renewable energy – Enviro Updates

SuzanneSeptember 30, 2024October 4, 2024Climate Change & Energyfossil fuels, geothermal, renewable energy, Sonoma Clean Power, The Geysers

New bill critical to unlocking advancement toward increased geothermal power generation

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The much-anticipated statute is the key to unlocking expanded development of clean, renewable geothermal energy in and around The Geysers, officials say.

An obscure state bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last week could not seem less important. Or interesting.

Let’s be honest.

It describes how counties can now serve as lead agencies for environmental review of geothermal exploratory projects in California. Yawn.

But local officials say the much-anticipated statute is the key to unlocking expanded development of clean, renewable geothermal energy in and around The Geysers, advancing green energy goals here and across the West through more efficient and sustainable next-gen technologies that could be incubated here.

At stake is the chance for Sonoma Clean Power, the majority electrical supplier in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, to phase out remaining dependence on aged, highly polluting natural gas power plants that plug the supply gap when nightfall and unsuitable weather reduce availability of solar and wind power.

New geothermal energy approaches proposed for use in the Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino region could ensure a round-the-clock supply of renewable, 100% emission-free power for local consumers and for folks outside the area in the future, as well.

SuzanneMay 13, 2024May 14, 2024Climate Change & Energydecarbonization, electricity grid, renewable energy, transmission lines

US overhauls electric grid to make way for more renewables

Valerie Volcovivi, REUTERS

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday approved the first major electric transmission policy update in over a decade that aims to speed up new interregional lines to move more clean energy to meet growing demand amid the explosion of electric vehicles, data centers and artificial intelligence.

Approved in a 2-1 vote, the new rule is also the first time the FERC has ever squarely addressed the need for long-term transmission planning, playing a key role in helping meet the Biden administration’s goal of decarbonizing the economy by 2050 and making the grid more resilient to more frequent climate-fueled extreme weather events.

“This rule cannot come fast enough,” FERC Chairman Willie Phillips, who voted for the final rule. “There is an urgent need to act to ensure the reliability and the affordability of our grid.”

“We are at a transformational moment for the electric grid with phenomenal load growth,” he added, citing the surge in domestic manufacturing, proliferation of data centers, and the surge in extreme weather events that have pushed the country’s ageing infrastructure to its limits.

FERC has been working for nearly two years on the rule to reform how new electric transmission gets approved and paid for, with new requirements for moving electricity across states and covering the costs of new projects.

SuzanneNovember 16, 2023November 19, 2023Climate Change & EnergyCPUC, net metering, PG&E, renewable energy, rooftop solar

California reduces payments for rooftop solar power — for second time in a year

Ben Christopher and Julie Cart, CALMATTERS

The utilities commission reduced payments to apartments, schools and businesses selling solar power to the grid despite a barrage of criticism. Commissioners say it reverses unfair subsidies.

After months of debate and two postponed votes, California’s utility regulator unanimously voted today to overhaul incentives for owners of apartment buildings, schools and businesses that install solar panels.

The new regulations are the second major step that the California Public Utilities Commission has taken in the past year to reduce power companies’ financial support for rooftop solar. In December, the commission reduced payments to homeowners who sell excess power from newly installed solar panels on single-family homes.

Still, for solar advocates, it could have been worse.

Thanks to a last-minute regulatory tweak, the new rules today stop short of a previous proposal that solar industry groups and housing-related interests warned would result in the “evisceration” of the multifamily solar market.

SuzanneFebruary 24, 2023February 25, 2023Climate Change & Energygeothermal, renewable energy, The Geysers

3 new-tech geothermal plans to be considered for boosting power at The Geysers

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Three cutting-edge technologies that could give California a big boost in always-generating emission-free electricity are being eyed for pilot projects in and around massive geothermal field straddling Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties.

The Sonoma Clean Power board, made up of public officials from city and county governments the utility serves in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, on March 2 is set to consider cooperation agreements with Canada-based Eavor Technologies, Chevron New Energies and Salt Lake City-based Cyrq Energy. Each agreement calls for building a demonstration power project, each capable of generating up to 20 megawatts If successful, each plan would scale up to production of 200 megawatts.

The agency’s Community Advisory Committee on Feb. 16 recommended board approval of the agreements.

If the three pilot projects are successful, the full-scale projects producing a combined 600 megawatts would move California toward its goal of 1,160 megawatts of new geothermal power generation over the next five years. It would also increase by 85% the current roughly 700 megawatts of power output from existing plants in The Geysers.

SuzanneJuly 1, 2022July 4, 2022Climate Change & Energybuilding decarbonization, electric utilities, renewable energy

As federal climate-fighting tools are taken away, cities and states step up

Maggie Astor, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Across the country, local governments are accelerating their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, in some cases bridging partisan divides. Their role will become increasingly important.

Legislators in Colorado, historically a major coal state, have passed more than 50 climate-related laws since 2019. The liquor store in the farming town of Morris, Minn., cools its beer with solar power. Voters in Athens, Ohio, imposed a carbon fee on themselves. Citizens in Fairfax County, Va., teamed up for a year and a half to produce a 214-page climate action plan.

Across the country, communities and states are accelerating their efforts to fight climate change as action stalls on the national level. This week, the Supreme Court curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to limit greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, one of the biggest sources of planet-warming pollution — the latest example of how the Biden administration’s climate tools are getting chipped away.

During the Trump administration, which aggressively weakened environmental and climate protections, local efforts gained importance. Now, experts say, local action is even more critical for the United States — which is second only to China in emissions — to have a chance at helping the world avert the worst effects of global warming.

SuzanneJune 6, 2022June 6, 2022Climate Change & Energybattery storage, renewable energy, solar, Sonoma Clean Power

Sonoma Clean Power executes power purchase agreement with Luminia for 11.6 MW solar plus 8 MW energy storage project

BUSINESS WIRE

Project to reliably alleviate grid constraints and deliver clean, renewable energy to residents

SAN DIEGO & SANTA ROSA: Luminia and Sonoma Clean Power (SCP) announced today the signing of a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the development of an 11.6 MW AC solar plus 32 MWh battery storage project in Sonoma, California. Construction of the 75-acre project is expected in the second half of 2023 in southern Sonoma County, tying into a nearby electrical substation.

“Deploying reliable solar and storage projects with community choice aggregators like Sonoma Clean Power reinforces renewable energy as the new standard in our daily energy lives,” said Dale A. Vander Woude, chief investment officer of Luminia. “We formed an excellent team with Kenwood Investments to provide Sonoma Clean Power with a solution for its resource adequacy demand, which is what brought this important project to fruition in Sonoma County.”

In addition to the PPA, Luminia and Kenwood Investments, LLC, are managing the late-stage development of the project. Once completed, SCP will dispatch the 100 percent renewable, locally generated electricity to its EverGreen premium service customers throughout Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The 11.6 MW AC solar PV system also includes 32 MWh of lithium-ion battery storage that can distribute stored solar power across the grid during peak evening hours.

SuzanneJune 5, 2022June 25, 2022Climate Change & EnergyCARB, carbon capture, emissions reduction, fossil fuels, ghg emissions, renewable energy

Climate controversy: California’s plan for handling crisis is flawed, advisors say

Nadia Lopez, CALMATTERS

California’s climate change plan fails to provide substantial evidence that capturing carbon will meet ambitious greenhouse gas goals, critics say. The plan “does California a disservice,” one state advisor said.

As California races to prevent the irreversible effects of climate change, some experts are questioning key policies that the state is counting on to meet its ambitious goals and accusing state officials of failing to provide substantial details to back up its claims.

The California Air Resources Board’s proposal, called a scoping plan, outlines policies that would transition the economy away from fossil fuels. The purpose of the plan is to fulfill state mandates to reduce planet-warming emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.

In this year’s highly-anticipated climate policy blueprint, some critics say the state agency has not been transparent on how it plans to achieve its goals. The process has left legislators and others at the forefront of the climate discussion confused over the air board staff’s projections.

“The draft scoping plan does California a disservice,” said Danny Cullenward, an economist and vice chair of the Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, a group of five experts appointed by the governor and top legislators to assess the effectiveness of the state’s landmark cap and trade program. “It focuses on long-term goals at the expense of near-term action.”

At two recent state committee meetings, environmentalists, academics and climate policy experts who serve on state advisory panels voiced concerns over California’s approach to tackling the climate crisis. They called the plan incomplete, ambiguous and confusing.

SuzanneMay 22, 2022Climate Change & Energycarbon capture, fossil fuels, ghg emissions, ghg reduction, renewable energy

Op Ed: California can do better than carbon neutrality by 2045

Daniel Kammen, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Ten years ago, many Californians could not have imagined the climate nightmare we are living today — dark orange skies during wildfire season, heat waves in the dead of winter, mandatory water restrictions amid crippling drought.

Without urgent action, we may well look back on this moment as the calm before the storm. Over the course of the next decade, California’s biggest climate challenges — hotter summers, a shorter rainy season and more destructive wildfires — could double in intensity.

It’s against this backdrop that the California Air Resources Board last week released a draft of our state’s scoping plan, a blueprint for combating climate change that will guide California’s policy for years. Despite the stakes for Californians, and although my research indicates the state could actually become carbon negative by 2030, the draft proposal would delay reaching carbon neutral until 2045. The barriers to a target of 2030 are political, not technical.

The draft plan calls for investment in new fossil fuel electricity resources, and it relies on unproven and costly carbon capture technologies that would lock in fossil fuel pollution. Adopting this approach would be lazy, nonsensical and racially unjust. During the current 45-day period for public review of the plan, California has the chance to choose a smarter path.

Renewable energy, even when coupled with energy storage, is cheaper than fossil fuels. California’s own state laws say that renewable energy must be prioritized before building out expensive and polluting gas power plants. Instead, California must set ambitious targets that immediately cut pollution through no-regrets strategies.

SuzanneFebruary 28, 2022March 13, 2022Climate Change & Energygas, ghg emissions, renewable energy

Op-Ed: If you care about freedom, shut up about high gas prices – and put a solar panel on your roof

Bill McKibben, THE CRUCIAL YEARS

We’ve had an immense amount of nonsense in the last year or two about what constitutes freedom—mostly, it appears, freedom is the right to give others covid so that you’re not burdened with the unbearable sacrifice of wearing a square of cloth across your mouth.

But as of Wednesday night, the idea of freedom got a little more real. People in Ukraine are suddenly being killed for daring to want to choose their own leaders. And people in Russia—many thousands—are bravely taking to the streets to support that choice. Those are all extremely brave people, and they deserve our deep gratitude and admiration. And we should do what we can to help them.

We’re not being asked to do much. President Biden took the prospect that we might stand militarily with Ukraine off the table early—that was probably wise, since there’s clearly not an appetite in America for helping in that way, and since actual fighting with a nuclear-armed foe run by a dead-eyed zealot is no easy thing. In fact, Biden seems to me to be doing a very steady job in the deepest crisis since 9/11—our impulsive and rash reaction then led us down a terrible path of stupid wars. This time he’s corralling allies, drawing up sanctions, doing what he can to hold together a democratic world order against autocrats abroad (and Fox News at home).

SuzanneJanuary 10, 2022June 24, 2022Climate Change & Energybaseline energy, geothermal, low carbon, renewable energy, Sonoma Clean Power, The Geysers

In this Nov. 12, 2020, file photo, traffic moves on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File) Golden Gate Bridge tolls are going up in July. Here’s how much Lake, Mendocino, Sonoma counties considering big geothermal power expansion

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

A plan to significantly expand geothermal electricity production in the North Bay — in a bid to create more 24/7 renewable production to ease California’s move into a zero-emissions energy over the next 24 years — is getting more buy-in from local officials.

The area already is home to the world’s largest geothermal power station, The Geysers, which produces almost half of California’s electricity production from that energy source, according to Calpine Corp., which runs most of the plants there. Now, Sonoma Clean Power, a community choice aggregation utility that serves upwards of 230,000 customers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, wants to nearly double that output.

It hopes to spur more investment in smaller-sized, low-water-usage plants, scattering them across much of Lake County and parts of Mendocino and Sonoma counties to bring power production closer to residential and business customers.

To accomplish the plan, Sonoma Clean Power is proposing a geothermal opportunity zone, or GeoZone. On Dec. 7, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to join the zone.

Environmental Center of Sonoma County

Tag: renewable energy