Colorado's biggest power company this week signed onto an unprecedented settlement agreement on renewable power and customer billing that environmental advocates say could be a turning point in ushering cleaner energy onto the grid.
Xcel Energy Inc., which provides power to two-thirds of the state's residential customers, will no longer pursue a proposal to add a fixed grid-use charge to customers' bills, which solar advocates feared would slow renewable power development. Instead, it will look into two other types of billing based on power use.
The deal is meant to avoid the kind of heated net-metering fights underway in other Western states that are reconsidering how much to compensate growing rooftop solar power and how much to allow utilities to charge to keep up the grid with fewer customers using it continuously. continued…
first published week of: 08/22/2016
More than 1,000 Navajos who live without electricity in their homes soon could get power for the first time as the tribal utility buys a system of southern Utah substations and electrical lines.
Officials say the deal between the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain Power will help them connect some of the thousands of people on the 27,000 square-mile Navajo Nation who without a utility considered among the most basic for most Americans. continued…
first published week of: 08/08/2016
The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) today announced $37 million in funding for 16 innovative new projects as part of a new ARPA-E program: Integration and Optimization of Novel Ion-Conducting Solids (IONICS). IONICS project teams are paving the way for technologies that overcome the limitations of current battery and fuel cell products.
By creating high performance parts built with solid ion conductors – solids in which ions can be mobile and store energy – the IONICS program will focus on new ways to process and integrate these parts into devices with the goal of accelerating their commercial deployment. In particular, IONICS projects will work to improve energy storage and conversion technologies in three categories: transportation batteries, grid-level storage, and fuel cells.
“While battery technologies have improved by leaps and bounds over the past few years, there remain some imposing physical and chemical barriers that have stifled further innovation,” said ARPA-E Director Dr. Ellen D. Williams. “Solid ion conductors made of affordable, easily produced materials could replace today’s mostly liquid electrolytes and expensive fuel cell parts, helping create a next generation of batteries and fuel cells that are low-cost, durable, and more efficient.”
Batteries and fuel cells are referred to as electrochemical devices due to their method of converting chemical energy into electricity and electricity into chemical energy. These products make it possible to store electricity from intermittent, carbon-free resources like wind and solar power, as well as generate electricity from the energy stored in fuels like natural gas or hydrogen. IONICS project teams are seeking to improve these energy storage options through the use of solid ion conductors, which have shown potential as a robust and high-performance alternative to traditional liquid electrolytes or expensive materials used in current fuel cell stacks. However, until now, solid ion conductors have been limited by drawbacks such as low ionic conductivity and expensive processing.
IONICS projects will use new materials and processes to achieve advancements such as increasing battery energy capacity while preventing short circuits and battery degradation. By creating a pathway to replace expensive elements like platinum for more common metals to serve as catalysts, teams also hope to greatly reduce the cost of the fuel cell parts needed to generate electricity from chemical sources.
The IONICS program and the projects funded today will look to improve U.S. energy security by enabling the production of more domestic, renewable energy while increasing economic competitiveness and reducing the country’s carbon footprint.
Further details on the IONICS program can be found HERE. Details on all 16 of the IONICS projects may be found HERE.
first published week of: 10/03/2016
Duke Energy plans to cap unlined and potentially leaking coal ash pits at 10 generating plants in North Carolina and Indiana while excavating its sites in Kentucky and South Carolina,The company announced its plans ahead of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency deadline next week for utilities to declare their plans for storing decades of waste left after burning coal for power. The ash is buried in hundreds of basins across the country.
Duke Energy plans to store in place almost 70 percent of its ash by dehydrating the storage pools and covering the area with a waterproof liner and dirt to encase the waste. The basin bottoms usually aren't lined, and environmentalists contend heavy metals and other toxic materials filter into underground water supplies. Duke Energy denies that its pits contaminate groundwater.
Duke Energy projects drying out and covering three dozen coal ash pits. Ash would stay in existing pits at North Carolina plants in Belmont, Belews Creek, Terrell, Roxboro, Mooresboro and Semora. The company also would cap storage basins at its Indiana plants in Cayuga, New Albany, Owensville and Terre Haute. Other ash pits at some of those plants are slated to be excavated and removed. continued…
first published week of: 11/14/2016
As part of the Obama Administration’s continued commitment to the President’s Climate Action Plan, the Energy Department announced $29 million in funding under the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) program for projects awarded to teams at Sandia National Laboratories and the University of Utah. The funding will be for each team to fully instrument, characterize and permit candidate sites for an underground laboratory to conduct cutting-edge research on enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The Sandia team will be working on a site in Fallon, Nevada, and the University of Utah team will be working at a site in Milford, Utah.
“Enhanced Geothermal Systems can help us tap into a vast energy resource with the potential to generate enough clean energy to power millions of homes,” said Franklin Orr, Under Secretary for Science and Energy. “In supporting this technology, the FORGE program is advancing American leadership in clean energy innovation and could ultimately help us meet our climate and sustainability goals.”
The Energy Department, with the support of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), awarded funding to these two teams after a competitive first phase of research to evaluate potential EGS underground research sites. The candidate sites announced today in Nevada and Utah will use this new funding to prepare for the competitive third phase of the FORGE effort, which will designate one of the sites as the headquarters for the future underground field lab. continued…
first published week of: 09/12/2016
Building on our strong international partnerships to accelerate grid modernization, research and deployment, the Energy Department’s Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability today announced a new Funding Opportunity Announcement for joint research on smart grid and energy storage under the U.S.–India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy Research (PACE-R).
The Energy Department (DOE) and the Indian Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) are each committing $1.5 million per year for five years to the expanded research effort, subject to congressional appropriations. The United States and Indian private sectors will match the respective government commitments, resulting in a combined $30 million public-private research investment over the next five years.
“Smart grid and storage technology will transform how we produce and consume electricity, which has the potential to decrease carbon pollution by scaling up renewable energy deployment,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz. “Working collaboratively with India will accelerate solutions to drive down technology costs and improve grid resilience and reliability in both countries.”
In 2009, the United States and India launched the Partnership to Advance Clean Energy (PACE) to support research and deployment of clean energy technologies. PACE is the core mechanism of bilateral energy R&D collaboration between the U.S. and India. Since its launch, the countries have agreed to expand the initiative, which has three main areas of activity: Research (PACE-R), Deployment (PACE-D) and Access (PEACE).
In 2012, DOE and MST committed to jointly funding PACE-R with a combined $50 million in government funding over five years to launch three initial research consortia, focusing on solar energy, energy efficiency in buildings, and next-generation biofuels. Today’s new FOA provides resources for a fourth consortium under PACE-R that will focus on smart grid and energy storage for grid applications. The new consortium will enable counterparts in the United States and India to leverage the technological research capabilities of both countries. The new consortium will be officially established when an award selection is made – anticipated in 2017. For more information about PACE-R visit Energy.gov.
first published week of: 08/29/2016
As part of the Obama Administration’s effort to cut energy waste in the nation’s restaurants and buildings, today the Energy Department’s Better Buildings Challenge recognized the Wendy’s Company and its franchisee, Wendco Group, for leadership in energy efficiency. This local restaurant achieved a 37 percent total energy reduction or more than 50 percent energy savings per sales transaction, and nearly $8,000 in savings annually.
Through the Better Buildings Challenge, Wendy’s has committed to achieving 20 percent energy savings over 10 years, across 1.5 million square feet of building space at company-owned restaurants. It’s also the first restaurant company to include franchisees in the Better Buildings Challenge. To date, six franchisees have joined, adding an additional 270 restaurants (nearly 700,000 square feet) to the collective Wendy’s footprint.
Wendy’s joined the Better Buildings Challenge in January of this year and was so inspired by the program that the company started its own program called the Wendy’s Energy Challenge. The program is modeled after the Better Buildings Challenge and encourages Wendy’s franchisees across North America to be good stewards of energy usage. continued…
first published week of: 10/17/2016
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Friedman signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Energy and the American Public Power Association (APPA), ensuring collaborative efforts to electrify personal and fleet transportation in public power communities throughout the United States.
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy David Friedman signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Department of Energy and the American Public Power Association (APPA), ensuring collaborative efforts to electrify personal and fleet transportation in public power communities throughout the United States.
This partnership builds on the President’s goal and the Energy Department’s EV Everywhere Grand Challenge to develop plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) by 2022 that are as affordable as a 2012 gasoline-powered vehicle. The MOU advances mutual interests to increase the economic, environmental, and national security benefits of using electricity as a transportation fuel and expanding the electric vehicle (EV) market by bringing utilities directly into the fold.
Through this agreement, the Energy Department and APPA will pursue collaborative efforts to advance EV adoption and charging infrastructure deployment for private vehicles, commercial fleets, transportation for passengers and commerce, and other efforts that will help displace petroleum with grid-sourced electricity as a transportation fuel. The Energy Department and APPA will provide information to increase education and awareness of the benefits of EVs to public power utilities and local officials, and develop a Community Action Plan that focuses on smaller communities with fewer than 200,000 electric customers.
“With the clean energy revolution accelerating and the electric vehicle market growing, it is critical that we expand cooperation as part of our EV Everywhere Grand Challenge,” said Acting Assistant Secretary Friedman. “APPA has shown tremendous leadership in promoting EVs among its network of public utilities, and with this MOU, we are eager to work together to electrify transportation with clean and renewable power in our biggest cities and smallest towns, ensuring that EVs truly are everywhere.”
“Given our strong commitment to environmental stewardship, Public Power is honored to partner with the DOE to promote increased use of electric vehicles,” said APPA President and CEO Sue Kelly. “We want to be responsive to changing customer preferences and help our members prepare for the future of transportation.”
first published week of: 08/08/2016
An Alabama Public Service Commission member should not sign a potentially lucrative lease with a solar energy company that hopes to sell energy to a utility he regulates, a state ethics panel said Thursday.
The Alabama Ethics Commission, voting 3-2, issued an advisory opinion Thursday saying Public Service Commissioner Chip Beeker should not enter into the agreement that could pay him $225,000-a-year for a lease on land that he owns. Coronal Development Group, a Virginia-based solar company was looking to sign lease options in the state in anticipation that Alabama Power will be seeking request proposals for renewable energy projects.
Beeker's position on the state board that regulates utilities and the company's hopes of selling energy to Alabama Power create at least the "perception of a conflict of interest," the opinion stated. The Ethics Commission members say in the opinion they are not satisfied that, "Mr. Beeker's public position is irrelevant to Coronal, nor can we conclude that the lease would not present a conflict between Mr. Beeker's private interests and official responsibilities if executed." continued…
first published week of: 09/12/2016
A regional power utility that serves much of the western United States is under multiple federal investigations for possible fraud, waste and abuse, according to records obtained by ABC15.
The Western Area Power Administration, or WAPA, is a division of the United States Department of Energy that sells power to wholesale electric utilities, municipalities, tribes and other agencies in 15 western states, including Arizona, that serve millions of people.
Multiple whistleblowers within WAPA have alleged widespread misconduct and inappropriate spending within the agency, ABC15 has learned. Arizona’s Senators Jeff Flake and John McCain have also called for an investigation.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has started requesting documents and conducting interviews, records show. Committee leaders said they are investigating financial and facility mismanagement based on allegations made by several whistleblowers.
There is also a criminal investigation underway by the Department of Energy Officer of Inspector General . continued…
first published week of: 12/12/2016