South Dakota
New solar will help keep power on during scorching summer, report says • South Dakota Searchlight
With some parts of the country already facing heat waves, the organization in charge of setting reliability standards for the American electric grid is warning that a scorching summer could lead to a shortage of power generation in some regions.
The warning comes as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there’s a 99% chance that 2024 will rank among the five warmest years on record and 55% chance it will be the hottest on record.
Overall, though, the analysis by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation painted a rosier picture than last year’s report, in part because of a surge in solar power development.
The nation has enough energy supply to handle normal peak demand, called “load” in the electric industry, largely because of 25 gigawatts of new solar power capacity — at full capacity that’s the rough equivalent maximum output of 25 large fossil or nuclear power plants. (The number of homes that can be powered from one gigawatt of solar can vary widely across the country). But the new panels have helped move some areas from what NERC calls “elevated risk” of power shortfalls in last year’s analysis to “normal risk” this year.
“Resource additions are providing needed capacity to keep up with rising peak demand in most areas,” Mark Olson, the organization’s manager of reliability assessments, told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Thursday. New power transfer agreements, growth in demand response programs, which incentivize customers to reduce power usage during times of grid stress, and delayed power plant retirements “are also contributing to an overall improved resource outlook for the upcoming summer,” NERC says.
A solar surge
A separate FERC staff presentation said solar will make up 10% of overall national electric generation capacity by the end of this summer, with natural gas providing 42%, coal providing 14% and wind power at 13%.
Solar power is growing fast across the country, with the U.S. hitting five million total solar installations (most of them residential), per the Solar Energy Industries Association. Reaching that milestone took 50 years, but the industry group projects that hitting 10 million solar installations will only take six years. Solar power for the first time accounted for more than half of new electric generation capacity added in 2023, the group noted.
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The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects “a record addition” of new utility-scale solar power this year, with about 36.4 gigawatts projected to be installed. More than half of that new capacity is planned for Texas, California and Florida.The Gemini facility scheduled to begin operation this year near Las Vegas, with a planned solar capacity of nearly 700 megawatts and battery storage capacity of up to 380 megawatts, is expected to become the nation’s largest solar project. Battery storage is also growing rapidly, with more than 14 gigawatts expected to be added this year, according to the EIA. Batteries complement solar generation well, since solar’s peak production doesn’t generally line up with peak demand on the grid, which happens later in the day. Batteries allow excess solar power to be banked for when it’s needed.
But a changing power mix also comes with new challenges and risks, NERC warned.
In his presentation to FERC, Olson said that while the overall summer electric reliability outlook has improved, some regions are seeing what he described as growing risks during extreme weather.
“Shortages could occur when demand is high and solar, wind or hydro output are low,” he said.
Those regions include parts of the Midwest and South in the grid area managed by the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, New England, Texas, much of the Southwest and California. Grid operators, though, are becoming increasingly adept at planning and running electric grids with large amounts of intermittent resources.
“It’s refreshing to finally get the recognition that renewables can help with reliability,” said Simon Mahan, executive director of the Southern Renewable Energy Association.
Shifting seasons and climate change
While most of the country has historically been “summer-peaking,” meaning regions hit their highest demand for electricity during the summer months, some areas are increasingly seeing demand spike in winter, a trend that is expected to continue as result of heating electrification, other decarbonization policies and more extreme, protracted cold weather events. Indeed, the majority of recent electric grid failures have been during severe winter weather, such as Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, which caused blackouts in several southern states and Uri in 2021, which caused a catastrophic collapse of the Texas electric grid that caused an estimated 246 deaths.
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But summer heat still poses risks, NERC says, contributing to both high demand and power plant outages, such as at natural gas power plants.
“Last summer brought record temperatures, extended heat waves and wildfires to large parts of North America,” the organization said. And though energy emergency alerts were few and no electricity supply interruptions happened as a result of insufficient power resources, grid operators “faced significant challenges and drew upon procedures and protocols to obtain all available resources, manage system demand and ensure that energy is delivered over the transmission network to meet the system demand.” Utilities and state and local officials in many areas also “used mechanisms and public appeals to lower customer demand during periods of strained supplies,” NERC added.
Christy Walsh, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Sustainable FERC Project, said the reliability reports show how climate change is central to the pressures facing the electric grid.
“And it needs to be at the center of our solutions too,” she said in a statement to States Newsroom. “Earlier and more intense hurricanes brought on by increasing sea temperatures are a new and noteworthy concern, and this underscores the need for more large-scale transmission and connections between regions. Most of the new additions were wind, solar and storage, and last summer especially we saw just how crucial these resources can be during extreme heat events. We need to make sure we have a grid that can withstand the weather and move resources around during times of stress.”
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RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Thousands arrived at Recreational Springs Resort Saturday to celebrate the fourth annual Black Hills Renaissance Festival.
This is the festival’s first year at the resort, and Lead Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jami Grangaard said the relocation was necessary due to the festival’s popularity.
“As much as we wanted to keep this event in the city of Lead, we basically outgrew the locations that we were able to have it,” Grangaard said. She also mentioned ticket sales on Eventbrite doubled last year’s totals.
Most attendees were dressed in medieval clothing and moved from attraction to attraction. The festival was originally supposed to debut in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic made Shareece Tatum, the festival’s executive director, need to change plans. When the Lead Area Chamber of Commerce members reached out to her the following year about creating an event, Tatum took her chance.
“I was like, ‘Well, I have a half-baked ren fair that was supposed to happen in 2020, you want me to give it a shot?’ And they’re like, ‘Let’s do it,’” Tatum said.
While Grangaard had received lots of positive feedback about the festival, she said some attendees had been frustrated by limited parking space. Grangaard explained attendees can ride a free shuttle bus to the festival from Lead, and they should not park alongside U.S. Highway 85, where they risk parking tickets and their cars being towed.
More information and a link to purchase tickets can be found on the Black Hills Renaissance Festival’s website.
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South Dakota
Council to consider special event permit for July disc golf tournament at Dry Run Creek
MITCHELL – The Mitchell City Council will consider approving a special event permit on Monday for a future disc golf tournament.
The council is expected to consider the event at its next meeting Monday, June 17 at Mitchell City Hall. The meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m.
The tournament is planned to be held on July 20 at Dry Run Creek Disc Golf Course. Event organizers estimate between 30 to 90 disc golfers will compete.
According to the details in the special event permit application, the one-day tournament would begin at 8 a.m. and wrap up by 4 p.m.
Local disc golfer, Cary Muilenburg, is the applicant for the permit. Muilenburg has organized multiple successful disc golf tournaments at the Dry Run Creek course. Last year, the course played host to South Dakota’s State Disc Golf Tournament.
The July 20 tournament would require the course to be reserved from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The one-day tournament would mark this summer’s first major event held at the course.
Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Nelson noted in his memo to the council that the Dry Run Creek trail, which stretches around the 18-hole disc golf course, would remain open throughout the tournament. Signs warning trail-users of flying discs would be posted along the trail.
Vendors are also expected to be set up throughout the course during the tournament.
The Dry Run Creek Disc Golf Course is Mitchell’s lone 18-hole course. The course has undergone major improvements over the past few years, which have helped attract more major disc golf events.
Sam Fosness joined the Mitchell Republic in May 2018. He was raised in Mitchell, S.D., and graduated from Mitchell High School. He continued his education at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion, where he graduated in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in English. During his time in college, Fosness worked as a news and sports reporter for The Volante newspaper.
South Dakota
South Dakota bar snack chislic, rooted in pioneer tradition, enjoys modern American makeover
Chislic — skewered cubes of deep-fried lamb or beef — is a rugged regional culinary tradition tracing its roots to South Dakota’s pioneer days.
“For decades a mainstay at cafés, bars, fairs and celebrations, it historically has been enhanced only by salt or garlic salt and served with saltines and, if you are so inclined, washed down with a cold beer,” South Dakota Magazine wrote in a classic treatise on chislic, first in 2005 and updated since then.
The popular bar snack, often served on wooden skewers or stabbed by toothpicks, enjoys a modern revival today at places like Urban Chislic in Sioux Falls.
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Co-owner Hong Phrommany was born in Laos but raised in Sioux Falls. He’s as proudly South Dakotan as Sitting Bull and has become an oracle of chislic history and tradition.
“Russian-German immigrants migrated from Europe and landed in Hutchinson County, South Dakota, in 1870,” Phrommany told Fox News Digital by phone a few days ago, between bites of chislic at lunch with his daughter.
Beef chislic from Urban Chislic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Chislic is a South Dakota tradition that traces its roots to the arrival of Russian-German immigrant pioneers in the 1870s. (Christian Holman/Urban Chislic)
“So to celebrate the harvest they would slaughter the oldest sheep, which is mutton, and they would cube it and fry it and skewer it.”
Mutton meat is tougher than that of younger sheep. Small cubes, deep-frying and salting made mutton tastier and easier to chew.
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Beef is now common, too. Few eateries have deviated, until recently, from the tradition of salting the meat and serving it with saltines — a modern interpretation of dry, long-lasting breads such as hard tack common in the 19th century.
People around the world know chislic as shishkebab.
“It’s been done that way for years and served at all the little bars around South Dakota,” said Phrommany.
He even created a YouTube video tracing the history of chislic to one Russian-German immigrant in particular, John Hoellwarth, who brought the dish with him from the Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea.
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The word chislic traces its roots to shashlik, the Russian word for a common dish of cubed, skewered meat from nearby Turkey on the other side of the Black Sea. People around the world know it as shishkebab.
Chislic is most common in the southeastern corner of the state, an area that South Dakota Magazine dubbed “The Chislic Circle.”
The Regret Burger from Urban Chislic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The hot double smash lamb burger was featured on the show “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” with Guy Fieri and generated national acclaim for the restaurant’s modern take on chislic, a South Dakota culinary tradition. (Christian Holman/Urban Chislic)
Sioux Falls, easily South Dakota’s largest city, is the heart of The Chislic Circle.
Top spots in town to experience the South Dakota delicacy include the Barrel House, Attic Bar & Grill, Gateway Lounge, Ode to Food & Drinks and Tinner’s Public House, according to the website of the Sioux Falls Convention & Visitors Bureau.
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Urban Chislic tops its list. Phrommany opened the eatery in 2018 with partners Erik Christensen and Chad Knudtson.
Their concept gives traditional chislic a mix-and-match makeover you might find in an overseas or big-city ramen bar.
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The menu comes with a choice of both proteins and sauces. In addition to lamb or beef, guests can select cubes of fish, pork, chicken or bison and pair it with any of a dozen different dips.
Chislic nachos with house-fried tortilla chips from Urban Chislic in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Chislic traces its roots to the arrival of Russian-German immigrants in the 1870s. (Christian Holman/Urban Chislic)
Among them: creamy white barbecue, spicy-sweet maple and honey mustard sauces.
One sauce, jaew bong, is a tribute to Phrommany’s birthplace and ethnic heritage.
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The traditional Laotian condiment is a sweet-hot sauce made with Southeast Asian chili spice.
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