“Why was there only one bid in response to Rhode Island Energy’s RFP if offshore wind is desirable (politically) and key to decarbonizing our economy? Was it because inflation and high-interest rates caused developers to hesitate over whether they could earn a reasonable profit?”

Last October, Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee announced a request for proposals (RFP) for offshore wind procurement in compliance with a new law.  The law required the State’s primary utility company, Rhode Island Energy, to seek to contract up to 1,000 megawatts (MW) of new offshore wind generating capacity at market-competitive rates. 

This offshore wind procurement has the potential to satisfy 30% of Rhode Island’s estimated 2030 electricity demand.  When added to the 30-MW Block Island Wind farm and the contracted 400-MW Revolution Offshore Wind 1 project, the state will have secured about half of its projected energy needs from offshore wind. …

The near failure of the Texas power grid, coming just 4 minutes and 37 seconds from a complete collapse on February 14, 2021, was the first alarm bell that something was dreadfully wrong with US power grids. Meredith Angwin, a physical chemist and power grid specialist, described the February 2021 failure of the Texas power grid failure as a seminal event that was not a surprise:

Those of us who were watching the grid had noticed for years that Texas ran with a very low reserve margin…and there were predictions that Texas was going to be in trouble, [1],”

Since then, more power-grid operators have been speaking out about the increasing instability of their grids due to an over-weighting of non-dispatchable wind and solar power. A report on February 24, 2023, from the largest power grid in the US, PJM, warned of “increasing reliability risks” affecting 13 states and the District of Columbia and 65 million people who get their power from PJM.…

Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** The Death of a Wind Project 
*** The limitless hidden costs of the “Inflation Reduction Act”

Renewables (General):
*** Seize property to build wind and solar projects, says JP Morgan chief
*** Renewables and Fossil Fuels Are Not Comparable for Their Support of Humanity
*** The great renewables rip-off continues
*** This Is Why ‘Green Solutions’ Are a Gigantic Scam
Communities with renewable energy projects could lose out under NY Gov’s budget
Renewable Energy Crisis Coming and It’s Home Grown!

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** Dem senators from 4 states ask NOAA to address whale deaths
*** Will Offshore Wind Lower Energy Bills?…

“With two of the three projects in trouble, Massachusetts will not meet its clean energy goals, and when they do, the power prices will be higher than expected…. The energy chaos in the state is getting interesting with significant implications for the offshore wind business.”

The ongoing saga of Commonwealth Wind’s future took another twist in late January when it filed with the Massachusetts Supreme Court a petition to set aside the order by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (PUC) issued on December 30, 2022, approving the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) prices negotiated with the three local utilities purchasing the electricity.

The challenging, worsening economics have upset the future of the project. Avangrid, the developer of the Commonwealth Wind project, wishes to renegotiate the PPA prices or to have them rejected by the PUC which would then allow Avangrid to rebid the project’s output in the next Massachusetts wind power solicitation scheduled for this spring.…