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Arizona Governor rejects new rules for wind and solar power

BY HOWARD FISCHER Capitol Media Services

PHOENIX — Calling it a potential barrier to renewable energy, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation Monday which would have imposed new requirements on solar and wind generating plants.

HB 2618 contained a list of what cities, towns, and counties could adopt in zoning standards, site-specific conditions, and permitting requirements on such facilities.

Potentially more significant, it would have required owners to not only have a decommissioning plan in place but also to post a bond — essentially insurance — to cover the costs if the company goes bankrupt or otherwise tries to walk away. And it even would mandate restoring and re-establishing soils and vegetation using native seed mixes.

It also included requirements for liability insurance to protect the community from any financial obligations due to injuries or other damages caused by the plant.

Rep. Gail Griffin, R-Hereford, said counties already have some oversight of such projects. What this would do, she said, is provide some basic standards.

The governor, however, said all that is too much.

“HB 2618 encourages an inconsistent statewide patchwork of regulations for renewable energy projects and would have a deep chilling effect on renewable energy development in Arizona,” Hobbs wrote in her veto message. “It creates additional regulatory confusion for businesses, negatively impacting Arizona’s ability to attract, retain, and grow a renewable energy ecosystem in our state to create good-paying jobs for everyday Arizonans.”

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Large, floating solar array over NJ reservoir powers treatment plant

By Wayne Parry, Associated Press

Solar panels from a project at a water treatment plant are shown Tuesday, June 6, 2023, in Millburn, N.J., that provides enough electricity to power 95% of the treatment facilities electrical needs. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry)

MILLBURN, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 millions gallons of drinking water a day.

Each one of those gallons weighs around 8 pounds , so it’s quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is needed to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that the New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area.

So the water utility partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the renewable energy subsidiary of the natural gas firm New Jersey Resources, for a solution.

NJR Clean Energy Ventures built a vast array of solar panels, linked them together, and placed them on the surface of the water at Canoe Brook Reservoir.

The companies say the 17-acre solar array, consisting of 16,510 solar panels, is the largest floating solar array in North America — about twice the size of the next-largest facility, an array of floating panels on a body of water in Sayreville, New Jersey owned by that municipality.

The Millburn facility, which began operating in January, produces 8.9 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,400 homes.

But the power doesn’t go to residential customers. Instead, it provides 95% of the water treatment plant’s substantial energy requirements.

“It takes a lot of energy to pump that water,” said Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water. “When we can use a cleaner, greener, more efficient energy source, we want to seize that opportunity.”

Read the full story here

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Lehigh University begins work on a 20-acre solar farm

Construction equipment rests on the area where a solar array is being built Wednesday, April 12, 2023, at the Lehigh University Goodman Campus in Bethlehem. The site for the solar array, just south of Legacy Park and opposite the Lewis Indoor Tennis Center, was chosen relative to existing power infrastructure. Landscaping will be planted between the field and the nearest residential community to help block the view of the array. The project will supply 100% of the electricity for the Goodman Campus, and offset 8% of Lehigh’s grid electricity consumption. The array also will provide research and learning opportunities for students. (Rick Kintzel/The Morning Call)

By LINDSAY WEBER |The Morning Call

Lehigh University has begun construction on a 20-acre solar farm that will bring 7,400 solar panels to the school’s Murray H. Goodman campus in Bethlehem.

According to Emily Collins, a Lehigh University spokesperson, the project will supply 100% of the electricity needs of the Goodman campus, which is home to the university’s athletic facilities.

The site for the solar array, just south of Legacy Park and opposite the Lewis Indoor Tennis Center, was chosen relative to existing power infrastructure. Landscaping will be planted between the field and the nearest residential community to help block the view of the array. The project will supply 100% of the electricity for the Goodman Campus, and offset 8% of Lehigh’s grid electricity consumption. The array also will provide research and learning opportunities for students.

The solar farm, which the Bethlehem Planning Commission approved in a 3-1 vote last year, was opposed by several residents of Saucon Fields Condominiums, which overlooks the solar farm’s location on 124 Goodman Drive. Residents said the solar panels would cause glare to reflect into their homes and diminish their property values.

Representatives for the university said that a “glare analysis” found that glare would not be a significant hazard, and the school is constructing a berm, or raised barrier of land, with trees on the border between the two properties.

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Cornell engineering research makes stunning claim about why it’s important to manufacture solar panels in North America

The research claims that if solar panel manufacturing were to return to the U.S. by 2035, emissions resulting from panel creation would be reduced by 30%, and energy consumption would be cut by 13%, compared to 2020.

Solar Panel Manufacturing and Testing. (Archive Photo)Bookmark

By DERICK LILA, pvbuzz

Domestic production of solar panels – most of which are now made in Asia – can speed up decarbonization in the U.S. and reduce climate change faster, according to new Cornell Engineering research published March 8 by Nature Communications.

“If we bring the solar panel manufacturing back to the U.S., it helps us realize decarbonization goals faster,” said Haoyue Liang, a doctoral student in systems engineering, who co-authored “Reshoring Silicon Photovoltaics Manufacturing Contributes to Decarbonization and Climate Change Mitigation” with Fengqi You, the Roxanne E. and Michael J. Zak Professor in Energy Systems Engineering.

“As solar photovoltaic panels emerge as a major power source that will characterize the U.S. energy market for the remainder of the 21st century,” Liang said, “manufacturing and sourcing panels here will align with our climate targets and our energy policy goals.”

Manufacturing crystalline silicon photovoltaic panels in the U.S. solves logistical challenges and eases greenhouse gas problems, according to the paper.

The scientists analyzed production in the U.S. to learn how it could shrink greenhouse gas emissions and energy use. If solar panel manufacturing can return to the U.S. by 2035, the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from panel creation would be reduced by 30% and energy consumption would be cut by 13%, compared to 2020, when the U.S. relied almost entirely on international trading partners.

By 2050, the solar panels made and used in the U.S. will be more efficient and will reduce the carbon footprint by 33%, and use 17% less energy than solar panels sourced globally in 2020.

The climate-change mitigation forecast would be fulfilled by both reshoring the solar panel manufacturing back to the U.S. and having mostly renewable energy on the power grid, which is anticipated in the next decades.

Based on projections about the energy decarbonization transition that happens alongside reshoring, You said, the U.S. will see a larger share of renewable power accounting for primary energy consumption and an overall lower primary energy consumption over the years for solar panel manufacturing.

Read the full story here

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Will the Other Midwestern States Follow Illinois in stripping local governments of veto power over solar and wind projects?

The state recently joined New York and California in passing such laws, eliciting both support and pushback.

*Randy DeBaillie walks toward his solar panels at his farm in Orion, Illinois on Feb. 3, 2019. Credit: Youngrae Kim for The Washington Post via Getty Images*

By Dan Gearino and Aydali Campa, Inside Climate News, Feb. 27, 2023

Two years ago, Illinois had adopted a landmark clean energy law that called for building vast amounts of renewable power. At the same time, 15 counties with some of the most land available for wind and solar had passed, or were about to pass, restrictions on new development that made the state’s goals more difficult to reach.

Something had to give.

That something came last month, when Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a bill that took away the ability of local governments to limit or ban wind and solar power, a measure that follows similar actions in California and New York.

Now, officials from places that had restricted development of renewables projects—like Ford County, located in the rural area between Chicago and Champaign-Urbana—are livid about what they view as a power grab by majority Democrats.

“My concern is for the health, safety and general welfare of our citizens, something the state has seemingly lost sight of,” said Cindy Ihrke, vice chairman of the Ford County Board, in an email.

“This bill takes away a county’s ability to regulate siting in each of our unique areas,” she added. “What is good for one county is not always good for the one next door.”

Supporters of the law respond that they had little choice but to take action because local governments have relied on misleading or false information about the safety and economics of renewable energy to pass rules that are not in the public interest.

Read the full story here

If you like this post you’ll love our daily environmental 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.

Will the Other Midwestern States Follow Illinois in stripping local governments of veto power over solar and wind projects? Read More »

Biden is putting more money into it. So what exactly is ‘community solar’?

The Inflation Reduction Act includes money to help develop subscription-based solar programs.

The Fairbault Community Solar project, located just east of Faribault, Minnesota. Credit: Cooperative Energy Futures — *The Faribault Community Solar project in Minnesota.*

By Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News

On a farm field east of Faribault, Minnesota, a 1.3-megawatt solar array provides electricity to serve about 180 subscribers.

The project, which occupies about six acres, is an example of community solar—also called “shared solar” or “solar gardens”—a kind of development in which subscribers receive credits on their monthly utility bills for the solar electricity produced.

Community solar is poised to become much more common thanks to a new $7 billion fund tied to the Inflation Reduction Act. The EPA began the process of setting up the fund last week.

I’ve found that one of the biggest challenges in writing about community solar is explaining what it is, so I turned to Maria McCoy, a researcher for the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit that closely tracks the programs.

“Community solar is meant to be an option for folks who can’t put solar on their own roofs, whether they don’t own a home or have the financial ability to put solar up there or have a lot of shady trees,” she said.

The large majority of subscribers and projects are in six states: Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and New York. About 20 states have active programs and many of the rest have rules that limit the ability of developers to do subscription-based projects.

Community solar has its origins in ideas about democratizing access to clean energy, which has translated into laws mostly in blue states.

Read the full story here

Biden is putting more money into it. So what exactly is ‘community solar’? Read More »

solar

Arizona Governor rejects new rules for wind and solar power

Large, floating solar array over NJ reservoir powers treatment plant

Lehigh University begins work on a 20-acre solar farm

Cornell engineering research makes stunning claim about why it’s important to manufacture solar panels in North America

Will the Other Midwestern States Follow Illinois in stripping local governments of veto power over solar and wind projects?

The state recently joined New York and California in passing such laws, eliciting both support and pushback.

Biden is putting more money into it. So what exactly is ‘community solar’?

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