Domain and Range

Good morning and happy Friday,

This week, preliminary data from the US EIA indicates that nearly 100% of new capacity added to the U.S. grid in 2024 will be carbon-free – the ~63 GW of expected growth will be the most built in a year since 2003. For its part, Texas will overtake California to add more battery storage than any other state this year.

And in an opinion piece in Forbes, the Chairman and CEO of ReNew, the first Indian company to list on Nasdaq, posits that AI can power the transition to clean energy by enhancing efficiencies and reducing costs.

In Alaska, however, the chair of the House Energy Committee introduced a bill that seeks to define coal-fired generation as “clean,” presumably in response to efforts to pass a 40% renewable portfolio standard in a state that gets 80% of its electricity from fossil fuels.

Read on for more.

Sexy Steel

When clean energy advocates talk about building projects, they often use the phrase “getting steel in the ground” – even though in the case of solar, the panel frames are usually aluminum, and sometimes the racking is too. Well, an American company named after a Japanese art form is challenging the dominance of Chinese aluminum in solar. Here’s how things are unfolding:

• Aluminum is widely used solar PV – it’s light, relatively inexpensive, and easy to work with. It is not, however, without its issues: it’s very energy-intensive to produce, so it has a considerable carbon footprint, not to mention the other environmental impacts of mining it.
• Another major issue is supply: the U.S. can’t meet projected demand for aluminum (we’re currently a net importer, and demand is ramping up), and China and Russia are two of the top three aluminum-producing nations, with China controlling nearly 60% of the global market.
• Origami Solar says it has the answer: by using recycled steel, its U.S.-made frames reduce production-related greenhouse gases by up to 87% and an “established regional industry ecosystem...eliminate(s) supply chain constraints.”?

?? The Takeaway

Stacked racks. Origami Solar’s CEO says his company offers a “value-stacked” proposition that includes greater durability and resilience in extreme weather, not to mention eligibility for domestic content credits under the IRA. The company will leverage support from a 2022 DOE award to open its first manufacturing facility later this year in the Central U.S. – competing against an “unprecedented wave” of solar panel imports from China in 2023, according to S&P.

Domain and Range

Eminent domain is a topic that comes up a lot in discussions about the energy transition – and in Kansas this week, the Senate Utilities Commission considered a bill that would prevent the use of eminent domain to build solar farms – in other words, providing a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. Here are a few points to frame the issue:

• Eminent domain refers to the right of government, or quasi-government, agencies to take private land (with fair compensation to the owner) for public use. While controversial, “the truth is that eminent domain has shaped the U.S. into the country we know today.”
• That said, renewable energy developers aren’t government actors and don’t have the power to appropriate land for wind or solar projects. However, eminent domain has been used to acquire rights of way for transmission lines that will move power from renewable energy projects – including a 94-mile line in Kansas.

• And in neighboring Missouri, Invenergy was granted the ability to use eminent domain if necessary to build its massive Grain Belt Express transmission line, although the company said it had already acquired 95% of the easements it needed.

?? The Takeaway

Bogus boogeymen. Last fall, organizations in Kansas lobbied the legislature to prevent the use of eminent domain for wind and solar projects – despite the fact that there do not appear to be any cases of developers seeking this power. It calls to mind the 2010s, when many states worked themselves into a lather over the made-up threat of Sharia law. While this focus on a non-existent issue seems unproductive, it underscores the importance of doing the hard work to earn the trust and buy-in of local communities.

• Flip It & Reverse It: Is the solar industry ready for a tidal wave of decommissioning?
• Energizing Tribes: Biden admin taps $366 million to fund clean energy for Native American tribes and rural areas
• Ag + Energy: New USDA/DOE initiative to help farmers access wind energy
• Chin Chin: California's newest wind farm is old enough to order at the bar

• Shelby County Commission votes down Millington Solar Farm?
• Construction begins on largest utility-owned solar project in New Hampshire?
• Washington County officials approve rezoning for solar farm?
• Arbela Twp. in MI extends solar moratorium
• Bethlehem Twp. board postpones action on Galhead solar farm project?
• Town of Johnstown enacts six-month moratorium of solar battery storage?
• Antioch solar farm proposal sent back to advisory panel for further review
• Pasadena approves $512 million, 20-year solar energy and battery storage contract?
• Wind farms could benefit Henry County Iowa schools?
• Columbus Indiana Board of Zoning Appeals approves solar proposal on split vote

Going to Ever Greater Lengths

Last July, we told you about the world’s biggest turbine, the 16 MW MySE 16-260 from MingYang. Well, at least in terms of blade length, that behemoth has been pipped at the post by this bad boy from SANY Renewable Energy.

At 430 feet, the SY1310A blade creates a rotor diameter of 860 feet, a full 7 feet wider than the MySE 16-260, which, let’s just say it, now looks puny by comparison. However, the SANY turbine is only a measly 15 MW, so the engineers at MingYang will presumably be able to stave off any inferiority complexes for a bit.

Manufactured at SANY’s “zero-carbon, smart industrial park in Bayannur, Inner Mongolia,” the company claims the SY1310A blades are “super strong, smarter, and lighter than others in its league, with a specially designed anti-lightning feature to withstand extreme weather.” That’s a good thing, because at a length equivalent to nearly three football fields, resiliency seems particularly important!?