By 2029, Half of New US Wind Installations Will Be Offshore

By: Maxwell Cohen

The United States offshore wind industry is set to ramp up from near zero today to as much as 25 gigawatts in 2029, according to new Wood Mackenzie research.

That means offshore wind will capture almost half of the U.S. market for new wind power installations by the end of the decade — if the industry can avoid potential permitting and transmission capacity challenges.

On the other hand, if the market moves more slowly, the total build this decade will total just 15 gigawatts.

Today, more than 9 gigawatts of offshore wind projects are already contracted or soon to be approved in the U.S., and up to 6 gigawatts more will be solicited through 2022.

For the rest of the story visit: https://2029Halfof WindOffshore

Alliant Proposes $900M Solar Buy; 6 Farms Would Power 175,000 Homes

By Chris Hubbuch

Alliant Energy has announced plans to purchase about $900 million worth of new solar power plants in Wisconsin.

The six projects totaling 675 megawatts of capacity — enough to power about 175,000 typical Wisconsin homes for a year — are the first phase in the Madison-based utility’s plans to add up to 1,000 megawatts of solar by 2024.

The acquisition would make Alliant the largest solar operator in Wisconsin.

Alliant plans to file applications Wednesday with the Public Service Commission for permission to purchase the solar projects, which range in size from 50 to 200 megawatts and are under development in Grant, Jefferson, Richland, Rock, Sheboygan and Wood counties.

All six projects are being developed by private, unregulated companies. Five are in the permitting pipeline; Alliant and Ranger Power announced plans Tuesday to seek a conditional use permit later this year for the sixth, a 75-megawatt project in the town of Jefferson.

For the rest of the story visit: https://AlliantSolarBuy

The 16 Solar & Storage Projects Hawaii Just Ordered

By Zachary Shanan

I recently highlighted a couple of big solar + storage projects that were given the go-ahead in Hawaii. Then I found out that these are two of 16 solar and energy storage projects just approved for development in the state.

One week ago, Hawaiian Electric posted details about these 16 projects. “The name, location, developer, technology, size and estimated completion dates are listed on the Hawaiian Electric renewable project status board at www.hawaiianelectric.com/statusboard as well as links to each project’s individual website. Each developer is responsible for ongoing outreach to their prospective neighboring communities, alerting them to plans and responding to concerns.” A table of the winners is at the bottom of this article, but here’s a quick summary of the 16 projects totaling 460 MW of solar power capacity and 3 GWh of storage capacity:

“The results are eight solar-plus-storage projects and one standalone-storage project on Oahu, three solar-plus-storage projects and one standalone-storage project on Maui, and two solar-plus-storage projects and one standalone-storage on Hawaii Island for a total of 460 megawatts of solar energy and nearly 3 gigawatt-hours of energy storage.”

For the rest of the story visit: https://16SolarandStorageProjectsinHawaii

Webinar: Addressing STEM Workforce Needs in a Virtual World – How ATE Grants Can Help and Why You Should Apply

Wednesday, June 17, 2020 • 1:00 - 2:30 p.m. (EDT)

For more than 25 years, the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has awarded competitive grants, with an emphasis on two-year colleges, to test innovative ideas for improving STEM technician education in the advanced technology fields that are important to the nation’s economic health and security. Community colleges nationwide, in response to Covid-19, are challenged to develop strategies to successfully deliver hands-on content in an online environment such as through virtual labs, simulations, and augmented and virtual reality.  Join us to learn how ATE grants have been successfully used to create innovative curriculum, technologies, and authentic learning experiences in virtual environments; about the critical value of preparing students with STEM technical skills in a current- and post-pandemic economy; and what you need to do to apply for NSF ATE funding.

To Register visit: https://eventsregistration 

10 of the Hottest Green Technology Trends

Photo by Alain Van den Hende from Pexels

Humanity has made some major shifts toward sustainability in recent years. While there’s still a long way to go before every business, organisation, and person on the planet exists in an environmentally harmonious way, there have nevertheless been some big developments in eco conscious living, particularly on the technology front.

Here are ten of the most recent green technology trends, which are only set to go further in the months and years to come.

10. Clean Energy is spreading like never before

Experts have predicted that between 2016 and 2020, a total of 70,000 solar panels will be installed every hour around the globe. And as green electricity is controlled by sophisticated smart microgrids, it will easily reach coastal and distant continental areas, ensuring that more and more human occupied areas will exist on clean energy.

For the top 9 and the rest of the story visit: https://10HottestGreenTechTrends

How to Extend the Life of Renewable Technology

One of the most important reasons to choose renewable energy over incumbent technologies is because renewables take the long view. They meet our most immediate needs without jeopardizing the next generation’s livable future.

However, this entire well-intentioned mission can’t work if renewable technologies themselves aren’t built to last and don’t receive the upkeep they need for long and productive service lives. Here’s a look at some of the best ways to prolong their use so our assets continue serving us faithfully into the future.

1. Perform a Lifetime Extension Assessment

Wind turbines are fairly robust pieces of machinery. Most design specifications call for a service life of around 20 years. However, even low-cost maintenance and repairs can extend this life if the right care is taken. If an operator is faced with the decision to decommission a wind turbine or evaluate it for extended service, a lifetime extension assessment can help.

Several official groups, including the German Association of Wind Energy, have published sets of technical requirements to be considered during lifetime extension assessments. Receiving a positive result from a lifetime extension assessment requires access to the right information.

For the rest of the story visit: https://ExtendRenewableTech

US renewables hit milestone in surpassing coal output

By Mariecor Agravante
Last year marked the first time renewables outpaced coal-fired electricity generation. This led to IEEFA forecasts of renewables eclipsing coal by 2021. Unexpectedly, this year’s COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated renewable energy‘s first-quarter performance in producing electricity. Hence, EIA forecasts expect electric power generated by coal “will fall by 25% in 2020.”

Interestingly, Forbes notes that “The electric power sector consistently sees its lowest coal demand in April,” owing to seasonal temperature adjustments when winter transitions into springtime. Because of the change in season, natural gas and coal generators often “schedule routine maintenance for the spring…and many coal plants spen[d] part of April offline for planned, temporary outages.” This illustrates why wind generation is typically relied upon most in springtime. As for hydropower, snowmelt often feeds rivers, thus accounting for increased electricity generation downstream each spring as well, Forbes explains.

For the rest of the story visit: https://RenewablesSurpassingCoal

Webinar: Troubleshooting and Safety Simulator for Wind Turbine Technician Education

Wind turbine technicians come from a variety of backgrounds and may have very different learning experiences. While community colleges and training programs often include a combination of classroom and lab activities, many students have limited experience working with an actual wind turbine. A virtual wind turbine simulator can help to fill that gap. This webinar will introduce a simulator being developed through the NSF ATE project “Troubleshooting and Safety Simulator for Wind Turbine Technician Education.”  The webinar will include an introduction to simulator features, a walk-through of a troubleshooting scenario, and an overview of built-in tools that allow instructors to customize and design their own scenarios for students.

Please join CREATE and John Moreland from the Center for Innovation through Visualization and Simulation at Purdue University Northwest Friday, May 29th, at 11:00AM  PST.

To register, email Gabrielle Temple at Gabrielle.Temple@canyons.edu

Dane County project offers biogas producers a pipeline portal

Chris Hubbuch | Wisconsin State Journal

A first-of-its-kind renewable gas unloading station went into service last week at the Dane County Landfill, unloading a trailer full of methane that just days earlier was wafting from a pool of cow manure at a dairy farm in Campbellsport.

The methane, known as renewable natural gas — or biogas — hissed through a tangle of pipes connected to a natural gas pipeline, where it will eventually be burned in place of fossil fuels.

Each trailer load contains the biogas equivalent of 2,400 to 3,000 gallons of gasoline. The county has the capacity to unload about 10 trailers per day, which means at full capacity it could handle the renewable fuel equivalent of 20 million gallons of gasoline.

For the rest of the story visit: https://BiogasProducePipelinePortal

Major Minnesota electricity provider to shut coal plant, invest in wind power

Jackie Renzetti

Minnesota's second-largest electricity provider is closing its coal-fired power plant and switching to wind farms.

The Maple Grove-based Great River Energy plans to close its 1,150 megawatt (MW) Coal Creek Power Station – one of the Upper Midwest’s largest electricity plants – in North Dakota in the second half of 2022, the company announced Thursday.

The company expects two-thirds of its electricity will come from wind farms once it completes its transition, investing $1.2 billion to buy 1,100 MW from wind energy projects.

"We are building a power supply portfolio that will serve our member-owner cooperatives for decades," avid Great River CEO Saggau said.

For the rest of the story visit: https://CoaltoWind