“New York State is prepared to close 40 years of intermittent and costly legal wrangling over the annual destruction of billions of fish by the twin Indian Point nuclear power plants in the productive Hudson River estuary if the plant agrees to shut down during peak spawning and hatching seasons for the river’s major fish populations,” Roger Witherspoon writes in Energy Matters,

“But such a deal, if ratified, would mean the plants could be shut from 13 weeks to 32 weeks, an enforced idleness which could doom the already stressed financial position of Indian Point, which is having difficulty securing steady customers for its electricity due to increased competition, particularly from lower cost wind and natural gas.

“The maximum shut down, if required, would close the plant from February 15 through September 15, and would cut Indian Point’s revenues by about $9.5 billion over 20 years, or 57% of their revenue, according to an analysis prepared by Entergy, the plants’ owner, for ongoing hearings before a panel of Administrative Law Judges at the Department of Environmental Conservation.

“The panel will hold a public hearing on the proposed forced outages July 22 in Cortlandt Manor, about two miles from the power plant site.”

New Jersey might be dragging its heels on wind energy but other states are not.


According to the 2013 Wind Technologies Market Report, released yesterday by The Energy Department and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, after modest growth in 2013, total installed wind power capacity in the United States now stands at 61 gigawatts, which meets nearly 4.5 percent of electricity demand in an average year.


The report found that wind energy prices – particularly in the Interior region of the United States–are at an all-time low, with utilities selecting wind as a cost-saving option.

State renewable portfolio standards policies, along with federal policy drivers such as the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and accelerated tax depreciation, are expected to help drive growth in the domestic wind power market for the next two years. 


Although the PTC expired last year (after fossil fuel interests in Congress defeated its renewal), projects that began construction by the end of 2013 were eligible for the tax credit; many of these projects will be commissioned over the next couple years.


The American Wind Energy Association says that more than 14,000 megawatts of wind power capacity were under construction in the second quarter of 2014.

Students involved. National competition winner was a local university
The prospects of a growing wind energy industry in the U.S. is encouraging college students like the ones interviewed in the following video who competed in a small, mobile, wind-turbine design competition. The winner was from our readership area. No spoiler here, you’ll have to watch for yourself.

What are your thoughts about wind energy? Let us know in the comment area below.

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Energy-savings businesses are feeling the pinch

New Jersey environmentalists are frustrated by the millions of dollars in green program money that have been transferred each budget year by Gov. Chris Christie to non-environmental purposes.

But New Jersey’s governor is not alone in shunting green money to patch budget holes in other programs.

In the audio story below,WNYC’s Jessica Gould reports on the growing trend and interviews two New Jersey men whose green businesses have been hurt by the diversions. Still, one of them says he’d vote for Christie again.

  


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