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Economy

The DOE Has a Plan to Speed Up New Grid Connections

On the “Transmission Interconnection Roadmap,” solar tariffs, and AI

The DOE Has a Plan to Speed Up New Grid Connections
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Parts of Dubai remain waterlogged after this week’s epic rainfall • A volcanic eruption in Indonesia produced a 1.6-mile ash column • Severe thunderstorms are headed for the Midwest and Southern Plains.

THE TOP FIVE

1. DOE unveils roadmap to speed up clean energy grid connections

The Department of Energy yesterday unveiled its plans to help solve a problem plaguing the clean energy sector: the backlog of grid connections. According to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, nearly 12,000 solar, wind, and storage projects are ready and waiting to be connected to the grid. “The high volume of projects and inadequate existing procedures for interconnection has led to uncertainties, delays, inequities, and added costs for developers, consumers, utilities, and their regulators,” the DOE said in its announcement. The new “Transmission Interconnection Roadmap” aims to speed up connection times by providing more transparency on data for existing projects, creating fast-track options for interconnection, and adopting requirements and standards for generation interconnection, among other initiatives. The Biden administration has a goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.

DOE

2. Study: Rising temperatures will cost global economy $38 trillion a year

A new study published in the journal Nature concludes that global incomes will be at least 20% lower over the next 26 years due to climate change compared to what The Associated Press called “a fictional world that’s not warming.” These income losses will amount to $38 trillion per year by 2049, and that’s regardless of how much we limit emissions going forward, or whether per capita income increases – in other words, this financial toll is already baked in and could grow dramatically depending on how much or little we cut emissions now. The researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research also said the losses will be six times more expensive than it would be to cut emissions and limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. “Protecting our climate is much cheaper than not doing so,” said Leonie Wenz, who led the study. Lower-latitude areas and countries least responsible for man-made climate change will be hit the hardest, but everyone will be affected.

3. U.S. expected to restore tariffs on imported solar tech

For two years, the solar panel technologies imported into the U.S. from China and other countries have been exempt from tariffs, but that policy will soon be reversed, according toReuters. Two sources familiar with the Biden administration’s plans say the change comes at the request of Hanwha Qcells, a South Korean company investing billions in manufacturing in the U.S., and several other U.S. solar manufacturers. There’s no clear timeline for when the tariffs will be reinstated. The report propelled shares of America’s biggest solar manufacturer, First Solar. Bloombergnoted that the existing exemption applies to imported two-sided solar panels, resulting in those panels being installed all over the place, including on rooftops “where the attribute offers no benefit.”

First Solar shares, up as of pre-market trading on Thursday morning.CNBC

4. Research links West Africa heat wave to burning of fossil fuels

An intense heat wave that hit West Africa and the Sahel recently “would have been impossible without human-caused climate change,” according to analysis from climate scientists from the World Weather Attribution. Temperatures soared above 113 degrees Fahrenheit in late March and early April, at one point reaching 119 degrees in Mali. At least 102 heat-related deaths were recorded in the first four days of April. The researchers analyzed weather data and climate models and concluded that such extremes wouldn’t have occurred without increased global temperatures from burning fossil fuels. “Events like these will become much more common, and even more dangerous, unless the world moves away from fossil fuels and countries rapidly reduce emissions to net zero,” the report said. “If global warming reaches 2°C, as is expected to occur in the 2040s or 2050s unless emissions are rapidly halted, similar events will occur 10 times more frequently.”

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  • 5. Bezos Earth Fund to award $100 million for AI climate change solutions

    Jeff Bezos wants ideas for how the power of artificial intelligence can be harnessed to help address climate change and nature loss, and he’s willing to throw some money at the best ones. His Bezos Earth Fund announced this week its “AI for Climate and Nature Grand Challenge,” which will award $100 million in grants to help support proposals from “practitioners, researchers, and innovators in universities, NGOs, private companies, and organizations.” It’s starting with projects that focus on “sustainable proteins, biodiversity conservation, and power grid optimization” plus one “wild card” category. Up to 30 seed grants will be awarded. Applications open in May and the recipients will be unveiled in September.

    THE KICKER

    Researchers say installing reflective materials called “retroflectors” on roads and buildings could reduce surface temperatures in cities by up to 20 degrees Celsius.

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    Climate

    What Started the Fires in Los Angeles?

    Plus 3 more outstanding questions about this ongoing emergency.

    Los Angeles.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    As Los Angeles continued to battle multiple big blazes ripping through some of the most beloved (and expensive) areas of the city on Thursday, a question lingered in the background: What caused the fires in the first place?

    Though fires are less common in California during this time of the year, they aren’t unheard of. In early December 2017, power lines sparked the Thomas Fire near Ventura, California, which burned through to mid-January. At the time it was the largest fire in the state since at least the 1930s. Now it’s the ninth-largest. Although that fire was in a more rural area, it ignited for many of the same reasons we’re seeing fires this week.

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    Green
    Hotspots

    Fox News Goes After a Solar Farm

    And more of this week’s top renewable energy fights across the country.

    Map of U.S. renewable energy.
    Heatmap Illustration

    1. Otsego County, Michigan – The Mitten State is proving just how hard it can be to build a solar project in wooded areas. Especially once Fox News gets involved.

    • Last week, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said it wanted to lease more than 400 acres of undeveloped state-owned forestland for part of a much larger RWE Clean Energy solar project near the northern Michigan town of Gaylord.
    • Officials said they were approached by the company about the land. But the news sparked an immediate outcry, as state elected Republicans – and some Democrats – demanded to know why a forest would be cleared for ‘green’ energy. Some called for government firings.
    • Then came the national news coverage. On Friday, Fox News hosted a full four-minute segment focused on this one solar farm featuring iconoclastic activist Michael Shellenberger.
    • A few days later, RWE told the media it would not develop the project on state lands.
    • “[D]uring the development process, we conducted outreach to all landowners adjacent to the project location, including the Michigan Department of Natural Resources,” the company said in a statement to the Petoskey News-Review, adding it instead decided to move forward with leasing property from two private landowners.

    2. Atlantic County, New Jersey – Opponents of offshore wind in Atlantic City are trying to undo an ordinance allowing construction of transmission cables that would connect the Atlantic Shores offshore wind project to the grid.

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    Policy Watch

    How to Solve a Problem Like a Wind Ban

    And more of this week’s top policy news around renewables.

    Trump.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    1. Trump’s Big Promise – Our nation’s incoming president is now saying he’ll ban all wind projects on Day 1, an expansion of his previous promise to stop only offshore wind.

    • “They litter our country like paper, like dropping garbage in a field,” Trump said at a press conference Tuesday. “We’re going to try and have a policy where no windmills are built.”
    • Is this possible? It would be quite tricky, as the president only has control over the usage of federal lands and waters. While offshore wind falls entirely under the president’s purview, many onshore wind projects themselves fall entirely on state lands.
    • This is where the whole “wind kills birds” argument becomes important. Nearly all wind projects have at least some federal nexus because of wildlife protection laws, such as the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
    • Then there are the cables connecting these projects to the grid and interstate transmission projects that may require approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
    • I’m personally doubtful he will actually stop all wind in the U.S., though I do think offshore wind in its entirety is at risk (which I’ve written about). Trump has a habit of conflating things, and in classic fashion, he only spoke at the press conference about offshore wind projects. I think he was only referring to offshore wind, though I’m willing to eat my words.

    2. The Big Nuclear Lawsuit – Texas and Utah are suing to kill the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s authority to license small modular reactors.

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