Energy Exchange

A Triple Bottom Line for the Central Valley: Environment, Economy, Equity

city of fresno sealThis week the Air Resources Board (ARB) held a public workshop in Fresno, California, to gather public input on ways to invest proceeds from California’s cap-and-trade auction.  ARB heard from a wide variety of individuals and organizations with bright ideas on how to spend this money on projects that can lower greenhouse gases (GHG) and maximize the benefit to disadvantaged communities who are the most vulnerable to climate change and pollution impacts.

I represented EDF at the workshop, and an extended version of my public comments follows:

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Also posted in California, Cap and Trade, Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, State / Comments are closed

Energy Innovation Series Feature #1: Energy Storage From Xtreme Power

Throughout 2012, EDF’s Energy Innovation Series will highlight more than 20 innovations across a broad range of energy categories, including smart grid and renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency financing, and progressive utilities, to name a few. This series will demonstrate that cost-effective, clean energy solutions are available now and imperative to lowering our dependence on fossil fuels.

For more information on our first featured innovation, please view this video on Xtreme Power’s energy storage solutions.

Energy storage helps integrate clean energy into the electric grid

The electric grid today doesn’t look all that different from when Thomas Edison first envisioned it over 100 years ago. Walk into a utility control room today and you might still see the “red phone” that they use for emergencies.

Thankfully, power companies throughout the U.S. see real value in upgrading our grid with modern energy management technologies and energy sources that are fast, more flexible and cleaner. Companies are taking various approaches, innovating across the clean tech spectrum from renewable energy to communications to energy storage.

In energy storage, some are working on battery technology, which – though much more advanced – works essentially the same way as traditional batteries. You charge them when power is plentiful, and use them when it isn’t.

Innovative energy storage solutions in action 

Source: Xtreme Power

Xtreme Power is a developer of digital power management and energy storage solutions and is currently designing the world’s largest battery system (36 MW) for Duke Energy’s 153 MW wind farm in Notrees, Texas, which was jumpstarted by a grant from the Department of Energy.

Xtreme Power’s Dynamic Power Resources™ (DPR®) solution combines their PowerCell™ battery” with sophisticated digital power management systems to instantly adjust for imbalances in the electric grid. Xtreme Power describes its PowerCell technology as a “unique, advanced lead acid battery that can beat lithium ion batteries in terms of energy storage, efficiency, cycle life and cost.”

How energy storage helps

Traditional fossil fuel power plants may be dirty, but they hum along pretty consistently, so the electric grid is able to manage the flow. Renewable energy sources like solar and wind not only vary from day to night, but also might vary from minute to minute, making power management more complicated.

Energy storage systems help ensure that we get the energy we need when we want it, and make it easier to use renewable energy in our homes and on the grid by balancing out a the effects of a cloud moving over a solar panel or of the wind dying down.

One of many opportunities in a complex system

This kind of innovation provides value all along the entire energy system.  It can make renewable energy more valuable by making it more predictable, and stabilizing the grid for far less money than larger infrastructure projects, all while helping us reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

When most people think of clean energy, they think of hybrid cars and solar panels. The truth is that there are countless opportunities along the supply chain for innovation, from the gears and ball bearings that improve the efficiency of wind turbines, to technology driven systems like Xtreme Power’s power management products.

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Cost-Effective, Clean Energy Solutions Are Available NOW

Today we introduced Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Energy Innovation Series.  Over the next 12 months, EDF will select more than 20 innovations to highlight across a broad range of energy categories, including smart grid and renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency financing, and progressive utilities, to name a few. This series will demonstrate that cost-effective, clean energy solutions are available now and imperative to lowering our dependence on fossil fuels.

The buzz surrounding energy innovation
Can you name a company that has invented or completely changed a global industry in the last 10 years? Was it an energy company? Probably not.

You don’t have to surf the web too long to find a lot of people talking about energy innovation. Business leaders. Politicians. Environmentalists. And you don’t have to watch TV too long to see oil, gas and coal companies selling the idea that they’re hard at work in search of tomorrow’s miracle fuel.

The fact that so many companies are talking about energy innovation is a good thing. It shows they understand the business case for clean energy and realize that carbon reduction is necessary. But too many of these conversations end without action or result in little change.

We need paradigm shifts
We need energy innovation on par with the light bulb, assembly line, personal computer and iPhone. These breakthroughs didn’t slightly improve existing technologies, they revolutionized them.

Certainly, Apple has a unique history of introducing new products that displace current ones. Steve Jobs said that if anyone was going to make Apple’s products obsolete, he wanted it to be Apple. But that approach is absent among the “energy elites.”

Tomorrow’s smart energy technology is being developed by small, innovative and entrepreneurial businesses around the world. These businesses are raising and risking capital to push our country into the next century. As in all industries, these businesses realize that many will fail for each one that succeeds. They have chosen to take that risk not to build a better widget or launch a new website, but to help us innovate our way to less dependence on fossil fuels.

We’re shining a light on energy innovation bright spots
It’s time our country celebrated, rewarded….even demanded…innovation in the energy industry the way it has nearly every other industry from telephones to computers. Those of us on the environmental side of things know there’s a benefit bigger than profit, but in a trillion dollar (and growing) market, there’s room for more than a few Apples or Googles.

The EDF Energy Innovation Series promotes the role innovation has played in the energy industry and highlights clean energy technologies and new business models that hold the promise of revolutionizing the way we create, transport, manage and use energy.  The series will showcase original news stories on featured energy innovations as well as videos and animations, interviews with clean energy experts and webinars that discuss the future of clean energy, among others.  Stay tuned to the Energy Exchange for more information on featured energy innovations throughout the year.

Learn more at www.edf.org/energyinnovation.

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Shutting Down Dirty Coal

Source: Cleanwater

EDF helped write another chapter in the history book on polluting coal generation this week.   Along with our partners, we announced a settlement with North Carolina-based Duke Energy that will legally require the utility to retire more than 1,600 megawatts of coal-fired generation.

The retiring plants represent about 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), 30,000 tons of sulfur dioxide (SO2) and over 5,000 tons of nitrogen dioxide (NOx) annually.  People who live near or downwind of one of those plants have reason to celebrate.

Retiring the oldest, dirtiest and least efficient facilities requires Duke Energy to head toward cleaner generation and modernization of its fleet.  That’s good news for everyone, considering Duke’s proposed merger with Progress Energy will create the largest utility in the country.

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In Defense of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard

In late December, a federal court district judge in Fresno ruled that California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) was unconstitutional because it violates the limits imposed on states by the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. The ruling halted its enforcement pending appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The suit was filed by refiners, truckers, and fuel production companies – most of which have the bulk of their operations out of state and would rather litigate than innovate, putting profits before people. It is yet another industry attack on the state’s landmark climate and energy law, AB 32, which consists of measures such as the LCFS that will be used to reduce California’s greenhouse gas pollution to 1990 levels by 2020.

California’s LCFS is a scientifically credible standard that was carefully designed to cut climate change pollution, protect and improve public health and drive innovation that delivers economic benefits. These are among the key reasons why Environmental Defense Fund joined California and three other environmental organizations in an appeal of the suit asking to keep the LCFS intact.

Cutting climate pollution

As designed, the LCFS reduces the amount of carbon released during the production, shipping and use of transportation fuels sold in California by 10% between now and 2020. This “lifecycle” approach to managing emissions from fuels was pioneered by Argonne National Labs and is the accepted standard used by the federal EPA and other states and nations.

Improving air quality

California has some of the worst air quality in the country. In addition to fighting climate change, the LCFS cuts pollution that poisons our air and water and results in respiratory ailments and diseases that cost us tens of billions of dollars a year in health care costs. By facilitating newer, less polluting transportation fuels, the LCFS can help California finally achieve attainment of federal health standards for air quality.

Driving innovation

The standard would deliver significant benefits to the state and national economy. California is home to the world’s most advanced biofuel and electric car companies, hydrogen infrastructure, and transportation fuel research institutions. These entities operate here because California has created an environment where scientific enterprises can prosper, and in the case of the LCFS, earn a return on investment by reducing pollution cheaply and quickly. Over the next decade, the standard provides new opportunity for innovators in and out of California to reap the rewards of developing cheap and lasting alternatives to gasoline.

The deep-pocketed oil industry can easily afford to protect its profits. Yet, as The New York Times recently noted in an editorial under the headline, ‘California’s Persistence,’ the industry is up against a state that ‘has a long and productive history as a leader in environmental policy, requiring cleaner cars and power plants and more energy-efficient appliances.’

We are confident that this standard will be restored on appeal, enabling California to continue doing what it excels at: driving advances in energy that grow the economy and protect our environment.

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First Of Its Kind Non-Profit Network On Carbon Capture And Sequestration Launched

Last week, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), along with eight other environmental advocacy organizations, announced the launch of the Environmental NGO Network on Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) – a collaborative effort to ensure domestic and international policies and regulations allowing for CCS ensure that the highest standards are met for public safety, atmospheric and environmental protection.

Right now, CCS projects are being developed by some of the world’s biggest energy and oil companies, and international negotiations are looking to provide carbon credit opportunities for use in carbon control regulations.  The CCS Network will serve as a communications medium between EDF and other member environmental organizations as we work towards a responsible CCS industry, enabling the world’s top experts from the NGO community to contribute and share ideas. 

New CCS projects represent an opportunity for long term carbon reductions, though they must adhere to best operational and environmental standards to enable long-term success.  The CCS Network will work together to find common ground on CCS-related efforts and work toward ensuring responsible development.

For more information about the network, visit: www.engonetwork.org.

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