Tag Archives: energy storage

EPA Regional Administrator Meg McCollister Urges School Districts, Tribes and School Bus Operators in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska to Apply for $500M In Available Funding for Clean School Buses

Environmental Protection Agency News Release, May 20, 2022

“This historic investment under President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will forever transform school bus fleets across the United States,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “These funding opportunities to replace older, heavily-polluting buses will result in healthier air for many of the 25 million American children who rely on school buses, many of whom live in overburdened and underserved communities. Today we take a major step toward a future where clean, zero-emissions school buses are the American standard.”

“This new funding can make a big impact for children across Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska and the nine tribal nations here,” said EPA Region 7 Administrator Meghan A. McCollister. “I urge all eligible school districts, tribes, and school bus operators to make the time this summer to apply for Clean School Bus rebates. Applications will be accepted until August 19, 2022. Over the next five years, this program will deliver $5 billion to school districts to improve our bus fleets and improve health and safety for our kids and communities.” Questions about applying may be directed to CleanSchoolBus@epa.gov.

Read the entire news release here.

Note: This is the first competition that EPA is running through the Clean School Bus program. The Agency will also launch a grant competition later this year. Further Clean School Bus competitions funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will be run every year over the next five years. To learn more about the rebate programs, applicant eligibility, selection process, and informational webinar dates, visit www.epa.gov/cleanschoolbus. 

Links to more information:

Links to U.S. PIRG Reports & Blog

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY WEBINAR

180 Day Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Briefing, Monday, May 23rd at 10:30 am CT
The U.S. Department of Energy is hosting this 30-minute webinar with Secretary Jennifer Granholm and Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Infrastructure Kathleen Hogan to provide updates on the implementation of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and to share the progress made in its first 180 days. The webinar will feature updates on the $10 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding already released as well as a preview of upcoming funding opportunities. In addition, it will highlight how equity and the Justice40 initiative are being incorporated into BIL programs and allow time for a Q&A. Submit your questions via the link in your registration confirmation email.

UPDATED DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY CAREER MAPS

For anyone seeking a job in clean energy, DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) has created various interactive and user-friendly maps to help you think about what your career can look like in clean energy. Each map is organized into easily navigated sections based on degreed versus vocational careers, making for clearer roles and paths.

ALSO OF POTENTIAL INTEREST

FEATURED CLIMATE EDUCATION & ACTION RESOURCES

  • UNICEF: Talking to your child about climate change: How to engage children on the issue with hope and positivity. Numerous links to resources are provided.
  • Talk Climate.Org resource pages are designed to support justice-based climate education, to provide guidance for productive and empowering climate conversations, and to offer ways to take climate action.

Straightening out Gov. Pete Ricketts’ comments

By Charlie Kennedy, NPPD Board Member, Star Herald

I am responding to Governor Pete Ricketts’ “Strengthening Energy Reliability and Independence” opinion article in the Aug. 24 edition of the Star Herald. In 2018 I was elected board director for Nebraska Public Power District’s subdivision 5 which encompasses most of western Nebraska and I ran as a non-partisan independent. Governor Ricketts’ comments and accounts in the article are correct at face level, however some are misleading in support of political views and platform. While I laud our governor for many of his initiatives and successes, I believe that safe, affordable and reliable energy should not be a political issue but rather based on common sense and the best use of emerging technologies.

Continue reading here.

PETE RICKETTS: Strengthening Energy Reliability and Independence, Star Herald

DOE Releases Solar Futures Study Providing the Blueprint for a Zero-Carbon Grid

The U.S. Department of Energy today released the Solar Futures Study detailing the significant role solar will play in decarbonizing the nation’s power grid. The study shows that by 2035, solar energy has the potential to power 40% of the nation’s electricity, drive deep decarbonization of the grid, and employ as much as 1.5 million people—without raising electricity prices. The study’s findings call for massive and equitable deployment of clean energy sources, underscoring the Biden Administration’s efforts to tackle the climate crisis and rapidly increase access to renewable power throughout the country. 

“The study illuminates the fact that solar, our cheapest and fastest-growing source of clean energy, could produce enough electricity to power all of the homes in the U.S. by 2035 and employ as many as 1.5 million people in the process,” said Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “Achieving this bright future requires a massive and equitable deployment of renewable energy and strong decarbonization polices –  exactly what is laid out in the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda. Read the entire news release.

Resources

FACT SHEET: Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and Build Back Better Agenda Present Bright Future for Solar Power, Good Jobs, and More Affordable Energy

The White House Briefing Room, August 17, 2021

Today, the Department of Energy (DOE) released a new issue brief that details a bright future for solar power, good jobs, and affordable energy in the United States. President Biden’s proposed investments in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal and Build Back Better Agenda will invest in the infrastructure, manufacturing, innovation, and incentives for solar energy that we need to grow good-paying, union jobs at home, make solar energy affordable for all American families, and accelerate the deployment of net-zero energy across the country. These critical investments will unlock the full potential of solar and help fight the climate crisis. Continue reading here.

Read the full brief: Investing in the Clean Energy Future: Solar Energy Research, Deployment, and Workforce Priorities

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING

Why every state is vulnerable to a Texas-style power crisis

By Umair Irfan, Vox

Just like a blackout isn’t the result of any single point of failure, protecting the grid against them demands more than any single solution. Faced with the prospect of more outages, there are a number of technical fixes: More energy storage, distributed power generation, interconnections across the major power grids, greater redundancy, microgrids, demand response, increasing energy efficiency, and hardening infrastructure. Read more here.

ADDITIONAL RECOMMENDED READING

AMERICANS FOR A CLEAN ENERGY GRID

Americans for a Clean Energy Grid (ACEG) is the only non-profit broad-based public interest advocacy coalition focused on the need to expand, integrate, and modernize the North American high-voltage grid. ACEG brings together the diverse support for an expanded and modernized grid from business, labor, consumer and environmental groups, and other transmission supporters to support policy which recognizes the benefits of a robust transmission grid.

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY NEWS RELEASE 

DOE Launches Design & Construction of $75 Million Grid Energy Storage Research Facility
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) today announced the beginning of design and construction of the Grid Storage Launchpad (GSL), a $75 million facility located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington that will boost clean energy adaptation and accelerate the development and deployment of long-duration, low-cost grid energy storage.

Related Reading: New era as US Department of Energy gets started on long-duration energy storage R&D facility, Energy Storage News

MORE ENERGY STORAGE NEWS

FROM THE WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING ROOM

The Texas blackouts: Don’t misplace blame on renewables

By Greg Alvarez, Deputy Director, Communications,
American Clean Power Association 

Texas is currently experiencing once-in-a-generation cold weather that has caused widespread blackouts across the state. Companies are working as quickly and creatively as possible to restore power to the residents and first responders bearing the burden of this anomaly, hopefully bringing an end to this hardship as soon as possible.

In the coming days and weeks, it will be critical to understand what went wrong so that similar events can be prevented in the future. However, it’s already becoming abundantly clear renewable energy isn’t to blame. Those arguing otherwise either haven’t looked at the data or are willfully obscuring the truth and politicizing the event to advance agendas that have nothing to do with restoring power to Texas communities. Continue reading here.

ACP News Release, February 16, 2021

American Clean Power Association Statement on Power Outages in Texas

About The American Clean Power Association (ACP)

ACP members inject trillions of dollars into the U.S. economy
ACP’s member companies represent a broad cross-section of America’s clean energy industry—from land-based and offshore wind, solar, transmission, and storage companies to manufacturing and construction businesses, developers and owners/operators, utilities, financial firms, and corporate purchasers. Together, ACP members are powering our nation’s clean energy revolution, driving critical investments that keep America at the forefront of energy innovation.

Get The Facts

Facts

Clean energy transmission facts

Transmission 101

Clean energy storage facts

Storage 101

Clean power state-by-state

State Fact Sheets

Welcome to The Power Line

By Greg Alvarez, Deputy Director, Communications
American Clean Power Association

The clean energy transition is here, and it’s a time of tremendous opportunity and excitement as the pace of the transition seemingly accelerates by the day. This shift to a 21st century clean energy economy will be one of the dominant stories of the next decade, and to help overcome the transition’s challenges and ensure U.S. homes and businesses are increasingly powered by clean energy, we’re thrilled to announce the formation of the American Clean Power Association (ACP).

ACP brings together wind, solar, transmission, and storage companies, along with manufacturers and construction companies, developers and owners/operators, utilities, financial firms, and corporate purchasers to advocate on behalf of the clean power industry. All the different kinds of companies involved in building the utility-scale clean energy projects of the future are now uniting behind a powerful common voice. Read more here.

ACP Video

ACP Report

A Majority Renewables Future
The report, conducted by international analysis group Wood Mackenzie, finds that reaching a majority renewables grid will:

  • Deploy over $1 trillion in capital investment over the next decade.
  • Support nearly 1 million direct, renewable energy jobs.
  • Stabilize wholesale power prices and preserve grid stability.
  • Reduce U.S. carbon emissions by over 60 percent.

Administrative and legislative policies can pave the way for the U.S. to achieve these benefits within the next 10 years.

Download the executive summary.

The Highs and Lows for Solar in 2020: Wrapping up the biggest stories of a chaotic year.

By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Greentech Media

Joe Biden’s win presents big upside for the solar industry. The candidate campaigned on a national plan to reach 100 percent clean electricity by 2035. Solar offers a key technology to achieve that goal, with 2020 marking its second year in a row to claim the largest share of new generating capacity of any resource. Read more here.

ALSO PUBLISHED BY GREENTECH MEDIA

10 Victories for Virtual Power Plants in 2020, by Julian Spector
This concept goes by various names — virtual power plants, flexible loads, behind-the-meter networks — and encompasses tools like rooftop solar, batteries, smart thermostats, smart appliances and electric vehicle chargers. Though small individually, distributed energy resources are projected to grow to 387 gigawatts in the next five years, according to research by Wood Mackenzie.

So, What Exactly Are Virtual Power Plants?

Greentech Media’s Must-Read Grid Edge Stories of 2020, by Jeff St. John
By far the biggest grid edge story of 2020 was the continued commitment of U.S. utilities to midcentury decarbonization goals — or more pertinently, those utilities that aren’t already facing state-level mandates to eliminate their carbon footprints.

Power from the Prairie aims to link West Coast sun with Midwest wind

By Karen Uhlenhuth, Energy News Network

The missing link between California solar power and Midwest wind energy may be a 600-mile stretch from southwestern Wyoming to northwestern Iowa. A pair of energy consultants with Upper Midwest roots are promoting a $9.5 billion vision for an interstate transmission-plus-storage project aimed at connecting two long-separated regional electricity grids.

Rob Schulte and Fred Fletcher believe their Power from the Prairie concept would produce massive benefits for utilities, customers and the country’s clean energy transition, enabling variable wind and solar resources from multiple regions to backfill and balance each other out on the grid. Continue reading here.

About the Interconnection Seams Study Karen Uhlenhuth references: How a Plan to Save the Power System Disappeared, The Atlantic and Investigate West

Photo Credit: Dori / Wikimedia Commons

Also published today by Energy News Network:
‘Dark money’ group raises fears in Illinois energy negotiations, by Kari Lydersen
A mysterious group has spent more than a quarter million dollars promoting a vague agenda that’s critical of Illinois utilities’ clean energy transitions.

Meeting the Climate Moment With a 100-Day Agenda for Solar

By Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA President & CEO, SEIA Blog

I want to share our vision for the next decade, and more specifically, for our new President-elect. It goes without saying that this is an exciting time to be in the solar industry. We are now 32x bigger than we were a decade ago and this $18 billion industry supports American families in every state. Solar is a job-creating engine with bipartisan support and helps to bring clean, affordable electricity to millions. That’s why big businesses like Walmart and Amazon are investing in solar and why 90% of Americans, regardless of political beliefs, support solar. Continue reading here.