By Casey Horan 

Transportation electrification is accelerating at an unprecedented rate, with nine states adopting the Advanced Clean Trucks rule, which requires manufacturers to produce increasing amounts of zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. There are more pathways than ever for MHDV fleets to electrify, as state and federal programs like those within the Inflation Reduction Act are incentivizing the transition by way of grants, rebates and financing.  

To accommodate the vast amount of MHDEVs gearing up to electrify and help fleets get on the road faster, states can take advantage of a range of available solutions to address existing barriers. For example, one of the biggest challenges utilities face is timely interconnection, i.e., connection to the distribution grid, with fleets that require more capacity facing multi-year delays in some states. 

By addressing these interconnection challenges, states can speed deployment of EV charging infrastructure and support electrification goals, which in turn reduces risk and costs for both fleets and utilities while optimizing existing grid infrastructure. In this three-part blog series, we will explore potential policy and technical solutions available to help including: hybrid interconnection; flexible interconnection and ramped connection. We start with hybrid interconnection, a near-term policy solution that can be used to accelerate the process for fleets to bring chargers, distributed generation and storage into service together.  

Solutions for timely interconnection to speed the transition to electric trucks
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Why are interconnection delays problematic?

Interconnection backlogs are problematic for fleets because they exacerbate risk and uncertainty in the planning and investment process. Fleet electrification involves significant upfront costs, and upgrades need to be completed on a timeline that aligns with fleets receiving new vehicles. Recently, some fleet owners have been forced to leave brand new MHDEVs to sit parked in warehouses while they wait for chargers to be connected to the grid. The lag between deployment and interconnection can also jeopardize fleets’ long-term funding, permits and dissuade fleets from investing further in EVs. States can help fleets get on the road faster by re-evaluating the business-as-usual approach to interconnection.  

Normally, fleets seeking to connect new solar, storage and chargers to the grid must submit an interconnection request for each project component to their utility. Utilities tend to review each resource separately because different departments usually handle different project components, which can increase the time it takes for the project to fully come online. This means the project applicant may have to coordinate between departments that do not regularly communicate with each other. The utility will then conduct a series of assessments to evaluate grid impacts and project feasibility before executing an interconnection agreement. Projects also tend to be evaluated based on their total theoretical loads, regardless of the project’s actual demands on the grid. With hybrid resources and distributed energy resources, utilities tend to take a more conservative approach because it’s difficult to estimate load requirements for variable energy resources. These factors can all add delays, and, there is no guarantee that a project will break ground. In fact, project completion rates are low, in large part due to developers losing funding or permits before reaching the interconnection agreement stage.   

There is a range of policy and technical solutions to address grid constraints and make interconnection timelier and more efficient in the near term. As a first step, states can address inefficiencies in the overall process by facilitating hybrid interconnection.  

Hybrid interconnection as a near-term policy solution

A fleet owner interested in electrifying will likely need to consider cost-effective ways to manage both its charging needs and upfront expenses. An increasingly popular way to do this is to use hybrid resources, like combined solar panels and battery storage with EV charging. Still, fleets may face extra delays in deploying multiple resources due to the need to make separate interconnection requests for each project component. Hybrid interconnection could streamline the process by allowing customers with combined charging, solar, storage and other distributed energy resources to file a single interconnection request.  

Streamlining combined resources into service through hybrid interconnection could help reduce costs for fleets and allow utilities to avoid unnecessary grid upgrades. Fleets benefit by maximizing power security, decreasing charging costs and reducing their overall energy usage. Utilities also benefit from the addition of valuable grid assets and improved load profile. For example, a recent GNA study commissioned by EDF demonstrated that, while current and emerging technology is ready to meet the challenge of electrification, combined resources like solar and storage with managed EV charging can help bring down costs and energy usage requirements for fleets. Decreasing fleet energy requirements through combined resources and managed charging can also reduce the amount of utility investment required to serve the fleet, benefiting all utility customers. Moreover, the fleets in the GNA study were able to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual electric costs and significantly reduce their load requirements. Fleets could also save by consolidating costs for equipment, interconnection and permitting. 

The benefits of hybrid interconnection go beyond the interconnection process as an integral part of the ongoing grid evolution. At the federal level, the recent FERC Order 2023 broadly aims to address interconnection queue backlogs, improve certainty and prevent undue discrimination for new technologies. FERC Order 2023 also requires Regional Transmission Organizations to allow for hybrid interconnections and encourages them to consider flexible interconnections in the transmission context. The order states, “The final rule requires transmission providers to use operating assumptions in interconnection studies that reflect the proposed charging behavior of electric storage resources.”  

For states, these principles can be translated to DERs, buildings and behind-the-meter solutions. Hybrid interconnection can help states alleviate delays for fleets while simultaneously keeping costs down for all stakeholders. Finally, hybrid interconnection could create more opportunities for utilities to deploy technical solutions like flexible interconnection and ramped connection to harness the vast amount of DERs coming online.  

States must prioritize getting the grid ready for widespread transportation electrification as quickly as possible. Using hybrid interconnection, states can address process-side delays while reducing costs and time for customers, utilities and energy transition.   

Casey Horan is a legal fellow for zero-emission transportation at EDF.

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And now we have the roadmap – with nine common-sense, concrete action steps – to get Ohio from here to there.

Building on a vision

The new roadmap report, Powering Ohio: A Path Forward for Energy and Transportation Transformation, is the second in a series by Synapse Energy Economics. Both rely on the insights and guidance of a diverse group of advisors from across the state’s business, regulatory, academic, labor and manufacturing sectors.

The first report outlined areas of growth, including attracting corporate investment and electrifying transportation, which – as noted above – could lead to thousands of new jobs and $25 billion in capital – if Ohio plays its cards right.

But how should, exactly, Ohio play its cards? The roadmap outlines three broad categories of actions to turn Ohio’s vision for energy innovation into reality.

Strengthen Ohio’s manufacturing future

Ohio is already a manufacturing powerhouse, and strengthening this sector is key to growth.

Step one is to encourage existing electric vehicle (EV) and clean-energy manufacturers to expand Ohio operations and retain their manufacturing base. Secondly, the state should target incentives to these manufacturers to secure a critical mass – essential for long-term, stable growth of jobs and investment.

The third action step is to support manufacturing excellence and innovation. This will be key to empowering a thriving workforce, as well as drawing in entrepreneurs and other industry leaders from outside the state.

With this new roadmap, Ohio can lay the groundwork for billions of investment dollars and thousands of new jobs
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Build for the long term

Ohio should build today for the energy sector of tomorrow.

That starts with a state energy strategy – one that supports clean energy and transforming transportation. A clear, long-term strategy will provide stable policy support and reduce the risk that hampers growth and investment.

Innovation must be a central element to that strategy. Enhancing innovation on the electric grid will lower annual energy costs, increase productivity and increase customer satisfaction.

Additionally, manufacturing for an electric transport system will only get you so far without the needed infrastructure, like charging stations. With smart planning and forethought for transportation infrastructure, Ohio can be a leader along the full supply chain of manufacturing, testing, and deployment.

Help businesses succeed
Businesses are keen to grow the clean energy economy, and Ohio set them up for success.

First, some positive reinforcement: leaders who commit to use and support clean energy and advanced transportation should be recognized. This could be in the form of an initiative that celebrates successes and highlights best practices.

And Ohio shouldn’t stop at state borders. Many companies across the country – big and small – have already committed to using clean energy. By allowing affordable in-state clean energy to thrive, Ohio can create a competitive edge to attract these businesses.

Finally, Ohio should support leveraging economies of scale and public-private partnerships for those who do not typically have the capacity or capital to compete, like small- and medium-sized businesses.

Road ahead

Ohio has new elected state leaders – the perfect time to start planning for the state’s energy future. By strengthening the manufacturing sector, focusing on long-term priorities and helping businesses succeed, the state can lay the groundwork for billions of investment dollars and thousands of new jobs.

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The better we are at reacting to the sudden outburst of “I hate pancakes” – or in the case of the grid, rapid changes in demand, price and emissions – the better off we’ll be.

For emissions at least, we can. Automated Emissions Reductions, or AER, is a new technology helping us to more precisely measure and proactively reduce the carbon emissions impact from our electricity use, in real time. A growing number of grid operators, businesses and energy managers nationwide are lining up to invest in this technology as an efficient way to cut their carbon footprint.

Ever-changing grid poses challenges

Much like the minds of toddlers, the emissions impact of electricity on the grid can change minute to minute.

Grid conditions such as demand, transmission constraints and wholesale market prices along with factors like weather, wind speed and cloud cover all determine the so-called marginal power mix.

In general, at any given moment, the cheapest power plant on the grid that has spare capacity is the marginal unit and will respond to fluctuating electricity demands by increasing or decreasing production. The carbon emissions from that marginal unit are known as marginal emissions.

What if gadgets talked to the grid to cut carbon? With this new technology, they can.
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New algorithm syncs power use with clean energy

By focusing on the marginal emissions on minute-to-minute intervals, AER helps users identify opportunities to reduce electricity use from dirtier power plants by timing their demand to when cleaner plants are the marginal unit. It lets them drive emissions reductions more effectively compared with traditional approaches that track average emissions rates with hourly intervals.

AER uses a first-of-a-kind algorithm to crunch real-time marginal emissions, grid conditions and electricity market data to identify opportunities for devices and consumers to cut pollution and use more renewable energy.

It sends minute-to-minute updates on actual emissions conditions on the grid to systems or devices that use electricity, adjusting usage as the marginal power mix changes throughout the day.

For example, AER software offered by organizations such as WattTime will let you “tune” a building’s energy system, an electric vehicle fleet or even an individual appliance like your air conditioner to automatically reduce emissions by syncing their electricity use with clean power on the grid.

Some more examples:

• AER is now live in devices like EMotorWerks EV chargers and Energate smart thermostats allowing consumers to proactively and automatically shift the timing of their home heating and cooling, as well as the charging of their electric vehicle
• California’s Self Generation Incentive Program is considering using AER to monitor greenhouse gas impacts of energy storage – which, surprisingly, is not always clean.
• Boston University just became the first organization to use AER to identify locations on the grid that have the greatest potential for displacing fossil fuels. It will allow BU to more than double the environmental impact of a new wind farm it built.
• Microsoft is building a tool to make AER more widely available. The Smart Energy Azure Demonstration platform will help companies see in real time the emissions impact of their operations via the Azure service.

70% of our power use is candidate for AER

WattTime research suggests that 70 percent of United States electricity use is coming from devices that are partly flexible about exactly when to run. It represents a huge, untapped opportunity to combat climate change and transition to clean energy more efficiently.

As any parent dealing with temper tantrums knows, real-time signals for toddlers are unfortunately still out of reach. The growing use of real-time emissions signals, on the other hand, will – and is beginning to – help consumers, utilities and companies drive decarbonization in very tangible ways.

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This piece originally appeared on our EDF Voices blog.

Both science and environmentalism are changing – driven more and more by more collaboration and rapidly improving technology.

These developments offer tremendous opportunities, as they can reveal urgent threats much more clearly – as well as the paths to address them.

Shifting scientific research in another direction

Scientific study has traditionally happened largely on the side – disconnected from the needs of society – with laboratory groups working in competition with other groups.

A lot of great insights emerged from this model, but far too often it took years or decades for ideas to reach fruition. The problems humanity is facing today will not wait. We need a new approach.

That’s why EDF is turning this process sideways, sticking to the norms of good science while doing the work quicker, with more direct benefits.

Blending old and new approaches leads to new insights

EDF still advocates deploying good scientific methods, but we have found it possible to link projects more closely and require faster results. Scientists are motivated to do good research and make a difference – we have explicitly harnessed these dual desires.

Competition is still integral, but so is sharing results, early and often, so others can benefit more rapidly.

By reducing the time required to get results published and integrated into other studies, new insights get into the hands of people who can – and will – make changes to improve our environment and health.

Policy experts communicate with the scientists as they draw their conclusions, so they understand the data and its implications even before the research is published.

This allows the work to be effectively integrated into policy development as soon as it is publicly available – a key element of this new model.

Applying the new model to a major environmental challenge

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and the main ingredient in natural gas. We did not, nor did anyone else, know how much gas was being leaked from the U.S. oil and gas supply chain, the scope or where the leaks were coming from.

Nor did we have the science to provide substantive recommendations to the industry and policymakers.

So we embarked on coordinating an unprecedented, six-year, $20 million research program that produced 36 peer-reviewed studies. They not only defined how much methane was coming out of the natural gas supply chain, but where and how it varied by geography.

Researchers used a wide range of techniques and methodologies, measuring emissions on the ground and from the air.

The work involved more than 200 researchers and participation of 50 companies, who provided site access, technical knowledge and financial support to some of the researchers. The scientific papers that resulted included more than 140 coauthors from over 40 institutions.

A synthesis of this effort was published this month in the journal Science. The results show that emissions from the U.S. oil and gas industry are 60 percent higher than the Environmental Protection Agency estimate.

These emissions effectively double the 20-year climate impact of using natural gas as an energy source. Reducing these emissions is a crucial challenge if natural gas is to compete with other fossil fuels on the basis of being a cleaner fuel.

Part of a new era of environmental progress

This work is a great example of the Fourth Wave of environmental innovation. It’s a new era that embraces emerging technology and cross-cutting scientific collaboration with broader sets of stakeholders to give people the power and scale required to solve serious environmental challenges.

Based on the effectiveness of this collaborative approach, we’re using it to measure and map methane emissions globally by launching a series of studies around the world.

This effort will have synergies with our recently announced program to launch a satellite designed to map methane emissions.

The results of our methane research so far are clear, and so are the solutions. We need to match scientific innovation with technological innovation, to collect more data faster and cheaper. Together, they can help us understand the problem, as well as solve it.

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By Rory Christian, Lauren Navarro

Cities and states are taking the initiative to address climate change independently from the federal administration. With unique political contexts and environmental needs, each local authorities’ policies address specific climate challenges.

California’s new landmark mandate, requiring solar panels on new home constructions, and New York’s ongoing Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) initiative, illustrate just how different paths can lead to accomplish the same intent: to fight climate change.  They are also indicative of how elected officials are prioritizing energy, infrastructure, and housing in their planning.

The longer states wait to take action to set or meet environmental goals, the more expensive their efforts will become. More importantly, the delay can affect the economic and health benefits from new jobs and lower emissions that improve residents’ quality of life.

New York and California are well positioned because they’ve capitalized on emerging trends by addressing legal and regulatory issues in ways other states have yet to do. Let’s take a look at their approaches and challenges.

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Solar on most new California homes

California made history recently when the Energy Commission updated their building codes to include solar panels on all new homes fewer than three stories built starting in 2020. The update also includes standards to make new homes more energy efficient and, in some cases, incentivizes energy storage. Where homes may not be able to have rooftop solar, the mandate requires them to have access to a community, or shared, solar resource or increase their energy efficiency even more to make up for it.

This push to make California’s new housing stock run on sunshine is part of a larger trend towards electrification. However, the standard has caused an interesting debate among energy enthusiasts about whether this is the best way to meet the state’s goals at the lowest cost. (Check out David Roberts’ Vox article for a breakdown on the supporting and opposing arguments.)  Either way, the mandate raises exciting questions and opportunities around how California can handle all this additional solar.

New York tackles efficiency and proper solar compensation

Across the country, New York is taking a different approach to the same problem. The state adds, on average, over 30,000 new residential buildings a year. And looking at single family homes alone (10,000 of the new-buildings stock), adopting a similar mandate to California’s could result in an additional 65 megawatts of additional solar for the state every year – or adding roughly 50 percent of current installed capacity over 10 years.

Though New York may not follow California’s lead by establishing similar mandates, the state has taken significant steps to lay the groundwork for more people to adopt solar. In fact, over 90 percent of New York’s total solar capacity is generated by distributed solar – largely rooftop panels.

Solar is and will be a critical component for energy efficiency upgrades in buildings. To further amplify solar growth, New York is aiming to move beyond net metering and compensate solar owners based on the value their installation provides to the electric grid.  This incentives the development of installations in denser areas of the state where it can provide the greatest benefit.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority is currently developing NYStretch, a voluntary building code that can improve efficiency by 18-25 percent when applied to commercial and residential buildings. New York City will require buildings to adopt the codes in 2019, and is exploring options to eliminate fossil fuel use in buildings and reduce building energy use from all sources.

Making the energy system solar compatible

As we move towards cleaner energy, both California and New York are grappling with how to best set up the energy system and electric grid to best utilize all of these renewable (but somewhat intermittent) power sources – something other states will face in this transition if they haven’t already.

One solution explored in both New York and California is time-of-use electricity pricing. This tool (if done right) offers lower prices to people when they use electricity when it’s clean and cheap for utilities to provide. Time-of-use plus the new solar mandate could add up to more people storing the electricity their solar panels produce during the day to use in the afternoon and at night, when utility power is more expensive and made with dirtier sources.

Additionally, California is considering expanding its electric grid to include utilities in other western states. By creating a bigger market for clean energy, California can use more of its large-scale solar power and sell the additional power that’s currently shut off (or curtailed) when the state doesn’t have enough demand for it.

A future with more renewable energy

Despite the different approaches, New York and California are, without question, committed to accelerating renewable energy. Their experiences serve as an example for other states around the country. If other states act now, they could avoid the worst effects of climate change and the highest costs of avoiding it, while accelerating their local economies and improving the health and well-being of residents.

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That’s according to a new report that outlines a vision for Ohio’s energy future and economic development. The report draws from the insights and experiences of a diverse group of advisors from across the state’s business, regulatory, academic, labor, and manufacturing sectors.

Here’s why now is a prime moment for Ohio to seize this multibillion-dollar opportunity, which will bring about a cleaner, more efficient energy system for Ohioans.

Five big opportunities

With the state’s largest utility constantly asking for a bailout and state legislators repeatedly trying to gut clean energy standards, Ohio isn’t exactly a leader on energy innovation. But it can be.

The report by Synapse Energy Economics, called Powering Ohio: A Vision for Growth and Innovative Energy Investment, highlights five areas for growth:

1. Attracting investment from corporate clean energy leaders;
2. Electrifying transportation, with a focus on electric vehicles;
3. Building new clean electricity generation, like wind and solar power;
4. Boosting Ohio’s energy productivity through energy efficiency; and
5. Investing in a 21^st century electric grid.

Taking advantage of these five related opportunities will net more than 20,000 jobs and $25 billion in investment dollars for Ohio, while enhancing productivity and lowering costs.

Room for improvement

But the Buckeye State will need to step up if it wants to stand out. Looking at metrics like energy-efficiency policy and grid modernization efforts, the report compares Ohio with nearby competing states in the Midwest and upper South. In the chart below, you can see Ohio has significant room for improvement, only making it into the top five in one category.

Strong foundation for success

Fortunately, Ohio has the right ingredients to be a serious competitor.

For one, the state is a manufacturing powerhouse. 15,500 manufacturers employ more than 685,000 Ohioans, placing the state third nationally in manufacturing employment. Not only are more than one-third of the state’s energy jobs in manufacturing, Ohio leads the Midwest in clean energy manufacturing jobs.

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Additionally, Ohio is a hub for innovation. Dozens of corporate and federal research and development centers reside in Ohio, which has ranked 10^th in the country in patents since 2010.

And the state is home to a growing, skilled workforce. More than 20,000 science, technology, engineering, and math students grad­uate each year – with more than 50 percent growth in STEM graduates over the last decade. The state also has 34 accredited engineering programs and more than 150 apprenticeship programs that train Ohioans in machining.

The Powering Ohio report shows the state will need to draw upon the strengths of its manufacturing sector, innovative track record, and top-notch workforce to excel in the five growth opportunities that the report identifies. If the state can take advantage of this ripe moment, Ohioans will not only be put to work, they will breathe cleaner air.

This is the first in a series about the Powering Ohio vision report. Over the next two months, I will go into more depth on the specific opportunities outlined.

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The following is an excerpt from Tesla, Inventor of the Modern, a new book by Dick Munson published in May 2018.

Nikola Tesla gave us the electric motor, long-distance electricity transmission, radio, robots, and remote control — the very foundations of our modern economy. Perhaps less well known is that he also was a clean-energy pioneer, and he remains an inspiration to today’s solar and battery entrepreneurs, including Elon Musk, who views him as a hero and contributed $1 million to help restore Tesla’s laboratory on Long Island.

Tesla marked his clean-energy leadership with a 1900 article in The Century — then the nation’s largest-circulation periodical. Published 118 years ago, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, with Special References to the Harnessing of the Sun’s Energy” was one of the earliest, detailed looks at capturing power from the sun and wind.

At his core, Tesla appreciated efficiency and hated energy waste, complaining that we “do not utilize more than 2 percent of coal’s energy” to make electricity. “The man who should stop this senseless waste would be a great benefactor of humanity,” he declared.

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Tesla, of course, thought big, sometimes unreasonably so. One of his grander proposals was to send artificial lightning into the ground, take advantage of the planet’s electric charge, and prompt resonance in order to allow everyone around the world to plug into the earth and obtain essentially free electricity.

As the world faces major challenges — from climate change to pervasive poverty, Tesla, who died 75 years ago, remains particularly relevant. We need inventors — people willing and able to see the world differently — and Tesla epitomizes the inventive spirit. Commenting on the excitement of discovery, he wrote: “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success. Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”

While most of today’s innovations are developed by teams within universities, federal laboratories and corporate research centers, Tesla demonstrated the power of what he called cerebral engineering. He claimed to be able to visualize inventions in his head, where he would test alternative configurations, and he claimed, with some exaggeration, that he could “give exact measurements to the workmen without having made even a sketch.” He envisioned his revolutionary electric motor, for instance, while walking through a Budapest park and quoting Goethe’s Faust.

While Thomas Edison the entrepreneur developed new products in order to make money, Tesla — although he certainly enjoyed his lavish meals at Delmonico’s and his fancy room at the Waldorf Astoria — believed that technology transcended the marketplace and that invention should not just be tied to profits. He wrote: “The desire that guides me in all I do is the desire to harness the forces of nature to the service of mankind.”

Tesla, as noted before, gave us motors, robots, and radio, but he kept imagining. Many of his designs — including sonar, smart watches, and death rays — would inspire great minds for generations.

Noting today’s risk- and innovation-averse electricity industry, we could benefit greatly from Tesla’s selfless, out-of-the-box thinking. He’d probably be envisioning ways to send power wirelessly, to generate it without pollution, and to provide drudgery-reducing energy to everyone, including the two billion people around the world still without access to electricity.

No doubt Tesla aimed high, perhaps higher than any other inventor. He worked tirelessly to offer electric power freely to the world and to build robots that would reduce life’s drudgery. He was, in short, driven by inner forces that made sheer creation the most important thing in his life. And we are the better for it.

Read reviews of Tesla: Inventor of the Modern and purchase here.

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By Energy Dialogues

Renewable energy, and its role in energy future, is an intense topic that spans across all corners of the energy spectrum. For example, our recent Mexican Energy Series featured a lively discussion of whether Mexico is on course for the 2024 target of 35% renewable energy, and what this pledge means for the country. Each year, as new corporations, municipalities, and countries make bold and vocal commitments to offsetting energy consumption, and to pursuing clean energy resources at a higher level, the conversation intensifies.

For an insider perspective about the current state of renewable energy, we called upon Lenae Shirley, Senior Director, Technology Innovation and Market Adoption for Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Lenae is working at the nexus of technology, markets and policy, leading efforts with EDF’s demonstration partners to prove the impact of clean technology innovations. As a result of these initiatives, Lenae identifies trends and market opportunities to accelerate the transformation of the electricity sector, with data-driven decisions that push forward market adoption for renewable methods. Here is our conversation.

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ED: How are investors currently spurring technological innovation for renewable energy resources? 

LS: There is a lot of effort being driven by the DOE to try and figure out how to increase investors’ confidence in investing in energy technology. And, so, the DOE is putting some funding into trying to figure out how to encourage more investment. You know, we (the United States) are investing a lot in deployment through a lot of different new investment tools, but you don’t see near the levels that you see in research and development that you see in, say, China, or even Europe. The Research and Development side is pretty lean, comparatively speaking.

A Sustainable Energy Future – Corporate Commitment

ED: What kinds of measures are corporations taking in regards to their energy consumption?

LS: Corporations are leading on not only renewable energy, but they’re also doing a lot regarding efficiency, and they’re also looking at and expanding into participation in wholesale markets through demand response programs. Sometimes, a manufacturing facility will choose to delay manufacturing if the price signals in the market warrant it. In some cases, they’ll go offline and use their own backup generation, and in others they will just simply shift their production to a different time to take advantage of some of those opportunities.

You know about Google’s wind farms, and Walmart – some of their buildings have solar on their rooftops. So, there are a lot of different ways you’re seeing corporations start to participate in the clean energy economy, and basically offset usage.

ED: Is there room for a stronger corporate commitment to renewable energy?

LS: I think there is a challenge in figuring out how you actually reach certain goals. You know, the low hanging fruit, typically energy efficiency, LED lighting, things like that, a lot of corporations have already done, and so what’s next? There are opportunities where corporations can do more. They sometimes set fairly aggressive goals, and they need to do more to figure out how they’re going to reach those goals.

I think even some of the companies that are making the strongest commitments… You know, Walmart, for example, has a gigaton commitment, which is, basically, they’re trying to get a gigaton of carbon out of their supply chain. That’s a very aggressive goal, and they’re not directly controlling the decisions. They’re relying on their supply chain. So, it’s a very interesting tactic. I think that’s a great example of a company who’s going beyond, and that more companies could look at not just their own operations, but their supply chain.

ED: Do you find that these clean energy initiatives are largely coming from the major players, with smaller companies following suit?

LS: I think the large companies have the resources to focus on it, so you certainly see more from them. They’re also larger and have a bigger impact. However, I do think that there are non-Fortune 500 companies who are really taking these commitments seriously and moving forward. You know, even local businesses are starting to take action.

When you recognize that a lot of people understand and believe in climate change, and a lot of people really want to support clean energy for various reasons, some of them economic and some of them for freedom principles, or energy independence, what have you… There are a lot of people who are really trying to embody that, since the political landscape is not driving it.

ED: To what extent do you think that companies are greenwashing?

LS: There are certainly companies greenwashing. What we look for are corporations that really strive for additionality. If you’re buying RECs [renewable energy credits], you need to make sure that the REC comes from a new project and not an existing project that doesn’t add anything to the emissions profile. Some companies unknowingly do this, and don’t realize that they’re not going to ever meet their goals for greenhouse gas emissions.

The Future of Renewable Energy – Cities

ED: With Minneapolis as an example of a public statement about 100% clean renewable energy, what does the foundation need to be in order to make such a unilateral commitment? 

LS: In order for them to make that commitment, what they’re basically saying is that any demand that is coming into the Minneapolis area will be provided by renewable energy. What happens one foot outside of Minneapolis may not be the same. The grid is a system, and the system is regional, and, so, while Minneapolis can procure enough energy to cover their demands, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the system around them is going to be clean, or any cleaner.

ED: Is there a specific roadmap that needs to be followed by cities such as Minneapolis that pinpoint an exact target for sustainable energy?

LS: The roadmap will depend on what the kind of resources are in the area, and, you know, Minnesota is a pretty strong wind state, and they have some pretty good rules regarding community solar, and other solar programs. I could imagine them putting together a roadmap that would basically show increasing procurement over time, and/or investment in actual resources over time, you know, again, maybe through a PPA [power purchase agreement], where a developer owns the property and they’re just procuring the power. Minneapolis could also be a community aggregation city, where they’re basically procuring all the demand for any resident who wants to sign up for that program.

Typically, what you’ll see is a focus on the electricity sector, and then typically that translates to a commitment to basically procure the same amount of supply of renewable energy that meets the demand of the city.

The Future of Alternative Energy – Voters & Policy

ED: Why is it so imperative that voters receive impartial facts about the economic impact of emerging clean industries?

LS: Yes, that’s critically important. I just worked on a project about the facts at a political district level for job creation, for wind, and solar, and energy efficiency industries. Part of it is, is that it’s hard to know what the economic impact is. There’s a lot of hype around clean energy, there’s a lot of hype around coal losing jobs, there’s an ebb and flow in the natural gas space for jobs.

I think it is critically important to figure out the economic impact of any energy resource and understand, as a transition occurs, where are you going to see job growth and where should you focus on the future instead of focusing on the past.

ED: Why has there been such voter confusion about job growth in the energy industry, especially renewable energy?

LS: Because it’s such a political issue, where you’re actually seeing the jobs and what kind of jobs you’re seeing. There’s been some, you know, push and pull between coal jobs versus solar jobs, and we’ve done some analysis ourselves. From our perspective, we’re seeing a lot of job growth in solar and energy storage, and not hardly anywhere else.

ED: What actions are you seeing domestically to strengthen the commitment to solar, electricity, wind, and other forms of renewable energy?

One of the things that was a big win very recently was Florida. Florida’s been known as being one of the worst solar states, and they just recently passed a bill that allows third-party leasing to participate in the market. Before, they weren’t allowed to have a SolarCity or a Sunrun anywhere in the state, so those businesses could not actually go into that state. And, so, that has been overruled, and that gives a huge opportunity for, increasing the amount of distributed solar in that state.

The ugliest feud happened in Nevada, but Nevada has actually, through a very negative experience, turned around and created some very positive regulations for solar and allowing investors in rooftop solar to be paid for the value that their system’s creating, not just the electrons that it creates.

I think those kinds of policies, where you’re looking at not only the cost of the system, of adding solar, but the benefits of adding solar, and rewarding the people who are making those investment decisions, are incredibly important. There’s a lot of negative stuff out there right now, but there are some shining spots, no pun intended.

This post originally appeared on Energy Dialogues.

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By Larissa Koehler, Jamie Fine

Distributed energy resources, from rooftop solar panels to smart well-weatherized homes and timed electric vehicle charging, are vital pieces of the clean energy puzzle. Coordinating how and where to encourage them in a way that benefits the electric grid, the environment, and Californians can be complicated. In its’ Integrated Distributed Energy Resource proceeding, the California Public Utilities Commission (Commission) recently asked stakeholders [PDF] to “consider how existing programs, incentives, and tariffs can be coordinated to maximize the locational benefits and minimize the costs of distributed energy resources.”

This key step forward in the proceeding is potentially a big deal. Why? Rocky Mountain Institute’s report puts it this way [PDF]:

“More granular pricing, capable of reflecting marginal costs and benefits more accurately than today’s rates do, will provide better incentives to direct distributed resource investments, regardless of whether investments in and management of [distributed energy resources] are undertaken by customers, by utilities, or by third-party service providers.”

By reflecting both costs and benefits in retail prices that electricity customers pay, California can modernize the grid while spurring the efficient and fair build out of distributed clean energy resources. This can help the state substitute traditional and inflexible polluting resources [PDF] with a variety of more nimble distributed energy resources where the grid can handle them. What’s more, distributed energy resources can lead to cleaner air in areas traditionally burdened by higher levels of harmful air pollution. They can achieve all this while bolstering the electric grid and protecting the health of the environment and of Californians.

Location, location, location

Distributed energy resources can deliver energy, help the electric grid run more efficiently, displace polluting generation and expensive transmission infrastructure, and boost resiliency, while reducing emissions. By reflecting all of these benefits (as well what it costs for the grid to support these resources) in the price of distributed energy resources through tariffs, California can better guide where and how to deploy them in greater numbers. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) believes the time is now for consideration of these location-based tariffs for several reasons:

• The Commission is already using this type of pricing in various proceedings and programs, including net energy metering [PDF], rates that incentivize the deployment of storage [PDF], and California Alternative Rates for Energy (or CARE) programs.
• Tariffs have proven effective at achieving both general and specific Commission goals.
• Tariff-supported distributed energy resource adoption can reduce bills for economically vulnerable customers by expanding opportunities to access these resources. A transparent tariff that rewards actions taken by customers “at the distribution edge” paired with educating potential participants through expanded marketing and outreach can spur the growth clean energy resource in a more equitable way.

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Creating effective location-based tariffs for distributed energy resources

EDF has suggestions to ensure the deployment of tariffs in the most effective way possible, namely by doing the following:

• To ensure distributed energy is cost-effective and helps improve air quality in areas hit harder with harmful pollution, the Commission and utilities should develop tariffs that reflect the net benefits (benefits minus costs) achieved through the use of distributed energy resources in a given place. The information necessary to create these tariffs is already being developed in in the Commission’s Locational Net Benefits Analysis working group.
• The process to build tariffs should include frequent engagement with customer groups and third party distributed energy providers.
• The Commission should adopt a “bottom-up” approach to tariff development, recognizing the costs and benefits of customer-owned resources, such as rooftop solar panels or smart-charging electric vehicles, and reflect the net benefits or costs in tariffs, thereby creating rates that differ by location. These location price differences then spur (or discourage) customer investments. This approach can more effectively reduce costs, manage risks, and create a resiliency management strategy, and makes use of “big data” utilities now have at their fingertips to understand costs, benefits, and how customer actions affect each of them.
• The Commission should address environmental inequities caused by disparate air pollution impacts, ensure resiliency and reliability through distributed energy resource diversity, and reduce safety risks by deploying distributed energy resource solutions in lieu of overhead wires.

Finally, in order to be truly successful, location-based tariffs must be combined with an effective utility incentive mechanism. Because utilities profit by building new infrastructure like poles, wires, and power plants, they are not inclined to help build and optimize the use of more distributed energy resources that would displace their traditional ways of paying their shareholders. As EDF has written before, one way to overcome this barrier is transitioning to a system in which utility shareholders receive payments based on achievement of a set of pre-determined metrics, or a “fees for services” business model. This model would reward utilities for connecting customers with third party distributed energy resource providers or optimizing distributed energy resource capabilities.

By combining a new utility business model with location-based tariffs, the utilities and the Commission can build a renewable, flexible, and affordable electric grid to take California into the clean energy future.

The post How location-based prices and utility rewards could help California’s electric grid appeared first on Energy Exchange.

It is like the lunch table you sat around as a kid – one where you can trade that banana pudding that overflows at your house for one of your neighbor’s chocolate chip cookies. It’s a delicious deal, where everybody wins.

That deal just got better. Holden’s office yesterday released new language which represents an important, positive step in the process of creating a regional electric grid for the West. This includes key requirements and protections to ensure a regional grid lowers harmful greenhouse gas emissions and supports California’s climate and energy goals – helping the state and its neighbors to move towards a low-carbon future.

Better sharing can improve grid management

California has more solar power available in the middle of the day than the state can use, but not as many clean resources handy when the sun is rising, setting, or at night. This leads to the need to develop “ramping resources.” Often powered by natural gas, they can provide electricity at any time, which is good. However, if we want to keep reducing our carbon and air pollution from the electricity sector, we need to move away from relying on fossil fuels in this way.

States like Oregon, Washington, and Nevada have different resources, like hydropower and wind, available at different times of day. Accessing these out-of-state resources makes a huge difference in California’s ability to manage the electric grid and build more renewables.

California currently has some ability to share energy resources with other states through the successful and popular Energy Imbalance Market (which, according to recent EIM analytics, displaced nearly 69,000 metric tons of carbon in 2017, equivalent to taking nearly 15,000 cars off the road for a year). However, the amount of electricity we can share is limited in this market, so it doesn’t fully expand our access to clean resources in other states. To return to the lunch table analogy, our current system is like having to arrange these deals from across the cafeteria, trade across multiple tables, and give morsels away in the process.

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What does the bill do?

AB 813 would seek to change all of that – it would enable us to all to sit at the same table, so we can make our trades more directly. The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) is our trading platform. Currently, CAISO is governed by appointees from California, so no other states want to join us – we won’t let them on our board. While that approach has worked until now, in 2017 alone California curtailed, or turned off, 345,524 megawatt hours of solar energy, enough to power over 52,000 homes for a year. The Golden State now has to learn to share some of this excess electricity with its neighbors.

The result of input from a large and diverse set of stakeholders, including Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), this new bill language incorporates important changes that protect state autonomy and ensures California meets its climate and energy goals.

Specifically, AB 813 sets up the following:

1. A structure that any regional grid operator, or trading platform, needs to have in order for California utilities to join.
2. These include requirements for limiting conflicts of interest on the grid operator’s board, protecting the states’ policies from federal intervention and getting states’ input, providing for public participation, and ensuring California’s climate goals are met.
3. A roadmap for how CAISO can evolve into a multistate entity, or a bigger table, through a public process at the California Energy Commission to ensure CAISO meets these requirements.

Still work to do

Stakeholders are currently working out many of the details, including those listed above and some that do not even appear in the bill yet. Unlike previous years, there is a robust process to address them.

Assemblymember Holden and his staff asked for stakeholder input and printed a bill six months before the end of session – leaving ample time to focus on resolving any issues. They are working hard to get this right, and they should – we don’t want a school bully to take over the lunch table. Having the right foundation in place will help prevent this from happening.

Yes, there are still issues to overcome. One is the loss of the “buckets system” under California’s renewable portfolio standard – which promotes the development of in-state clean energy.  Another is related to the overall effort by the environmental justice community to reduce pollution from power plants in already burdened communities, an issue California should review with or without a western regional electric grid. Luckily, the substantial, inclusionary, and fair public process AB 813 is following this year can handle these and other important issues.

A regional electricity grid is good news for California and the West. It enables the Golden State to access more renewable resources – because it allows us to share.

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