Category Archives: Renewable Energy

The Ghost of Enron Past

S. A. Shelley: For those of you too young to remember, in the late nineties and early naughts (naughties?), there was a super major company called Enron. Enron was a darling of Wall Street and was hugely profitable in trading energy. It was an inventive company, too, in that it developed things such as weather derivatives and dubious accounting schemes. But it was mostly a scam, a fraud undertaken on a massive scale. The company eventually collapsed, and from time to time in Houston, you can still meet a former Enron employee in a pub who, after a beer or two, will tell you wonderful tales of excess at that company.

 
But one often forgotten and overlooked practice that Enron excelled at was manipulating markets and physical energy grid assets to extort money: Everyone paid Enron. This situation is exemplified best by the role that Enron had in the great California energy crisis of 2000 to 2001. California had been experiencing power demand growth and subsidiaries of Enron had contracted with various California utilities to provide power. However, Enron then went on to game the system by doing such things as providing power in surges that the California grid could not transmit, and then claiming grid curtailment (congestion) charges. In effect, Enron was paid to supply power and then paid to not deliver that same power because of grid constraints. Ultimately California residents paid twice for power that they could not receive. It was a masterful stroke of clever contracting that, though of dubious morality, was legal at that time. Years later, it was even shown that Enron had taken power plants offline during California peak demand to force electricity prices higher during such times. Where else in the world can such unbridled capitalism (deviousness) flourish?

Which brings us to modern times and the renewable energy surge along with associated grid constraints. Grid operators in the UK have started paying wind farm operators huge sums, in excess of 1 billion GBP to not deliver power.

UK Is Paying £1 Billion to Waste a Record Amount of Wind Power – BNN Bloomberg

But the grid hasn’t expanded at the same pace. As a result, the operator is increasingly paying wind farms, particularly those in Scotland, not to run. So far this year, the UK has spent more than £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in “congestion costs” to turn off plants that can’t deliver electricity because of grid constraints, and switch on others.

It’s just as bad in Germany with grid constraints. In 2022 about 3% of all renewable energy generated by wind and solar were curtailed – produced but not delivered to the grid because of grid and network physical constraints. In 2023, about 4% of all renewable energy generated was not delivered (curtailments).

In way back times, when a power company built a new power plant (coal, gas, whatever) it was also tasked by the utility regulator to build the supporting transmission lines and substations. (See the Vogtle nuclear power plant as such an example.)

But for some strange reason, the politicians pushing renewable energy ignored or simply forgot about the grid. The grid is also forgotten by most folks. Very few people understand how the grid is a delicately balanced system of power inputs and outflows. Residents expect to be able to turn on their dishwasher whenever they want and have the power right then and there to operate the machine. Never once do most residents appreciate, let alone understand, the complex engineering and massive infrastructure required to make that small bit of modern convenience work. Rarer still do politicians ever talk about adding more power lines and substations.

It should also be noted that the solution has its own set of problems. Transmission infrastructure requires large swaths of land, often through populated areas, and residents and special interest groups (often fossil fuel companies) typically fight against such developments, the so-called NIMBY problem. It is much easier to get approval for an offshore development, take all the accolades for helping solve the earth’s climate problems, and then leave the hard work for someone else.

Big wind farm producers are no doubt cognizant of the grid constraints yet indifferent to those problems. They are perfectly willing to suck every subsidizing Dollar or Euro out of government coffers at all levels to build their huge wind farms. The wind farm developers care only for their power cable to the to the grid connection point and not past it. If they have to earn congestion or curtailment fees, so be it, because consumers will just have to pay for it. We pay, we always pay, for the actions of politicians with small intellects and big egos for as long as these politicians continue their utopian green visions without understanding the complex connections on that path forward. Until our elected representatives get smarter there will always be such reincarnations of Enron who take advantage of the grid congestion problem.

Vive l’Alberta Libre!

There is no saving Canada.

In September in Canada, there is a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation for Indigenous Peoples. (Some Canadians call it National Surf Day because of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau snuck off in secret to surf that very first solemn day which he publicly championed and then privately ignored.) In 2024, in the main branch of the City of Calgary Public Library, there were many displays about Indigenous history. One display was a large map of the province of Alberta. On that map the large cities were indicated as well as a mixture of Indigenous and Metis historical land areas. Figure 1 below is an image capture of that map.

Figure 1: The 2024 Calgary Library Map of Alberta

In Alberta, there is only one city named Red Deer. On the map two are shown in different geographic locations. There are also some questionable land boundaries indicated and most indigenous treaty bands are not shown at all. In the main branch of the City of Calgary library there is an archive of maps on the top floor: Current maps of Alberta of all kinds are also kept there. Apparently, it was too much for the library staff to fact check in-house: They probably felt that their work was sufficient. Such is the continuing decline in Canada.

Time for a New Energy Policy

OWOE Staff: It’s a new year, we have a new president and administration, and we have new hope that the plan to vaccinate Americans is going to finally end the pandemic. What we don’t have is new thinking on what this country should be doing for a long term, rational and strategic energy policy. OWOE believes it is the right time to propose a comprehensive energy policy that balances America’s needs with the planet’s needs and is based on sound economics, realistic technology and good common sense. The OWOE energy policy combines several key elements, including: firm commitment to dramatically reduce dependence on fossil fuels in a planned and rational manner, sustainable investment in renewable technologies, and establishment of a North American Energy Alliance (NAEA) between the US and Canada to aggressively develop and globally sell our existing energy resources.

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The World Never Thanks Naval Architects

Guest Blog by S. A. Shelley: For almost all of human history, trade has been facilitated by water borne craft. Mesopotamia? They had boats on the rivers and in the gulf. Egypt? Boats on the river. Rome? Boats hauling grain from Egypt to Rome. China?  The Chinese were sailing and trading along East Asia for thousands of years.  By the time of the Clipper ships, naval architects had mastered wind power such that a clipper ship could make a transatlantic voyage in about 12 days . A modern fossil-fueled container ship can make the same voyage in about 8 days.  By 2018 goods carried on ships amounted to nearly 11 billion tonnes with some economists estimating that between 80% to 90% of all goods produced globally travel by ships across some water at some stage of production.

Ships today tend to be powered by fossil fuels, and when looking at the amount of CO2 emitted per tonne of cargo moved per kilometer, ships are by far the most efficient way to move goods (Fig. 1).

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Money Laundering and Renewable Energy – A Great Opportunity

Guest blog by S. A. Shelley: If the world wants to move quickly to a lot of renewable energy, then maybe money laundering is the key to getting it done.

It’s been well known for some time that money laundering is a significant driver in real estate  ( see theweek.com and boingboing.net)   Such shenanigans with real estate began way back in the 1980s in Florida, with cocaine cowboys literally knocking on home-owners’ doors and offering cash for homes at above market value.  From there, it moved to California, Hong Kong and Dubai, Vancouver, and of course London…until a large chunk of high-end real estate was infected somewhat by illicit money. There are of course other means to launder money. Cash flow businesses such as restaurants or car washes have also been havens, i.e., anything that can provide a large, difficult to trace production output and revenues versus costs and volumes of input: Was that 1lb of pasta used to make 5 dishes or 6?

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Do Renewable Portfolio Standards Increase Electricity Rates?

I live in California. That gives me a front seat to virtually every new initiative and trend related to saving the planet, whether it is about turtles and plastic straws, banning single-use plastic bags, electric vehicles, or green energy. Although not the first state to adopt a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), California has been one of the most aggressive in its timetable for replacing fossil fuel based electricity with carbon-free. In 2018, California updated its RPS to the requirement to achieve 60% of electricity sales from renewable sources by 2030 and 100% by 2045. Of course, California’s aggressive push toward renewables has triggered a wide range of reactions. For example, Michael Shellenberger of Environmental Progress has been pushing the idea that California’s electricity rates are significantly higher than the rest of the US (see Figure 1) and rising significantly faster because of its dependence on renewables. His culprit is renewable energy and his solution is to keep nuclear plants open. In contrast, Roger Sowell, who blogs about renewable energy issues, argues that California’s unique climate, geography, and large population make such differences to be expected.

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Recent Interesting and Unusual Energy Stories

Guest blog by Mr. R. U. Cirius: Here are some interesting and somewhat offbeat energy stories that haven’t gotten much media attention during the first three months of the year.

California wind turbines contribute to unprecedented wildflower outbreak

This year California has experienced what many are calling a “superbloom” of wildflowers that hasn’t been seen in decades (Fig. 1). While most attribute this to heavy winter rainfall following several years of drought, Dr. Marko Ramius from the National Wind Energy Laboratory (NWEL) has identified another contributor to the phenomenon – California’s ubiquitous wind turbines. Dr. Ramius has released his surprising findings that show the role of what he calls the “turbulence boundary interface”. This is the boundary of the turbulent mass of air downstream of the turbine’s rotor that generally hovers just off the ground. He has found that this boundary traps moisture close to the earth, which then enhances and prolongs the period of flower bloom. He is currently in discussion with major turbine manufacturers to incorporate blade tip misters into their designs that could provide moisture during drought periods and hopefully make such superblooms a more common occurrence.

Fig. 1 – Wildflowers under wind turbines near Palm Springs, CA

Click here to learn more about wind energy.

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California Does Not Need Big, Very Expensive Floating Offshore Wind Farms


Guest blog by S. A. Shelley Californians do not need big and very expensive offshore floating wind farms. In fact, nobody needs big and very expensive offshore floating wind farms. Fixed offshore wind farms started out very expensive, requiring significant government subsidies, but small. They have since matured to allow for big inexpensive offshore wind farms with no government subsidies of any kind. The latest fixed offshore wind farms are producing and supplying electricity to their grids at a cost competitive rate compared to the current supply, and this is a result of technological evolution, improved execution strategies and increasing turbine size (power output). However, floating offshore wind technology is still in the nascent, small and heavily subsidized phase of the technology lifecycle. Yet, for some reason, various consortia are pitching huge floating wind farms right off the bat to California. That’s a big problem and folks in California need to watch that they do not get forced to subsidize those projects.

Continue reading California Does Not Need Big, Very Expensive Floating Offshore Wind Farms