Dan Haugen

Freelance Journalist ::: Energy : Sustainability : Technology :::

Archive for the ‘Energy’ Category

Solar suppliers try to find place in the sun

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On their way to becoming solar-electric panels, more than half of the world’s silicon solar cells produced today reportedly pass through a furnace made by a century-old Lakeville manufacturer. What’s more, the company only started supplying the solar industry four years ago. Despatch Industries now owns more than 60 percent of the global market for firing furnaces used in solar cell production, according to John Farrell, managing director of Despatch’s solar business group — its largest segment last year. Despatch has shipped hundreds of solar cell furnaces to China, Taiwan and other Asian countries, where most solar cell manufacturing occurs. Yet its role in the solar industry is mostly unknown in Minnesota. More than 100 years ago, the company began making heaters for Minneapolis streetcars. Today, Despatch is part of what Lynn Hinkle, policy development director for the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association, calls the state’s “invisible” solar supply chain, a cluster of companies quietly producing parts and equipment for the global solar industry. A new push is under way to shine more light on these solar suppliers in hopes of further building up the industry in Minnesota

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Written by Dan

October 24th, 2011 at 2:28 pm

Posted in Business,Cleantech,Energy,Finance & Commerce,Manufacturing,Minnesota

How will Silicon Energy and TenKsolar manage in oversupplied solar panel market?

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Written by Dan

October 24th, 2011 at 1:57 pm

Posted in Business,Cleantech,Energy,Entrepreneurs,Environment,Finance & Commerce,Manufacturing,Minnesota

Improved forecasts for wind farms could save billions

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If the weather report says it’s supposed to be sunny and breezy tomorrow, do you trust that forecast enough to plan a picnic or hike? Probably. But what if instead of a soggy lunch or wet boots, the efficiency and reliability of the region’s electricity grid was at risk? Those are the stakes that grid operators face around the clock as they incorporate wind power into the system. Wind is a variable energy source, which means, unlike coal or gas plants, grid operators never know precisely how much power wind farms will generate at a given time. They depend on weather forecasts to estimate how much power turbines will produce in the hours and days ahead. Those forecasts are critical for getting the most value — economic and environmental — out of wind energy. A grid operator needs to trust a forecast before it will shut down or reduce generation at more expensive and polluting fossil fuel plants. “If grid operators have more confidence in our weather forecasts, they’ll be able to avoid burning excessive fossil fuels,” says Melinda Marquis, a renewable energy program manager with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). That’s why NOAA recently partnered with the U.S. Department of Energy on a study called the Wind Forecast Improvement Project, which will attempt to measure the economic value of improved forecasting to the energy industry. There’s reason to believe that it’s significant. Marquis is co-author of a report published in the September issue of the Bulletin of American Meteorological Society that pegs the number somewhere between $1 billion and $4 billion annually, based on previously published studies.(Continue reading…)

Written by Dan

October 6th, 2011 at 12:07 am

Posted in Cleantech,Energy,Midwest Energy News,Minnesota

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States find new ways to make energy efficiency pay for utilities

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Imagine pulling into a gas station and being offered a complimentary tune-up to improve your car’s fuel efficiency. You’d probably wonder: what’s the catch? So how about when your electric utility gives you a free compact fluorescent light bulb? Or your gas company offers to help pay for new windows or a more efficient furnace? Gas and electric utilities have unique relationships with their customers in that they actually spend money on programs to reduce demand for the products they sell. Why is this? Most states require utilities to invest in conservation programs as part of the regulation they accept for being able to operate as regional monopolies. In other words, they’re doing it because they have to. A growing list of states, however, are experimenting with a new approach. Instead of mandating a minimum investment in energy-efficiency programs, policymakers are designing incentives that reward utilities with new revenue for meeting or exceeding conservation goals.

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Written by Dan

July 26th, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Energy,Environment,Midwest Energy News,Minnesota

Read my story on water scarcity in Twin Cities Business

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I spent a few months this spring looking into the potential risks and opportunities for Minnesota companies as development, pollution, population growth and climate conspire to strain our planet’s fresh water supply. The risk may seem distant here in the land of 10,000 lakes, but in an age when global supply chains span the globe, few industries will be unaffected. Some are already feeling the effects. Meanwhile, the Twin Cities is home to a promising cluster of companies and technologies that could play a role in addressing the coming global crisis. Read more in the July issue of Twin Cities Business magazine.

Written by Dan

July 1st, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Business,Cleantech,Energy,Environment,Minnesota,Technology,Twin Cities Business

Minnesota wind farm drama may be entering final act

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June 28, 2011, Midwest Energy News —  Two fronts have collided before Minnesota utility regulators, and now, observers on both sides are waiting to see which way the wind will blow in what’s been the state’s highest-profile and hardest-fought battle over wind turbine placement.

The proposed $179 million, 78-megawatt Goodhue Wind project would consist of 50 turbines spanning about 32,000 acres of farm land an hour drive southeast of the Twin Cities. The developer is a subsidiary of Mesa Power Group, which is owned by Texas oil-and-gas tycoon T. Boone Pickens.

Last October, about a year after the developer applied for site permits, Goodhue County adopted a setback ordinance that bans wind turbines within 10 rotor diameters, or about half a mile in this case, of any non-participating neighboring home. That’s in stark contrast with state law in Minnesota, which generally requires setbacks between 750 and 1,500 feet based on noise and other factors.

The local ordinance grew out of grassroots opposition from a group of county residents who fear the turbines will upset their quality of life. The developer, which has partnered with about 200 other local property owners, says the project can’t go through under the local setback rules.

Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission is likely to give its final say on the matter Thursday after months of testimony and discussion. Its decision will be the first major test of a 2007 amendment that gave counties limited authority to adopt more stringent wind setbacks than those spelled out in state law.

“It’s certainly something every wind developer is paying close attention to, because one way or another it affects how they’re going to propose their next project,” said Sarah Johnson Phillips, a renewable energy attorney with Stoel Rives in Minneapolis. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Dan

June 28th, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Posted in Cleantech,Energy,Environment,Midwest Energy News,Minnesota

Are renewable standards driving up utility rates?

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When Minnesota passed one of the nation’s most aggressive renewable portfolio standards in 2007, Minnkota Power wasted no time in ramping up its wind capacity. Believing the cost of wind power would go up, the Grand Forks, N.D., generation and transmission co-op locked in long-term contracts to cover its needs for the next 25 years. Then the economy went south, dragging electricity demand and wholesale prices down with it. Minnkota, along with the 11 rural electric distributors it serves in North Dakota and northwestern Minnesota, suddenly found itself stuck with more wind power than it needed. It’s been selling the excess at a loss ever since, making up the difference with a half-cent per kilowatt-hour surcharge on its customers. The fees have helped fuel the perception, particularly among rural electric co-ops, that Minnesota’s renewable energy policy is driving up the price of electricity. Others, though, including state energy officials, point to the utility’s unusually large and early hedge on wind prices as a primary cause of its recent losses. The Minnkota case illustrates just how complicated it can be to calculate the impact of state renewable mandates on electricity rates. Variables such as fuel prices, wholesale rates and energy demand are in constant flux, and decisions about what and when to buy can affect the return on capital investments. With many states’ renewable targets ramping up right as their economies struggle to rebound from the recession, politicians are scrutinizing the costs of renewable policies and requesting information about how they affect electricity rates. They’re not likely to find a simple answer. However, the most comprehensive studies to date and the experience of utilities so far suggest that, by and large, renewable portfolio standards haven’t had a significant impact on customers’ bills. Still, there’s room for more study, and in some states, including Minnesota, there remains relatively little data about the ratepayer impact of renewable policies.

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Written by Dan

May 19th, 2011 at 6:39 pm

Posted in Energy,Environment,Midwest Energy News,Minnesota

Risky Business: How insurers are adapting to climate change

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Risky Business By Dan Haugen In September 2005, Al Gore was scheduled to address the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in New Orleans about the potential impact of climate change on the insurance industry. The meeting was postponed—due to Hurricane Katrina. But the message got across. The hurricane itself served as a wake-up call to the industry, violently illustrating the type of extreme weather climate scientists predict will become more common as the planet grows warmer. In the years since, insurers have launched hundreds of efforts to better assess and mitigate climate change risks. Ceres, a coalition of investors and environmentalists, surveyed insurers in 2008 and counted 643 climate-related initiatives underway at 246 companies worldwide. The efforts range from funding research for new risk models to innovating new products and policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, such as pay-as-you-drive auto insurance. Altogether, they paint a picture of an industry in the early stage of reevaluating both its risk and its responsibility with respect to climate change. What spurred this newfound sense of urgency was the largest single year on record for U.S. catastrophe-related insurance payouts. Average weather-related losses had already been growing faster than premiums, population or the economy, from an average of about $1 billion per year in the 1970s to about $17 billion per year in the decade leading up to and including Katrina. The total for 2005: $71 billion. Allianz, Europe's largest insurer, has said it expects weather-related losses to surge 37 percent during the current decade as intensity and frequency of flooding, wildfires and tropical storms grow due to global warming. U.S. insurers are highly sophisticated when it comes to projecting risk based on historic trends. However, in a changing climate, logic suggests that what happened in the past becomes less telling for the future. The challenge, insurers say, is that most climate change research focuses on long-term global or regional impacts, while most insurance decisions revolve around short-term risk to a specific address or property. There may be strong evidence that climate change will bring more frequent and intense weather-related events. But where? And when?

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Written by Dan

April 20th, 2011 at 3:39 pm

Posted in Business,Cleantech,Energy,Environment,Momentum

Star Tribune picks up Iron Range “clean coal” story

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Change in direction for Iron Range power plant

The Star Tribune ran my Iron Range “clean coal” story today on the back page of the business section. It might be a dying medium, but I still get a little thrill from seeing something I wrote published on newsprint!

Written by Dan

April 8th, 2011 at 10:27 pm

Posted in Business,Energy,Iron Range,Midwest Energy News,Self-Promotion,Star Tribune

10 years, $41 million later, ‘clean coal’ plant still vapor

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HIBBING, Minn. — When a former high school hockey star proposed to develop a $2 billion “clean coal” power plant outside this northeastern Minnesota city, the news couldn’t have come at a better time. The region had just lost 1,400 jobs from a major taconite plant shutdown, the worst economic news to hit the Iron Range in two decades. The prospect of replacing those jobs was celebrated by citizens, politicians and newspaper editorials with the enthusiasm of a March tournament bid. A decade later, after having spent nearly $41 million in taxpayer money, the Mesaba Energy Project still has yet to secure key environmental permits; it hasn’t found a buyer for the electricity it wants to produce, and without a power-purchase agreement, it can’t find investors to fund construction. The project’s backers are now changing their approach, seeking approval from the state’s legislature to shelve the “clean coal” component — temporarily, they say — and move forward instead with a conventional natural gas power plant. That has opponents changing their cries from “boondoggle” to “bait-and-switch” and some speculating whether the apparent change in strategy might be a Hail Mary attempt to salvage something from the long controversial energy project. Or, in keeping with hockey analogies: “They are pulling their goalie, because they need to score a goal now,” said Aaron Brown, an author and newspaper columnist who has followed the project since 2001, first as a reporter and then as editor of the Hibbing Daily Tribune (he’s also chronicled the project on his blog, Minnesota Brown).

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Written by Dan

April 5th, 2011 at 2:59 pm

Posted in Business,Energy,Environment,Iron Range,Midwest Energy News,Minnesota,Politics

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