Comments on: It’s the remix to transmission

By: Water Power R&D » Sen. Ken Salazar DOI Steven Chu DOE

Water Power R&D » Sen. Ken Salazar DOI Steven Chu DOE — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:33:09 +0000

[...] Samuel Bodman and Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. He pitched them on the idea of an interstate electricity transmission system to be paid for by ratepayers. That would solve one of the biggest hurdles to wide-spread [...]

By: Sen. Ken Salazar DOI Steven Chu DOE « Desalination Research And Development

Sen. Ken Salazar DOI Steven Chu DOE « Desalination Research And Development — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 04:48:28 +0000

By: Brian W.

Brian W. — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 17:42:48 +0000

Renewables such as wind would get my support when wind generation can supply vars onto the grid. Don’t waste my time with suggestions of getting rid of coal plants that have huge rotating mass with green friendly wind that only seems to generate electricity at night when we don’t need it!

By: Hydra

Hydra — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:07:45 +0000

I’d suggest one reason that transmision siting is plagued by NIMBYism is that it is one of those externalities not properly internalized inthe cost of carbon generation. The eminent domain rules used to take the necessay land are confiscatory, at best. Why should it be any different fir generation using renewables?

Except, I doubt we will hear very much about it, if it is an externality to renewables generation.

By: Hydra

Hydra — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:52:12 +0000

Well, Hunter, I suppose they could all move tot he desert, where you live.

Of course, thenthey might need a huge gummint program to bring in the water.

By: Steven Chu: ‘Coal is My Worst Nightmare’ | Clean Coal

Steven Chu: ‘Coal is My Worst Nightmare’ | Clean Coal — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:04:20 +0000

By: B Woods

B Woods — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 20:16:45 +0000

One major hurdle of treating transmission as a potential economic stimulus is that new transmission can take a very long time to receive necessary routing approvals, particularly environmental ones.

By: Risk Moment RES » Blog Archive » For those interested in a great paper

Risk Moment RES » Blog Archive » For those interested in a great paper — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 07:07:17 +0000

By: demonstratr » Blog Archive » Chu says “Coal is my worst nightmare”

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 06:28:39 +0000

By: Carol Overland

Carol Overland — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:14:25 +0000

So how will this be about anything but providing a superhighway for coal? MISO’s Midwest Market’s express purpose is to “displace natural gas with coal” and market prices being what they are, CO2 costs won’t put coal out of reach. There’s a lot of coal waiting in queue in the Dakotas and it’s far ahead of wind in the queue and studies for some are ready, all they need is transmission. FERC rules prohibit discrimination by generation type, transmission services cannot be restricted, so how is this anything but transmission for coal? And then there’s all those affected. For the CapX 2020 project, Phase I only, there are over 80,000 potentially affected landowners in Minnesota. We don’t need to do it this way. Renewable Energy Standards, or any other renewable mandates, must also incorporate SHUT DOWN of fossil generation, and that’s missing from all thus far. When those fossils are shut down, there’s room for renewable. Also, look at the major decrease in consumption. Utilities admit caution is necessary, and they shouldn’t jump into building infrastructure. Recap: 1) It’s about market; 2) It’s about coal; 3) Distributed and dispersed generation and 4) RES must be linked with fossil fuel shutdown. We can do this, and we can do it now… why, we’re already doing it!