American Wind Generation Patterns // Biden's Quiet Oil Terminal Approval // California Gets Gas Plant Upgrade

American Wind Generation Patterns

The Energy Information Administration has just released a report looking at wind's performance across the country.

So, how does wind's performance look by region?

"The Lower Plains region of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and New Mexico has the largest share of U.S. wind capacity, at 44% as of August 2022," reports the EIA. "Because of the concentration of wind capacity in the Lower Plains, the national wind performance pattern follows the seasonal wind performance pattern of the Lower Plains quite closely: performance peaks in the spring, declines in the summer, and rises again in the fall and winter."

The Upper Plains have the second largest share of wind capacity at 29%. The Upper and Lower Plains have a similar seasonal pattern too. As does the Interior East region, despite its summer dip in wind generation. But the Interior East's wind capacity is substantially lower at 13%.

"The seasonal pattern is quite different in the West Coast region (10% of U.S. wind capacity), where the pattern is driven largely by a concentration of wind capacity in California," reports the EIA. "Wind capacity factors in the West Coast region rise later in the spring and peak in the summer months before steadily declining into the fall and winter. This pattern results from the cold air of the Pacific current interacting with the sea breeze as well as the location of California wind plants, which are generally close to mountain passes near the coast."

The Southwest, East Coast, and New England have only 4% of American wind capacity. Their average capacity factor is lower than the rest of the country.

What's troubling is that, West Coast aside, wind dips in the colder months of the year in most of the country. But that's also when solar is at its least useful--the days are gray for months, and nights come early. Adding more wind and solar to these regions will continue to exacerbate grid balancing difficulties during the most dangerous months of the year.

Biden's Quiet Oil Terminal Approval

The Biden administration quietly approved plans to build America's largest oil export terminal. The terminal will sit off the Texas Gulf Coast and add 2 million barrels per day to the country's oil export capacity. The Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration filed its approval for the project on Monday.

“The construction and operation of the Port is in the national interest because the Project will benefit employment, economic growth, and U.S. energy infrastructure resilience and security. The Port will provide a reliable source of crude oil to U.S. allies in the event of market disruption," the Maritime Administration wrote in its 94-page decision.

"Approval of the Sea Port Oil Terminal, off the coast of Freeport, about 50 miles south of Galveston, gave its corporate developers — Enterprise and Endbridge — a clear lead in the race to build the first new offshore export terminal in the Gulf," reports the Texas Tribune. "It was the agency’s first endorsement and followed a three-year review process."

A pipeline will carry oil from Enterprise Products Partners' regional network to the offshore terminal. The project should ease loading the bigger tankers that other Gulf Coast ports can't handle.

The Maritime Administration's approval came a day after the UN's COP 27 climate conference wrapped in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt.

California Gets Gas Plant Upgrade

The San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District just gave an initial okay to upgrade a gas peaker plant in California.

The plant, which sits 9 miles northwest of Taft, California, might get upgrades that will allow it to boost its electricity production by 8.5%.

"The plant, known as the Sunrise Power Project, is expected to run only at times when the state power grid runs the immediate risk of running out of generation capacity," reports Bakersfield.com. "That scenario has come about in recent years as rising heat and increased reliance on intermittent power sources like solar and wind farms forces the state to tap natural-gas fired plants."

The California Energy Commission will vote on the issue on December 14th. The California grid has become increasingly fragile over the last few years. Over the summer, it was a hair's breadth from blackouts. But a combination of incredible natural gas powered electricity generation and demand response pulled the California grid back from the brink.

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Conversation Starters

1. The EPA is committing to setting its renewable fuel standards deadline. "The US Environmental Protection Agency said that it would meet a court-ordered Nov. 30 deadline to sign a proposed rule laying out the amount of renewable fuel that US refiners must annually mix with gasoline and diesel," reports S&P Global. "The rulemaking will mark the first Renewable Fuel Standard proposal for which there are no congressional recommendations on the books. The so-called RFS 'set' rule refers to the need for the agency, in coordination with the departments of Energy and Agriculture, to determine renewable volume obligations for 2023 and beyond, years for which Congress no longer specifies RFS volume targets."

2. BlackRock and UBS have asked to be removed from Texas's list of companies "boycotting" the fossil fuel industry. "Representatives from at least five companies have asked the office of state Comptroller Glenn Hegar to remove them from the divestment list he published in August, arguing that they shouldn’t have been included to begin with, according to documents Bloomberg obtained through a public records request," reports Bloomberg. "The efforts underscore how crucial Texas’ booming economy and population are as a source of growth for the finance world. Firms on the Republican comptroller’s list may struggle to win underwriting business from the state’s myriad issuers of municipal debt or gain access to entities like the Teacher Retirement System of Texas."

3. The Department of Energy's chief of nuclear waste, Sam Brinton, has been charged for stealing a woman's luggage from baggage claim. "The Department of Energy’s recently appointed head of spent nuclear fuel management has been charged with felony theft after allegedly taking someone else’s bag from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport," reports The Daily Beast. "Sam Brinton, 35, who started working in June as the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition, was seen on Sept. 16 on surveillance footage taking a bag from a baggage carousel that appeared similar to one which had been reported missing, an October court filing alleges."

Crom's Blessing