Overwhelmed by demand, California’s power grid imposed rotating blackouts, while the coronavirus crisis created a dilemma for those who were unable to stay cool at home.
Heat rising off the pavement created the illusion of puddles near a high-tension power transmission line in the North Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Officials ordered rolling blackouts on Friday night and said continued scorching weather might make more shut-offs necessary. Credit…Richard Vogel/Associated Press
By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports for The New York Times Published Aug. 15, 2020 Updated Aug. 16, 2020, 12:00 p.m.
A heat wave rolling through the Southwest has forced intermittent power shut-offs in California, a state already struggling with wildfires and a recent surge in coronavirus cases, raising fears that the rising temperatures could turn deadly.
Californians used so much electricity to try and stay cool Friday night that the agency that oversees much of the state’s power grid declared an emergency and, for the first time in 19 years, shut off power to hundreds of thousands of customers for several hours to avoid a damaging overload.
There is little relief in sight. High temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit are expected in Los Angeles every day through Friday. In parts of California and Arizona, thermometers are cracking 110. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat warning for much of the West Coast, including parts of Oregon and Washington State and extending inland to Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
The sweltering heat comes as coronavirus cases are on the rise in California, which reported more than 65,000 new cases and about 950 related deaths over the past week. The health crisis may be deterring residents from gathering at cooling centers or at public places like malls and libraries, making people more susceptible to injury from the heat and driving up electricity demand, as those who have air-conditioners keep them running full blast.
As the coronavirus pandemic devastates the state’s already flailing oil and gas industry, solar energy production is on a trajectory for record growth.
There are now 17 solar facilities in Texas, including 13 that can produce at least 100 megawatts of power, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. COURTESY DUKE ENERGY
Nancy Nusser reports for The Texas Observer, Aug 13, 2020, 8:00 am CST
On Garland Richards’ ranch in West Central Texas, silicon solar panels spread for two square miles in a shimmering blue expanse that resembles a lake. The Holstein solar farm, which began operating in July in Nolan County, is as long and broad as a small town. The farm has 709,000 solar panels that generate 200 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 40,000 homes.
Richards leased a tract of his land for the solar farm in hopes that the revenue will pay the taxes on the rest of his property—10,000 acres of cattle country that’s been in his family since the 19th century. “I want to be able to hand the land down to the next generation,” Richards says. “If I can make enough on 1,300 acres to pay the taxes on 10,000 acres, it’s worth it.”
For decades, the 68-year-old former cowboy and his family relied on oil wells that Exxon drilled on the property, which sprawls between San Angelo and Abilene. “But now the oil is depleting, and the market is depleting as well,” he says. In April, oil prices dropped into negative territory for the first time in history as the coronavirus pandemic battered the already beleaguered oil and gas industry. “When oil is negative $47 a barrel, solar looks pretty good,” Richards says.
Garland Richards. COURTESY FORT CHADBOURNE FOUNDATION
With intense sun and vast tracts of empty land that can accommodate the huge scale of major solar farms, West Texas has long been primed for rapid solar development. Texas’ free market approach to electricity production and loose regulation of development encourages big electricity projects of any kind, including solar. With technological innovations, the cost of developing solar farms has dropped about 40 percent in Texas in the last five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). And once a solar farm is built, it’s inexpensive to operate compared to gas and coal-fired plants, because its fuel is free.
Federal tax credits have further cut the cost of developing solar farms. Meanwhile, demand for solar electricity has increased as both the public and corporations have embraced it as a means of battling the climate crisis. In response, solar farms have begun to proliferate in West Texas. There are now 17 solar facilities in Texas, including 13 that can produce at least 100 megawatts of power, according to SEIA. “Solar has just started to come on big in the last two to three years,” says Rich Clark, an engineer and board member of Solar Austin, a renewable energy nonprofit in Central Texas. “It’s a huge wave that’s coming.”
The solar surge follows the whirlwind growth of the wind industry in West Texas, where the landscape is dominated by towering propeller-like turbines that stretch for miles. For example, Nolan County, with fewer than 15,000 residents, is home to three of the largest wind farms in the world, and it’s recognized globally as a wind energy powerhouse.
According to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the nonprofit that oversees Texas’s electrical grid, the state’s utility-scale solar capacity (the big solar farms that connect to the grid) is expected to increase 150 percent this year to 5,777 megawatts. Next year, installed solar capacity is expected to grow more than 130 percent to 13,449 megawatts, according to ERCOT, which relies on information provided by developers.“They’re looking to purchase solar because it makes economic sense to them. That’s when I feel like you’ve hit that turning point in Texas.”
Momentum has slowed slightly since COVID-19 began spreading across Texas in March, quarantining workers and disrupting supply chains. But unlike the oil and gas industry, the solar industry has not been devastated. “There have been impacts,” says Charlie Hemmeline, executive director of the Texas Solar Power Association. “But big picture, 2020 was slated to be solar’s best year in Texas, and we’re still on track for that to be the case.”
In the last 10 years, Texas had lagged behind other states in terms of solar development, according to SEIA rankings since 2010. But in 2018 and 2019, Texas ranked second in the nation for the amount of solar capacity installed during the year. “It’s really been a sea change for Texas,” says George Hershman, president of California-based Swinerton Renewable Energy, which has eight solar farms in Texas. He says the state “is becoming our biggest solar market.”
Some of Texas’s largest companies, including heavy polluters in the petroleum sector, have begun switching to solar and investing in its development. In 2018, ExxonMobil agreed to use solar and wind power to draw oil from the Permian Basin. Bloomberg reported that it was the biggest renewable deal ever signed by an oil company. In 2019, Facebook agreed to finance construction of the 4,600-acre Prospero solar farm in Andrews County in West Texas. This year, Bank of America announced that it had partnered with the Texas-based Reliant Energy to get electricity from a West Texas solar farm. And Dow Chemical signed an agreement to use a South Texas solar farm to supply its Gulf Coast petrochemical plant, the largest facility of its kind in the western hemisphere.
“When you have these major companies that are not focused on environmental issues deciding to purchase solar, that’s really important,” says Clark, of Solar Austin. “They’re looking to purchase solar because it makes economic sense to them. That’s when I feel like you’ve hit that turning point in Texas.”
If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics.It’s packed with the latest news, commentary and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.
New Jersey on Saturday reported seven more deaths attributed to the coronavirus and 464 new cases as the rate of transmission ticked up slightly but stayed below a key mark that shows how disease is spreading.
The Garden State’s death toll from COVID-19 now stands at 15,910 — 14,071 confirmed and 1,839 considered probable — in more than five months since the first case was reported March 4.
The state has announced 187,442 positive tests since the outbreak began out of more than 2.4 million tests administered in the state so far.
The governor said Friday that the state’s numbers “look very good,” though there was a bump in new cases this week.
The state on Saturday reported its latest transmission rate was 0.94, a slight increase after holding steady at 0.92 for three consecutive days.
Any number above 1 means each newly infected person is spreading the virus to at least one other person, on average. Anything below 1 means the outbreak is shrinking. The rate had been below 1 for weeks during the strictest parts of New Jersey’s coronavirus lockdowns but had fluctuated above and below 1 in July as the state took more reopening steps.
Saturday marks the 15th straight day New Jersey — an early coronavirus hotspot — has reported fewer than 15 deaths.
People like Vivian Lin, who quit her job at an architecture firm to start a composting business, have helped fill the void after the city suspended curbside organic waste collection.
Vivian Lin, left, who in May started a composting service called Groundcycle, picked up compost in Brooklyn on a recent Sunday. Credit Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
In the months since New York City scrapped the bulk of its voluntary composting program, Vivian Lin has reoriented her life.
In May, when budget cuts caused by the coronavirus pandemic led to the suspension of the program, Ms. Lin created a private composting service almost overnight. Her idea was simple: For a small fee, New Yorkers could give her their kitchen scraps and yard waste to recycle. Additionally, for a few extra dollars she would provide them with produce from local farmers.
The first few weeks of the program were hectic, as she filled friends’ cars with pungent buckets of rotting food. Eventually, she swapped the cars for U-Haul vans, but still could barely keep up with demand. Two months in, Ms. Lin, 25, quit her job at an architecture firm to pursue the project, called Groundcycle, full time.
Offering fresh produce is a way to get people interested in recycling organic matter, she said on a recent Sunday, the smell of compost wafting through the vans.
Ms. Lin provides local produce to New Yorkers in exchange for their food scraps and other organic waste. Credit…Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
But in a post-outbreak effort to shore up the already-wheezing budget, the city’s Department of Sanitation weathered a $106 million cut, $24.5 million of which funded organics recycling. After pressure from climate advocates, officials provided the department with $2.86 million to reinstate some composting services. But residential pickup and collection at some GrowNYC farmers’ markets will likely remain paused until at least next summer.
“It’s purely a budgetary consideration,” said Bridget Anderson, the Sanitation Department’s deputy commissioner for recycling and sustainability. “Sanitation’s budget has been restricted to the core, core services of what we provide.”
A small army of community-based composters have stepped up to fill the void. In Astoria, Queens, and Greenpoint, Brooklyn, for example, residents are volunteering time at homespun drop-off sites.
Fred Wolf, spreading sawdust over the organic waste in the back of his truck, delivers the compost to a farm upstate. Photo credit Stephanie Keith for The New York Times
Some small-scale collectors, known as “microhaulers,” like Ms. Lin, take compost to Fred Wolf, an educator and ecological designer. Each Sunday, he parks his pickup truck outside of Nature Based, his nursery and design company in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. Then on Mondays, he spends the day driving upstate and back, to deliver the compost to McEnroe Organic Farm.
We’re always looking for stories that might interest our readers. If you come across something so interesting that it cries out to be shared, please send it to editor@enviropolitics.com If we agree, you’ll see it here soon.
As Gov. Phil Murphy announced the state will have a mostly mail-in November election because of the pandemic.
New Jersey on Friday reported 10 more deaths attributed to the coronavirus — half of those occurring this week — and 585 new cases.
That marks the second straight day the state has reported more than 500 new cases, though its transmission rate held steady again below the critical benchmark showing the outbreak is shrinking.
“Our numbers generally look very good,” Murphy said Friday afternoon during his latest coronavirus briefing in Trenton. “(But) with all due respect to those who think we can just flip a light switch and get back to everything as normal, we have had 3,281 positive tests come back in the past seven days in the state of New Jersey.”
The Garden State’s death toll from COVID-19 now stands at 15,903 fatalities — 14,064 confirmed and 1,839 considered probable — in more than five months since the first case was reported March 4.
The state has announced 187,164 positive tests since the outbreak began out of more than 2.4 million tests administered in the state so far.
Of the 10 newly reported deaths, one is from Aug. 12 and four from Aug. 11, while the rest occurred from July 21 to Aug. 8 and have just recently been confirmed, Murphy said as announced the new figures at his latest coronavirus press briefing in Trenton.
The state reported its latest transmission rate is 0.92, the same mark as reported Wednesday and Thursday. The number has remained below the key mark of 1 this week after officials announced Aug. 2 the number had spiked to a four-month high of 1.49.
“Want to drive that lower, but that is under 1,” Murphy said.
Any number above 1 means each newly infected person is spreading the virus to at least one other person, on average. Anything below 1 means the outbreak is shrinking. The rate had been below 1 for weeks during the strictest parts of New Jersey’s coronavirus lockdowns but had fluctuated above and below 1 in July as the state took more reopening steps.
The state’s daily positivity rate — the percentage of residents who test positive in one day — was 1.63% on Monday, the date with the most recent available data.
Murphy called that a “good number” and “almost no state in the nation” can “match that.”
Friday marks the 35th straight day New Jersey — an early coronavirus hotspot — has reported fewer than 50 new deaths and the 14th straight day it has reported fewer than 15.
But state officials have warned about upticks in cases in recent days. On Thursday, New Jersey reported 699 new cases, the highest one-day total in cases so far this month and only the second time since June 6 that the state reported more than 600 new cases.
“We’re watching this like a hawk,” Murphy said Friday morning during an interview with CNBC. “I don’t like that number. But the fact of matter is: 98% of folks getting tests are negative. So please, God, it stays that way.”
The state’s daily numbers are also well below their peaks in April, when it was routine for the state to announce hundreds of new fatalities and thousands of new positive tests a day.
Still, Murphy said during his briefing that “we cannot stop with our social distancing“ or “wearing our face coverings.“
”We can’t be going to house parties or standing among mask-less crowds outside a bar,” he added. “We have to stick with the things we’ve been doing — things that are saving lives, including our own.”
HOSPITALIZATIONS
There were 514 patients being treated for confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases across New Jersey’s 71 hospitals as of Thursday night. That’s 31 fewer patients than the night before.
Of those, 278 tested positive, while 236 were considered under investigation while awaiting test results.
Meanwhile, 91 were in critical or intensive care (12 fewer than the night before) and 40 were on ventilators (12 more than the night before).
There were 47 coronavirus patients discharged from the state’s hospitals Thursday, according to the state’s tracking website.
New Jersey’s hospitalizations have declined steadily over the last few months after peaking at more than 8,000 in mid-April.
ELECTION CHANGE
Murphy on Friday announced that the Nov. 3 elections in New Jersey — including the 2020 presidential race — will be mostly mail-in to protect the state against the virus.
All of the state’s more than 6 million active registered voters will receive vote-by-mail ballots, though there will be limited in-person polling locations across the state.
“As much as we enjoy the time-honored traditions of joining our neighbors on line to cast our ballots on Election Day, and as much as we are energized by seeking packed polling places, we must recognize that this is not a regular election year” Murphy said. “We can say that in more ways than one, but it certainly matters in terms of how we go about ensuring a free and open election in the face of this ongoing pandemic.”
THE LATEST ON SCHOOLS AND BUSINESSES REOPENING
Murphy on Wednesday announced New Jersey schools that meet certain criteria will be allowed to start the academic year with no in-person classes because of the pandemic. Previously, all districts were required to offer at least some in-person classes.
The governor stressed that the goal is for as many districts to reopen with in-person learning as possible.
New Jersey remains in Stage 2 of its plan to gradually lift coronavirus restrictions that Murphy ordered in March to fight the spread of COVID-19. Gyms, movie theaters and indoor dining sections of bars and restaurants remain closed until further notice.
That’s even though the state’s economy continues to suffer during the pandemic. Nearly 1.5 million workers in the state have filed for unemployment benefits since mid-March, though claims reached a five-month low last week.
Murphy said Friday the state is “trying to find a way to get to both indoor dining and get gyms open.”
“I can’t tell you when or how,” he said. “My guess is we’re gonna need to continue to see good numbers.”
He also stressed there will be capacity limits when that happens.
Meanwhile, the state is calling on travelers from 33 states and territories — including residents returning home — to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in New Jersey.
There are another 1,001 positive cases that remain under investigation, with the patients’ home counties not
About half of the state’s deaths — at least 7,011 — have been of residents or staff members at the state’s nursing homes and longterm care centers.
The total number of coronavirus cases in the state is cumulative and does not reflect the thousands of residents who have recovered. More than 33,200 New Jersey residents have recovered from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University.
As of early Friday afternoon, there have been more than 20.98 million positive tests for COVID-19 across the world, according to a running tally by Johns Hopkins University. Of those, more than 760,600 have died, while more than 13 million have recovered.
There have been more than 167,300 deaths in the United States, by far the most in the world.
Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com.
The climate science community is mourning the loss of a pioneering climate scientist and glaciologist, Konrad Steffen. Koni, as he was known to his friends and colleagues, apparently fell to his death in a deep opening in the ice called a crevasse on Saturday while doing research in Western Greenland.
BY JEFF BERARDELLI, CBS NEWS
Konrad “Koni” Steffen, a leading climate scientist who documented melting ice sheets, at the Swiss Camp research site in Greenland in 2007. REUTERS
With nearly 15,000 academic citations to his name, Steffen, who was 68 years old, dedicated his life to studying the rapidly melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. Ironically, it was the perils created by melting around Swiss Camp in Greenland — a research outpost he founded in 1990 — that claimed his life.
Jason Box, a well-known ice climatologist at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, had spent many years working alongside Steffen and was with him right before he disappeared.
Box says the snowy, windy weather at the time was disorienting. He says Steffen “ultimately went beyond the safety perimeter in low visibility, windy conditions. Koni fell into a water based crevasse while the rest of us were working nearby, unaware. The last thing he said to us was he was going to look at data.”
The team organized a lengthy search and eventually found evidence in the thin ice. “[We] found a 2.5 meter long busted through hole in the 3 cm thick floor of the crevasse 8 meters down,” Box wrote in a message thread on Twitter. “I am told one is not buoyant in such cold freshwater. Since he was not found, I think he remains 8 meters down in the water.”
