[Biofuel] Zombie wind and solar? How repowering old facilities helps renewables keep cutting costs | Utility Dive
http://www.utilitydive.com/news/zombie-wind-and-solar-how-repowering-old-facilities-helps-renewables-keep/429047/ [images and links in on-line article] Zombie wind and solar? How repowering old facilities helps renewables keep cutting costs Old facilities are beginning to be replaced with newer, more efficient technologies, cutting costs and delivering more power Renewable energy is a growth industry, so most media attention goes to installment numbers, expansion rates, and cost declines. Less is paid to the other side of the equation — what happens to facilities when they reach the end of their productive lives. For most fossil facilities, reaching a retirement age means being decommissioned and demolished, if not retrofitted with a new turbine and cleaner fuel. But despite some persistent media rumors of “abandoned” wind turbines or assertions from a certain presidential candidate that "half of [turbines] are broken" or "rusted and rotting," the end of one renewable energy facility’s life most often marks the beginning of another. Most solar farms are too new to be retired yet, but the first U.S. wind projects, built in the 1980s and 1990s, are reaching the end of their productive lives. Output is dwindling, maintenance costs are climbing, and new technologies make the turbines obsolete. But the existing sites, with ready transmission connections and high wind potential, make them ideal candidates for what the industry calls “repowering.” Wind developers and industry experts say projects repowered with new technologies will qualify for another ten-year round of the $0.023/kWh federal production tax credit (PTC), extended at the end of last year. That would allow them to win new, low-priced power purchase agreements (PPAs) with utilities or meet the low prices in today’s wholesale electricity markets. “New wind turbines’ taller towers increase wind capture by 44% and their longer blades increase wind capture another 57%,” said American Wind Energy Industries (AWEA) Research Director Michael Goggin. “At the same, advanced generator, gearbox, and component technologies have lowered turbines’ cost per MW,” Goggin added. “The result is a lower cost per MW and more MWh generated for the cost, which is driving the levelized cost of energy down.” Contracts for the oldest projects’ output are largely expired, said John Hensley, AWEA manager of energy data. But IRS rulings on the PTC support financing project repowering. And the advanced technologies, along with their relative readiness for development, allow project owners to enter into PPAs or sell into energy markets at competitive prices. The potential for repowering The bulk of U.S. repowering so far has been at the Altamont, San Gorgonio, and Tehachapi Pass sites in California where the first U.S. utility-scale installations were built, Goggin said. The early generation of turbines were having increasing maintenance issues at sites identified for very high quality wind. Repowering at Altamont has a unique driver. A historic 2010 agreement was brokered between the state and NextEra Energy by then-Attorney General and now Governor Jerry Brown to settle longstanding concerns about avian harms. The developer agreed to replace 2,400 of the 30-plus year old turbines that were committing the most egregious offenses with 100 newer, taller turbines with slower blade rotation speeds. The new turbines are also being sited more benignly and have other scientifically validated high-tech bird protections. Each of the new turbines will produce as much as 23 times the wind-generated electricity, according to local news reports. With the extension of the PTC at the end of 2015, interest in repowering elsewhere accelerated as developers looked again at similarly wind-rich sites across the country where older projects’ PTC eligibility has expired. “The 61% decline in the LCOE for wind from 2009 to 2015 is making repowering an attractive option,” Goggin said. Repowering can be “full” or “partial.” Full repowering is the complete dismantling and replacement of turbine equipment at an existing project site, while partial repowering involves replacing selected turbine or plant components to extend the life of a facility. Under IRS ruling 94-31, retrofitted facilities can qualify for tax incentives even if they contain some used property. The IRS 80/20 Rule governs the use of the PTC for partial repowering, Goggin said. Widely used for other types of power plants, it essentially requires that 80% of a power plant must be replaced in order to qualify. A January 2015 report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimated there will likely be only “a few hundred megawatts per year” of repowering by the early 2020s, assuming an average project life between 20 and 25 years. The report forecasts a 1 GW to 3 GW U.S. repowering market by the late 2020s and an estimated repowering market
[Biofuel] 30 Powerful Photos Show Standoff Between Militarized Police and Dakota Access Pipeline Protestors
http://www.ecowatch.com/dakota-access-pipeline-protest-photos-2068408834.html [images and links in on-line article] Oct. 29, 2016 08:26AM EST 30 Powerful Photos Show Standoff Between Militarized Police and Dakota Access Pipeline Protestors Annie Leonard The 2,000 water protectors who have gathered to oppose the pipeline's construction were met today by the Morton County Sheriff Department, who removed people and their camping gear. Heavily armed authorities pushed through a supply area for the Water Protectors blockade Thursday. The public witnessed a new level of escalation that day in the Native struggle at Standing Rock, as police swept through an encampment in the direct path of the Dakota Access pipeline. The resulting standoff with the National Guard, and police officers from various states, led to 141 arrests. Advancing authorities attacked Water Protectors with flash grenades, bean bag launchers, pepper spray and Long Range Acoustic Devices. It is crucial that people recognize that Standing Rock is part of an ongoing struggle against colonial violence. The Dakota Access pipeline is a front of struggle in a long-erased war against Native peoples—a war that has been active since first contact, and waged without interruption. Greenpeace stands in solidarity with and lends full support to the water protectors at Standing Rock, and we recognize the rights and sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux, accorded by the Fort Laramie Treaties of 1851 and 1868. We call on President Obama to use his executive power to revoke the permits for construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline immediately. And we reject the actions of North Dakota law enforcement in favoring the interests of Energy Transfer Partners and the fossil fuel industry over the rights of this land's inhabitants. We join in proclaiming the sacred power of water and the responsibility we have to protect it at all costs. And we urge our government to respect the sovereignty of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose constitutional right to peacefully protest has been unjustly met by a militarized police force. The Dakota Access Pipeline is a direct threat to the life, rights and water of the Standing Rock Sioux. It is unconscionable that a militarized force was deployed to serve a massive pipeline to move dirty, fracked oil that would threaten our climate and the life-sustaining water of the Missouri River. And, despite law enforcement's effort to jam video feeds coming out of the camps today, seeing those forces moving against Indigenous people will only galvanize the public rejection of the Dakota Access Pipeline and all it stands for. ___ Sustainablelorgbiofuel mailing list Sustainablelorgbiofuel@lists.sustainablelists.org http://lists.eruditium.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel
[Biofuel] North Dakota pipeline activists say arrested protesters were kept in dog kennels - LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-north-dakota-pipeline-20161028-story.html [images in on-line article] North Dakota pipeline activists say arrested protesters were kept in dog kennels By Sandy Tolan After a night of chaotic clashes with police on the front lines in a months-long protest, Native American activists complained about the force wielded to drive protesters from the path of a pipeline they contend will desecrate tribal lands and put their lone source of drinking water at risk. Protesters said that those arrested in the confrontation had numbers written on their arms and were housed in what appeared to be dog kennels, without bedding or furniture. Others said advancing officers sprayed mace and pelted them with rubber bullets. “It goes back to concentration camp days,” said Mekasi Camp-Horinek, a protest coordinator who said authorities wrote a number on his arm when he was housed in one of the mesh enclosures with his mother, Casey. At least 141 people were arrested Thursday after hundreds of police officers in riot gear, flanked by military vehicles releasing high-pitched “sound cannon” blasts, moved slowly forward, firing clouds of pepper spray at activists who refused to move. Authorities claimed some protesters turned violent during the confrontation, setting fires, tossing Molotov cocktails and, in one instance, pulling out a gun and firing on officers. Some of the activists claimed Friday that police had opened fire with rubber bullets on protesters and horses. One horse was euthanized after being shot in the leg, said Robby Romero, a Native American activist. “They were shooting their rubber bullets at our horses,” he said. “We had to put one horse down,” he said. Camp-Horinek said authorities entered the teepees that activists had erected in the path of the pipeline, a four-state, 1,200-mile conduit to carry oil from western North Dakota to Illinois. “It looked like a scene from the 1800s, with the cavalry coming up to the doors of the teepees, and flipping open the canvas doors with automatic weapons,” he said. Standing Rock Tribal Chairman David Archambault II called for a Justice Department investigation into the police tactics. Amnesty International announced Friday it was sending a human rights delegation to investigate and Sen. Bernie Sanders asked the White House to order the Army Corps of Engineers to temporarily halt construction of the pipeline. “DOJ can no longer ignore our requests,” Archambault said in a statement. “If harm comes to any who come here to stand in solidarity with us, it is on their watch.” Authorities have said all along that they have used restraint in the ongoing dispute and had pleaded for activists to retreat from the path of the pipeline and return to the camp where they have been gathered for months. Most of those arrested were expected to be charged with criminal trespassing, engaging in a riot and conspiracy to endanger by fire, according to the sheriff's department. Several fires broke out during the confrontation, and sheriff’s officials said seven protesters used “sleeping dragon” devices to attach themselves to vehicles or other heavy objects. The maneuver typically involves protesters handcuffing themselves together through PVC pipe, making it difficult for authorities to remove them using bolt cutters to break the handcuffs. The protest in the rugged lands along the Cannonball River has lasted months as activists — sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands — have assembled to decry the pipeline project. But on Friday, with protesters cleared from the path of the pipeline, work was expected to resume on the $3.78-billion Dakota Access Pipeline, operated by the Fortune 500 company Energy Transfer Partners. “When I left the bus in handcuffs, DAPL [Dakota Access Pipeline] trucks were lined up down the highway with construction equipment and materials waiting to come in and begin work,” said Camp-Horinek. State and county police, the North Dakota National Guard and an oil company private security team cleared protesters, along with the teepees and tents they had erect in the path of the pipeline, and on Friday, authorities removed the final roadblocks that protesters had erected along the highway. For the most part, protesters remained peaceful during Thursday’s confrontation, though at one point, an activist set fire to a heap of tires that were part of a blockade set up to impede the progress of advancing officers. Sheriff’s officials said that one woman, while being arrested, pulled out a weapon and fired three rounds in the direction of the police lines. No one was hit, authorities said. Activists denied that the woman fired the shots and claimed that sheriff’s officials previously had made erroneous reports about protesters’ actions, including passing along rumors of pipe bombs in the activists’ camp. “The only gunshots that were fired would
[Biofuel] Russia voted off UN Human Rights Council - The Boston Globe
http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/world/2016/10/28/russia-voted-off-human-rights-council/oIGJuvW6zqffftBOHeC7YM/story.html Russia voted off UN Human Rights Council By Michael Astor Associated Press October 28, 2016 UNITED NATIONS — The General Assembly voted Russia off the UN Human Rights Council on Friday, a stunning rebuke to the country, which is increasingly being accused of war crimes over its actions in Syria. The 193-member General Assembly elected 14 members to 47-nation council, the United Nations’ main body charged with promoting and protecting human rights. Russia, which received 112 votes, lost its regional seat to Hungary, with 144 votes, and Croatia with 114 votes. Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin played down the importance of the loss. ‘‘It was a very close vote and very good countries competing, Croatia, Hungary. They are fortunate because of their size, they are not exposed to the winds of international diplomacy. Russia is very exposed,’’ he said. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China, Brazil, Rwanda, Cuba, South Africa, Japan, Tunisia, the United States and United Kingdom also won seats on the council. Guatemala was the only country running for a seat beside Russia to not be elected. ___ Sustainablelorgbiofuel mailing list Sustainablelorgbiofuel@lists.sustainablelists.org http://lists.eruditium.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sustainablelorgbiofuel
