Farmers learn benefits of growing solar in their lower 40

 
One of the arguments used against solar power deployment is the amount of space needed for all of those solar panels. Although one study has shown that 0.6 percent of all land in the U.S. would be needed to completely electrify the country, the fight still goes on, even as solar and wind power technologies continue to increase in efficiency while decreasing in costs.
Leon Kaye writes in Triple Pundit:

The fight is also occurring in counties across the U.S., as landowners and farmers seek new ways to generate revenue. Most of rural America has missed out on the economic revival that has conjoined technology and urbanization in many cities, so these counties are also seeking new ways to generate tax revenues. Farmers, of course, have also taken a hit due to the ongoing slump in global commodities.

The controversy over farmers having the right to sign contract with solar and wind power companies is now taking center stage in North Carolina.
The combination of the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS), which requires utilities operating in the state to generate some electricity from renewables, along with its booming tech culture, has turned the Tar Heel State into a solar powerhouse. In fact, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says North Carolina ranks third in the nation amongst U.S. states in total solar capacity. Last year, the installation of over 1,100 megawatts of solar power placed North Carolina in second nationally in new solar generation.
And much of this power is generated in rural counties across the state, from the northern border with Virginia to along the South Carolina state line. According to Solar Strata, one company that is riding North Carolina’s solar boom, these new solar farms are appearing on farmland where crops such as tobacco, peanuts, cotton and corn can no longer earn enough money for farmers to keep their land. Other sites are appearing on fallow land that has not been farmed in years. Companies such as Solar Strata pay rent to these farmers, with contracts that often last as long as 20 years. As quoted by one farmer who was interviewed by Joe Ryan of Bloomberg, “It gives me a way to keep the farm . . . and pass it to my grandchildren.”

Read the full story here

Related: Harvesting Sunshine (Bloomberg)


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Whoa! Isn’t this supposed to be Trenton’s budget break?

Lobbyists and trade association executives whose careers are spent anticipating and reacting to the ebb and flow of activity in the state legislature look forward every year to the period in late March through April when all committee meetings are suspended except for the appropriations panels in each house that hold weeks of grueling hearings to prepare the next fiscal year’s state budget.

If you don’t have clients that need you to implore for funding, you can feel free to schedule a flight to a place with a warm beach and cold drinks. But not this year–at least, not next week.

The State Assembly has scheduled a hefty number of committee meetings for Monday, April 4 and a voting session for Thursday,
April 7.

Energy and environment bills are among other pieces of legislation scheduled for action.

Here’s the lineup:

ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS
4/04/16 1:00 PM
Committee Room 11, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ

A-780  Andrzejczak, R.B. (D-1); McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29); Dancer, R.S. (R-12); Vainieri Huttle, V. (D-37)
Implements 2014 constitutional dedication of CBT revenues for certain environmental purposes; revises State’s open space, farmland, and historic preservation programs.

A-2375  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Gusciora, R. (D-15); Spencer, L.G. (D-29)
Revises “Electronic Waste Management Act.”
Related Bill: S-981

S-969  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Implements 2014 constitutional dedication of CBT revenues for certain environmental purposes; revises State’s open space, farmland, and historic preservation programs.

S-981  Smith, B. (D-17); Bateman, C. (R-16); Greenstein, L.R. (D-14)
Revises “Electronic Waste Management Act.”
Related Bill: A-2375

ASSEMBLY ENVIRONMENT AND SOLID WASTE
4/04/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 16, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ
The committee will hear testimony from invited guests regarding the issue of lead as it relates to the State’s aging drinking water infrastructure.

A-2281  Vainieri Huttle, V. (D-37)
The “Smart Container Act” (better known as The Bottle Bill)

A-3539  Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Spencer, L.G. (D-29)
Requires public and nonpublic schools to test for and remediate lead in drinking water, and disclose test results.

A-3583  Spencer, L.G. (D-29); Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Tucker, C.G. (D-28
Appropriates $20 million from societal benefits charge to DEP for drinking water infrastructure improvements and lead abatement in City of Newark.

ASSEMBLY REGULATORY OVERSIGHT
4/04/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 14, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ

A-2082  Mukherji, A. (D-33); Pintor Marin, E. (D-29); Webber, J. (R-26)
Requires OAL to maintain Internet database summarizing all State rule-making actions.



ASSEMBLY STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
4/04/16 2:00 PM
Committee Room 13, 4th Floor, State House Annex, Trenton, NJ

A-1623  Rodriguez-Gregg, M. (R-8)
Requires use of pervious concrete by State agencies under certain circumstances.

———————————————————————————————–

ASSEMBLY VOTING SESSION
Thursday
4/07/16 1:00 PM

A-1645  Schaer, G.S. (D-36); Webber, J. (R-26); Dancer, R.S. (R-12
Expands definition of “acquisition,” for purposes of county and municipal open space trust funds, to include demolition, removal of debris, and restoration of lands being acquired.
Related Bill: S-195

A-2949  Andrzejczak, R.B. (D-1); Land, R.B. (D-1)
Provides diamondback terrapins protection as non-game indigenous species. Related: S-1625




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Once the worst Superfund site now to become a solar farm

After years of remediation for chemical contamination, Price’s Pit in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey is set to become home to a solar farm following an agreement between the developer of the project and the township.

Nicholas Huba reports in the Press of Atlantic City:
Under the agreement, the township will not foreclose on the property, while Absecon-based Dewey Place LLC, the developer for the project, will pay back more than $290,000 in back taxes and interest.

RELATED ARTICLE

South Jersey has its fair share of Superfund sites

Foreclosing on the property, which was once called “the most serious environmental problem in the United States,” would have delayed the redevelopment of the site, said Peter Miller, township administrator.
“If we foreclosed on the property, we would get nothing,” Miller said. “Under this agreement, we are able to recoup the taxes that are owed on the property and the property can be reused for something else.”
As part of the agreement, the developer is required pay off the back taxes and interest over the next 20 years. The first payment of $25,000 is due May 1.
Jerry Snow, a resident of the area since 2001, said he was happy with the way the cleanup was handled and happy to see something planned for the site. Snow lives a quarter mile from the former landfill.
“I’ve only heard stories of what happened with the dumping,” said Snow, 48. “Over the years they did their best to clean up what happened. They replaced the pipes and also built the treatment center.”
Cleaning up Price’s Pit has been a decades-long process. It was one of the first sites in New Jersey to undergo cleanup under the federal Superfund program.


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When, if ever, will NJ capitalize on offshore wind leases?

 

** Updated at 6:10 p.m. to add NJ Spotlight story**

New Jersey is one of the northeast states along the Atlantic where the federal government, after detailed studies, has approved and designated locations for wind energy projects. Unlike Maryland and Rhode Island, however, the Garden State continues to drag its heels on developing regulations that would enable developers to move ahead.This has jeopardized ‘first in’ opportunities to develop supporting businesses like turbine and propeller manufacturers. 

These were some of the messages delivered yesterday at a forum on offshore wind energy held at Stockton University in Galloway Township, NJ.

Pat Johnson of The Sand Paper reports:

New Jersey’s Offshore Wind Energy is in its infancy, but it is gaining momentum and needed more than ever today in the face of climate change and rising sea levels. These were the main points to take away from the Offshore Wind Energy Forum held Tuesday at Stockton University in Galloway Township.
The movers and shakers of the infant industry came from near and far. From Washington, D.C., came Walter Cruickshank, deputy director of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management; from Massachusetts, Carolyn Heeps, representing RES Americas, one winner of the land lease auction held by BOEM with the right to develop wind farms off New Jersey’s coast; from Baltimore, Md., Paul Rich from US Wind Inc., the second company to win the land lease auction; and Paul Gallagher from Atlantic City, chief operating officer for Fishermen’s Energy, a company trying to develop a pilot project off A.C. Finally, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker sent a video statement of support and state Sen. Jim Whelan and Assemblyman Vince Mazzeo, both from the 2nd Legislative District, came in person.
Cruickshank gave an overview of BOEM: It holds sway over the land 3 miles from the shoreline and approximately 200 miles out to sea. It also is the department that leases land for oil and gas mining. Because of the need to reduce greenhouse gases, now, more than ever, the country needs offshore wind, he said. “The administration’s climate action plan calls for producing 20 gigawatts of wind energy by 2020.” BOEM has approved 11 offshore leases in the Atlantic, for New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Plans for North and South Carolina are in the making, and Hawaii and California have also made inquiries.
“We are going to do our best to make opportunities available to companies willing to pursue this industry,” he said.
—————————————————————————————————————-

NEW JERSEY COULD STILL BE A POWERFUL PLAYER IN OFFSHORE WIND INDUSTRY

 
–NJ Spotlight

—————————————————————————————————————-

Carolyn Heeps said her British-based company, RES Americas, has plans to transfer its lease to Danish Oil and Natural Gas, or DONG, for its wind energy project. “DONG is the global leader in offshore wind,” said Heeps. Her company will work with DONG as a consultant that will be involved in the entire lifecycle of the project and will maintain management.

“The U.S. market is a great opportunity,” said Heeps. “Our target is 6 gigabytes by 2020.”
New Jersey in particular is attractive because of the strong wind resource and the shallow water plus the onshore grid connections in the state.
Although DONG manufactures turbines in Europe, Heeps said eventually it hopes to see manufacturing in the U.S. once the industry matures.
“It’s very early days. Our preliminary task is to get out and talk to the stakeholders so we can coexist with the other users of marine resources.”
Paul Rich, project developer for U.S. Wind Inc. and holder of the other large land lease off the N.J. coast, said his company has started an offshore wind farm project in Maryland. Maryland was its first choice because it has an OREC (Offshore Wind Renewable Energy Credit) system in place.
New Jersey has the law requiring OREC in its Offshore Wind Economic Development Act of 2010, but the state’s Bureau of Public Utilities has yet to fashion the way it will be used as a commodity – much as solar credits are required of nonrenewable energy companies.
As of January 2015, U.S. Wind has invested $20 million in the Maryland project that is to be built offshore of Ocean City. It has also purchased a brownfield site in Baltimore where the company will manufacture equipment and vessels to service the wind turbines.
Maryland is also requiring U.S. Wind to keep its costs down by requiring the consumer’s cost not to exceed $1.90 a kilowatt.
U.S. Wind hopes to do the same for New Jersey.
Whelan said if New Jersey had had the political will to embrace wind energy, New Jersey would have been the first to have the investment from U.S. Wind. “That manufacturing site could have been in New Jersey.”

Read the full story here


 


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Roundtable discussion Friday on NJ Water Quality

Alarmed by headlines about drinking water?

New Jersey Spotlight is hosting a timely roundtable

Friday, April 1, free to attendees


NJ_Spotlight_water_roundtable
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Campbell moving away from cans using chemical BPA

Campbell soup moving away from cans with BPA in linings
Campbell Soup Company said Tuesday that it is transitioning its famous soup cans away from so-called BPA linings to ones made from acrylic or polyester materials.

Eric Strauss reports in NJBIZ today:

The Camden-based food company said the transition, which has been in the works since February 2012, began this month and should be complete by mid-2017. Although the company says linings involving the chemical Bisphenol A have been in use for more than 40 years, heavily studied and regulated, consumer feedback has pushed for alternatives.
Campbell said it has tested hundreds of possible choices for can linings over the past four years, as it needed to ensure any chosen lining would be compatible with such products as tomato-based ingredients, which are naturally acidic.
“Our priority throughout this transition has been, and will continue to be, food safety,” Mike Mulshine, senior program manager, packaging, said in a prepared statement. “We have tested and conducted trials with hundreds of alternatives to BPA lining and believe the acrylic and polyester options will ensure our food remains safe, affordable and tastes great.”
Products using the non-BPA lined cans will include Campbell’s soups, gravies, Swanson brand broths and SpaghettiOs pasta.
Some other products, such as V8 beverages, are undergoing testing to find non-BPA options, Campbell added. Still other products, such as cartons and pouches, do not use BPA in their linings.


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