Category: Uncategorized

In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise

Yale Environment 360 discusses In Boost for Renewables, Grid-Scale Battery Storage Is on the Rise. Driven by technological advances, facilities are being built with storage systems that can hold enough renewable energy to power hundreds of thousands of homes. The advent of “big battery” technology addresses a key challenge for green energy — the intermittency of wind and solar.

Inside a cavernous turbine building, a 300-megawatt lithium-ion battery is currently being readied for operation, with another 100-megawatt battery to come online in 2021. Together, they will be able to discharge enough electricity to power roughly 300,000 California homes for four hours during evenings, heatwaves, and other times when energy demand outstrips supply, according to project developer Vistra Energy.

These aren’t the only super-sized batteries that will soon be operating at the Moss Landing plant. An additional 182.5 megawatts produced by 256 Tesla megapack batteries are scheduled to begin feeding into California’s electric grid in mid-2021, with plans to eventually add enough capacity at the site to power every home in nearby San Francisco for six hours, according to the Bay Area utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, which will own and operate the system. Elsewhere in California, a 250-megawatt storage project went online this year in San Diego, construction has begun on a 150-megawatt system near San Francisco, a 100-megawatt battery project is nearing completion in Long Beach, and a number of others are in various stages of development around the state.

3 E’s: The Top 3 Climate Action Items for VA Leaders in 2020

This NRDC opinion piece discusses the top 3 climate action items for VA leaders in 2020 energy efficiency, emissions, and equity. Now that fossil-fueled, OK Boomer climate deniers and climate obstructionists have been tossed out of Virginia’s capitol, victory for Virginia’s climate action is decisively won. A climate and clean energy majority will very soon rightly run the show in Richmond, and not a moment too soon. In a state already grappling with sea-level rise, extreme weather, and climate-related health impacts across the Commonwealth, they will (and must) lead the way in 2020.

Clean Energy States Alliance Webinar On Electric Vehicles and the Grid

This webinar discusses the trajectory for the market penetration of electric vehicles (EVs) and what does it mean for the electrical grid. How can EVs be best integrated into the grid so that they increase system reliability and reduce emissions? What would be the impacts on the grid of different scenarios for EV charging?

This webinar explored these questions with presentations from Matteo Muratori (Engineer, Integrated Transportation and Energy Systems, National Renewable Energy Laboratory) and Chris Nelder (Manager, EV Grid Integration, Rocky Mountain Institute). It was hosted by Warren Leon (Executive Director, CESA).

This webinar was presented by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA).

A quick shift to electric vehicles could drive the Green New Deal forward

This article discusses how a quick shift to electric vehicles could drive the Green New Deal forward. The transition could keep the U.S. competitive with countries like China but also radically improve the country’s own transportation sector—currently the most polluting of the economy—while creating jobs and improving equity.

There are now 486 electric vehicle startups in China, where electric car sales topped 1.1 million last year. That’s three times more than sales in the United States.

While American automakers slowly add new electric cars in the U.S. market, the Chinese market is a different story: GM, which has committed to an all-electric future, plans to introduce 20 “new energy” vehicle models there by 2023—including electric cars and plug-in hybrids—and 10 of those within the next year. In the U.S., the company only offers one electric car (the Chevy Bolt) and one plug-in hybrid. It’s planning to release electric SUVs and pickups but has not disclosed when those will come to market.

Key books and reports on climate justice

This article discusses some key books and reports on climate justice. Climate activist’s Green New Deal puts spotlight on environmental justice … aka climate justice.

With climate activists’ spotlight on liberal Democrats’ Green New Deal as an outline for climate change action comes a new focus on social justice: on the adverse and unequal impacts environmental problems, and sometimes their solutions, can have on historically disadvantaged and underserved communities. This “environmental justice” and increasingly “climate justice” aspect of climate change is the backdrop for this bookshelf feature during this year’s Black History Month.