Solar With Batteries Cheaper Than Gas In Parts Of Southwest. According to E&E News, “Natural-gas-fired power plants will be facing more price competition from solar farms in some parts of the U.S. as falling battery costs make it possible to deliver electricity produced from sunshine even after dark. Solar projects that incorporate storage are becoming cheaper to build per megawatt-hour in parts of the U.S. Southwest than new gas-fired generation, according to a report yesterday by Bloomberg NEF. That positions solar to replace a significant portion of the 7 gigawatts of coal-fired power that’s expected to retire in the region over the next decade, said Hugh Bromley, a New York-based analyst at BNEF. And that trend will likely be repeated elsewhere. ‘This won’t be contained to the Southwest,’ Bromley said in an interview yesterday. ‘This is spreading and will continue to spread.’ Utilities that buy electricity from solar farms typically still rely on gas-fired generators in the evenings. But the increasing affordability of batteries — thanks in part to a federal incentive — is making solar compelling, even after sundown.” [E&E News, 9/18/18 (=)]

 

Shell Announces Emissions Crackdown. According to E&E News, “Royal Dutch Shell PLC today announced plans to curb methane leaks across its oil and gas operations, part of a larger push by the company to slash planet-warming emissions. The oil giant said it would aim to keep methane emissions intensity below 0.2 percent of its total oil and gas production by 2025. The target will be measured against Shell’s current baseline leak rate of 0.01 to 0.8 percent across its oil and gas assets, the company said. ‘It is a further demonstration of our continued focus on tackling greenhouse gas emissions,’ Maarten Wetselaar, Shell’s integrated gas and new energies director, said in a statement. ‘Such efforts are a critical part of Shell’s strategy to thrive during the global energy transition by providing more and cleaner energy.’ Shell joins several other oil companies that have made commitments to reduce their emissions of methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas that is often released in leaks or by the practice of burning off excess gas. BP PLC has said it will reduce its methane releases, as has Exxon Mobil Corp., which announced an effort to cut methane emissions by 15 percent in May.” [E&E News, 9/17/18 (=)]

 

Shell Latest Firm To Make 'Smart' Move To Reduce Methane. According to E&E News, “Royal Dutch Shell PLC’s announcement yesterday that it would reduce methane leaks from its oil and gas operations suggests that not all the industry is embracing Trump administration rollbacks for greenhouse gas emissions. Some observers say it’s also a smart public relations move for the oil and gas giant. Shell said it will reduce methane emissions intensity among its oil and gas operations to less than 0.2 percent of total marketed natural gas by 2025 by targeting leaks, venting and incomplete combustion of the fuel. ‘This methane target complements Shell’s ambition to cut the net carbon footprint of our energy products by around half by 2050, which we announced in November 2017,’ said Maarten Wetselaar, Shell’s director for integrated gas and new energy, adding that the targets ‘are a critical part of Shell’s strategy to thrive during the global energy transition by providing more and cleaner energy.’ Environmental groups, too, described the targeted reduction as significant. ‘The goal is stringent, time-bound, and covers both oil- and gas-side emissions,’ said Ben Ratner, a senior director at the Environmental Defense Fund who works on methane issues. ‘Shell’s industry-leading target makes clear that the race to near-zero methane emissions is on.’” [E&E News, 9/18/18 (=)]

 

 

Editorial: Trump’s Risky Retreat On Methane Emissions. According to Akron Beacon Journal, “The EPA would do so by easing the requirements for monitoring and repair of drilling equipment. Under the current rules, drillers must perform leak inspections every six months and make any fixes within 30 days. The Trump proposal would set the inspections at once a year, and once every two years for low-producing wells. It would require repairs within 60 days. The proposal also would extend the deadline for inspecting equipment that traps and compresses natural gas from three months to six months. It would permit energy firms to follow state standards for methane emissions even when those requirements are weaker than the federal rules. All of this echoes an Interior Department proposal to repeal restrictions on the intentional venting, or ‘flaring,’ of methane during drilling operations. What real difference could a few months or some venting make? The answer goes back to the potency of methane as a greenhouse gas — having more than 80 times the warming effect of carbon dioxide during two decades. Let months pass without detection, and a leak can emit substantial levels of methane. It is worth bearing in mind an Environmental Defense Fund study, released this summer in the journal Science, showing the U.S. oil and gas industry emits 13 million metric tons of methane, or nearly 60 percent more than current EPA estimates. The study put the leak rate at 2.3 percent, compared to the current 1.4 percent. It adds that the greater leakage amounts to enough natural gas to fuel 10 million homes.” [Akron Beacon Journal, 9/16/18 (+)]