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RMEL Report
Education and Upcoming Events
Workshop: Water Supply Challenges Facing Power Generation --- November 10, 2022 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Tempe, AZ) Virtual Workshop: NESC Updates --- November 10, 2022 8:15 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Virtual) 
RMEL Member Information
RMEL's trusted network is now accessible on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. These are forums intended for RMEL members only. Working side-by-side in a cooperative manner, RMEL members band together for the common goal of bettering the industry and improving service for utility customers. For more than 100 years, these key principles have proven successful and, more importantly, are tried and true methods for building strong business relationships.
RMEL Champions is a prestigious group of RMEL supporters with access to useful and beneficial promotional opportunities. Thank you, 2022 RMEL Champions!
Industry Information
 Building out the grid to meet clean energy goals and handle the shift to electric vehicles and homes will require U.S. transmission spending to roughly triple from its current level of around $30 billion a year, according to Terron Hill, National Grid clean energy director. With transmission projects taking three to 10 years to build, utilities need to optimize their existing assets using GETs, Hill said.
Disadvantaged communities in many parts of the U.S. are bearing the brunt of clean energy supply chain blockages that range from materials to labor, according to environmental justice advocates and utility officials.
Funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this money will support the expansion of low-impact hydropower (such as retrofits for dams that do not produce power) and pumped storage hydropower, the development of new pumped storage facilities, and engagement with key voices on issues like hydropower fleet modernization, sustainability and environmental impacts.
Industrial giant GE reported a bumpy third quarter across its renewable energy and power business segments. The company’s onshore wind turbine revenues came in at $2.445 billion for the quarter, which ended September 30. That was down from $3.047 billion for the same quarter a year earlier.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) began accepting letters of interest from applicants for loans under a new $2.1 billion Carbon Dioxide Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation (CIFIA) program.
Member Announcements
Safety has always been a top priority at Basin Electric. The Deer Creek Station team, located in Brookings, South Dakota, recently reached a safety milestone of 3,500 days without a safety incident, or DART (a safety metric mandated by OSHA meaning days away, restricted, or transferred).
Black Hills Corp. announced that its Wyoming electric utility subsidiary, Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power Company, doing business as Black Hills Energy, received a bench decision from the Wyoming Public Service Commission approving a certificate of public convenience and necessity to construct an estimated $260 million transmission expansion project.
 At the Agave Solar Plant, currently under construction in Arlington, Arizona, more than 400,000 panels will track the sun across the sky – generating 150 megawatts, or enough energy to power 24,000 Arizona homes. The plant is expected to be in service, delivering for APS customers, in time for summer 2023.
Despite industry challenges, Omaha Public Power District is making good progress on its Power with Purpose (PwP) initiative to add 600 megawatts (MW) of utility-scale solar and 600 MW of natural gas generation. The increased generation capacity will help maintain long-term reliability and resiliency of the utility’s electric system, while supporting OPPD’s work to become a net-zero carbon emitter by 2050.
TerraPower, a nuclear innovation company, and PacifiCorp, a regulated utility, announced their undertaking of a joint study to evaluate the feasibility of deploying up to five additional Natrium[1] reactor and integrated energy storage systems in the PacifiCorp service territory by 2035.
 Salt River Project announced signed contracts with Plus Power to bring online two grid-charged battery storage systems with a total combined output of 340 megawatts (MW) by early summer 2024. This is enough energy to power more than 76,000 average size residential homes over a four-hour period.
Black Hills Corp. announced that Richard Kinzley, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will retire from the Company in mid-2023 after a distinguished career with the company. Consistent with the company’s long-standing and comprehensive leadership succession plan, Kimberly Nooney, the company’s vice president corporate controller and treasurer, will be appointed senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer effective April 1, 2023.
White Paper
Researchers have made a serendipitous scientific discovery that could potentially revolutionize the way water is broken down to release hydrogen gas -- an element crucial to many industrial processes. The team found that light can trigger a new mechanism in a catalytic material used extensively in water electrolysis, where water is broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. The result is a more energy-efficient method of obtaining hydrogen.
A new study has calculated that the globalized supply chain saved countries $67 billion in solar panel production costs. The study also found that if strong nationalistic policies that limit the free flow of goods, talent and capital are implemented going forward, solar panel costs will be much higher by 2030.
A research team affiliated with UNIST has succeeded in achieving a power conversion efficiency (PEC) of 23.50% in a perovskite-silicon tandem solar cell built with a special textured anti-reflective coating (ARC) polymeric film. According to the research team, the PCE of the device with the ARC film was sustained for 120 hours, maintaining 91% of its initial value.
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