Diary of a Mad Webfarmer

A player like GE could really move the ball in a serious way on storage technologies. Not unlike what they've done in other energy sectors recently. Coming next, hybrid locomotives.

GE Aims to Provide Energy Storage for Trains, Power Grid - Seeking Alpha - 12 May 09

"Sodium batteries haven't proliferated in the market – despite the clamor among investors, utilities and futurists for energy storage solutions – for two reasons. First, the price remains high, about $4,000 to $3,000 per kilowatt-hour, according to Sam Jaffe, senior research analyst with IDC's Energy Insights.

Second, there aren't many manufacturers. Japan's NKG Insulators is the principal large manufacturer of sodium-sulfur batteries and most of capacity for the next two years is sold out, according to Jaffe. The company has participated in trials with American Electric Power (AEP) and Xcel Energy (XEL) and inked deals to sell batteries to the Middle East. In the U.S. startups like GeoBattery concentrate in this area.

GE will come into the market with heft, credibility and, perhaps most important of all, a potential customer base. It will put its first sodium batteries in its own hybrid locomotive in 2010. Afterward, it will look at other transportation markets and the grid."

"Surprise, surprise, surprise." - Gomer Pyle, USMC

Bless their pea-pickin' hearts. When the banks are being beat out in the "contribution" business, you know the congress critters are doing well for these 'constituents".

Nuclear Power Gets Boost From Top Campaign Cash Recipients - Washington Independent - 08 May 09

"Hoyer and Clyburn ranked No. 3 and No. 5, respectively, among active House members on electric utilities’ list of campaign-money beneficiaries during the 2008 election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Since 2003, Hoyer has received $348,800 from the political action committees of electric utilities, compared with $247,500 from investment firms and $133,250 from banks. Clyburn has also received more from electric-utility PACs since 2003 ($183,265) than from banks ($132,800) or investment firms ($102,750).

Another Democrat cited by Roll Call as advocating for more nuclear incentives in the climate bill, House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.), has also taken in far more from electric-power PACs than from famously influential banks and investment firms. Electric utilities have contributed $197,900 to Spratt since 2003, while bank PACs have given him just $56,000 and Wall Street PACs $21,000 during that same period."

"Indeed, the nuclear industry’s biggest players have ramped up their giving to Democrats even further during the first three months of this year. After giving slightly more than half of its donations to Democrats during the 2008 election, the Nuclear Energy Institute PAC sent the majority party more than $56,000 of its $60,000 in first-quarter 2009 campaign donations, according to the Federal Election Commission database.

Duke Energy, which joined NEI as a sponsor of Clyburn’s golf tournament last year, gave $56,000 during the first three months of this year – more than half of what it donated to Democrats during the entire 2008 election season.

'There is no doubt that the tide is moving in favor of nuclear power among Democrats,' Dr. Patrick Moore, the co-founder of Greenpeace turned nuclear advocate at the industry-backed Clean and Safe Energy Coalition, said in an email. Moore said he spoke to the House Nuclear Issues Working Group, which Spratt co-chairs, last week and found a receptive audience."

Democrats Clash on Climate Change - Roll Call - 04 May 09

"Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Budget Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) and Science and Technology Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.) are among those pushing for nuclear power carve-outs in the bill.

Clyburn said he made it clear to Waxman in a meeting Tuesday that nuclear power has to be taken into consideration to get his support, noting that 54 percent of his state’s electricity now comes from nuclear power. 'It has to be fair,' Clyburn said. He made that point in the Thursday meeting, and Hoyer aligned himself with the position, a source said.

Hoyer and Spratt have giant nuclear plants in their districts whose owners are applying to add what would be the first new reactors in the country in decades. Nuclear power would benefit greatly from a cap-and-trade system because the technology does not emit carbon dioxide, but pro-nuclear power lawmakers want a variety of other changes, from financing for nuclear plants to investments in reprocessing facilities to reduce nuclear waste.

And Gordon is pushing for an exemption for new nuclear plants from a requirement that 25 percent of electricity come from renewable, non-nuclear power sources. "

Safe, inexpensive and reliable nuclear power at work. Hopefully it won't catch fire again anytime soon.

Tokyo Electric Quake-Hit Reactor Safe, Governor Says - Bloomberg - 07 May 09

"All seven reactors at the Kashiwazaki Kariwa plant were shut after the 6.8-magnitude earthquake in July 2007 shook it more than assumed possible in its design, triggering a fire and radiation leaks.

Asia’s biggest utility posted its second annual loss on April 30 because of costs related to the shutdown. Japan’s central government and two local mayors have already said the reactor is safe to restart, and assent by Niigata prefecture is the final approval needed. On April 10 Izumida postponed a decision on the reactor’s safety. The following day a fire broke out at the facility, the ninth since the shutdown."

"The latest fire stoked mistrust among local residents, who were concerned about the plant even before the earthquake. In 2002 Tokyo Electric revealed it had fabricated safety reports as far back as the 1980s, and the chairman and president resigned. In February 2007, five months before the earthquake, then- president Tsunehisa Katsumata said the company had found hundreds more incidents of faked safety data.

In December 2007, the utility said it had known since 2003 that a fault running near the site was active, contradicting a survey previously submitted to the trade ministry.

Tokyo Electric posted its first loss in 28 years in the year ended March 2008 and had a 84.5 billion yen ($856 million) loss last year because of the cost of buying fossil fuel at peak prices to boost thermal generation. The 8,212-megawatt Kashiwazaki Kariwa station accounts for more than 10 percent of the utility’s total capacity."

UPDATE 1 - TEPCO to Restart Quake-Hit Nuclear Plant Saturday - Forbes/Reuters - 08 May 09

"The restart could cut TEPCO's annual fuel purchases by more than 70 billion yen ($713 million) and cut carbon dioxide emissions by more than 5 million tonnes, according to company and Reuters calculations."

There's a whole lot less fooling around with this approach. Grow switchgrass or corn stover, burn it in a boiler, make electricity charge your batteries and go.

Bioelectricity Promises More 'Miles Per Acre" Than Ethanol - Science Daily - 08 May 09

"Researchers writing in the online edition of the journal Science on May 7 say the best bet is to convert the biomass to electricity, rather than ethanol. They calculate that, compared to ethanol used for internal combustion engines, bioelectricity used for battery-powered vehicles would deliver an average of 80% more miles of transportation per acre of crops, while also providing double the greenhouse gas offsets to mitigate climate change.

'It's a relatively obvious question once you ask it, but nobody had really asked it before,' says study co-author Chris Field, director of the Department of Global Ecology at the Carnegie Institution. 'The kinds of motivations that have driven people to think about developing ethanol as a vehicle fuel have been somewhat different from those that have been motivating people to think about battery electric vehicles, but the overlap is in the area of maximizing efficiency and minimizing adverse impacts on climate.'"

Anyone have an extra free Dreamwidth invite code they'd be willing to give me?

A lack of candor? From a nuclear utility? :)

CWIP Bill Died From A Lack of Candor - STLToday.com - 26 Apr 09

". . . on April 15, key advocacy groups, including those representing large industrial customers, told AmerenUE they would support CWIP repeal as long as consumer protections stayed in place. Other groups offered similar deals so that the utility could begin recovering its costs immediately. AmerenUE turned those offers down flat.

From the beginning, the new nuke plant was a long shot. Company President Tom Voss told legislators in February that even if AmerenUE got everything it asked for, the chance of building Callaway II was only about 25 percent. What the utility was asking for went way beyond CWIP.

SB 228 would have limited the ability of state regulators to 'disallow' — exclude from electric rates — wasteful spending during plant construction. Mr. Voss referred to that as 'regulatory certainty.' Ratepayers would have called it a very big bump in their bills.

History is instructive. After the first Callaway plant was completed, the Missouri Public Service Commission disallowed $384 million in construction costs. That amounted to about 54 percent of what the company wanted to include in rate hikes."

". . . the debate on SB 228 was marked by misleading claims and fuzzy math — and by AmerenUE's refusal to release important information to support its key assertion: That repealing CWIP would save ratepayers more than any other alternative. Utility experts for the state questioned that claim.

When opponents of SB 228 raised legitimate concerns, AmerenUE refused to address them. When consumer advocates offered compromises, the utility remained intransigent. That kind of behavior may — may — work in some corporate boardrooms, but not in a democracy."

Looks like here's one EPR that will not be making a landing in the neighborhood anytime soon.

A Setback in the ‘Nuclear Renaissance’ - NY Times - 23 Apr 09

"A Missouri utility said Thursday that it was suspending its efforts to build a new nuclear reactor, making its proposed plant, Callaway 2, the first of the “nuclear renaissance” reactors to fall by the wayside."

"The utility, AmerenUE, planned to build a reactor near Fulton, Mo., but first it was seeking changes in the Missouri law governing how new power plants are financed. In a letter on Thursday it asked the sponsors of a new law now moving through the State Legislature to withdraw the measure, because in its current form it would not provide the 'financial and regulatory certainty' the company needed before construction could begin.

AmerenUE wanted to be allowed to charge its customers for financing costs before the plant was finished. A law that did not include that provision 'makes financing a new plant in the current economic environment impossible,'’ the company said."

AmerenUE Pulls Plug on Project - Columbia Daily Tribune - 23 Apr 09

"Within the span of just one legislative session, AmerenUE had tried to change a voter-approved provision of state law that had been on the books since 1976. It prohibits utilities from charging customers for a power plant’s construction until the plant is producing power. AmerenUE said that, without a change in the law, it could not build a power plant costing between $6 billion and $9 billion.

In the year before this legislative session, the AmerenUE Political Action Committee contributed $128,152 to state lawmakers’ political campaigns. The utility also paid thousands of dollars for a televised advertising blitz to garner support for what the company called its Clean and Renewable Energy Construction Act.

But the bill written by the utility’s lawyers ran into a storm of opposition from representatives of residential and industrial customers. Consumer activists said provisions would take away powers of the Public Service Commission to regulate utilities. They said rates would increase by 40 percent if the measure were approved."

I knew this guy getting the chair of the FERC was going to be a good thing. He's right on the money, imo.

Energy Regulatory Chief Says New Coal, Nuclear Plants May Be Unnecessary - NY Times - 22 Apr 09

"No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today. 'We may not need any, ever,' Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.

The FERC chairman's comments go beyond those of other Obama administration officials, who have strongly endorsed greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role. Wellinghoff's view also goes beyond the consensus outlook in the electric power industry about future sources of electricity. The industry has assumed that more baseload generation would provide part of an increasing demand for power, along with a rapid deployment of renewable generation, smart grid technologies and demand reduction strategies."

"'I think baseload capacity is going to become an anachronism,' he said. 'Baseload capacity really used to only mean in an economic dispatch, which you dispatch first, what would be the cheapest thing to do. Well, ultimately wind's going to be the cheapest thing to do, so you'll dispatch that first.'

He added, 'People talk about, 'Oh, we need baseload.' It's like people saying we need more computing power, we need mainframes. We don't need mainframes, we have distributed computing.'"

N-Power Too Costly, Says FERC Official - Deseret News - 22 Apr 09

"'They're too expensive,' Jon Wellinghoff told reporters Wednesday at a press conference in Washington hosted by the U.S. Energy Association. 'The last price I saw for a nuke was north of $7,000 a kilowatt. That's more expensive than a solar system.'

Wellinghoff, a Democrat, was appointed chairman by President Barack Obama last month. He has served on the commission since 2006.

Southern Co. and Dominion Resources Inc. are among companies that have submitted applications to U.S. nuclear regulators seeking permission to build as many as 26 new reactors. There are also plans for as many as 87 new coal-fired plants, according to a report this month by the U.S. Energy Department.

'Coal plants are sort of in the same boat,' Wellinghoff said. NV Energy Inc. in his home state of Nevada canceled plans to build a coal plant there when costs grew too high, he said."

I'm leaving the bad news for tomorrow. :)

Solar Power Cheaper than Utilities for First Time in Northeast - RenewableEnergyWorld.com - 21 Apr 09

"Alteris Renewables and SunRun announced a breakthrough program today for powering Massachusetts homes with clean, renewable solar energy. Through its partnership with SunRun, Alteris Renewables is turning home solar into a monthly service, like cable or any other utility.

With this new program, upfront costs plummet from $30,000 to as little as $1,000 for customers to be able to install solar electric systems on their homes. Customers will enjoy savings from day one with locked-in rates for the next 18 years - a valuable protection from future electric rate increases."

"Electricity rates in Massachusetts have nearly doubled over the last 20 years. If these trends continue, a typical customer could recover their upfront payment in as little as 2 years and see an after-tax return on their investment of as much as 60% or more."

The growth in Chinese wind power is little noted. It's turning out to be huge!

China's Wind-Power Boom to Outpace Nuclear in 2020 - Reuters - 20 Apr 09

"China will have 100 gigawatts of wind-power capacity by 2020, a senior energy official said on Monday, more than three times the 30 GW target the government laid down in an energy strategy drawn up just 18 months ago. 'Installed wind-power capacity is expected to reach 100 million kilowatts in 2020. That will be eight times more than in 2008,' Fang Junshi, head of the coal department of the National Energy Administration, told a Coaltrans conference in Beijing. 'The annual growth rate will be about 20 percent.'

Fang's remarks confirm what industry experts have long maintained -- wind power has the potential to take a much bigger share of China's power mix than the government had planned.

China, the world's second-largest energy user, has around 12 GW of wind-power capacity and has already said it wants to raise that to around 20 GW by next year, suggesting it was on course to smash the 2020 target, which was set in 2007. That means wind is set to be a bigger source of power than nuclear, despite a construction boom in nuclear power plants, and far bigger than solar, which is expected to hit 1.8 GW by 2020, according to the 2007 plan."

Now you know the real reason I'm so full of sweetness and light. :)

Happiness Index: Nebraska Nabs Top Spot - 06 Apr 09 - MainStreet.com

"The Cornhusker state was awarded the top ranking because:

* It ranked 2nd overall in lowest number of foreclosures
* It ranked 2nd in lowest unemployment rates
* It ranked 5th in lowest percentage of non-mortgage debt by income"

"Contrary to popular wisdom that densely populated urban areas of the country have 'recession-proof' housing markets and boast impressively high average salary ranges, The Happiness Index suggests that the Midwest is the main source of financial happiness. After Nebraska in the top spot, Iowa and Kansas came in at 2 and 3 on the list of the most financially happy states.

Other states did better than Nebraska in particular areas, but none had a higher blended average."

Lincoln does pretty good in the business and career rankings too.

Best Places For Business And Careers - #5 Lincoln NE - Forbes - 25 Mar 09

Rankings (Out of 200)

Cost of Doing Business - #21
Cost of Living - #18
Crime Rate - #155

Median Household Income - $52,829
Median Home Price - $135,800

Income Growth - 2.7%
Unemployment (2008) - 3.1%

At least we're supposed to have an operational constitutional rights in this country to prevent unreasonable search and seizure. You can tell from the video that Mel Evans of the Climate Camp is a highly dangerous type who would tease kittens with kibble if allowed to do so. Taxpayer dollars at work again.

( Crackdown on Climate Activists: Police Raid in Nottinghamshire - GritTV )

Franken-Coleman Gravy Train Rides On - Politico - 06 Apr 09

"At least one constituency was thrilled by recent reports suggesting that the seemingly endless Minnesota Senate race could drag out even longer, perhaps for years — Washington fundraisers.

The epic Senate recount battle between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken is turning out to be an incomparable gravy train, lining the pockets not just of the lawyers who are making a small fortune off the case, but also of groups ranging from the Republican Jewish Coalition to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee."

Our local financial bro at it again.

Warren Buffett Takes Charge - Fortune - 13 Apr 09

"Buffett, who is 78, was intrigued by Munger's description of the entrepreneur behind BYD, a man named Wang Chuan-Fu, whom he had met through a mutual friend. 'This guy,' Munger tells Fortune, 'is a combination of Thomas Edison and Jack Welch - something like Edison in solving technical problems, and something like Welch in getting done what he needs to do. I have never seen anything like it.'"

"BYD has also begun selling a plug-in electric car with a backup gasoline engine, a move putting it ahead of GM, Nissan, and Toyota. BYD's plug-in, called the F3DM (for 'dual mode'), goes farther on a single charge - 62 miles - than other electric vehicles and sells for about $22,000, less than the plug-in Prius and much-hyped Chevy Volt..."

Right.

( Thank you again, Jon Stewart )

A couple of excellent tidbits as usual.

(No) Drill, Baby, Drill - Thomas Friedman - NY Times - 11 Apr 09

"The process began in the 1990s when Costa Rica, which sits at the intersection of two continents and two oceans, came to fully appreciate its incredible bounty of biodiversity — and that its economic future lay in protecting it. So it did something no country has ever done: It put energy, environment, mines and water all under one minister."

"...when Costa Rica put one minister in charge of energy and environment, 'it created a very different way of thinking about how to solve problems,' said Rodríguez, now a regional vice president for Conservation International. 'The environment sector was able to influence the energy choices by saying: 'Look, if you want cheap energy, the cheapest energy in the long-run is renewable energy. So let’s not think just about the next six months; let’s think out 25 years.''

As a result, Costa Rica hugely invested in hydro-electric power, wind and geo-thermal, and today it gets more than 95 percent of its energy from these renewables. In 1985, it was 50 percent hydro, 50 percent oil. More interesting, Costa Rica discovered its own oil five years ago but decided to ban drilling — so as not to pollute its politics or environment! What country bans oil drilling? "

Rodríguez also helped to pioneer the idea that in a country like Costa Rica, dependent on tourism and agriculture, the services provided by ecosystems were important drivers of growth and had to be paid for."

"To pay for these environmental services, in 1997 Costa Rica imposed a tax on carbon emissions — 3.5 percent of the market value of fossil fuels — which goes into a national forest fund to pay indigenous communities for protecting the forests around them. And the country imposed a water tax whereby major water users — hydro-electric dams, farmers and drinking water providers — had to pay villagers upstream to keep their rivers pristine."

I had a feeling that the corpse wouldn't be cool before they started up with this song. Sounded to me like the medical people did their thing but the patient or her entourage delayed treatment until it was too late. Reports have it that the first ambulance sent was turned away. Even funnier is that the reforms Obama is pushing have nothing to do with a "single payer" system like that of Canada's. For good or ill. Literally.

Star's Death Fuels U.S. Health Care Debate - National Post - 06 Apr 09

"The news of Natasha Richardson's skiing death had barely sunk in last month when U.S. pundits seized on the tragedy as evidence of an imminent danger facing all Americans.

Citing the nearly four hours it took the British actress to get specialized attention after her head injury at a Quebec ski resort, conservative commentators asked bluntly if Canada's 'nationalized' health care had killed the Broadway star. And more to the point, could the 'Canadian style' system supposedly touted by President Barack Obama bring the same to the United States?"

Richardson Ambulance 'Turned Away' - MSN Movies UK - 19 Mar 09

"An ambulance dispatched to treat actress Natasha Richardson in the immediate aftermath of her fatal ski accident was turned away, it has been reported. Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company Ambulances Radisson, told Canadian newspaper The Globe And Mail paramedics responding to the incident were first told that they were not needed."

Looks like the New Republic took this issue on recently. I doubt that Coleman serious thinks he can pull this out but the Republicans want to keep the margin for a filibuster proof (in theory) Senate from narrowing any further so round and round we go. Maybe if they get it to the Supremes in DC, they can still get a Bush v. Gore type decision. All hell would break loose then. :)

Hey Al, What the Hell Took You So Long!? - The New Republic - 01 Apr 09

"Minnesota is one of the only states in which a certificate of election isn't issued until any and all legal challenges to that election are dealt with. (For instance, although Mary Landrieu's election victory in Louisiana's 1996 U.S. Senate race was challenged in the state courts by her opponent, Louisiana still gave her an election certificate--which is what allowed Senate Dems to seat her provisionally, until her opponents legal challenge was resolved.) So, even though Minnesota's state canvassing board certified that Franken led Coleman by 225 votes on January 5, Coleman's legal challenge prevented Franken, under Minnesota election law, from actually getting an election certificate.

And with Senate Democrats at that very moment refusing to seat Burris because they said he lacked a valid certificate, there was no way, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide, that they could realistically try to seat Franken, who also lacked one, without Republicans filibustering, and not illegitimately. Hence the delay while we waited for Coleman to exhaust his legal challenges."

Thanks to markmc03 for this one. Looks promising at first glance.

Bacterium Eats Electricity, Farts Biogas - New Scientist - 05 Apr 09

"The new method relies on a bacterium discovered by Bruce Logan's team at Pennsylvania State University in University Park. When living on the cathode of an electrolytic cell, the organism can take in electrons and use their energy to convert carbon dioxide into methane. Logan's team discovered this behaviour in a mixed culture of bacteria, dominated by Methanobacterium palustre – the first to be observed directly manufacturing methane in this way. The behaviour had been previously suspected but not confirmed.

Tom Curtis at the Institute for Research on Environment and Sustainability at Newcastle University, UK, says that the use of bacteria, rather than conventional catalysts, is a plus. 'There are no noble metals involved, so it should be very cheap,' he says. Of the energy put into the system as electricity, 80% was eventually recovered when the methane was burned – a fairly high efficiency. 'You don't get all the energy back, but that's a problem with any form of energy storage,' says Curtis."

This time from the great state of Arizona. Looks like the PIRGs are using the same template for multiple areas. Sen. McCain will not be pleased. :)

Utilities Challenged to Justify Nuke Work - Arizona Republic - 04 Apri 09

"Utilities that want to build new nuclear reactors should have to prove they are a better investment than energy efficiency, a new report says. The Arizona Public Interest Research Group Education Fund this week released its 40-page report, titled 'The High Cost of Nuclear Power: Why America Should Choose a Clean Energy Future Over New Nuclear Power.'[PDF] According to the report, utilities can cut the amount of energy they need to supply customers by offering them incentives to install low-power appliances or insulate their homes better. "

"Incentives for energy-conservation cost utilities about 3 cents per kilowatt-hour of energy saved, the report said. Kilowatt-hours are the units of energy that customers are billed for, and utilities serving the Phoenix area charge about 9 cents per kilowatt-hour of energy used, depending on the rate plan. The report says that with the escalating costs of nuclear reactors, utilities would have to charge about 15 cents per kilowatt-hour for power from new reactors. "

More good news. Of course, as Chomsky once said in different contexts, "It can't be happening, therefore, it isn't." What could Germans know about technology and science?

Germany: The World's First Major Renewable Energy Economy - Renewable Energy World - 03 Apr 09

"Germany's Reichstag in Berlin is set to become the first parliamentary building in the world to be powered 100 percent by renewable energy. Soon the entire country will follow suit. Germany is accelerating its efforts to become the world's first industrial power to use 100 percent renewable energy -- and given current momentum, it could reach that green goal by 2050.

A new Roadmap published by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment sketches out the route the world's largest exporter plans to take to switch over completely to renewable energy, and add 800,000 to 900,000 new cleantech jobs by 2030 as it does so."

This wide ranging report from Bloomberg. What's funny is that wind turbine manufacturing uses a LOT of steel and could fire up the silenced plants in that area too. It's all good, imo.

Steel-Mill Wind-Turbines Show Obama's Right or Chases 'Fantasy' - Bloomberg - 02 Apr 09

"Jim Bauer, who lost his job at U.S. Steel Corp. eight years ago, is back at the Pennsylvania plant where he spent 25 years as a crane operator. Only this time he’s making wind turbines for Spain’s Gamesa Corp. Tecnologica SA.

'Wind and solar and geothermal aren’t novelties anymore,' said Bauer, who joined Gamesa in 2006. He says he gets benefits and a $40,000 salary that almost equals his U.S. Steel pay.

Bauer is on the front lines of a debate that has intensified since President Barack Obama in February signed an economic stimulus plan that includes about $70 billion for alternative-energy and conservation programs designed in part to spur the growth of so-called green jobs."

NYISO is the organization that oversees the whole taco of NY state's electrical grid. They have been on the cutting edge of several technological shifts and this new posting on using storage on their system is no exception to that rule. Welcome to the era of the flexible as well as smart grid folks.

NYISO Markets Evolving to Integrate New Energy Storage Systems [PDF] - NYISO Press Release - 24 Mar 09

"The NYISO is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow Limited Energy Storage Resources (LESR) – which includes battery and flywheel technologies – to provide the 'regulation' service needed to balance electrical supply and demand on the grid.
'These new resources are ideal for responding to the moment-to-moment adjustments needed to operate the bulk electricity grid,' said Stephen G. Whitley, NYISO President and CEO. 'As energy technologies continue to advance, the NYISO’s wholesale electricity markets will evolve to integrate new solutions to New York’s energy needs.'"

"Regulation is now provided by power plants that increase or decrease output in response to system needs. LESRs can instantaneously switch from being a load to a generator, thus providing regulation service similar to that of a conventional power plant.

'Energy storage can play a valuable role in the continued development of New York’s wind power resources. The variable nature of wind generation poses special challenges to grid operators, such as the NYISO, who must constantly balance the supply of and demand for electricity on the grid. Flywheels, batteries and other energy storage systems expand our ability to address those needs,' Whitley noted."

Not very good news from across the pond.

Fiscal Stimulus and the Environment - Green Standing - The Economist - 02 Apr 09

"Mr Brown’s green New Deal looks similarly flimsy. On March 31st HSBC, a big bank, published a report ranking countries by how green their economic-stimulus packages were. The bank reckons that Britain is allocating just 7% of its fiscal stimulus to greenery, compared with 12% in America, 34% in China and a whopping 81% in South Korea (see chart). A separate report prepared for Greenpeace, a pressure group, by consultants at the New Economics Foundation (NEF) considers only genuinely new funding and arrives at a figure of just 0.6%, or £120m.

Private-sector caution reflects this official inaction. Lower oil prices, sagging demand for energy and hard-to-get credit have caused many firms to cut back on renewables worldwide. But there are particular problems in Britain, not least the falling pound (most of the wind turbines installed there, for example, are built in continental Europe).

Energy companies such as Centrica and EDF, a French firm, are re-evaluating their British renewables projects. Lord Browne, a former boss of the big British oil firm BP, doubts that Britain’s laissez-faire energy policy is up to the job of decarbonising the economy, and wants state-owned banks directed to finance green-energy projects. (BP has opted out of the British renewables market because it expects low returns.) And last year Royal Dutch Shell pulled out of a £3 billion wind-farm in the Thames estuary."