@NREL just dropped a new draft of its missing grid modernization study.
- Seams returns >2 years after Trump appointees squelched it
- 2 months after @INVW exposed their meddling
- And 1 month after @HouseScience told @SecBrouillette to #FreeSeams.
THREAD
theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
The #FreeSeams study projected that building a national power grid would cut costs + carbon by killing off coal and boosting wind & solar. The new @NREL Seams ordered by @Energy Dept politicos adds scenarios that "dilute" those findings. 2/7
nrel.gov/analysis/seams…
@NREL Seams' new DOE-approved scenarios assume:
- higher costs for power line construction
- lower fossil fuel prices, or
- limited retirement of coal generating stations

Each of those factors make long-distance power transmission look less cost-effective. 3/7
@NREL's DOE-approved rewrite fails to test scenarios that would BOOST the projected benefits from grid modernization. Such as faster growth of wind & solar.

Seams still assumes <50% RE in 2038, whereas states such as CA & NY could have >50% by 2030. 4/7 pv-magazine.com/2019/06/19/new…
Seams returned from the dead with one fix, correcting a set of calculations.

But coauthor @CasparyJay - fmr R&D head @SPPorg - told a Colorado PUC mtg today that the technical tweak doesn't alter Seams bottom-line message: Interconnecting grids yields "very large" benefits. 5/7
Especially at the seam. CO PUC Comm. John Gavan says lack of access to midwest wind power hinders his state's deep #decarbonization goal, = 80% <GHG by 2030 v 2005. "I can't think of a more impactful project than the #MacroGrid" he says, referencing Seams' #HVDC grid design. 6/7
Seams coauthor @ElectrifyBloom says the draft was submitted today to @ieee_pes TPS.

A closing question for #energytwitter experts: Could peer reviewers request more work if they perceive an imbalance in the scenarios? Should they? 7/7
@russellgold @croselund @DrChrisClack

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More from @pfairley

11 Apr
The photo below reminds me of a 2013 essay by SFU economist @MarkJaccard whose 2020 book << Citizen's Guide to Climate Success: Overcoming Myths that Hinder Progress >> I recently recommended here. Allow me to excerpt a bit and explain why. THREAD
Jaccard's 2013 essay narratives Canada's bipartisan climate inaction since joining Kyoto Protocol, and culminates in his decision to risk arrest blocking a train full of coal... #energytwitter @leahstokes @KHayhoe @DKeithClimate @walrusmagazine
thewalrus.ca/the-accidental…
The excerpt jogged from my brain by that lone undercooked bat comes in the 2nd half, where Jaccard tackles #CdnPoli-ticians' arguments against inconvenient limits on fossil fuel development.

Remember, it's 2013, and fossil-friendly Stephen Harper is Canada's prime minister ...
Read 10 tweets
27 Feb
What Mohawk leaders told Canada's indigenous services minister about the rule of law and Canada's repeated and ongoing violation of laws and treaties. realpeoples.media/complete-trans…
Mohawk bear clan representative KANENHARIYO captures the heart of the issue here: "There’s a reason why we’re here (gestures to the tracks). You see in 1823, they came here with surveyors, and they surveyed a 5 mile tract of land across our territory. And we never agreed to it."
"70 of our warriors came out here... And they threw those surveyors out and said, ‘you can’t be here, this is our territory as protected for us forever.’"
Read 10 tweets

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