Iowa may be one of the top three wind-power states in the country, but some of its counties want tighter restrictions on wind farm growth. Iowa’s second-most populated county took action this week to move ahead with an ordinance adding tighter regulations to utility-scale wind solar projects. One restriction would cover sound levels reported …
Category: Wind Energy
Energy briefs
** Bill Gates and his energy company are starting construction at their Wyoming site for a next-generation nuclear power plant he believes will “revolutionize” how power is generated. Gates was in the tiny community of Kemmerer Monday to break ground on the project. ** The Supreme Court solicited the Biden administration’s views on two lawsuits by the city of …
Once devastated by a tornado, Southwest Kansas town becomes a renewable energy model
Since rebuilding after a tornado that nearly wiped the town off the map, Greensburg, Kansas has rebuilt and expanded its dependency on green energy. As homes and businesses were rebuilt following the May 4, 2007 tornado, the town focused on clean energy and became a model for what other communities can do with renewable …
Energy briefs
** Tesla’s controversial CEO Elon Musk, and his massive wealth, are front and center in a shareholder vote this coming week. Five months after a Delaware judge threw out the largest pay package in history, then worth more than $50 billion, shareholders will vote Thursday on a new pay package. ** New York’s grid operator says the …
Pressure forces FERC to admit mistakes and lower wind farm transmission costs in western Kansas
Lower bills will greet western Kansas electricity customers after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was caught not enforcing its own rules regarding transmission costs from wind farms in the state. FERC recently decided, under pressure from Kansas U.S. Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran, to make sure customers of the utilities transmitting power from …
Energy briefs
** A project centered in Utah is being developed to make cleaner ammonia with help from an unlikely source: nuclear energy. It’s a project that, if scaled, could eliminate the more than 1% of global carbon pollution production that is generated from ammonia-making, according to the Innovation News Network. ** Solar accounted for 75% of electricity generation capacity added …
Judge allows $10 SunZia transmission line to proceed
Years too late. It’s what a U.S. District judge has ruled in dismissing legal claims by Native American tribes and environmentalists who tried to stop construction of the $10 billion energy transmission line to carry wind powered electricity from New Mexico to California. Judge Jennifer Zipps said the opponents were not only too late …
Reusing outdated abandoned wind turbine blades
In Fairfax, Iowa recently, a $10 million new plant, built by REGEN Fiber, owned by Alliant Energy subsidiary Travero, hosted a grand opening Wednesday to explain the process for recycling decommissioned wind turbine blades. The plant, which cost more than $10 million and employs eight people, is expected to start processing materials …
Energy briefs
** The Department of Energy’s “moonshot factory” has announced $150 million in funding to transform the American energy system from the ground up. ARPA-E, the research and development arm of the Energy Department, is looking for “open and audacious ideas” that help to build out “this vision of the energy landscape that doesn’t [yet] exist,” …
Energy briefs
** As President Joe Biden pushes to accelerate the nation’s transition to clean energy, three Chicago suburbs and more than two dozen other Illinois communities are mulling plans to double down on lung-damaging, climate-changing coal. ** The White House announced steps Tuesday to modernize the country’s aging electric infrastructure.The new initiative between the feds and 21 states …