New York launches 2 GW renewable energy solicitation as natural gas prices drive up electricity bill

This is what happens when you have to pay for fuel - always. In this case power plants get built based on less than $3 nat gas and once committed, it doesn't take much and it goes up 300% and the case for economical generation of electricity goes out the door.

New York on Thursday launched its sixth competitive solicitation for large-scale renewable resources, seeking 2,000 MW to come online as late as 2028. Initial applications are due Nov. 16 to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The solicitation encourages renewables paired with energy storage technologies, sets minimum U.S. iron and steel purchase requirements, and gives special consideration to projects benefiting disadvantaged communities.

The solicitation comes as New Yorkers are bracing for higher electricity costs. The New York Independent System Operator last week warned of “a sharp rise in wholesale electric costs expected this winter,” largely due to the cost of natural gas.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-york-renewable-energy-solicitation-nyserda/632417/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Issue:%202022-09-29%20Utility%20Dive%20Renewable%20Energy%20%5Bissue:44881%5D&utm_term=Utility%20Dive:%20Renewable%20Energy

Energy Vault to deploy 2 GWh of gravity storage in China

Instead of using water they are using mass made from coal ash and old windmill blades...

Switzerland-based gravity storage system provider Energy Vault announced it will build five storage projects with a combined storage capacity of 2 GWh in China.

The company said the projects will rely on its EVx gravity-based energy storage technology and that it will partner with US-based Atlas Renewable Energy, Chinese NGO EIPC, China-based telecommunications company China Tianying, and unspecified selected provincial and local governments for their construction.

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Energy Vault’s EVx storage system is comparable to pumped hydro, using grid-scale renewable energy when supply is abundant to drive motors and raise 30-ton blocks on a six-arm crane tower, rather than water, up to a height. When power needs to be discharged back to the grid, the blocks are lowered, harvesting the kinetic energy.

According to the company, there is zero degradation in the storage capacity of the composite blocks, which can remain in the raised position for unlimited periods of time. Its composite blocks are developed in cooperation with Mexico’s Cemex, using local soil at sites where it builds its storage systems, as well as other materials such as recycled coal ash, waste tailings from mining operations, and decommissioned wind turbine blades.

Energy Vault’s EVx tower features 80% to 85% round-trip efficiency and over 35 years of technical life. It has a scalable modular design up to multiple GWh in storage capacity.

https://www.pv-magazine-australia.com/2022/09/20/energy-vault-to-deploy-2-gwh-of-gravity-storage-in-china/?utm_source=USA+%7C+Newsletter&utm_campaign=37d1dc9252-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_80e0d17bb8-37d1dc9252-140219173

Clean Fuel Breakthrough Turns Water Into Hydrogen at Room Temperature

With no energy input...

Hydrogen fuel promises to be a clean and abundant source of energy in the future – as long as scientists can figure out ways to produce it practically and cheaply, and without fossil fuels.

Scientists have described a relatively simple method involving aluminum nanoparticles that are able to strip the oxygen from water molecules and leave hydrogen gas.

The process yields large amounts of hydrogen, and it all works at room temperature.

That removes one of the big barriers to hydrogen fuel production: the large amounts of power required to produce it using existing methods.

This technique works with any kind of water, too, including wastewater and ocean water.

"We don't need any energy input, and it bubbles hydrogen like crazy," says materials scientist Scott Oliver from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).

"I've never seen anything like it."

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Aluminum is a lot more abundant and easier to get hold of than gallium as it can be sourced from recycled materials. But in this process, gallium it can be recovered and reused many times over without losing its effectiveness. That's yet another factor in favor of the new technique.

There is still work to do, not least in making sure this can be scaled up from a lab set-up to something that can be used on an industrial scale. However, the early signs are that this is another method that has a lot of potential for hydrogen fuel production.

"Overall, the Ga-rich Ga?Al [gallium-rich gallium-aluminum] mixture produces substantial amounts of hydrogen at room temperature with no energy input, material manipulation, or pH modification," the researchers conclude in their published paper.

https://www.sciencealert.com/clean-fuel-breakthrough-turns-water-into-hydrogen-at-room-temperature?fbclid=IwAR2q0jKU657-318L14CXto_cSoLyfCBsXxNpaGwHT3GIlv3wPw9HM3Qu46Y

New battery tech from MIT and others

MISO board approves $10.3B transmission plan to support 53 GW of renewables

Looks like the lines will be HVAC.

The Midwest Independent System Operator’s board on Monday approved a $10.3 billion transmission plan that could support about 53 GW of wind, solar, hybrid and stand-alone battery projects found in state and utility clean energy goals in its northern and central regions.

While the projects were designed to maintain grid reliability amid a changing generation mix, MISO estimates that it will bring $23.2 billion to $52.2 billion in present value net benefits over 40 years, including up to $19.9 billion in congestion and fuel cost savings, according to a presentation by Aubrey Johnson, MISO vice president of system planning and competitive transmission.

Next, MISO plans to develop another set of transmission projects for its northern and central areas, followed by one for its southern region and then one to increase transmission capacity between its northern and southern areas.

The 18 transmission projects approved Monday are designed to facilitate an expected shift in MISO’s generation mix, including the retirement of about 58 GW of mainly coal-fired power plants, and the addition of about 90 GW of solar, gas and wind by 2039, according to Johnson’s presentation.

https://www.utilitydive.com/news/miso-board-transmission-plan-midcontinent-renewables/628108/

No Need for 'Miracle Technologies' to Rapidly Decarbonize Energy

IMO, it's already headed in that direction, it's just a matter of time

Most of the world can switch to renewable energy without destabilizing power grids, at low cost, and relying almost entirely on existing technologies, according to a new Stanford University study.

With countries facing record-high fuel prices, energy blackmail from Russia, up to seven million deaths per year due to air pollution, and an endless parade of climate disasters, there’s no need for “miracle technologies” to put things right, writes Stanford civil and environmental engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson, in a post for The Hill.

“By electrifying all energy sectors; producing electricity from clean, renewable sources; creating heat, cold, and hydrogen from such electricity; storing electricity, heat, cold and the hydrogen; expanding transmission; and shifting the time of some electricity use, we can create safe, cheap and reliable energy everywhere.”

Jacobson’s study covered the 145 countries that account for 99.7% of global carbon dioxide emissions, and relied solely on onshore and offshore wind, various solar technologies, geothermal, hydropower, small amounts of tidal and wave energy, and different forms of storage. The transition would cost about US$62 trillion, he says. With annual energy cost savings of $11 trillion, the investment would pay back in less than six years.

“The new system may also create over 28 million more long-term, full-time jobs than lost worldwide and require only about 0.53% of the world’s land for new energy, with most of this area being empty space between wind turbines on land that can be used for multiple purposes,” he writes. So a shift of this magnitude “may require less energy, cost less, and create more jobs than the current system.”

https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/07/13/no-need-for-miracle-technologies-to-rapidly-decarbonize-energy-jacobson/

88.5% of Iowa utility customers power came from renewables in 2021

Iowa is blessed with a lot of wind...

MidAmerican Energy provided 88.5% of customers' annual power needs from renewable energy last year, the Iowa Utilities Board has verified. That's five percentage points higher than 2020, according to a Monday news release from the utility.

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MidAmerican said it paid nearly $36 million in property taxes last year on its wind farms. And it paid rural landowners about $38 million through lease payments.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2022/07/11/midamerican-iowa-power-amount-wind-renewable-sources-customers-2021/10028921002/

Property taxes and lease payments are two aspects of wind and solar that isn't being talked about a lot, but obviously it's a significant contribution.

PG&E, Tesla launch program to use customers' Powerwall batteries to tackle California reliability

Renewable energy accounted for 49% of German power consumption in the first half of 2022

In Switzerland today, a pumped hydro facility started operation

20GWh capacity

A new pumped-storage station in one of the highest and remotest parts of Switzerland will help cope with fluctuations in wind and solar-power supply. It can stabilize electricity output for the whole of Europe.

“The electric storage capacity of the reservoir surpasses that of 400,000 electric car batteries,” explains Alain Sauthier, engineer and director of the Nant de Drance pumped-storage hydroelectric plant, pointing towards the Vieux Emosson reservoir. This artificial lake was built in 1955 in the municipality of Finhaut, high in the Alps of the Swiss canton of Valais.

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“It is an ecological battery that uses the same water over and over. The output is more than 80%: for every kilowatt hour of electricity used to pump the water upstream, 0.8 is fed into the grid,” Sauthier explains.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/inside-switzerland-s-giant-water-battery/46915530