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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Maine has no current plans to bring back its electric vehicle rebate program after it exhausted its $13.5 million in funds, and instead expects to focus more limited funding on low-income households and other groups that are “slower to adopt” EVs. (Maine Morning Star)
ALSO:
STORAGE: In Maine, bipartisan support could help the state reach its ambitious energy storage goals, despite likely federal pressure when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. (Bangor Daily News, subscription)
EFFICIENCY: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration fails to set a new target for reducing energy use in state buildings, despite a 2022 order that set a goal of going 100% renewable by 2030. (E&E News, subscription)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Credit rating agency S&P Global says its downgrading of Eversource’s rating in Connecticut should not increase costs for customers in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, though the utility maintains there will be a “ripple effect.” (Boston Globe)
SOLAR: A pilot program in southwestern Pennsylvania rolls out solar panel and battery storage leasing options for households making less than $100,000 per year. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
TRANSIT: New York City plans to expand its bike-share program to more neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, but is still avoiding some car-centric areas that have been less open to bike infrastructure. (Streetsblog NYC)
COMMENTARY:
Emissions from buildings make up about two-thirds of the greenhouse gas footprint of Indianapolis. So when the city committed to slash emissions, in its 2019 climate action plan and then as part of the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge in 2020, leaders knew where they had to start.
A 2021 ordinance requires all buildings over 50,000 square feet and publicly-owned buildings over 25,000 square feet to do energy benchmarking and report results to the city, to be made publicly available by 2026.
The deadline to comply was July 1, 2024. But at year’s end, only about 20% of the 1,500 buildings covered had complied — even though the process can be done in a matter of hours using EPA’s ENERGYSTAR Portfolio manager software. The city also hosted workshops to help walk building managers through the process.
Now the city’s challenge is to boost benchmarking compliance. The penalties for failing to comply are low: fines of $100 the first year and $250 yearly after that. Chicago’s 2013 benchmarking ordinance, by comparison, includes fines of $100 for the first day of a violation and up to $25 each day thereafter, with a maximum fine of $9,200 per year — and the city has a much higher compliance rate.
Lindsay Trameri, community engagement manager for the Indianapolis Office of Sustainability, said the office is continuing outreach, including sending postcards to all relevant building managers and owners.
“We’re not assessing fines yet, but we’re making sure they’re aware this isn’t a city program that’s going away, it is indeed local law,” Trameri said. “And there are benefits to be gleaned from participating. It might cost hundreds of dollars not to participate, but you could save thousands if you participate and take it seriously.”
Trameri said 27 publicly-owned buildings in the consolidated city and county government must be benchmarked, and the city is planning to use about $800,000 worth of federal Department of Energy funding to hire an energy manager “who will be solely focused on looking at city-owned buildings and how to make them more energy efficient.”
In Indiana, reducing buildings’ electricity use is particularly urgent since the state got about 45% of its power from coal in 2023. The benchmarking mandate doesn’t require buildings to take any action based on their energy results, but benchmarking often motivates building owners and municipalities to invest in savings, experts say.
Cities participating in the Bloomberg program saw 3% to 8% energy reductions and millions in savings, with nearly 400 million square feet now covered by benchmarking policies and over 37,000 energy audits completed, according to Kelly Shultz, who leads Bloomberg Philanthropies” sustainable cities initiative.
Though overall compliance is low, some major public and private entities have completed benchmarking in Indianapolis, including the airport, convention center, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, Target and JC Penney.
Phil Day, facilities director for the museum, noted that it’s crucial for museums to keep consistent levels of humidity and temperature. That means high energy use, and also vulnerability to blackouts or energy price spikes. Benchmarking has helped him develop plans for reducing natural gas and electricity use with smaller boilers and heat pumps distributed throughout the facilities, a possible geothermal chilling system, and better insulation. These innovations should save money and make the museum more resilient to energy disruptions.
“Museums aren’t typically known as an energy efficient facility, but it is always high on my priority list in everything we program or replace,” Day said.
The firm Cenergistic has done benchmarking since 2017 for Indianapolis Public Schools, and identified more than $1 million in wasteful energy costs that could be cut across 71 schools. Under Cenergistic’s contract, it is paid half of the energy savings it secures. Seventeen school buildings have obtained EPA Energy Star status based on their energy efficiency improvements, Cenergistic CEO Dennis Harris said.
“Benchmarking provided a clear starting point by identifying high-energy-consuming facilities and systems,” Harris said. “Cenergistic energy specialists track energy consumption at all campuses with the company’s software platform, identifying waste and driving conservation. By consistently reviewing this data, Cenergistic continues to work with IPS to make data-driven decisions, set measurable goals, and continually refine its strategy for maximum impact.”
Trameri said the schools’ success is “a great message to point to. If they can do it, we can do it. Of course, we want those millions to go back into classrooms and teachers and students versus out the door for utility costs.”
Trameri said in developing its benchmarking program and ordinance, Indianapolis has relied on guidance and lessons from other cities including Columbus, Ohio and Chicago, both fellow participants in the Bloomberg challenge.
In Chicago, about 85% of the 3,700 buildings covered by the ordinance are in compliance, said Amy Jewel, vice president of programs at Elevate, the organization that oversees Chicago’s program. She said nine out of 10 buildings complied even right after the ordinance took effect, thanks to years of organizing by city leaders and NGOs like the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“A large number of building owners recognized this was coming. They engaged in the process, and saw their fingerprints within the ordinance,” said Lindy Wordlaw, director of climate and environmental justice initiatives for the city of Chicago.
Chicago passed an additional ordinance creating an energy rating program, where buildings receive a score of 0 to 4 based on their energy benchmarking results. An 11-by-17-inch placard with the score and explanation must be publicly posted, “similar to a food safety rating for a restaurant,” Wordlaw said.
In 2021, Chicago reported that median energy use per square foot had dropped by 7% over the past three years, and greenhouse gas emissions had dropped 37% since 2016 in buildings subject to the ordinance. City public housing and buildings owned by the Archdiocese were among those to do early benchmarking and investments.
Along with Philadelphia, New York and Washington D.C., Chicago was among the nation’s first major cities to institute benchmarking. Jewel said they hope to keep sharing lessons learned.
For example, “it’s actually pretty hard to come up with the covered buildings list,” Jewel noted, since there is no central list of all buildings in a city but rather various records “all used for slightly different purposes — the property tax database, different sources tracking violations. It took a bit of time to get that list together, and it takes time to maintain it as buildings are constructed or demolished.”
In Indianapolis, Trameri said they are hopeful more buildings will get with the program as awareness grows about the requirement.
“There has always been evidence that you can’t manage what you don’t measure,” said Trameri. “It’s a market-based strategy. Truly once a facilities owner or manager is able to look at their energy usage over a month, 12 months, or multiple years and make evidence-based decisions based on that data, it will affect your bottom line, and those savings you can reinvest into whatever your organization’s mission is.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misattributed performance information about Bloomberg Philanthropies’ sustainable cities initiative.
CLIMATE: New Hampshire’s new climate plan is unlikely to include emissions reduction targets, and will instead focus on voluntary measures, use of federal funds, and market-based solutions. (NHPR)
ALSO:
SOLAR: Commissioners in one Maryland county vote to tighten the requirements for solar installations on agricultural land as they face a flurry of interest from developers. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
GEOTHERMAL: Communities in Massachusetts and Vermont are among those awarded federal funding to support the construction of geothermal heating and cooling networks. (Smart Cities Dive)
FOSSIL FUELS: A Pennsylvania oil and gas company will pay $2 million and reduce emissions at 49 facilities as part of a settlement of alleged Clean Air Act violations. (Allegheny Front)
BIOFUELS: In New York, biofuels suppliers tout their product as a lower-emissions option, though some worry their use would only slow progress toward electrification. (Times Union)
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A New Jersey legislative committee votes for a two-year delay on the implementation of a rule that would require increasing sales of battery-powered vehicles. (NJ Spotlight News)
EFFICIENCY: Connecticut launches a pilot providing funding, training, and expertise to small manufacturing companies looking to implement energy efficiency measures or use renewable energy. (Hartford Business Journal)
COMMENTARY: The renewable energy industry in Maine has a positive effect on the economy and creates stable, good-paying jobs, and should not be blamed for rising energy costs, says the cofounder of a solar company. (Bangor Daily News, subscription)
GRID: Oklahoma’s incoming state house speaker tells a crowd the U.S. Energy Department has agreed to cancel the designation of a corridor across the state for a planned 645-mile transmission line due to widespread opposition from the community and elected officials. (KOSU, KOTV)
WIND: Texas shrimpers say they’re frustrated after a community meeting about a planned offshore wind farm ended less than five minutes after it began when the company representative left the room without answering questions. (KBMT)
SOLAR: A study finds nearly 30,000 Floridians installed solar panels in 2024 despite utility and political pushback against net metering, and that Florida could be on track to become the top-ranked residential solar state by 2028. (WUSF)
NUCLEAR: The U.S. Energy Department sets a ceiling of $3.4 billion over the next decade to spend on six companies in Tennessee to develop low-enriched uranium for nuclear reactors. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
STORAGE: A Texas energy storage company partners with a national homebuilder to add batteries to houses in 15 communities in the state. (San Antonio Express-News)
OIL & GAS:
OVERSIGHT:
PIPELINES: A September vehicle crash that resulted in a natural gas pipeline explosion raises awareness about the danger of above-ground gas transmission pipelines and their vulnerability to collisions. (Houston Landing)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
POLITICS: Louisiana Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy cultivates support for a bill to impose a carbon tariff on imported aluminum, cement, glass, iron, fertilizer and steel — but not foreign fossil fuels. (E&E News)
CLIMATE:
COMMENTARY:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California’s energy commission votes to invest $1.4 billion in an emissions-free transportation plan that includes installing nearly 17,000 electric vehicle charging stations and hydrogen fueling infrastructure. (Utility Dive)
ALSO:
COAL: Wyoming and Montana file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the federal Bureau of Land Management’s ban on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, even though mining wouldn’t be affected until at least 2041 at the current rate of production. (WyoFile)
OIL & GAS:
CARBON CAPTURE: A firm proposes installing modular natural gas generating units with up to 1,000 MW of capacity in northern California using technology designed to capture all atmospheric emissions. (Power)
SOLAR: A developer begins construction on a 475 MW solar-plus-storage installation in northern Arizona near a coal plant slated to retire next year. (AZ Family)
TRANSITION: Colorado officials and advocates work to equitably transition an oil and gas-producing county to clean energy and other industries. (Aspen Journalism)
STORAGE: Data show California added 6,000 MWh of new grid-scale battery energy storage during the third quarter of 2024. (Solar Power World)
UTILITIES:
GRID:
WIND: Opponents of the recently greenlit Lava Ridge wind facility in southern Idaho consider waiting until President-elect Trump takes office to file a lawsuit seeking to reverse the federal approval. (Idaho Statesman)
COMMENTARY: Alaska is disproportionately struggling with the effects of climate change, an ocean advocate argues, and Trump’s efforts to open up the state’s oil and gas to extraction will only make matters worse. (Los Angeles Times)
WASHINGTON DC, December 3, 2024 – The American Clean Power Association (ACP) today released its latest Clean Power Quarterly Market Report, detailing a surge in clean energy deployment during Q3 2024, with 10.2 GW of clean energy capacity coming online. This record-setting quarter positions the industry to achieve a historic year in 2024, underscoring the strength of American clean power.
Year-to-date installations now total 29.6 GW, representing an impressive 86 percent increase over the same period in 2023. This growth highlights how clean energy resources have solidified themselves as an affordable and reliable source of power for communities across the country. The U.S. has now deployed 294 GW of clean power capacity—enough energy to power 72 million American homes.
“American-made clean power is meeting the moment, providing the resources necessary to continue delivering affordable and reliable power to communities across the country. The record pace of clean power installations is delivering not only for the power grid but for the U.S. economy,” said John Hensley, ACP’s SVP of Markets and Policy Analysis. “The impacts of the industry’s investments are vast, keeping America competitive on the global economic stage and enhancing our energy and national security.”
Additional Key Highlights:
A scaled-down version of the report is available to the public, with the full Clean Power Quarterly Market Report | Q3 2024 available only to ACP members.
The American Clean Power Association (ACP) is the leading voice of today’s multi-tech clean energy industry, representing over 800 energy storage, wind, utility-scale solar, clean hydrogen and transmission companies. ACP is committed to meeting America’s national security, economic and climate goals with fast-growing, low-cost, and reliable domestic power.
Follow ACP on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and learn more at cleanpower.org.
The following commentary was written by Carrie Zalewski, former Chair of the Illinois Commerce Commission and currently vice president of markets and transmission at the American Clean Power Association; and Brent Bailey, former Mississippi Public Service Commissioner and current vice president of operations at Efficient Power & Light LLC. See our commentary guidelines for more information.
Building the power grid of the future requires deploying every available tool in the present.
When it comes to electricity generation, energy wonks often reference an “all-the-above” strategy, which includes all available power sources — fossil fuels, renewable energy, and storage technologies. But generation is just one part of the reliability and affordability equation.
The Midwestern transmission grid must also evolve and adopt an “all-the-above” mentality to withstand increasingly frequent extreme weather events and support rapidly growing power demand while ensuring reliable and low-cost electricity for consumers. This is no small task. As such, policymakers and grid operators must carefully consider all near-term and long-term solutions.
New high-voltage transmission lines are essential to ensure the grid of the future is prepared for surging load growth. But new transmission line development and construction can take many years. To address immediate needs, there are other solutions that can improve capacity in the near term. Enter: advanced grid technologies.
Significant technological advancements are available now that can come online in one to three years compared to the decade or so it takes to build new transmission lines. Such advancements include: grid-enhancing technologies (GETs) — hardware and/or software that can increase the capacity and efficiency of existing transmission lines most hours of the year — as well as high-performance conductors (HPCs) — which offer greater capacity and efficiency benefits compared to traditional conductors.
While these advanced grid technologies cannot provide enough capacity to meet long-term system needs, they are relatively inexpensive and drive enormous cost savings until we can bring regional backbone lines into service. Deploying GETs and HPCs in the near term to help meet projected demand growth while simultaneously planning and constructing new regional and interregional transmission lines is key to ensuring the delivery of reliable, low-cost power across the Midwest.
MISO, the central U.S. grid operator, is considering a second portfolio of transmission projects aimed at creating a regional backbone of long-distance lines that will enable power to flow across the Upper and Central Midwest. These transmission lines will build upon investments made in the first tranche of projects, approved by the grid operator in 2022, which began to lay the groundwork for an evolution of the system.
The second batch of potential projects aims to “reliably and efficiently enable MISO member goals and load growth,” delivering benefits that significantly outweigh costs. Across much of the current system, MISO found that at least 10% of facilities are overloaded and annual curtailments exceed 15%, meaning available generators are forced offline because there is not enough grid capacity to carry their power.
MISO will also soon consider transmission projects for the Southern region of MISO as well as measures to increase the flow of electricity between the MISO regions. A regional problem requires regional solutions, including well-vetted, long-distance transmission lines.
Additionally, there is a significant need for greater interregional transmission capacity between MISO and its neighbors. The U.S. Department of Energy identified especially high congestion between the Midwest and Plains states. This means there are bottlenecks in the system that hinder the ability to deliver electricity between these areas. As a result, more interregional transmission ties from MISO to the Plains would offer considerable consumer benefits in the form of increased reliability and decreased costs when affordable clean energy can be accessed and transmitted back to MISO members.
Building the grid of the future will require every technology at our disposal. It’s critical that grid operators and state regulators consider and implement all transmission technology tools when planning and building a system that will enhance national security, facilitate regional economic development, and withstand new and growing reliability threats for generations to come.
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
California has long led the way on electric vehicles, but another Western state is challenging the Golden State’s top spot.
Between July and September, nearly 25 percent of the vehicles registered in Colorado were electric or plug-in hybrids. In California, that figure was just over 24 percent. It’s not enough to crown Colorado the new undisputed leader in EVs, but it’s a notable milestone — no other state has ever surpassed California in terms of EV registrations, according to James Di Filippo, principal policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy.
It’s the culmination of a “pretty dramatic” trend line for Colorado’s EV adoption since the start of 2023, Di Filippo said. Coloradans bought just over 41,000 EVs last year, up from roughly 23,000 in 2022.
Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, announced the accomplishment last week, touting it as a sign of the state’s commitment to reaching its climate goals and improving air quality. “This new data shows that demand for EVs continues to increase and especially with competitive state and federal rebates, drastically cutting the cost of an EV and saving people money,” Polis said in a press release.
Colorado has some of the most generous incentives for EV sales in the country, Di Filippo said. Its policies and incentives have helped make the cars more affordable, while the state’s investments in charging infrastructure have made owning an electric car more practical.
All Coloradans can receive a $5,000 state tax credit for purchasing or leasing a new EV or plug-in hybrid priced up to $80,000. That credit is available through the end of this year, then will decrease to $3,500 starting in 2025. EVs valued under $35,000 are eligible for an additional tax credit of $2,500 — for a total potential state credit of $7,500.
Through the Vehicle Exchange Colorado program, income-qualified residents can trade in old or highly polluting gas cars in exchange for a $6,000 rebate to put toward a new EV or plug-in hybrid purchase or lease, or $4,000 for a used one.
The state tax credits and the vehicle-exchange rebates can be combined with federal tax credits, which currently offer up to $7,500 for a new EV lease or purchase or $4,000 for a used EV.
The state has also worked over the past few years to install more public chargers. There are currently over 5,500 public charging ports across Colorado. This year, the state plans to install another 576 ports using $5 million in funding from the Colorado Energy Office.
In 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that 580,000 zero-emission vehicles would be sold in the U.S. in 2023. But actual sales last year were almost two and a half times greater at 1.43 million. This year, Cox Automotive expects sales to climb even higher, despite gloomy forecasts issued by some analysts earlier in 2024.
According to estimates from Kelley Blue Book, EV sales made up 8.9 percent of all vehicle sales in the country in the third quarter of this year — the highest share ever recorded, and an increase from 7.8 percent in the same time period last year.
The Biden administration set a goal for EVs to make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2030. As of this February, sales were on track to meet that goal, though the picture is more uncertain heading into the second Trump administration. The president-elect reportedly plans to eliminate federal EV tax credits and roll back Environmental Protection Agency tailpipe emissions rules — against the wishes of the nation’s largest automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
Transportation is the single largest category of carbon emissions in the country, at 28 percent, driven mainly by trucks, SUVs, and other road vehicles.
Colorado has an even more aggressive EV goal than the federal government, aiming for 82 percent of all car sales to be electric by 2032. Looking ahead, EV registrations and sales in the state likely won’t continue to outpace California, Di Filippo said, since “the trend line for California is still steeper overall.”
“This isn’t necessarily a story of Colorado just beating California out right,” he said. “This is really a story of EV success.”
UTILITIES: S&P downgrades the credit rating of three Connecticut utilities, with executives blaming state regulators for rejecting rate increases as costs increase. (CT Insider)
ALSO: New Jersey lawmakers advance a bill that would require utilities to alert customers mid-month if their energy usage is unusually high. (New Jersey Monitor)
CLIMATE:
OVERSIGHT: New Hampshire’s consumer advocate is backing legislation to clarify the authorities of the state’s Public Utilities Commission and its recently created Department of Energy. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
WIND: A labor leader says Maine should reach out to other states to help support a deepwater port for offshore wind construction, after multiple attempts to secure federal funds have failed. (Maine Public)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New Jersey has surpassed 200,000 electric vehicle registrations, but an advocate says a lack of charging stations and shifting tax credits make it unlikely the state will hit its goal of 330,000 by next year. (NJ.com)
SOLAR:
COMMENTARY:
GRID: Google partners with a climate investor and a clean energy developer to build renewable power and storage projects co-located with data centers, with a goal of reducing the centers’ anticipated demand on the grid. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
POLITICS:
CLIMATE: Expressing concern for the state’s fossil fuel industries, two Pennsylvania lawmakers say they plan legislation to remove the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and require legislative approval for future agreements. (Indiana Gazette)
WIND: A labor leader says Maine should reach out to other states to help support a deepwater port for offshore wind construction, after multiple attempts to secure federal funds have failed. (Maine Public)
STORAGE: A Georgia company announces that its battery recycling facility will produce and market lithium carbonate — an important component in electric vehicle batteries that until now has only been mined. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
EFFICIENCY: Milwaukee officials seek local manufacturing of highly efficient wall panels for prefabricated homes to resolve challenges of building net-zero modular homes for low-income residents. (Energy News Network)
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