Category: Infrastructure
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Salvaging Wind Power in Virginia
Dominion thinks $400 million is too much to pay for two experimental offshore wind turbines. The utility is exploring ways to drive the cost down.
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Can't Beat those Old Nukes for Cheap Energy
by James A. Bacon Dominion has shut down both nuclear power units at its Surry County station to repair water leaks. The first one was taken offline over the weekend, the second was deactivated Monday. Reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch: The leaks amounted to about 1,000 gallons, all of which was captured and processed for reuse once…
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Can’t Beat those Old Nukes for Cheap Energy
by James A. Bacon Dominion has shut down both nuclear power units at its Surry County station to repair water leaks. The first one was taken offline over the weekend, the second was deactivated Monday. Reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch: The leaks amounted to about 1,000 gallons, all of which was captured and processed for reuse once…
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Why Can't Dominion Do Big Wind Projects?
By Peter Galuszka Down in the swamplands and farmlands of northeastern North Carolina, construction has begun on a huge new wind farm that will be the largest so far in the southeastern U.S. Iberdrola Renewables LLC, a Spanish firm, has begun construction on the long-awaited $600 million project with financial help from Amazon, which also…
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Why Can’t Dominion Do Big Wind Projects?
By Peter Galuszka Down in the swamplands and farmlands of northeastern North Carolina, construction has begun on a huge new wind farm that will be the largest so far in the southeastern U.S. Iberdrola Renewables LLC, a Spanish firm, has begun construction on the long-awaited $600 million project with financial help from Amazon, which also…
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How to Bring Broadband to Your Community
Broadband access is increasingly critical infrastructure for every community, a critical element for government efficiency and responsiveness, economic development, education, public safety, healthcare and the conduct of peoples’ personal lives. What can a rural community or small city do if the dominant broadband providers aren’t in any hurry to build broadband infrastructure? The Center for…
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Reports at Forty Paces
by James A. Bacon How do citizens know whom to believe in the debate over the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), a proposed 550-mile natural gas pipeline between West Virginia gas fields and markets in Virginia and North Carolina? Dominion, managing partner of ACP, has commissioned studies from Fairfax-based ICF International, a technology and management consulting firm, and…
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A Long and Winding Pipeline
by James A. Bacon The developer of the 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline wants to alter its proposed route between the West Virginia gas fields and markets in Virginia and North Carolina, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Dominion Transmission Inc., leader of the company formed to build the pipeline, filed proposed route changes with federal regulators that would…
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The Boston Globe Visits Richmond
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in Business and Economy, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Electoral process, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, Federal issues, Government workers and pensions, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Race and Race RelationsBy Peter Galuszka An outside view is always welcome, especially in these incredible days when a lot of Southern mythology is being turned on its head. Richmond is a great locus for the examination given its tortured history. The former Capital of the Confederacy (more by accident than anything else) is a true crucible. The…
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Closing the Books on the U.S. 460 Fiasco
The state will recover $46 million from US 460 Mobility Partners for work never performed on a 55-mile highway between Petersburg and Suffolk, reports the Virginian-Pilot. Under the settlement negotiated with the McAuliffe administration, US 460 will keep about $210 million of the payments it received under former Governor Bob McDonnell but waive an additional…
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Taking The Statues Down
By Peter Galuszka In 1993, I was stumbling along the rough concrete sidewalks of Alma Ata, then the capital of the former Soviet Republic of Kazakhstan. I was late for an interview with an official of what was now an independent nation rich in oil, natural gas and uranium. The street map I had was…
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What It Takes to Power the Cloud
by James A. Bacon If it’s not one thing, it’s another. The “rural crescent” in the western reaches of Prince William County has fended off development threats from Disney’s America to four-lane highways. The latest hazard to rural tranquility: a proposed Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center and an electric transmission line to deliver electric power to…
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An Update on the Tysons Makeover
by James A. Bacon Transforming Tysons in Fairfax County from an “edge city” into a walkable, mixed-use urban district may be the biggest, most ambitious suburban makeover ever attempted. Anywhere. In the history of the human race. The obstacles are formidable. The area grew up in such a helter skelter manner, and the layout of streets,…
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Shining Sunlight on the Accomack Solar Project
Amazon’s giant solar power plant will lighten the environmental footprint of the company’s growing cluster of Northern Virginia data centers. It won’t do much to lighten the tax burden of Accomack County.
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Why There’s No Swimming Pool at Gilpin Court
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in Business and Economy, Courts and law, Demographics, Economic development, Housing, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Media, Money in politics, Planning, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t OversightBy Peter Galuszka Heat and humidity seem to have been especially intense this summer. But it can be much worse at an inner city public housing project where there are few trees and other vegetation and lots of bricks and concrete that and retain heat. So, wouldn’t a swimming pool seem nice, especially when your…