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Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Dane County, WI might sell the methane its landfill produces to California, reports Isthmus in Madison
By Samantha Rose Loomis, Isthmus.
Dane County was one of the first in Wisconsin to begin using the methane its landfill produces to generate electricity.
“We actually produce enough electricity on our landfill to offset almost all electric use by Dane County operations, all Dane County functions countywide,” says John Welch, solid waste manager at Dane County landfill.
However, this is not what the electricity is used for. Dane County has a 10-year contract with Madison Gas and Electric, selling the electricity to it for about $3 million a year, Welch says.
By Samantha Rose Loomis, Isthmus.
Dane County was one of the first in Wisconsin to begin using the methane its landfill produces to generate electricity.
“We actually produce enough electricity on our landfill to offset almost all electric use by Dane County operations, all Dane County functions countywide,” says John Welch, solid waste manager at Dane County landfill.
However, this is not what the electricity is used for. Dane County has a 10-year contract with Madison Gas and Electric, selling the electricity to it for about $3 million a year, Welch says.
As that contract comes to an end, Dane County is hoping to get a better deal. A proposed $18 million project in the 2017 budget would allow the county to turn the methane the trash produces into compressed natural gas, or CNG. That fuel could then be sold. It might even get piped to California, which is the leading market in the United States for the gas.
Dane County Executive Joe Parisi wants the project to be a model for fighting global warming.
“I funded this project in my 2017 Dane County budget because I want our county to be a national leader on confronting climate change, embracing green energy, and taking steps to cleaning the air we breathe,” Parisi said.
There are currently about 3,000 active landfills in the United States. About 80 of these are in Wisconsin. Most of Wisconsin’s landfills have been producing electricity for the past decade or two, but in low amounts.
New Utah facility to turn food waste to renewable energy
By Ashley Stilson, Deseret News.
NORTH SALT LAKE — Think back to the last trip to the grocery store. How much food did you buy — and how much of that did you throw away?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, around 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted globally every year. That's roughly a third of the food produced annually.
And all that discarded food usually winds up in landfills.
"We don’t really see that. We handle our waste kind of secretly — it goes out the back door. But we needed a place for that stuff to go," said Bruce Alder, president of ALPRO Energy and Water.
To cut the amount of food waste in Utah landfills, ALPRO Energy and Water, and South Davis Sewer District are partnering to build Utah's first anaerobic digester facility. Dozens of businessmen and women gathered at the groundbreaking for the building in North Salt Lake on Thursday.
By Ashley Stilson, Deseret News.
NORTH SALT LAKE — Think back to the last trip to the grocery store. How much food did you buy — and how much of that did you throw away?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, around 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted globally every year. That's roughly a third of the food produced annually.
And all that discarded food usually winds up in landfills.
"We don’t really see that. We handle our waste kind of secretly — it goes out the back door. But we needed a place for that stuff to go," said Bruce Alder, president of ALPRO Energy and Water.
To cut the amount of food waste in Utah landfills, ALPRO Energy and Water, and South Davis Sewer District are partnering to build Utah's first anaerobic digester facility. Dozens of businessmen and women gathered at the groundbreaking for the building in North Salt Lake on Thursday.
"Everywhere we looked, we found more waste," Alder said. "There is a real need to divert and process these organic wastes that are now being thrown away and put in a landfill, to a better and more sustainable use."
Anaerobic digestion is a biological process where microbes break down biodegradable material without oxygen.
The Wasatch Resource Recovery facility will turn organic material — including food scraps, food manufacturing waste and expired food and beverages — into clean, renewable natural gas.
Once it is operational in the fall of 2018, the $43 million facility will divert about 360 tons of solid waste from landfills every day.
Hasbro Continues Corporate Renewables Trend, Sets 100% Renewable Energy & Carbon Neutrality Goal for Global Operations
Via BusinessWire.
PAWTUCKET, R.I.- Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ: HAS), a global play and entertainment company, today announced that it has set a 100 percent renewable energy use and carbon neutrality goal across its owned and operated global operations. For the past two years, Hasbro has achieved its previous goal of 100 percent renewable energy and carbon neutrality in the U.S. This goal builds on that achievement and extends Hasbro’s commitment to 100 percent renewable energy and carbon neutrality globally.
The new global goal builds on a longstanding commitment to climate action leadership, and Hasbro has made significant progress already to achieve the goal. Specifically, Hasbro purchased 25,699 megawatt-hours of renewable energy certificates (RECs) to address 99.6 percent1 of its 2016 global electricity consumption. Additionally, the company purchased carbon offsets in 2016 to address its global carbon footprint. Cumulatively, this reduction in Hasbro’s carbon footprint is similar to growing 766,411 trees per year for 10 years or not using 69,513 barrels of oil.
DTE Energy highlights the utility sector's business case for deep decarbonization at EEI 2017
Electric utility executives have discovered that economywide carbon cuts are their best chance at strong growth. But it's easier said than done.
By Gavin Bade, Utility Dive.
A lot can happen in two years.
At the Edison Electric Institute’s 2015 annual summit, executives from the nation’s largest investor-owned utility companies were skeptical of decarbonization.
A board of CEOs told reporters that President Obama’s Clean Power Plan would raise costs and potentially present reliability issues. In the words of AEP’s CEO Nick Akin, the proposed regulation needed to be reworked so that its carbon targets are “reasonable and rational."
Electric utility executives have discovered that economywide carbon cuts are their best chance at strong growth. But it's easier said than done.
By Gavin Bade, Utility Dive.
A lot can happen in two years.
At the Edison Electric Institute’s 2015 annual summit, executives from the nation’s largest investor-owned utility companies were skeptical of decarbonization.
A board of CEOs told reporters that President Obama’s Clean Power Plan would raise costs and potentially present reliability issues. In the words of AEP’s CEO Nick Akin, the proposed regulation needed to be reworked so that its carbon targets are “reasonable and rational."
Fast forward two years — and the policy environment looks quite different. The Trump administration is in the process of rolling back the Clean Power Plan and recently announced the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
Even so, the discussion around decarbonization at this year’s EEI summit took a different slant from years past. The investor-owned utility trade group trotted out Gerry Anderson, its environmental chief and CEO of Michigan utility DTE Energy, to talk about his company’s recent carbon planning.
“I really feel in many ways that our sector would be well served to get out in front of this and let the world know that we've got this one — we will deal with this issue,” he said. “And as a result, we really ought to be in a position to pull in the transportation sector's energy demand and general industry's energy demand as well.”
Anderson said his utility discovered it could affordably cut carbon 80% from 2005 levels by 2050 during the planning process for the Clean Power Plan.
California May Decide to Fund Clean Energy If the Administration Won’t
Amid federal cuts, some state scientists and senators think California should create an energy research effort similar to its breakaway stem-cell initiative.
By James Temple, MIT Technology Review.
In 2004, nearly 60 percent of California voters approved a ballot measure that dedicated $3 billion to embryonic-stem-cell research, in an act of democratic defiance aimed at President George W. Bush’s earlier ban on federal funding.
Some prominent Californians are arguing the state should stage a similar revolt today, as the Trump administration proposes deep cuts to yet another area of critical public research: energy technologies that could curtail the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Amid federal cuts, some state scientists and senators think California should create an energy research effort similar to its breakaway stem-cell initiative.
By James Temple, MIT Technology Review.
In 2004, nearly 60 percent of California voters approved a ballot measure that dedicated $3 billion to embryonic-stem-cell research, in an act of democratic defiance aimed at President George W. Bush’s earlier ban on federal funding.
Some prominent Californians are arguing the state should stage a similar revolt today, as the Trump administration proposes deep cuts to yet another area of critical public research: energy technologies that could curtail the world’s reliance on fossil fuels.
Nathan Lewis, a chemistry professor at the California Institute of Technology, says the creation of California’s Stem Cell Agency allowed the state to attract world-leading scientists and produce the bulk of research in the field for the better part of a decade.
“That’s a wonderful example of the opportunity that is before us, if we seize it, step up and actually promote R&D,” says Lewis, who is also a principal investigator at the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, an effort led by Caltech in partnership with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab to produce clean solar fuels.
The Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget would cut some $3 billion from Department of Energy research programs, including nearly $1 billion from the Office of Science, which funds JCAP and other “innovation hubs.” Meanwhile, almost $1.5 billion in cuts to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and the elimination of the moonshot ARPA-E program would ripple throughout solar, bioenergy, and vehicle technology programs at Lawrence Berkeley and the Lawrence Livermore National Lab in California.
Report: Trump administration plan to argue EPA overstepped authority on the Clean Power Plan
By Robert Walton, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
- E&E News reports on some details which have emerged on how the White House intends to approach its rollback of the Clean Power Plan, with plans to argue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its authority in regulating the entire power sector under the Obama administration.
- The strategy, which is largely the same used by opponents of the rule in court, will not attack the underlying science or seek to undo the 2009 endangerment finding that the pollutant threatens public health.
- Details have slowly been taking shape as to what form a replacement for the Clean Power Plan will take. The Trump proposal is now under review by the Office of Management and Budget.
Study: Renewable gas could supply a quarter of Irish natural gas needs
By Sylvester Phelan, AgriLand.
A recent study conducted by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has reportedly revealed that renewable gas from animal manure, grass and food waste could provide more than a quarter of Ireland’s gas needs – if fully utilised.
The study in question found that renewable gas could provide as much as 28% of the overall gas needs by the year 2050.
By Sylvester Phelan, AgriLand.
A recent study conducted by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) has reportedly revealed that renewable gas from animal manure, grass and food waste could provide more than a quarter of Ireland’s gas needs – if fully utilised.
The study in question found that renewable gas could provide as much as 28% of the overall gas needs by the year 2050.
The use of renewable gas could also cut carbon emissions by two million tonnes annually; this is the annual energy consumption equivalent of 360,000 households.
Meanwhile, the report – which looks at the availability of renewable gas sources and estimates the costs and benefits of expanding the sector – highlights that the use of renewable gas could lead to the creation of 3,000 permanent jobs in the industry.
Minnesota Power proposes $700M renewable energy gas plant
By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive.
Dive Brief:
Minnesota Power and Dairyland Power Cooperative formed a joint venture to build a $700 million gas-fired combined-cycle plant with a capacity of 525-550 MW in Superior, WI.
The partners plan to have the plant online by 2025. The new gas plant is part of Minnesota Power's push to wean off coal-fired generation, and will support the influx of renewable energy, the utility said in a statement.
- Minnesota Power also said it has a signed a 20-year agreement to buy wind power from the 250 MW Nobles 2 wind farm being developed by Tenaska and due online in 2019 and a 25-year PPA to buy 10 MW of solar capacity from a project being developer Royalton, Minnesota.
Top Economists say a Carbon Price Above $40 is Needed to Meet Paris Climate Goal
By Inside Climate News.
The fossil fuels that President Donald Trump so brashly promotes may seem like cheap energy sources, but they carry hidden costs that all of society is paying for—from damage caused by extreme weather and rising sea levels to the impacts of severe droughts on food and water security.
As Trump was preparing to pull the United States out of its international climate commitments, some of the world's leading economists issued a report that puts a figure to the price on carbon needed to reduce emissions to rein in climate change and compensate for those external costs. It's significantly higher than what most major economies have in place today.
By Inside Climate News.
The fossil fuels that President Donald Trump so brashly promotes may seem like cheap energy sources, but they carry hidden costs that all of society is paying for—from damage caused by extreme weather and rising sea levels to the impacts of severe droughts on food and water security.
As Trump was preparing to pull the United States out of its international climate commitments, some of the world's leading economists issued a report that puts a figure to the price on carbon needed to reduce emissions to rein in climate change and compensate for those external costs. It's significantly higher than what most major economies have in place today.
The authors, led by former World Bank Chief Economists Nicholas Stern and Joseph Stiglitz, say carbon dioxide emissions will need to be priced at $40 to $80 per ton by 2020 to be high enough to change behaviors and shift investments away from high-emissions fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy. That rises to $50 to $100 per ton by 2030.
Even then, the report says, governments may need to pair a carbon price with other policies, such as efficiency standards, to lower emissions fast enough to keep global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, the goal of the Paris climate agreement.
"While the design of these packages will vary, based on national and local circumstances," the economists argue, "a well-designed carbon-pricing system is an indispensable part of a strategy for reducing emissions in an efficient way."
U.S. Senate Leaders hope to revive energy bill from previous session
By The National Law Review.
Revival of the Comprehensive Energy Bill
Last week, by unanimous consent, the House Energy and Commerce Committee advanced 11 bills governing energy infrastructure and efficiency. The bills address a range of issues including: skill preparation for energy-related jobs; improvement to hydroelectric licensing; retrofits for schools; increasing energy and water efficiency for federal facilities and amending monetary thresholds for mergers of FERC-regulated facilities. Several of the issue areas that these bills address were included in the larger comprehensive energy bill that Congress had tried but failed to pass last session.
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