Floating Wind Turbines Buoy Hopes of Expanding Renewable Energy
An oil derrick and wind turbines stand above the plains
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. Updated: 07 Feb 2021, 01:21 PM IST The Wall Street Journal
Offshore wind farms that don’t need to be embedded in the seafloor could open up new areas to clean-power generation
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Off the east coast of Scotland, in water more than 300 feet deep, five towering turbines weighing thousands of tons float in the North Sea. Installed in 2017, the turbines power about 36,000 homes a year.
Wind farms have been erected on land and at sea for decades, but Hywind Scotland, operated by Norwegian oil giantEquinor ASA, is the first to float. Instead of being inserted into steel tubes buried in the seabed, the turbines sit in cylindrical buoys that are fixed to the seabed by mooring lines. The approach promises to enable wind farms in much deeper water, where there are often stronger winds, opening up swaths of untapped coastli
President Joe Biden is expected to release an infrastructure plan this month that sounds ready-made for microgrids. His goal, he said, is to make infrastructure “more climate resilient” to achieve “cheaper and cleaner” transport.
Although microgrids seem like a perfect match for Biden’s plan, it’s uncertain how much they will play into it. Washington is well aware of solar, wind and energy storage, but microgrids, not so much. The technology, as used today, is still relatively new to the game. So microgrids don’t seem to be high on Biden’s radar. At least, he’s not using the term much, so far, when he talks about clean energy.
California regulators have approved a microgrid plan directing $200 million to help communities build networks that can supply power through the state’s extended wildfire-prevention blackouts, a task expected to take years to move from planning to completing its first projects.
But private microgrid developers argue that the plan doesn’t go far enough to allow private investment to bolster resilience for this year’s fire season, or to meet the mandate of a 2018 law calling for tariffs to allow commercial microgrids to flourish.
The microgrid incentive program approved Thursday by the California Public Utilities Commission asks the state’s investor-owned utilities to identify the most cost-effective projects and the most vulnerable communities to be eligible for grants to set up “complex, multi-property microgrids.”
California Looks for Ways to Alleviate Coming Energy Squeeze As the summer months approach, state energy officials are scrambling to find ways to reduce stress on the state’s power grid, including reductions in air conditioner use and briefly powering down refrigerators. Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times | January 6, 2021 | Analysis
(TNS) Sometime next summer, there s a decent chance a heat wave will bake the American West, and California s power grid will again be stretched to its limits.
As the sun sets, solar panels will start generating less electricity even as temperatures remain high. Power plants that burn natural gas will fire up as quickly as possible, in a race to keep air conditioners blowing and avert the need for rolling blackouts.