Wind-power costs at issue before justices

Last August, when the state Public Utilities Commission approved a contract for the sale of power from what could be the first offshore wind farm in the country, it was unable to take into account the full costs of the project, a lawyer representing opponents to the pact argued before the Rhode Island Supreme Court on Wednesday.

State law limited the PUC's review to only the $205-million wind farm that developer Deepwater Wind would build within three miles of Block Island and did not consider the additional cost, estimated at up to $50 million, of an undersea transmission cable that must be built to connect the project to the mainland.

If the cable were factored in, said attorney Michael R. McElroy, the price of power would surely be even higher than the rate of 24.4 cents per kilowatt-hour agreed to in the contract by the utility, National Grid, and the overall proposal would, he argued, be an even worse deal for the state.

“Sure, we’d like to be first in the water, but you can’t do it at any cost,” McElroy said.

Details Here

first published week of:   05/16/2011

Wisconsin Wants a Do-over
Wind siting rules could be voided

That was fast. Before Wisconsin’s statewide wind siting rules were barely in effect, the new governor wants to rewrite them in the form of a bill before the legislature. The industry says the rewritten rules would effectively kill wind development, just as wind developers thought they had solved inconsistent siting requirements that impeded growth.

Now, newly elected Governor Scott Walker (R) has proposed a bill that would mandate a setback of 1,800 feet for wind turbines, which would halt just about all projects under consideration.

The industry would lose about 700 megawatts of new capacity. Cancellation of those projects would mean the loss of $1.8 billion dollars of investment in the state, industry officials say.

Last year, a collaborative process shepherded by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission resulted in siting regulations that created setbacks of 1,250 feet from a neighboring property line. A patchwork of county laws created enough uncertainty that Wisconsin wind development had slowed to a crawl, prompting the state legislature to direct the PSC to draft uniform rules.

The 1,800-foot wind turbine setbacks from property lines would be the most restrictive statewide setback requirement in the nation.

Details Here

first published week of:   01/24/2011

Xcel finds reason for shutdown of Monticello nuclear plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said November 21 its on–site inspectors at the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in Monticello, Minnesota, were monitoring an unplanned shutdown of the plant over the weekend of November 19 and 20. The plant shut down automatically November 19 when safety systems detected low oil pressure in its turbines, according to Xcel Energy. Xcel officials said the outage is not expected to be lengthy but declined to specify how long. The NRC also is trying to locate a part missing from a device used to monitor the level of nuclear reaction inside the reactor, according to an NRC spokesperson. The monitor, which is highly radioactive, was taken out of service for replacement. It typically is stored in the spent fuel reactor pool for safekeeping until it can be shipped to a disposal site. There is no indication the missing part is outside of the pool — it simply could not be found in its designated location, so workers will search the entire pool.

Details Here

first published week of:   11/28/2011

Volume 31

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