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FINANCE: Private equity firms have invested more than $1 trillion of public sector pension funds into the energy sector since 2010, a new analysis finds, with much of it going to fossil fuel projects that will have big climate impacts and uncertain returns. (The Guardian)
CLEAN ENERGY:
POLITICS:
WIND:
GRID:
SOLAR:
ELECTRIFICATION:
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
Environmental advocates are hailing a decision by Massachusetts regulators that will give more than 1.3 million households access to lower winter electricity prices if they use a heat pump in their home.
Public utilities regulators on Monday ordered National Grid, the state’s second-largest electric company, to develop a lower, seasonal rate for houses with heat pumps. The decision comes three months after the state approved a similar rate plan by Unitil, an electric utility that serves 108,500 Massachusetts households.
“They hit the nail on the head here,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for climate and energy nonprofit Acadia Center.
Heat pumps are a major element of Massachusetts’ strategy for going carbon neutral by 2050. However, high electricity prices and historically low natural gas prices make switching to a heat pump financially difficult for many people. Unitil’s pricing plan is an attempt to bridge that affordability gap and make heat pumps more accessible, said spokesman Alec O’Meara.
National Grid had proposed a technology-neutral “electrification rate” that would have offered a discounted rate to high-volume electric consumers, whether the power demand was coming from an efficient heat pump, inefficient electric resistance heat, or even a pool heater. Environmental activists, advocates for low-income households, a solar industry group, the state energy department, and the state attorney general all filed comments objecting to this approach and pushing for a heat pump-specific rate like Unitil’s.
“The proposal that National Grid had filed wasn’t going to do anything to ensure that customers who opted into their electrification rate were actually participating in our decarbonization efforts,” said Priya Gandbhir, a senior attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation, one of the groups that pushed for a heat pump specific rate.
In their order, regulators sided with the objectors. They concluded that National Grid’s proposal did not meet the state’s legal mandates to consider the impact of rate design changes on greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency, as opposed to Unitil’s approach, which removes a barrier to lower emissions and greater efficiency.
“The heat pump rate will reduce kilowatt hour electricity rates for these customers during winter when heat pumps replace fossil fuel heating equipment, furthering the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions,” said Alanna Kelly, spokesperson for the state department of public utilities.
The order also encouraged National Grid to create the rate quickly so it could be in effect before the coming winter heating season.
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)
GAS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Friday night that would have required public health warning labels on gas-burning ranges and cooktops, saying the measure was “highly prescriptive” and would be difficult to amend in the future as scientific knowledge evolves. (Washington Post)
ALSO: After a federal court struck down Berkeley’s ban on new natural gas hookups, a growing number of California cities are pushing forward with efficiency-based building codes to continue the push toward building electrification. (Inside Climate News)
WIND:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES: PG&E warned more than 12,000 customers in northern California that preemptive shutoffs are likely this week as high temperatures and gusty winds elevate wildfire risks. (SF Gate)
CLIMATE: As erosion and melting permafrost destroys an Alaska Native village, its residents prepare to complete one of the first large-scale relocations because of climate change. (Associated Press)
OIL & GAS:
POLITICS: Early plans suggest Donald Trump would radically remake the Interior Department, weakening environmental protections and expanding mining and oil and gas development across the West, including on currently protected public lands. (The Guardian/Type Investigations)
COMMENTARY: A wildlife conservationist writes that the Bureau of Land Management’s current Western Solar Plan lacks balance and would put Nevada landscapes at risk. (Nevada Independent)
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.
Electric vehicles are an essential solution to decarbonizing transport.
Electric cars tend to have a lower carbon footprint than petrol or diesel cars over their lifetimes. While more carbon is emitted in the manufacturing stage, this “carbon debt” tends to pay off quickly once they’re on the road. The carbon savings are higher in countries with a cleaner electricity mix, and these savings will also increase as countries continue to decarbonize their electricity grids.
How quickly are countries moving to electrified transport? Which countries are leading the way?
In this article, we look at data from across the world on electric vehicle (EV) sales and the stock on the road.
This data comes from the International Energy Agency. It publishes its Global EV Outlook every year. We will update this data every time a new release is published.
Sales of electric cars started from a low base but are growing quickly in many markets.
Globally, around 1-in-4 new cars sold were electric in 2023. This share was over 90% in Norway, and in China, it was almost 40%.
In the chart below, you can explore these trends across the world.
Here, “electric cars” include fully battery-electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
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“Electric cars” include battery-electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The difference is that fully battery-electric cars do not have an internal combustion engine. In contrast, plug-in hybrids have a rechargeable battery and electric motor, and an internal combustion engine that runs on gasoline.
That means a plug-in hybrid could be driven as a standard petrol car if the owner did not charge the battery. The battery in plug-in hybrids is smaller and has a shorter range than battery-electric cars, so over longer distances, the car starts running on gasoline once the battery has run out.
Since plug-in hybrids will often run on petrol, they tend to emit more carbon than battery-electric cars. However, they do usually have lower emissions than petrol or diesel cars.
In the first chart below you can see electric car sales broken down by these two technologies. This is given as a share of new cars sold each year.
In the second, you will find the share of new electric cars sold that are fully battery-electric.
The chart below shows the total number of new electric cars sold. Again, this includes fully battery-electric and plug-in hybrids.
Based on the data published by the IEA on the number of electric cars sold, and EV sales as a share of all new cars, we can calculate the absolute number of new cars of each type sold each year.
These figures suggest that global sales of non-electric cars peaked in 2018. This aligns with other estimates published elsewhere; for example, Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that sales peaked in 2017.
You can explore this data for other countries in the chart below, too.
The cars that are on the road today represent sales data over more than a decade.
This can be captured in a metric called “stocks”. It’s an approximation of the number of cars that are in use and represents the balance of cars being added and those that are being retired.
Because people use their cars for a long time, it takes time before new sales have a visible influence on car stocks. That means the share of cars on the road that are electric is much lower than the share among new sales.
The share of cars in use that are electric is shown in the chart below.
The number of electric cars on the road is the cumulative total of sales over the years (minus any cars that have been taken off the road).
The total number of electric car stocks is shown in the chart below. There are now more than 40 million electric cars in use globally, and this is growing quickly. In 2022, this figure was just 26 million.
1. Many studies make this point. Here are just a few:
See Zeke Hausfather’s article in the Carbon Brief. Simon Evans’s fact-check on electric cars, also in the Carbon Brief.
This report is from the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT).
The International Energy Agency’s analysis on the life-cycle footprint.
2. The data below comes from the IEA’s Outlook for 2024.
IEA (2024), Global EV Outlook 2024, IEA, Paris https://www.iea.org/reports/global-ev-outlook-2024, License: CC BY 4.0.
3. How much lower will depend on someone’s driving and charging habits. If they recharge regularly and run mainly on the battery, its emissions will be much lower. The International Energy estimates that a plug-in hybrid emits half as much carbon as a petrol car per kilometer. But again, there are large uncertainties depending on personal usage.
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