Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2013

 

 

This edition of the Quarterly is a special one — it’s the first newsletter we’ve researched, written and edited using solar energy! Since August 2, Nukewatch’s 10 kW photovoltaic solar panel array has been supplying clean, renewable electricity to the office and nearby buildings through a grid-tied system. In its first month of energy production, the array has produced over 1,320 kWh of electricity, about 900 kilowatt hours of which powered neighboring homes and shops. This excess electricity was sold to the local electric cooperative through a net-metering program which has already earned the Plowshares Land Trust over $100. A real-time graph showing our energy use vs. production is available online at <http://egauge5626.egaug.es/> (also linked from our website at www.nukewatchinfo.org) — check it out! (A snapshot of August’s production graph is shown at left.)

Nukewatch’s investment in this solar energy system was made possible by a generous gift from the Ethel and Carl Sanjines Trust. We could not think of a better way to make use of this substantial donation than one that for decades supports a permanent, safe alternative to nuclear and fossil fuel-based electricity — and reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 13.8 tons per year.

We expect the project to pay for itself after 12 years, if not sooner (depending on electricity prices), and the panels are rated to last at least 25 years. This payback period would have been even shorter if we were a for-profit business taking advantage of the federal solar tax credit. The credit is not available to 501(c)(3) non-profits like Nukewatch.

The installation was done by Kris Schmid and his team from Legacy Solar of Frederic, Wisconsin. Its 39 panels (each able to produce 255 watts of electricity) were made in the US by SolarWorld of Portland, Oregon. The array is in an open field a few hundred yards from the office, set on racks made by US Solar Mounts in Sparta, Wisconsin. A large inverter converts the direct electric current from the panels into alternating current that is fed to the electric grid.

As an organization, we’re glad to have this opportunity to take an active role in the renewable energy solution to problems of climate change, fossil fuel pollution, dangerous nuclear power and the legacy of nuclear waste. We welcome visitors, so if you’d like to come and see the installation, please call Nukewatch at (715) 472-4185. — ASP 

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2013

WASHINGTON, DC — The federal government has finally taken steps to support wind power by leasing federal waters off the Atlantic coast for large wind farms. The first lease, 164,750 acres of federal waters off the coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts, could produce as much as 3,400 megawatts of electricity — enough to power more than one million homes. On July 31, 2013, Deepwater Wind of Providence, Rhode Island was awarded the first lease for offshore wind development by the Interior Department. According to Tommy Beaudreau, director of Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, “This sale marks a really historic moment in the clean energy future of this country.” The second lease sale is slated for the coastal waters of Virginia. On Sept. 4, Interior will auction 112,799 acres. The area, to be sold under a single lease, is expected to power 2,000 megawatts of wind generation — enough to electrify 700,000 homes. A federal undersea transmission line called “Atlantic Wind Connection” will eventually carry power from these offshore turbines to onshore distribution centers. — PVB

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2013

Since any wind turbine is a good one, we put this in the good news column. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has contracted with Germany’s Siemens Corp. to build a wind farm that will provide 60 percent of the electricity for its Pantex H-bomb facility in the Texas Panhandle. The Energy Department uses the complex for nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly. Sited in a wind-rich area of West Texas, the wind power is expected to save the government an average of $2.9 million a year over the 20-year contract period. Construction is set to begin in December. — Greentech Media, Aug. 6, 2013