Vogtle, an advanced nuclear energy project, just received good news – the Department of Energy is guaranteeing additional loans for Units 3 and 4 to the tune of $3.7 billion to help finance the construction. The Vogtle project is the United States’ only active nuclear energy construction project of its kind. Once up and running, the two nuclear reactors are expected to generate enough power for more than 1.6 million homes while avoiding almost 10 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.
Due to a lack of pipeline infrastructure and inability to get natural gas to market, Con Edison, one of the region’s main utilities in New York City, is cutting off new gas hookups. Unable to meet the increasing demand for natural gas in the area from insufficient pipeline capacity, Con Edison is imposing a moratorium on new gas hookups in residential areas like Westchester.
Oregon State University has been awarded $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for research around offshore wind. A concern for wind turbines, including offshore, is the impact of the turbines to birds, bats and other animals – OSU is planning to base their research and testing on this very issue. Using 360-degree cameras and microphones, OSU researchers plan to design, build and test an autonomous monitoring system that can detect bird and bat collision with offshore wind turbines.
Dairyland Power Cooperative, a utility in western Wisconsin, looks to purchase 149 megawatts of solar energy from the nearby Badger State Solar project. This partnership would not only help create one of the largest solar farms in Wisconsin but would more than double the state’s current solar production!
Based on a study The 2019 U.S. Energy and Employment Report petroleum fuels were responsible for adding the most jobs of any traditional energy sector, with 33,500 new positions in 2018, and salaries up to $175,000. Natural gas extraction added another 17,000 jobs – with all natural gas employment topping charts at almost 113,000 new jobs. Numerous more Americans were employed in some faucet of energy in 2018 – more than 2.3 million in transmission, distribution and storage and another 2.3 million employed in energy efficiency.
