By Hector Sanchez, Executive Director LCLAA

The risks of climate change due to excess carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are significant for everyone, and are an even greater concern for working Latino families.  The majority of Latinos are concentrated in urban areas in 15 states that account for 86.5% of the total Latino population. Over 80 percent of Latinos within the United States live in counties that violated at least one federal air-pollution and our children are 2.5 times more likely to develop asthma than non-Latino children. The reduction and regulation of harmful air pollutants and heat-trapping gases is a public health imperative directly tied to the fight against climate change. The creation of a clean and renewable energy economy that protects workers and our environment must be a priority.
read more…

By Jarret Adams

Over at the Huffington Post today, Carl Pope of the Sierra Club has dished up another attack on the economics of nuclear energy that goes light on the facts and heavy on the rhetoric. Contrary to Mr. Pope’s wishes, nuclear energy’s revival already is well under way with more than 50 new plants under construction worldwide. More than 20 of these new reactors are being built in China alone.

The main question is whether Americans will see past the constant flood of disinformation about nuclear energy and support the revival as other industrial nations have done. In fact, nuclear energy is by far America’s largest source of electricity that does not produce greenhouse gases.

While new nuclear plants are expensive, the cost of electricity generated by these facilities over 60 year is relatively inexpensive. Once these costs are amortized, the operating costs of nuclear plants (at about 2 cents/kwh) are well below natural gas (at 5 cents/kwh) and even lower than coal.

Nuclear energy also has an excellent safety record in the United States. In fact (another fact), it is safer to work in the nuclear industry than in manufacturing, according the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Regarding ability to withstand hurricanes, the Gulf region nuclear plants withstood Hurricane Katrina without sustaining any significant damage and were among the first major power generation back online after the storm.

We at AREVA fully support renewable energy as another way to produce low-carbon electricity, especially if we are talking about our state-of-the-art offshore wind turbines, concentrated solar power, and advanced biopower facilities.

Why does Mr. Pope trash nuclear in an effort to promote renewables? In actuality, nuclear energy and renewables are complementary – a combination of the two is the best near-term way to remove CO2 emissions from our electricity grid. And why does he put in a plug for low natural gas prices?

by Patti Case
Public and Regulatory Affairs manager for Green Diamond Resource Company

Welcome to the Olympic Peninsula, where Green Diamond Resource Company owns vast acres of timberland. Our company has its roots here (pun intended); 120 years ago Sol Simpson founded Simpson Logging Company in the heart of this rainy country, and today Green Diamond is still privately owned by Sol’s descendants.

Western Washington is undoubtedly timber country, a wood basket to the world. Washington also is home to some of the toughest forest practices regulations in the world, protecting soil productivity, clean water, fish and wildlife, and ensuring long-term sustainability.

The use of woody biomass to produce energy is one more component of this stewardship. We used to call it slash. It was in the way of planting a new forest, so foresters once employed broadcast burning, torching the woody debris where it lay in harvest units. It made for fantastic sunsets over the Olympic Mountains – and, admittedly, impacted air quality.

Several years ago, broadcast burning was replaced by controlled burning, in which foresters pile the debris, wait till a drizzly day in October or so, then burn the piles in order to open up planting sites. Near busy roads, state law requires forest landowners to abate the hazard of wildfire presented by wood slash as these residuals dry out.

Gathering wood residuals and shipping them to a biomass facility presents a positive alternative to reduce the risk of wildfire and clear areas for reforestation – one that is not economically viable unless woody biomass is needed for power generation.

State law requires that forest landowners leave both standing trees and down wood in harvested areas, to provide wildlife habitat and enrich soils. Green Diamond foresters will supervise biomass removal on our land, to ensure that sufficient woody debris is left behind and that biomass removal equipment does not compact soils. After all, forestry is a long term business. We’ve been on this landscape for 120 years, and we intend to be here for future generations, as well.

In another important step to deliver renewable energy and jobs to Washington state, ADAGE, the biopower joint venture between AREVA and Duke Energy, announced today that it has signed its first long-term biomass fuel supply agreement with Green Diamond Resource Company, who owns and manages timberland in the immediate area.

Through this agreement, a portion of the woody biomass for the ADAGE Mason County facility would come from wood residuals. This material is what remains in the forest after harvest operations, and it will be removed by Green Diamond Forestry ensuring compliance with Washington forest practice regulations and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard.

The proposed Mason County facility would bring 55 megawatts of renewable biomass generation and addition to a $250 million initial investment in Mason County. The project is expected to create more than 400 direct jobs during construction and more than 100 direct jobs during permanent operation and will use state-of-the-art environmental controls to protect public health.

For more information check out the ADAGE website where you can find much more on biomass and how it contributes to clean energy generation.

In a letter yesterday, the Western Governors’ Association, representing the governors of 19 states and three US-flag Pacific islands, called on the Obama Administration to “develop a clear and unambiguous federal biomass policy,” saying that “many of the issues presented remain unresolved, consequently impeding our efforts to protect our citizens and forests, promote renewable energy and reduce America’s dependence on foreign oil.”  Read the press release. 
 
By supporting the collection of wood waste biomass to fuel biopower facilities, the Administration would stimulate regional sustainable forestry economies and provide leadership in developing renewable power resources. Economic stimulus and energy policy—now, where have we heard those concepts recently?
 
Learn more about the design and development of a modern biomass power facility at our ADAGE Mason County project.
 

AREVA Solar’s VP of Sales Jayesh Goyal talks with Jennifer Runyon, Renewable Energy World, about AREVA’s investment in CSP technology that has resulted in a better balance sheet for the company and better bankability for projects.

Another major announcement made by AREVA today that underscores the growth and future of renewable energy generation. AREVA and Bolognesi Participacoes, through its subsidiary Hidrotérmica, a Brazilian independent power producer, have signed a master agreement to modernize cogeneration units in 10 sugarcane factories, located primarily in northeast Brazil.

AREVA Koblitz, an AREVA subsidiary, will supply turnkey services for the units as part of the agreement. These 10 unites that will generate 330 MWe energy that will be sold to the Brazilian grid.

A first unit is already under construction and the other nine will be launched during the second half of 2010.

Anil Srivastava, CEO of AREVA Renewables, stressed: “This deal strengthens our position as leader in engineering services for the global bioenergy market. Today, we are building more than 800 MWe of biomass and hydro production, with orders for an additional 750 MWe in hand. This is further evidence of the bioenergy market’s trust in our ability to meet its rapidly expanding needs”.

Currently, AREVA has engineering teams working for the bioenergy market here in the United States through a joint-venture with Duke Energy called ADAGE. More information on ADAGE and energy generation from biomass can be found here.

By Susan Hess

This question was the topic of a lively discussion at the 81st LULAC National convention held in Albuquerque, N.M.  The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) invited AREVA to speak at this important annual event about clean energy, including nuclear and renewables, to help educate their members about the truths and myths of this timely topic. 

Climate change and clean energy have been of growing interest over the past several years because of its direct and indirect impact on the Latino Community, which is now the largest and fastest growing minority population in the United States. For instance, children of Latino families develop asthma at a rate 2.5 times more than other minority and Caucasian children.  


The discussion covered renewable energy options such as offshore wind, biomass and solar power as well as nuclear energy. Understandably, several in the audience did not consider nuclear energy a “clean energy” source. Our discussion centered mostly on facts and fiction about nuclear energy, recycling used nuclear fuel, and how each voter can help to rebuild the nuclear energy industry by contacting their Congressional members and encouraging them to support increased nuclear energy in the United States. 

When the session ended, everyone appreciated the discussion and the new perspectives.  One person remarked, “I thought this was about clean energy.  It was mostly about nuclear energy. If you had said nuclear in the title of the session, I would not have attended, but I did.  I learned a lot and I am glad I came.”
 

The Economic Development Council of Mason County has come out in support of the biomass generating plant ADAGE proposes to build at the Port of Shelton’s John’s Prairie Industrial Park. The EDC’s Executive Director, Matt Matayoshi, announced Tuesday that his board of directors unanimously voted to support the project to build the 55 megawatt generating facility that will use forest waste as fuel. Read more.

In addition, a local citizen group voiced its support for the ADAGE facility in a statement before the Port of Shelton Commission to not let “the narcissistic megalomania of a few outsiders blow up the future for those of us that represent the many of our community.”

More project details and resources available on the ADAGE Web site.