By Tom Perkins, Energy News Network
As President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team prepares its green economic recovery plan, a Michigan clean energy finance program could provide a bipartisan model for how to spur energy savings and job growth. Biden has already proposed a national green bank as part of his $2 trillion plan to achieve carbon neutrality by the middle of the century. The initiative would provide capital to help finance projects such as rooftop solar panels, electric vehicle charging stations, weatherization and building efficiency upgrades. Similar programs exist in about a dozen states, and among the oldest and most effective is Michigan Saves. As President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team prepares its green economic recovery plan, a Michigan clean energy finance program could provide a bipartisan model for how to spur energy savings and job growth. Continue reading here.
NEWS FROM OTHER STATES
- Minnesota grants will prioritize projects that pair EV charging with solar panels, by Frank Jossi,
Energy News Network. The next round of grants from the state’s Volkswagen emissions-cheating settlement includes new criteria to award charging with local clean energy. - In Nebraska: Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund: Nebraska Diesel Emission Mitigation Program, Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy
- Colorado utility plots strategies to finish its push to carbon-free power by 2030, by Allen Best, Energy News Network
- Xcel Energy partnering on solar gardens for low-income customers, Daily Camera
The projects will serve some 800 customers in Boulder and the adjacent counties. According to Xcel Energy, the two community solar projects are the first in the United States to be 100% income-qualified and operated by an investor-owned utility as well as the first in Xcel Energy’s eight-state service region. - $3 billion Energos project to build largest carbon-neutral industrial park in US near Reno, Reno Gazette Journal. TerraScale is partnering with AlphaStruxure, an energy-as-a-service company, for designing, building and financing an integrated energy solution for the project site.
- Plans unveiled for 550-megawatt virtual power plant in California, American Public Power Association. The Resi-Station project will be funded by an $80 million commitment from SIP and developed in partnership with OhmConnect and will comprise hundreds of thousands of active customers with a fleet of in-home, smart devices that can deliver targeted energy reductions, orchestrated by OhmConnect technology that predicts, incentivizes, and coordinates energy use. At full scale, Resi-Station will be the largest residential VPP in the world, according to SIP and OhmConnect.
- Mine-scarred land could serve as sites for solar energy projects, The Citizens’ Voice
Abandoned mine lands in Northeast Pennsylvania are being surveyed as potential sites for solar energy projects. - PGE invests $155M in renewable energy plant that combines wind, solar power, KGW
The 300-megawatt wind farm is already finished. The 50-megawatt solar and 30-megawatt battery facilities will be completed by the end of 2021. - RELATED: Oregon’s last coal power plant shuts down for good
- ALLETE Clean Energy Announces Renewable Energy Agreement with McDonald’s for Caddo Wind Site in Oklahoma, Business Wire. The 300-megawatt Caddo site, with its three renewable energy sale agreements with investment-grade Fortune 500 customers, will double ALLETE Clean Energy’s capacity to serve the accelerating corporate demand for clean energy. The project is in Caddo County in southern Oklahoma.
MACRO GRIDS
Report: U.S. trails other countries in building macro grids for moving, sharing electricity, Iowa State University News Service
AMES, Iowa – Countries around the world are well ahead of the United States in planning and building “macro grids” capable of moving electricity from one grid or distant geographic region to another, according to a new report authored by an Iowa State University engineer and a former doctoral student.
RECYCLING OLD WIND TURBINE BLADES
Cement production to use old wind turbine blades after GE inks new deal, CNBC
GE Renewable Energy and Veolia North America (VNA) have signed a “multi-year agreement” to recycle blades removed from onshore wind turbines in the United States. In an announcement Tuesday, GE Renewable Energy said the blades would be shredded at a VNA site in Missouri before being “used as a replacement for coal, sand and clay at cement manufacturing facilities across the U.S.”
REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE
Nestlé digs deeper into regenerative ag, puts $3.6B behind net-zero plan, GreenBiz
Almost one-third of the money that Nestlé intends to invest will be dedicated to cultivating regenerative agricultural practices that improve soil health and reduce dependence on synthetic fertilizer across 500,000-plus farms from which Nestlé sources ingredients. Nestlé intends to pay those farmers, as well as 150,000 other ingredient suppliers, a premium for adopting these techniques in a verifiable way.