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WIND: The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center purchases the 42-acre waterfront site of a former coal- and oil-fired power plant in Salem to build a second terminal for offshore wind development. (Boston Globe)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
NUCLEAR: Massachusetts’ attorney general files a civil lawsuit against the firm handling the Pilgrim nuclear plant decommissioning over air pollution concerns stemming from the site demolition. (CommonWealth Beacon)
HYDROPOWER: As Québec and the Northeast U.S. both look to take advantage of Canadian hydropower to hit renewable energy goals, Hydro-Québec looks to long-duration storage to fulfill its contracts. (RTO Insider, subscription)
SOLAR:
BUILDINGS: With last summer’s floods in mind, Vermont lawmakers consider a bill to require a state permit to build in river corridors, but the state’s governor says he’ll likely veto it, citing a shift in land use responsibility and a lack of resources to execute. (VT Digger)
UTILITIES:
OVERSIGHT: A new Virginia commission to provide state lawmakers more guidance on increasingly complicated utility and energy bills could give new life to stalled proposals to restrict utilities’ spending and introduce more competition for wind and solar. (Energy News Network)
TRANSITION:
STORAGE: Texas looks set to outpace California in construction of new battery storage facilities, just one year after it surpassed California in large-scale solar power capacity. (Canary Media)
SOLAR:
WIND: Dominion Energy says Virginia ratepayers won’t be affected by its sale of a 50% stake in its offshore wind farm to an investment firm. (Virginia Mercury)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
OIL & GAS:
COAL:
UTILITIES:
CLIMATE: Federal officials expand the heat scale that signals the severity of heat stress on corals after record-high ocean temperatures last year led to a severe mass bleaching event near Florida. (E&E News, subscription)
SOLAR: A solar moratorium and fierce opposition by residents lead a Tennessee county board to deny a 150 MW solar farm with plans to send power to a data center and the Tennessee Valley Authority; developers say they may sue to reverse the decision. (Memphis Commercial Appeal)
ALSO:
EMISSIONS: Researchers say Louisiana’s $3 billion coastal restoration project to build 21 square miles of land with mud from the Mississippi River could earn about $530 million through carbon offsets sold to businesses. (NOLA)
OIL & GAS:
STORAGE: Battery company LG Chem secures a $19 billion contract with General Motors as it builds a $3.2 billion factory in Tennessee. (WKRN)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID: A municipal Virginia utility completes construction of a new substation to power two industrial parks, with plans for more grid upgrades. (Danville Register & Bee)
POLLUTION: A class action lawsuit alleges Duke Energy used motor and transformer oil laden with PCBs as “mosquito control” at a South Carolina lake. (Chronicle-Independent)
NUCLEAR: Kentucky lawmakers advance a bill to prepare the state for an anticipated surge in nuclear power production. (Associated Press)
CRYPTOCURRENCY: A judge rules in favor of Texas cryptocurrency companies’ challenge to efforts by the U.S. Department of Energy to collect data on the sector’s energy consumption. (International Business Times)
BIOMASS: A wood pellet producer with numerous factories in the Southeast approaches a crucial deadline for a bond payment that could lead to a bankruptcy filing. (Wilmington StarNews)
CLIMATE:
POLITICS: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves calls for the state to become “masters of all energy,” from oil and gas development to solar power. (Associated Press)
COMMENTARY: After suffering a significant legislative loss last year, Dominion Energy is scaling up its campaign contributions to Virginia lawmakers and has given more than $11 million so far in the 2023-2024 cycle, writes an energy columnist. (Virginia Mercury)
BUILDINGS: Maine receives a $10 million federal grant to install specially designed heat pumps in mobile homes, with a specific focus on small towns. (Maine Public)
GRID:
OVERSIGHT: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appoints a former state commissioner and an environmental advocate to fill two open seats on the state’s Public Service Commission. (E&E News, subscription)
UTILITIES: Maine lawmakers discuss a bill that would allow state regulators to use utilities’ performance as a basis for ratemaking. (Portland Press Herald)
SOLAR:
TRANSPORTATION: New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy proposes a tax on large corporations to fund mass transit. (Daily Record)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
HYDROGEN:
CARBON CAPTURE: New York lawmakers advance a bill that would ban the use of carbon dioxide injection to extract natural gas, in response to a developer’s plan for the state’s Southern Tier. (Waterfront Online)
GEOTHERMAL: Bard College in upstate New York plans a new geothermal system to provide heating and cooling to the campus library. (ThinkGeoEnergy)
CLEAN ENERGY: The Biden administration allocates $366 million for clean energy development on tribal land and rural areas, including solar and hydropower projects in Washington, Alaska and Arizona. (Associated Press, Anchorage Daily News, Arizona Republic)
ALSO: The U.S. Energy Department seeks clean energy development proposals at its WIPP nuclear waste disposal facility in southern New Mexico. (news release)
SOLAR:
UTILITIES:
OIL & GAS: Data show states hold 1.6 million acres of land within tribal nations, some of which is leased for oil and gas drilling. (High Country News)
DIVESTMENT: Oregon lawmakers near a final vote on a bill that would divest the state’s public employee retirement system from coal-related stocks. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
ELECTRIFICATION: A California city replaces its natural gas hookup ban with efficiency standards encouraging the use of electric heat pumps and water heaters. (Palo Alto Online)
GRID: NV Energy tells regulators its proposed Greenlink transmission project in Nevada is $433 million over budget, a cost likely to be borne by ratepayers. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
CLIMATE:
POLITICS: Far-right Wyoming lawmakers look to defund an energy grant program that has supported carbon capture and sequestration and hydrogen production research in the past. (WyoFile)
COMMENTARY: A California columnist argues a slowdown in electric vehicle sales is less concerning than America’s apparent inability to transition away from its car-centric culture. (Los Angeles Times)
SOLAR: A clean energy group’s analysis finds a $7 billion federal program is on track to help more than 700,000 lower-income households install solar and storage systems, making it the largest such investment in U.S. history. (Canary Media)
ALSO: A Cornell University researcher studies what types of crops can best co-exist with solar panels on New York farms. (Spectrum News)
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department reportedly wants the Treasury to relax its guidance for clean hydrogen incentives, saying the strict rules threaten the industry’s expansion. (E&E News)
CLIMATE:
CLEAN ENERGY: A new report estimates a worker shortage of 1.1 million people across 20 occupations that are crucial for rolling out the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda. (E&E News, subscription)
STORAGE: At least 30 startups look to store renewable power by heating up rocks and other materials, hoping thermal storage can solve solar and wind’s intermittency challenges. (Canary Media)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
GEOTHERMAL: Oil and gas companies are ramping up investments in geothermal power, betting that drilling for underground heat could be their key into the clean energy industry. (Wall Street Journal, subscription)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Ford electric vehicle owners can now use Tesla public chargers, but they first must get a free adapter from Ford. (ABC News)
NUCLEAR: The U.S. House advances a bill to speed environmental reviews for new nuclear reactors, which it will have to reconcile with the Senate’s nuclear legislation. (The Hill)
UTILITIES: The FirstEnergy scandal unfolding in Ohio is part of a resurgence of fraud and corruption in the U.S. utility sector that come as those companies aim to spend billions of dollars in clean energy initiatives. (Floodlight/Mother Jones)
ALSO:
PIPELINES:
SOLAR: A pollinator scorecard developed at Michigan State University helps solar developers mitigate the effects of utility-scale projects when applying for permits. (Interlochen Public Radio)
POLLUTION: Newly proposed legislation in Minnesota would require stronger testing at polluting facilities, and increase penalties for violations, in environmental justice areas. (Sahan Journal)
GRID: Minnesota is among states across the country considering legislation on grid-enhancing technologies that maximize current transmission and increases renewable energy capacity. (E&E News)
RENEWABLES: A northeastern Ohio county plans to take action soon on requests from multiple townships to ban utility-scale wind and solar development. (WKBN)
BIOGAS:
COMMENTARY: Minnesota clean energy and environmental advocates say state lawmakers can help cut emissions from two major sectors — agriculture and transportation — with a proposed clean transportation standard. (MinnPost)
COAL: Utah lawmakers pass a bill that would allow the state to purchase a coal power plant slated to transition to natural gas and hydrogen production in coming years. (Deseret News)
OIL & GAS:
WIND:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A company shuts down its 425-employee electric bus manufacturing facility in southern California, citing supply chain constraints and rising costs. (Mercury News)
TRANSPORTATION: The Biden administration awards Colorado $84 million to support public transit. (KDVR)
CLIMATE:
NUCLEAR: The U.S. House passes a bill that would streamline advanced nuclear reactor permitting and support developers in overcoming regulatory hurdles. (Deseret News)
HYDROGEN: Chevron plans to develop a 5 MW solar-powered hydrogen production facility in California’s Central Valley. (Solar Industry Magazine)
⛷️ Good morning! Kathryn is just back from a much-deserved vacation and will return to the Weekly next week.
Meanwhile, gather ’round! We need to talk about hydrogen.
In theory, hydrogen sounds like a miracle fuel. Split water molecules with clean power, use the hydrogen to fuel everything from trucks to steelmaking, boom: endless clean energy. Doesn’t that sound nice?
Reality, of course, is never that simple, and with all the news about hydrogen hubs and the rainbow of green vs. blue vs. pink and so on, it’s easy to get lost.
But if you only have the bandwidth for one hydrogen story right now, it should be the debate over a tax credit called 45V, that could have major implications for future emissions.
As reporter Kari Lydersen explained in a story earlier this month, draft rules for the 45V tax credit require “green” hydrogen to be produced by new, adjacent renewable energy to qualify, much like the illustration above.
But promoters of hydrogen hubs, which energy writer David Roberts has dismissively dubbed “subsidy-farming machines,” sent a letter Monday urging the Treasury Department to allow green hydrogen produced from existing renewable energy to qualify, arguing the proposed rules are so strict they’ll be unable to bring productions costs down quickly enough to meet federal goals.
Earthjustice attorney Lauren Piette calls that a “loophole” that will simply divert existing clean energy capacity that would then be backfilled by coal and gas generation, potentially causing a net increase in emissions and spiking utility bills.
Beyond grid implications, advocates are also warning of other unintended climate consequences if hydrogen is not used or handled carefully — potentially creating more heat-trapping emissions than burning natural gas.
🚘 Something we can agree on: While policies to phase out gasoline cars have become politically polarized, a study finds electric vehicles are popular with Democrats and Republicans alike. (CNN)
🌊 A milestone for offshore wind: Vineyard Wind last week became the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. to begin delivering power, a step Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey calls “a turning point in the clean energy transition.” (Associated Press)
🏡 Building tension: Policies to improve energy efficiency in housing have faced strong opposition from builders associations, who frequently deploy inflated cost estimates to fight code upgrades. (Washington Post)
✅ Just in case: Federal regulators are scrambling to implement policies to cut heat-trapping emissions and meet U.S. climate obligations in case the White House changes hands after the 2024 election. (Bloomberg)
💡 Looking to the future: State and local governments are preparing applications for a $5 billion federal grant program to implement big ideas in climate action plans. (Energy News Network)
🏢 Greener cities: A Chicago environmental justice organization is helping to build out a geothermal heating and cooling network on the city’s South Side. (Grist)
👷 Learning from history: A new weatherization jobs resource hub in Wisconsin is part of advocates’ effort to avoid the boom-and-bust cycle that followed previous increases in federal energy efficiency funding. (Energy News Network)
Climate advocates, public officials, and the solar industry are asking Massachusetts to update its solar incentive program to reignite slowing growth in the sector while making the system fairer and more effective.
The Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART) program hit its fifth anniversary in late 2023, and the state has launched a review to determine how to adapt the system to current economic realities and environmental priorities. While most agree it has been an effective system for supporting the growth of solar, stakeholders would also like to see changes that would better respond to fluctuating market conditions and encourage development on the most suitable sites.
These recommendations come at a time when the Massachusetts solar industry is losing some momentum, despite the incentives the state provides. The state’s clean energy and climate plan estimates Massachusetts will need some 27 gigawatts of solar capacity by 2050 to meet the goal of going carbon neutral by that year. But current development is not keeping pace. In 2021, the state’s new solar installations topped 600 megawatts, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association. In 2022 and 2023, installations dropped to roughly half that level.
“SMART has done a good job of continuing the deployment of solar in the commonwealth and there are a number of really good components to it,” said Mark Sylvia, chief of staff at Blue Wave Solar. “Now we’re at an important inflection point.”
SMART works by paying the owners of solar installations a set rate per kilowatt-hour of power they produce. The base rate is determined by the project’s size and location; so-called “adders” increase the rate for projects that serve low-income households, are located on rooftops, or have other features the state wants to encourage. The system was designed on the assumption that the cost of building solar would keep dropping as demand grew, reducing the need for subsidies. Thus, SMART rates get lower as more solar capacity is built.
Many stakeholders have raised concerns about continuing this declining rate model. In recent years, costs have not continued falling as expected. Instead, supply chain problems during the COVID pandemic and changes to steel tariffs drove up equipment prices. Costs to interconnect to the grid and to acquire land for solar developments have risen as well.
Industry players and environmental advocates have suggested replacing the declining rate approach with a mechanism that would adjust rates according to market conditions once or twice a year.
“There’s this across-the-board issue around SMART rates being lower than they need to be to drive the market,” said Nick D’Arbeloff, president of the Solar Energy Business Association of New England. “SMART as a whole has to rethink how it can better incent projects.”
Additional rate adjustments could also be used to push specific policy priorities more effectively, said many.
Several pointed to the issue of solar canopies, panels mounted high enough above the ground to provide shade and shelter from rain, usually in parking lots. A report released by the state in July found that the state’s parking lots had the technical potential to support some 14 gigawatts of capacity on solar canopies. However, material and equipment costs make building canopies particularly pricey right now.
SMART already includes an adder for canopies of 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, but it isn’t enough to cover the additional costs. Strategically increasing the adder would make canopies more financially feasible and could help capture some of the untapped potential parking lots offer, supporters said.
Tweaks to the program could also help more low-income households realize the financial and environmental advantages of solar power, said Ben Underwood, co-chief executive and co-founder of Resonant Energy, a Boston-based solar development company focused on projects that benefit low-income communities.
The program currently incentivizes these developments in a few ways. It offers adders for projects on low-income properties and for community solar facilities that allocate more than half of their production to low-income customers, and provides higher base rates for projects smaller than 25 kilowatts on low-income households.
However, these nudges have had little effect so far. Just 4% of the small systems using SMART qualify for the low-income base rate, though Underwood estimates roughly one-third of Massachusetts households could qualify.
“The rates are not leading to adoption in a way that’s proportionate,” he said.
To jumpstart more development in this sector, Underwood would like to see the compensation rates for low-income projects returned to at least their original starting points — between 35 cents and 39 cents per kilowatt-hour, depending on utility — and be exempted from decreases over time.
“There’s really not a risk of having deployment be too fast at this point, so long as sufficient consumer protections are in place, because there’s so much ground that needs to be made up,” he said.
As interest in solar has expanded, siting has been an ongoing controversy in Massachusetts. Some advocates object to the use of previously undeveloped lands for solar projects, arguing that cutting down trees and disturbing habitats for the sake of renewable energy does more harm than good. Others contend that the state’s ambitious solar goals can’t be reached without using at least some so-called “greenfields.”
“It is the industry’s belief that we’re going to have a very hard time reaching the goals Massachusetts has set for itself if we suddenly cease using available land for solar,” D’Arbeloff said.
Many commenters have suggested there are ways to bridge this divide.
The current rules subtract a fraction of a cent per kilowatt-hour from the compensation rate for projects on greenfield land. However, the state should also consider looking more carefully at the parcels included in this definition, said Jessica Robertson, director of policy and business development for New England at solar developer New Leaf Energy.
Now, a large parcel might be subject to the lower rate even though only a small portion of the land within it is considered unsuitable for development. In other cases the data used to classify the land is very out-of-date. Robertson pointed to one case in which a piece of land occupied by a gravel pit was classified as agricultural using soil samples from decades prior. She would like to see a process that more easily allows for the assessment of individual parcels as they are proposed for potential development, rather than just relying on existing lists.
“The regulations in the last round painted with a very broad brush,” she said. “We hope that the next round will take that more nuanced approach.”
The Nature Conservancy proposes a zoning system that would code potential sites as green, yellow, or red, depending on their suitability for development and the potential for negative environmental impact. Mass Audubon suggests eliminating support for solar projects on land identified as high-biodiversity, while boosting or creating funds for development on landfills, residential and commercial rooftops, and parking lots.
The state closed its public comment period on February 9, and will now develop a straw proposal incorporating the feedback it received. While the details are yet unknown, there is wide agreement among stakeholders that the Healey administration is serious about supporting solar.
“She has chosen a veritable dream team to manage energy for the commonwealth, and I am confident they are going to find their way forward to some good solid solutions,” D’Arbeloff said. “But it is complicated and challenging.”
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