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Q&A

Just Having Fun at RE+ Edition

Talking with the director of the Energy Department’s Solar Energy Technologies Office, the CEO of Empact Technologies, and more

Jael at RE+
Heatmap Illustration.

This week I’m in Anaheim wandering the halls of RE+ for the first time. It’s been a thrill to learn about the cavalcade of companies working on the frontlines of the energy transition. I’ll have a LOT more to say about my trip in next week’s edition of The Fight. But during my first day there I decided to ask a few impressive individuals to sit in my hot seat. Here’s what they said!

Becca Jones-Albertus – Director of the Energy Department’s Solar Energy Technologies Office

  • Does the federal government’s neutrality on what U.S. regions are best for renewables help or hurt the energy transition, given how many competing interests are at play? “I think for our country it helps. It provides more opportunities for local areas to engage and take charge of their own futures. The clean energy transition doesn’t depend on whether we develop a plan in [one] particular area. That means there are more communities that can engage, can push for benefits for those systems. There’s more room and opportunity there.”

Kevin Diau – CEO of 1Climate, an AI permitting assistance tool

  • Can AI help with NIMBY problems? “I think AI can make it easier to understand where all those regulations are that exist. But I think that a lot of the challenges when it comes to people having NIMBY conflicts, that’s a lot of interpersonal dynamics that AI can’t necessarily address head on. I think developers still have these NIMBY challenges from people in the community.”

Charles Dauber – CEO of Empact Technologies, policy consulting firm

  • What’s the question you’ve been asked most about the IRA at RE+? “Even though the IRA’s been around for like, two years, it turns out given safe harbor last year, many companies didn’t have to deal with this until now. So we’re just now starting to get questions about dealing with prevailing wage and apprenticeship compliance requirements. We see that probably from 70% of the people that walk up here: How do I go do this? I’m getting requirements from my investors that want to prove we’re going to be compliant with these requirements.

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Hotspots

Tough Times for Renewable Energy Projects

A look at the week’s biggest fights over wind and solar farms.

Map of renewable energy fights.
Heatmap Illustration

1. McIntosh County, Oklahoma – Say goodbye to the Canadian River wind project, we hardly knew thee.

  • The TransAlta utility-scale wind facility was canceled mere days after we were first to report on the uprising in favor of a ban on new renewables in the state.
  • Local residents had banded together against the project due to its close proximity to Lake Eufaula, a large reservoir. Opposition included representatives of the native Muscogee Tribe.
  • TransAlta confirmed the project was dead in a statement to me last week after state politicians were first to declare its demise. On Monday, the company provided a statement in lieu of making someone available to speak with me: “The unfortunate decision to terminate the project was due to two primary reasons – challenges with land acquisition as well as ongoing uncertainty regarding grid interconnection.”

2. Allen County, Ohio – A utility-scale project caught in the crossfires over solar on farmland and local-vs-state conflicts now appears deceased, too.

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Q&A

How to Find Consensus to Build More Transmission

A conversation with Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam of DNV Energy Systems

Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam
Heatmap Illustration

Today we’re speaking with Cici Vu and Morgan Putnam from DNV Energy Systems, who helped craft a must-read report out this week on community relations in transmission with Americans for Clean Energy Grid (ACEG). Their report compiles findings of a roundtable with environmentalists, Indigenous rights activists, developers, and individual land owners, and finds transmission can fare better than solar and wind in this current political climate – and that community benefit agreements can be helpful for getting projects across the finish line. But some issues divided the roundtable, including how to structure labor benefits to ensure lots of people get job opportunities from transmission.

The following is a lightly edited and abridged version of our conversation:

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Policy Watch

Hearings Galore, Youngkin’s Slow Bore

This week’s top news around renewable energy policy.

Glenn Youngkin and solar farms.
Heatmap Illustration / Getty Images

1. Youngkin sides with locals – Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin this week said at his State of the State address that he would oppose efforts to “end local control of solar project siting” – indicating he will fiercely challenge efforts by some state policymakers to resolve challenges posed by town and county restrictions on renewables by overriding them.

  • “Local communities must be able to exercise their rights with regards to land use,” Youngkin said, adding a comparison that tied solar’s growth to the data center boom in the state. “Different communities will make different decisions on data centers but these must be their decisions.”
  • As we previously explained, solar developers are seeking changes to state policy in order to overrule local restrictions and draft recommendations from a Virginia commission on electricity called for the creation of an independent body to adjudicate these objections.

2. More like Hearing Watch – We’re starting to learn how Trump’s most significant nominees may run federal energy and climate agencies. Thank you, senatorial advise and consent process!

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