Huge wind project moves forward despite states' objections

The Department of Energy announced Friday it will permit a major expansion of the nation’s wind energy lines.

The power line project, which will move 4,000 megawatts of power from Texas and Oklahoma through Arkansas and into the Southeast, has faced opposition from landowners and state leaders, but the DOE used a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to bypass state approval of the project. It is projected to cost $2.5 billion and bring power to 1.5 million homes.

While clean energy advocates may be celebrating, not everyone is as pleased.

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“Basically this decision says that Washington, D.C., knows more than the people of Arkansas do about whether to build across the state giant, unsightly transmission towers to carry a comparatively expensive, unreliable source of electricity to the Southeast where utilities may not need the electricity,” said Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander. “This is the first time federal law has been used to override a state’s objections to using eminent domain for sitting electric transmission lines. It is absolutely the wrong policy.” The Republican senator has received a 20 percent lifetime score on his environmental voting record by the League of Conservation Voters, which is admittedly better than most of his peers.

The DOE, however, says the project will do much to modernize the nation’s energy grid, as well as help address climate change from carbon emissions.

“Moving remote and plentiful power to areas where electricity is in high demand is essential for building the grid of the future,” said Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz in a statement. “Building modern transmission that delivers renewable energy to more homes and businesses will create jobs, cut carbon emissions, and enhance the reliability of our grid.”

The effort to modernize the grid has largely stalled since the ’80s, as the New York Times reports, despite increasing urgency from the threat of climate change. While the company building the line, Clean Line Energy Partners, will be required to acquire the land the lines are built across, the developers will be able to use eminent domain if negotiations fail by invoking the Energy Policy Act.

Construction is projected to begin in 2017.

Huge wind project moves forward despite states" objections

Govt planning huge thrust to revive biofuel, hydro power: Piyush Goyal

Piyush Goyal, Minister or state with independent charge for power, coal, new and renewable energy, admitted at the Make in India, Mumbai edition that biofuel and hydro power had taken a bit of a backseat recently, but added that there would be a big thrust to get them going again.

“We ask ourselves: can we do away with petroleum products for biofuel?” said Goyal. He said solar and wind had matured “to a level in India” and the focus of his ministry will now be on biofuel. “Now, we want an end-to-end solar manufacturing base in India,” added Goyal.

Responding to a question on whether the manufacture of polysilicon filaments was power-intensive and raised production costs, Goyal said his ministry had been working with states to give sops to companies making the product. “Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have some amazing incentives for such companies,” Goyal added.

The minister also said that he would try to woo international companies to invest in India and left the door open to both debt or equity inflows.

Funding, however, he said would not be issue — a statement that was echoed by Rana Kapoor of Yes Bank as well, in a later address.

“I expect manufacturing costs to get cheaper in the next 18 months,” said Goyal. The costs, however, would only drop if Indian banks stepped forward especially when it came to working capital, said Tulsi Tanti, MD, Suzlon Energy.

Tanti explained that capital was difficult to come by and urged Karnam Sekar, deputy managing director, SBI and Kapoor of Yes Bank to be proactive. “The government should take care of the hedging… you could hedge power cost for 25 years and make back some of the investments,” said Tanti.

He also asked the minister to relax the norms on energy export. “We need more research and development facilities in India or… five per cent rebate,” Tanti added. He said that if some of these were made available, solar energy manufacturers could drop the price by Re 1. The solar power rate currently is Rs 4.34 a unit, a record low. Goyal said he was hoping that solar power would break the Rs 4 threshold soon.

The minister also asked entrepreneurs to take on the challenge put forth by wind energy.

Currently, India produces 5,000 Mw of solar energy and 18,000 Mw of wind energy. According to the Workd Bank, the country plans to reach 100,000 Mw production of solar energy and 60,000 Mw of wind energy by 2020.

Govt planning huge thrust to revive biofuel, hydro power: Piyush Goyal

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