A Bevy of Benefits

Good morning and happy Friday,

This week, Amazon and Google pushed the “nuke on high” button, announcing dueling investments to power data centers with small modular reactors. Bill Gates is also big on nuclear these days, although a group of scholars recently convened in Casper, WY to try to check his pro-nuclear narrative. 

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, in response to a question about whether global warming is a “hoax,” Republican candidate Donald Trump said “we can’t destroy our country” for the sake of saving the climate, noting that the U.S. is “competing against countries that don’t spend anything on climate change, like China.”

Mmmn, not quite, says HeatMap: According to the IEA, in 2023 China accounted for one-third of the world’s clean energy investments.

In other IEA news, the organization released its annual World Energy Outlook this week, announcing that “We’re now moving at speed into the Age of Electricity.” While predicting that clean energy will become the largest source of power by the mid-2030s, it cautions that stronger policies are needed to meet net-zero targets.

Read on for more.

A Bevy of Benefits

BDD readers are likely familiar with the bevy of direct benefits associated with the IRA. This week saw the release of a new economic analysis that attempts to show the full extent of these economic benefits, accompanied by a “first-of-its-kind” survey of nearly 930 businesses. Here are just a few highlights:

• The economic impact analysis, conducted by E2 and BW Research, was “designed to measure the broader indirect and induced economic benefits and the multiplier effect from the investments” in clean economy projects fueled by the IRA. 
• The study found that over the next five years, projects announced since the IRA was passed are expected to create 621,000 direct and indirect new jobs – including 154,000 permanent jobs – throughout the economy.
• It’s estimated this surge in investment and employment will add $237.5 billion to the U.S. GDP, creating $169.4 billion in new wages for workers and generating “nearly $50 billion in new tax revenue for federal, state, and local governments.”

⚡️The Takeaway

Arrested development. In contrast, the survey asked clean energy business leaders about what might happen if the IRA were repealed, and in summary, the response was “considerable losses, layoffs, and closures.” A companion study commissioned by E&E News found that 44% of IRA-driven clean energy manufacturing projects are planned for the seven swing states that could decide the upcoming election, although voters in those battleground areas may not fully appreciate the IRA’s impact on their local economies.

Un-Chariton-able

This week saw a couple of interesting developments on the transmission front, as Invenergy’s Grain Belt Express cleared a legal hurdle in Missouri, and the Bonneville Power Administration proposed 13 new projects “necessary to reinforce the Pacific Northwest’s electric grid.” Here’s the juice:

• Although the Grain Belt Express won final approval in Missouri a year ago, and the project was “at first welcomed by many” counties in the Show Me State, Chariton County sought to block it by refusing it permission to cross county roads.
• In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel on the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals ruled that while counties have a say in how utility infrastructure crosses their roads, they cannot withhold consent for such crossings.
• Any other interpretation of the relevant law would “usurp the authority” granted to the Missouri PSC, the judges wrote, in essence confirming that “utility policy is set at the state level, not the county level.”

⚡️The Takeaway

BPA beefs up. Meanwhile out west, BPA says its latest plans to beef up transmission will enable the addition of “thousands of megawatts of new wind and solar generation and battery storage to the federal grid.” All-in, the projects are expected to cost $3 billion and include 500-kV lines and supporting facilities in Oregon and Washington. BPA will host a public meeting on Oct. 17 to discuss the proposal.

• Insulated: IRA likely protected US renewables developers from falling profit margins: Baringa
• Streamlined: USFWS releases Draft EIS for desert tortoise 
• Qué Chévere: US closes $861 million loan guarantee for solar, energy storage in Puerto Rico 
• Coming Soon: 1.5 GW of new solar and batteries to support Virginia data centers  
• Bridge the Gap: Dominion unveils plans to add 21 GW of clean energy, 5.9 GW of gas generation by 2039  
• Ouch: Tornado carves through solar farm ahead of Hurricane Milton 
• Fingers Crossed: Clean energy bills would mandate IL's first storage procurement, a VPP program, and more 
• States’ Rights: Carbon markets – safe from possible Trump attack – could expand 
• Build It: White House cements ‘clean’ construction deal with states, industry 
• Threat to Opportunity: Sheep made solar development a win-win for Illinois farmer 
• Big Boost: LBNL: 1-hour batteries can increase transmission-constrained renewable energy values 81% 
• “Record Deployment”: LBNL’s latest “Utility-Scale Solar” report analyzes 2023
• Webinar: Summary of key findings from the LBNL report – Tues Oct 29 @ 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET

• CA: Major energy company moves forward with new solar project that can power up to 14,000 homes — and it's creating dozens of new jobs
• CA: Capstone, Eurowind JV seeks approval for 3.2GWh long-duration BESS in California
• CA: California SDG&E battery fire was ‘well managed,’ caused minimal impact
• IL: ACP, SEIA rally behind bills to save ratepayers $3 billion through grid modernization
• IN: Future of solar farms in St. Joseph County changes with new ordinance
• KS: Proposed wind farm project prompts massive turnout at Dickinson County meeting, most opposed
• ME: NEFSA petition urging Janet Mills to halt development of offshore wind in Gulf of Maine receives over 2,500 signatures
• NJ: Jersey Strong Coastal Coalition issued missive criticizing state financial benefits to the project
• NY: Clymer Town Board approves 2nd solar project
• NY: Yorktown Board votes to extend solar farm moratorium, adds one for battery farms
• NY: Oyster Bay residents plead with Town board to extend battery moratorium
• NC: Kerr Lake Solar project face its own apparent local onslaught at community meetings
• NC: Appeals court tackles legal fight over proposed Pender County solar farm
• PA: Fayette County Commissioners to hear from public on proposed industrial solar farm ordinance
• PA: Plans announced for 7 MW solar project in Lancaster County
• PA: Proposed solar farm in Ransom Twp. draws opposition
• WY: Bill Gates-backed group secures funding for new wind energy project

Yowza.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks in the “supersizing of wind turbines,” with all kinds of action in China, where the China Wind Power conference just wrapped up.

Last week Sany Renewable Energy installed a 15 MW onshore turbine; currently, the largest turbine in the world is a 20 MW offshore behemoth designed by Mingyang, but Dongfang Electric is hot on their heels, having just manufactured a “typhoon-proof” monster 26 MW offshore model. Not to be outdone, CCRC just rolled a 20 MW floating turbine, the world’s largest, off the production line.

If that doesn’t make your head spin, how about this: Sany just announced that they’ve commissioned a test bench for 35 MW turbines.

As non-engineers, we had to look that up: test benches are used to put wind turbine designs through their paces, testing the performance of the design and key components under a variety of extreme conditions.

While Sany doesn’t expect there will be 35 MW turbines “in the near future,” the company says the test bench will utilize “high-intensity accelerated fatigue tests” to “simulate 20 years of wind farm operation in just one year,” and can also “accurately simulate complex weather conditions and extreme working environments, withstanding typhoon-level winds.”

That’s a lot to wrap our minds around – supersized, indeed!