Energy
Borrega / South Westerlo Solar Farm
"Shepard Farm intends to lease the land to the solar company Borrego, which will operate the panels. The power is expected to go to Central Hudson Gas & Electric. A total of 17,496 panels for the two planned arrays will be used, with a 6,998-kilowatt array located on one parcel of land, and a 2,998-kilowatt array located on another; the land will be surrounded by a six-foot-tall fence with barbed wire. There will also be two areas for transformers, and data acquisition gear to monitor them. The southeast corner of the property was determined to be the only spot where the arrays will be visible" https://savinggreene.com/borrega-projects
Lindytown Coal Mine
Anthracite Coal Mines In Pennsylvania
This map shows were anthracite coal is currently mined in Pennsylvania. Anthracite is the hard coal commonly used by farms and rural homesteads for inexpensive heating -- it is much hotter, drier and warmer fire then wood and last much longer a wood fire. Unlike soft coal, it burns without much soot or odor. Most of the best athracite mines are tapped out, so much of what is mined is refuse coal that is being further processed to extract useful bit of coal previously discarded.
Data Source: PASDA and Pennsylvania DCNR. Anthracite Coal Mines. http://www.pasda.psu.edu/uci/DataSummary.aspx?dataset=366
Coal Miners in Pennsylvania
US unveils solar energy plan for western public lands | Reuters
The Biden administration on Wednesday unveiled a proposal for solar energy projects on federal lands that identifies 22 million acres in 11 western states best suited for development. The announcement is part of the Interior Department's push to site more renewable energy facilities on federal lands, a cornerstone of President Joe Biden's goal to decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035 and combat climate change.
The draft plan published on Wednesday would update an Obama-era policy that established special zones for solar projects in six states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Interior said changes to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) 11-year-old Western Solar Plan were necessary due to advances in technology, soaring demand for renewable energy and increased interest in solar development in northern states.
The new plan includes areas in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming and is focused on lands within 10 miles of existing or planned transmission lines because those areas are easier to develop, Interior said.
It also excludes 126 million acres from development due to conflicts with things like critical wildlife habitats, recreation, historic places and old growth forests. The plan relied on federal forecasts for clean energy needs to determine that 700,000 acres of public lands would be needed for solar energy over the next 20 years.
A huge battery has replaced Hawaiʻi’s last coal plant | Grist
Now, Kapolei’s 158 Tesla Megapacks are charging and discharging based on signals from utility Hawaiian Electric. The plant’s 185 megawatts of instantaneous discharge capacity match what the old coal plant could inject into the grid, though the batteries react far more quickly, with a 250-millisecond response time. Instead of generating power, they absorb it from the grid, ideally when it’s flush with renewable generation, and deliver that cheap, clean power back in the evening hours when it’s desperately needed.