians are fed up,” said Democratic state Assemblymember Marc Berman at a recent news conference in Sacramento. “My constituents are pissed off. I know because they told me over and over again at every community coffee that I had in the fall and in the winter. Their rates keep going up.” Lawmakers there and in other Democratic states with nation-leading climate objectives — like  New York   and Massachusetts  — are scrambling to make their transitions from f...

  ALBANY — As some of New York’s most influential politicians celebrate the infusion of federal money to expand the GlobalFoundries Fab 8 campus in Malta,   questions remain about the ability of the state’s electrical grid to meet the needs of another high-demand project. Watch More The project will  expand the current semiconductor manufacturing plant  while adding a second facility, estimated to be 358,000 square feet, that GlobalFoundries said will triple their capacity.   But the process of manufacturing semiconductors  requires significant energy to power operations , with estimates that the Micron plant near Syracuse will use up to 928 megawatts by 2035. One megawatt powers roughly 750 to 1,000 households.   In 2023, prior to the major expansion’s announcement, GlobalFoundries had plans on file with local municipalities noting that its structures would run on 195 megawatts when completed. The new multi-billion dollar expansion  will bring a ...

  The Long-Term Costs of Wind Turbines by  Sam Aflaki,   Atalay Atasu, and  L uk N. Van Wassenhove   February 20, 2024     Summary.    Wind energy is experiencing a boom, but in a pattern eerily reminiscent of the nineteenth century Pennsylvania oil boom, wind farms are building ever larger turbines to farm wind energy further and further from shore. This trend carries risks, especially as turbines come with largely hidden costs. Increasing evidence suggests that although larger turbines can capture more energy, at a certain point the costs of maintaining and decommissioning large turbines located far offshore will outweigh the benefits of that energy capture.  If wind farm operators are to avoid creating an environmental and economic disaster in the longer term, they need to begin factoring realistic maintenance and decommissioning costs into their projections.close   In 1859, the town of  Titusville in Pennsylvania vault...