Hydropower keeps this old mill (and more) grinding away



Our ancestors made the most of what they had.That included using the power of streams and rivers to power their saw mills and grain mills and early manufacturing plants. Today, In the age of coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind and solar, we often wonder whether we’re not overlooking this valuable, renewable energy source.

So, we were pleasantly surprised to learn from the U.S. Department of Energy that "hydropower remains the most common and least expensive source of renewable electricity in the United States."

According to the recently released hydropower market report, roughly seven percent of the country’s electricity is produced from hydropower resources.

Still grinding along, for example, is a grain mill owned and operated by six generations of the Weisenberger family in the heart of Kentucky since the Civil War.

DOE Communications Specialist Sarah Wagoner writes:

"In 1862, August Weisenberger emigrated from Baden, Germany, to start milling grains in Midway, Kentucky. He purchased the existing three-story stone mill on the banks of South Elkhorn Creek in 1865—the perfect location to harness water power to operate the mill.

 
"By 1913, the old mill had become structurally unsound and was demolished and later rebuilt. The family also replaced the water wheel with more efficient twin hydropower turbine and generator units, boosting their local electric supply. As the family-owned business—Weisenberger Mills Inc.—grew and added more equipment through the years, they supplemented their onsite power generation with electricity from the local utility.

"More recently, with a $56,000 Energy Department award, Weisenberger Mills installed a generator and power electronics in 2013.  The new system utilizes water flowing through the turbines more efficiently, generating enough power to run the mill when it’s grinding grain. Eventually, the generator will operate 24/7 and produce more than enough power for all the mill’s needs; and using net metering, Weisenberger Mills may even sell back electricity to the utility as needed.

"Equipped with a permanent magnet generator controlled by a variable speed drive—a device where magnets rotate around conducting wires to generate electricity—the new system better captures the varied flow of the creek, which results in improved annual energy production. Small hydropower projects like this, ranging between 100 kilowatts and 30 megawatts in capacity, can efficiently convert energy from low-head stream flows and often use existing infrastructure with little to no environmental impact.
"These days, other than the new generator, most of the mill’s operations of grinding, mixing, and sifting are done using circa-1913 machines. The mill grinds about 1,000 bushels of grain a week and buys all of it from within 100 miles of Midway, further reducing the mill’s overall carbon footprint."

Learn more about hydropower at the DOE’s Water Power Program’s website.


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NJ Senate: Hands off enviro cleanup, restoration payments

Morses Creek, turned into a lagoon for waste products at Bayway Refinery in Linden, NJ (Stephen Nesssen – WNYC)
“After repeated vetoes by Gov. Chris Christie, the state Senate on Monday passed a constitutional amendment to require that settlement money from polluters be spent almost exclusively on restoring the environment,” Christopher Baxter reports for NJ.com.

The measure (SCR163) would dedicate money received from lawsuits against polluters solely “to repair damage to, restore, or permanently protect the state’s natural resources,” with the exception of up to 5 percent for administrative costs.

Democrats want the change in response to the Christie administration’s proposed $225 million settlement in a long-running case against Exxon, a deal they say sells the state short in a battle that had estimated damages as high as $9 billion.

The measure passed 27-12, which is more than the three-fifths needed to put it on the ballot in November. The Assembly must pass it by the same margin by August to seek voter approval this year. Otherwise, it would probably be next year.

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Supreme Court blocks EPA power plant emission controls

“The Supreme Court on Monday struck down the Obama administration’s plan for controlling emissions of mercury and other toxins from power-company smokestacks, saying the Environmental Protection Agency should have considered the cost of the rules first, “Robert Barnes reports in the Washington Post.

The court’s 5-to-4 decision halts further implementation of the Mercury and Air Toxic Standards rule, which required hundreds of coal-burning plants to install equipment to control mercury, a substance linked in multiple studies to respiratory illnesses as well as birth defects and developmental problems in children.
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the majority, which included Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Anthony M. Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the dissenting opinion for Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

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NJ Gov gets bill to boost private, clean-energy investment

Now on the desk of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is A-2579/S-1510, legislation that would enable property owners to obtain 10 to 30-year private financing (through special assessments attached to municipal property taxes) to cover 100 percent of the cost of clean energy and resiliency improvements without any initial investment by the property owner.

Those involved with the national PACE (Property Assessment Clean Energy) program say that it gives property owners the ability to install more extensive systems than they likely could afford under traditional financing programs and that the resulting saving in energy costs often outpaces the financing costs from day one of the project.

The PACE program, which has had significant success in states like California and Connecticut. was hailed by a number of commercial developers, investors, energy construction companies and public officials at a seminar held on June 12 to boost the legislation’s chance of passage.

Panelists at the event, held at Princeton University, included former NJ Governor Jim Florio, NJBPU Commissioner Upendra Chivukula, State Senator Bob Smith, Jersey City Deputy Mayor Marcos Vigil, executives from the Simon Property Group, MSLGroup, NJ Builders Association and others.

At the time of the seminar, PACE executives were concerned that the state legislature might recess for the summer before their bill cleared both houses, but final legislative passage was secured on June 25 in the Senate (36-1) and Assembly (63-9-3).

Now the question is whether Governor Christie will sign it. He pocket vetoed a PACE bill at the end of the previous legislative session but changes were made to the bill this year to address potential concerns.

In the videos above, NJ Builders Association President George Vallone and PACE co-founder Victoria Zelin highlight features of the program.

Jon Hurdle of NJ Spotlight covered the June 12 seminar and filed a detailed story here.  

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Who will pay for a sinking California? Ask San Luis Obispo




Who is responsible to pay for the damage when overpumping of
groundwater causes surface soils to slump and properties to sink and crack? 

A legal suit that resulted from the practice 25 years ago in
San Luis Obispo went all the way to the California Supreme Court. The result
should have been fair warning to other towns. 

Check
out this instructive story in Grist 

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Net metering bill lets solar owners sell back extra power


“The Legislature is poised today to pass legislation aimed at boosting the solar sector in New Jersey, but even its proponents concede it is only a temporary fix.”
NJ Spotlight’s Tom Johnson writes that, if approved and signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie, the measure would encourage increased investment in solar energy systems, particularly for residential and small business projects.
The legislation (A-3838) is important because New Jersey has ambitious targets to increase the use of cleaner ways of producing electricity for utility customers, hoping to have 22.5 percent of its power come from renewable sources of energy by 2020. It is unlikely to meet those goals if solar is not a big component of that mix.
The measure, which is expected to be voted on in both the Assembly and the Senate, would revamp the rules governing when owners of solar systems get paid for the power they produce but do not use. The electricity they do not need goes into the traditional power grid.
The system, known as net metering, is used by 44 states and is credited with helping to promote the rapid growth in solar not only in New Jersey but also in other states. New Jersey has more than 36,000 solar systems installed, making it one of the nation’s leaders in the use of this technology.

 
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