Clear impact on solar town in path of Ian

[bigtree]

Bill McKibben @billmckibben 56s
This 100% solar town was square in the path of Ian, and it did...just fine. Also, the panels are now really clean.

Link to tweet

Babcock Ranch calls itself “America’s first solar-powered town.” Its nearby solar array — made up of 700,000 individual panels — generates more electricity than the 2,000-home neighborhood uses, in a state where most electricity is generated by burning natural gas, a planet-warming fossil fuel.

The streets in this meticulously planned neighborhood were designed to flood so houses don’t. Native landscaping along roads helps control storm water. Power and internet lines are buried to avoid wind damage. This is all in addition to being built to Florida’s robust building codes.

Some residents, like Grande, installed more solar panels on their roofs and added battery systems as an extra layer of protection from power outages. Many drive electric vehicles, taking full advantage of solar energy in the Sunshine State.

Climate resiliency was built into the fabric of the town with stronger storms in mind.

https://cnn.com/2022/10/02/us/solar-babcock-ranch-florida-hurricane-ian-climate/index.html

[Cracklin Charlie]

1. Excellent.

My solar panels are filthy. It hasn’t rained in so long.

[womanofthehills]

35. I'm here in the high desert with so much rain my panels are really clean

Never though I would be living in a green paradise.

[spanone]

2. K&R

[niyad]

3. Thank you for sharing this most encouraging news.

In reading the article, I had a question. . how in the hell could that school not have a MANDATED generator?

[Martin68]

12. I would venture a guess that it is a requirement for every school to have a backup generator in

case of emergencies. Schools often provide shelter for those who have to leave their homes. Maybe the law does not provide for an exception in the case of a solar-power locality.

[OAITW r.2.0]

4. Math doesn't sound right.

I have 32 panels in my system to take care of my electrical needs. 700000 panels should be able to support 20,000 homes. Is this excess capacity sold to businesses or exported to the grid?

[Farmer-Rick]

5. Well, Ian caused me a solar electricity failure

There is usually plenty of sunshine here to run my electrical fences. Without the fences, my chickens would be eaten by coyotes.

But the last 2 days we have had nothing but mild rains and cloudy days here in east TN. My single solar panel wasn't collecting enough energy and the batteries drained. Oh well, I charged up the battery from another set up. I think the battery is starting to go in that set up. It is over 5 years old.

[Lonestarblue]

6. The Biden Administration needs to require than any federal dollars used for rebuilding

use solar panels and strict building codes as in Babcock Ranch in all states. We should not be using taxpayer dollars to rebuild in a way that means homes and businesses just get wiped out again with the next big storm.

[Bayard]

7. I mentioned solar in a thread about Puerto Rico

And was told the panels would become dangerous flying projectiles. I guess a direct hit would have been divesting here.

This town is still very encouraging, and sets a great example.

[a kennedy]

8. Thought this was very interesting......A Green Bay Packer came up with this whole design.

Syd Kitson, a former professional football player for the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys, is the mastermind behind Babcock Ranch. Kitson envisioned it to be an eco-conscious and innovative neighborhood that is safe and resilient from storms like Ian.

The ranch broke ground in 2015 with the construction of the solar array — which was built and is run by Florida Power and Light — and its first residents moved into the town in 2018. Since then, the array has doubled in size and thousands of people have made Babcock their home.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/us/solar-babcock-ranch-florida-hurricane-ian-climate/index.html

[Deep State Witch]

20. We Visited The Eco-Ranch Pre-Pandemic

I think it was just before the development opened, because they mentioned that it was going up. We saw the massive solar farm along the highway. I've kept an eye on this community since. If we did wind up moving to Florida from Maryland, it would be high on our list of places to live.

[rubbersole]

9. Thom Hartmann just led his radio show with this story.

What a blueprint for the future and for now.

[TeamProg]

10. K&R Thanks for posting. n/t

[Martin68]

11. One of the reasons we installed solar panels on our roof with battery backup was that we often lose

power during storms in the rural Virginia location where we live. When the power goes out, it seamlessly switches to battery backup power, which lasts at least 24 hours (or 48 if we disconnect energy hogs like the HVAC). We never wanted to deal with the maintenance, noise, and and exhaust caused by a gas-powered generator. When the weather clears after a storm the panels keep on producing electricity even when the power is out.

[Martin68]

13. 700,000 is an awful lot of panels. I would have expected 70,000 at the most for a community that

size. We have 33 panels installed on our home, and it meets all our electricity needs except when it is cloudy. That would come to 66,000 for a community of 2,000. I think somebody might have added a zero.

[honest.abe]

32. I think its correct. They are producing way more than they can use.

In partnership with Florida Power & Light, Babcock Ranch houses the FPL Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center and FPL Babcock Preserve Solar Energy Center on 870 acres of land. Each one is capable of generating 75 MW of clean energy, for a combined total of 150 MW capacity and 650,000 solar panels. The FPL Babcock Ranch Solar Energy Center ensures that the net production of clean, renewable energy at Babcock Ranch exceeds the total amount the town consumes.

https://babcockranch.com/our-vision/core-initiatives/#energy



If you download the image and zoom in on a section you can see there are about 58 panels per smallest section and about 15 rows and 20 columns on average in each larger section and about 25 total large sections in the photo above. So my back of envelop calc gives this:

58 X 15 X 20 X 25 = 435,000

I am probably underestimating and also I think there are more sections not being shown in the photo.

[Martin68]

40. Wow, that is quite the solar energy farm. So they are making a profit or paying off the cost of the

installation. Florida is ideal with all that sunshine and flat land. Hurricanes, too, though...

[NCjack]

14. Solar panels -- won't work. It's a fraud, I tell ya. That is the lying message

from Repukes since Reagan removed the ones Carter put on the WH.

Babcock Ranch is a great example for all of us. They did a fantastic job.

Do we know if BB figured out how to capture economic gain from the land under the solar panels? That would be the cherry topping.

[NNadir]

15. It would be interesting if this mindless cheering had any effect on climate change...

...but the trillions of dollars thrown at thiese collections of future electronic waste clearly didn't do anything at all.

Bill McKibben ought to open a science book, but he'd rather show cartoons.

He ought to learn something about the environmental, social and moral impact of batteries, but he wouldn't want to offend the sensibility of his entirely bourgeois fans.

The picture is of a vast tracts of land that does very little for the investment.

[Ligyron]

17. What would that land be doing otherwise?

One thing we have in Florida beside abundant sunshine is lots and lots of land.

[NNadir]

18. Should I apologize for a fondness for wilderness?

[A HERETIC I AM]

28. You really should look at this Google Maps satellite view

There's no shortage of wilderness in Florida, and this array is but a tiny speck in the vastness that is the Babcock Ranch.

https://goo.gl/maps/ziw3W2tDUpUERAME8

[NNadir]

30. The problem is the "tiny spec" produces trivial energy.

The hype for so called "renewable energy " involves the industrialization of vast areas of wilderness.

This pile of future electronic waste may be trivial, but the reactionary ideology is not.

[A HERETIC I AM]

34. Got it.

I see now.

Thanks

[womanofthehills]

39. Sun Zia 3000 megawatts (average nuclear reactor - 1000 mw

Benefitting New Mexico & Arizona

In connection with SunZia Transmission, Pattern Energy is developing the SunZia Wind project in, Lincoln, Torrence, and San Miguel counties, New Mexico. Once complete, SunZia Transmission, along with SunZia Wind will constitute the largest clean energy infrastructure project in United States history, harnessing and delivering over 3,000 MW of renewable energy; enough to power the needs of more than 2.5 million Americans.

[honest.abe]

22. I think he would rather build a nuclear power plant there.

Based on his past comments.

[Ligyron]

23. Don't know how you came up with that one but no, I don't want a nuke power plant.

But I don't see what's wrong with solar panels considering the result.

[honest.abe]

27. Read his posts from Environment and Energy forum..

He (NNadir) is advocating for more nuclear power plants since he considers them the solution to global warming. There is some truth to what he says and he is clearly well informed but I just think he overall reasoning and judgment is extreme and flawed.

[Ligyron]

38. Ah, got it. I thought you were referring to me!

Sorry.

[womanofthehills]

36. New wind farms produce just as many watts - SunZia will generate 3,000 megawatts

That's way more watts than most nuclear reactors without the worry of radioactive contamination. Besides, it's way too expensive to make nuclear reactors now -and the regulations are too great - no large companies are going to go there.

[Wild blueberry]

16. Good news!

[SalamanderSleeps]

19. Please, can anyone imagine how different the world would be if John D. Rockerfeller....

....had not changed the world when he created Standard Oil, because there was opportunity created by the demise of whale oil for household lamps?

Pipelines to feed warships. Warships to feed pipelines.

We could have been trying to make electricity work instead of "dinosaur juice."

Without elevators, toilets, and air conditioning, New York City, and every other modern city for that matter, will cease to exist within days.

Want to do some anarchy?

Keep chasing those dinosaurs.

The is the difference between "smart folks" and the "oily slavers" is that they think that dominion, in all of its forms, is their right because they are self-entitled assholes that love cowboys that never existed, failed gods, and Applebee's.

I grew up in Wyoming and Montana. I know what I'm talking about.

I have family member that told me that climate change will bring rainfall to the Great Divide Basin, like that's a good thing.

Fuck.

[SouthernDem4ever]

21. It would have turned out worse for the whales

but I get your point. Did we have enough smarts back then about harnessing solar energy?

[hunter]

24. These sorts of projects won't "save the world" and will only prolong our dependence on natural gas.

When I look at photos like this they do not give me the warm fuzzies.

"We had to destroy the environment in order to save it" is not a good environmental policy. That's what those large fields of solar panels do. That land covered with solar panels is no longer wild.

As some kind of radical environmentalist I have fewer objections to solar power on land that's already been developed -- be it on rooftops or over parking lots. I can park in the shade of solar panels when I do my grocery shopping and it's nice on hot sunny days coming back to a car that's not an oven.

I've explored this subject quite a bit in my journal. I recently commented on a similar development in Germany here:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127156325#post10

Projects like this do not greatly reduce the environmental footprint of the affluent people who can afford them.

We don't hear a lot about the "one percenters" much on DU any more, those who control most of the world's resources, maybe because many of us have realized we are among them.

It's really, really difficult for affluent people to reduce their environmental footprints. In my lifetime I've been everything from homeless to affluent.

My environmental footprint was very small when I was a crazy semi-homeless guy dumpster diving, living in a garden shed, and riding my bicycle everywhere. My environmental footprint is very large today when I can afford to fill the tank of my pickup truck with $6.00 a gallon gasoline without any serious concerns about paying my mortgage or eating.

In thinking about any project that's supposedly "good for the environment" you have to ask yourself about how that project would scale to 8 billion people.

If it doesn't scale, then we are talking about the follies of the one-percenters.

[druidity33]

25. Would a coal power plant take up less space?

Your alternative to this project would be? What's that saying? "Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good"? I see this project as an excellent starting point for solar nodes in a distributed power grid. I'd like to see windmills and better conservation and building technology integrated more thoroughly as well... anyway, i'm not sure i'm disagreeing with you. But i live in the woods. Literally. And sometimes you have to cut a bunch of trees down to support communities of humans. The trick is to do it responsibly and with great care and respect. We can only do what we can do.

[hunter]

26. I used to be an anti-nuclear activist.

Now, reluctantly, I'm not.

The human race has worked itself into a tough spot. We've become dependent on high density energy resources, mostly fossil fuels, for our survival.

If we don't quit fossil fuels now billions of us are going to suffer and die from the consequences of global warming.

If we can't replace fossil fuels with other high density energy sources, billions of us are going to suffer and die for lack of energy to power the world economy that supports us all.

Nuclear power is the only energy resource capable of displacing fossil fuels entirely.

I think the greatest threat to the world's environment is natural gas because people think it's "clean." It's not. In the long run it's not any better than coal with regards to global warming. Like coal, if we don't leave it in the ground the world burns.

Most of today's renewable energy schemes are not economically viable without natural gas as the primary energy source.

If there is widespread worldwide adoption of hybrid gas-wind-solar energy systems the world still burns.

[honest.abe]

29. I cannot imagine the widescale use of nuclear power being the answer.

Even it makes "sense" on paper it wont happen. The perceived and actual negatives will be too much to overcome.

-- massive cost
-- very long time frame from planning to operational
-- risk of meltdown and other frightening accidents such as Fukushima, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island.
-- risk of nuclear fuel capture by terrorists.
-- risk of attack by terrorists
-- long term issue with nuclear waste

There are more but these are the main issues I can think of.

[hunter]

31. Well then, I guess billions of us will suffer and die.

Fortunately there are people who are not so pessimistic, even within the Democratic Party.

Nuclear power is a mature seventy year old technology. Here in the 21st century I think we've finally figured out how to do it safely.

Unlike fossil fuel wastes which are dumped recklessly everywhere (including some very toxic wastes that have a half life of forever...) the volume of nuclear waste in comparison is small and much less difficult to contain.

Fossil fuels are killing us now but they are so familiar that most people ignore the problem.

[honest.abe]

33. I am not saying you are wrong, I am saying it wont happen.

[womanofthehills]

37. Give it up - US companies don't want to go there because of very strict regulations

The costs of building a reactor are now off the wall. Large wind farms can be built with way less and produce more watts. Companies want to make money big time - they can make more money faster with wind and solar. If they build a reactor, then they have yrs of replacing rods and dealing with spent rods. Getting thru all the regulatory stuff can take a decade.

The first phase of the work, Western Spirit, is finished and can produce 1,050 megawatts of energy. The second, SunZia, will be in the same region as Western Spirit and will generate at least 3,000 megawatts, Pattern Energy says. Parts of one or both projects will be found in Lincoln, Torrance, Guadalupe and San Miguel counties.

The two projects combined will produce over 4,000 megawatts when at capacity — about twice the megawatts generated at peak load by Public Service Company of New Mexico. https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/huge-wind-project-developing-in-central-new-mexico/article_d24d77ce-d076-11ec-92fa-4b8b5c06fb87.html

[hunter]

41. You overlook a fundamental problem -- the sun doesn't shine 24/7.

At this point most solar enthusiasts will wave their arms and propose magical batteries, synergies, or accounting tricks.

I emphasize "magical."

The capacity factor of solar and wind energy is quite dismal and there's currently no realistic technology to mitigate that except the burning of natural gas.

Anyone here can disconnect from the grid entirely. If you don't pay your electric bill the power company will do it for you. Then what?

Do you buy solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and a gas backup generator? Some people posting here have done that. They have money.

The problems with solar and wind power are the same at any scale, from a small rural cabin to a national power grid. The biggest problem is that such systems are very expensive and requires the use of additional resources that are not common such as copper, cobalt, lithium, rare earth metals, etc..

A person who might not even be able to buy a bicycle for themselves is not going to be paying for a Tesla Power Wall. But they might get some benefit from an ordinary electric grid made mostly of aluminum, iron, and concrete, all of which are very abundant materials.

As I've repeatedly said, wealthy people can make any sort of solar and wind energy system work. But these "solutions" are not any kind of solution to the problem of fossil fuels if they can't support, and are not extensible to, a human population of 8 billion.

[womanofthehills]

42. In NM - big corporations going with wind, not sun

The turbines up are up on hills way out in the desert. It’s not all great but I would rather see turbines in the far distance than have a nuclear plant near by. I actually have a 90 ft high transmission line transporting wind energy to Arizona going right across my property which I am not happy with. The main problem I see - is not so much the turbines but the transmission lines getting bigger and bigger - some 124 ft - 140ft high. Ranchers out here welcome them across their land for the money but when they go thru properties where people live it’s not good.

When I bought my land, the cost would have been the same to bring electricity up to it or go with solar. My boyfriend worked in solar so he got me a lot of used solar panels to start out with. I lived off grid for about 5 yrs and when an uncle died and left me some money I hooked up to the grid. Even with no sun, just light, my panels produce some energy . I also pump my water up with separate panels and a solar pump into a large holding tank.

I’m just saying - none of it is perfect- but give me a monster transmission line over a nuclear reactor. Anyway, wind energy has become big bucks business for the corporations. It’s mostly about money for them. The majority of the wind energy created in NM leaves the state for California.