Wind Turbines not the answer in coal country. Or anywhere else. In 2022, the country’s first major climate policy, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, passed with the promise to speed up that transition, offering at least $4 billion to boost development of renewable projects like the Pinnacle Wind Farm in Keyser.
Keyser got the jobs, all six of them. Nuff said.
Why we don’t need Wind and Solar as a major supplier of energy. Power plant at landfill updated.
EDL, a global energy producer, and project stakeholders including Republic Services have started operations at the Carbon Limestone Renewable Natural Gas Facility near Youngstown.
EDL owns and operates a portfolio of 97 power stations in North America, Australia and Europe. It has upgraded an existing landfill gas-to-energy power plant to a renewable natural gas facility near Republic Services’ Carbon Limestone Landfill. It is said to be one of the largest plants of its kind in North America.
Renewable natural gas is biogas that has been upgraded and placed in the conventional natural gas system.
Partners in the venture are NW Natural Renewables and Pennant Midwest. A goal of the project, those involved said, is decarbonizing their energy system across North America and reaching climate goals.
The new facility is designed to process and condition landfill gas — a by-product of naturally decomposing materials in the Carbon Limestone Landfill — and is expected to ramp up to 1.7 million British thermal units of pipeline-quality renewable natural gas in 2024.
Richard M. DiGia, EDL chief executive officer-North America, said EDL is proud to leverage its waste-to-clean energy expertise to drive development and construction of the Carbon Limestone project.
“The limestone facility is one of the largest plants of its kind in North America. It captures landfill gas that would otherwise be wasted and converts it into renewable natural gas that is a clean fuel source for powering vehicles, heating homes through the natural gas system, or electricity generation,” DiGia said.
“This facility is designed to produce volumes of RNG comparable to removing the emissions from 13,170 passenger vehicles from our roads each year. … We’re pleased to be assisting a key customer to progress toward their goal of decarbonizing through renewable natural gas supply.”
Republic Services Inc. provides customers with services such as recycling, solid waste, special waste, hazardous waste, container rental and field services. Republic Services said it has set ambitious sustainability goals to reduce emissions and increase the beneficial reuse of biogas by 2030.
“At Republic Services, our vision is to partner with customers to create a more sustainable world now and for future generations,” Republic Services Area President Chris Nie said.
“Through our partnership with EDL, we are capturing gas that is created by decomposing waste in our landfill. This project allows us to convert that gas into a lower-carbon fuel source that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”
NW Natural Renewables, a competitive RNG business, has agreements in place for a 20-year supply of RNG produced by the facility. NW Natural Renewables Holdings said it is committed to leading in the energy transition and providing renewable fuels to support decarbonization in the utility, commercial, industrial and transportation sectors.
“We’re excited for this project to begin operations and start providing renewable natural gas to NW Natural Renewables and its customers,” said Mike Kotyk, president of NW Natural Renewables. “We believe renewable natural gas will play a critical role in decarbonizing our energy system across North America and helping us reach our collective climate goals.”
Pennant will transport up to 6,000 cubic feet of RNG per day through its existing system from the landfill, redelivering the gas to EDL’s downstream markets. Pennant is a wholly owned subsidiary of UGI Energy Services
Pennant Midstream operates both wet and dry gas and natural gas liquid gathering pipelines in Mercer and Lawrence counties, Pa.; and Mahoning and Columbiana counties in Ohio. Pennant operates a giant natural gas processing plant located near New Middletown.
Here’s what you get with Wind and Solar. 2/3 of the country may suffer blackouts. Large swathes of the U.S. could suffer blackouts this summer, according to the annual assessment from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).
So as we continue to shut down coal and Natural Gas plants the threat gets greater for summer black outs. Wind and Solar just aren’t reliable. They say wind and solar are less expensive but you see the cost rising nation wide.
Those regions include the entire continental U.S. from Texas to the West Coast, along with large portions of the Midwest and New England.
