Clean Energy Initiative

Invite:   Tuesday, September 27th at 12 Noon.  The Clean Energy Initiative will host for an insider look at Wind Energy: The Economic Ramifications of Wind Energy and the Relevance of Tax Credits.  This will be held in the NDN event space at 729 15th Street NW, Washington, DC. 

This lunchtime discussion will highlight the burgeoning wind economy and discuss how current budget debates might impact the industry in the years ahead.  We are proud to offer a terrific set of experts to guide our conversation.  Joining us will be:

Markian Melnyk, President of Atlantic Wind Connection
Rob Gramlich, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, American Wind Energy Association
Laura Haynes, Senior Policy Director for Energy and Environment, Senator Tom Carper (D)
Michael Moynihan, Director of the NDN's Clean Energy Initiative will serve as Moderator

This panel is the fourth in our "Clean Energy Solution Series" to showcase the leaders, companies, ideas and policies who are hastening our transition to a cleaner, safer and more distributed energy paradigm of the 21st Century.

The fast-growing wind sector averaged 3.2 percent of the nation’s electricity over the months between January and April 2011, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Electric Power Monthly report.

Since 2007, wind energy has installed 35 percent of America’s new electrical generating capacity, more than twice coal and nuclear combined. During the second quarter of 2011 the Wind Industry installed 1,033 MW of electrical generating capacity versus 709 MW during the same period last year, up 46 percent for the same quarter last year.

The Production Tax Credit is critical to the expansion of wind energy.  Combined with state renewable electricity standards, the Production Tax Credit  has been a major driver of wind power development over the past 7 years. It provides a 2.2 cent per kilowatt-hour tax credit for the first ten years of electricity production from utility-scale turbines. But Congress has repeatedly gone back and forth between extending and retiring the PTC.

Originally enacted as part of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, there have been four extensions of the provision, and on three occasions it has been allowed to sunset. This "on-again/off-again" status contributes to a boom-bust cycle of development that plagues the wind industry However, AWEA analysts cautioned that without stable policy such as an extension of the Production Tax Credit, set to expire in 2012, the industry’s recovery will stall.

Please RSVP today!

The mantra of the House Republican led Energy and Commerce Committee has been to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency.  Barring that, the Republican leadership (Fred Upton (MI), Chair, Joe Barton (TX), Ed Whitfield (KY), John Shimkus (IL) and Cliff Sterns (FL)) vow to do away with as many, what they call ‘onerous’, EPA regulations as possible.   Lisa Jackson, the head of EPA and other EPA officials have been called to testify before various committees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee so many times, they could almost call 2123 Rayburn, House Energy and Commerce Hearing Room, their second home. 

These actions have kept wily Democratic members of the Committee such as Congressmen Henry Waxman (CA), Ed Markey (MA), and John Dingell on the defensive for much of the past year.

Much of the legislation, aimed at EPA regulations have passed through the committee and will eventually pass the House.  This legislation will likely fail in the Senate.  Conference Committee can result in compromise which will have some negative effect on EPA’s regulatory authority.

The GOP Presidential candidates have taken up the same Anti-EPA mantra.  Texas Governor Rick Perry is probably the most vocal in his opposition to EPA environmental regulations and called for an immediate moratorium on environmental regulation. Prayer, not regulations, is the answer according to Perry.  Last year, his administration filed suit against EPA to block the agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions.  He fought EPA to defend his state’s ‘flexible’ air pollution permits for oil and gas refineries. 

Michelle Bachman has been quoted as say she “wants to padlock the EPA’s doors".  To her, the EPA is the evil heavy handed regulatory agenda of the Obama Administration. 

Mitt Romney is backing away from his earlier position as Governor to capture carbon and find solutions for reduced emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases. 

Because of the exceptionally weak economy, the GOP is using their EPA bashing rhetoric to erroneously link environmental regulation to jobs and the economy by suggesting that we cannot afford measures that impose greater costs on business and consumers.  Michelle Bachman called the EPA the “job-killing organization of America” 

There is simply no evidence that the Environmental Protection Agency has eliminated any jobs in our country.  If anything, listening to the GOP talk about the aggressive EPA, one might think that EPA, itself, has employed thousands just to impose ‘onerous’ regulations on our business. 

This anti EPA rhetoric may work well in the Republican primary, but it probably will not play in a general election.  Most polls will show that the American people are concerned about air and water pollution and want more clean energy.

"Our electricity supply is changing, like it or not, there is a role for government policies that take these changes into account, including FERC's recent transmission planning and cost allocation rule."  Joe Kelliher, Executive Vice President of NextEra Energy and former Chair of FERC from 2005-2009 during his presentation our panel discussion, Transmission Reform:  What Does It Mean for Renewables?

Yesterday’s panel discussion was a huge success.  Our panelists did an amazing job of pointing our how they believe last weeks FERC rulemaking will affect their industry.

Bill White, the well respected leader in clean energy  from the Energy Future Coalition, did a brilliant job of outlining  the main provisions of the FERC ruling. 

Joe Kelliher, former Chair of FERC under the George W Bush Administration and currently Executive Vice President for Federal Regulatory Affairs of NextEra Energy, laid out the broader implications of how this FERC ruling on regional cost sharing will change the picture for wind developers and the renewable industry by ensuring a more balanced and fair cost allocation for the building of transmission lines.

Joe was followed by Nina Plaushin, Vice President of Federal and Legislative Affairs at  ITC Holdings.  ITC Holdings is one of the largest transmission developers in the country and Nina pointed out how this ruling will create a new framework where interstate, regional, and interregional transmission projects may be fully considered and then linked to cost allocation authority.  In the future, this new framework should allow large scale transmission proposals to receive a fair evaluation that accounts for all of the benefits they generate for an entire region.

Tom Vinson, Director of Regulatory Affairs at American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) pointed out how wind’s phenomenal growth will be positively impacted by the FERC ruling. This FERC ruling should result in more reasonable costs for building new transmission lines enabling wind and other renewable resources to take a far larger share of the energy market.

Michael Moynihan, Director of our Clean Energy Initiative, gave an overall perspective of the positive effects of this FERC ruling on the renewable industry. 

This panel, the third in our Clean Energy Solutions Series, will be followed this September by a panel on the Deployment of Large Scale Renewable Energy in September.  We will not have any panels during the month of August.

This morning's panel discussion, Transmission Reform: What Does It Mean for Renewables?, the third in our Clean Energy Solution Series, was an enormous success.  We had a quality group of panelists who did a magniicent job of shining a spotlight on and illuminating the the recent FERC rulemaking on transmission reform, espeically as it applied to renewables.  The Q&A was substantive, and thought-provoking.  And we had a more than packed house - thanks to everyone who came by

I'll have more to say tomorrow about this great panel, but I'll leave you with a quote from Joe Kelliher, former Chair of FERC and currently VP of NextEra Energy, the largest supplier of wind energy in the nation:

"Our electricity supply is changing, like it or not, there is a role for government policies that take these changes into account, including FERC's recent transmission planning and cost allocation rule."

Please join us this Thursday, July 28th, for our Panel Discussion, Transmission Policy Reform:  What does this mean for Renewables?  A quality group of experts will to shed light on how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Order No 1000 will open doors for growth renewable industry.  This lunchtime panel will begin at 12noon at our NDN event space, 729 15th Street NW.  The panelists:

Bill White, of the Energy Future Coalition, is a well respected leader in the clean energy community.  Bill will outline the main provisions of the FERC ruling. 

Joe Kelliher was the Chairman  of FERC from 2005-2009 and currently the Vice President of the Florida based NextEra Energy.  Joe will give the perspective of NextEra Energy, a major wind developer.  His presentation will cover how the FERC ruling on regional cost sharing changes the picture for wind developers by ensuring a more balanced and fair cost allocation for the building of transmission lines which will enable more wind development nationwide.

Nina Plaushin is the Vice President of Federal and Legislative Affairs at  ITC Holdings, and will present  the perspective of transmission developer.  Her presentation will look at how the ruling creates a new framework where interstate, regional, and interregional transmission projects may be fully considered and then linked to cost allocation authority.  This new framework will allow large scale transmission proposals to receive a fair evaluation that accounts for all of the benefits they generate for an entire region.

Tom Vinson, Director of Regulatory Affairs at American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), represents the perspective of the renewable energy industry.  Wind’s growth has been phenomenal, in fact, the largest source of new energy generation installed. This FERC ruling will result in more reasonable costs for building new transmission lines enabling wind and other renewable resources to take a far larger share of the energy market.

Michael Moynihan, the Director of our Clean Energy Initiative, will address what this new ruling will mean for the broader public.  Building new transmission lines may not mean anything to the public in general but it might mean a great deal if they knew the positive implications of new transmission lines for cleaner energy

Make sure to RSVP today. We hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it be sure to check out our live webcast.

Today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, released their long awaited ruling to streamline how new electric transmission lines get paid.  FERC Order No.1000 is a final rule that changes the Commission’s electric transmission planning and cost allocation requirements for public utility transmission providers.  

This ruling now will require public utility transmission providers to improve thier transmission planning processes as well as allocate costs for new transmission facilities to whoever  owns the facility.  In addition, the ruling requires these public utilities to bring into line both transmission planning and cost allocation.  In essence, this will remove barriers and make it easier to develope new transmission facilities.

The new transmission planning requirements include the development of regional transmission plans, the consideration of transmission needs driven by public policy requirements established by state or federal laws or regulations, and the coordination between neighboring transmission planning regions.

The proposal ties cost allocation to the regional transmission planning processes. This ensures that only those consumers benefiting from transmission facilities are charged for associated costs, and gives each region the first opportunity to develop cost allocation mechanisms and identify how the benefits of transmission facilities will be determined.

FERC's new rule will help regions account for all the benefits that transmission provides including, for the first time, the benefits of meeting state clean energy standards such as state mandated renewable energy goals.  Renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar have been regionally locked in due to the need for more transmission lines and the myriad of issues surrounding cost allocation of transmission.   Ruling 1000 will change this and take out the roadblocks to building transmission lines to transport renewable technology to other areas who want this energy. 

Our Clean Energy Initiative will host an informative and illuminating discussion Please join us for what will be an illuminating panel discussion FERC Order 1000,   Transmission Reform:  What does it mean for Renewables?".  This lunchtime discussion will be next Thursday, July 28, at 12noon in the NDN event space at 729 15th Street on the first floor. Click here to rsvp

In spite of the fact that new “cleantech” sectors are having explosive job growth, real jobs are not materializing as quickly as anticipated.   Yesterday’s event, Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment, at the Brookings Institution provided a compelling look at the reality of job growth and the green industry.   Mark Muro, a senior fellow at Brookings, states that this industry will only moderately contribute to new jobs for the next three to five years.  More innovation and new technology is needed for this industry to really take off and produce a wealth of jobs. 

It should be noted “green” or “clean” economy is very hard to define and these jobs cut across many sectors of the economy.  For example if you include all jobs that contribute to reducing carbon emissions, job growth was only 3.4% annually between 2003 and 2010. The larger growth has been in younger energy related segments of the green economy such as wind, solar, and smart grid whose jobs are growing at a fast pace, but their base is small.  These jobs are not materializing quickly because they require technical training due to the relatively new emergence of the cleantech industry.  More investment now in the cleantech industry will help to grown more jobs for the future.

Interestingly, the clean economy currently employs 2.7 million workers. While this may seem like a small number, in fact, it is larger than all the workers employed by the fossil fuels industry. The fastest growing metropolitan area for green jobs is in New York, Northern New Jersey, and Pennsylvania area which produced 152,034 jobs in 2010.

There is a lot of promise in the clean economy and even though it is not expanding as quickly as anticipated.  Investing in the clean economy now, however, will pay off in a couple years.

Solar is becoming more and more affordable for the average consumer. In particular, rooftop solar has increased in popularity in the past years especially because it is available and affordable to install in homes

The IEEE, the world's largest technical professional association, says solar photovoltaic (PV) systems "have the potential to be the most economical form of generating electricity, even compared to traditional fossil fuels."  The International Energy Association reports global solar PV capacity has been ramping up at an average annual growth rate of over 40% since 2000 – and that by 2050 – admittedly a long time away - solar PV will provide 11% of global electricity production.

In addition to cost, there are noteworthy advances in solar technology as well.  For instance a company called 1366 Technologies has developed a more cost-efficient way to produce silicon wafers for solar panels.  The University of Missouri has an effort to develop a flexible solar sheet that captures more than 90% of available light compared to the 20% most solar panels capture.  There is a new breed of micro inverters that convert the direct current generated by solar panels to alternating current that feeds into the grid.

In the United States, Federal Incentives play in enormous role for the development of solar.  The 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a tax credit for installing a home solar system which would pay for 30% of your overall solar system. This tax credit was recently extended through 2016. 

State Incentives can play a huge role as well.  Each state has different incentives for installing solar panels and some are better than others. California has a cash rebate system in place which can reduce the cost by 10% to 15% at the time of installation. In addition, there are cities and utility companies in California that offer additional incentives.  Arizonans can get up to a $1000 tax credit when you lease or buy your system. Massachusetts allows a 15% tax credit against the state income tax for up to $1000 and any renewable energy structure is 100% exempt from property tax. If you are interested in finding out if your state has similar incentives, check out this link: http://www.solarhome.org/solartaxincentivesbystate.html

The Department Of Energy  says as much as 40% of a solar energy project is the result of balance of system costs, including the investment needed to pay for siting, permitting, and installing the project and connecting it to the electric grid.

To learn more, please join our Clean Energy Initiative at 12:00 pm for an insider discussion of the ascent and maturation of solar technology, The Speed of Solar: a Review of the Tremendous Progress Solar Power Has Made in America.  This lunchtime discussion will highlight this growth and feature Danny Kennedy, founder of Sungevity, the fastest growing solar company in the US, Andrea Luecke, Executive Director of The Solar Foundation, and Rachel Tronstein, Clean Energy Advisor in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy.