Proposed McLean County Wind Farm Permit Denied -- Not Likely To Be End Of Story -- But Vote Was Unanimous -- April 18, 2024

Locator: 47035WIND.

Link here. From The Bismarck Tribune.

Plans to put what would be North Dakota's largest standalone wind farm in the heart of coal country ran into a stumbling block when the McLean County Commission unanimously voted to deny a preliminary project area permit ....

The move has potential impacts to North Dakota's largest coal-fired power plant, which was saved from shutdown just a few years ago.

..... proposed Discovery Wind Farm, which would be built by Virginia-based Apex Clean Energy and have the potential to send 426 megawatts of electricity to the Twin Cities area in Minnesota.

Supporters -- many of whom signed easements to put turbines on their property -- highlighted the potential economic benefits the project would bring to the more than 100 landowners who signed contracts and to local businesses, as well as the tax dollars going to the county and schools -- around $735,000 a year for 30 years.

Executives from the area's prominent coal industry also provided comments in favor of the wind farm.

If one can't "get" a wind farm under these conditions -- it speak volumes about the future of renewable energy projects in oil country.

But key words: "preliminary" "stumbling block" suggest "this" is not yet over. But "unanimous" has an "ominous" tone for those pushing the project.

Personally, I would be happy if they built the wind farm in Minnesota. Or Virginia.

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A Map Of US Time Zones

Link here.

Isn't there some law that was passed in 1864?

Jamestown, ND: Wind Farms, Hydrogen, And Fertilizer -- June 8, 2023

Locator: 44878WIND.  

Proposed (sent to me by a reader, thank you very much).

New wind farm proposed:

• $400 million
• 285 wind turbines
  
• NextEra Energy Resources' North Dakota III wind farm
• Stutsman, LaMoure counties -- Jamestown area
• would power a clean hydrogen facility in North Dakota (link here);
  

This is important:

• EVs are a stop-gap / interim measure;
• the real future is hydrogen for long haul transportation: trucking, railroad, airlines

Also, a fertilizer plant, link here:

A fertilizer plant could be built in the Spiritwood area after the North Dakota Legislature approved a $125 million loan earmarked for the project if it is constructed in the state, according to local state legislators.

NextEra Energy Resources is interested in building a fertilizer plant in the Spiritwood area. 

Data Center Products -- June 7, 2023

Locator: 44859DCP.

The Next Big Thing. Link here.

The next big thing: page four.

Technically not a "next big thing." Astute investors caught this early on.

I'm not an astute investor. Missed this.

But it was a story out of North Dakota that brought me up to speed.

Ellendale, ND: population -- 1,085 (2021) and shrinking. Let that sink in. 

WHY ELLENDALE?

From the press release:

Applied Blockchain has begun work on a new 180MW cryptomining data center in North Dakota.

The company this week announced the groundbreaking of its 180MW hosting facility in Ellendale, Dickey County, took place at the start of the month.

The Ellendale facility is expected to begin energizing early in the first half of calendar 2023.Applied Blockchain entered into a five-year Energy Service Agreement (ESA) with a utility partner in Dickey County servicing Ellendale on September 1, 2022.

“The community of Ellendale and representatives of North Dakota have been amazing to work with as we bring this next facility to life,” said Applied Blockchain Chairman and CEO Wes Cummins.

“Having the new 180MW facility located close to significant wind power capacity will allow it to be powered with renewable energy to further propel future high performance computing solutions for global enterprises and applications. The entire capacity of this facility is already under contract, demonstrating the significant demand we continue to have for our hosting services.”

And more:

Ellendale is the company’s second data center within North Dakota, following a 100MW facility in Jamestown, North Dakota that opened earlier this year (2022). The company is also developing a 200MW facility in Garden City, Texas. Link here.

Applied Blockchain and Marathon Digital Holdings have mutually executed the option for an additional 70MW of hosting at the Ellendale location. This brings contracted capacity with Marathon to 276MW and total contracted hosting for the company to nearly 500MW.

Earlier this year Applied Blockchain said it planned to change its name to Applied Digital Corporation.

North Dakota Rejects Wind Farm Permit Over Lighting Issue -- March 5, 2020

Link here.

State regulators rejected a permit Wednesday for a proposed wind farm in Ward and McLean counties that faced difficulties complying with a 2017 state law requiring new technology to stop turbine-topping lights from blinking bright red all night.

The Public Service Commission, in a 1-2 vote, failed to approve Southern Power’s Ruso Wind project, though commissioners left open the option of reconsidering it down the road. The company did not immediately respond to a [Bismarck] Tribune request for comment.

Wednesday’s vote marks the second time the commission has rejected a wind farm, at least in recent history. The PSC denied a permit last year for the proposed Burke County Wind project over environmental concerns, although NextEra Energy has since proposed a modified version of the wind farm.

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1963

A must-read. For so many reasons. 

Earlier this week TCM played the classic Robert Drew cinéma vérité documentary “Crisis: Behind a presidential commitment.” The documentary first aired on ABC in October 1963. My only purpose is to bring it to your attention in case you might find it of interest and to recommend it if you haven’t seen it before.
The documentary takes us behind the scenes of the Kennedy administration’s efforts the previous June to enforce the federal court order desegregating the University of Alabama. The link to the documentary accessible for a fee via YouTube (above) provides this summary:

When Governor George Wallace literally stands in a school building door to block the admittance of two black students, Vivian Malone and James Hood, to the all-white University of Alabama in 1963, President John F. Kennedy must decide whether to commit the power of the presidency to backing racial equality. This astonishingly intimate documentary of a key confrontation in the U.S. battle for civil rights takes viewers inside the White House, the U.S. Justice Department, and the Alabama governor’s mansion, candidly filming events from all sides with cameras that follow each participant as the crisis unfolds, up through its dramatic climax.

The film is also accessible on Amazon Prime.

Wind Farm Update -- Williston Herald -- December 2, 2019

From The Williston Herald, data points:

• Williams, Mountrail wind farm to use newest, largest turbines in the nation (Aurora Wind Farm; 
• one mile away fromt he Lindahl Wind Farm, near Tioga; 
• latest in a line of nine other wind energy projects either seeking permits or under construction;
• together they will add another 2,435 MW to North Dakota's already impressive energy portfolio; by itself, Aurora will produce 299 MW (nameplate, though historically, wind farms produce about 25% of nameplate capacity); 
• two types of turbines; the larger turbine will stand 181 meters from ground to tip-top blade, and product 4.8 MW; the rotor diameter of the wind turbine is 149 meters; 39 meters longer than Lindahl; 
• the federal credit was available in full for projects started by 2016, and is gradually phased out thereafter
• this year marks the last year for 40 percent of the credit; the Aurora Wind Farm, while breaking ground this year, was actually begun in 2016 due to the purchase of its turbines in that year;
• it will be receiving 100 percent of the original tax credit.

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Sophia Hitchhiking To Pre-School

Notes From All Over, Part 2 -- July 25, 2019

The road to Europe isn't going to be lined with wind turbines, folks. From NewsEurope --

• with all the "stuff" that should positively affecting wind, Europe actually installed less onshore wind energy in 1H19 compared to same period last year
• 1H19: new 2.9 GW wind installed in Europe; 
• 1H18: new 3.3 GW wind installed in Europe;
• installations were particularly poor in Germany, which had its worst first half of the year since 2000
• Germany will pick up the 2H19 but as a whole will be lower than historical levels
• of all European countries, France has the most onshore installations with 523 MW
• France: 523 MW for the entire 1H19, and that was the biggest in Europe? give me a break -- in Williams County alone, one county in North Dakota --

From Geoff Simon's top ND energy stories this past week:

Work set to begin on Williams County wind far, Tradewind Energy; 300-MW Aurora Wind Farm; northeaster Williams County; up to 121 turbines spanning 44,000 acres; centered five miles northwest of Tioga; range in size from 2.0 to 4.8 MW; includes construction of a 20-mile 345 KV transmission line; will terminate at Basin Electric Power Cooperative's Tande Substation east of Tioga in Mountrail County; $385 million.

And that's on top of existing wind farms in Williams County.

From the linked NewsEurope article:

“With France, which had a good first 6 months, Spain, Norway and Sweden will now have to help pick up the slack in the second half of the year,” Tardieu said. “The EU has set a renewable energy target of 32% for 2030 and is talking about a net zero economy by 2050. The rate of installations we’ve seen so far this year won’t get us there,” he argued.

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The Wildlife Page

Wind Project Soon To Break Ground -- In The Middle Of The Bakken -- July 20, 2019

Updates:

Later, 2:56 p.m. CT, from a reader:

Well, no actually not. More people are understanding that wind and solar power needs backup for the 70% of the time it's not producing electricity.

The latest hot button item for solving this problem is grid scale utility lithium battery storage. $100's of millions have already been spent worldwide, (including in surprise -- California), for this "new" technology (Exxon brought us lithium batteries 50 years ago).

Here's what the Manhattan Institute tells us about battery storage:

China already dominates global battery manufacturing and is on track to supply nearly two-thirds of all production by 2020.  The relevance for the new energy economy vision:

70% of China’s grid is fueled by coal today and will still be at 50% in 2040. This means that, over the life span of the batteries, there would be more carbon-dioxide emissions associated with manufacturing them than would be offset by using those batteries to, say, replace internal combustion engines.

Comment: so, batteries don't solve the problem either. This, ironically, will be the argument that renewables (wind and solar) will use when explaining why they won't include battery back-up in their projects. "Because batteries" don't solve the problem."

From Geoff Simon's top ND energy stories this past week:

Work set to begin on Williams County wind far, Tradewind Energy; 300-MW Aurora Wind Farm; northeaster Williams County; up to 121 turbines spanning 44,000 acres; centered five miles northwest of Tioga; range in size from 2.0 to 4.8 MW; includes construction of a 20-mile 345 KV transmission line; will terminate at Basin Electric Power Cooperative's Tande Substation east of Tioga in Mountrail County; $385 million.

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On Another Note -- 

Link here. Provided by a reader.

But it makes us feel good.

The Market, Energy, And Political Page, Part 2, T+30 -- December 6, 2018

NIMBY, too close to Bismarck: this is pretty funny. Regulators deny wind farm permit that would have crimped Bismarck's urban expansion in 2100. This speaks volumes. NIMBY. Over near Tioga is okay, but heaven forbid, not near the Bismarck airport. We may need that land some day. And besides, the "visual." And why isn't Chicago building wind farms in their own state. Over at The Bismarck Tribune:

Chicago-based Pure New Energy USA is proposing to develop the 250-megawatt Burleigh-Emmons Wind Farm, which would be located about 15 miles southeast of Bismarck and 12 to 13 miles from the city’s airport.

We are in trouble: CO2 emissions rose to a record high in 2018. Washington Post. Of course, as one reader pointed out, a lot of CO2 was generated by:

• folks burning tires in Paris;
• diesel locomotives / CBR, with pipeline activity shut down; and,
• of course, all those jets flying Hollywood and UN elites to global warming conferences in far-flung places. Poland is a long way from NYC where the UN is headquartered

But certainly not by US drivers: gasoline demand down from previous year.

Poca-haunts-us: amazing how she gets such good treatment. The New York Times says Trump "bullied" her -- when, in fact, all he did was call her out for her craziness. Someone said the other day on talk radio -- I think it was Rush Limbaugh -- one political party can dish it out, but can't take it. I just can't imagine why The New York Times ran such a long story on Pocahontas ... check that. I understand very, very well why The NYT ran the story. This is the "re-set" button just before she announces she's running. Wow, I'm glad Hillary Clinton coined the political "re-set" button. It's going to be a useful metaphor. Her own (Hillary's) re-set button is probably so faded most folks can't see it any more.

Negative heat: from global warming to climate change to negative heat. Huge thanks to Don for the ideas. Link here.

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Real Silverware

Our favorite place to have lunch in Ft Worth, TX, uses real silverware (hidden in the paper napkins in the photo below).

I Had No Idea -- High Voltage DC Transmission Lines In North Dakota -- June 28, 2018

First the graphic, look where the only US high voltage DC transmission lines are in the US:

The link: at the EIA --

A new study commissioned by EIA examines the role of high-voltage direct current (HVDC) lines in integrating renewables resources into the electric grid. The review indicates that, although applications in the current electric transmission network are limited, HVDC lines have a number of potential benefits including cost effectiveness, lower electricity losses, and the ability to handle overloads and prevent cascading failures. These attributes mean that HVDC lines could, if properly configured, help mitigate some operational issues associated with renewable generation.

Renewable resources can be categorized into two types of generating sources—dispatchable and non-dispatchable. Dispatchable generators can respond to real-time system operator instructions to increase or decrease output. Among renewable power plants, those fueled by geothermal and biomass resources are considered dispatchable.

Non-dispatchable renewables, such as those fueled by solar and wind energy, are dependent on the availability of naturally occurring resources. As a result, these technologies have a limited capability to respond to dispatch signals. Hydroelectric generators fall between these categories; they can typically respond to dispatch signals, but they often have seasonal operational limitations that prevent them from being completely dispatchable.

Go to the linked article to see why high voltage DC transmission lines are being considered for renewable energy.

Making America Great Again -- Nevada Tops The List; Texas #19; The Market And Energy Page, T+67, Part 2 -- March 29, 2017

Exiting Canadian oil sands: Cenovus Energy will acquire COP's 50% interest in Foster Creek Christina Lake partnership, the companies' jointly owned oil sand opererated by CVE, and the majority of COP's Deep Basin conventional assets in Alberta and British Columbia, for $14.1 billion in cash and stock.

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The American Dream

From Axios:

First look ... Forbes launches The American Dream Index, using seven indicators of economic health "to track on a state-by-state monthly basis whether President Trump is Making America Great." The debut rankings:

Best off: Nevada, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas and Georgia.
Worst off: Alaska, Hawaii, Connecticut, Illinois and Kansas.
The big states: Washington ranks 15th, Pennsylvania 16th, Texas 19th, California 26th, Michigan 27th, Wisconsin 29th, Virginia 30th, Maryland 31st, Ohio 32nd, New York 41st and New Jersey 45th.

Montana made the top ten, coming in at #9. North Dakota did not make the top ten.

The Forbes link here.

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This Should Move South Dakota Up The "American Dream Index" 
Later: A reader provided the rest of the story.

From Engineering News Record: Otter Tail Power to build 250-MW natural gas power plant in SD. Data points:

• to be built in eastern South Dakota (near where the DAPL crosses SD); near Astoria, SD
• along the SD/MN border, about 75 miles north of Sioux Falls, SD -- where the Big Stone "North Dakota lignite-fired" power plant should have been built 10 years ago but Minnesota enviro's killed it.
• near the intersection of the Northern Border natural gas pipeline and the Big Stone South-to-Brookings 345 KV electric transmission line which I suppose has excess capacity probably pre-built to accomodate the cancelled Big Stone coal fired  plant....maybe to transport canadian hydro the REAL replacement for Hoot Lake?
• $165 million / 250 MW ($660,000 / MW -- about what we have come to expect)
• Otter Tail will retire its Hoot Lake coal-fired plant (Minnesota, same area) by 2021
• Hoot Lake will also be replaced by 150 MW wind farm in southeast North Dakota actually 30 MW net capacity factor  which is just political posturing not a reliable power source....worth-less-than-nothing -- except the tax credits and the political PR
• the wind farm: $250 million ($1.7 million /MW -- also about what we have come to expect) but the dispatchable power is 20% so the cost is really $8.5 million/MW
• the wind project will be near the small town of Merricourt, approximately 15 miles south of Edgeley, North Dakota, in McIntosh and Dickey Counties because Minnesota doesn't want this ugly junk that will be left to rot onsite in about 15 years.

Whiting With Two More Bakken Permits -- February 28, 2017

Active rigs:

	2/28/2017	02/28/2016	02/28/2015	02/28/2014	02/28/2013
Active Rigs	40	38	119	192	183

Two new permits:

• Operator: Whiting
• Field: East Fork (Williams)
• Comments: the last consecutive sixteen permits have all been Whiting permits; all permits from February 21st through today have been Whiting permits; of the 125 permits issued by NDIC to date, this calendar year, fifty (50) have been Whiting permits

Three producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 28991, 2,120, CLR, Radermecher 2-22H1, Camel Butte, t2/17; cum --
• 28998, 1,880, CLR, Radermecher 4-22H2, Camel Butte, t2/17; cum --
• 31639, 2,640, BR, Old Hickory 43-32 MBH-R, Sand Creek, 4 sections, t2/17; cum -- 

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All Of The Above

Meanwhile, Stark County has approved a very, very contentious wind farm. Bismarck Tribune:

• Brady Wind Energy Center I
• northern Stark County near Dickinson
• $250 million project; 150 MW ($1.7 million / MW; I don't know if that includes the transmission line)
• NextEra Energy Resources
• PSC voted unanimously to approve it
• includes a 19-mile transmission line
• longest wind farm hearing in state history; 15 hours of testimony, March 31, 2016
• sounds like most area residents were against it except for the landowners that gain financially; I could be wrong; that was my impression

North Dakota County Votes Down Wind Farm; Visual Pollution Near "The Park" -- November 17, 2016

Hoping Those Tipis-Tepees-Teepees Have Central Heat

Early? Huge blizzard, major snowstorms predicted for upper midwest from Rocky Mountains east through Minneapolis to entire state of Minnesota. The weather pattern appears to "miss" North Dakota except the far southeast corner. Blizzard warnings are for northeastern South Dakota / southwestern Minnesota. It's going to be close but the big question is whether the Standing Rock Reservation will be hit.

Overstayed their welcome: speaking of the Standing Rock Reservation -- the Standing Rock Sioux Tribal Council voted unanimously to ask Red Warrior Camp to leave. Something tells me if the blizzard hits, "they" will have no trouble shutting down the camp. Unless you've been there, you have no idea how remote, how dangerous this area can be in the winter. And, then, of course, those pesky grizzly bears. 

Paid protestors: the ad has now been removed, but Craigslist had an ad offering payment to folks who would assemble at West Acres Mall in Fargo to shut it down in support of DAPL.

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Speaking of Cold Weather

From AccuWeather:

Temperatures in Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Morgantown, West Virginia, and Buffalo, New York, will plummet from the 60s and 70s on Friday to the upper 20s and lower 30s during Saturday night. Then, temperatures may recover by only 10 degrees or less on Sunday.

Dispatchable energy from solar farm and wind farms will be needed to keep all those homes cozy. Oh, that's right. Solar and wind energy is not dispatchable.

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NIMBY

Proposed Wind Project Shut Down

From The Dickinson Press, data points:

• Charlie Creek Wind Farm; Orion Renewable Energy Group; would have been their first wind farm in ND; had been working on the project for two years; 25,000 acres
• Billing County, southwest North Dakota; near ND Highway 95
• would have begun three miles north of Fairfield and would have extended to one mile south of ND Highway 200
• 114-turbine, 383-megawatt wind farm proposal
• sounds like only the surface owners wanted; otherwise no one else wanted it
• too near Theodore Roosevelt National Park; "visual pollution" issue; park visitors would be able to see 75 wind turbines
• three commissioners; one recused himself due to conflict of interest; other two voted down the project
• huge, huge amount of mailbox money involved: from this site, $5,000 to $8,000/turbine

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Back to the Bakken

North Dakota September, 2016, crude oil production: lowest since February, 2014.  The state issued 82 drilling permits in October, a large increase from 63 in September, although down from 99 in August.

Active rigs:

	11/17/2016	11/17/2015	11/17/2014	11/17/2013	11/17/2012
Active Rigs	38	64	184	183	187

RBN Energy: Texas natural gas pipeline capacity, flows, and basis -- the fretboard model.

The natural gas pipeline grid in Texas is undergoing a historic transformation as interstate pipelines designed to move gas north and east from the Gulf Coast region are being reversed, enabling Marcellus/Utica gas to flow to LNG export markets in Louisiana and Texas, and via Texas for pipeline export to Mexico.  

With a history of oil and gas production going back more than 100 years, no region in the world has a more convoluted network of pipelines than Texas.  The state can be viewed as a dense “spaghetti bowl” of interconnected interstate and intrastate systems that defies traditional gas market analysis, in part because intrastate pipelines do not post receipts and deliveries on their systems as required by federally regulated interstate pipelines. 

However, it is possible to assess the dynamics of regional flows and capacities by examining the morass of flow data available from interstate pipelines in the region that connect to the intrastates. To help make sense of this data, RBN has developed a simplified model that facilitates an understanding of Texas natural gas flows and capacities that we call (unsurprisingly since it’s RBN) the Fretboard Model because the region’s interstate pipelines and capacity constraints look (with just a bit of artistic license) very much like a guitar fretboard.  In today’s blog, we introduce this model.

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The Political Page

It is absolutely incredible how fast MSNBC has come with regard to the new Trump presidency. Mika did clearly say Morning Joe  is of the Democratic Party. Elizabeth Warren came under a significant amount of criticism which really surprised me. Bernstein said world leaders respected Obama but no one feared him. And so on, and so on. Joe, himself, was absent from the set. The first hour was as good as anything I've heard anywhere (I don't watch Fox News at all and only visit the website if a link sends me there).

Steve Bannon's assessment -- read on Morning Joe -- sounded like something Bernie Sanders could have written. Amazing.

Payback is hell. Connect the dots. Jared Kushner. Chris Christie. Elevator: Jared is Trump's son-in-law. Jared's father prosecuted for fraud. Prosecutor: Chris Christie. Chris Christie out of Trump's inner circle.

And their point would be? A crawler at MSNBC: US ranks dead last among the ten wealthiest nations when it comes to health care despite spending the most per capita on health care. Let's see? ObamaCare was passed in 2010. Six years ago. 

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?

From Investopedia, data points:

• Musk Melon wants to deploy 4,425 satellites 
• to provide high-speed, global internet coverage
• has asked the Obama administration for permission to move forward

Another Wind Farm Proposed For Williams County -- November 10, 2016

I can't remember if I posted this earlier but when I blogged about the two wind farms that were going up this summer in western North Dakota, I had also been told there would be two more wind farms announced.

Here's one of the two. Data links from The Tioga Tribune:

• same developer as the Lindahl Wind Farm, currently under construction
• Trade Wind Energy, a Kansas-based company; currently has about 20 projects under development throughout the US
• planned for South Meadow township, just west of the Lindahl Wind Farm
• northern border: a few miles south of Wildrose; southeast corner of the new farm will stretch down to the same southern borders of the Lindahl Wind Farm

Another story posted by The Williston Herald, November 21, 2016. 

• initial step is to place six (6) meteorological towers to collect wind data
• it will take up to a year to collect that information

Nothing About The Bakken -- October 26, 2016

A list.

Bring it on. North American Wind Power: Xcel has plans for huge Midwest wind portfolio --

• Dickey County, ND: 150 MW project, NextEra Energy Resources, Foxtail Wind
• Freeborn County, MN: 200 MW project, Invenergy, Freeborn Wind Energy
• Lincoln County, MN: 200 MW project, Geronimo Energy, Blazing Star 1
• Lincoln County, MN: 200 MW project, Geronimo Energy, Blazing Star 2

Dickey County lies a couple of counties east from the Standing Rock Reservation, most likely on sacred tribal burial grounds, and along the South Dakota border.

These projects will bring a lot of money to ND and MN; and will make a lot of farmers rich, especially those farmers growing corn to support the highly-subsidized ethanol industry. North Dakota is quickly becoming the Elon Musk of renewable energy among the 50 states.

But best of all, these projects will require a lot of fossil-fuel back-up.

If Americans like wind energy, they might as well send their money to North Dakota, as long as those wind farms are not in my backyard (I have never been in Dickey County as far as I know).

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Amazon Not Stealing Costco's Customers

Over at Yahoo!Finance.

This is a great story. Amazon is place to buy books or pick up that one item you forgot or didn't see at Costco.

Costco, on the other hand is a destination.

Costco is a destination for shoppers. A destination. Sort of like a cruise ship stay-cation. Once a month or once-a-week. Duty free (local sales tax and that's it). And at Costco, one doesn't window shop with plans to buy it "cheaper" at Amazon. Whether or not it would be available at Amazon, it doesn't matter.

• the price at Costco "can't be beat" 
• hey, that's why we're here -- to buy, not window shop
• I brought the SUV; I have plenty of room for these huge packages; why else would I have a(n) SUV?
• this is what you do on stay-cations: you shop
• Costco is a social outing; Amazon is something you do when alone at home (or more likely bored at work)
• it's a shame to leave a huge shopping cart half-filled 
• all Costco shoppers -- regardless of ethnic background -- "share" white privilege: one has to be a member to shop at Costco; they don't let just anyone in; and, now that I'm in, I'm gonna shop
• Costco has the best hot dogs in the world; and they only cost a buck

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Random Thoughts On EVs

I have spent a large portion of my adult life in England. If I had all the money in the world, one of my homes would be in northern England, near Scotland, overlooking a river.

I've often thought that if any country was the perfect country for EVs, it would be England, or Great Britain, in general. The Brits love to pay "up" for quality; they are used to high taxes; their commuting distances are short. So I was curious. I assume wiki would provide the quickest answer but I chose not to look at wiki. Instead, I went to a site where they love EVs, insideevs.

The link is from an article almost a year old, but it pretty much told me everything I needed to know:
the Brits prefer plug-in hybrids, not all-electric cars

• November, 2015: registered EVs in the UK -- 1.27%
• December, 2014: registered EVs in the UK -- 1.29% (the "previous" record)
• growth rate has been slightly over 20% year-over-year (so the fact that registrations as a percent dropped, means that overall Brits are buying more cars, but not necessarily more EVs -- as a percent of vehicles sold)

Spin it however one might, this is not a good news story for EVs. This comes on top of a recent story that the Germans have lost their appetite for EVs, also. 

The real question is to what extent the British government is marketing/incentivizing EVs. The price of gasoline  per gallon in:

• Netherlands, Amsterdam: $6.48
• Norway, Osla: $6.27
• Denmark, Copenhagen: $5.96
• UK (London): $5.79
• NYC: $2.16

By the way, Venezuela? $0.12. Yes, 12 cents a gallon. Assuming there is gasoline to be found.

The difference in price between gasoline in London and the price of gasoline in NYC: taxes.

That should probably answer the question to what extent the British government is marketing/incentivizing EVs.

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Another List

If I have time, I might come back to this. Someone else pointed this out. It's now an original thought with me, but I have not seen this list before:

• The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
• Girl with Pearl Earring
• Girl in the Dark
• The Girl on the Train 

While traveling earlier this month, or was it last month, I forget, I missed a number of New Yorker magazine issues. I thought I had caught up with them all, but it appears I missed one of the better issues, the September 26, 2016, issue. That's what got me thinking about the list above.

Among many, many other good articles in that issue, there's a nice review of Ron Howard's new Beatles movie (which I do not plan to see). The reviewer references one of the best movie scenes ever:
... if you want to know how Uma Thurman felt, in Pulp Fiction, when that syringe of adrenaline was harpooned into her chest, here's your chance (Howard's movie on the Beatles).

I noted earlier that The New Yorker "missed it by that much" when the profile of Leonard Cohen appeared about the same time that Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. To make up for that, The New Yorker has a black/white caricature of a young Bob Dylan on the cover of this week's issue, but, of course, no article on him in this issue.

Unfortunately this week's issue appears to be have been written and edited by a Hillary Super PAC.

And we move on.

Update On Wind Farm Projects In Western North Dakota -- October 3, 2016

On my trip back to North Dakota last weekend, I saw wind turbines being transported south to Hebron, North Dakota, and saw towers being raised at the Lindahl Wind Project north of Tioga.

Towers, nacelles, and blades are all being staged out of Red River Oilfield Services east of Williston.

For the Tioga project, the components are being brought from Red River (Williston) to the Pinnacle Truck Stop south of Tioga, staged there, until the cranes are ready for them.

Data points, quickly and briefly.

Sunflower Wind Project

• south of Hebron, ND
• up to 55 wind turbines in Morton County
• 25 wind turbines in Stark County
• Vestas or GE
• approved July 8, 2014
• $180 million project
• 110 MW
• $1.6 million / MW
• Basin Electric will purchase 
• components from China

Lindahl Wind Project

• 75-wind turbines
• 150 MW
• $248.5 million
• $1.7 million / MW 
• four miles north of Tioga, ND
• staging: Red River Oilfield Services, east of Williston
• towers manufactured in Denver
• Vestas from Denmark

Two videos of staging area at Red River Oilfield Services, east of Williston:







Turn down / off the volume of the videos below.

Two videos of staging area at Pinnacle Truck Stop south of Tioga, ND:

Pipelines, CBR, Wind, More Wind, And All That Jazz; New Pipeline That Will Move 100,000 BOPD -- The Bakken Continues To Boom -- September 5, 2016

I'm not sure this pipeline will even have a name. If not, my suggestion: The Alexander Connector. Some data points from The Williston Herald:

• Tesoro
• 3.6 miles long
• 8 inches in diameter
• $6.8 million
• origin: the existing Break-Out Tank site six (6) miles north of Alexander
• terminus: the NST Express Alexander Facility

But then this: the NST Express Alexander Facility:

• $60 - $80 million project 
• nine (9) miles northwest of Alexander
• three above-ground storage tanks, each 50,000 bbls
• a pump station; a pig launcher
• 100,000-bopd pipeline ties into the NorthStar facility in Fairview -- update at The Bismarck Tribune -- 23 miles long, 12-inch pipeline;
• timeline: on track to be operational by November, 2016 (this year)
• permit was sought one year ago

NorthStar Transloading, Fairview, on the state line

• "a bit slow" with the downturn
• will improve with the completion of the NST Express Alexander Facility
• fracking sand offsets loss of crude oil business
• 20 miles of track
• could squeeze in 10 unit trains at once

For newbies: the Bakken may have slowed down, and major East Coast media outlets talk about a bust in the US shale industry, but when they are still putting in $75 million infrastructure facilities it speaks volumes about the future of the Bakken.

Remember: the EIA forecasts the Bakken to produce 2 million bopd through 2040 without much decline between 2030 and 2040.

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Stony Creek Rail Yard

Mentioned in same story linked above.

Stony Creek Rail Yard is currently handling about 1,000 wind tower components for two projects in North Dakota. 

This is the incredible rail yard build by Red River Supply just east of Williston (if not inside city limits, very, very close; just off State Highway 1804)

Great website.  When I visit the Bakken, this will be one of my top spots to visit. More on the Stony Creek Rail Yard here. About a year ago:

Red River Supply has announced the immediate addition of industrial rail space to Williston, something that had been in high demand and short in supply. Red River is now offering 25 acres of shovel-ready, 5-to-10-acre parcels at its Stony Creek Railyard southeast of Williston and will be adding another 100-plus acres of industrial rail access through 2020. The final development will be 180 acres and include an industrial park.

I think I recall hearing that one of the wind farms being supported by Red River Supply is the Lindahl Wind Farm, a 75-turbine farm in northeast Williams County, four miles north of Tioga, developed by Enel Green Power North America.  The 2014 annual report for Enel Green Power shows just how international this company is. From wiki:

Enel Green Power S.p.A. is an Italian multinational renewable-energy corporation, headquartered in Rome. The company was formed as a subsidiary of the power generation firm Enel in December 2008, grouping its global renewable energy interests.

Enel Green Power has operations in over 16 countries across Europe, North America and South America. It generates energy from hydroelectricity, wind, solar power, geothermal electricity, biomass and Incineration sources. At the end of September 2011, the company's total worldwide installed capacity was 6,490 MW, which it intends to increase to 10,400 MW by 2015.

I do not know the status of the mega-wind farm proposed for Ward County, the Harland Wind Farm. The last update at wiki was in 2014.

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Putting Things Into Perspective

Philae found!

Less than a month before the end of the mission, Rosetta’s high-resolution camera has revealed the Philae lander wedged into a dark crack on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.

The images were taken on 2 September by the OSIRIS narrow-angle camera as the orbiter came within 2.7 km of the surface and clearly show the main body of the lander, along with two of its three legs.

The images also provide proof of Philae’s orientation, making it clear why establishing communications was so difficult following its landing on 12 November 2014.

Rosetta is "Europe's comet chaser." Its mission is about to come to an end. 

Sunday Morning -- Nothing About The Bakken, Except One Link -- July 24, 2016

The one Bakken link on this page: a reminder that Mike Filloon posted a great update on the Bakken yesterday. I track it here with comments. I say that because a reader has provided some additional information on what it means "to trip" in the oil patch. Another reader introduces technology that was new to me: monobore / monodiameter / one run drilling. These little vignettes could serve as the basis for some great essays for kids in school tasked to write essays on various subjects. I remember how much I enjoyed writing projects throughout "junior hi" and high school.

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Non-Bakken

If you came here only for the Bakken you can skip the rest of this page, and scroll down, or to the sidebar at the right. Nothing below will interest those who arrived here simply for Bakken updates.

Wow, the Drudge Report this Sunday morning certainly is full of stories on the fallout from Wikileaks (#DNCLeaks) and the Munich Massacre by Ali. I think the most interesting was the BBC's attempt -- remember who the mayor of London is -- to "change" the suspect's name. Until Breitbart called the BBC on that, and then they posted the full name. (By the way, it's very similar to how the media long ago -- if ever -- referred to the president using his full given name.) No links; stories everywhere.

CNN headline: "21 killed in Baghdad suicide blast, weeks after deadliest in years." ISIS claimed responsibility. I assume this is another example of ISIS on the run not that we have them on the run, according to the administration. I track the "Mideast on edge" at the sidebar on the right.

Fox News reported that "Saudi official makes rare Jerusalem visit, meets Israelis." If he visited Jerusalem, it's hard to think he would not meet Israelis. As a reminder, the Israelis and the Palestinians both claim Jerusalem as their capital. Fox News considers this newsworthy; my hunch is this happens all the time, Saudi officials meeting Israeli officials. I wonder if they met in an air-conditioned unmarked aircraft parked at the end of a runway.

NextEra. Nexterror. Someone has a sense of humor. The NextEra lawyers are suing a blogger who refers to NextEra as Nexterror. The NextEra lawyers suggest her parody could confuse folks who might want to buy a wind turbine. I can't make this stuff up. Over at wiki:

NextEra has launched a copyright infringement lawsuit against a wind turbine protester who, on her personal website, created a parody of the NextEra logo and referred to the corporation as Nexterror. The corporation's lawyers claim that she “advertised her services in association with a trademark that was confusing with the Plaintiff’s registered trademarks”, potentially causing confusion among NextEra’s customers. As in, wind turbine customers might think that the woman is really NextEra and that they might try to buy wind turbines from her.

That last entry: a huge "thank you" to Don. By the way, on a serious note, a much bigger story, at least for me. This finally connects all the dots.

I assume folks in North Dakota remember Florida Power and Light investing in all those wind farms in the Peace Garden State. I blogged about it numerous times, although I think it might have been under the FPL moniker. For some time now, I haven't seen anything with regard to FPL in North Dakota. It turns out they changed their name, and I see NextEra everywhere -- especially on the "WSJ -- new highs" list for the past few weeks. NextEra is on a tear, trading at new highs, it seems, almost every day.

This on NextEra from wiki:

NextEra Energy is currently the largest owner and operator of wind turbines in the US, and second in the world after Iberdrola.

As of January 1, 2015 NextEra Energy, through its subsidiaries, currently operates over 100 wind farms across 19 states and three Canadian provinces, with a gross capacity of 11,300 megawatts.

It owns and operates the Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center in Taylor County, Texas, the second largest wind farm in the United States.

In 2015, NextEra accounted for roughly 35 percent US wind power installed.

Google Energy is an investor and customer of NextEra, having invested $38.8 million in two sites in North Dakota, and entered into a purchase agreement for 100 MW at a fixed rate for 20 years.

So, the dots are connected.

Tax credits -- Google -- NextEra -- FPL -- North Dakota -- wind farms.

One final note: when the Hillary administration takes office, one can bet that corporations investing in "x" amount of wind power will be given generous tax credits. Anyone paying attention has seen the close relationship between Eric Schmidt and Hillary Clinton. They're joined at the hips. (Of course, a lot of folks are joined at Hillary's hips: her hips are broad and inclusive.)

By the way, speaking about blogging about FPL: RBN Energy has had some great posts on FPL (now NextEra Energy) investing in natural gas producing companies and the reserves themselves, guaranteeing them some ability to control the price of their "own" natural gas.

Ah, enough of that.

North Dakota Wind Farm Approved; Almost $2 Million/MW; Another Small Science Project -- July 7, 2016

I'm posting this mostly for the archives, to keep track of the cost of installing unreliable energy. It's also interesting to note how small these unreliable energy farms are in comparison to natural gas plants.

The Lackawaana Energy Center, for example, a newly proposed natural gas plant in Pennsylvania (posted earlier) will be a 1,500 MW plant (posted earlier today). Compare with this wind farm proposed for southwestern North Dakota:

• final chapter of the Brady Wind farm saga
• ND PSC approved NextEra Energy Resources Brady Wind II
• northern Hettinger County
• 72 turbine
• 150-MW
• $250 million 
• Brady Wind I: Stark County, 87 turbines

At $250 million, Brady Wind II works out to $1.7 million/MW. At $1.7 million/MW, this is exactly in line with the EIA figures posted in June, 2016, in which the government calculated it cost an average of almost $1,900/MW to build a new wind farm compared to less than $1,000/MW for a new natural gas plant. Unaccounted-for-costs widen the gap.

I suppose what bothers me the most is how much effort is wasted putting in these bird-killing machines, these small science projects that have absolutely no redeeming value.

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Update On Davis Refinery Proposed For Belfield, ND, Area

At The Dickinson Press:

• a gazillion more steps in this process, but Billings County approved the rezoning of 715 acres of land from agricultural to industrial use
• 55,000 bopd refinery
• proposed by California-based Meridian Energy Group Inc
• $900 million -- almost $1 billion
• location: just outside the town of Fryburg; Fryburg is about 5 miles west of Belfield
• location: about three miles from the edge of Theodore Roosevelt National Park 

Whiting has a huge presence in this area. Fryburg is also a major area for convergence of pipelines.

I would assume tax receipts are affected immediately upon rezoning.

Monday's News -- February 8, 2016; Ford To Double Capacity In Mexico -- The 800-Pound Gorilla: ObamaCare; "Massive" Wind Farm Proposed For North Dakota By OOS Company

One can vote on Super Bowl ads here.

The Mideast just keeps getting messier. Turkey's hostility to one of America's most effective allies -- the Kurds -- simply undermines the effort to take out ISIS.

This Indian should have been buying lottery tickets.

Speaking of India, the country's telecom regulator bans Facebook's free basic service. Regulator says everyone needs to pay for internet; can't be given away for free.

Speaking of India, again, the country has surpassed China for bragging rights as the "growth company." India's economy expanded 7.3% last quarter. The country uses a lot of coal. A lot.

Wow, that took awhile: Volkswagen's "quality" - control chief resigns. I guess someone is using the phrase "quality control" loosely.

The Mideast migrants keep flowing into Europe. The Greek government want to build migrant camps on the islands; Greek people say "ouchí."

I disagree completely. The Super Bowl review at TWSJ:

Truth: outside of that Denver defense, it wasn’t an especially well-played game. A lot of it was snoozy. There were punts. And some more punts. And a few more punts (15 in total, tied for second-most in Super Bowl history) There were turnovers consequential and turnovers inconsequential. A Carolina field-goal attempt that thud-DONNKKKED off the upright. There were moments it felt like less like a Super Bowl and more like a Dolphins-Browns game. A Dolphins-Browns preseason game.

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Ford-Mexico

From a couple of days ago: Ford to more than double Mexico production capacity in 2018. Auto maker will build new plant in Mexico, expand existing factory. Better Mexico, than China.

Ford Motor Co. will build a new assembly plant in Mexico and sharply increase factory output from that country, representing the latest shift of investment abroad by a Detroit auto maker following the signing of a costly new labor deal.

The No. 2 light-vehicle seller in the U.S. plans to add 500,000 units of annual Mexican capacity starting in 2018, more than double what it built in 2015, according to people briefed on the plan. The plan mirrors General Motors Co. ’s $5 billion investment to double Mexican capacity by 2018.

Ford will build a new assembly complex in San Luis Potosí, and expand an existing factory near Mexico City. The moves will make room for several models, including a yet-to-be-disclosed hybrid vehicle that is described as a Toyota “Prius fighter,” and will allow Ford to focus its U.S. factories on higher-profit trucks and sport-utility vehicles.
Ford last year built 433,000 vehicles in Mexico, or 14% of its North American production.

Costs for the project likely will exceed $1 billion, people familiar with the details said, with factory construction beginning later this year. It follows a $2.5 billion investment Ford announced last spring to build an engine and a transmission plant in Mexico.

Why the interest in Mexico? Gee, I wonder.

Detroit auto makers have long built cars and trucks in Mexico, but the country is looking more attractive following a new labor deal struck in November with the United Auto Workers that raises wages for U.S. factory workers.

Labor rates in Mexico are roughly one-fifth of those earned by unionized workers in the U.S., a gap that is only expected to widen as UAW wages approach nearly $30 an hour in coming years, representing as much as a $10 increase for some newer hires.

But again, the article does not mention the other much, much bigger expense: ObamaCare.

It looks like this is the business plan: low-margin cars to be built overseas; high-margin SUVs and trucks to be built in existing US factories. 

Energy is inexpensive in the US; will get a bit more expensive as cost of intermittent energy impacts rates. But energy will become less expensive in Mexico with all that natural gas the US is shipping to Mexico. Lower labor costs, lower energy costs.

Speaking of rising costs of electricity due to the cost of intermittent energy: in a state which has some of the lowest utility rates in the nation, there is an opportunity to raise rates. According to the Bowman County Pioneer, a "massive" wind farm is proposed for the county, data points:

• again, an out-of-state developer who can't get wind energy projects in his own backyard
• a Virginia energy company: Apex Clean Energy, Charlottesville, VA
• from south of Rhame to US Highway 85
• "the farm would effectively cover the entire county" -- one resident
• "at least" 100 turbines
•  25,000 to 30,000 acres
• 200 to 300 MW annually
• by comparison: the MDU wind farm in the same area: 13 turbines

As usual, some numbers rounded, and arithmetic errors are common. 

The cost was not in the article, unless I missed it, which is possible. At $1.5 million / MW, it would be a 300 x $1.5 million project -- a half-billion dollar project.

Bowman County: 1,167 square miles x 640 acres = 750,000 acres.

30,000 acres = 50 sections; generally 36 sections in most townships in North Dakota.

Well, it would give me something to look at when I drive up from Texas back to the Bakken.

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Man-Camp Focus: Time To Move On

Restaurant and real estate sectors are the ones to watch.

Huge competition among Menards, Home of Economy, Wal-Mart.

Everything else will take care of itself.

The man-camp story is a good-news story -- except for the man-camp operators. Don't feel bad for the man camps. They advertised themselves as "temporary." Oil companies say they need the man-camps because their workers are mobile, back and forth from the south to North Dakota. The roughnecks are flexible, smart, adaptable. They're as good as US Marines and US Army finding places to stay when deployed. Instead of man-camps, they will move into town. Man-cap operators might be smart to invest in really, really cheap motels and apartment complexes, as those owners look to exit. From The StarTribune:

North Dakota’s unemployment rate is still an enviable 2.7 percent, and the jobless rate is even lower here in Williams County — 2.2 percent, up a percentage point from a year ago.

Camps like the Bear Paw Lodge or Black Gold reflected the allure and growing pains of an oil rush that overwhelmed the housing supply and infrastructure to the point that people camped in parking lots and homes rented for big-city prices — $3,000 a month or more. Many camps had their own security and strict rules against alcohol and drugs, as well as maids, fitness centers, high-thread-count sheets and 24-hour meal service.

But now, about 50 miles from here, Capital Lodge in Tioga, built for 2,000 workers, is a fenced-off ghost town. About 130 miles away in Dickinson, a 600-bed camp had dwindled to 30 guests when its owners shut it down for the winter. In Williston, where the population soared from 12,000 to more than 40,000 at the height of the drilling frenzy, local leaders ordered the remaining man camps to close by the summer.

In the half-empty cafeteria of one camp operated by Target Logistics just north of Williston, electrical workers and pipe specialists one recent morning were starting and ending their 12-hour shifts over a breakfast of eggs, sausage and coffee as thick and black as crude oil. They talked about how many drilling rigs were operating (46 across the state, compared with 190 two years ago), their falling overtime pay and friends who had gone elsewhere for work.

The New York Times has pretty much the same story, "built up by oil boom, North Dakota now has an emptier feeling." Again, the writers/editors are fascinated by "man-camps."

The “man camps” sprang up from the prairie, rows of trailers and modular steel boxes that housed thousands of workers chasing their fortunes in North Dakota’s oil fields. But these days, the man camps are missing something: men.

Roughly eight years ago, at the peak of the last recession, oil drilling began to transform these remote corners of the plains into an economic beacon, attracting billions of dollars in new investments and thousands of workers in search of good-paying jobs and an escape from America’s economic pain. But now, as oil prices have skidded to $30 a barrel, new drilling has dried up here, and the flood of wealth and workers is ebbing.

Memo To Self: Lindahl Wind Farm -- February 6, 2016

Updates

May 7, 2017: the wind farm is now up and running. Additional data points:

• owned by Enel Green Power North America, an Italian company specializing in renewable energy
• capable of eliminating 450,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year (that's theoretical; of course it will never come close)
• now said to be a $220 million "facility"
• developers now given approval for feasibility study for an adjacent wind farm, to be called Another Scam the Aurora Wind Project

Original Post 

This post will eventually help me understand data points regarding wind farms. Note the data points below. This wind farm is "rated at 150 MW." It will have a mix of 75 wind turbines; some will be 2 MW; some will be 3.3 MW.

If all 75 wind turbines were rated at 2 MW, this wind farm would be rated at 150 MW, I suppose.

If all 75 wind turbines were rated at 3.3 MW, this wind farm would be rated at 250 MW, I suppose.

But the wind farm is said to be a "150-MW-wind farm" with a mix of 2-MW and 3.3 MW wind turbines with 75 wind turbines. I'm sure there is a simple explanation.

The best data point will be the actual wind energy output posted on an annual basis. Let's see if that data is forthcoming three years from now. 

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Keep your eye on this project. I will write about it at a later date, the wind farm north of Tioga, the Lindahl wind farm.

Data points:

• 75 wind turbines; 2 to 3.3 MW each
• 150 MW
• approved December, 2015
• four (4) miles north of Tioga
• 13,000 acres
• there are no bald eagle nests within 20 miles of the wind farm
• Tradewind Energy; wind farm will be sold to Basin Electric Power Cooperative
• construction will start in early 2016 and will be completed by the end of the year
• estimated cost: $248.5 million 
• $248.5 million / 150 MW = $1.7 million / MW

Related links:

• http://www.prairiebizmag.com/event/article/id/13067/.
• http://www.inforum.com/content/grand-forks-wind-turbine-plant-make-larger-blades.
• https://jobs.livecareer.com/l/production-technicians-lm-wind-power-kelly-services-891f92243b127eb338ceeb14673e238f.