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California Officials Praise Renewables, Battery Storage for Grid Resilience Amid Heat Wave

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20 Jul, 2024

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

After a few weeks of heat advisories and even devastating wildfires, California’s power grid has faced minimal disruptions. Officials are praising the state’s long-term focus on renewable energy infrastructure and battery storage for enhancing grid stability, even in the extreme heat.

“This was a good early test that we passed in very good shape,” said Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of California Independent System Operator (CAISO), as reported by The Sacramento Bee. “Investments in new clean energy and in dispatchable battery storage played a major role.”

As Dede Subakti, vice president of system operations at CAISO, explained on the company’s website, increasing temperatures can strain power grids. In addition to more households cranking up the heat and using more power, high temperatures over 90 degrees Fahrenheit can also cause power plants to operate less efficiently, the Union of Concerned Scientists explained on its blog.

These issues can cause energy demand to exceed supply, leading to outages that put communities in more danger from the extreme temperatures. Grid operators may also trigger rotating power outages to different communities to reduce the strain on the grid and avoid larger, longer-lasting power disruptions.

But clean energy resources can improve grid resiliency by providing stored energy, and solar power can meet energy demand where it’s needed, alleviating some of the demand on the grid.

California is a leader of renewables in the U.S. As of 2023, about 54% of the state’s electricity generation came from renewables, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). California has set a target to reach 60% renewables by 2030 and 100% renewable energy by 2045.

In recent years, rolling blackouts have been an issue across the state during more frequent and intensifying heat waves. But California’s investments in renewable energy are helping to curb these outages.

“California’s power grid held up against prolonged record temperatures because of new clean energy resources, more battery storage, and enhanced coordination with state government — and the grid was also able to export energy to other states in need during this heat wave,” Subakti said.

The California Independent System Operator control room in Folsom, California on Sept. 21, 2022. California ISO / Facebook

Earlier this year, in May, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced record solar power output, which reached 18,933 megawatts on May 13. This was a 20-fold increase compared to 2012. According to the governor’s office, clean energy exceeded grid demand for a record 34 days at the time.

As ABC7 News reported, officials have warned that extreme weather, like heat waves, will still pose threats to the grid without more actions to address the impacts of climate change.

The post California Officials Praise Renewables, Battery Storage for Grid Resilience Amid Heat Wave appeared first on EcoWatch.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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