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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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Spotlight

Wind Farm Trump Killed Derails a Major Transmission Line

The collateral damage from the Lava Ridge wind project might now include a proposed 285-mile transmission line initially approved by federal regulators in the 1990s.

The western United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Library of Congress, Getty Images

The same movement that got Trump to kill the Lava Ridge wind farm Trump killed has appeared to derail a longstanding transmission project that’s supposed to connect sought-after areas for wind energy in Idaho to power-hungry places out West.

The Southwest Intertie Project-North, also known as SWIP-N, is a proposed 285-mile transmission line initially approved by federal regulators in the 1990s. If built, SWIP-N is supposed to feed power from the wind-swept plains of southern Idaho to the Southwest, while shooting electrons – at least some generated from solar power – back up north into Idaho from Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. In California, regulators have identified the line as crucial for getting cleaner wind energy into the state’s grid to meet climate goals.

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Hotspots

Solar Threats, Quiet Cancellations, and One Nice Thing

The week’s most important news around renewable project fights.

Solar Threats, Quiet Cancellations, and One Nice Thing
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Western Nevada — The Esmeralda 7 solar mega-project may be no more.

  • Last night I broke the news that the Bureau of Land Management quietly updated the permitting website for Esmeralda 7 to reflect project cancelation. BLM did so with no public statement and so far, none of the companies involved — NextEra, Invenergy, ConnectGen, and more — have said anything about it.
  • Esmeralda 7 was all set to receive its record of decision as soon as July, until the Trump administration froze permitting for solar projects on federal lands. The roughly 6.2 gigawatt mega-project had been stalled ever since.
  • It’s unclear if this means all of the components within Esmeralda 7 are done, or if facilities may be allowed to continue through permitting on a project-by-project basis. Judging from the messages I’ve fielded this morning so far, confusion reigns supreme here.

2. Washoe County, Nevada – Elsewhere in Nevada, the Greenlink North transmission line has been delayed by at least another month.

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Q&A

How Data Center Developers Are Navigating the Battery Fire Freakout

A conversation with Spencer Hanes of EnerVenue

Spencer.
Heatmap Illustration

Today’s conversation is with Spencer Hanes, vice president of international business development for long-duration battery firm EnerVenue and a veteran in clean energy infrastructure development. I reached out to Hanes for two reasons: One, I wanted to gab about solutions, for once, and also because he expressed an interest in discussing how data center companies are approaching the media-driven battery safety panic sweeping renewable energy development. EnerVenue doesn’t use lithium-ion batteries – it uses metal-hydrogen, which Hanes told me may have a much lower risk of thermal runaway (a.k.a. unstoppable fire).

I really appreciated our conversation because, well, it left me feeling like battery alternatives might become an easy way for folks to dodge the fire freakout permeating headlines and local government hearing rooms.

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