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An energy news release that did NOT come out of Mar-A-Lago

U.S. Department of Energy Announces Goal to Cut Solar Costs by More Than Half by 2030

United States Department of Energy - Wikipedia

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced an ambitious new target to cut the cost of solar energy by 60% within the next ten years, in addition to nearly $128 million in funding to lower costs, improve performance, and speed the deployment of solar energy technologies. These investments support the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goals and will pave the way for affordable decarbonization of the energy system and a robust clean energy economy.

“In many parts of the country, solar is already cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels, and with more innovation we can cut the cost again by more than half within the decade,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “This first burst of funding will help us add even more affordable clean energy to the grid, jobs to communities across the country, and will put us on the fast track toward President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.”

Lowering the cost of solar energy is essential to accelerating deployment and achieving President Biden’s goal of a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035. To reach that goal in the next 15 years, the country will need to add hundreds of gigawatts of solar energy to the grid at a pace as much as five times faster than current installation rates. To that end, DOE is accelerating its utility-scale solar 2030 cost target by five years—setting a new goal of driving down the current cost of 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 3 cents/kWh by 2025 and 2 cents/kWh by 2030.

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“To meet our bold zero emissions goals by 2035, we need to unleash major investment in solar energy and technologies,” said U.S. Senator Edward J. Markey. “I am excited to see the Biden-Harris Administration and the Department of Energy grant the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this research and development funding today to help the Commonwealth scale up our clean energy deployment and innovation. This funding will be a bright spot for the Massachusetts clean energy economy and will help us lower costs, create jobs, and deploy more gigawatts of solar than ever before.”

“To combat climate change, America must put clean energy within the reach of every household. Today’s grant awards support research and development projects that will make solar panels more affordable and effective,” said U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján. “I applaud the Department of Energy for making this strong investment in our energy future.”

“As Chairwoman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, it is thrilling to see my constituents selected to advance technologies that will play a critical role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the electricity sector. Not only will these awards help the United States achieve the deep decarbonization needed to mitigate the growing impacts of climate change, but they will put many Americans in my district and around the country back to work in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson, Chairwoman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Traditional solar panels convert sunlight into electrical energy using photovoltaic (PV) solar technologies, which by 2035 could represent between 30% and 50% of electricity supply in a decarbonized electricity sector. Funding announced today through DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) will support advancing two materials used to make solar cells: perovskites and cadmium telluride (CdTe) thin films.

$40 million for perovskite R&D: Perovskites are a family of emerging solar materials that have potential to make highly efficient thin-film solar cells with very low production costs. DOE is awarding $40 million to 22 projects that will advance perovskite PV device and manufacturing research and development—as well as performance through the formation of a new $14 million testing center to provide neutral, independent validation of the performance of new perovskite devices.
$3 million Perovskite Startup Prize: This new prize competition will speed entrepreneurs’ path to commercializing perovskite technologies by providing seed capital for their newly formed companies.
$20 million for CdTe thin films: The National Renewable Energy Laboratory will set up a consortium to advance cheaper CdTe thin-film solar technologies, which were developed in the United States and make up 20% of the modules installed in this country. This consortium will advance low-cost manufacturing techniques and domestic research capabilities, increasing opportunities for U.S. workers and entrepreneurs to capture a larger portion of the $60 billion global solar manufacturing sector.

In addition, DOE announced $7 million as part of a new funding opportunity for projects to increase the lifetime of silicon-based PV systems from about 30 years to 50 years, lowering the cost of energy and reducing waste. The aim is to improve PV system components, such as inverters, connectors, cables, racks, and trackers.

Today’s announcement also supports several concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) projects. Unlike PV technologies that directly convert sunlight into electricity, CSP captures heat from sunlight and uses that thermal energy to spin a turbine or power an engine that then generates electricity.

$33 million for CSP advances: The new funding opportunity also includes funding for improvements to the reliability and performance of CSP plants, which can dispatch solar energy whenever it is needed; identifies new solar applications for industrial processes, which contribute 20% of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions; and advances long-duration thermal-energy storage devices. Long-duration energy storage is critical to decarbonizing the electricity sector and couples well with CSP plants, but the cost must fall by a factor of two to unlock deployment.
$25 million to demonstrate a next-generation CSP power plant: Sandia National Laboratories will receive funding to build a facility where researchers, developers, and manufacturers can test next-generation CSP components and systems and advance toward DOE’s 2030 cost target of 5 cents/kWh for CSP plants.

Consistent with DOE’s commitment to ensuring the benefits of federal funding reach diverse communities, applicants to the Perovskite Startup Prize and the PV/CSP funding opportunity must submit a Diversity and Inclusion Plan and propose measurable actions to increase the participation of underrepresented groups on their teams, in their research, and in the broader community.

Learn more about SETO and its research priorities in PV and CSP, and attend upcoming webinars on the open opportunities:

SETO FY2021 PV/CSP Funding Opportunity Webinar – April 12, 2 p.m. ET
Perovskite Startup Prize Webinar – April 13, 1 p.m. ET
CdTe Consortium – Sign up to receive email notifications.

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Plan underway to catalog NJ’s vulnerable coastal communities

Environmental working group to identify gaps in coastal restoration, enhancement and preservation efforts

One of New Jersey’s many back bay communities

By ANDREW S. LEWIS, NJ Spotlight

As the Murphy administration works toward its goal of better preparing the state for the impacts of climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, the Department of Environmental Protection is increasingly focusing on the roughly 1,800 miles of tidal marshes, estuaries and back bays of New Jersey’s coastal zone.

But with well over 100 municipalities in that region, most with their own land use rules and needs, and each with a unique set of environmental challenges, it would be virtually impossible to develop from Trenton alone a comprehensive outline of climate priorities based on urgency and individual vulnerability.

To avoid the blind spots that can come from top-down climate policy and funding allocations, a team of researchers from the DEP, Rutgers University, Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve, Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, and other environmental groups is working at the local level to map areas across the state that offer the largest value for net carbon sequestration, ecosystem health, and community resilience — three key priorities in Gov. Phil Murphy’s climate agenda.

“Ecosystem projects need landowner and community buy-in and need to be maintained over time to function, just like a garden,” said Liz Semple, a manager in the DEP’s Office of Coastal and Land Use Planning. “We’re looking to identify areas and ultimately projects that will have state, regional or local/nonprofit champions.”

Harnessing local knowledge

The initiative, called the Coastal Ecological Restoration and Adaptation Plan and funded by a $150,000 grant from the DEP, will be implementing a nomination process to identify projects that address these priorities in critical areas of the state. Ultimately, the list will be synthesized into a publicly available map layered with in-progress and potential projects that focus on either environmental restoration, enhancement or preservation. Completed projects going back at least 10 years will also be included.

“The result of this effort will be a mapped catalogue of sites and projects to help inform the DEP and others on where resources could be allocated for future projects,” said Richard Lathrop, director of Rutgers University’s Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis and one of the project’s leads. “And to help the human and natural communities in the state’s coastal zone adapt to ongoing climate change and sea level rise.”

The process for soliciting future restoration and adaptation projects will kick off with a webinar on April 14. Along with officials from all levels of government and organizations like the Barnegat Bay Partnership, NY-NJ Baykeeper, and the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the public is also invited to participate and nominate projects.

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New Hampshire looks to offshore wind energy

By Megan Fernandes Fosters Daily Democrat

The Seacoast region is in the early stages of evaluating the challenges and opportunities of offshore wind renewable energy generation with wind turbines off the local coastline.

Because the more than 800-foot-tall wind turbines would be anywhere from 10 to 20 miles away from the shore, experts said, they should not be very visible from the shore and they will be out far enough to avoid interfering with commercial fishing operations.

Three wind turbines from the Deepwater Wind project stand in the Atlantic Ocean off Block Island, Rhode Island. New Hampshire is now in the process of working with neighboring states Maine and Massachusetts on a possible wind turbines project.

But building a multi-billion-dollar offshore wind project like this requires a lot of upfront work to build the labor workforce and industry infrastructure for the project and to maintain it for the long term, experts say. The planning is still in its infancy, so construction of an undertaking like this is still at least five to seven years out.

The Seacoast Chamber Alliance, state Sen. David Watters, D-Dover, and New Hampshire Offshore Wind Industry Development Director Michael Behrmann led a conversation over Zoom video conference Tuesday on how neighboring New England states can benefit from a cooperative approach to wind power.

From left to right: Susannah Hatch, New England for Offshore Wind and Environmental League of Massachusetts; Curt Thalken, PE, Normandeau Associates; New Hampshire Offshore Wind Industry Development Director Michael Behrmann; (second row) Bob LaBelle, Former BOEM Deputy Associate Director; Joe Casey, IBEW; Elizabeth Donohue, Eversource and (bottom row) Senator David Watters (D-Dover).

Where is the New England wind turbine project is now?

Discussion Tuesday centered around how New England can build out the infrastructure for this industry to have a wide-ranging economic impact.

This topic of discussion dates back to 2019, when Gov. Chris Sununu called for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to establish a tri-state federal task force to plan Gulf of Maine lease areas. It involves New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts working together to develop offshore wind as a reliable renewable energy source. This led New Hampshire to create the Offshore Wind Commission, which is led by Watters serving as chair. Its goal is to evaluate and push legislation to help spur the development of the offshore wind industry.

In Massachusetts::Biden administration puts Vineyard Wind back on track

“I saw this as an extraordinary opportunity for economic development and job creation for New Hampshire,” Watters said, noting the state’s Seacoast region is in what he calls “a sweet spot” because its existing harbor facilities in Portsmouth and other locations help position the area to be an integral part of the up-and-coming industry in Northern New England.

This month, Watters introduced Senate Bill 151, which will be heard by the Legislature in the coming weeks. It would establish a framework for the future procurement of upward of 800 megawatts of renewable energy and the financing of offshore wind energy generation resources in New Hampshire through the solicitation and development of long-term contracts with distribution companies by the Public Utilities Commission.Your stories live here.Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it.

The Seabrook nuclear plant produces 1.2 GW, so it would take 120 10MW wind turbines to equal the capacity of Seabrook.

More: Seabrook nuclear power plant’s license extension upheld, with conditions

“That [bill] will potentially lock in very, very competitive prices for New Hampshire consumers from offshore wind both existing [in southern New England] and what’s going to be built,” Watters said.

This is just the start of a lengthy process to bring projects like this to the Seacoast, leaders said.

Elizabeth Donohue, a representative from Eversource on the panel, said while developing the industry takes a lot of time and money, it gives back in terms of economic benefits. It will take regional partnerships to make it work, she said.

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With hurricane season growing longer, meteorologists will ditch Greek names and start forecasts earlier

Record ocean warmth means 2021 could be another busy year for tropical storms in the Atlantic.

Aerial view of a flooded area in the village of Queja, in San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala on Nov. 7, 2020 after Hurricane Eta. Credit: Esteban Biba/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

By Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News

The record-setting hurricane season of 2020 has prompted the World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane experts to change how they name tropical storms and when to start issuing regular hurricane bulletins.

When Hurricanes Zeta, Eta and Iota slammed the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico in the first two weeks of November 2020, the rapidly growing list of unusual, similar-sounding names may have diluted critical safety messaging in the storm-plagued region, National Hurricane Center director Ken Graham said Wednesday, during a discussion of the changes at a meeting of the WMO’s Hurricane Committee.

There were a record number of named tropical storms in the Atlantic last year, and some storm-weary residents in hurricane-prone regions were getting the names mixed up, he said. Hurricane experts, the WMO announced, will stop using Greek alphabet names after exhausting the “regular” alphabet, which has only happened twice—in 2005 and last year. The committee is also retiring the names Eta, Iota, and Laura, which were given to 2020 storms, and Dorian, from the 2019 season, because of the death and destruction that the hurricanes with those names caused.

“There was so much focus on the names that maybe the impacts of storms were lost,” he said of the series of confusing storm names last year. “In some cases, names were pronounced incorrectly, and some of the names were not easily translatable to Spanish,” he added. “Hurricanes do not have international boundaries,” so critical safety communication needs to be absolutely clear in various languages.

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Hurricane experts in the United States started giving tropical storms short, distinctive female names in the mid-1950s, to streamline communications about the hazards. The WMO added male names in 1978 and Greek alphabet letters toward the end of the hyperactive 2005 hurricane season, which had the most named tropical storms until last year.

The unusual spate of late season storms started Oct. 27, when Zeta hit Louisiana at peak intensity, after causing widespread damage in the Yucatán Peninsula and Jamaica. In the Southeast United States, Zeta killed six people, flooded city streets and knocked out power for more than 2 million people.

Hurricane Eta hit Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast Nov. 3 as a 150 mph, category 4 storm, killing 210 people. Two weeks later, Iota’s winds quickly ramped up from 110 mph to 150 mph, just before blasting nearly the same section of the Nicaraguan coast. It was the strongest storm of the 2020 season, and the latest-forming category 5 hurricane on record in the Caribbean.

Together, the two late-season tropical storms caused 272 fatalities and more than $9 billion in damages.

The WMO’s Hurricane Committee also decided to start issuing its regular hurricane bulletins for the Atlantic on May 15, two weeks earlier than in previous seasons, Graham said. That decision came after discussions about changing the “official” start date of the season from June 1 to May 15—considerations that are continuing amid worrying signs that the hurricane season may be getting longer.

While research into whether the season is expanding is still inconclusive, the 2020 season was the record sixth in a row in which a tropical storm formed before the official start date. Ocean heat is the main fuel for hurricanes, and global warming is driving sea surface temperatures and deep ocean heat to new record levels nearly every year.

“The length of the hurricane season increases by about 40 days per degree Celsius of warming (the season starts about 20 days earlier and lasts about 20 days longer, on average),” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Service. “But the link to climate change for this is not as clear because our understanding of how and why hurricanes form is not as strong as our understanding of how and why hurricanes intensify.”

Right now, the Atlantic Ocean is about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average, so the coming season is likely to again see above average hurricane activity, said Jim Kossin, a hurricane researcher with NOAA and the University of Wisconsin.

“We’ve had a number of advances in our understanding of how tropical storms will be affected by global warming,” he said.

The most intense storms are more frequent, tropical storms are intensifying faster over warmer water and hurricane tracks seem to be shifting toward the poles, Kossin noted.

“They seem to be moving more slowly along their tracks over land, which can have a huge effect on local rainfall amounts and wind damage,” he added. “Any of these changes would certainly affect hurricane risk for people and communities.”

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Legislation encouraging the use of recycled products and material starting to move in NJ

Small sample of products made from recycled material

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

(TRENTON) – A bill designed to encourage New Jersey State government to purchase recycled items and material was released on Monday by the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee.

The measure, (A-2783), seeks to have the state set an example for the private sector by putting its purchasing power behind products containing recycled content. The bill would require that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) develop and update guidelines for State and local agencies when entering into contracts for the purchase of recycled goods.

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The Assembly committee amended the bill to:

1) Require that the guidelines to be developed pursuant to the bill may be based upon, or incorporate by reference, guidelines developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, including but not limited to the recommended recovered materials content levels specified in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Consolidated Recovered Materials Advisory Notice;

2) Specify that the requirement to review and modify bid and product specifications applies to the Director of the Division of Purchase and Property in the Department of the Treasury, the Director of the Division of Property Management and Construction in the Department of the Treasury, and any State agency having authority to contract for the purchase of goods or services and provide that bid and product specifications would be modified to the extent practical and feasible; and

3) Provide that bill would not apply to bid and product specifications for the purchase of goods or services entered into prior to the effective date of the bill, as well as bid packages advertised and made available to the public, or to any competitive and sealed bids received by the State, prior to the effective date of the legislation.

Following the bill’s release, sponsors Sterley Stanley (D-Middlesex), Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), and Robert Karabinchak (D-Middlesex) issued the following joint statement:

“There is a big market for recycled material that has been hit hard the past few years. This bill will spearhead the purchase of recycled contents in public projects and increase the overall market. Not only will it help the market further excel, but by using goods with a high percentage of recycled material, we can also further our goal toward a clean and healthy environment.

Other NJ bills aimed at stimulating recycled material markets

Since China banned the import of recyclable material from other countries, New Jersey’s recycling industry and environmental organizations have been lobbying state and federal lawmakers to help stimulate new domestic markets for paper, plastic, glass and other materials formerly absorbed by the Chinese.

A number of bills designed to help, like A2783 (above), have been introduced this session in New Jersey,:

Perhaps the most significant is S2515, sponsored by Senator Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, who chairs the Environment and Energy Committee. Smith’s bill would establish post-consumer, recycled-content requirements for rigid plastic containers, glass containers, paper and plastic carryout bags, and plastic trash bags. The bill was the subject of several hearings and amendments prior to its release from Smith’s committee in December. It subsequently was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

The measure is patterned on a ‘recycled-content’ law in California and has the support of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection plus a large number of recycling industry and environmental organizations.

Bills also have been introduced to establish a Recycling Markets Advisory Council and to reconstitute the state’s Solid Waste Advisory Council which essentially went out of business when member appointments expired and new members were not named during the eight-year administration of former Gov. Chris Christie.

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NJ lawmakers offer bills to help get the lead out of drinking water

News From The Assembly Democrats

Moving to address New Jersey’s aging water system infrastructure and the ongoing concerns of lead contamination in many cities across the state, Assembly Democrats Gary Schaer, Angela McKnight, William Spearman, and Robert Karabinchak sponsor legislation that would require public water systems to inventory and replace lead service lines within 20 years and provide for recoupment of costs by investor-owned public water systems.

The bill was passed by the Assembly Special Committee on Infrastructure and Natural Resources on Monday.

In 2019, at least 35 water systems in New Jersey were found to have high levels of lead in their tap water. The state’s aging water system quickly became the epicenter of national attention and keeping residents safe in Newark and other cities emphasized the need for a rigorous effort to address our water infrastructure and environmental concerns.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, New Jersey was already facing an ongoing public health crisis,” said Schaer (D-Bergen, Passaic). “Every year, more than 4,800 new cases of childhood lead poisoning are reported in our State, causing potentially irreparable damage to our shared future. Ending the lead crisis in New Jersey is not insurmountable, it is achievable if we believe it is worth doing. This legislation provides a path forward to guaranteeing every resident the right to safe drinking water.”

The bill (A5343) would require each public water system (PWS) in the State to develop a service line inventory and a replacement plan for lead service lines that provides for the replacement of all lead service lines within 20 years and would authorize an investor-owned PWS to recoup the costs of lead service line replacements.

“Critical upgrades to New Jersey’s water infrastructure are needed to modernize a decaying water system and ensure safe drinking water for New Jersey residents,” said McKnight (D-Hudson). “Major cities and the most historic cities, such as Jersey City and Newark, continue to battle a lead crisis on top of the current public health crisis in which we find ourselves. Lead contamination and aging water infrastructure will amount to a public health crisis, an environmental emergency, and have an impact on our roadways for future generations if we don’t take action and develop a plan now.”

Within 12 months of enactment, each PWS would be required to submit, for review and approval by the DEP, an initial plan for replacing all lead service lines within its service area. The plan would be required to provide for the annual replacement of at least seven percent of all lead service lines known to the PWS on the date it submits its initial plan to the DEP, and the replacement of all lead service lines within the PWS’s service area within 20 years. Each PWS would be required to update its replacement plan annually and keep consistent with the PWS’s updated service line inventory.

“Water systems cannot go overlooked and we must continue to make drinking water as safe as possible,” said Spearman (D-Camden, Gloucester). “Updated infrastructure systems and a well-thought-out plan to replace any old service lines is very important and will help keep harmful lead out of our water.”

The measure would also authorize investor-owned PWSs to recoup the costs of lead service line replacements by including a proposal for recoupment to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in a general rate case proceeding. BPU would be required to consider the costs to customers before approving the proposal.

“Replacing the service lines is crucial, but we must also make sure that public water systems have the time necessary to make all the required changes,” said Karabinchak (D- Middlesex). “By giving a 20-year time frame, we can ensure that nothing is rushed and the proper changes are made at a high quality”.

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