Thank you for the interesting article. I would love to see further expansion of local wind and solar energy systems, the above average summer temperatures has definitely increased our energy bills and the family budget has felt it.
States definitely need more authority to overrule local municipalities when it comes to installing wind and solar farms.
Even living in a blue state doesn’t guarantee that the land required will be approved since many rural areas are still led by NIMBY politicians.
The arguments against these farms are so ridiculous I’ve heard everything from “the farms will ruin the scenery” to “we are afraid that the farms will kill our crops”.
It's important to distinguish between the politicians and the constituents they purport to represent. Lots of farmers accept wind leases because it's money, pure and simple. The same as they accept leases for oil/gas wells.
Get climate impacts - wildfire - out of rates. Focus on cost causation and fairness in rate design. Buy the cheap stuff now. Reduce barriers in siting. Focus on cost effectiveness in public purpose programs. Strive to limit the rate impacts on low income ratepayers. Make sure utilities have skin in game... get the incentives right.
What's a good resource to read on offshore wind wrt to hurricanes? I don't have a good understanding of how this relates to construction sites. I assume there is historical analysis but was wondering how risk was included, it seems difficult with respect to what type of storm is expected over the life of the infrastructure.
For the Californians in the audience, is there a way we can effectively advocate for CAISO to be better about optimizing its transmission grid for easy transmission of cheap SoCal solar electricity to NoCal markets? A recent Construction Physics post says that grid congestion issues are contributing to high NoCal electricity prices: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/whats-happening-to-wholesale-electricity
Thank you for the interesting article. I would love to see further expansion of local wind and solar energy systems, the above average summer temperatures has definitely increased our energy bills and the family budget has felt it.
States definitely need more authority to overrule local municipalities when it comes to installing wind and solar farms.
Even living in a blue state doesn’t guarantee that the land required will be approved since many rural areas are still led by NIMBY politicians.
The arguments against these farms are so ridiculous I’ve heard everything from “the farms will ruin the scenery” to “we are afraid that the farms will kill our crops”.
It's important to distinguish between the politicians and the constituents they purport to represent. Lots of farmers accept wind leases because it's money, pure and simple. The same as they accept leases for oil/gas wells.
True but all the complaining I’ve heard comes from the farmers around where the solar farms and wind turbines would be built.
Get climate impacts - wildfire - out of rates. Focus on cost causation and fairness in rate design. Buy the cheap stuff now. Reduce barriers in siting. Focus on cost effectiveness in public purpose programs. Strive to limit the rate impacts on low income ratepayers. Make sure utilities have skin in game... get the incentives right.
Great article, I for one wouod read much more about the grid backlog challenges and how they should be addressed
What's a good resource to read on offshore wind wrt to hurricanes? I don't have a good understanding of how this relates to construction sites. I assume there is historical analysis but was wondering how risk was included, it seems difficult with respect to what type of storm is expected over the life of the infrastructure.
For the Californians in the audience, is there a way we can effectively advocate for CAISO to be better about optimizing its transmission grid for easy transmission of cheap SoCal solar electricity to NoCal markets? A recent Construction Physics post says that grid congestion issues are contributing to high NoCal electricity prices: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/whats-happening-to-wholesale-electricity