New England Relying More on Natural Gas Along with Hydroelectric Imports from Canada

graph of New England electricity generation and net imports and New England electricity net trade by source, as explained in the article text

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, from ISO New England

Republished August 25, 2014 to correct the statement that attributed the proposed construction of new transmission lines to the New England Independent System Operator (ISO-NE). The construction of transmission lines and generation assets falls in the utilities' purview.

Electric operators in New England have been both generating more electricity from natural gas and importing more hydroelectric generation from Quebec over the past decade. These two sources of electricity are displacing the use of coal and oil as generation fuels in New England.

Recent and planned closures of large power plants may cause the independent system operator for New England (ISO-NE) to continue to rely on an increasing amount of hydropower from Quebec. The 745-megawatt (MW) coal- and oil-fueled Salem Harbor Power Station ceased operation on June 1. Pending shutdowns include the 605-MW Vermont Yankee nuclear facility, expected to be shut down at the end of 2014, and the 1,520-MW Brayton Point coal- and natural gas/oil-fired power plant, expected to be shut down in 2017. To make up for the loss of these generators, northeastern utilities and Hydro-Quebec have proposed constructing several transmission lines, including the 1,200-MW Northern Pass, to increase transmission of electricity from Canada. Hydro-Quebec has more than 36,000 MW of installed hydroelectric capacity and has been exporting electricity to New England and New York since the 1980s.

New England states have several reasons to further limit their use of electricity generated from fossil fuels. Constraints on some of the pipelines delivering natural gas into New England have contributed to higher natural gas prices and made electricity relatively more expensive. Also, all New England states have renewable portfolio standards (or in Vermont, a nonbinding goal) requiring that a certain percentage of their electricity comes from renewable sources. Goals and qualifying renewable sources differ by state. For instance, Rhode Island's goal is 16% renewable electricity by 2020 and New Hampshire's is 24.8% by 2025; both states have limits on the size of hydroelectric facilities whose generation qualifies.

Several New England states also have energy efficiency resource standards or goals, which act like renewable portfolio standards, but are for implementing energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is among the reasons for relatively little change in total system demand over the past decade in New England, despite 3% growth in total population from 2004 to 2012.

Finally, New England states are part of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a market-based regulatory program that places a cap on carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector. The cap is reduced over time, encouraging states to generate more of their electricity using low- or zero-carbon sources.

Principal contributors: Michael Grubert, Bill Booth

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5 Largest Public Transit Systems In US (Infographic)

Air Quality MPA@UNC Blog

Published on August 30th, 2014 | by Cynthia Shahan

August 30th, 2014 by
 
“Let’s Take a Ride” is a visual measurement of what occurs in a great choreographic movement every day on the five largest public transit systems in the US. In particular, these public transit systems are in: Chicago, New York City, Boston, Washington DC, and San Francisco.

It is an impressive infographic, with numbers such as 400 million: the numbers of soot, carbon monoxide, hydro-carbons, and other toxic substances and particulates not released into the environment thanks to NYC’s transit system. It also nicely lays out the history of each city’s public transportation system. Thanks to the UNC School of Government (MPA@UNC) for the infographic. Have a look:

MPA@UNC Blog


 

The statement that 2,580 “obsolete subway cars” from the NYC transit system were “buried” in the ocean and thus transformed into artificial reef habitats for marine life was another fun fact.

There is no shortage of infographics out there, and we’ve covered our share of cleantech-related infographics. From a previous mass transit infographic and story, “The Connection Between Mass Transit and Health (Infographic),” here are a few more transit stats worth sharing:

  • 30% of transit users get 30 minutes or more of physical activity each day.
  • People on public transport walk an average of 19 minutes daily to get to and from stops.
  • The risk of obesity increases 6 percent every additional hour spent in a car.

Check out a couple more infographics here:

Infographic: Benefits of Going Green at Work

Renewable Natural Gas: Turning Waste into Energy

Explosive US Solar Power Jobs & Growth

How Residential Solar Can Save Money

Tesla Gigafactory Infographic

The Benefits of Public Transport

Public Transport Makes Dollars & Sense

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

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About the Author

is an Organic Farmer, Classical Homeopath, Art Teacher, Creative Writer, Anthropologist, Natural Medicine Activist, Journalist, and mother of four unconditionally loving spirits, teachers, and environmentally conscious beings who have lit the way for me for decades.



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Huge Reversal on Fracking In Pennsylvania

August 30th, 2014 by
 
Let’s go out on a limb and say this is not a coincidence: just days after the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection disclosed 243 cases of contamination from oil and gas drilling operations, a major drilling company has voluntarily dropped an attempt to force its operations upon unwilling property owners in the Utica shale formation.

The decision to back off is a huge deal because the company in question, Hilcorp Energy Company, would have been the first to use Pennsylvania’s longstanding “forced pooling” law in a shale formation. So, that pretty much shuts the door on that.

Pennsylvania fracking impacts

Oil and gas complaints (screenshot) via PA DEP.

Forced Pooling In Pennsylvania

For those of you familiar with oil and gas operations, the idea of forced pooling is no surprise. It’s a legal arrangement that enables drilling companies to extract oil or gas in a given area, once they bring a certain number of willing property owners under lease.

Forced pooling has been in widespread use for generations (the Pennsylvania law dates back to 1961), but fracking water contamination and other fracking issues have been raising new red flags, so when Hilcorp began leasing an area in the Utica shale, four property owners balked.

The fact that Hilcorp backed down against just four small property owners is significant because Hilcorp Energy is no small potatoes. The Fortune 500 company bills itself as “one of the largest privately-held independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States.”

In other words, one of the biggest, most deep-pocketed operators in the country just tried to test forced pooling against a handful of property owners, and it failed.

The case is also significant because it has tested the limits of Hilcorp’s business model. Although the company got its start in 1989 with a focus on conventional drilling, it appears to have become an aggressive participant in the fracking boom.

Here’s a couple of snippets from the company website:

Operating across the United States, Hilcorp continues to grow by actively acquiring and exploiting conventional assets while expanding its footprint into a number of new resource plays.

[snip]

In fact all of our operations are in the United States, a vast majority of which Hilcorp acquired from other companies.  Often times companies sell to us simply because their priorities have changed or bigger, more exciting opportunities become available.  That is where we come in…Hilcorp specializes in efficiently developing energy that would otherwise have been lost.

…Over time, and for various reasons company investments in certain areas decline.  It’s that decline that leaves behind opportunity for Hilcorp to revive operations…

That description dovetails with Hilcorp’s aggressive push into the Utica shale, as reported at length by triblive.com in October 2013:

State records show companies drill about 100 horizontal wells a month into the Marcellus. The Utica’s depth in Pennsylvania makes it more expensive to reach, but it’s rich enough with gas to make it potentially profitable.

Fracking Contamination

Okay, so much for that. As for the general issue of fracking contamination, the Associated Press has been doing a bangup job of reporting on earthquakes and other impacts of gas and oil fracking, and their latest effort was a big catch.

Last week, without public notice, the Pennsylvania DEP posted a list of 243 properties affected by water contamination linked to oil or gas drilling, dating back to 2008. The list includes conventional as well as fracking operations.

That didn’t escape AP’s notice. In an article picked up on wsj.com, AP noted that it is among a number of news outlets that have filed lawsuits and formal requests for documents regarding Pennsylvania’s handling of complaints related to fracking and other drilling operations.

AP also notes that DEP’s record-keeping leaves a lot to be desired, so there may be many other cases that have not been properly documented or reported.

Be that as it may, we checked out the list and it has handy links to each document, so you can see the range of problems for yourself (here’s the link again). As summarized by AP that includes methane contamination and other well-related issues that could stem directly from drilling operations, as well as spills and other surface issues.

 

Many of the cases are still unresolved. Of those that have been subject to a consent order, you can find one example near the top of the list (here’s that link). In that case, DEP found that drilling operations by the company Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation was responsible for negative impacts on 18 different wells serving 19 properties in Susquehanna County (if that rings a bell, Cabot’s fracking activities in the town of Dimock have been the subject of an intense fight).

When you put two and two together, you come away with the feeling that Pennsylvania’s fracking boom is heading for a fall.  The Hilcorp decision could be just the start of a pullback as more information on the impacts of fracking comes to light.

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About the Author

Tina Casey specializes in military and corporate sustainability, advanced technology, emerging materials, biofuels, and water and wastewater issues. Tina’s articles are reposted frequently on Reuters, Scientific American, and many other sites. Views expressed are her own. Follow her on Twitter @TinaMCasey and Google+.



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Subsidies Do More Harm Than Good, Says Solar Industry In India

Clean Power PV panels installed in a village in India

Published on August 29th, 2014 | by Anand Upadhyay

August 29th, 2014 by
 
A number of stakeholders want the Indian Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) to do away with subsidies for rooftop PV. You read that right, they would like the subsidies to be removed. But this proposal is not as crazy as you might think.

Rooftop panels in a village in India - Original author image

Rooftop panels in a village in India

MNRE provides what is called “Central Financial Assistance” (a fancy phrase for subsidies) to a number of programs, and in this case the rooftop program. This assistance amounts to 30% of benchmark costs which MNRE revises periodically. In its current form, the rooftop program envisages a total installation of 25 MW of solar PV, in project sizes of 3â€"100 kW. The maximum size of installation has been reduced from 500 kW to the current 100 kW in light of financial constraints. These installations can come up on all sorts of commercial and non-commercial rooftops, save residential ones.

The total program is expected to cost $78.2 million. About a third of this will come from the National Clean Energy Fund created from taxes on coal. The program is quite well defined with technical requirements, reporting procedures, designated teams, etc. in place, but it falters on one thing that counts the most for the industry â€" timely release of payments. The Times of India reported two months back that MNRE had a subsidy backlog of about $530 million. Needless to say, this has been the cause of many sleepless nights for solar installers.

No new projects were sanctioned for subsidy since February this year. In such a scenario, many stakeholders across the solar industry think it is better to do away with subsidy because customers who would otherwise “convert” keep waiting for the subsidy. Even in cases where subsidy is approved, the time and effort spent in chasing the subsidy payments only adds to the cost. Many customers can comfortably invest in solar without subsidies, and the solar installers don’t want to leave this money on the table.

The government understandably does not want to portray itself in bad light by removing subsidies. It is good manners to support renewables even though its will power for implementation seems half hearted. Others have, however, suggested that the money earmarked for subsidy should rather be used to facilitate better financing options for the customers. With the residential sector kept out of the program, solar electricity is definitely cheaper than both grid and diesel power in almost all parts of the country. Thus, financing the upfront capital outlay is going to be the biggest bottleneck for the growth of the solar industry.

With the subsidy backlog still prevailing, it is quite possible that installers may choose not to apply for subsidies. Writing this feels like déjà vu because it has happened earlier in the case of solar water heating systems! Many large water heating installations went ahead without subsidies because of long delays in release of payments.

In fact, in several parts of the country, PV panels have been selling unsubsidised for a long time now. While subsidy has definitely helped to fuel the growth of the sector, in all probability, its usefulness as upfront capital assistance has come to an end. This seems to be the case at least for rooftops at commercial locations.

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About the Author

is passionate about all things solar. He is usually buried in Feedly keeping a tab on rumblings of the solar markets worldwide. Apart from contributing to CleanTechnica, he regularly tracks the Indian Solar market at SolarMarket.IN. It is easy to connect with him at SolarMarket.IN/Connect



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