Good News for the Bad News Weary

This has been one of those weeks where the regular news has seemed overtly depressing.  In particular, the knee jerk right wing reaction to Obama's utterly sensible gun control recommendations had put me in a bit of funk.  It was the kind of primitive reaction that makes me wonder if going with homosapiens as opposed to neanderthals was a particularly good idea.  So instead of just looking at the blamestream news I turned my attention to the many Energy News streams that I subscribe to.  What a pleasant change!

In looking at the Energy News stories nearly every one was brimming with positive solutions and even more positive progress.  One of the stories had to do with the progress the province of Ontario has made in eliminating coal-burning electric plants and, along with it, most of its air pollution.  Ontario's  Premier Dalton McGuinty last week announced that by the end of this year the last two large-scale coal-fired generating plants will close, leaving only a small backup facility in Thunder Bay operating until the end of 2014. The elimination of these coal-plants is the result of a ten year plan introduced back in 2003. 

A significant part of Ontario's energy progress has been because of the dramatic increase in the use of wind energy in the region.  Renewable energy has allowed this transition to occur while significantly reducing the region's carbon footprint. Tim Weis  of the Pembina Institute said that greenhouse-gas emissions from Ontario's electricity sector have fallen from 40 million tons to 10 million ton in the last decade.

At EB we are huge fans of the wonderful progress the U.S. military has made in implementing renewable energy.  This week that progress continued when the U.S. Army dedicated its largest solar photovoltaic system yet, located at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The installation will generate approximately 10 GWh of electricity annually and provide an estimated annual savings of $930,000. The array will supply approximately 10% of the total power used at the site. The system is also the world's largest low-concentration photovoltaic solar power plant ever implemented.


Finally this week, a group of prominent U.S. investors, including Google, announced that it is moving forward with the construction of an ambitious $5 billion undersea transmission line that will connect future offshore wind farms along the mid-Atlantic coast.  As we have often mentioned at EB, one of the primary factors limiting the deployment of renewable energy projects is the lack of electricity transmission resources.  This project is tackling one of the biggest, a complete lack of transmission resources for off-shore wind farms on the east coast of the United States. 

The first segment of the project, which will occur in three phases, includes construction of a 189-mile transmission cable along the New Jersey coast. Coordinators of the project, known as the Atlantic Wind Connection, say the cable would deliver more than 3,400 megawatts of electric capacity from future offshore wind projects to three locations in New Jersey. Construction is expected to begin in 2016, according to the sponsors. The project intends to eventually link offshore wind farms with electricity grids from Virginia to New York.

Go Google go!