Month: February 2021

A Clean Grid Needs Transmission. Can We Build it in Time?

Volts:

A company called Direct Connect is currently in the development and permitting phase of a privately financed, $2.5 billion project called the SOO Green HVDC Link, a proposed 349-mile, 2.1-gigawatt (!), 525-kilovolt transmission line to run underground along existing railroad from Mason City, Iowa, to the Chicago, Illinois, area. It aims to go into operation in 2024.

Going underground will allow the line to minimize environmental and visual impact. It will be much more resilient than an overhead line against weather, temperature shifts, sabotage, or squirrels. 

Two side-by-side cables will run through tubes of Cross-Linked Polyethylene (XLPE) and will be self-contained, lightweight, and easy to handle. They won’t get hot, interfere with signaling equipment (unlike AC lines), or affect rail operations. There are fiber-optic sensors along the lines to monitor sound and heat for any problems. 

(Nemo Link, the world’s first 400 kilovolt line using XLPE, runs undersea between the UK and Belgium; it began operation in January 2019.)

Running alongside the railroad means SOO Green will have no need to claim land via eminent domain. Almost all of that railroad is owned by Canadian Pacific (one of seven large “class one” railroads in the US), so there are a tractable number of parties to deal with. 

A deal like this offers railroads a new passive revenue stream; royalty fees well exceed what they get from similarly buried fiber-optic lines, of which there are more than 100,000 miles along US railroads. And it’s also a chance for railroads to be part of a positive sustainability story. 

The project is privately funded, so there will be no need for any complicated cost-allocation formulas. The financiers (including Siemens, which very rarely puts direct capital in transmission projects) will make their money back from those who use the line — the suppliers that put power on it, the shippers that sell power across it, and the buyers that consume the power — through competitive bidding for capacity. SOO Green is holding an open solicitation right now to allocate its 2,100 megawatts among them.

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Watch this (Meat) Space. Doing the Impossible.

Reuters:

Impossible Foods said on Tuesday it would cut the prices of its faux meat patties by 20% at U.S. grocery stores as the plant-based protein maker ramps up production with a larger plan to eventually undercut ground beef prices.

Impossible Foods, the maker of the plant-based Impossible Burger, and rival Beyond Meat Inc have been the leaders in plant-based alternatives over the past two years as consumers, worried about their health, environmental impact and animal welfare, look to broaden or shift from chicken, pork and beef-based diets.

Demand for plant-based meat also rose during the pandemic after beef and pork producers shut many meat plants to curb the rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak.

California-based Impossible Foods, which has already cut prices for food distributors twice in one year, said it would keep lowering prices of their products.

CBS’s Jeff Berardelli on the East Coast Blizzard and Climate Change

CBS @weatherprof helps explain – Climate Change and the East Coast’s Blizzard

“If there’s global warming, how can we be having a blizzard?”
Fortunate that Jeff Berardelli is also my colleague as a contributor to Yale Climate Connections.
Connection between winter storms and climate change explored here.

Below, some of the best respected arctic experts on the planet helped me understand and explain the issue a few years ago.

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Insurance Industry Pulling Plug on Fossil Fuels

Nothing happens in the Economy without insurance.
Could the insurance industry be a driver of climate action?
More on this in upcoming Yale Climate Connections vid, stay tuned.

Property Casualty 360:

Both Zurich Insurance Group and AXIS Captial recently announced their intentions to cease insurance coverage for controversial oil and gas projects as the insurance industry continues on a rapid trend towards climate-friendly policies.

In a letter to the Gwich’in Steering Committee, AXIS declared that it would not provide coverage or investment support for projects related to exploration, drilling, or oil or gas production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, becoming the first North American insurer to make such a commitment. AXIS also became the first U.S. insurer to restrict coverage for coal and tar sands projects in Oct. 2019.

According to Bloomberg, Zurich will stop providing insurance services to the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) gas pipeline, which would transport natural gas from Russia to Germany. The Swiss insurer is the third insurance company to cut ties with the NS2. Most recently, the European Parliament demanded construction to stop on the NS2 on Jan. 21 in response to Russia arresting Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny. The NS2 also faced U.S. sanctions in 2019, with further sanctions expected with the new Biden administration.

Insurers are increasingly recognizing the financial and reputational risks of underwriting fossil fuel projects. According to The Sunrise Project, a total of 26 global insurance companies have ended or limited coverage for coal projects, with many also moving to restrict services in the oil and gas sectors.

AXA XL and Swiss Re pledged not to support projects contributing to Arctic Refuge destruction last year. In July 2020, German insurer Talanx dropped its coverage of Canada’s controversial Trans Mountain pipeline, which has a history of causing major environmental and public health hazards.

Grand Forks Herald (North Dakota):

Insurance premiums that coal plants and mines pay for property and casualty insurance have risen anywhere from 20% to 100%, and the number of major insurance companies willing to cover the industry has dwindled to five or 10.

Continue reading “Insurance Industry Pulling Plug on Fossil Fuels”