Free Republic

"Spain's power grid ran entirely on renewable energy".. Spain was supposed to be Europe’s Green Energy success story. With massive amounts of renewables in the power grid, Spain was going to save the planet. Here’s Red Electrica, Spain’s state-owned power company, last year bragging about its renewables. “Renewable energies generated 56% of Spain’s electricity mix in 2024 Renewable generation increased by almost 11% in a record-breaking year on two fronts: achieving the highest renewable electricity generation ever recorded and capturing its largest share since records began.” Now, Red Electrica is trying to explain why all the lights went out. Spain...

Most Americans don’t understand the risks of renewable energy or view traditional energy sources like oil and gas as essential to their livelihoods, a new poll found, as a Republican trifecta in Washington prepares to pass an extensive energy agenda early next year. As many as 57% of US voters are not aware that the “United States is at an elevated risk of energy shortfalls,” compared to 43% who were well privy to elevated risks of energy shortages, according to a poll from the American Energy Institute exclusively shared with The Post. About two-thirds of US grids have been vulnerable...

The $400 billion federal clean-energy lending program that has faced criticism for moving too slow is stepping up efforts to push cash out the door before the election. The Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office was turbocharged by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which gave it hundreds of billions of dollars to lend to clean-energy businesses. So far, it has only used a tiny fraction of that capacity. Biden administration officials fear that if Donald Trump is elected, the office would stop making loans. The program was largely dormant while Trump was president. “The election is everything,” said Adam Forgie, the...

When postal manager José Belloso put his Paris apartment up for sale this year he was required to have an inspector grade the home for energy efficiency under strict rules designed to fight climate change. Belloso’s building was built in the early 1900s from millstone, a porous sedimentary rock that was popular among architects of France’s Belle Époque. His apartment flunked the inspection—and under a regulation that came into force this year, the property was barred from the rental market until costly renovations are made. Belloso was ultimately forced to knock 50,000 euros, equivalent to $54,000, off his asking price...

Juice: Why Wind and Solar Make Our Power Grid Less Reliable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNS7Qojr1JQ John Stossel 920K subscribers 18936 views Mar 5, 2024 Politicians and activists tell how “renewable" energy will save us from the climate “crisis.” They don’t tell us about the real costs of green power.

The Department of Energy announced more than $350 million for rural renewable energy projects from the bipartisan infrastructure law funds Tuesday. On a call with reporters, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the $366 million would be allocated across 17 projects in 20 states and 30 tribal nations. Twelve of the projects are on tribal lands, according to Granholm. “These projects showcase rural and remote communities [and] innovative approaches to clean energy deployment. They span technologies, they are replicable, they’re scalable, and they include everything from building micro grids for community health centers so they never lose power for lifesaving equipment,...

France is looking to lean more heavily on nuclear power, having apparently realized that a civilized and productive nation cannot reliably run off so-called renewable energy. The French government will consider legislation in early February that would eliminate renewable power objectives within France's energy code, including targets for reducing energy consumption by way of renovating buildings. France24 indicated that the legislation sets no explicit targets for building renewable capacity. Instead of mucking around with objectives for renewables, the legislation would have France embrace "the sustainable choice of using nuclear energy as a competitive and carbon-free" source of power. To this...

JUAZEIRO, Brazil—Weighing more than 100 pounds, big cats have long reigned over this hot and semi-arid region of Brazil, developing tougher paws for the scorched earth and reaching speeds of 50 miles an hour to bring down wild boar and deer. But nothing could have prepared for them the 150-foot blades now slicing up the deep blue sky above them. Jaguars and pumas are facing extinction in the Caatinga, Brazil’s northeastern shrublands, as Europe and China pour investment into wind farms, puncturing the land with vast turbines that are scaring the animals away from the region’s scant water sources. Particularly...

Wholesale electricity prices from some producers could rise 64 percent in order to cover inflation and the higher-than-anticipated costs that are becoming apparent in New York’s shift to renewable energy, according to a leading state agency. “The impact of implementing ACE (Alliance for Clean Energy) NY’s requested relief … would be an increase in weighted average strike (base) prices of 64 percent,” reads part of the comments from the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency, which sets contracts for electricity sales by solar and wind developers. That strike price represents what is essentially a baseline wholesale cost paid...

New problems undermine the country’s old playbook as manufacturing powerhouse.. Europe’s largest nation and its main growth engine has become the biggest drag on its economy. ... In past economic crises, Germany could rely on its factories to pull it out of any recession by tapping the world’s insatiable demand for made-in-Germany products. But a mixture of short-term and structural problems means this is no longer the case. ... A sharp rise in energy prices last year made producing goods more expensive. And with inflation and interest rates up around the world, foreign consumers can’t always afford the higher price...

Siemens Energy announced Thursday that it will be undergoing a technical review after it was found that up to 30% of its wind turbines could have faulty components, according to statements made by the company. Siemens Energy, an international energy company that seeks to “decarbonize global energy systems,” announced that it is withdrawing its profit guidance for the year after subsidiary Siemens Gamesa found that there was a “substantial increase in failure rates of wind turbine components.” The company believes that between 15% and 30% of its installed fleets are suffering from component failures, Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens Gamesa,...

The blight on the landscape of abandoned and decommissioned wind turbines stimulated Colorado's U.S. Reps. Ken Buck, Doug Lamborn and Harriet Hageman, Wyoming, to introduce the Production Tax Credit Reform Act. According to a press release, the bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to require energy companies remove decommissioned wind turbines from leased land as a condition of receiving federal tax credits. Currently energy companies are not obligated to remove wind turbines from leased land once they are decommissioned, putting the onus on landowners — typically farmers and ranchers — to remove the turbines. According to the United States Geological...

If a bill banning the use of fossil fuels in the creation of green energy projects were to become law, it would be the end of renewable energy. There’s no feasible way to manufacture and transport wind turbines, solar panels and electric vehicles without fossil fuels. New York state Sen. George Borrello, R-Wyoming County, has introduced a bill to require that all wind turbines, solar collectors and infrastructure for producing green energy be manufactured and constructed without the use of fossil fuels. His bill would also apply to the manufacture and distribution of electric vehicles. If the bill were to...

Inflicting heavy fines on developers of a project billed as supplying clean, renewable energy, a federal jury has awarded a couple in southwest Georgia $135.5 million after runoff from “Lumpkin Solar” severely polluted waters and soils on their rural property. According to a lawsuit filed by Shaun and Amie Harris, Lumpkin Solar’s developers – after clearing about 1,000 acres of timberland, farmland, and land previously used for hunting and fishing – failed to install adequate measures for erosion and sediment control. “The result is what one would expect – when it rained, pollution poured downhill and downstream onto the neighbors’...

Jon Reisman, Professor of Economics & Public Policy Emeritus at the University of Maine, devoted Power Line reader, and self-described “Statler and Waldorf Intern,” passes along this update of the Beach Boys classic tune everyone will recognize from the opening line: California’s Grid With apologies to Brian Wilson, Mike Love and Greta Thunberg Well, East Coast grids are hip I really dig wind mills they wear And the Southern grid, with the way they spin They knock me out when I’m down there The Midwest solar panels really make you feel all right And the Northern grid, when the wind...

PJM Interconnection sounds the latest alarm that fossil-fuel plants are shutting down without adequate replacement power. The political class yawns. ... The warnings keep coming that the force-fed energy transition to renewable fuels is destabilizing the U.S. electric grid, but is anyone in government paying attention? ... The PJM report forecasts power supply and demand through 2030 across the 13 eastern states in its territory covering 65 million people. ... Fossil-fuel power plants are retiring much faster than renewable sources are getting developed, which could lead to energy “imbalances.” That’s a delicate way of saying that you can expect shortages...

Vermont is one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly states. But two years ago, the backers of a local wind-energy farm shelved the project after intense public opposition. An initiative supporter noted how the controversy reflected rising hostility to wind power. Whereas a decade ago, ambitious developers had planned a dozen renewable-energy projects in Vermont, by 2020, most had either folded or failed to win regulatory approval. “This is truly a sad state of affairs for Vermont,” the CEO of a green-energy firm said, while pointing out that the state has mandated that 75 percent of its power should come...

A battery storage system in the UK has begun delivery of reactive power services to the grid in what has been claimed as a world first contract of its kind. Developer-investor Zenobe Energy also said that its 100MW/107MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) in Capenhurst, Chester, is currently the largest battery project directly connected to the transmission grid anywhere in Europe... The BESS will reduce the amount of curtailment of renewable energy, particularly wind, in the Mersey region of north-west England where it is located, as well as reducing the amount of gas-fired generation needed to balance the supply and...

At a White House press briefing on Monday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm was asked by Yahoo News to weigh in on the sharp rise in renewable energy projects in Republican-led states like Texas since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, Texas is poised to overtake California in terms of solar power capacity, and aggressively pursued the construction of new wind, solar and battery storage projects in the second half of 2022. “With respect to Texas, what an opportunity for every state to be able to produce clean energy. And, in...

Brighton, N.Y. — It's a sustainable energy showdown in Brighton. Town Supervisor Bill Moehle said the town is suing so-called renewable energy company Source Power, which he said cost 10,000 Brighton customers more than $1 million in just six months. "In June of this year, June of 2022, without warning, we were notified that Source was unilaterally terminating their contract and discontinuing providing electricity to Brighton customer as of June 15, 2022," Moehle said. The town began a two-year contract with Source in December 2020, according to Moehle. The company claimed it supplied renewable energy, locking customers in at paying...