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Posts Tagged ‘Texas’

$10 million to Cut the Tape!

Posted in Energy, Global Warming, solar, tagged , , , , , on February 16, 2013 |

The reason that the U.S. is lagging behind in solar energy isn’t because of the cost solar photovoltaic (PV) panels. Solar PV is becoming increasingly more affordable as technologies advance to increase efficiency and manufacturing costs continue to decline. However, the cost associated with getting a solar system actually installed up on your roof rather has not declined as quickly. “Soft costs” make up more than 50% of the entire cost of solar PV systems in the U.S.  This isn’t the case everywhere though.  The graph below demonstrates the difference between solar installation costs in the U.S. and Germany (currently leading the world in solar generated power).  Soft costs in for solar installations are just a fraction of what they are in the U.S.

US and Germany soft cost of solar graphThis is why the U.S. Department of Energy is enticing communities around the nation to focus their efforts on burning through the red tape that drives project costs up. $10 million in cash awards go to the teams that install the most PV systems in American homes. How these teams will do it is completely up to them. If they are clever enough, maybe they will get through to city and state officials where environmental organizations could not.

There is a maze of rules and regulations to get through, but $10 million is a good incentive to find a way through it.

Graph from Grist (http://grist.org/climate-energy/why-is-rooftop-solar-cheaper-in-germany-than-in-the-u-s/).

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Tonight – 6 p.m. – Defend Citizen Control of Austin Energy

Posted in Consumers, Energy, Good Government, Utilities, tagged , , , , , , , on February 14, 2013 |

While the proposed resolution to give Austin Energy governance responsibilities to an appointed board has been taken off the “consent agenda”, it’s still alive and kicking.

City Council will take up the issue at 6 p.m. this evening (Thurs, 2/14) and I hope you can take a bit of time before dinner to stand up for your rights. 

Austin Energy is a owned by us, the citizens of Austin.  Currently, we can influence the direction the utility takes by showing up at City Council meetings (just as I’m hoping you will tonight) and voicing your opinions.  The people of Austin have spoken passionately and convincingly on a variety of issues including development of strong solar energy programs,  assistance for the poor and keeping rates affordable for everyone.  City Council has often changed it’s course as a result of public outcry.  They do so because they know that they can be held accountable at the ballot box (or the electronic voting machine, as the case may be).

An appointed board could dramatically limit the ability that each of us has to ensure that Austin Energy is governed in a way that aligns with our values.

Some have argued that a board could focus more on the important issues at Austin Energy, but an appointed board is not the only option.  With City Council soon to be enlarged – when we move to the 10-1 system with geographic representation – there could easily be a subcommittee that focuses on the governance and oversight of Austin Energy.  If some members of City Council don’t wish to be burdened with the responsibility of governing our most (monetarily) valuable asset, then they could decline to serve on such a subcommittee.

Some Austin Energy customers who live outside Austin have complained that they have no representation in the governing body of Austin Energy (which is Austin City Council).  That’s a fair point and could easily be remedied by reserving one seat (or whatever is proportional based on population) on the subcommittee for an elected representative of those customers residing outside city limits.  What doesn’t make sense it to disenfranchise everyone just because some people aren’t currently represented.

Yes, the system could be more perfect and we at Public Citizen are always working toward making it so, but with all the awards and national recognition that Austin Energy has received, we must be doing something right.

So, please, make your voice heard at City Hall tonight.  The proposed resolution is “Item #46” and will be taken up at 6 p.m.  You can register to speak or register your opposition at the kiosks in the City Hall lobby.  You can donate your speaking time to someone else, but you must be present at the meeting to do so. If you drive, you can park in the garage underneath City Hall and get your parking validated in the lobby.

If you can’t make it to the meeting tonight, send City Council a letter letting them know you oppose the formation of an appointed board to govern Austin Energy.

For more information, please visit www.cleanenergyforaustin.org.

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New Public Citizen Study Finds Electricity Shortfall Won’t Be Solved by Paying Utilities Based on Their Capacity to Generate Power

Posted in Energy, tagged , , on February 12, 2013 |

Costs Would Increase; Existing Power Plants Would Get Windfall

The state’s electricity shortfall won’t be solved by paying utilities based on how much power they can generate, rather than how much they actually generate, a new Public Citizen report finds.

The report comes as debate rages among regulators and state lawmakers over how to keep the lights on in Texas. Demand for electricity is increasing while new power plant construction is slowing down.

Some want a “capacity market” – one in which power plant owners are paid for being ready to generate electricity. Others prefer to create incentives for reducing electricity consumption. A new study released today by Public Citizen found that the state’s electricity shortfall won’t be solved by a capacity market. Instead, a capacity market would just reward the owners of existing power plants with substantial windfall profits.

“Our study has found that a capacity market takes too long, costs too much and won’t be enough to keep the lights on,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, director of Public Citizen’s Texas Office. “We’d be better off developing a new market structure that creates incentives for people to use less electricity.”

The debate about whether to pay electric companies for the energy they produce or the capacity to produce energy has occurred in many parts of the country over the past 10 years. The state’s Public Utility Commission (PUC) has been discussing this issue for more than a year and will consider it again on Thursday. It could vote on whether or not to create a capacity market.

To answer the question of whether a capacity market would benefit Texas, energy experts hired by Public Citizen analyzed a capacity market run by PJM, a regional transmission organization that coordinates electricity movement in 13 states and the District of Columbia, which is the market model most similar to the approach the PUC is discussing. Researchers found that replicating the PJM-run capacity market would take until 2015 and would cost between $1.2 billion and $2.3 billion a year.

In addition, such a market would divert resources from new, more efficient power sources. In the PJM market, $54 billion went to existing power plants while just $4.2 billion went to new resources such as gas, wind and solar.

“Creating a capacity market would take way too long and would cost way too much,” said Anna Sommer, president of Sommer Energy and the report’s principle author. “In addition, it would prop up dirty and inefficient energy plants. A capacity market clearly is not the solution.”

Added David Schissel, president of Schlissel Technical Consulting and a report co-author, “We looked at the other grid operators and their capacity markets and found that in those markets, existing fossil fuel and nuclear plants were the big winners.”

David Power, deputy director for Public Citizen’s Texas office said, “We have been debating this issue for several years. It’s time to act. Even consultants who are recommending a capacity market have concluded that the cheapest, fastest way to keep the lights on is to develop new ways to reduce the demand or the amount of energy we use at peak times when customer demand is highest. The commission can and should develop a one hour ahead demand reduction market.”

This is the first of two studies to be released this week by Public Citizen. The second study will focus on whether a shift to a capacity market would be enough to keep Energy Futures Holdings from slipping into bankruptcy.

The report is available here.

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Austin for Climate Change Action

Posted in Air Quality, Tarsands, tagged , on February 11, 2013 |

Couldn’t make it to the rally in Washington D.C. to protest the Keystone XL pipeline? It’s okay, neither could we! So instead we’re going to have a rally of our own to show our support and to raise climate change awareness here in Austin. Please join us at 5th and Lamar (in front of Whole Foods) on Sunday, February 17th at 2 P.M. Wear a blue shirt (or a No K XL shirt if you have one) and bring an anti Keystone XL/climate change awareness sign. Let’s make a statement that we won’t tolerate dirty energy any longer.

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Bills Filed Seek to Expand Texas’ Clean Energy Success

Posted in Energy, geothermal, renewable portfolio standard, Renewables, solar, Texas Legislature, wind, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2013 |

Texas Capitol - north viewTwo bills have now been filed in the Texas House that would expand the state’s goals for renewable energy.  Representative Rafael Anchia‘s bill, HB 723, would establish goals for growing renewable energy installations other than large-scale wind through 2022.  Similarly, Representative Eddie Rodriquez‘s bill, HB 303, would establish a goal for solar installations and increase the existing goal (which was met 15 years ahead of schedule) for all renewable energy for 2020.

We applaud these efforts and the leadership that Rep. Anchia and Rep. Rodriquez are showing by filing these bills.  These proposals recognize that success is a good thing and something we want more of.  You wouldn’t think that would need saying, but when a state agency recommends tossing out a successful policy, I start to wonder.  Texas’s renewable energy goals have been extraordinarily successful.  Not only have the goals been met ahead of time, but they have spurred development of the wind industry in Texas, bringing economic benefits to rural parts of West Texas, as well as to manufacturing centers.  On top of that, wind energy is helping to keep electric bills lower.

A carpenter doesn’t throw away her hammer just because she finished building her first book shelf and Texas shouldn’t repeal it’s renewable energy policies, just because we’ve met some of our goals (remember, the non-wind goal was never enforced).  Wind energy does now makes a substantial contribution to meeting the state’s electrical needs – it contributed a record 26% this past Christmas day, but solar energy is still very underutilized (accounting for less than 1% of energy on the ERCOT grid, which serves 85% of the Texas population) and the geothermal energy industry is still getting off it’s feet.  As Rep. Anchia and Rep. Rodriquez’s bills show, this successful policy tool can be adjusted to keep moving Texas forward.

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Nuclear plants nationwide could share the financial pain of plants idled by accidents

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , on January 29, 2013 |

Nuclear Electric Insurance Ltd. (NEIL), the company that insures all 104 U.S. nuclear power plants has just around $3.6 billion on hand to pay for claims from broken nuclear plants in California (San Onofre nuclear power station), Texas (South Texas Nuclear Project), Michigan (Cook nuclear power station) and Florida (Crystal River).  Crystal River alone represents such a financial threat that the insurance company may have to demand that its member utilities shell out more money.

As a mutual insurance company, NEIL’s members agree to cover each other in the event of a catastrophe. NEIL was formed in 1980 in response to the Three Mile Island disaster and is allowed to raise as much as $2 billion from its members in a 20 day period drawing from the owners of all 104 nuclear plants in the United States.

NEIL’s policies allows for a payment up to $2.25 billion for damage to a plant, plus up to an extra $490 million for replacement power while the plant is idled.

Damage to Crystal River nuclear plant's containment wall

Damage to Crystal River nuclear plant’s containment wall

Repairing the Crystal River plant could cost as much as $3.5 billion for construction work and $300 million a year for related costs such as purchasing alternative electricity while the plant remains off line. That could push the total cost above $5 billion, but there are questions about whether the damage was an accident or whether the 2009 replacement of old steam generators inside the nuclear plant’s 42-inch thick concrete containment wall was mishandled when the managing company chose a do-it-yourself approach in order to save about $15 million by using one of the two companies that handled all similar projects in the nation. An attempt to repair the resulting crack in the containment wall and bring the plant back online resulted in more cracks.

Most of the 104 reactors in the United States were built in the 1970s and early 1980s. A few date back to the 1960s and they are starting to show their age, putting additional pressure on the insurer as is evident in the additional claims in the works.

Turbine loss at the Cook nuclear power station in Bridgman, MI. resulted in a claim for which NEIL had already paid out $400 million by the end of 2011.

The insurer also faces “the meaningful” claim for the South Texas Nuclear Project, which suffered damage to a turbine generator in its number two unit and is not expected to be back online until as late as July this year. It is unclear how much that will cost the insurance company.

And now NEIL must ready itself for the troubles at California’s San Onofre nuclear power station, where two generators have been offline since January 2012.  The replacement power alone for San Onofre’s out-of-service units reached $221 million through September of this year and it is unclear what the repair costs would add to that bill.

In the past, NEIL has paid out annual distributions to all its members after the insurer reaches a comfortable reserve — generally about $3.5 billion. The money is distributed to the members based on the premiums they pay each year. Between the loss of the annual distributions and charges to these power companies to cover shortfalls from these claims, nuclear plants around the country could be looking some unexpected financial hits in the coming year or two.

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Free Tickets to Documentary Chasing Ice Feb 8-10

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , , on January 28, 2013 |

Chasing Ice  is an environmental documentary film, listed in the top 15 best documentaries for the Oscars, coming to Austin TX on Feb 8-10 at Regal Arbor.

Chasing Ice follows acclaimed photographer James Balog on an epic journey as he deploys time-lapse cameras at glaciers around the world.

“You’ve never seen images like this: it deserves to be seen and felt on the big screen.” – Robert Redford

Generous support of a grant from the Kendeda Fund is allowing people to see the film for free to support education and outreach. This program features a limited number of complimentary tickets, on an invitational basis, to openings in select cities – including Austin TX!

To claim your complimentary tickets, please click on the below link and use the group code provided below.

Chasing Ice Ticket Request Form

Group Code: PCITIZEN

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Ding Dong the witch is dead. Which old witch? The wicked Las Brisas witch.

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, tagged , , , on January 24, 2013 |

According to a report yesterday by Terrance Henry of NPR’s StateImpact Texas (click here to read the article), the Las Brisas coal power plant proposed for Corpus Christi has not only been suspended, but Chase Power’s parent company, which was financing the project, has gone out of business.
wicked witch of the westLas Brisas was one of the last remaining coal plants still proposed for Texas. Now only one major coal plant is still being considered.  The White Stallion coal project in Matagorda County is also experiencing problems getting permitted and funding could be the final blow for this proposed plant too.  So we say to White Stallion, to quote the wicked witch of the West, “Just try and stay out of my way. Just try! I’ll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!”

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South-central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resourse (SPEER) energy efficiency Summit in Austin

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, green jobs, tagged , , , , , on January 18, 2013 |

The South-central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource (SPEER) enters its second year with an exciting Summit, designed to explore, further develop, and prioritize policies and strategies needed to push energy efficiency forward in new buildings, existing buildings, and electric markets in Texas and Oklahoma.

Ed Mazria, founder and CEO of Architecture 2030, will deliver the keynote address to kick off the Summit in Austin on February 25. Mr. Mazria is an international leader on efforts to make buildings dramatically more energy and water efficient, leading the movement to establish 2030 districts in cities with goals to reach carbon neutrality by 2030. These districts have been established so far in Los Angeles, Seattle, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.

Public Citizen members can receive a $50 discount off the registration. On the registration page, select “Early Registration- Supporting Organization” and then select “Public Citizen” from the drop down menu.

Sponsors of the SPEER Summit include Dow Chemical, CCRD Partners, Mitsubishi, Environments for Living, TexEnergy Solutions, BASF, the Texas Home Energy Raters Organization, and the CleanTX Foundation.

To learn more about the Energy Efficiency Summit, please visit: www.eepartnership.org/summit

 

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Rep. Waxman Statement on New Reports on the Climate Impact of Tar Sands and the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline

Posted in Air Quality, Climate Change, Global Warming, Tarsands, tagged , , , on January 17, 2013 |

Today, Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Henry A. Waxman issued the following statement on new research from the Pembina Institute and Oil Change International, indicating that the Keystone XL pipeline will accelerate the reckless expansion of the tar sands industry and the climate impact of tar sands and the pipeline will be significantly worse than anticipated:

“The new reports show that TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline is the key that will unlock the tar sands.  If the pipeline is approved, the world will face millions more tons of carbon pollution each year for decades to come.  After Hurricane Sandy, devastating drought, unprecedented wildfires, and the warmest year on record in the United States, we know that climate change is happening now, we have to fight it now, and we must say no to this pollution pipeline now.”

To access the report released at the event, please visit:
Petroleum Coke: The Coal Hiding in the Tar Sands – Oil Change International
The climate implications of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline – The Pembina Institute

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Fire at South Texas Nuclear Power Plant

Posted in Nuclear, tagged , , , , , on January 9, 2013 |

Tuesday, a fire erupted in the Unit 2 main transformer that feeds power from the reactor to the public power grid of the South Texas Project Electric Generating Station near Bay City and about 85 miles southwest of Houston.  The unit 2 was automatically taken offline and STP officials say unit 1 is still operational, but STP officials say they don’t know when unit 2 will be restarted.

The fire broke out at 4:42 p.m. was extinguished within 15 minutes, but the plant had to declare that an “unusual event” had taken place and notified county, state and federal officials. Managers declared the event over at 7:47 p.m.  No injuries were reported and STP is claiming that the incident poses no hazard to the public or to plant workers.

The two 1,350-megawatt generators, owned by NRG Energy, CPS Energy and Austin Energy, serve 2 million users. each reactor at the plant produces 1,280 megawatts of electricity. One megawatt is enough to power 500 homes during mild winter conditions, but if your remember the Texas rolling blackouts during a severe winter event in February of 2011 you might also remember that the electricity shortage during that unusual high demand time was due to unexpected plant outages.  Let’s hope we don’t have one of those before unit 2 comes back online.

Interestingly enough, this incident happened just before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission begins seeking public comment on a draft supplemental environmental impact statement for the proposed renewal of the South Texas Project nuclear power plant’s operating licenses for an additional 20 years.

NRC staff will hold two public meetings in Bay City, Texas, on Jan. 15, 2013 to present the findings of the draft report and accept public comments. The meetings will be held at the Bay City Civic Center, 201 Seventh St., from 2-5 p.m. and 7-10 p.m. NRC staff members will be available for one hour prior to each session to meet informally with members of the public.

The South Texas Project nuclear plant has two pressurized-water reactors. The plant operator, STP Nuclear Operating Co., submitted its license renewal application on Oct. 25, 2010. The current operating licenses expire Aug. 20, 2027, for Unit 1 and Dec. 15, 2028, for Unit 2.  The original license was issued based on the expected life of the plant.  Most of our aging nuclear power fleet is nearing the end of their life expectancy and since most energy companies have not been successful in securing funding for building new plants, the strategy is to just extend the life of the current facilities by renewing their licenses.

The draft supplemental environmental impact statement contains the NRC staff’s analysis of potential impacts specific to the South Texas Project site. In preparing the report, the staff held a public meeting in Bay City on March 2, 2011, as part of the public “scoping” process for the report. The staff also conducted site audits at the plant in May and July 2011 and consulted with other agencies while analyzing the applicant’s environmental report submitted with the application.

The draft NRC report does not discuss potential environmental impacts of extended storage of spent nuclear fuel after the plant eventually ceases operation. That issue will be addressed in the NRC’s waste confidence environmental impact statement and rule, expected by September 2014. In August 2012, the Commission decided that the agency will not issue final licensing decisions for reactors, including license renewal, until the waste confidence rule is completed. If at that time, site-specific issues relating to spent fuel storage at South Texas Project remain unresolved, they will be addressed separately.

Public comments on the draft environmental impact statement for the South Texas Project license renewal will be accepted through Feb. 22, 2013. They may be submitted online via the federal government’s rulemaking website at www.regulations.gov using Docket ID NRC-2010-0375. They may also be mailed to Cindy Bladey, Chief, Rules, Announcements and Directives Branch (RADB), Division of Administrative Services, Office of Administration, Mail Stop: TWB-05-B01M, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C., 20555-0001. Comments may also be faxed to 301-492-3446.

The South Texas Project draft supplemental environmental impact statement is available for public inspection in the NRC Public Document Room at NRC headquarters, 11555 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md. Copies will also be available at the Bay City Public Library, 1100 7th St., Bay City, Texas.

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2012 Warmest Year on Record in U.S.

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , on January 8, 2013 |

Well, it’s official.  According to scientists with The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous United States with an average temperature of 55.3 degrees Farenheit.  That’s 3.2 degrees above normal and a full degree higher than the previous warmest year recorded — 1998.  All 48 states in the contiguous U.S. had above-average annual temperatures last year, including 19 that broke annual records, from Connecticut through Utah.

2012 was also a historic year for “extreme” weather, according to NOAA. With 11 disasters that surpassed $1 billion in losses, including Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Isaac, and tornadoes across the Great Plains, Texas, and the Southeast and Ohio Valley, 2012 was second only to 1998 in the agency’s “extreme” weather index.  2012 was also the driest year on record for the U.S., with 26.57 inches of average precipitation — 2.57 inches below average. Those dry conditions created an ideal environment for wildfires in the West, which charred 9.2 million acres — the third highest amount ever recorded.  At this writing, more than 60% of the country is still in drought, and while down from over 95% at the height of the 2011 drought, nearly 12% of Texas still remains in “exceptional” drought, the highest drought category on the US Drought Monitor scale.

Each year since 2001 has been among the warmest on record worldwide, with 2012 likely to be no exception despite the cooling influence of La Niña early in the year.  If this warming trend continues, extreme weather events and major impacts on agriculture will probably continue to have an effect on the U.S. economy.

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Texas Breaks Another Wind Energy Record

Posted in Renewables, tagged , , , , on December 28, 2012 |

As we close in on the end of 2012 with a winter front keeping temperatures low, Texas achieved a new wind power integration record of 8.638 GW on Dec. 25 at 3:11 p.m according to the Texas grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).

Electricity from wind accounted for 25.71% of power being generated and used at that point in time, as the peak demand was 39.847 GW.  Of the 8.638 GW being generated by Texas wind farms, over 84% came from wind farms in West Texas, and 16% came from sites on the Texas coast.

More details can be found in ERCOT’s wind integration report for Dec. 25.

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New wind installations my pass new natural gas plants in 2012

Posted in Renewables, tagged , , , , on December 27, 2012 |

According to Bloomberg, with four days left in 2012, wind-turbine installations are expected to exceed natural gas-fueled power plants in the U.S. for the first time as wind farm developers race to complete projects before a renewable energy tax credit expires.

New wind capacity reached 6,519 megawatts by Nov. 30th of this year, beating the 6,335 megawatts of gas additions and more than double that of coal, according to data from Ventyx Incm which plans to release final tallies in January.

Congress has yet to renew the production tax credit, which provides incentives for wind farms completed before Dec. 31, 2012. Efforts to take advantage of the subsidy trumped interest in gas-fired stations, which are supported by a plunge in prices for the commodity resulting from added production through hydraulic fracturing.

To qualify for the tax credit, which pays wind farm owners 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour of power they produce over 10 years, projects must be online and producing power by Jan. 1.

A bill to extend the wind production tax credit was approved by the Senate Finance Committee in August.  Unless Congress extends the incentive, wind turbine installations are predicted to fall 88 percent next year according to a forecast by New Energy Finance.  Earlier this month, in an effort to head off opposition to an extension, the American Wind Energy Association proposed a six-year phase-out of the credit, ending the subsidy at the start of 2019.  They claim 37,000 jobs will be lost if the credit lapses now.

An increase in gas prices may make wind even more competitive. Gas futures saw their first annual increase since 2007, rising almost 15 percent this year.  And, utilities in 29 states are required to get an increasing amount of their supplies from renewable resources such as wind and solar, whether or not Congress renews the tax credits.

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The Results Are In: Cleaner Air Does Save Lives

Posted in Air Quality, Diesel, tagged , , , on December 13, 2012 |

Fine particles in the air (particularly those smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter) cause a multitude of health problems, ranging from difficulty kid with asthma inhalerbreathing and asthma to heart attacks and premature death in people with heart or lung disease.  The question has been whether or not cleaning the air any further makes a difference.  This type of air pollution has decreased substantially since 1980, but only smaller gains have been made since 2000.

A new study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health shows that even the modest gains made in reducing particulate matter between 2000 and 2007 are adding years to people’s lives.  Life expectancies were shown to increase .35 years in 545 US counties.

Not everyone is equally impacted, so some demographics are reaping larger benefits through cleaner air.  The young, the old and those who exercise outdoors are most likely to be negatively impacted by fine particles in the air.

In Texas, our port communities endure especially high concentrations of particulate matter.  Public Citizen is working to force the Port of Houston clean up.  Replacing or retrofitting the old, highly polluting trucks that haul goods from the port to nearby warehouses would do a lot to improve the health of surrounding communities.  The Texas Emissions Reduction Plan (TERP) provides funds for just this purpose.  Those investments are saving lives, but are often underutilized by truck owners.

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