U.S. grid needs operators to plan now with a blend of energies including batteries, gas and coal

North American Electric Reliability Corporation graph

Fueled by increased demand and shrinking power options, the U.S. electricity grid is headed toward a reliability crisis. "Tens of millions of people face a growing risk of blackouts over the next five years, according to an annual assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, a nonprofit organization that works closely with federal regulators," reports Brad Plumer of The New York Times.

As AI data center builds have continued to demand more grid power, many "utilities are retiring older coal- and gas-burning plants and aren’t adding enough generation to dependably meet growing demand," Plumer explains. The report lists regions in Texas, the upper Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic region and the Pacific Northwest as most "at risk of electricity shortfalls."

How electricity is produced is at the heart of electricity reliability and a contentious point of national political debate. "President Trump has said that policies to fight climate change and promote wind and solar energy have weakened the reliability of electric grids, since wind turbines and solar panels can’t run at all hours," Plumer writes. But renewable energy advocates say that "Trump administration efforts to hinder wind and solar projects are depriving the grid of a fast-growing source of power."

Battery build-outs can help regional power operators create a more resilient grid that can meet demand even during extreme heat or cold snaps. "In MISO, a grid spanning 15 states in the Midwest and South, more than one-third of coal plants are set to retire by 2030," Plumer reports. "But the grid operator recently instituted a plan to speed up the connection of new gas plants and batteries over the next five years."

The report offers a list of recommendations for operators to start planning now, including "speeding up permitting processes for new power plants and transmission lines, and policies to ensure that large new sources of demand, such as data centers, don’t overwhelm the grid," Plumer adds. "It also suggests that utilities and grid operators should be careful about shutting down older coal and gas plants too quickly."

Wind farm projects are 'teetering on the brink,' despite soaring electricity demand

Wind power is being blown over by opposition from local residents, who don't like the look of turbines, and the Trump administration, which ended federal tax credits and has worked to stall federal permitting approvals. Without robust growth in wind power, experts are doubtful the U.S. will be able to meet future electricity demand.

In states that were once turbine-friendly, "new wind project developments are teetering on the brink, despite growing power demand," report Dan Gearino and Anika Jane Beamer of Inside Climate News. "Even Iowa, the nation’s most wind-powered state, is 'closed for business,' experts say."

Graph by Paul Horn, ICN, from Energy Information 
Administration data 

Although the Trump administration's resistance to offshore wind farms may be more familiar to Americans, the administration's weakening of land-based or 'onshore' wind development will have a much larger impact on the nation's power grid. Gearino and Beamer write, "In 2024, the most recent full year for which data is available, wind energy produced 7.7% of the nation’s electricity, more than any other renewable source."

Atin Jain, an energy analyst for the research firm BloombergNEF, told ICN, "U.S. onshore wind is in its weakest shape in about a decade, not because the technology has stopped being competitive, but because the policy and, to an extent, the macro-environment have turned sharply against it."

During the early to mid-2010s, many Iowa landowners and local governments welcomed wind farm developments and the significant revenue they generated. Opposition from residents was sporadic and generally ineffective, but "in the late 2010s, something changed," Gearino and Beamer explain. "In both Iowa and nationwide, wind energy projects began to face local opposition that was more aggressive and better organized than before."

The era of growth in Iowa’s wind industry "is almost certainly nearing its end," ICN reports. "The resistance comes almost entirely from the local level. . . . Roughly 58 of Iowa’s 99 counties now have rules designed to limit wind power development, including many of the counties with the strongest wind resources."

Opinion: As the Trump administration puts the brakes on clean energy support, many rural farmers will feel the loss

Solar panels can help cut energy costs for farm operations like dairies. 
(Photo by S. Patrick, Portland Herald, Getty via The Conversation CC)

Wind and solar power add grid support and help farmers maintain steady incomes when weather, bugs or market upheavals make farming less profitable. Particularly for rural communities, taxes generated by renewable energy help local budgets pay for schools, roads and health care. "But some of that opportunity is now at risk as the Trump administration cuts federal support for renewable energy," writes Paul Mwebaze in his opinion for The Conversation.

In areas with wind turbines, farmers lease their land in return for payments. "Those historically were around $3,000 to $5,000 per turbine per year, with some modern agreements $5,000 to $10,000 annually, secured through 20- to 30-year contracts," Mwebaze explains. Roughly a third of the $3.5 billion paid out on wind turbine leases goes to rural landowners.

Solar energy adds to a farmer's bottom line by providing cheaper electricity throughout an agricultural operation. "Farmers use rooftop panels on barns and ground-mounted systems to power irrigation pumps, grain dryers and cold storage facilities, cutting their power costs," Mwebaze writes. 

In some rural communities, renewable energy is the "largest new source of economic activity, helping stabilize local economies otherwise reliant on agriculture’s unpredictable income streams," Mwebaze adds. The Iowa turbine blade factory, TPI Composites, serves as an example of how clean energy stimulates rural manufacturing. TPI "just reopened its plant in Newton, Iowa. Tax benefits in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act helped boost [the industry] and the jobs and local tax revenue they bring in."

The Trump administration has "rolled back many clean energy incentives. It phased down tax credits for distributed solar projects, particularly those under 1 megawatt, which include many farm‑scale installations, and sunsets them entirely by 2028," Mwebaze explains. "It also eliminates bonus credits that previously supported rural and low‑income areas."

Renewable energy is one way the federal government could continue to invest in rural America, providing energy for communities and generating a reliable income source for farmers and smaller municipal budgets. "I believe homegrown renewable energy offers a practical path forward," Mwebaze writes. "Wind and solar aren’t just fueling the grid; they’re helping keep farms and rural towns alive."

Renewables helped some states breeze through this summer's punishing heat and energy demands

Renewable energy has helped some states meet
or exceed energy needs. (Adobe Stock photo)

This summer's extreme heat forced energy operators to rely on solar and wind electricity to keep the U.S. grid humming, even as Americans "cranked their air conditioning," report Katherine Blunt and Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal. "Extreme heat pushed electricity demand to new highs . . . . States such as California and Texas that in recent years have bet big on renewable energy and battery storage easily met electricity demand."

California and Texas residents in some areas had "experienced rolling blackouts in 2020 and 2021, respectively. In 2022, grid operators in both states called on residents to conserve electricity during extremely hot weather and almost resorted to rolling blackouts as supply margins shrank," the Journal reports. "Since then, California. . . has built one of the world’s largest fleets of batteries that store solar power during the day and discharge it in the evening. Texas, meanwhile, now rivals California in storage capacity."

Even during this summer's extreme heat, the flow of energy in California was markedly different. "As extreme heat blanketed much of the West this summer, regional power demand reached a record high of nearly 168,000 megawatts on July 10," Blunt and Hiller explain. "Yet California, which has historically imported large amounts of electricity from other states during heat waves, had surplus to send elsewhere. . . . Temperatures also surged in Texas, [where] there was plenty of solar to meet peak demand around 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., and adequate wind power in the evening."

States that don't yet house the energy storage of Texas or California have tighter margins to manage. "Lanny Nickell, chief operating officer of the Southwest Power Pool, which operates part of the grid and a regional power market stretching from the Texas Panhandle to North Dakota, said his organization this summer had its smallest-ever seasonal cushion of electricity reserves," the Journal reports. "He said it is working to encourage investments in a range of new resources, as well as new means of importing power from other areas when supplies are tight."

'On the Front Porch' conversation will explore rural clean energy transitions and how communities can benefit

Tony Pipa and Sarah Mills will discuss energy transitions
in rural America. (Brookings photos)

"On the Front Porch" host Tony Pipa will discuss the ways, means and challenges of energy transitions in rural America with Sarah Mills, an energy policy and land-use expert from the University of Michigan. The event is on Sept. 18 at 4 p.m., E.T. Register here to watch online.

To take an "on the ground look" at rural energy decisions in action, Pipa and Mills will examine the benefits and pitfalls of a wind farming venture led by a small group of farmers in rural Michigan. Their conversation also will examine:

• The centrality of rural America in the country's transition to clean energy
• Trade-offs rural communities face when considering energy projects
• How community-centered approaches can help rural places maximize the community and economic development benefits

This event is a part of Election ’24: Issues at Stake, a Brookings initiative aimed to bring public attention to consequential policy issues confronting voters and policymakers in the run-up to the 2024 election.

Earlier conversations from On the Front Porch can be found here.  

In a first, the Conservative Energy Network hosts a national conference to promote 'eco-right' agenda

Participants at this year's Conservative Energy Summit.
(CEN photo via USA Today)

These "going green" supporters aren't touting climate change as their reason for supporting renewable energy. Instead, they are making a case for solar, wind and nuclear power because they believe those energy sources will help make and save Americans money, reports Elizabeth Weise of USA Today. "Conservative voices have never been absent from discussions around clean energy, but the Conservative Energy Network is part of a new 'eco-right' that's emerged."

The CEN sponsored the Conservative Energy Summit in Houston, Texas, this month, which was the first time "it brought together more than 200 people from around the country to discuss how best to champion energy sources they believe will restore American energy leadership, save people money, create jobs and secure the power grid," Weise explains. "That doesn't necessarily mean believing in climate change, speakers said. Anyone who supports free markets can see that cheap, renewable energy is the future."

Pat Wood of the Hunt Energy Network in Dallas told Weise, "We need to get the politics out of the energy business." Weise reports, "Speaker after speaker argued that free market competition, consumer choice, private property rights and cutting government overregulation are fundamentally Republican values. If those principles prevail, clean energy will thrive in the U.S., they believe."

Marshall Conrad, vice president of government relations at Strata Clean Energy in North Carolina, told Weise, "In rural, red areas, we’ve got to repudiate the feeling that Democrats are trying to force clean energy projects down our throats." Weise adds, "The Conservative Energy Network came into existence to help provide an alternative view of renewable energy at the state and county level."

Some of the CEN and its offshoots efforts include "championing the property rights of farmers and ranchers to build solar or wind on their property, fighting over-regulation and getting power projects built that bring significant revenue to rural communities without raising taxes, said Bradley Pischea, national director of the Land & Liberty Coalition," Weise explains. "They also spend a lot of time fighting misinformation about new kinds of energy."

When smartly planned, windfarms can be adaptable, efficient and incorporate crops, a new study says

Wind turbines take up only 5% of the land.
(Adobe Stock photo)

Instead of hogging up large expanses of usable land, wind farms can "grow" among crops or infrastructure needs. "The huge structures topped with massive rotating blades only take up five percent of the land where they've been built," reports Allyson Chiu of The Washington Post. "The rest of the space can be used for other purposes, such as agriculture, according to a study published recently in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Science and Technology. . . . .This means developers could fit turbines in places that are often perceived as unsuitable for a wind farm."

Intelligent planning can help wind turbines work with the land and regional needs. Sarah Jordaan, the study's principal investigator, told Chiu, "Use of existing infrastructure, multiple use of landscapes — all these things. . . can really contribute to solutions in areas where wind power is acceptable to the local people."

The study highlighted best practices for wind farm builds. Chiu reports, "Wind farms that piggybacked on existing infrastructure, such as roads, disrupted less land and were about seven times more efficient than projects constructed from the ground up, according to the study."

While many experts agree that improving wind turbine placement and integration into surrounding land needs is helpful, wind farms will still face opposition for other reasons, including visual impact on landscapes, noise, and bird and bat deaths.

Despite challenges, many U.S. citizens "appear to support renewable energy projects, including wind turbines," Chiu writes. "A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll conducted last year reported that large and bipartisan majorities of Americans said they wouldn't mind fields of solar panels and wind turbines being built in their community."

Winter is almost here and many states have power grids unprepared for extreme weather, new report warns

Dusk in rural Maine. The state faced rolling power outages last
December. (Photo by Andrew Dickinson, The Washington Post)

Winter is coming and many states have power grids unprepared to handle the cold. Their possible failure leaves thousands of residents vulnerable to dangerous outages. "The nation's power grid faces a sharp risk of buckling in the event of major storms or prolonged cold snaps this coming winter, according to the regulator that monitors the electricity system," reports Evan Halper of The Washington Post. 

While the deadly 2021 grid failures in Texas may come to mind, swaths of the country face a similar threat. Halper writes: "A sweeping portion of the country that extends from Texas to the Canadian border is not adequately equipped for tough winter conditions, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned. . . . The report is a sobering assessment of a power grid that continues to fray and suffer from underinvestment, despite promises by politicians and regulators to shore it up following deadly blackouts in recent years."

Jim Matheson, CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which represents 900 local electricity providers, told the Post, "This forecast again shows that our nation faces looming grid reliability challenges while demand for electricity continues to soar. That's unacceptable and should be cause for concern for all Americans."

During stretches of sustained cold, natural gas generation is a weak link "as power plants and the infrastructure that delivers fuel to them are destabilized by the strain of extreme cold," Halper reports. 

While many states have been working to repair and prepare their systems, Texas has not been able to work fast enough. The reports showed "more power generation is at higher risk of energy shortages this winter than last because it is not bringing enough new power online to meet the state's surging demand, and its existing infrastructure has not been adequately weatherized," Halper adds. "New England meanwhile is struggling with its own natural gas infrastructure issues that create a threat in that region, the report found. And in a number of Mid-Atlantic and southeastern states, the demand for electricity at peak times has increased, while the amount of power available 'has changed little in these areas since Winter Storm Elliott caused energy emergencies across the area,' the report found."

As states move from traditional energy to renewables such as solar and wind, their impact also influences grid integrity. "Some, including Matheson's group, argued the report exposes the risks of tough new emissions rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency, which they say will further destabilize the system," Halper reports. "But others point to considerable research that finds the proposal does not threaten reliability and could ultimately strengthen the grid by more quickly bringing to market new technologies to store wind and solar power, which can be delivered to the grid when traditional power plants fail."

America's shift to wind, solar and other clean energy has gained surprising momentum, even in fossil-energy areas

NYT graph based on The Energy Institute’s 2023 Statistical Review of World Energy

U.S. energy trends show the winds of change are blowing as the country switches from fossil fuels to clean energy. "Delivery vans in Pittsburgh. Buses in Milwaukee. Cranes loading freight at the Port of Los Angeles. Every municipal building in Houston. All are powered by electricity derived from the sun, wind or other sources of clean energy," report David Gelles, Brad Plumer, Jim Tankersley and Jack Ewing of The New York Times in the main runner of a three-story package. "A profound shift is taking place that is nearly invisible to most Americans. The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet and historically the most polluting is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels."

Historically, Europe's transition to renewable energy has outpaced the U.S. "But the United States is catching up, and globally, change is happening at a pace that is surprising even the experts who track it closely," the Times reports. "Wind and solar power are breaking records, and renewables are now expected to overtake coal by 2025 as the world's largest source of electricity. Automakers have made electric vehicles central to their business strategies and are openly talking about an expiration date on the internal combustion engine. Heating, cooling, cooking and some manufacturing are going electric."

The transition is worldwide. "The cost of generating electricity from the sun and wind is falling fast and in many areas is now cheaper than gas, oil or coal. Private investment is flooding into companies that are jockeying for advantage in emerging green industries. . . . As the planet registers the highest temperatures on record, rising in some places to levels incompatible with human life," the Times reports. "More than $1.7 trillion worldwide is expected to be invested in technologies such as wind, solar power, electric vehicles and batteries globally this year, according to the International Energy Agency, compared with just over $1 trillion in fossil fuels. That is by far the most ever spent on clean energy in a year. Those investments are driving explosive growth."

In many areas, economic investment in renewables is prompting regional change. The city "once known as the 'Oil Capital of the World' where the minor league baseball team is the "Drillers" is immersed in a new energy revolution," the Times reports. "As the workday begins in Tulsa, Okla., the assembly line at the electric school bus factory rattles to life. Crews fan out across the city to install solar panels on century-old Tudor homes. Teslas and Ford F-150 Lightnings pull up to charging stations powered in part by the country's second-largest wind farm. And at the University of Tulsa's School of Petroleum Engineering, faculty are working on ways to use hydrogen as a clean energy source."

U.S. government investments have helped move the needle for American clean energy. "A $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law provided money to enhance the power grid, buy electric buses for schools and build a national network of electric vehicle chargers," the Times reports. "Regulations are also hastening the energy transition. Mr. Biden has proposed tough new federal pollution limits on tailpipes and smokestacks, but several states are acting on their own."

"The shift is happening so quickly that some of America’s most iconic automakers are preparing for a world beyond gasoline-powered cars and trucks," the Times reports. "General Motors, which has the largest market share of any carmaker in the United States, has committed to selling only zero-emissions vehicles by 2035. It’s a 'once-in-a-generation inflection point' for the 114-year-old automaker, according to Mary Barra, GM’s chief executive."

As 1st U.S. offshore wind farm rises near Martha's Vineyard, Ocean City, N.J., may lead the way to blocking others

Rising "monopile" foundations of three planned Vineyard Wind offshore turbines are visible in the distance from the company's newly built substation off Martha's Vineyard. (Vineyard Gazette photo by Ray Ewing)

Wind-farm plans on the East Coast (Marzulla Law maps, adapted; click to enlarge)

As the nation's first offshore wind farm rises off Cape Cod, a battle on the Jersey Shore could "create a template for derailing some 31 offshore wind projects in various stages of development and construction off the East Coast, a key part of President Biden’s plan to reduce greenhouse emissions that are driving global climate change," reports Kate Selig of The Washington Post.

Ocean City, N.J., "has become the epicenter of opposition to wind energy projects off New Jersey and the East Coast," Selig writes. "Residents of Ocean City and surrounding Cape May County, helped by an outside group opposed to renewable energy, are mobilizing to stop Ocean Wind 1, a proposal to build up to 98 wind turbines the size of skyscrapers off the New Jersey coast, which could power half a million homes." Orsted, a Danish firm got a federal permit for Ocean Wind 1 in July, but needs other permits to start construction.

Protect Our Coast NJ has filed a lawsuit to block tax break for the wind farm and says it has gathered more than 500,000 signatures on a petition against such facilities. “The objective is to hold them up and make the cost so overwhelming that they’ll go home,” treasurer Frank Coyne told the Post. The group is backed by most local officials and partly funded by "a think tank that opposes many offshore wind projects and has ties to fossil fuel interests," Selig reports.

Off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts, the under-construction farm "still faces a series of ongoing lawsuits that are trying to overturn its environmental permits, but Vineyard Wind has escaped the cost increases that have plagued other projects," reports Benjamin Storrow of E&E News. "When foundation installations began this summer, thick fog halted construction several times because it impeded mandated lookouts for endangered whales and raised safety issues for construction workers."

Vineyard Wind officials took journalists, environmentalists, legislators and staff on a tour of the $4 billion project last week and said they could be producing electricity this fall, report Eunki Seonwoo of the Martha's Vineyard Times and Ethan Genter of the Vineyard Gazette. "Most of Vineyard Wind’s turbines won’t be visible along the Vineyard horizon, though those with good eyesight may be able to barely make them out along the skyline," Genter reports. "The introduction of plane-navigation lights on the turbines will be noticeable in the night sky from beaches and coastal bluffs."

Sun and wind power surpass coal; it's a first for the two renewables combined without adding hydropower

Solar panels in a California desert at sunset.
(Photo by thinkreaction/Getty Images via E&E)

For the first time, solar and wind have generated more U.S. power than coal as measured during the first five months of 2023, reports Benjamin Storrow of Climatewire: "Federal data shows renewable energy generation exceeded coal-fired power in 2020 and 2022, but only when hydropower was counted as a source of renewable energy, according to figures compiled by the Energy Information Administration."

Storrow reports, "The milestone illustrates the ongoing transformation of the U.S. power sector as the nation races to install cleaner forms of energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Power markets have witnessed a precipitous drop in coal-fired generation this year, driven by low natural gas prices, a mild winter and a wave of coal plant retirements." Andy Blumenfeld, an analyst who tracks the coal industry, told Storrow, "From a coal perspective, it has been a disaster. The decline is happening faster than anyone anticipated."

Coal has been in decline since 2008 "as a wave of older coal facilities retired and was replaced by a combination of natural gas and renewables," Storrow explains. "Yet even by that standard, coal's sudden drop in 2023 has been remarkable." In 2022, the war in Ukraine caused a temporary increase in coal prices, but now, "coal plants will have difficulty competing against gas in that market, analysts said. But structural factors have also contributed to the fall in coal output. . . The U.S. has retired around 14 gigawatts of coal capacity, or roughly 7 percent of the coal fleet, since the start of 2022. . . . EIA figures show that coal was down 27 percent compared with the same time last year and below levels recorded in 2020."

The quick switch to renewables has some experts worried about the reliability "of the country's web of power grids," Storrow reports. "In recent testimony to Senate lawmakers, North American Electric Reliability Corp. CEO Jim Robb said, 'The pace of change is overtaking the reliability needs of the system.' . . . Others said those worries could be eased by unclogging a bottleneck that's preventing clean energy projects from connecting to the grid." Still, the switch "is a boost to U.S. climate efforts. Coal accounted for 55 percent of power sector emissions in 2022, according to Environmental Protection Agency data, despite representing just 20 percent of total power generation. . . . Carbon Monitor, an emissions tracker run by academics, estimates U.S. emissions were down 5.6 percent through April compared with the same time in 2022. Power sector emissions were down by nearly 1 percent."

As wind and solar projects are proposed in more populated rural areas, they hit more opposition; Kansas is an example

Wind turbines dot the landscape in Waverly, Kansas. (Photo by Dominick Williams, The Wall Street Journal)

Many people like the idea of green energy, but as the federal government's high-dollar push on wind and solar ekes closer to neighborhoods, some residents are saying, "No," or "Not on my land," or even "Over my dead body," reports Jennifer Hiller of The Wall Street Journal. "Plenty of Kansans do want to host projects—wind is already the biggest source of electricity in the state [but] many Kansans are girding for a long fight."

Douglas County (Wikipedia map)

Gerry Coffman lives in Douglas County, a rural community about an hour from Kansas City. She is one resident who said "No." Hiller writes, "She turned down a wind lease last year on a farm that has been in her family since 1866. Someone knocked on her door a few months later, paperwork in hand, and offered $6,000 to hang a wind-power transmission line across her land. If she agreed to store construction equipment, she stood to make an additional $4,000. . . . Coffman doesn't want to see the native forest or prairie disturbed and thinks the industrial nature of towering wind turbines would change the community for the worse if a proposed project were built."

Community debates often turn sour. Hiller reports, "Coffman has attended a series of contentious public meetings over several months as the county considers revising regulations for wind-energy development. . . . County-by-county battles are raging as wind and solar projects balloon in size, edge closer to cities and encounter mounting pushback in communities. . . . Even in states with a long history of building renewables, developers don't know if they can get local permits or how long it might take." Coffman told Hiller, "A year ago we were a nice, quiet neighborhood."

Kansas is among several states where citizens in more populated areas have opted to block or restrict some green-energy builds. Hiller explains, "In Kansas, wind power grew rapidly for two decades . . . ranking it third in the nation. But at least five counties in more-populous eastern Kansas have recently placed moratoriums or bans on new wind or solar projects, joining 18 others that already restricted wind development to preserve the tallgrass prairie ecosystem. . . . In Iowa, a 2022 study of wind ordinances found that 16 of 99 counties had prohibitive rules or a ban against new projects, most of them approved in the previous four years. . . . Developers won't even consider projects on around half to three-quarters of land with good wind resources, according to a study by the nonprofit research firm ClearPath and consulting group LucidCatalyst."

Despite demand, private investment dollars, and the federal government's expected $3 trillion green-energy investment, "U.S. clean power installations dipped 16% last year and 12% over 2020, according to the American Clean Power Association. It was the worst year for land-based wind installations since 2018," Hiller reports. "Economies of scale have pushed solar and wind farm size to hundreds or thousands of acres. . . . . In Michigan, a typical solar project once covered 60 acres but now would take up 1,200, said Sarah Mills, a senior project manager at the University of Michigan's Graham Sustainability Institute. Mills said they may need to get smaller—and more expensive—to be more socially acceptable. Mills told Hiller, "What you're asking our rural community to host is way more than our fair share."

Laurie Shuck, another Douglas County resident, "recently purchased a stack of 'no trespassing' signs to post around her fences to try to keep out representatives offering wind leases," Hiller reports. "One late afternoon as light faded at her farm, the moon rose in the east and a flock of geese honked overhead. She paused to watch. Shuck said she and her brother would lease land for wind projects, 'over our dead bodies. . . . I was here first.'"

Wind-turbine lights have ruined some rural night sky views; states have moved to regulate, but changes may be slow

Red lights on wind turbines flash against an overcast sky.
(Photo by Evert Nelson, The Topeka Capital-Journal)

Rural residents living near wind turbines have reported their formely idyllic settings are now more like "industrial zones," and the turbines' lights are one cause, reports Shannon Najmabadi of The Wall Street Journal. "The lights are an eyesore that has ruined their view of the night sky and disrupted the bucolic stillness that defined their counties. . . .'Imagine…red blinking stoplights…every night, all night long…and not in sync,' Gayla Randel, who can see the lights on more than 130 turbines from her Marshall County, Kan., home, told lawmakers this year."

Wind power has been "loosely regulated, but lawmakers in some states are cracking down," Najmabadi reports. "Kansas and Colorado recently passed laws to limit the flashing lights—by turning them on only when aircraft are approaching. North Dakota approved a similar measure in 2017. Aircraft-detection technology approved by the Federal Aviation Administration has been on the market for a half-dozen years. The systems are estimated to cost $1 million to $2 million to install with additional operating expenses each year. . . . Many wind developers and renewable energy proponents have backed the recent efforts." Kimberly Svaty, the Kansas Power Alliance public policy director, told Najmabodi, "Light-mitigation technology is definitely something that can be done to help improve the relationship with the community."

The last five years have seen a push to regulate the side effects of wind power, Najmabodi reports: "Towns, counties and states passed some 1,800 ordinances regulating wind energy as of 2022, according to a database compiled by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. By comparison, researchers there found around 250 ordinances in 2018. . . . Officials with Terma and DeTect Inc., two aircraft-detection lighting system vendors, said they have seen demand for their technology increase significantly since 2018. . . . The companies use radars to activate red lights if a low-flying aircraft comes within 3½ miles of a project."

"Residents in states that don't regulate the red lights have said the nighttime presence of the turbines has been more disruptive than they anticipated, "Najmabodi adds. "Nakila Blessing and her husband built a house on his family's farm in Schuyler County, Missouri, in 2018, on a hill looking out at fields and trees. Two years later, the 175-turbine High Prairie wind farm project was constructed. Blessing said their landscape is now cluttered with 500-foot-tall turbines, and the night sky is polluted with light." She told Najmabodi, "They like to say you'll get used to it.You don't get used to it."

How effective light-mitigation laws will be for rural residents depends on timing and contracts. "Colorado law doesn't require existing wind turbines to be retrofitted with light-mitigating technology," Najmabodi explains. "Older wind projects in Washington state have to apply for the new technology by early 2028. . . .Starting in 2026, wind developers in Kansas must apply to use the technology after they renegotiate power purchase contracts. The terms for those agreements can last 20 years. . . . "Jerry Sonnenberg, a Republican former state senator who wrote the red-light law in Colorado, said the technology isn't cost-prohibitive for most companies, but they have not been required to use it. . . . Sonnenberg, now a county commissioner, compared the red lights to those on an ambulance and said the flashing is 'rather annoying.'"

As offshore wind sails forward, fish habitats will suffer, and fishers fear getting 'squeezed out' of their livelihoods

A construction area for Vineyard Wind in New Bedford, Mass.
(Photo by Tony Luong, ProPublica)

Corporations seeking approval for offshore wind farms must move through government channels, and it's complicated. In the process, East Coast wind farm developers have created a "revolving door between the government workers and offshore-wind promoters," report Will Sennott and Anastasia Lennon of The New Bedford Light in Massachusetts, in cooperation with ProPublica. "In recent years, at least 90 people have shuttled between federal, state or local government and the offshore wind industry. . . . . Left out of this cozy relationship is one keenly affected group: more than 1 million people in the U.S. who work in the seafood industry, including 158,811 commercial fishermen."

Government authorities who determine building licensing and environmental concerns overlap. The Light explains, "Federal scientists, the commercial fishing industry and industry regulators each have sounded the alarm about potential harm to fish spawning habits and the lack of compensation for losses suffered by fishermen. . . . The Interior Department has ignored or downplayed those warnings. . . . The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is part of the Interior Department, and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is part of the Commerce Department, have conflicting authority over the same stretches of federal waters. BOEM oversees permitting and leasing for offshore wind development, from which the federal government reaped more than $5 billion last year. NMFS is supposed to protect marine habitat and ensure the fishing industry is sustainable and economically viable."

The Light reports, "'We are very concerned about the cumulative impacts of multiple wind energy projects on the fisheries we manage,' directors of three federally established regional councils that advise NMFS wrote last fall to Amanda Lefton, then the head of BOEM. . . . Lefton said last October that she wants to ensure that 'not only can the commercial fishing industry and offshore wind coexist but that both industries can thrive." Case and point for the revolving door: "In January, Lefton left BOEM to join Foley Hoag, a law firm that has represented Vineyard Wind. There, she said in a press release, she will 'leverage' her 'experience in policy and regulation at the state and federal levels with the private sector to help businesses get projects built.'"

"The components to build turbines for Vineyard Wind, which started offshore construction last November, will be shipped from the Port of New Bedford, which is also the top-earning commercial fishing port in the nation," the Light reports. "It supports almost 15,000 jobs and moves between 390 and 544 million pounds of seafood a year from its waterfront to consumers around the world." Scott Lang, a former mayor of New Bedford and an attorney who has represented many of the city's commercial fishermen for four decades, told the Light, "The great majority of the people who rely on going out to fish will be squeezed out of the industry. This is going to be the final nail."

Another wind farm, South Fork Wind, has received a green light to build off New York's coast. "BOEM approved the projects despite repeated warnings from the NMFS about damage to the environment and the fishing industry," the Light explains, "Environmental laws require BOEM to consult with the fisheries service on projects taking place in 'essential fish habitat,' which encompasses all offshore wind projects within 200 miles of the coast. . . . Fisheries regulators have been warning BOEM since 2018 about the impact of offshore wind projects. . . . The three regional fishery councils on the East Coast wrote in last summer’s letter to the head of BOEM. They added that the 'effects will increase in magnitude as more projects are built.'"

TransWest Express line approved, clearing way for largest onshore U.S. wind farm; power will travel across four states

Map of planned transmission line route via BasinAndRangeWatch.org; for a larger version, click on it.

"After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, a 732-mile transmission line capable of sending power from what will be the largest onshore wind farm in North America to Western states got a green light last week," reports Gabriela Aoun Angueira of Grist. "The Bureau of Land Management gave final approval to begin building the $3 billion TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line. The infrastructure project will deliver three gigawatts of power from the 600-turbine Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project to grids in Arizona, Nevada, and California. That's enough energy to power about 2 million homes."

Eighteen years is a long wait. "Projects built on federal lands are subject to the National Environmental Policy Act, which dictates the environmental review process. NEPA does not include time limits for when environmental reviews must be completed," Angueira explains. "The TransWest Express crosses four states, through both public and private lands, and required approvals from various federal, state, tribal, and local agencies, as well as some determined property owners."Speeding the NEPA process is another process. "While there is bipartisan support for permitting reforms [to NEPA] that could speed up or consolidate the number of decision-makers, substantive changes have not yet materialized," Angueira reports. Jeremy Firestone, an expert on wind energy at the University of Delaware, told her, "If we are going to do this transition, we need to be open and transparent and provide good information about the environmental and social effects and the positive attributes of these projects as well, like the fact that they're going to replace fossil fuel generation."

"The TransWest Express could be particularly impactful for California, which has a goal of achieving 100 percent clean energy by 2045," Angueira writes. "In a 2021 report, the state said it would have to triple its grid capacity by 2045. . . . Adding transmission capacity of this scale will be essential to converting the nation to completely carbon-free power sources. . . . Construction on the TransWest Express will start this year. . . . TransWest Express said it expects to complete the project by 2028."

Electricity from renewables exceeded that from coal in 2022

Wind turbiunes near Palm Springs, California (File photo by Ashley Landis, The Associated Press)

The U.S. Energy Information Administration says more electricity was generated from renewables than from coal in the U.S. in 2022 for the first time ever; 22% came from renewables and 20% from coal. Coal generation is being replaced largely by natural gas, which produced 39% of American electricity last year, up from 37% in 2021. Almost a third of gas came from Northern Appalachia.

"The growth of wind and solar significantly drove the increase in renewable energy and experts say these two resources will be the 'backbone' of clean energy growth in the U.S. because of their reliability and affordability," Isaella O'Malley of The Associated Press reports.

California produced 26% of the nation's utility-scale solar electricity followed by Texas with 16% and North Carolina with 8%. The most wind generation occurred in Texas, which had 26% of the U.S. total followed by Iowa (10%) and Oklahoma (9%).

Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, told AP, “Over the past decade, the levelized cost of wind energy declined by 70 percent, while the levelized cost of solar power has declined by an even more impressive 90 percent. Renewable energy is now the most affordable source of new electricity in much of the country.”

The changes are a challenge because the energy grid was built "to deliver power from a consistent source," AP notes. "Renewables such as solar and wind generate power intermittently, so battery storage, long-distance transmission and other steps will be needed to help address these challenges," according to Stephen Porder, a Brown University professor of ecology and assistant provost for sustainability.

Despite its long history as a leader in fossil fuels, the Lone Star State leads the nation in renewable-energy production

Chart by Paul Horn, ICN, from Energy Information Admin. data

Some people say "Everything is bigger in Texas," and that sentiment rings true in the case of a subject that some may find surprising, given the state's fossil-fuel heritage: clean energy.

"A new batch of data about the country's electricity generation shows the increasing dominance of one state as the clean-energy leader . . . Texas," reports Dan Gearino of Inside Climate News. "Texas has produced more gigawatt-hours of electricity from renewable sources than any other state. . . . thanks largely to wind energy. Now, the state is expanding its lead by continuing to be the county's leader in wind energy. . . and is quickly closing the gap on California on utility-scale solar power."

Texas' dominance is partly a function of its size, but it already generates more than twice as much power from wind and solar as California, and "more than either New York or Ohio generated from all electricity sources," Gearino notes. "But Texas is also the country's leader in overall electricity generation, and it's the leader in generation from gas and coal, so the total for wind and solar, while gigantic, was just 34.3 percent of the total from all sources."

If you add up "all carbon-free electricity sources, which includes renewables and nuclear., the leader, again, is Texas, with 180,145 gigawatt-hours, followed by Illinois with 124,055 gigawatt-hours, most of it from nuclear," Gearino reports. Just about any way you slice the numbers, Texas is on top."

Chart by Paul Horn, ICN, from Energy Information Admin. data

"Texas has the best combination of wind and solar resources in the U.S.," said Eric Gimon, a senior fellow at the think tank Energy Innovation in San Francisco, told Gearino. He adds, "By that, he means the state has high winds and bright sun. . . . But Texas is more than just resource-rich. It also has vast amounts of developable land and a regulatory system that is friendly to renewable energy developers, Gimon said."

The state's renewable-energy dominance is somewhat surprising because politically, its "leadership is closely tied to fossil-fuel industries and has been hostile to cleaner options."

Doug Lewin, president of Stoic Energy, a clean energy consulting firm, told Gearino that other states "are scrambling to attract this kind of investment. And here, Texas has some subset of policymakers that seem hell-bent on slowing it down."

"But this sentiment is more pervasive in politics than it is in the business community, Lewin said. Some of Texas' largest oil and gas companies are also investing in renewable energy," Gearino reports. Lewin told him, "It doesn't look like as much of a cage match as some people in the Capitol think it is."

Texans block Chinese billionaire's wind farm, citing security; 18 states mulling limits on foreign farmland ownership

Sun Guangxin (Photo by Zhang shi, Imaginechina)

Before curious rural Montanans reported a glowing orb high in the sky and the Chinese spy balloon was shot down, "Texas ranchers were worried about billionaire Sun Guangxin’s close connections with the Chinese state," reports Blake Schmidt of Bloomberg. "The former People’s Liberation Army captain . . . made a fortune by turning failing factories into lux real estate developments. . . . Critics have alleged that state connections are the backbone of Sun’s wealth, estimated at $2.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. And that’s precisely why ranchers in southern Texas are worried."

Their worries stem from the sheer size of Sun's landholdings and its location: "They are trying to stop Sun’s foray into the Lone Star State on national-security grounds after his firm amassed 140,000 acres of farmland worth about $100 million along the Mexican border," Schmidt writes. "When he tried to develop part of it as a wind farm, Texas lawmakers sounded alarms because of its proximity to the state’s electric grid and a U.S. Air Force base. ... Spurred by neighboring landowners who oppose the wind farm, state officials passed a law protecting state infrastructure from foreign entities, and are now considering an even more contentious proposal to ban Chinese companies and individuals from owning rural land entirely."

The Texas resistance was local, but it "snowballed into a national movement. The issue of restricting ownership of farmland by entities linked to China and other foreign powers has popped up in at least 18 states, according to the National Agricultural Law Center," Schmidt reports. "It’s another way in which geopolitical tensions are simmering between the world’s two largest economies."

Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that "foreign entities or individuals control less than 3% of the nation’s farmland, and, within that subset, those with ties to China control less than 1% or about 384,000 acres," Schmidt points out. Despite those details, "In Montana, the suspected spy balloon has breathed new life into a bill to restrict foreign ownership. A city council in North Dakota this month voted down plans for a Chinese company to build a corn mill near an Air Force base. . . . . Virginia’s Democrat-led state Senate approved a ban on land ownership by foreign governments after Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin rejected an effort by Ford Motor Co. to build a plant partnered with a Chinese battery maker."

Texas landowners first opposed the wind farm due to its scenic impact, but over time, they became more focused on national security. “We don’t care if you’re Elon Musk, Tom Hanks or a Chinese oligarch,” Randy Nunns, a board member of the landowner group Devils River Conservancy told Schmidt. “We don’t want the wind farm here.” Schmidt reports, "Nunns said that he didn’t expect his group’s not-in-my-backyard battle to go global, and that while the state’s proposal to ban Chinese ownership is 'too broad,' Sun’s investment activity was particularly concerning."

Some rural Americans push back on wind energy; land is meant for 'cattle and corn, not turbines and transformers'

A wind farm by corn fields near Latimer, Iowa (Reuters photo by Jonathan Ernst)

In 1941, the first modern wind turbine was built in Castleton, Vermont, current population 4,500. Fast-forward 44 years, and the popularity of wind energy has grown exponentially with rural areas as their primary focus, but the push is meeting with rural resistance, reports Joe St. George of Scripps News. "The White House and many environmentalists want to build more wind projects around the country. From offshore sites to new wind turbines on farmland, it's a push that has some big dollars behind it. . . .Over $370 billion in taxpayer money is set to be spent on clean energy projects, like wind, in the coming years."

Wind turbines are considered eyesores by some. Their blades average 200 feet long, and turbine towers average over 300 feet tall—about the height of the Statue of Liberty. "If you want one, you live beside it." Jon Winkelpeck of Tama County, Iowa, told St. George. "These huge industrial wind turbines you will see for miles . . . It's our job to protect our farmland."

Winkelpeck has many allies. "If you go on Facebook, you'll find over 1,200 members of the group Tama County Against Turbines," St. George writes. "Heather Knebel, a Tama County resident, stays informed through social-media posts and scheduled meetups that are posted in the group. It's also where she has learned about possible safety risks from ice developing on the blades of turbines during winter. To be clear, the wind industry says ice can form but de-icing solutions do exist."

"Similar fights are underway in Colorado, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and other states," ST. George reports. "With President Joe Biden and other officials hoping newly created tax credits will spur wind development in the coming years, small-town opposition is quickly becoming a big problem. . . . . In Tama County, for instance, the landowner has to sign off before anything can be built."

Some rural residents favor wind energy. Kathy Law, a farmer and an attorney who represents the industry in Iowa, "believes misinformation is an issue, something that is easy to spread online," St. George reports. "Wind, she said, is safe, and with some parts of rural America worried about the future of their economies, wind represents cash. Farmers can be paid a couple thousand dollars a year for putting just one turbine up."

Winkelpleck told St. George that his land is meant for cattle and corn, not turbines and transformers: "We aren't interested."

Wind farms bring windfalls to rural areas, but not everyone agrees that the massive structures are a positive thing

Screenshot of interactive map from the Wind Turbine Database of the U.S. Geological Survey; its display can be filtered by tower height, generating capacity and year erected, and zoom to particular locations to view project specifications.  

Unseen. Ever moving. Wind. Across the central U.S., wind power has changed the fate of many rural areas. "Coke County, Texas, which has a population of about 3,300, had the biggest increase in economic output of any county in the country between 2019 and 2021, according to a Stateline analysis of Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics," reports Stateline's Tim Henderson. "Coke County’s gross domestic product, or GDP, increased from $128 million to $235 million, or 83%. . . . Rural counties in Colorado and South Dakota saw similar increases, reflecting a record year for wind turbine construction in 2020. Landowners also get annual royalties for hosting the turbines, typically around $10,000."

County Judge Hal Spain, the top elected official in Coke County, told Henderson, "We’re just a poor West Texas county. We don’t get much economic stimulation here. We’re tickled pink about this.” Henderson reports, "Texas has used tax abatement incentives to attract wind farms, including allowing local governments to grant 10-year abatement deals like the one Coke County used."

Henderson reports, "In rural areas such as Coke County, where ranchers’ herds are suffering from drought and oil production is dwindling, wind farms are generating cash to fix roads, recreation centers, senior centers, swimming pools and other aging infrastructure, Spain said." Eric Brunner, an economics professor at the University of Connecticut who studies the economic impacts of wind farms on local governments, told Henderson, “The incentive is to use it for one-time capital costs. It doesn’t work well for buying books, recurring things.”

Not everyone is tickled; some rural residents don't like the look and sound of wind farms, and wildlife defenders note that they kill birds. Sarah Mills, a senior project manager at the Graham Sustainability Institute at the University of Michigan, told Henderson, "For communities that want to go all in on agriculture, wind fits well. For those that want to see a bunch of residential development or have economies based on tourism and the landscape, they may need to look more closely.”

Henderson reports, "The conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation opposes such tax abatements as 'corporate welfare,' arguing that the abatements have allowed wind farms to take over too much of the power capacity in Texas, said Brent Bennett of the foundation, which is partly funded by oil and gas interests. About a quarter of the energy Texas uses is generated by wind . . . . Some local residents have organized in Texas and around the country to oppose the farms, and have even sued to fight nearby installations they contend are ugly and noisy."

As of late 2022, Texas led all states in the number of wind turbines, with 18,315, followed by Iowa (6,205), California (5,981), Oklahoma (5,370) and Kansas (3,962), Stateline reports.