Aspirin and Golf Balls

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Good morning and happy Friday,

This week, Treasury issued guidance on the IRA, clarifying that offshore wind projects may qualify for the bonus tax credits available to projects sited in “energy communities” if the onshore elements of the project are in an energy community – a move ACORE praised, but Senator Manchin slammed.

Houston hosted the annual CERAWeek conference last week, and the throughlines focused on three big questions: the election, AI, and minerals production.

And Politico reports that an IRA program called Climate Pollution Reduction Grants – which could be worth up to a half-billion dollars – is “fueling a quiet competition” among Democratic Governors.

Read on for more.

Aspirin and Golf Balls

Last winter, LBNL released a study that looked at the effect of wind projects on home values; its findings have been reinforced by a new nationwide study that similarly found the impact is much lower than previously thought – “about a 1% drop on average for a home with at least one wind turbine within six miles.” Here are some key details:

The new study analyzed data from 300 million home sales and 60,000 wind turbines and determined that the impact on home prices is greatest within five miles of a turbine; the further a residence is from a turbine, the less its value is affected.
That said, within about ten years, even the minor impact on the value of residences close to turbines “diminishes and eventually disappears” – something the researchers believe can be attributed to buyers getting more comfortable with wind projects, and the turbines blending into the background like other infrastructure.
It’s also worth noting that the number of people who live close to wind turbines is relatively small – “the study recorded fewer than 250,000 housing transactions within a mile of a wind turbine.”

⚡️ The Takeaway

Eye of the beholder. Interestingly, the study also provided some context for thinking about viewshed impacts, noting that “on average, a wind turbine five miles away appeared roughly the same size as an aspirin tablet held with an outstretched arm. If the same turbine were one mile away, it would appear the size of a golf ball.” That could be part of the reason farmers in Iowa are very pro-wind.

Solar Scuttlebutt

In our first Dispatch of the year, we told you about Knox Smart Development, an “anonymously funded” organization trying to scuttle Open Road Renewables’ Frazier Solar project in Knox County, Ohio. Well, the saga continues, but some landowners are fighting back. Here’s what’s happening:

Frazier Solar is currently under review by the Ohio Power Siting Board, and two cousins who want to lease land to the project say their property rights are being interfered with by a vocal minority; one of the pair is seeking to intervene in the case.
The two sides are staked out along somewhat predictable lines, although each has a twist: those opposed say the project will harm property values, and none other than Robert Bryce has chimed in, citing the LBNL study mentioned in “Must Read” above as evidence.
Those in favor of the project argue that farmers have a right to earn a living from their land, and to conserve it for future generations. They are well-positioned to swat away claims that it will diminish agriculture, since Frazier Solar plans to use sheep grazing for vegetation management, and its proximity to Columbus means the land could otherwise be a prime target for housing development.

⚡️ The Takeaway

Lacking legitimacy. Ohio’s Senate Bill 52 gives counties the ability to ban solar projects, but only if they weren’t already in the queue when the bill passed – an exception that clearly applies to Frazier Solar, says state representative Bill Seitz in a letter to the OPSB. In any case, the OPSB is supposed to make decisions that are “rationally related to legitimate land use concerns,” and thus far, there don’t appear to be any.

Coal Over Sol: Gov. Justice vetoes solar bill aimed at drawing industry to West Virginia
Coordination Pays Off: MA, RI & CT receive 6.8 GW of proposals for offshore wind projects
Silver Lining? Heat, cold extremes could hold untapped potential for solar and wind energy
Ouch! Houston-area solar farm pummelled by March 15 hailstorm
Billion-dollar Backbone: Potential benefits of Atlantic offshore wind transmission network are more than double the costs: DOE

Hot Toddy

If you’re a whisky lover, you may not have considered the greenhouse gas footprint of your favorite hooch – and soon, you may be able to leapfrog straight to feeling good about it.

Diageo is a British beverage company with a presence in nearly 180 countries and more than 200 brands, many of which require energy-intensive activities such as distilling, bottling, cleaning, pasteurization, and HVAC systems.

These operations typically depend on natural gas, but the company announced this week that it was selected for up to $75 million in DOE funding “to support the electrification of its production sites in Shelbyville, Kentucky and Plainfield, Illinois – with the goal of making both facilities carbon neutral by 2026 and 2028, respectively.”

Diageo is partnering with Rondo Energy to install Rondo Heat Batteries at the two sites, “providing low-cost, zero-carbon heat and power, and eliminating reliance on natural gas for boilers used in heating processes,” and significantly cutting GHG emissions.

Using electric heating elements like those in a toaster or oven, the Rondo system heats thousands of tonnes of bricks to temperatures of 1,500°C – and they maintain the heat with less than 1% energy loss daily, according to the company. Hot stuff! We’ll drink to that.