Colorado Energy News
Published: 2012-05-17 14:02:01.0
Noble Energy Launching New Operations Center in Greeley
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Noble Energy, Inc., will celebrate the grand opening of its new 66,500-square-foot operations center in the Highpointe Business Park on Tuesday, May 22. Located on 23 acres of land, the office will be home to more than 300 Noble Energy employees working in the company’s Northern Colorado operations.
“We are looking forward to our expanded role in the Greeley community,” said Ted Brown, Senior Vice President of the Northern Region of Noble Energy. “The opening of this operations center further demonstrates our commitment to our leadership role in developing the Niobrara formation and continuing to partner with City of Greeley and the surrounding communities.”
The office opening will be commemorated with a press conference hosted by Chuck Davidson, Chairman and CEO of Noble Energy. Remarks will also be provided by Governor John Hickenlooper, Mayor Tom Norton and other invited dignitaries. The press conference will also include a ribbon cutting, tour of the office facilities, and check presentation to two Weld County school districts.
EVENT DETAILS:
Date: Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Time: 1pm – Press Conference; 1:30pm – Office Tour
Location: 2115 117 Avenue
Greeley, CO 80631Among the planned optics:
♦ Chuck Davidson and Ted Brown will discuss Noble Energy’s commitment to Northern Colorado.
♦ Governor Hickenlooper will discuss Noble Energy’s economic and community contributions and the positive economic impact oil and gas production has on the State of Colorado.
♦ Mayor Tom Norton will share his thoughts on Noble Energy’s economic impact on the Greeley community
♦ There will also be a check presentation to Weld County Valley
RE-1 and Greeley RE-6 school districts to launch the conversion
of their bus fleets to CNG (compressed natural gas)
♦ Ribbon cutting ceremony.
♦ 24/7 remote well monitoring control room
A Tale of Two Conferences — The World Renewable Energy Forum and DUO Oil and Gas Collide in the Mile High City
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Speaking at the World Renewable Energy Forum in Denver today, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu called on Congress to extend tax credits that support the nation’s alternative energy industry.
It’s been the Obama Administration’s refrain for several months as the expiration deadline for the Production Tax Credit nears ever closer.The current PTC saves wind farms $22 for every megawatt generated during the 10 years of operation.
Vestas Wind Systems, one of the shining jewels of former Governor Ritter’s New Energy Economy, employs 1,600 workers, but a number of those people could be without a job as the year progresses, according to the manufacturer, if Congress fails to renew the Production Tax Credit.
Given the partisan energy divide in Washington, we’re not taking odds that won’t happen.
Another major incentive for the clean energy sector that President Obama wants to see expanded is a 30 percent tax credit for investments in clean energy manufacturing known as the 48C Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit.
Those credits are supporting companies and workers here in Colorado and across the country, Secretary Chu said. Knowing his audience, he went on to laud our state, and pointed out how Colorado leads the way in clean energy; is among the leaders in installed solar capacity and has a renewable portfolio standard in place for several years. “It’s a hub for clean energy manufacturers from GE to Vestas,” Chu added.
Perhaps most importantly, the Secretary said the industry is getting closer to the point where it will be cost-competitive with traditional forms of energy, and not have to rely on federal subsidies. When that will finally happen — if ever — is still open to debate.
“The market is getting bigger, the technology is getting better, and costs are coming down, Chu said. The question is no longer if clean energy will become competitive with conventional forms of energy; the question is, ‘When will it happen?”
Costs are coming down, too, in a whole other universe of energy production. Next door at the Denver Convention Center, the DUO Reservoirs Conference and Exhibition celebrated the huge boom in shale production with huge crowds, lots of enthusiasm and a highly diverse technical program. Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are driving prices down and industry profits up, and that was evident everywhere you went.
“Don’t forget about all the jobs we’re generating for the regional economy, especially in the Niobrara,” one presenter reminded us. “It is going to continue to build with companies like Noble Energy, Bill Barrett Corporation, Anadarko and other operators increasing their well counts in the Wattenberg field and other areas of Colorado and Wyoming.”
A Tale of Two Conferences, for sure.
Previewing the NIOBRARA REPORT
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to subscribe.
NREL Head Talks Limits of Natural Gas, New Emissions Study
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A kilowatt-hour of of electrcity generated by wind power emits less than one percent of the greenhouse gases as a kilowatt made by burning coal, according to a new National Renewable Energy Laboratory study.
This was one of the topics NREL Director Dan Arvizu touched on during the opening session of the World Renewal Energy Forum in Denver. More than 3,000 attendees from 66 countries are in town attending the biennial meeting, including renewable energy representatives, advocates and policymakers.
The just announced-NREL research focused on which energy technologies generate the most greenhouse-gas emissions — cradle to grave — and has delivered the most precise answer, according to the Department of Energy’s top renewable energy laboratory, thanks to a meta-analysis of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies performed.
The new analysis weighed the emissions estimates per kilowatt-hour from raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, operation, and decommissioning to get the best apples-to-apples comparisons. Sure, during operation solar panels release virtually no emissions, versus the tons of greenhouse gas produced by a large coal plant. But what about the emissions generated from the manufacture of solar panels versus, say, the turbines required for coal- and wind-based energy?
NREL’s LCA Harmonization Project gives decision-makers and investors more exact estimates of greenhouse-gas emissions for renewable and conventional generation, clarifying inconsistent and conflicting estimates in the published literature and reducing uncertainty.
The analysis found that from cradle to grave, coal-fired energy releases about 20 times as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere per kilowatt-hour as solar energy. Wind and nuclear energy are on relative par with solar energy. Natural gas generation wasn’t included in the final analysis but is generally assumed to emit about half as much greenhouse gas per kilowatt-hour as coal.
Still, even as utilities like Xcel Energy in Colorado move to build move to build new gas-fired power plants, fossil fuels should be phased out by 2040 to blunt man-made climate change, Arvizu said.
Renewable energy sources have dominated U.S. utility investments in recent years, but Arvizu said every energy investment is long-lived, operating for 50-years or more. What happens in developing energy now really matters,” Arvizu said. This is even more of an issue in the growing developing countries, such as India and China.
“If we don’t start phasing out even a scale-up of natural gas by 2040, 2050, we will not achieve any of the carbon loading goals we have set for ourselves,” Arvizu told the forum. “Natural gas, while it might be a nice bridge technology, is not the answer to what we are actually looking for in terms of a trasnition and transformation,” Arvizu.
Lifetime greenhouse-gas emissions are an increasing concern for lawmakers and investors who must weigh the merits of a new coal-fired plant versus, say, a wind farm, and need to know not just the relative dollar costs but also the potential harm or benefits to the environment.
Until recently, emissions estimates ranged wildly, sometimes because vested interests had a stake in demonstrating that a certain technology’s emissions were high or low. For instance, if decommissioning costs aren’t included in a total-emissions estimate for nuclear energy or natural gas, those studies give artificially low figures.
NREL was seeing surprisingly high emissions numbers for concentrating solar power (CSP) plants, but deeper digging found that many studies combined the numbers from both CSP and natural gas when a utility used combustion of natural gas to supplement solar-energy generation. When the harmonization process allowed CSP emissions to stand on their own, the numbers plunged.
NREL looked at more than 2,000 studies across many generation technologies, applied quality controls, and greatly narrowed the range of estimates to reach reliable medians for greenhouse-gas emissions.
“This methodology allows you to arrive at a better precision, so you can say with more certainty that this is the benefit you get from using this technology rather than that technology,” said NREL Senior Scientist Garvin Heath, who led the project. “Anyone who wants a true comparison of the greenhouse-gas costs should benefit from this.”
Heath noted that today’s decisions on new plants will still have ramifications decades from now. Owners and investors will need to know about greenhouse-gas emissions and their possible effect on the bottom line, while policy-makers need to know the long-term implications of greenhouse gas on climate.
Investors “need to be very forward looking,” Heath said. A power plant is long lived, and its attributes and shortcomings are locked in for decades. That’s why investors push for estimates of greenhouse-gas emissions before they invest.
Speed Up Permitting Process for Public Lands Urges Leading Oil and Gas Trade Group
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Instead of new federal rules regulating hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas deposits, Washington should speed up the permit process, the head of a major oil and gas trade group urged this week.
Jack Gerard, president and chief executive officer at the American Petroleum Institute, said the “shale revolution” is providing jobs and energy security to the United States. Instead of regulating the process, he said, Washington should make it easier for energy companies to move forward.
As we reported last week, the Interior Department floated updated regulations for the hydraulic fracturing of oil and natural gas wells on federal and tribal lands, including requiring operators to outline the chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing fluid.
While overall oil and gas production is up in the U.S. under the Obama Administration, drilling on federal land has slowed. “It takes more than half a year on average to get a federal drilling permit for development on federal lands,” Gerard said in a statement. He added that delays in the permit process left an estimated 17,000 wells idled in Wyoming.
Gerard said the states should continue to handle the regulation of hydraulic fracturing, which they know how to do well, while the feds address the delays and fix the process.
Douglas County Seeks Uniform Oil and Gas Regs
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Douglas County Commissioner Jack Hilbert had a long learning curve on Gov. John Hickenlooper’s oil and gas task force and he hopes to bring that lesson to the table for county residents.
Hilbert spent eight weeks on the governor’s task force, which aimed to create a better line of communication between government entities and the oil industry. Hilbert learned the industry, through the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, provides detailed drilling information on its website.
It’s just a matter of learning how to navigate your way around it, Hilbert said. Navigation is the key for government entities such as Douglas County, which face the possibility of drilling operations as oil companies file drilling unit applications, the first step after an operator has secured access to mineral rights. MORE …
Electric Avenue Powers Up in Denver May 16-17th
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or 720-938-6614.
Cogentrix Concentrated Solar Plant Comes Online
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Cogentrix Energy, LLC announced that the largest concentrating photovoltaic electric power generating facility in the world has successfully begun commercial operation. The Alamosa Solar Generating plant, located in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, produces 30 megawatts of solar power for use by customers of Xcel Energy’s subsidiary, Public Service Company of Colorado (”PSCo”).
The San Luis Valley was chosen for its’ outstanding sunlight characteristics, high elevation and an ability to easily deliver the solar project’s output to the utility transmission system.
The Alamosa Solar project site is approximately 225 acres and consists of over 500 dual-axis, pedestal mounted tracker assemblies, each capable of producing approximately 60 kW of electricity from the sun. Each tracker assembly is 70 feet wide by 50 feet high and contains 7,560 Fresnel lenses that concentrate sunlight by a multiple of 500 onto multijunction solar cells developed originally as part of the U.S. space program. The construction of the facility was contracted to M.A. Mortenson Co.
Tom Bonner, President of Cogentrix stated, “Cogentrix has a long history of developing, constructing, and operating power plants employing a variety of technologies. We’re proud of the Alamosa Solar project and we are excited for what it means to Colorado, Xcel Energy and the U.S. solar sector.”
New Mexico: Wind Industry, Conservation Groups Partner to Protect Wildlife
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After two years of discussion, nine wind energy companies and seven conservation groups have announced best management practices to protect wildlife and habitat when building wind farms in New Mexico.
The industry and environmental groups, joined by state agencies and others, formed the New Mexico Wind and Wildlife Collaborative to draw up and disseminate best practices to preserve habitats and species, said Christopher Rustay of Playa Lakes Joint Venture in a news release.
“The best management practices were written using the best available science to guide conservation actions,” Rustay said. “Because of the collaborative and inclusive nature of the group, we are confident that the options provided will be useful for both conservation and wind energy development.”
The group developed guidelines for 12 wildlife species or habitats, including raptors, long-billed curlew, bats, lesser prairie chickens, reptiles and amphibians. The strategies are intended to guide the placement of wind facilities and transmission infrastructure so impact on wildlife can be avoided or minimized, said Audubon New Mexico Executive Director Karyn Stockdale.
“Audubon recognizes that wind power creates unique threats to birds,” Stockdale said. “That’s why it was critical that we partner with the wind industry to proactively address these issues so that wind energy can move forward, but in the least harmful way possible.”
New Mexico follows Colorado as just the second state to develop best management practices. Both states used a similar collaborative process, and some of the same industry partners participated in both places, according to Interwest Energy Alliance Executive Director Craig Cox.
“Wind energy can provide a tremendous economic boost for rural communities along New Mexico’s eastern plains while offering significant savings to urban consumers,” Cox said. “Now that we have Colorado and New Mexico using this collaborative model of developing best management practices, we will be able to expedite wind energy development while creating new jobs across both states.”
Regional Update: WEA Study Cites Lost Benefits From Delayed Utah, Wyoming Projects
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A study funded by the Denver-based trade group Western Energy Alliance says twenty-two proposed Utah and Wyoming oil and gas projects where 44,289 wells would be drilled, potentially could annually support 120,905 jobs paying $8 billion in wages, generate $27.5 billion of economic activity, and produce $139 million of government revenue.
The projects’ total economic impact over their anticipated 10-15 year lifespan is an estimated $383.5 billion, it said.
The study by SWCA Environmental Consultants noted that most of the wells, 30,789, are proposed in National Environmental Policy Act documents that have been under review for more than 2 years
“Many of these were begun over 5 years ago, delaying projects for years past the usual processing times,” it added.
Outstanding projects delayed for more than 3 years in the 2 states represent 22,835 proposed wells, or about 1,631 wells/year, the study said. “Federal government delays to these projects are preventing the creation of 64,805 jobs, $4.3 billion in wages, and $14.9 billion in economic impact every year,” it said.
“Government delays during the environmental analysis phase are preventing significant job creation and economic activity,” said Kathleen Sgamma, WEA’s vice president of government and public affairs.
The Denver-based regional association of independent producers’ members know first-hand how difficult it is to operate on public lands, Sgamma pointed out.
“Federal policies discourage domestic oil and natural gas production, and put the West at a disadvantage compared to other regions of the country without a preponderance of public lands,”
Sgamma said.