A bill to study how best to recycle old solar panels and wind turbines passed unanimously out of the Indiana House on Monday. The U.S. hasn’t found a cost-effective way to recycle panels and turbines yet. And that could mean a lot of waste in the next 20 to 30 years as the less …
Category: Wind Energy
Quick energy reads
** The Iowa Supreme Court temporarily blocks a state law that had given incumbent utilities first rights to build new transmission projects, a case that could have high stakes amid plans for a major transmission buildout. ** A federal judge rules BNSF Railway violated terms of an easement agreement by running 100-car oil trains across the Swinomish Indian Tribal …
Grain Belt transmission line close to getting final approval in Kansas and Missouri
Optimism is growing that the four-state Grain Belt Express transmission line, one designed to carry wind-powered electricity from Southwest Kansas to Indiana might get final approval this year. Regulators in Kansas and Missouri initially approved the large project and now must finalize their decisions reported the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Missouri Public Commission has …
More fast energy reads
** The Sierra Club alleges in a lawsuit that a major Illinois coal plant has operated “illegally” for more than a decade without an operating permit from the state as required under the Clean Air Act. ** The Biden administration is finalizing more stringent efficiency requirements for both window air conditioners and portable air cleaner, the first set of …
Kansas legislature considers control over wind tower blinking lights
With 44 wind farms in the state of Kansas, the Kansas legislature continues working on possible legislation to do something about the growing complaints of the blinking red wind tower lights at night. Residents don’t like them and want controls about when and how often they blink, disturbing the night-time sky above the state. …
Quick energy reads
** The 2023 Annual Energy Outlook from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) finds that U.S. oil production may even increase between now and 2050 even as clean energy sources like wind and solar power increase dramatically as well. The analysts say that U.S. demand for oil and gas is likely to remain remarkably steady for decades. …
New Mexico gets another wind tower plant
While Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy came out of an economic “hibernation” this week with plans to reopen wind turbine plants in Hutchinson, Kansas and Fort Madison, Iowa, a Texas company announced plans to locate a wind-tower plant in New Mexico. Perhaps another sign of a resurgence in the wind industry. Arcosa Inc. announced its …
Newspaper blasts NPR for one-sided report on big oil and wind energy in Wyoming
National Public Radio, the government-financed communications group with a reputation for its liberal approach to news, was caught in the act in its recent reporting about the oil industry financing anti-wind farm efforts in Wyoming. The Cowboy State Daily did some digging on what NPR claimed in its report and found big oil was …
Siemens to reopen wind plants in Kansas and Iowa
The “hibernation” Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy announced last year at its wind production plants in Kansas and Iowa has ended. The company is in the process of reopening the operations that were forced to close because of slow wind turbine orders. The company initiated the resumption of production at its Fort Madison, Iowa …
Grain Belt Express line wins approval in Illinois
The Grain Bell Express high-voltage line, one designed to carry wind-powered electricity from Southwest Kansas to East Coast states recently won approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission. The ICC issued a final ruling granting a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to Invenergy of Chicago to build the line to carry the electricity across …