RENEWABLES IN A TURBULENT TIME

RENEWABLES IN A TURBULENT TIME

At the risk of overstating the obvious, these are historic times on all the fronts of pandemic, climate change, economic instability, and social justice.  I can write and speak volumes, but the focus here is on what has been happening in the area of energy production and use, and the rather positive news regarding solar and wind.  We will always need electricity production, and the upward trend in renewables capacity is happening in this country, as well as worldwide. Almost all new generation now and planned is in wind and solar.  Basic economics, which is good for jobs, the environment, and sustainability.

Coal is continuing its rapid decline in use, primarily because of its industry cost, not even taking into account all of its true costs.  Latest figures from whatever powers that be shows coal at 6-8 cents/kwh, solar PV at 4-5 cents, offshore wind 5-6 cents, and nuclear at 14+ cents.  Surprisingly, large scale battery storage is coming in at 15 cents, with those costs in a fairly rapid decline.  Renewables beat coal in electricity production in the US for the first time in 130 years, and the same is happening all over the world.  The 2250MW Navajo coal plant recently shut down is being re-powered with PV.  The first phase is 200MW, with 550MW more in the works for now.  Not only does this mean electricity generation worth money, but local jobs and a much cleaner environment. (1)

In Nevada, Warren Buffet, who owns the utility, has committed to 600MW near Las Vegas, with battery storage. (2)  Here in Humboldt County, a new contract has been signed to purchase 100MW of power from a to-be-built facility near Bakersfield.  This is part of our Community Choice Aggregation which supplies electricity to whoever wants it in the County.  It is currently comparable with PG&E costs, and will ultimately be cheaper and more reliable, as PG&E continues to struggle to survive in its bankruptcy, and ratepayers are on the hook for bailing them out. (3)  Coupled with supplying electricity, utilities are now making serious efforts in the demand-side for electricity via energy efficiency, which most often is a lot cheaper that production. (4)

The biggest news comes in the infant technology of storage.  Battery technology is making amazing strides, and virtually all new large-scale renewable projects include battery back-up.   California alone is committing to over 1000MW of new storage. (5)  Hawaii, Arizona, and even Florida are taking part in developing this new technology in earnest.  Costs are high right now (true costs compared to what?) but as with the other renewable components, the more that is produced and implemented, the lower the final costs.  I still believe Hydrogen will be the ultimate storage medium, and a lot of research is now heading in that direction.  Though the use of hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles is important, I still feel that large-scale hydrogen production on site at PV and wind farms will eventually be key to smoothing out the intermittency of renewable production. (6)

Another shift in conducting energy business is the adoption of microgrids in place of the old model of a large centralized power plant sending electricity in all directions to users.  Whether it is Humboldt County, the City of Napa, a school district in the valley…so many entities are seeing the economic value of “small is beautiful” in providing lower costs, more reliability, more local control, more jobs, and less stranglehold from large corporate energy conglomerates. 

The complex world of energy and electricity production is probably the largest financial entity in the world.  Aside from oil, where individual companies control the entire chain from exploration, extraction, transportation, refining, and distribution, renewables offer a different picture, mainly because the fuel is FREE.  This cuts into control and profits, and is the main reason renewables have been held back for so long by the powers that be.  There is still a lot of money to be made in the future, and it is those that understand how to develop and implement the technologies that will do well.  Here is an idea I purported many years ago, and it may be time.  JinkoSolar in China is spending $1.6 billion building a facility that by 2022, will produce 16,000MW of solar panels per year!. (7) What does that mean?  It means that by 2022, panels capable of generating 16,000MW will be available to be sold and installed wherever.  That’s the equivalent of 16 large nuclear of coal plants, which would cost 10x as much just to build, take 8+ years, and when on line will only produce +/-1000MW of electricity.  Each year that one manufacturing facility will an additional 16,000MW of panels.  A lot of panels…it would take many years to produce the 6TW of worldwide generating capacity, but this is just one technology to be used when appropriate.  We should be building PV manufacturing facilities here in the US and around the world…JOBS, sustainable energy technology to be developed and put into operation…over time, this as well as other generating technologies, storage, efficiency, etc.  can get us to the sustainable future so may bigwigs say is impossible.

One last bit of bright news is my following a company called Enphase, which originated in the little town of Petaluma (once the egg capital of the US).  They made the inverters used in both my solar PV systems I installed about three years ago.  They work great. At that time, the publicly traded stock (ENPH) was selling for around $4.50.  This company has grown, and is actively involved worldwide in microgrids, new inverter technology partnership with Panasonic, and a bunch of other things.  The stock has fluctuated a lot in the past couple of months…from a high of $64…this morning down to $58.32.   There is money to be made in renewables…from the products themselves to the usage.

The revolution (in all its fronts) is starting, and my optimism is that people are not really self-destructive, and we eventually will come out of all this mess in a better place because we do have the knowledge and technology to do so.  What we need is the moral courage to fight the greed and politics in place now.  Let the sun shine!!!!

 Some supportive materials.  There is so much available on line…real and fake!

1.       https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/navajo-power-spower-funds-raised-solar?utm_campaign=REU&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9KtE-56KO1lLVt6bnIs44Quq5dCKzVGoP8iUvj_SaJRgKgkhjKWoF5YV7xh9NcGV2eWnqk

2.      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-11/buffett-backed-solar-project-near-vegas-wins-trump-blessing?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWTJKak9UUTFaVGRsWW1JNSIsInQiOiI3VDUzRk94ZHpNbHdHaWVKVTNaOUpGSm1GOFdoYzc4WXpEWkRLV3YxRGNCTW54UVJJMzB4ajJYTDZkdm5PWEZrRyt3eXVscGRTY1ZBejJhUER3TnZHTTB3dlFLaVRMb1J4YjBxZ0JaeGFZeGF6d2lhR3ZJWGMyK0xwUHNDVnN2WCJ9

3.      https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2020/may/6/local-energy-authority-inks-big-contract-big-solar/

4.      https://www.utilitydive.com/news/con-edison-commits-15-billion-to-energy-efficiency/578257/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWWpNelptWmxPR0UyTURWaSIsInQiOiI3QUhCNWhyejlpUVJmMmQzQWdKTU5oNzhoMzZxdXJYR3E1TFhHdGxtbUpJdDBLN0FQQW5rT2pnNFNKVW94WkthYnJKUnZvK0VIUEtQRzdoclNqd3Q4RUxzQjVCalVob3huaVc4WElUXC9jamNHTkJFSXJxb1FkR1RZaGp4TVFXdGkifQ%3D%3D

5.      https://www.utilitydive.com/news/pges-total-storage-procurements-pass-1-gw-with-latest-round-of-projects/578389/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTjJJM01XSTRaVGhpT1RVdyIsInQiOiJGQkFaY1pVelpyNGZRZGtka29RQmsxclF2VUhMNThcL3BGZHNwbjNEZ2ZcL3MwTDJNdGl0UWtQbUgzNlY2cFlVakN1V0tKUVwvTWVnQU9xTnprakFhUE96bFBIODMycEgwbUZWa0V4RDJZRUNneDJISGFDNVRuTUxidGg3OXdvK0FQQiJ9

6.      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-26/hydrogen-primed-for-key-role-in-world-s-greenest-stimulus-plan?srnd=premium

7.      https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-01/jinkosolar-starts-panel-plant-that-will-double-its-capacity

NUCLEAR UPDATE during the pandemic

NUCLEAR UPDATE during the pandemic

As most of the world is in turmoil and a great variety of businesses and industries look to evolve and adapt to the uncertain future, life goes on in those many essential services.  The recent dramatic changes in energy use demonstrates that major shifts in supply and demand can happen very quickly, either by choice or through unforeseen factors.  The recent over-drilling for oil coupled by a sharp drop in demand and use has shown not only the vulnerable complexity of artificial price structures; but also a significant decrease in air pollution, which will be a driving force in our future attempts to deal with climate change as we rebuild our societies.  The continued decline of coal due to cheaper renewables continues here and across the globe.  That, too, is encouraging.  The nuclear industry continues to drain our dollars, this time not for energy production, but for costly shutdowns, decommissioning, and waste management.  The current administration still subsidizes the unattainable myth of cheaper and safer small modular reactors, the boondoggle of fusion power, and even the expansion of uranium mining on public lands.  The fight for money goes on!

Here in California, we are still bumbling through the bankruptcy of PG&E, and the impacts that it is having and will continue to have on our high electricity and gas prices. The future of the Diablo Canyon nuclear complex is very unclear as to when it will shut down, will PG&E sell the license, when decommissioning will actually begin, how long will it take, and most importantly, how much will it cost and who will pay for it.  There is also the unsolved dilemma of the high-level spent fuel, the hundreds of dry casks to be stored on site, and the unknown impacts of climate change, earthquakes, etc. Similar issues are facing the San Onofre units, and the shutdown of Indian Point unit 2 in New York, with unit 3 to soon follow.  Other cleanups continue at a handful of shuttered plants, as well as difficult and costly cleanup at the many military and industrial facilities throughout the nation.

The future does not bode well for the supply side of the nuclear industry.  If we remember back to around 2005, when the “nuclear renaissance” was put forth by the Bush Administration, guaranteeing subsidies for construction of new plants that were then deemed to be necessary, and could be built on time and on budget..  Out of the 30+ plans that were submitted, 5 units were chosen.  One in Texas never broke ground, the two units in South Carolina were abandoned after being about 50% completed and billions of dollars over budget, leaving the two Vogle units in Georgia currently still in process.  Fifteen years later, and at a current estimated cost of $25 billion (up from the original $8 billion) and still only 60% constructed, here is another glitch.  The foundation of unit 1 is sinking!!!!! Read the article below…mindboggling!!!!  The rest of the nuclear industry continues to suck up taxpayer dollars for the development of small modular reactors which supposedly will be built by the hundreds to provide cheap electricity.  That will not happen…it is the same myth/hoax the industry has plied us with for over half a century.  Those reactors suffer with not only their costs, but the main issue not addressed, which is the creation, management, and disposal of all the high-level and low-level nuclear wastes that are produced through the vast infrastructure and supply chain.

Low-level wastes are currently disposed of in a handful of waste dumps in Utah, Texas, Idaho, and Nevada.  The nuclear industry is currently optimistic about the storage of high-level spent fuel, with a couple of companies taking the lead.  The biggest is Holtec, a private company that back in the early 2000’s just manufactured dry casks.  Humboldt Bay bought 6 of these, and the spent fuel from the decommissioned reactor is encased in these huge cannisters in a facility located on Humboldt Bay.  At the time, the casks were rated to last about 40 years, the idea being that they would eventually go to Yucca Mountain for permanent disposal.  Politics aside, that is not going to happen, since the geology of that repository is unsuitable for containment of the wastes for a minimum of 10,000 years.   Holtec has almost cornered the market today for dry casks (some 15,000 at $1million/cask will eventually be needed) and has ventured out into the full range of decommissioning business.  They have bought up licenses from utilities with shut down plants, and are making money in their dismantlement and low-level waste disposal.  Their latest attempt is currently in process to buy Indian Point.  I would not be surprised if they try for Diablo Canyon!  But the real clincher is their attempt to receive approval from the various federal and state agencies to build a facility in southern New Mexico, which would accept dry casks from all over the US, and place them on a very large pad out in the desert.  This concept, called Monitored Retrievable Storage, was proposed about 30 years ago for a site in Utah, but was dismissed as a potential environmental, economic, technological, military, etc. disaster.  Picture thousands of casks concentrated out in the open…for how long?  Transportation issues—getting them there, eventually shipping them to a permanent place?  What is the time frame - how long will the cask survive, how will they be repackaged, monitored, safeguarded from natural and terrorist attacks???  How much will all this cost, who will pay…all this is great for Holtec! They can be in position to control the whole decommissioning process…dismantle the plants, use their products to transport and store both high and low-level wastes, and have citizens and ratepayers foot the bill.  This will be a booming business over the next 50 years.

In the very near future we will be forced to re-examining all our energy systems.  The old school, big money utilities, large scale centralized power plants and the grid, the incredible impacts on air, water, land, and public health will all be in the forefront as we seriously address climate change, and embrace the cheaper (in so many ways) and sustainability of small scale local microgrids and the continued development of solar, wind, and other renewables, and the coming surge of electricity storage.  As a peer of mine once said, we are transitioning from a hunter-gatherer society (keep your hands off of that oil…I found it…it’s mine) to energy farmers, capturing the solar energy available to us in so many forms, and learning to manage and store it as nature did for us over the millions of years.  At the forefront is an amazing new economy with jobs, lower costs in every aspect, and a verdant sustainable future.  It is just common sense, but will depend on changing the current politics of greed and capitalism.  Let the sun shine.!!!!!

1.       https://www.fairewinds.org/demystify/georgia-nuclear-vogtle-unit-3-is-sinking-bredl-petition

2.      https://apnews.com/11a0f74447cac309d8ccf95325e000fc

3.      https://www.powermag.com/indian-point-unit-2-will-shut-down-april-30/

New Decade Update

On a cold rainy morning waiting for the 49er game to come on, I want to summarize some of the energy issues that I am following.  Without getting into the politics of climate change, fossil fuel development, degradation of our air, water, and land via massive environmental deregulation, I still track the ongoing lies and misconceptions about nuclear power and renewables. All of that is incredibly connected.

The nuclear industry continues to push for billions of dollars in subsidies and the folly pursuit of solving the radioactive waste problems.  The Vogle reactors in Georgia continue to drain consumer and taxpayer coffers in an attempt to put those reactors on line.  Not going to happen! (1)  The two abandoned plants in South Carolina continue to suck money, even though they definitely will never operate. (2)  The promise of small modular reactors is really no solution, and their proponents are having a hard time finding private investment.  Even Bill Gates is backing off his nuclear goals.  The dreams of thorium and fusion continue to fade, although their proponents continue to demand research money with false promises.

Even without all these construction stumbling blocks, the real cost of nuclear power is beginning to be understood with the hugely expensive and difficult processes of decommissioning Diablo Canyon, San Onofre, Vermont Yankee, Indian Point, Three Mile Island…the list goes on.  What to do with the wastes…the high level spent fuel which has no solution, and now of new concern, the tremendous volumes of low-level wastes which will be transported all over the country.  Good for business for a few private companies like Holtec.  The high-level stuff is stymied by the billions of dollars spent trying to get a handle on the military wastes at Hanford, South Carolina, and a host of other sites in the US.  The much-touted vitrification plant at Hanford is 14 years behind schedule, about 2/3 complete, and gone from $2billion to estimated $25billion…and a lot of concern over it will even work! (3)

The fossil fuels are also being hammered by economics and the potential of renewables.  Oil is being threatened by electric vehicles, and coal is on the verge of collapse because of not only direct economic uncompetitiveness, but it’s huge CO2 footprint.  The closure of the Navajo Generating station in Arizona is portrayed by the media as a disaster in terms of job loss.  It sits in the middle of a hot, sunny desert.  It has the infrastructure to generate steam with new solar heat technologies, and a huge amount of land to employ workers installing and developing solar technologies.  China recently announced that they are investing $1billion in building a new PV manufacturing plant, which will manufacture 15,000MW of solar capacity PER YEAR!!!  The Navajo tribe should invest in manufacturing as well as applications.  Jobs! $$$s! The future!!!

I am still an optimist in these dire times.  The goal for those that care should be awareness and education as to what is happening, and more important to the positive solutions of what can be.  The economic value of renewables development is generating some economic push Goldman Sachs is investing $750billion in renewables, not because they want to do their good deed in fighting climate change, but because there is MONEY to be made in this inevitable transition. (4) The huge push now is in electricity storage.  Batteries are still in the forefront, although hydrogen is becoming more and more attractive because of its potentially low cost when all factors are put into play. (5)  More on this later!!

So, in spite of the reduction of that damn solar tax credit from 30% to $26%, the economics of solar, as well as wind, are leading the path into the future.  Now, if we can just get the old school big money powers out of the way…or better still, have them understand that they, too, can make money on the new energy technologies the world needs.  It just means investing in the future, as opposed to short term huge profits.

1.      https://www.ajc.com/news/state-staff-georgia-power-nuclear-timeline-significantly-challenged/i1Ff7BnBp6grU5ht1WBHeO/

2.      https://www.postandcourier.com/business/dominion-energy-to-pay-m-in-settlement-tied-to-failed/article_27e3ce22-31a5-11ea-a99b-77c3d4b74b75.html

3.      https://crosscut.com/2019/11/12-years-and-counting-effort-lock-hanfords-radioactive-waste-glass-faces-more-delays

4.      https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/474762-goldman-sachs-investing-750b-toward-fighting-climate-change

5.      https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50873047

Happy New Year

Starting out the new year with some great positive news, at least for me.  I have two PV solar systems...one on my house installed in late 2014, and one on the rental, installed in the middle of 2018.  This year's generation results are very nice:
My house:  initial investment in 2014 was $14,000 after the solar tax credit.
This past year (2019) it generated 4,346KWH of electricity.  At the average cost of $0.28/KWH that PG&E charges, I saved $1,217 dollars.  This equates to an 11.5% return this past year on my original investment.  Or for those still stuck on not really understanding what that really means, an 8.7 year pay back before my investment pays for itself.
My rental: initial investment in 2018 was $6,000 after the solar tax credit.
This past year (2019) it generated 3,952KWH of electricity.  At the average cost of $0.28/KWH that PG&E charges. I saved $1,107 dollars.  This equates to an 18.5% return this past year on my investment.  Or for those still stuck on not really understanding what that really means, a 5.4 year pay back before my investment pays for itself.
An analysis of all this shows that many things have changed in the very recent years.  PG&E is in bankruptcy.  Everything leading up to that caused the price of electricity they charge to skyrocket.  Ten years ago, the retail price for residential was about $0.14/KWH.  Mismanagement, political ploys, cost of earlier long-term renewable contracts, ongoing issues with the Diablo Canyon nuclear units, the decommissioning of the Humboldt Bay nuke, and all the changes in energy policy with coal, fossil fuels, etc. on a national level have contributed to this higher cost.  Rates are expected to go up another 3.7% soon, and whatever happens to PG&E in the future will not likely bring rates down.  Good news for me!!!  Good news, that all this is forcing a rethinking, restructuring, etc. in the electricity markets not only in California, but throughout the nation and the world.  Good news down the line for consumers and ratepayers; bad news for the corporate bottom line, where PG&E is currently guaranteed a 10.7% profit margin (they recently wanted to raise that to 16.5% so they could "entice" investors and pay their executives more).  All this is going to change in the coming year.  I still can hear one of the managers at the Humboldt nuke spouting off about those "damn solar subsidies!"
The second major point is that all the costs of solar, and all renewables, are continuing to decline to where today, they are the cheapest way to generate electricity.  Cheaper that oil, coal, nuclear, and rapidly approaching natural gas.  And if we look at the true price, it is more than just dollars and cents, but now includes CO2, emissions and all the other wastes from the various fuel chains. The major impediments remain..politics, big money from the fossil fuel industries, disinformation and lies, and of course the need for electricity storage.  More on that later...big things happening on many fronts, and I am thrilled that Hydrogen (H2) is finally appearing more and more in the energy technology domain.
All of this is so complex and ongoing; but my main point right now is that I just saved a lot of money (tax-free), saved a bunch of emissions from going into the atmosphere, and have done my tiny little bit to support the solar industry and the imminent New Green Energy Deal!  Beats having my money in a 1.5% savings account or CD, or depending on a (it was 3.8%, taxable) dividend from PG&E. And, no maintenance fees or costs, other than hosing down the panels a couple of times a year.  But then again, the cost of water is going up!
Let the sun shine!!!!!!!!!

ENERGY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

As the holiday season approaches, it looks like we here in Humboldt County will have all the spirit and festivities to enjoy, without being blacked-out by PG&E.  The fiasco that played out and continues to unravel for the huge utility is almost unbelievable. Some highlights:

PG&E is in bankruptcy, due to the gross mismanagement by the past corporate leaders and board of directors, and the California PUC over the past untold years.  Failure to put money into the necessary upgrades to the natural gas sector, as well as the electricity divisions, has led to huge disasters amounting to billions of dollars in property loss, as well as lives lost.  The utility upheld its commitment to paying a 12% dividend to its investors, and millions of dollars to the incompetent upper management.  Most of those in power have resigned or been fired, with their million-dollar severance payouts.  The new executives are just as bad, or worse.  They asked for millions more money just so they would have the incentive to do their jobs! (1)  WOW!  That was denied.

The past failure to understand and address climate change in their California territory contributed to devastating fires over the pas few years.  Billions of dollars lost by the people in their domain…homes, businesses, infrastructure, livelihood…this can’t be valued with dollars…although they are trying to do so in their bankruptcy proceedings.  Whatever happens over the next few years will be a grand moral tragedy.  In Paradise, a community that lost 11,000 houses and businesses last year, only 11 homes have been rebuilt.  In Santa Rosa, which was devastated by fire two years ago, a few more homes have been replaced.  My personal conversation with a retired insurance attorney in that area laid out the game plan for the insurance and utility industry…”we’ll give you 35 cents on the dollar for replacement…if you don’t like that, then sue us…good luck, cause we’ll tie you up in court and legal costs for years.”  It’s the American way!  Same thing is happening in Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, etc.

Case in point…PG&E parent corporate is/was worth $68 billion, and now run by Bill Johnson.  PG&E Electricity Utility is a subsidiary, worth $3.24 billion, holding 32 bonds worth $18 billion.  It is run by Andy Vesey.  But this is a publicly traded company…owned by “investors.”  92% is owned by 703 institutions…huge hedge fund companies, such as Vanguard which owns 7.3%, Blackrock has 2.5%.  The $30 billion Boston hedge fund Baupost now owns 4.6%.  they just bought $1 billion in fire claims for $0.35/on the dollar. Smart!  They might wind up paying 30-35 cents to the claimants…but if they pay more, then they get to write of that excess as a capital loss…win, win, win for everybody but the folks who had their lives destroyed by the criminal and negligent actions of those very the people in charge.  Mortimer Buckley owns Baupost which manages $5.3 trillion worth of funds.  Do you really think he really gives a shit about the peons in California?  If he really cared, he would buy us rakes so we can go out and rake our forests!  Interesting that the bulk of these fires and losses occurred in the coastal chaparral and oak savannas, and not in major timber producing lands that those damn environmentalists have locked up.  When you hear of the “investors” whether in the stock market, or corporate annual meetings, they are a handful of very rich, and thus very powerful people in terms of our monetary policies.  When the investors voted down a proposal to address climate change at the last annual meeting for Exxon…who do you think forced that decision…the “investors” …the folks who hold a few measly shares of Exxon in their retirement portfolio?

Here in Humboldt County, PG&E blacked us out for 35-48+ hours.  I was off for 35 hours.  County-wide outrage!  We have 10 state of the art natural gas engines in our new power plant that can produce all the electricity we need locally.  The entire plant was idled for the blackout period.  There was a negligible threat of transmission-caused wildfire in most of Humboldt County.  The big concern was the major transmission line carrying electricity to and from the major grid in Redding, some two hundred miles away. Switching that line OFF would have allowed pretty much all of Humboldt County to remain electrified, as a relatively small micro-grid.  The decision to not do that was made at the high corporate level by Mr. Johnson, a million miles away from reality.  His response to the folks who lost perishables during the blackout was “I got that, but one of the things we did was give them the opportunity to actually refill their refrigerator 'cause their house is still there."  It is estimated the County lost over $1million in lost wages, revenue, business, etc., as well as the financial and human impacts of the residents (and ratepayers.) We’re told that this will probably go on for the next ten years or so.  Generators are selling like hotcakes!  So is gasoline, ice, canned goods, etc.  However, this will most-likely not happen again in Humboldt County! I was involved with our local leaders to call PG&E to task, and we are involved in the larger State-wide efforts to deal with the “too big to fail” corporate monstrosity.  There is a state-wide coalition to break-up PG&E’s monopoly, and create many small microgrids that would be co-operatives, removing big money from sucking out our dollars and local control.  (2)

This transition will take time, technological innovation, lots of money…but most of all political will.  It is so complex…economic, environmental, technical, social, moral…but it is what many of us have seen for many years as common sense for a sustainable and equitable future.

(1)              https://www.abc10.com/article/news/pge-seeks-bankruptcy-judges-approval-to-give-top-executives-bonuses-if-the-company-fulfills-safety-goals/103-5400c5c1-076d-4fb6-ac0e-d1b1c1b17c85

 

(2)             https://humboldt.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=4244985&GUID=6FC23FB7-22A2-4C5A-A89D-F152AC22AED6&Options=&Search=

Go to the Letter 201142019.pdf

file:///C:/Users/Licensed%20User/Downloads/Letter%20dt%201142019.pdf

The Big Blackout

THE BIG BLACKOUT

I am writing in support of Supervisor Bohn and Sheriff Honsal’s letter demanding that PG&E explain why the greater Humboldt County area had all of its electricity shut down, when we have a local power plant more than capable of supplying all local our electrical needs, without adding to the threatened larger inland grid.

I have served on the PG&E’s Community Advisory Committee since its inception in 1998, and feel that this community has been misled and now penalized by what has transpired over the past 20 years.  Early on, the CAB worked with the utility in its planning and ultimate construction of the 160MW state of the art gas-fired power plant.  Its 10 engines were designed so that they could be individually turned on and off to meet the power demands at any particular time.  This was important due to the forward thinking that renewables, be they biomass, wind, and solar, with their intermittency, would eventually become major contributors to our local grid.  The plant would also continue to supply voltage regulation to the transmission lines feeding electricity in and out of the county.  We asked, and were assured that the power plant would not run at high capacity sending electricity out of the area for most of the time, since one of our concerns was with the emissions being emitted.  This plant was to be a positive energy project, giving us a cleaner and more local source of electricity.

The issue I am concerned with is why was the local grid not isolated from the main grid that was in danger from the wind and fires?  Was the decision to shut us off and turn the power plant off due to a political directive, a software issue, or simply the lack of mechanical hardware?  I encourage our local leaders to demand those answers, and most importantly, to further demand that whatever actions need to be taken be implemented as soon as possible, since PG&E itself says the PSPS event will probably go on for 10 years or more.

Our electricity future is in a great state of transition due to climate change, cheaper renewables, and rapidly changing technologies.  Locally, it would be ideal to be self-sufficient in our own “microgrid.”  That will probably happen in time with the development of all the rich natural resources we have that can supply us with local, clean, sustainable energy.  But that will take time, money, and most of all the political will of people and leaders.  For now, we need to protect our local economy, our infrastructure, our diverse population, and our environment from large scale, out of the area, decisions that are not in our best interest.  We are Humboldt County, after all!

Mike Manetas

The Big PG&E Grid Shutdown

A sunny, pleasant day in Humboldt County.  Sitting in my easy chair in my living room, a warm fire in the stove, sipping a cup of coffee, and working on my laptop.  Pretty normal, except there is no electricity in all of Humboldt County, as we'll as most of Northern California, since PG&E has cut the transmission of power due to the risk their high-voltage lines might have in igniting fires in the vast rural mountains through which the grid runs. That decision will hopefully spur the much needed and serious discussion about climate change.  The debate up to now has been mainly about whether human’s use of fossil fuels is responsible for changes in the global atmosphere, producing changes in local climate and weather.  Many key points have been and are being left out of the dialogue with regards to understanding when/how/where that change is, and what are the impacts of that process.  Climate Change is no one thing, but a continuous set of very complex natural processes, affecting our oceans, the various layers of the atmosphere, land forms, water and moisture…virtually everything in the inter-relationships of what we call our global environment.  I recall the old adage “does the flapping of the wings of a butterfly in the Amazon affect me here in Humboldt County?”

So, let’s assume today’s predicament is due to global warming.   I drove through Mckinleyville this morning.  Stoplights not working, but somebody had gone out and put up little stop signs on those little sawhorses.  Drivers were courteous.  Everything else was quiet.  CVS was closed and the parking lot was empty, as were almost every other business in town.  All the gas stations were empty, and their signs advertising $4+ gasoline were dark. The United flight came overhead, heading to unload its passengers to a dark empty terminal.  I drove on into Arcata…the same thing…the shopping center with CVS and Safeway was empty.  The plaza was void of cars and people.  Los Bagels was open, selling bagels and pastries backed yesterday at their dark, unlit counter space.  Again, pretty empty and quiet.  The happening place in the area was Toni’s!  Packed parking lot…which is saying a lot…serving food in their unlit space.  I didn’t go in to see if they were fully up and running with a generator or not; but with what money she made today, she could go out and buy a pretty upscale backup generator system.  The mail was delivered, as was the

SF Chronicle, and our hard-wired landline worked, as did our well phones.  No internet.

What are the ramifications and impacts of all of this?  Emergency services have back-up, and functioned as usual.  I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow at 3pm, set up months ago.  I drove by the office, and of course they were dark and closed.   I guess if there were a real emergency, one could get help.  But what stuns me is the so many impacts on just about everybody…employees called off work, business owners losing sales and business, those people dependent on the internet for their work being down, folks with electric cars not being able to charged and go anywhere, and just the general inconvenience of daily life…hot shower, basic heat (I had both wood stoves going), inability to cook food and losing food in the refrigerator (I fired up our generator for a bit to keep the refrigerator and freezer up to snuff), basic lighting (we have many battery powered lanterns which we use at the cabin), and for some, no TV!!!  I don’t know what is going on because no internet and news…but we do have our cell phones and battery radios to sort of keep in touch.  We are used to this because we have our cabin, which has no electricity or cell service, but everything else, except a flush toilet!    We’ve also backpacked and camped out a lot so it is not really an issue.  A lot of people have no experience with this.  My sister-in-law doesn’t have running water from well when there is no electricity. So many people have to figure it out…they are on their own. 

And then put this in perspective in the big picture…we still have our house and everything…what about the victims of hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, extreme snow and rain, drought and extreme heat…they are also on their own, and many have lost everything.  Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, Texas…Climate change?   What about the rest of the world?  Water, food, employment, energy, migrant displacement…all severely impacted by climate change.  But the most important point nobody is emphasizing (not the media, the `political candidates, people in general) is that this is now, and the science says the weather extremes will continue to get more and more severe.  This is much more than rising sea level, melting glaciers, 2 degrees rise in temperature, etc.  Most important is understanding the interconnectedness of everything, and the enormous future impacts on not just our environment and all the species living in it, but the economic, social, political, technological, and moral impacts on not only us and our children, but on all future generations.  Pretty amazing!!!!!

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Here we are, six days later, and the shit has hit the fan!  Everyone is outraged at the audacity of PG&E…how they handled this whole affair.  Starting at the top…PG&E is in bankruptcy because its transmission line failed and started several of the multi-billion- dollar fires over the last few years.  Instead of focusing major efforts to upgrade and protect the power lines, the top management at the time spent billions lobbying and giving huge dividends to its stockholders.  Those executives are gone…with their million dollar severance and retirement packages, with no liability for what they created.  The new executives wanted additional bonuses so they can be encouraged to do more than what their million dollar a year jobs require.  They basically ignored the ratepayers, and didn’t really care about the various impacts their decisions had on people and communities who had to go without power.  Very bad decisions were made, and those in charge are saying they are doing the best they can, that upgrades cost too much money, things can’t be done in time, etc, etc.  At least they are not denying that the changing climate is impacting the weather in California…more dry forests and grasslands, stronger winds, hotter fires, etc, as well as the fact that our infrastructure…the grid, is outmoded and in terrible shape.  I can go on and on about corporate power vs. the people, about the quest for more and more money and profit, etc.  Here is another example to put alongside health care, prescription drugs, military spending, education, environmental protection, and climate change.

There are solutions…not easy or cheap, but a part of the new “green deal” which features local renewables used locally in small microgrids, along with energy efficiency and smart technology.  The Blue Lake Rancheria, a band of Native

Americans has worked closely with HSU and other entities to create such a microgrid…solar and other renewable technologies, energy storage, and smart deployment all worked very well in Blue Lake.   Their gas station and market were open to meet the needs of local essential demand, their casino/hotel accommodated the elderly and people with specific needs, communications remained intact, and the community was a small bright island in a sea of darkness.  The same folks at the Schatz Lab a t HSU are building a similar microgram in McKinleyville at the airport, and are planning others throughout the county.  Local resources meeting the needs of community when power is affected by flooding, earthquakes, fires, or other events we often endure here on the North Coast. 

San Francisco has been wanting to buy the PG&E poles, wires, transformers, etc., but the utility claims that would remove a large segment of their ratepayers, and they could not function without those dollars.  I think what we will see down the road is the breakup of the mega-giant utility into many small, local, and manageable entities.  All this is, of course, very political, and the big money players will do all they can to prevent loss of huge profits from the generation, distribution, and ultimate selling of electricity.  Renewables, small is beautiful, no nukes, local cooperatives, power for the people, not profit…all those things that we’ve been saying for years may soon be on their way.