A correction has been added to the story. OVER THE CHRISTMAS holiday, the New England power grid relied heavily on oil to meet the region’s electricity needs and for a 2 ½-hour period on December 24 had to scramble to cover a temporary shortfall in power supplies. The shortfall on the afternoon of December 24 […]
Electricity
Posted inEnergy, Environment
DPU approves wind farm contracts despite financing concerns
A correction has been added to this story. THE DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES on Friday approved 20-year power purchase agreements between the state’s three major utilities and the offshore wind developers behind Commonwealth Wind and Mayflower Wind, rejecting claims and concerns raised by the developers that the contracts are no longer adequate to finance their […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, State Government
Utilities urge DPU to force wind developer’s hand
EVERSOURCE, NATIONAL GRID, and Unitil are urging state regulators to require Avangrid to push ahead with its 1,200-megawatt Commonwealth Wind project even though the company says the price it would receive for the power is not enough to secure financing for the wind farm. The move by the state’s utilities is the latest twist in […]
Posted inEnergy, State Government
Santa comes early for offshore wind businesses
CHRISTMAS CAME early for the fledgling offshore wind industry in Massachusetts, as the Baker administration handed out $180 million on Tuesday for infrastructure improvements and businesses in New Bedford, Somerset, and Salem. The money flowed, even though the wind farms the state is counting on to spur the industry are having difficulty financing their projects. […]
Posted inOpinion
How do floating wind farms work?
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA has some of the strongest offshore winds in the US, with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off quickly, making building traditional wind turbines directly on the seafloor costly if not impossible. Once water gets more than about 200 feet deep – roughly […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, State House News Service
No consensus on timing for fossil fuel heat shift
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A COMMISSION that spent the last 11 months studying ways to help the state meet its emissions reduction requirements by shifting to cleaner buildings and addressing heating fuels that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions released its final recommendations Wednesday, but was not able to come to consensus around a timeline for […]
Posted inEnergy
Maine hydro project clears another hurdle
MASSACHUSETTS MADE some headway on its clean energy goals on Tuesday, but moving forward on key offshore wind and hydro-electricity projects remains an uncertain process. A Massachusetts-financed transmission line carrying hydroelectricity from Quebec into Maine cleared another legal hurdle on Tuesday as the Maine Supreme Court overturned a lower court decision that had blocked the […]
Posted inEnergy
Eversource’s turn: Basic service rate up 62% over last winter
EVERSOURCE SAID its eastern Massachusetts basic service rate – the price it charges customers who direct the utility to procure electricity on their behalf – is going to jump to a record high on January 1. The electricity price is jumping to 25.6 cents a kilowatt hour, up from the current level of 17.9 cents […]
Posted inThe Download
Powering up highway charging stations
Driving along the Massachusetts Turnpike, electric vehicle charging stations are popping up at the service plazas, a harbinger of a future without internal combustion engines. But a new study from National Grid suggests the charging stations are somewhat misleading indicators of the future. The real challenge will not be installing charging stations, but delivering the […]
Posted inTransportation
Powering up highway charging stations
DRIVING ALONG the Massachusetts Turnpike, electric vehicle charging stations are popping up at the service plazas, a harbinger of a future without internal combustion engines. But a new study from National Grid suggests the charging stations are somewhat misleading indicators of the future. The real challenge will not be installing charging stations, but delivering the […]