Solar Energy

In this undated photo, surface mining is underway on a 2,700-acre site in Clearfield County, PA, where the state’s largest solar array could be built. (Swift Current Energy)

The federal government is offering up to $90 million to a renewable energy developer to build Pennsylvania’s largest solar farm on 2,700 acres of reclaimed coal mining land along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River.

Located in north-central Pennsylvania’s Clearfield County, about 20 miles from State College, the $800 million Mineral Basin Solar Project will generate 402 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 70,000 homes.

At the same time, the project can be a valuable model for other state and federal initiatives.

In recent years, there has been a broad push in Pennsylvania to repurpose the state’s abandoned and reclaimed mine lands for renewable energy.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, the Mineral Basin Solar Project by Boston-based Swift Current Energy is intended as a prototype that can be replicated in existing and former mining communities across the country. A grant under the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act of 2021, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.

Also, the Biden administration’s new Justice40 Initiative seeks to direct 40% of the benefits from federal clean energy and climate investments to disadvantaged regions—in this case, declining coal mining communities. About $20 million of the project costs will go toward employee training and community benefits.

Under the project proposal, the developer would partner with local community colleges and other educational institutions to provide job training or retraining for residents in communities across 27 counties in Pennsylvania and New York.

If built, the solar project would boost Pennsylvania’s relatively poor track record of renewable energy adoption, but none of the electricity it produces would power Pennsylvania homes.

This reclaimed mine site in Pennsylvania’s Clearfield County could be home to the state’s largest solar array. The West Branch of the Susquehanna River is visible in the distance. (Swift Current Energy)

Fast current energy

All electricity has been reserved for 20 years by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority to meet its commitment to reach 70% renewable energy by 2030 and a zero-emissions grid by 2040. This is the state’s largest investment in renewable energy. .

The project was one of five selected from 98 applicants that DOE selected to receive up to $475 million in funding to accelerate clean energy development on mine lands. Applicants must meet various technical and public benefit standards along the way to receive their money.

Other projects slated for infrastructure funding will develop geothermal heat and battery storage at copper mines in Arizona; creating a pumped hydroelectric project in a coal mine in Kentucky; building a solar farm and battery storage at gold mines in Nevada; and build a utility-scale solar farm in coal mines in West Virginia.

The mostly open field in Clearfield County, PA sits along the West Branch of the Susquehanna River and was mined until about 24 years ago. A waste coal-fired power plant was once planned there, but never materialized.

Permits for the solar project have been filed through Girard and Goshen Townships and Clearfield County, though more are needed. There were no objections from the residents at the public meetings held regarding the project.

“I’ve been saying this for years. We were a coal economy and we need to move to a clean, green society like everyone else. It’s a big step,” said Clearfield County Commissioner John Glass, who grew up in the area. “I can’t think of a better use of this land than green energy. This is a good project at a good time.”

During the application process, Democratic US Senator Robert Casey sent a letter to the DOE requesting funding for the project. “If successful,” he wrote, “this project could bring the potential of a green energy economy to the coal fields that power our nation’s industrial growth.”

The proposal also pleases the Eastern Pennsylvania Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation, a nonprofit that works with state agencies to make mine lands a priority for clean energy deployment. Pennsylvania has approximately 352,000 acres of mine land suitable for grid-scale solar energy within 2.5 miles of a power substation.

“Such projects relieve pressure on the land [to be used for solar]”, said Robert E. Hughes, executive director of the coalition.

This is not a small idea. “If it replaced good farmland, we wouldn’t support it. But this is a reclaimed minefield in a remote area,” Glass noted.

The broad community benefits required to receive a federal grant can bolster local support, said Rob Swales, the economic development arm of Clearly Ahead Development, Clearfield County.

Swift Current Energy will provide $200,000 annually to the two townships and $1.1 million in annual tax revenue to the county, school district and local townships to support local community projects.

Swift is working with Clearly Head Development to help remove two low-head dams along the West Branch, part of a plan to create new paddling space and open nearly 100 miles of barrier-free river trails.

In addition to already being largely open and graded, the Mineral Basin site has a transmission line from a nearby closed coal-fired power plant. The land for the solar energy field will be leased for the expected 30-year operating period of the facility.

Plans are to grow a mix of native plants under solar panels to enrich the soil and attract insect pollinators. A spokeswoman for Swift said agrovoltaic options, such as farming or raising livestock, would also be explored.

In addition to the solar array, the developers are considering building a battery facility on a nearby property to store some of the electricity generated during the day, which will be distributed to the grid at night or when it’s most needed.

Since its founding in 2016, Swift Current Energy has built more than 2 gigawatts of utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage projects in the United States, primarily in Texas and Illinois. The company said it plans to build an additional 2,000 megawatts of solar, wind and battery storage projects on former mining land in Pennsylvania, enough to power about 344,000 homes.

Swift Energy officials said they want to start construction in 2025 and start generating electricity in 2027. The project will create six permanent jobs and approximately 750 construction jobs.

CEZ Group has developed a new solution to provide solar photovoltaics in unstable underground areas from the center of conveyor belts previously used in strip coal mines. Several piles of steel construction have already been placed in the reclaimed area near the Bilina mine in the north of the Czech Republic.

May 28, 2024 Patrick Jowett

Czech utility CEZ Group has developed a new solution for protecting solar panels in unstable underground areas such as landfills, tailings ponds and other uncertain areas.

It involves the use of the central part of the conveyor belts used in coal mines. Engineers at Prodeco, part of the CEZ Group, are developing prototypes using old mining equipment, particularly the steel structure that forms the central part of the belts.

“We used the central parts of the conveyor belts, which offer great advantages: they are strong because they are designed to work with heavy loads and they have side rails that are currently used for cross-country transport,” the company said.

Luboš Straka, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Proedco, said that the center sections of the conveyor belts offer great advantages because they are designed to handle heavy loads and have side rails that are currently used for cross-country transportation. “This makes these structures suitable for any unstable underground or environmentally loaded subsurface, as they rest only on the surface, are extremely stable and offer a non-invasive method of constructing photovoltaic power plants,” Straka said.

CEZ says that if solar panels were installed on uneven terrain with standard construction, they would clog and crack. By using old steel structures from conveyor belts, the structure bends as a whole after the extracted material settles, so the stress does not affect the solar panels.

CEZ says thousands of these modules will be available at its Bilina mine in the northern Czech Republic after coal mining ceases. Experts have tested the results and several pilot structures have already been placed in the reclaimed area near the Bilina Mine extraction site.

“The positive news is that the performance of the solar panels has not decreased,” said Jan Kalina, head of the Renewable and Conventional Energy Department at CEZ Group. “For unstable subsurfaces, it will be more appropriate to use technologies other than conventional silicon panels, such as thin-film panels without silicon elements, where the semiconductor is applied directly to the glass. “Choosing the ideal technology is now the subject of further development.”

CEZ aimed to create renewable sources with a capacity of up to 6 GW by 2030.

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The governor of Andijan province signed a 100 million dollar solar energy contract with a Russian company

AKIPRESS.COM – Kun.uz reports that the governor of Andijan region Shukhrat Abdurahmonov met with the general director of “Zarubezhneft” OJSC Sergey Kudryashov at the company’s head office in Moscow.

During the meeting, a memorandum on the construction of a solar panel power plant with a total capacity of 100 megawatts and a cost of 100 million US dollars was signed in Andijan province.

In addition, the governor of Andijan province held talks with the management of the “Special Energy” branch of the state corporation “Rosatom” and “Zarubejneft” OJSC and signed a tripartite agreement for the implementation of a $100 million project on household waste recycling and electricity generation.

Imagine if a solar-powered car were released tomorrow, it was cheaper to run than a gasoline-powered car. It would be incredibly attractive until you realize that – due to limitations in battery storage – the car won’t run at night or when it’s cloudy. If you buy the car, you’ll still need a gas car as a backup. You will have to pay for two cars.

This is exactly the situation we face with renewable energy. Wind and solar power only produce power when the sun shines or the wind blows. The rest of the time, their electricity is prohibitively expensive and a backup system is needed. For this reason, two-thirds of our global electricity demand is met by fossil fuels. And that’s why we’re still 100 years away from eliminating fossil fuels in electricity generation.

We are in a strange situation where politicians and the green energy industry constantly repeat that wind and solar are the cheapest forms of electricity. However, governments spend $1.8 trillion annually on the green transition, and the real cost of forcing people to use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels is even higher.

The modern world needs power around the clock. Unreliable and intermittent wind and solar come with huge, often hidden, costs. This is a relatively minor problem for rich countries that already have coal-fired power stations they can use as backup – although it makes electricity more expensive because intermittent renewables make everything else intermittent.

However, the poorest countries that do not need electricity have little fossil fuel energy infrastructure. Hypocritical rich countries refuse to finance much-needed fossil fuel energy in the developing world. Instead, they insist that people cope with unreliable green energy supplies that cannot run pumps or farm machinery to lift the population out of poverty.

For the world’s large, developing industrial nations, such as China, India, Bangladesh and Indonesia, dependence on coal is an inevitable reality. Last year, China generated more additional energy from coal than from wind and solar. India got 3 times more coal, Bangladesh got 13 times more coal from green energy sources, and Indonesia got a staggering 90 times more coal. They don’t drag their feet just to be difficult. Credibility is important – especially when they focus on growing the economy and helping millions of people rise out of poverty.

Misconceptions about the price of wind and solar energy are possible because the price usually quoted is the price when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining. On this basis, they are really relatively cheap. But once you factor in the cost of reliability, the price tag explodes—one peer-reviewed study shows an increase of between 11 and 42 times, making solar the most expensive source of electricity, second only to wind.

Unfortunately, storage technology remains inadequate. Scientists recently looked at the United States and found that to get reliable, 100 percent solar or wind electricity, we need about three months of annual electricity storage capacity. It only has seven minutes of battery life in the US. Closing the storage gap would cost five times the entire US GDP, and the storage would have to be replaced every 15 years.

We must not forget that wind and solar technology must change at a fairly alarming rate. Already, a small town in Texas is overflowing with thousands of giant wind turbine blades that cannot be recycled. In poor African countries, solar panels and their batteries are thrown away. One study shows that this doubles the true cost of solar energy when we factor in the costs of recycling and safe disposal.

If wind and solar power were truly cheaper than fossil fuels, billions of dollars in taxpayer spending would not be needed. This claim is constantly repeated because it is convenient and because it supports the political narrative.

But the truth is, if we want to fix climate change, we need to invest more in low-carbon energy research and development instead. Only a significant push in research and development can lead to the necessary technological advances—in reducing waste, improving battery storage and efficiency, and other technologies such as modular nuclear—that will make low-carbon energy sources truly cheaper. fossil fuels.

Björn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. His new book is False Alarm – How Climate Change Panic is Costing Us Trillions, Hurting the Poor and Failing to Fix the Planet. He wrote this for InsideSources.com.

Latin American startups in the energy sector attracted significant investment, securing more than $750 million in 76 funding rounds from 2021 to April 2024. This information comes from the EnergyTech Report 2024, produced by Distrito, the leading platform for emerging technologies in the region. Brazil dominates the investment landscape, with an 80% share of $605.9 million raised through 61 transactions.

The push for cleaner energy solutions stemming from climate change concerns has spurred the creation of many energy-focused startups. Of the 347 energy technology firms mapped in Latin America, 55% are dedicated to renewable energy solutions such as solar panel installation and photovoltaic system loans. Energy distribution comes with 130 startups offering energy saving and consumption monitoring solutions.

“The energy technology segment is one of the most dynamic segments in the innovation ecosystem,” said Gustavo Gierun, CEO and co-founder of Distrito. He noted that regulatory changes, the expansion of the Free Energy Market, the increasing importance of climate initiatives and corporate capital are the main factors in the development of the sector. Gierun expressed optimism that 2024 could be a banner year for the industry.

From January to April 2024, energy technologies in the region raised $113 million across seven deals, more than half of the $213 million invested in 17 rounds the previous year. The peak year of investments was 2022, 294 million dollars were attracted through 28 investments.

Brazil’s Órigo, which operates solar parks in multiple states, is the most funded company in the region, securing $346.9 million in three of the five largest investment rounds.

Investment Distribution and Trends

Energy distribution leads the investment categories with $417.3 million raised through 57 rounds. This reflects strong market demand for innovations that improve energy supply, support a free energy market and connect consumers to solar parks.

Mergers and acquisitions in the energy technology sector were particularly active in 2022 with five recorded deals. The first four months of 2024 saw three transactions, indicating a potential uptick in activity for the rest of the year.

Key trends driving the sector include electrification and electric mobility, driven by the expansion of the Chinese automotive industry in Latin America and the growing interest in electric vehicles. Government initiatives such as Brazil’s Rota 2030 program aim to support technological development and competitiveness in the automotive sector, along with tax cuts for electric vehicles.

Companies are also focusing on developing long-life batteries, which are essential for storing renewable energy. In addition, microgrids with enhanced battery storage are emerging as viable solutions for local power generation grids for the energy transition, particularly benefiting remote and isolated communities.

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