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This commentary was submitted by Sneha Ayyagari, a Clean Energy Leadership Institute Fellow and a Program Manager for Clean Energy Initiative at the Greenlining Institute. See our commentary guidelines for more information.
Winter is coming, and having resilient homes is crucial in climate disasters. For instance, Texans were woefully unprepared for Storm Uri which resulted in 246 deaths. While my family shivered under blankets, temperatures in our house stayed safe since we had insulation and a heat pump that kicked into gear when we had short periods of power. It was devastating hearing of families living in poorly insulated homes exposed to hypothermia. Weatherizing buildings and switching to efficient systems like heat pumps can be lifesaving in extreme weather and generally be more comfortable and can save residents money.
However, for more than a third of residents living in rental housing, accessing incentive programs that allow them to make these upgrades in their homes is very difficult. These barriers are especially high for residents in multifamily affordable housing and mobile homes where many people who are most susceptible to heat-related illnesses live.
States and local governments should implement federal funding with renters in mind. The Department of Energy’s Home Energy Rebates (HER) program provides $8.8B in rebate funding for energy efficiency and electrification projects and an additional $200M for states to develop complementary contractor training programs. States can provide their most vulnerable residents health, economic, and environmental benefits by prioritizing low-income renters in their applications for Home Energy Rebate funding.
To ensure the benefits of this program reach tenants, states should:
Renters should not have to fear that their landlords would use building upgrades as a reason to raise rents or displace them (as has happened in construction projects including apartment renovations in Los Angeles). At a minimum, HER guidance states that the owner must agree to rent the dwelling to a low-income tenant and cannot increase rent as a result of energy improvements for two years. Tenants must also have written notice of their rights in a specific and verifiable mechanism. States should go further to specify clear enforcement and penalties. They should ensure that tenants have access to legal services and support in reporting violations without fear of retaliation. Administrators should prohibit rent increases due to HER or at least extend the window of preventing rent increases to at least 10 years following the precedent of other programs.
In addition to building decarbonization programs, states should adopt policies such as rental efficiency standards, rental registries, eviction protections, and rent-stabilization measures to preserve affordability and increase the quality of rental housing. State and local renter protections such as California’s Transformative Communities Draft Program Guidelines and Berkeley’s Existing Buildings Electrification Strategy include a list of tenant protections and anti-displacement resources.
States have many resources from tenant advocates, environmental justice leaders, and policy groups to build from. This letter led by Just Solutions Collective in collaboration with 60 environmental justice, housing, workforce, and environmental organizations has detailed recommendations on reducing barriers for tenants. Strategic Actions for a Just Economy shared recommendations on developing a tenant protection plan to prevent rent burden, limit evictions, minimize disruptions to tenants, and design enforcement and penalty systems. The Greenlining’s Equitable Building Decarbonization Framework shares how to design a community-led approach to implementation. Just Solutions Collective provides recommendations on ensuring access to low income renters, and Green and Healthy Homes Initiative and Building Decarbonization Coalition shares lessons learned from past federal building retrofit programs. Other resources include American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy’s webinars and Energy Innovation’s report on ways to design effective outreach strategies.
Regional and local community based organizations should be compensated to be part of the program administration team and help with outreach, implementation, and evaluation of the Home Energy program. The HER application also requires that states create Community Benefits Plans that describe anticipated economic and direct benefits especially for disadvantaged communities. As states develop their community benefits plans, they should ensure that benefits to low income tenants are prioritized within the scope of the goals.
Stacking and braiding federal funding with other state, local, and utility housing, energy, and building retrofits programs can maximize benefits to renters while streamlining the effort of property owners applying for multiple programs. Philadelphia’s Built to Last and Washington’s Weatherization and Health are good examples of holistic programs.
Families shouldn’t have to choose between affording rent and having a safe and healthy place to live, especially in the face of climate disasters. States have a historic opportunity to drastically improve the lives of tenants. By collaborating with tenants, state energy offices can create strong applications in 2024 that ensure healthy, affordable, and climate-resilient housing for all.
Steel doesn’t have a great set of climate credentials.
The iron and steel manufacturing industries have a huge emissions impact, accounting for 7% of carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Producing iron and turning it into steel also takes tons of heat and power, making the industry a hard candidate to convert from fossil fuels to electric power.
But one major steel producer has found success in cleaning up its process. Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs cut emissions last year by almost a third from 2017 levels at a few dozen of its U.S. facilities, winning it federal recognition, Kathiann M. Kowalski reports.
Much of that progress stems from Cleveland-Cliffs’ opening of a “direct reduction” plant in Toledo. Its steel is made with pelletized iron ore, which already has many impurities removed, reducing the power needed to turn the pellets into hot briquetted iron. From there, the hot briquettes can head into an electric furnace, where they can be turned into steel with a lower emissions impact.
Energy efficiency upgrades also made a difference, and the incorporation of hydrogen power could take the company’s emissions cuts even further.
After all, while climate advocates and steel company representatives know there’s more work to be done, Cleveland-Cliffs’ success proves that cleaning up steel is definitely doable.
Read more from the Energy News Network.
🌎 Climate predictions: The White House has released its National Climate Assessment, which predicts how climate change will likely impact each region of the U.S. — and how many states are leading on action to stop it. (Grist)
🗳️ Vote of climate confidence: Analysts say the 2023 election shows that a strategy by some Republicans to attack climate policy was “dead, flat wrong,” as Democrats made gains even in states where clean energy was a prominent issue. (E&E News)
🏭 A carbon capture milestone: The nation’s first direct air carbon capture facility is beginning operations in Tracy, California, where it’ll use limestone to capture carbon from the air and store it. (E&E News)
💸 Throwing away “free money:” Five large states have collected more than half of a federal climate grant program’s funding, while several smaller states still haven’t accessed “free money” for climate-related projects they’ve been offered. (E&E News)
☢️ Nuclear disaster? After a proposed small modular nuclear power plant was canceled over cost concerns, industry observers are questioning whether next-generation nuclear reactors will ever take off. (Deseret News, E&E News)
🔎 Search party: Startups pilot software that can help utilities and grid operators identify rare openings to connect new renewables to the grid. (Canary Media)
🚦 Driving emissions cuts: An environmental group found that California ranks first in the nation for transportation projects that address inequality while tackling climate change. (Bloomberg)
🔥 Does gas still make sense? Clean energy advocates say Wisconsin regulators should withdraw their prior approval for a 625 MW natural gas power plant, citing the availability of new grid storage and federal clean energy incentives. (Energy News Network)
🧱 Brick by carbon brick: A Bill Gates-backed startup company says it can effectively capture and store carbon by making bricks out of wood chips and plant pieces, which it can then bury deep underground. (Washington Post)
A group of utilities that once went big on building transmission is now going small to open bottlenecks and move more wind power from western Minnesota and the Dakotas.
Grid North Partners, which includes 10 investor- and consumer-owned utilities, will spend roughly $130 million for 19 transmission upgrades to improve access to wind energy and reduce grid congestion.
Many of its members, including Xcel Energy, Minnesota Power and Great River Energy, are also involved in much larger transmission projects through the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, which manages the grid in the central portion of the country.
The utility partnership came together in 2004 to begin planning additional transmission lines to tap wind generation in the state’s western regions and the Dakotas. The CapX2020 initiative, as it came to be called, developed the largest transmission project in the Upper Midwest in more than 40 years.
Between 2010 and 2017, CapX2020 spent $2 billion on five projects that created more than 800 miles of new transmission lines. The initiative interconnected 3,600 megawatts of wind energy, enough to power 1.5 million homes annually.
The planning for CapX2020 took place before MISO began extensively planning regional transmission lines. MISO eventually incorporated CapX2020 into a portfolio of projects that decade, a precursor to a current batch of projects announced this year known as “Tranche 1,” two of which involve Great River Energy.
Beth Soholt, executive director of the Clean Grid Alliance, said the Grid North projects serve a different purpose. Rather than add a huge volume of new capacity, the projects will create “a bridge until we get the new large transmission lines in place” and create enough capacity to allow utilities to continue adding solar and wind.
Utilities involved seek to “use the existing grid we have better,” she said. “You’ve got a spectrum of smaller things you could do quickly, that are not going to solve your whole problem, but they’re going to help and they’re going to be quick.”
Unlike bigger projects, which will take years, Grid North Partners said the upgrades will be completed over the next three years and be finished by the end of 2026. The partnership of the state’s major utilities and cooperatives includes Xcel, Great River Energy, Minnesota Power, Otter Tail Power, Dairyland Power Cooperative, Missouri River Energy Services, Rochester Public Utilities, Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, Central Municipal Power Agency and WPPI Energy.
Matthew Ellis, Great River Energy’s manager of transmission strategy and development, said big transmission projects take eight to 10 years to build. The generation and transmission cooperative is involved in six Grid North Partners projects in collaboration with other members.
“The goal of this effort was to identify what can be done incrementally to mitigate congestion within the next two to three years,” he said.
Congestion blocks the transmission of clean energy generation and has caused the growing problem of wind curtailment in western Minnesota. The projects will allow “cost generation, like wind and solar, to have better access to the transmission grid,” he said. “The transmission grid is all interconnected. What these projects directly do is allow better access for clean energy resources.”
Grid North Partners conducted the research to determine the location of transmission bottlenecks. Ellis said the experience is a bit like looking at traffic maps and where congestion occurs at different times and places. Electricity from wind and solar generators slows at sites in different parts of the state, he said.
Fixing one part of the grid to reduce congestion sometimes means just adding to another location. “One of the advantages of Grid North Partners is that, by having different utilities partnering up, we can mitigate those downstream impacts,” Ellis said. “We can get a lot more bang for our buck and much more synergy.”
Ellis said the transmission upgrades mainly focus on replacing old equipment, not on adding lines or new transmission towers. Instead, newer technology allowing them to operate more efficiently will be installed. Grid North Partners said in a news release the project will pay for itself.
Upfront costs will be paid for by the utilities that will benefit from them. In some projects, several utilities will split costs; in others, the line and work will be owned by one of the partners, Ellis said. The transmission lines affected by the projects span in length from half a mile to 67 miles.
Xcel Energy said in a statement that congestion in western Minnesota caused by wind projects has pushed the existing grid beyond what it can support and forced the utility to use peaking plants to supplement the energy supply at peak demand times. Congestion “limits our efforts to keep costs low for customers,” Xcel said.
Xcel will partner or be the sole sponsor on 10 Grid North projects, more than any other utility. Two of the largest Xcel projects add second circuits to the existing CapX2020 transmission lines between eastern South Dakota and Lyon County, Minnesota, and between Scott and Dakota counties. After regulatory approval, the western line will be completed by 2024, with the Scott-Dakota project slated for 2025. Xcel has partners on both projects.
“We estimate hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits to customers following the completion of the project due to reduced congestion costs and increased ability to access renewable energy in the region,” Xcel said.
Otter Tail Power’s seven Grid North projects involve upgrading substations, adding circuits and replacing electricity poles, said communications director Stephanie Hoff. No new facilities will be added by the utility.
Hoff said Otter Tail has partnered with other regional utilities on two projects in the long-range MISO plan. Although the Grid North Partners initiative does not directly impact Otter Tail’s generation assets, including renewables, the investment will help the grid function more effectively, she said.
“New and upgraded transmission helps move electricity from where it’s generated to where it’s used,” Hoff said. “When the transmission system can’t move electricity from the most economic energy generators, market prices rise and energy generators may need to be curtailed, resulting in higher electricity costs for customers.”
Grid North Partners’ budget is tiny compared to projects announced by MISO and Xcel. MISO will spend $10.3 billion on its first tranche of transmission projects, with more than $2 billion dedicated to corridors entirely or partially in Minnesota. Xcel Minnesota Energy Connection, linking wind farms in the southwest to a plant in Becker, will cost $1 billion.
This coverage is made possible through a partnership between WBEZ and Grist, a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Sign up for WBEZ newsletters to get local news you can trust.
Illinois is the home of the world’s first nuclear reactor, and has since made a business of splitting atoms. Today, nuclear power is the source of more than 50% of the state’s energy, and legislators just decided Illinois needs more of it.
With bipartisan support, Illinois lawmakers last week eliminated the state’s nearly 36-year-long ban on construction of new nuclear reactors, opening the door for the development of emission-free nuclear power that proponents say will accelerate the state’s transition to clean energy.
The plan, however, will exclude the large scale nuclear reactors that make up the entirety of Illinois’ nuclear fleet in favor of smaller, untested nuclear reactors – which could take years to build.
The new legislation will limit the kind of nuclear reactors that can be built within the state to small modular reactors (SMRs) with an electrical output of only up to 300 megawatts. For comparison, the Byron Power Station, a large-scale light water reactor in northern Illinois, can generate up to 2,347 megawatts – enough to power more than 1.7 million homes.
The idea is the smaller reactors will be produced at factory scale, which will lower costs over time and bring them online faster than previous generations of reactors. Currently, there are no SMRs in operation or even production anywhere in the U.S.
As coal burning plants go offline in southern Illinois to meet a 2045 statewide climate goal to offramp the state from fossil fuels, State Sen. Sue Rezin, the lead co-sponsor of the bill, said SMRs could be a boon. And even a lifeline to the region, which has faced energy issues with affordability and reliability.
“You have a very highly skilled workforce that used to work at the coal plants that can now build out the new nuclear plants and work at the new nuclear plants,” Rezin said. “It’s a win-win.”
She adds that the state’s major agricultural and technology forward industries could capitalize on the emission free energy to decarbonize.
Abe Scarr, the director of the Illinois Public Interest Group, a non-profit watchdog group, opposed the legislation.
“I wouldn’t be confident that based on this, anybody’s going to be building SMRs in Illinois,” Scarr said. “It’s still a speculative technology. The largest company in the United States that was moving towards building one just announced that it was scrapping the project because it had gotten way too expensive.”
The NuScale Power Corporation announced last week that its venture, a first of its kind SMR project in the country, fell apart after 10-years of work and more than a $1 billion pledge from the Biden administration due to issues with financing.
Even so, the U.S. Department of Energy is counting on more nuclear power. In a report released this year, officials estimate that to successfully hit net-zero emissions by 2050, the country will need to add an additional 200 gigawatts of reliable generating capacity. To hit that target, the agency is looking at nuclear power such as SMRs.
But the American public soured on nuclear after the 1979 partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania, and nuclear development nationwide all but halted. Only a handful of reactors have come online since.
States started banning new construction of nuclear reactors until the federal government could identify a permanent solution for the nuclear waste piling up across the country. In total, 16 states enacted some level of nuclear ban. Illinois put its own in place in 1987. A masterplan for the country’s nuclear waste never materialized.
Illinois is done waiting. Gov. JB Pritzker has vowed to sign the new bill, and soon Illinois will join Wisconsin, Kentucky, Montana and West Virginia in rolling back nuclear bans.
Mark Nelson, founder of the Chicago-based energy consultancy group Radiant Energy, said the state is making a mistake by banking on SMRs.
“It’s going to be a really rough and exceptionally difficult energy transition if we don’t do it based on nuclear energy, which we have proven to work in upstate Illinois,” Nelson said.
He said the exclusion of large-scale reactors is a mistake because “the only proven nuclear plants in the world are cut out of this bill. And the only ones we’re allowed to build are the ones that are expensive and going bankrupt.”
The law would take effect in 2026, and according to Rezin, could take anywhere from six years to a decade to obtain the permits necessary to build a new reactor in the state.
This article originally appeared on Planet Detroit.
After Mayor Mike Duggan announced nine finalists in his campaign to recruit Detroit neighborhoods to host solar panel arrays at a Wednesday press conference, community members and activists are divided over whether the plan will help or unfairly burden their communities.
“I thought it was time the city of Detroit stepped up and took action on climate change,” Duggan said. “Too much of the climate change discussion in this country, as far as I’m concerned, is empty performance.”
Under the program, owner-occupied households in selected communities would be eligible to receive $10,000 to $25,000 in energy-efficient upgrades, such as new windows, roofs, energy-efficient appliances, or battery back-up for power outages.
Detroit would own the land for the solar arrays and contract with private solar developers to build and operate them. Details for how the city would be credited for the power are not yet determined, Duggan said.
Of the nine, he said six will be selected to assemble 250 acres of vacant and underutilized land to offset the electricity used to power city operations. Duggan said the project will cost the city about $8 million a year, or roughly what Detroit now pays DTE Energy to power the city’s 127 public buildings, plus $1-2 million per year more to provide community benefits. He said he plans to bring a funding proposal to city council by spring.
The finalist neighborhoods include Gratiot/Findlay, Greenfield Park/I-75 McNichols, Grixdale, Houston Whittier/Hayes, I-96/Plymouth (O’Shea), Mount Olivet, State Fair, Trinity Pickford and Van Dyke/Lynch.
Duggan emphasized that the city would place solar arrays only in areas “where we are wanted,” noting that the city would buy out residents in owner-occupied homes with a minimum offer of $90,000 and would pay moving costs and 18 months’ rent for tenants. He previously said the city sought “stretches where they don’t have more than one or two occupied homes.”
But several proposals contain a number of residences, especially rentals.
For example, the footprint of the 21-acre Mt Olivet project contains 16 renter-occupied and seven owner-occupied homes. Duggan said the fenced-in solar panel arrays would contribute to neighborhood stability and prevent illegal dumping in vacant and abandoned areas of the city.
But Duggan spokesperson John Roach said the city could also use eminent domain to assemble land for the arrays, and the mayor said the city may condemn vacant properties owned by speculators. The finalist neighborhoods have until Jan. 31 to provide documentation that residents in owner-occupied homes are willing to move.
Measha Parker has lived in Gratiot-Findlay for 18 years. She’s president of her block and said she hoped the fenced-in panels on 24 acres would help fight illegal dumping and drive out illegal drugs in the area.
She’d also like to see the former Wilkins Elementary School building, which has sat vacant for years, demolished as part of the plan. But she is concerned about vandalism and hopes the solar arrays will have surveillance cameras.
“It’ll bring safety over there,” she said. “Once they put the solar panels up…. It’ll help with the blight and help the whole area survive.”
But several residents and sustainability advocates Planet Detroit talked to question the emphasis on large solar arrays that won’t provide energy directly to residents. Others voiced concern that the projects could attract even more blight.
Birch Kemp, a lifelong Detroiter and president of the nonprofit tree-planting organization Arboretum Detroit, said he supports installing solar panels on top of buildings but worries that fenced-in solar fields will only add to blight problems and hurt property values.
Kemp said city officials approached him and others living in and around the Poletown East area about a possible array around Perrien Park, a former Detroit Public Schools site, but neighborhood organizations unanimously rejected it.
“It’s not going to increase anybody’s property value. It’s not going to make it look more beautiful. And it’s not going to increase your access to green space,” he said. “It’s going to be like a little prison for solar panels.”
A recent study found solar installations in California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Massachusetts reduced property values by 1.5% within half a mile, and outcomes varied by state.
Kemp added that the solar fields would tie up land the city could use for open space and green infrastructure to sequester stormwater and prevent basement flooding. He also worries that trees would need to be cut down to reduce shade on the panels.
Experts consider tree cover important for reducing heat and managing stormwater. And while solar power is considered critical for dealing with the climate crisis, solar fields can create a localized increase in temperature.
This may pose a special problem in Detroit, where the heat island effect, or the capacity of impervious surfaces to absorb and re-emit heat, already increases temperatures by 8 degrees or more.
Jon Kent, a Riverbend resident and co-founder of Sanctuary Farms, also supports solar, but said communities hosting the arrays should benefit more than what he sees in the current proposal.
“They’re doing this within neighborhoods that are really poor and really disengaged,” he said, adding that these areas would be getting a one-time pay-out while the city would continue to benefit.
Kent said he’d like to see the city take more time with the process, doing additional community outreach and building in a more extensive community benefits process that could include allowing communities to renegotiate the terms for hosting arrays in the future.
The expedited time frame may be driven by pressure to secure federal support through the Inflation Reduction Act before this program ends in 2033. A city of Detroit spokesperson confirmed that the city is seeking federal credits to offset municipal operations’ energy use under the IRA. However, they added that the short timeline is because “the mayor feels the climate crisis is an urgent matter.”
Roach defended the current plan, saying the city worked with 15 renewable energy groups to develop the proposal and that eight groups, including Walker-Miller Energy Services, EcoWorks and the GreenDoor Initiative, have been working with neighborhoods to help them develop community benefit requests.
“This is a remarkable partnership between renewable energy advocates and neighborhood groups to design better neighborhoods that will help fight climate change,” he said.
Roach also pushed back on the idea that solar could hurt property values. “Those who best know the property values in a neighborhood are those who actually live there, which is why they will be the ones choosing the sites,” he said.
Jackson Koeppel, a Highland Park-based energy democracy practitioner and former executive director of the nonprofit Soulardarity, questioned the strategy of jumping immediately to large-scale solar arrays before embracing more targeted strategies.
“This approach to just build out as much solar on vacant land as possible to meet that need isn’t the right order of operations,” he said. Koeppel argues that on-site and rooftop solar and battery storage is the most cost-effective approach for city operations because it would generate “behind the meter” power that would allow the city to avoid the full cost of energy it would otherwise have to purchase.
Instead, the mayor’s proposal would have a third-party solar developer generate the power and likely sell it to DTE, which could then credit the city on its bills. The city’s request for information from solar developers did include inquiries about behind-the-meter projects at municipal facilities.
North Rosedale resident Amanda Paige said the city could incorporate solar energy into the urban landscape in other ways, like installing rooftop solar panels in neighborhoods or putting panels on top of structures like parking garages and bus shelters.
She worries especially about those living in some of Detroit’s most disinvested neighborhoods who may be underwater on their mortgages and struggling to build generational wealth.
“They’re not attractive,” Paige said of solar panels. “It’s not going to do anything for your long-term property values if you’re across the street from a big solar farm.”
As the first frost visits the mountains of western North Carolina, thousands of households are bracing themselves. Thinly insulated manufactured homes will provide little barrier to the cold. Gaps around doorways will invite it in. Old furnaces, if they work at all, will consume already strained monthly budgets.
A lucky fraction of these families will benefit from a flood of federal weatherization dollars headed to the state thanks to the bipartisan infrastructure law passed two years ago.
But for Buncombe County residents who don’t or can’t take advantage of the decades-old Weatherization Assistance Program, there’s an innovative nonprofit in Asheville working to fill the gaps.
Since 2017, Energy Savers Network has helped some 1,000 households cut down on energy waste by tightening air seals, adding DIY storm windows, and performing other upgrades at no cost to occupants.
Designed to help complement, not supplant, federal weatherization funds, the project’s success is due in part to its speed and simplicity. And its track record has earned it a prominent place in Buncombe and Asheville’s plans for 100% renewable energy.
“By embracing local, clean energy sources, going electric and saving energy,” said Buncombe County Council Chairperson Brownie Newman, in a press release, “we’re taking essential steps toward combating the climate crisis while ensuring a just transition for all residents.”
Distributed largely by community action agencies formed during the War on Poverty, weatherization assistance has evolved to become one of the federal government’s most successful energy efficiency programs, helping some 7 million low-income households nationwide reduce energy waste since 1976.
But deploying assistance still presents a host of challenges: identifying potential recipients and earning their trust, hiring and training the workers who can perform the work, and remediating homes with immediate health and safety repair needs. Clients-to-be in Buncombe County may spend a year or more on a waitlist.
Though southwestern North Carolina is set to receive $4.8 million over five years as part of the state’s $90 million share of the infrastructure law, just 440 single-family households are expected to benefit over the 13-county region.
With some 18,000 families living in energy-inefficient manufactured homes in Buncombe County alone, the demand for energy efficiency upgrades far exceeds the supply of assistance.
That’s where Energy Savers Network comes in. The concept began 100 miles west in Hayesville, where members of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church “answered a combined moral calling to help the poor and be good stewards of Creation,” Interfaith Power and Light wrote.
The team of parishioners and other volunteers helped families cut their energy use by 10% to 20% — first conducting an audit, then tracking down free or low-cost materials, and finally performing simple upgrades like replacing lighting or adding weather stripping free of charge.
When church member Brad Rouse, a one-time financial and utility consultant, decided to devote his time to climate causes and move to Asheville, he brought Good Shepherd’s idea with him.
Today, the Energy Savers project is staffed by a small team at the Green Built Alliance, but the volunteer spirit and the simplicity remain.
At farmers’ markets, community events, and through word of mouth, potential clients indicate interest. Staff then follow up to ensure they meet the income guidelines and can otherwise benefit from energy efficiency upgrades.
“We do a lot of the intake over the phone,” said Hannah Egan, the project’s outreach and resource manager, “explaining what we might be doing, what we need from them, how long the appointment could last.”
A visit is scheduled. A staff person and two to three volunteers arrive and do what they can accomplish in a day. “Once we’ve qualified the client over the phone, we just go there with our crew,” Egan said. “It’s just a lot easier to do it all in one go.”
They seal air leaks. They replace lightbulbs, insulate hot water heaters, and reinforce single-paned windows. “And then more as we see fit,” Egan said, “because every home is different. Our goal with that is to make homes more comfortable, reduce their energy usage and their utility bills.”
On average, the improvements help occupants cut energy use about 15%, fueling a virtuous cycle. “A lot of times, when we do get in their homes,” Egan said, “they’re really happy with the work we do,” prompting friend and family referrals. “That’s been a main source of client recruitment since COVID.”
Hiring building performance expert Kelvin Bonilla onto the Energy Savers team, Egan said, “drastically improved the quality of our work.” A native of Honduras, Bonilla has also helped spread the word to the county’s sizable Spanish-speaking community.
“He’s a really good people person,” Egan said. “He’s very professional, and he knows how far to go and when to stop.”
Many times, Energy Savers refers clients to Community Action Opportunities, the local provider of weatherization assistance. In some cases, they can return to repair or replace ailing furnaces with high-efficiency heat pumps. Dogwood Health Trust also funds minor home repairs, such as replacing a door or damaged flooring.
With additional support from Duke Energy, the city and the county, the team serves roughly four households a week and nearly 200 a year. From start to finish, the process takes between two and six weeks.
Moving forward, the hope is to both expand the scope of work and serve as a model to other communities. “We asked for an increase,” Rouse said. “There’s still a little bit of a hole. In order to expand the way we would really like to expand, we need more money.”
Offshore wind is going through some rough waters.
Last week, the industry saw a big setback as Danish wind giant Ørsted canceled its Ocean Wind I and II projects off the New Jersey coast. The company blamed supply chain issues and rising interest rates for the decision — issues that had been threatening wind projects up and down the East Coast for months.
So far, those other major projects are still slated to be built, and they’re critical to keeping the Biden administration’s clean energy goals on track. But to make sure that happens, other Northeast states like New York will have to pick up New Jersey’s slack, Politico reports.
Still, industry analysts aren’t sure state action will be enough to preserve Biden’s wind goals. That’s why governors and lawmakers are calling on the federal government to step in to speed up offshore wind farm permitting and make sure projects can fully take advantage of federal tax incentives, E&E News reports.
But there’s good news for the industry, too. On the same day New Jersey’s two projects sunk, the Biden administration approved what is slated to be the country’s biggest offshore wind farm: a 176-turbine project off Virginia’s coast that’ll be able to power as many as 660,000 homes.
💰 Financing a “carbon bomb”: Banks around the world financed “carbon bomb” projects to the tune of $150 billion last year, paving the way for developments that could each pump a gigaton of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. (Guardian)
🛠️ Clean jobs are coming: The Inflation Reduction Act is expected to create more than 300,000 construction jobs annually as it spurs clean energy development, plus another 100,000 jobs in operating those projects. (Canary Media)
🔋 Battery shortages aren’t so bad: As automakers slow their rollouts of electric vehicles, an industry trade group says it will actually help battery manufacturers scale up and rely less on China for materials. (E&E News)
🧾 Carbon tax collab: Three Republicans introduce a bill to levy fees on imports from countries with high carbon emissions, and Democratic senators look to find common ground. (E&E News)
🚂 Ticket to electrify: The world’s first battery-powered heavy freight locomotive made its debut last week, but electrifying the U.S. rail system is still in very early stages. (Canary Media)
🛫 Prepare for takeoff: The journey of a Beta Technologies’ electric plane down the East Coast provides a glimpse into the future of electric aviation. (New York Times)
⚡ Hawaii’s clean power success: A Hawaii utility cooperative says its publicly owned grid model has helped it reach its goal of generating 60% of its electricity from clean energy sources. (Canary Media)
🏁 A Texas-sized climate win: Austin, Texas, becomes the largest city in the country to drop minimum parking requirements for new developments in a move aimed at lowering emissions and increasing housing supply. (Texas Tribune)
🏗️ Buildings are getting cleaner: Inflation Reduction Act incentives for building electrification, efficiency measures, and solar and storage installation could help cut building emissions as much as 70% by 2035, a U.S. EPA analysis finds. (Utility Dive)
One by one, tiny solar companies abandoned their rooftop ambitions in Prince William, defeated by tangles of red tape in the booming Northern Virginia county.
Undeterred, Ray Masavage, owner of CAVU Solar since 2018, hung in there. Why?
It pained him to see seas of array-less houses in sprawling subdivisions as the planet cooked. And he had faith that officials in the county he calls home yearned to shed the label of worst solar permitting jurisdiction in the state.
Now, he’s hopeful that a Board of Supervisors vote to waive fees associated with new residential solar installations beginning Sept. 1 represents a crack in county bureaucracy. It’s just one piece of a long checklist of potential improvements to streamline solar permitting.
“In terms of diplomacy, this is a big deal,” Masavage said. “I give county officials credit for looking at the problems and doing something about them.”
He also praised Solar United Neighbors, an advocacy organization with roots in Virginia, and the Chesapeake Solar & Storage Association, a Mid-Atlantic trade group, for pressuring the county to simplify long-lingering, tedious permitting requirements and boost transparency.
“We’re contractors working 24/7,” Masavage said. “We can’t stop when we’re on a roof somewhere and go back to address a resubmission in Prince William County.”
The county’s balky application website, higher-than-average permitting fees, and nitpicky reviews requiring multiple plan submissions had paralyzed many solar companies and bedeviled homeowners puzzled by the lack of forward movement on planned arrays.
Last December, mounting discontent prompted Solar United Neighbors to invite frazzled homeowners in Prince William to participate in an Action Alert. SUN wanted residents to know that the county — not installers — was to blame for delays and setbacks.
That alert encouraged residents to send complaint letters to both their local county board supervisors and the editors of local newspapers.
Prince William authorities took note.
In February, the county named Mandi Spina as acting director of the Department of Development Services. She replaced — at least temporarily — Wade Hugh, a county employee for 27 years.
In her new role, longtime county employee Spina said she had multiple phone calls with Aaron Sutch of Solar United Neighbors and wanted “to thank him for his continued advocacy of the solar community as well.”
Spina also lauded what’s called the Residential Solar Working Group, which Hugh had rolled out last November. Its 14 members included county staffers and industry representatives intent on repairing the fumbles of the past.
She noted that the impasse began to break when more than 55 stakeholders met on July 12 to hash out their differences.
“This is important as we are committed to partner with industry,” she said.
Sutch, director of SUN’s Atlantic Southeast Region, said he’s encouraged that the campaign has yielded results.
“This feels good and we applaud the county’s decision,” he said. “It’s the first measurable step. But it still has to be followed up with other major improvements.
“Solar is not going away. People in the county want it.”
In late July, supervisors allocated $1.2 million from the county’s year-end savings to a one-time fee reduction on new solar installations through June 2024.
Earlier this month, Spina was named deputy director of the Department of Development Services. That followed an earlier personnel shift, when Hugh was promoted and appointed deputy county executive for community development in late June. He now oversees numerous county agencies, including development services, which he used to lead.
The development agency will initiate a budget request for the next fiscal year to extend the waiver beyond the June 2024 deadline, possibly making it permanent, Spina said.
“I understand we are an outlier compared to our neighboring jurisdictions,” she said about the urgency of reducing permit costs and speeding up timelines.
Indeed, by digging into a federal Solar Trace database, Solar United Neighbors researchers confirmed that Prince William’s median solar permitting fee of $586 was more than double that of four surrounding counties, where fees ranged from zero to $200.
As well, between 2018 and 2021, solar permitting took longer in Prince William than it did in Arlington, Fairfax, Stafford and Loudoun counties.
While waiving the permit fee attracted across-the-board kudos, solar contractors and advocates are encouraged by a handful of other actions to be initiated by the county because of the due diligence of the working group.
For instance, Prince William is issuing a standard list of pre-approved solar components, which will save the industry from having to submit safety compliance listings with each application.
In addition, the county and industry representatives are jointly designing what’s called a residential solar county typical plan. This will eliminate the need for engineers to sign and seal documents because all pertinent information is already included. Instead of dragging on, review time is limited to five business days.
The county is also on track to adopt a pilot program for Solar APP+, a tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to standardize the rooftop permitting process.
Solar APP+ is deployed widely in California and Arizona. In Virginia, Prince William would join Richmond, Culpeper County and Harrisonburg, three other jurisdictions testing it on trial runs.
Warming to the online application would be fantastic for smaller operators, advocates say. The conversion would allow all players to be on the same page because the software integrates with existing government regulations, automates plan reviews and provides final signoff of inspections.
“I am confident that” these upgrades “will provide a wide range of options to alleviate frustration surrounding the time and cost to permit in Prince William County,” Spina said.
Sutch said the county of 484,000 residents could be a solar haven if updated policies fulfill the promise of matching contractors and homeowners.
“We feel we’re 40% to 50% of the way there,” he said about busting up the logjam. “This is proof that if you are persistent enough and know the levers of power, you can make a difference. Now, we want to hear positive stuff.”
“We’ve seen tremendous growth with solar projects,” Spina said. “And we know that growth is going to continue.”
Successful applications for installations, which stood at just 14 in 2016 and 19 in 2017, leaped to triple digits — 149 — by 2018. Except for a setback caused by the pandemic, they have ramped up at a steady clip.
By 2022, applications for solar projects had exploded to 1,087 — roughly quadrupling the 2021 total of 274. Each one required both an electrical and a structural permit.
Hugh stood by the rooftop solar data he compiled, although advocates questioned the validity of his records. They constantly questioned why it took so long to greenlight projects — which often didn’t happen until a developer made a second try. Each repeat submission added roughly $100 to the permit cost.
Ideally, developers desire approval within a month for the sake of efficiency and to keep installation costs close to the estimate provided to homeowners. They had to walk away when waits were interminable, thus rendering projects cost-prohibitive.
Masavage is a licensed pilot whose company, CAVU, is shorthand for the aviation term “clear and visibility unlimited.” Prince William’s efforts to expedite permitting are encouraging him to double down.
“To have all of these homes that are perfect candidates for solar is an amazing dream,” he said. “We’re facing a world crisis and, as installers, we have the ability to do something about it.”
Spina is optimistic that the changes will lure solar contractors to the county — and allow the local government to meet its strategic goals of sustainable energy consumption.
Still, some installers remain content to keep their distance.
Nolie Diakoulas, who heads up 10-year-old Virginia Beach-based Convert Solar, expanded his small business’ reach statewide three-plus years ago as interest in renewable energy swelled.
However, he began second-guessing his forays into Prince William when the hurdles proved constant and insurmountable.
Diakoulas backpedaled when basic fees connected to permitting escalated beyond $1,000, too big for an installation to be profitable. He figured the county was a better fit for Ion, Tesla and other solar giants with access to a cadre of internal system designers, engineers and other specialists.
The recent county turnaround isn’t even on his radar.
“We have stopped installing in Prince William County,” he said, “so I have not been keeping up with the news.”
Taking its cues from a successful program in Connecticut, Rhode Island is poised to launch a new initiative to deploy solar and reduce electricity costs in homes owned by low- to moderate-income residents.
The Rhode Island Commerce Corporation recently issued a request for proposals from solar companies interested in partnering on the initiative, called Affordable Solar Access Pathways. The program will offer affordable leases for solar equipment on homes owned by residents with incomes less than or equal to 80% of the area median income. That’s a maximum of $65,460 annually for a family of four, or $44,512 for a two-person household.
“There will be no money down and net savings from day one,” said Vero Bourg-Meyer, project director at the Clean Energy States Alliance, or CESA, which collaborated with the Commerce Corporation to develop the program.
The homes must be located in environmental justice areas, as defined by the state Department of Environmental Management. Those areas are primarily in and around the cities of Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket and Newport.
That will enable the program to take advantage of the new environmental justice adders to the Investment Tax Credit passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Those adders will allow solar system owners to qualify for a higher tax credit when homes are located in census tracts designated as environmental focus areas, Bourg-Meyer said.
CESA has been working to persuade states to develop more-inclusive solar programs by promoting Connecticut’s Solar for All program as a model. Under that program, the Connecticut Green Bank paid incentives to a solar company, Posigen, which was then able to offer a reduced price to customers for a 20-year rooftop solar lease.
The program helped drive a 185% increase in solar in low- to moderate-income communities in Connecticut between 2015 and 2018, according to a 2020 white paper.
Third-party ownership of the solar equipment was a critical aspect of that program’s success, Bourg-Meyer said, since lower-income customers are less likely to be able to obtain or afford financing.
Another key aspect was the program’s community-based marketing — “having neighbors speak to other neighbors about it,” she said.
Rhode Island’s program will be administered through the commerce agency’s Renewable Energy Fund, which will provide an initial $1 million in funding, in collaboration with the state Office of Energy Resources.
It’s not clear how many homes that $1 million will cover, as it will depend on how the program’s solar partner designs its program and incentives, said Shauna Beland, administrator of renewable energy programs at the energy office.
“The more creative they get the better,” she said.
There are no funds available to help out homeowners who need roof repairs in order to accommodate solar panels. But it’s possible that the solar installer will work with a roofing contractor and wrap those costs into the lease, something that is fairly common in Rhode Island, said Karen Stewart, manager of the Renewable Energy Fund.
The program should launch this spring.
Hawaii launched a solar program for low- to moderate-income homeowners last year, and Virginia is working on it, Bourg-Meyer said, adding, “it’s something that’s percolating across the country.”
Numerous studies have found widespread inequities in solar adoption across the country. However, a 2020 report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concluded that those disparities are gradually diminishing, with several states, including Connecticut, even demonstrating income parity between solar adopters and the broader population.
A battery storage development is replacing a fossil-fuel-burning power plant in western Massachusetts, providing a model that supporters say could be emulated elsewhere.
The project is only financially viable, however, because of a unique state incentive program designed to cut emissions related to peak electricity demand.
Power company Cogentrix is developing the facility at the site of the former West Springfield Generating Station, which was shut down in June 2022. The $80 million project includes 45 megawatts of storage that will be able to send electricity onto the grid for up to four hours. It is expected to come online sometime in 2025.
“This will be really big, and set a nice precedent for transitioning from fossil fuel to storage and renewables,” said Rosemary Wessel, founder of No Fracked Gas in Mass, a program of the Berkshire Environmental Action Team.
This transition is happening at a time when there has been increased discussion about the role of so-called “peaker plants” — facilities that are only called upon at times of peak power demand. Peakers are generally older facilities that emit more greenhouse gasses than other plants, and the power they generate is more expensive.
Utilities have said peaker plants are necessary to ensure a reliable electricity supply in emergencies and times of high demand. Wessel’s organization and other environmental groups, however, argue that storage technology, especially when paired with renewable generation, can also meet these needs. They contend no new peakers should be built, and old ones should be taken out of use as quickly as possible.
“These are really the low-hanging fruit for starting to take existing fossil fuels off the grid,” said Wessel, whose group has been pushing power companies that own peaker plants in western Massachusetts to consider transitioning to renewable energy generation and battery storage.
The plan for the West Springfield plant came about when longtime energy developer Chris Sherman, vice president of regulatory affairs at Cogentrix, wanted to take his work in a new direction. He has a background in clean energy — he was project development manager for the ill-fated Cape Wind offshore wind plan — and was interested in returning to this work.
His employer put him in touch with Wessel, who had reached out to the company about the future of the West Springfield Generating Station. The plant first started generating power in 1949, initially burning coal. In the 1960s it was converted to an oil-burning plant, and in the 1990s the ability to burn natural gas was added. It was officially shut down in June 2022.
Once power plants shut down, the land is often hard to redevelop, Sherman said. However, the properties are already surrounded by the infrastructure needed to send power into the grid, so building battery storage and renewable energy installations on these sites is a promising strategy.
Sherman and Wessel met in June 2021, and it was quickly clear that their goals aligned. The two began working together to create plans for the site, which had not yet closed officially. Their collaboration, Sherman said, has made it easier to bridge the perceived gap between the logistical, technological, and financial aspects of his work, and the environmental and social concerns of community members.
“If I were to just call people and say ‘energy developer,’ they might not be willing to enter into an objective discussion,” Sherman said. Wessel “has done an incredible job at generating interest and then facilitating communication in the broader stakeholder community.”
The plan that emerged is a pragmatic one that attempts to satisfy environmental goals while also dealing with the financial realities of the energy market. The initial plan calls for charging batteries during times when demand and emissions are lower, and then discharging at times of higher demand. Cogentrix hopes to eventually install solar panels to make the energy it stores even cleaner and lower cost.
The project is now in the early permitting stages, with the goal of beginning site work over the coming winter and installing battery containers in the spring.
West Springfield leaders have expressed support for the project and the chance to put the property, formerly the largest taxpayer in the city, back on the tax rolls, noting that revenue took a hit when the plant closed last year. They are also pleased to see emissions-free batteries and solar panels take the place of the pollution the former plant created.
“I look forward to the potential redevelopment of this site,” said West Springfield Mayor William Reichelt. “Though we are in the early stages of what’s possible, overall any improvement to the site will certainly benefit the community and the region.”
Because the plan for the site represents a new sort of energy development, existing revenue models don’t necessarily apply. Sherman had to work hard to convince investors that the novel approach will turn a profit. There is enough room on the site to develop about 100 megawatts of storage, but his investors are only willing to back 45 megawatts until they see convincing results, he said.
A small amount of revenue will be made by charging batteries during times, such as overnight, when prices are lower, then selling the power back onto the grid and higher-demand, higher-priced times. Another block of money will come from participation in the regional capacity market, in which power sources are paid for committing to be available to provide electricity at some future point.
Additionally, almost half of the project’s revenue is expected to come from the Massachusetts Clean Peak Standard, an incentive system unique to the state. The standard, which took effect in 2020, offers incentives to clean energy generators and battery storage owners that discharge power into the grid at times of peak demand, helping to lower the demand on power plants.
“But for that standard, our project would not be viable,” Sherman said.
Wessel and Sherman both express hope that this project might be the beginning of a trend toward locating storage and power plant sites. Cogentrix is looking at potential projects on sites in Maine, Maryland, and New Jersey. In these cases, the power plants have not yet been retired, though Sherman said the plans should still reduce emissions.
For the concept of replacing peakers with batteries to really catch on, states will need policies that add incentives such as Massachusetts’ Clean Peak Standard that can dispatch stored power at peak demand times, Sherman said. State-backed policies, he said, will help convince backers that such projects are financially feasible.
“What I need to demonstrate to investors,” he said, “is that we can have predictable, durable, long-term revenue streams.”
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