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From the World Economic Forum to utility industry magazines to the US Department of Energy, in recent years there’s been a growing refrain: how batteries can enable a net-zero electricity grid. Implicit in that statement is the idea that batteries can (and should) help lower grid emissions, increase the integration of zero-emissions renewable energy sources, and support overall power sector decarbonization. Yet battery energy storage is sometimes finding itself in the hot seat for exactly the opposite reason.
Earlier this year, a University of Michigan study focused on the PJM market (the large regional transmission organization covering all or part of 13 U.S. states plus Washington, D.C.) found that batteries sometimes increased grid emissions. While the U-M study was based on older data (from 2012 to 2014), its takeaways echo concerns we’ve heard before.
In the early 2010s, California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) — a major driver of the state’s behind-the-meter battery energy storage market — shifted its focus to specifically prioritize greenhouse gas reductions for the Golden State’s power grid. But then circa 2018 and 2019, analysis found that batteries were often increasing, rather than decreasing, grid emissions.
For the better part of a decade, batteries have been described as a Swiss Army knife of the power grid, capable of performing myriad functions — from customer-centric services such as backup power, peak shaving, solar self-consumption, and time-of-use energy arbitrage to grid-centric services such as frequency and voltage regulation, demand response, and mitigating renewables curtailment.
Ultimately, doing all of that involves software algorithms that dictate when a battery energy storage system charges and discharges. Those algorithms typically co-optimize around various price signals. But it’s the marginal emissions of the power grid at the times a battery is charging vs. discharging that determines whether the battery causes a net decrease (or increase) in grid emissions.
Unless energy storage considers emissions in their control approach, there’s no guarantee that they’ll help decarbonize power grids. Energy journalist David Roberts summed it up well: “It’s a mistake to deploy batteries … as though they will inevitably reduce emissions. They’re a grid tech, not a decarbonization tech,” more akin to transmission lines that can equally carry dirty or clean power, agnostic to the electricity’s generation source and the associated carbon emissions. So, too, with batteries in the absence of the right signals.
To address the emissions increase caused by energy storage participating in SGIP, the rules of the program were revised with the goal of enabling the state’s participating behind-the-meter commercial and residential batteries to live up to their emissions-reducing promise. Almost immediately after the rule change, we started to see positive outcomes. A detailed impact evaluation published earlier this year by CPUC with analysis by Verdant gives a longer-term view of SGIP’s turnaround story.
Between 2018 and 2022 (the period covered by Verdant’s analysis), battery systems in California’s SGIP fully reversed course, flipping from causing a net increase in grid emissions to causing a significant net decrease in a resounding decarbonization success.
Now, energy storage has cemented its central role supporting California’s goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045. The state boasts more than 10 GW of installed battery capacity, and earlier this year, batteries became the single largest contributor to the state’s grid briefly during the evening peak. Grid-scale batteries charged on excess daytime solar are starting to displace natural gas power plants. And during this year’s solar eclipse, batteries charged on excess renewable energy carried California’s power sector through the temporary slump in solar PV generation.
California may be the country’s most-prominent example, but it’s hardly the only US state setting combinations of both emissions-reduction / net-zero emissions targets as well as energy storage goals. For just four examples, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York — all members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — each have robust energy storage targets tied to 100% clean energy and GHG reduction goals. So does Michigan.
For energy storage to help these and other states achieve their clean energy goals, it will be crucial to learn from California’s SGIP growing pains — and using a true marginal emissions GHG signal, rather than a proxy metric, to inform batteries’ duty cycles. Just look at what has transpired in Texas and the ERCOT market.
The Lone Star State has been called “the hottest grid battery market in the country.” But analysis from Tierra Climate published in June 2024 in collaboration with REsurety, Grid Status, Modo Energy, and WattTime found that 92% of batteries in ERCOT increased grid emissions in 2023. This is largely because those batteries are not co-optimizing their operation in coordination with a carbon signal like SGIP’s GHG signal. That same report found that co-optimization with a carbon signal (or a carbon price) would move these battery energy storage assets from carbon increasing to carbon decreasing.
The US energy storage market is growing fast, with record-setting capacity additions in Q1 2024 and a staggering 75 GW of cumulative new capacity forecasted to come online during the period 2024–2028. If battery energy storage is to continue living up to its promise of enabling a net-zero grid, it’s more important than ever that state policies and battery control algorithms include a marginal emissions signal as part of their intelligence under the hood.
OFFSHORE WIND: A newly completed, $42 million commercial port on the New Bedford, Massachusetts waterfront could host offshore wind operations. (Cape Cod Times)
ALSO:
FOSSIL FUELS: A Philadelphia refinery agrees to pay a settlement of $4.2 million, after the U.S. EPA found the owners failed to remedy corrosion that caused an explosion and fire in 2019. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New York is one of 40 cities in which ride-sharing option Uber Green will go fully electric, removing hybrid vehicles from its lineup. (NBC New York)`
AGRIVOLTAICS:
UTILITIES: FirstEnergy — a utility serving New Jersey, Maryland, and Pennsylvania — receives poor marks in a new Sierra Club report tracking utilities’ progress toward decarbonization. (Canary Media)
EQUITY: Energy efficiency contractors in Connecticut call on the state and private companies to improve the treatment of workers of color in the industry. (CT News Junkie)
NUCLEAR: A Maryland startup raises $45 million for its plan to build modular nuclear reactors at shipyards using existing labor and infrastructure. (DCInno, subscription)
RENEWABLES: The New York State Power Authority releases a draft plan identifying potential renewables projects across the state totaling as much as 3.5 GW of capacity. (news release)
TRANSIT: A new study recommends reviving a little-used rail line in Boston and adding electric train service to make commuting easier and attract more riders. (CommonWealth Beacon)
SOLAR: Hurricane Helene’s damage to a North Carolina town home to the purest quartz in the world highlights the solar industry’s precarious reliance on materials produced from a single location, especially in the face of escalating weather disasters. (Grist)
ALSO:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Hyundai begins producing electric SUVs at its new, $7.6 billion Georgia factory ahead of a grand opening planned for 2025. (Associated Press)
GRID:
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: A federal court hears arguments in a lawsuit by Louisiana community groups alleging a parish government “intentionally discriminated against Black residents” by placing polluting industrial facilities near majority-Black communities. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS: A Houston-based pipeline company heads up emergency response to a 100-foot oil-laced saltwater geyser that erupted in a part of Texas that’s experienced a recent rash of earthquakes linked to wastewater injection. (Houston Chronicle)
CARBON CAPTURE: Texans testify to U.S. EPA officials about a planned carbon dioxide injection site in the Permian Basin that would be part of the largest direct air capture facility in the U.S. (Texas Tribune)
HYDROPOWER:
NUCLEAR: The U.S. Supreme Court agrees to review a ruling in a dispute over a company’s plans to store nuclear waste at a dump located in Texas’ Permian Basin. (Houston Chronicle)
UTILITIES: Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick calls for the resignation of CenterPoint Energy’s CEO due to the utility’s botched response to power outages in Houston caused by Hurricane Beryl. (Houston Chronicle)
COMMENTARY:
NUCLEAR: Federal officials finalize a $1.52 billion loan to restart a southwestern Michigan nuclear plant, which has now secured $3.1 billion in subsidies to be the first shuttered U.S. nuclear plant to restart. (Bridge)
ALSO: The AI boom has left big tech companies scrambling to find large amounts of low-carbon energy to power data centers, creating new demand for nuclear power. (Mother Jones)
GRID:
WIND: Wind turbine service technician is projected to be the fastest growing occupation in South Dakota through 2032, according to state labor officials. (South Dakota Searchlight)
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS: North Dakota regulators approve plans for a $3.2 billion plant that would convert natural gas into diesel fuel and lubricants. (North Dakota Monitor)
CLIMATE:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Ford will start offering customers who buy or lease an electric vehicle a free home charger and installation in an effort to relieve range anxiety. (Detroit Free Press)
NUCLEAR: The Energy Department approves a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to restart the closed Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, part of a resurgence of interest in nuclear power in the U.S. (New York Times)
ALSO: The AI boom has left big tech companies scrambling to find large amounts of low-carbon energy to power data centers, creating new demand for nuclear power. (Mother Jones)
NATURAL GAS:
CLIMATE: Environmental advocates are skeptical of a federal effort to establish guidelines for voluntary carbon markets. (Grist)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
ELECTRIFICATION:
WIND:
GEOTHERMAL: The U.S. House last week passed a bipartisan bill that aims to speed up approval for geothermal projects. (Think Geothermal)
POLITICS: Climate change is rarely acknowledged by either candidates in a hotly contested U.S. Senate race in Ohio, where some communities are experiencing new clean energy investments under the Inflation Reduction Act. (Inside Climate News)
COMMENTARY: A columnist describes a “tragedy of errors” that has led to the U.S. falling behind China in the race to lead on solar technology. (Bloomberg)
Residents with heat pumps in four Massachusetts towns will soon pay hundreds of dollars less for their electricity over the winter, thanks to a new pricing approach advocates hope will become a model for utilities across the state.
State regulators in June approved a plan by utility Unitil to lower the distribution portion of the electric rate from November to April for customers who use heat pumps, the first time this pricing structure will be used in the state. It’s a shift the company hopes will make it more financially feasible for residents of its service area to choose the higher-efficiency, lower-emissions heat source.
“We asked, is there a way we can structure the rates that would be fair and help customers adopt a heat pump?” said Unitil spokesman Alec O‘Meara. “We recognize that energy affordability is very important to our customers.”
Electric heat pumps are a major part of Massachusetts’ strategy for reaching its goal of going carbon-neutral by 2050. Today, nearly 80% of homes in the state use natural gas, oil, or another fossil fuel for space heating. Looking to upend that ratio, the state has set a target of having heat pumps in 500,000 homes by 2030.
One of the major obstacles to this goal is cost. To address part of this barrier, Massachusetts offers rebates of up to $16,000 for income-qualified homeowners and $10,000 for higher-income residents for heat pump equipment.
The cost of powering these systems though, can be its own problem. Natural gas prices have been trending precipitously downward for the past two years and Massachusetts has long had some of the highest electricity prices in the country. This disparity can be particularly stark in the winter, when consumers using natural gas for heating get priority, requiring the grid to lean more heavily on dirtier, more expensive oil- and coal-fueled power plants, said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate and energy nonprofit Acadia Center.
So switching from natural gas to an electric heat source — even a more efficient one like a heat pump — doesn’t always mean savings for a consumer, especially those with lower incomes.
“Electric rates are disproportionately higher than gas rates in the region,” Murray said.
Unitil’s new winter pricing structure is an attempt to rebalance that equation. In New England, electric load on the grid is generally much lower in the winter, when people turn off their air conditioners and switch over to gas or oil heating. That means that the grid, built to accommodate summer’s peak demand, has plenty of capacity for the added load of new heat pumps coming online — no new infrastructure needs to be built to handle this demand (for now, at least).
“The marginal cost of adding demand is lower,” said Mark Kresowik, senior policy director at American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, which supports heat pump-specific rates.
Unitil, which provides electricity to 108,500 households, decided to let customers share in that lower marginal cost. The company estimates customers will save about six cents per kilowatt-hour, which would work out to a monthly savings of more than $100 for a home using about 2,000 kilowatt-hours per month. The new rate should go into effect in early 2025, O’Meara said.
As Unitil is preparing to deploy its heat pump rate, environmental advocates and other stakeholders are pushing for adoption of this strategy beyond Unitil’s relatively limited territory.
Public utilities regulators are in the middle of considering a rate case filed by National Grid, which serves some 1.3 million customers in Massachusetts. National Grid has proposed what it calls a technology-neutral “electrification rate,” which would provide discounts to certain high-volume energy users, which would include heat pump users.
However, several advocates for low-income households and clean energy — including Acadia Center, Conservation Law Foundation, Environmental Defense Fund, Low-Income Energy Affordability Network — as well as the state energy department and Attorney General Andrea Campbell argue that this approach is inadequate. They’ve submitted comments urging regulators to require National Grid to offer a heat pump rate similar to Unitil’s plan, but modified to work within National Grid’s pricing model.
“Every intervenor in the docket who commented on the electrification proposal in any capacity was negative on it,” Murray said. “And the [department of public utilities] in its questioning seemed fairly skeptical as well.”
National Grid declined to comment on the pending rate case.
The electrification rate, opponents argue, would lower costs not just for households with heat pumps, but also for those with inefficient electric resistance heating and even heated pools, effectively running counter to the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“The ‘electrification’ proposal would apply to all electricity consumption, whether or not consistent with the Commonwealth’s climate policy of reducing greenhouse gases,” said Jerrold Oppenheim, a lawyer for the Low-Income Weatherization and Fuel Assistance Program Network and the Low-Income Energy Affordability Network.
It would also do nothing to encourage heat pump adoption among low- and moderate-income households, they say: Some 48% of low-income customers interested in switching to a heat pump would actually see bill increases of up to 33%, according to a brief filed by Oppenheim for the network.
Beyond the National Grid rate case, other stakeholders are also pushing for seasonal heat pump rates. The state has convened an Interagency Rates Working Group to study and make recommendations on the challenges of changing how electric rates are designed to encourage electrification of home heating and adoption of electric vehicles. In August the group released an analysis that found seasonal rates created significant savings for homes with heat pumps.
“They came to the same conclusion, that this is the right approach,” Kresowik said.
Eventually, the introduction of advanced metering technology will simplify the process of applying lower rates to desired uses, like heat pumps and electric vehicles. But the full deployment of these systems is still several years in the future, and action to ease adoption of heat pumps must be taken much sooner, advocates argue.
In the meantime, many have expressed some optimism that regulators will require National Grid to make its electrification proposal more responsive to the state’s climate and equity priorities.
“I would be surprised if the electrification pricing proposal exists as is in the final [regulatory] order,” Murray said.
CLEAN ENERGY:
ALSO: Despite ongoing critiques from Sen. JD Vance, the Inflation Reduction Act has benefited Ohio residents, including in his hometown of Middletown, with new clean energy investments. (New York Times)
UTILITIES: Xcel Energy spent more on lobbying state lawmakers than any other organization in Minnesota last year, when lobbying spending ballooned 18% from 2022. (Minnesota Reformer)
RENEWABLES: While wind and solar made up 64% of Iowa’s electricity generation last year, the state needs to speed up efforts to transition from coal to meet climate change targets, a statewide environmental group reports. (Radio Iowa)
GRID:
NUCLEAR: A resolution is near in a yearslong tax dispute over the value of a Michigan nuclear plant, which could result in a roughly $4.3 million cut in tax revenue for local schools and governments next year. (MLive)
SOLAR: A southern Indiana farmer says a proposed 2,050-acre solar project around his land would look like an “industrial wasteland,” while others see an opportunity to generate revenue for their farm. (WHAS)
BIOMASS: The University of Iowa is leaning heavily on various biomass crops for power generation as it continues plans to phase out coal by next year. (Daily Iowan)
CARBON CAPTURE: A carbon capture demonstration project at a large North Dakota coal plant receives a $4.1 million grant as part of hundreds of millions of dollars in federal support expected for the project. (Power Magazine)
OIL & GAS: The Ohio Court of Appeals denies the state attorney general’s request to hear a case seeking to hold a gas pipeline company responsible for discharging millions of gallons of drilling liquids into wetlands. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)
OFFSHORE WIND: In a major milestone, the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approves New Jersey’s first offshore wind project, though opponents have vowed to keep fighting the development. (Associated Press)
ALSO: Officials in New Bedford, Massachusetts, vote to amend zoning regulations to clear the way for more construction at a marine terminal intended to serve the offshore wind industry. (New Bedford Standard-Times)
ELECTRIFICATION: Massachusetts regulators order National Grid to create a seasonal discounted rate for households with heat pumps, months after approving a similar plan by another utility. (Energy News Network)
SOLAR
NUCLEAR:
CONSUMER PROTECTION: Big energy companies in Maryland argue that a law intended to protect consumers from predatory energy suppliers will limit their ability to market their renewable energy products, hurting their business and slowing the state’s progress toward its climate goals. (Maryland Matters)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Massachusetts startup unveils a new, slow electric vehicle charger in Concord, New Hampshire, testing the idea that the less-expensive equipment can help expand charging infrastructure in places where cars remain parked for several hours. (Concord Monitor)
HYDROGEN: A Massachusetts company claims its equipment can make hydrogen at greater scale, using methods that produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than the traditional process. (MIT Technology Review)
BUILDINGS:
ELECTRIFICATION: Two of the world’s largest building materials companies invest $75 million in a Massachusetts company that makes cement using an electric current instead of emissions-intensive fossil-fueled kilns. (Canary Media)
The growing solar industry needs more workers equipped to get panels into fields and onto roofs. Meanwhile, disinvested populations — including communities of color and formerly incarcerated people — often lack access to such jobs.
An Illinois program aims to tackle both of those problems at once — and goes beyond a few months of training to ensure workers have everything they need to succeed, Audrey Henderson reports for the Energy News Network.
With funding from community solar developer Cultivate Power, the Chicago-based Renewing Sovereignty Program works with a training partner to provide a 13-week solar installation program for people leaving the criminal justice system. Last year’s cohort of 12 trainees all got jobs in solar and related industries. Jacqueline Williams, who works with a social services organization that administers RSP, said this year’s 18 cohorts are on track for similar results.
RSP’s holistic approach to jobs training is a big reason for that success.
“Anything that you can think of that would prevent someone from being successful in a really intensive 13-week program, we’re going to assess that barrier and we’re going to provide it,” Williams told ENN. That includes housing, food, child care and transportation — and that support continues for a year after trainees graduate.In turn, those newly trained solar workers are helping Illinois meet its ambitious clean energy and climate goals.
Read more about RSP’s solar training success at the Energy News Network.
🐢 Hydrogen’s holdup: Uncertainty surrounding federal tax credit rules has left the clean hydrogen industry stuck in neutral, but experts say the delay is providing much-needed time to figure out the best uses for the fuel. (Canary Media)
🪧 Who’s behind anti-protest laws: Records reveal how fossil fuel lobbyists worked with state lawmakers to craft anti-protest laws that increase penalties for non-violent participants and aim to quiet opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure. (The Guardian)
🚘 City charging deserts: Rideshare drivers are adopting electric vehicles at five times the rate of other drivers but say they’re struggling to find places to charge in major cities. (Axios)
🥵 Heat waves: Advocates sound the alarm over a lack of policies stopping utilities from shutting off customers’ power for nonpayment during deadly heat waves. (The Guardian)
👷 Building a clean workforce: The governors of 22 states launch an initiative aimed at getting 1 million residents to complete climate-related apprenticeships by 2035, pledging to set up funding and partnerships to expand the clean energy workforce. (The Hill)
🌡️ Hands-on grid management: Utility customers around the country are signing up for programs to save money in return for allowing power companies to remotely adjust their thermostats to manage grid demand. (Washington Post)
⚛️ Nuclear resurgence: The Energy Department approves a $1.52 billion loan guarantee to restart the closed Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, part of a resurgence of interest in nuclear power in the U.S. (New York Times)
🇺🇲 Plus, some politics
NUCLEAR: The owners of Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant are seeking a $1.6 billion, taxpayer-backed federal loan guarantee to help finance its plans to restart and sell electricity to Microsoft. (Washington Post)
ALSO: The Three Mile Island plant will need extensive and rigorous safety inspections if it is to come online again to provide power. (Scientific American)
WIND:
GRID: PJM Interconnection refuses to let power generators add battery storage to facilities that have surplus grid capacity, confounding clean energy advocates. (Canary Media)
NATURAL GAS: A proposal to build a natural gas power plant in Newark, New Jersey – the fourth in the same neighborhood – faces intense local opposition from residents who say the plan runs counter to the state’s renewable energy goals. (NJ Spotlight News)
OIL & GAS: A Pennsylvania Republican introduces a bill that would sell state alternative energy credits and use the funds to cap abandoned oil and gas wells. (Pennsylvania Business Report)
SOLAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle ownership in Connecticut is concentrated in wealthy Fairfield County, raising questions about how the state can better encourage more widespread adoption. (CT Post)
TRANSPORTATION: Vermont is holding public meetings as part of its investigation into the possibility of using a cap-and-invest strategy to lower emissions from transportation in the state. (WCAX)
BUILDINGS: A 17-story Boston office building is the first commercial project to use cement made by a Massachusetts company with technology to significantly reduce emissions during the production process. (CommonWealth Beacon)
CLARIFICATION: A Pennsylvania solar bill would not require developers to pay up front for future costs of removing panels. An item in yesterday’s newsletter mischaracterized the bill.
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