Greenhouses and Microgrids Should Grow Together
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As consumer preferences continue to shift toward purchasing locally sourced and organic produce, demand is growing for commercial greenhouses, or controlled environment agriculture (CEA), as the industry is labeled. This shift in preference to locally grown food is changing the way supermarkets and restaurants source their fruits and vegetables.
COMMENTARY
Many restaurants throughout the country boast menus that are not only farm-to-table, but local-to-table. What many consumers may not realize is, for produce to be considered “locally grown organic,” it must have been grown within 400 miles of the point of sale. That may seem like a long distance for produce to travel, but without local CEA facilities, greens at any given supermarket may have traveled thousands of miles from places such as Central or South America.
Reinforcing the Supply Chain
The push for more locally sourced produce is not a fad but an enduring trend among increasingly discerning consumers.…
$8 Billion Proposals Could Bring New Gas-Fired Plants to Texas
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An energy investment group told Texas regulators the company has a plan to help solve some of that state’s electricity reliability issues, proposing a plan similar to one put forth by billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy in March.
Starwood Energy Group on April 23 sent the state’s Public Utility Commission a proposal to build 11 natural gas-fired power plants, investing more than $ 8 billion to develop and construct the facilities. Representatives from Berkshire Hathaway Energy last month met with Texas lawmakers and said their group was prepared to spend about $ 8.3 billion to build 10 gas-fired plants across the state.
Starwood, based in Greenwich, Connecticut, in an April 23 letter from CEO Himanshu Saxena to the Texas PUC (PUCT) and the board of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state’s main grid operator, said it wanted to outline “a compelling proposal to solve ERCOT’s reliability issues as was demonstrated by the energy crisis that occurred in February 2021.”…
DOE Earmarks $109.5 Million to Support Coal Workers
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it will provide $ 109.5 million in funding for projects that directly support job creation in communities impacted by the energy transition, particularly for workers and areas struggling due to closures of coal-fired power plants and coal mines.
The DOE in the April 23 announcement, made in connection with a White House report on economic revitalization in coal and power plant communities, said the financial support is among the “first results of a government-wide initiative launched by President Biden in the first week of his administration to boost the economic potential of coal and power plant communities.”
The White House Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which is part of the DOE, also announced it has chosen an executive director—Brian Anderson, longtime West Virginia resident and director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)— to lead its efforts.…