Energy Exchange

Utility Commission Ruling to Continue Growth of North Carolina Solar Industry in 2015

By Greg Andeck / Published: January 7, 2015

North Carolina’s ranking of #3 in the country for solar energy investment is receiving national attention and prompting some states in the Southeast to ask, “What is North Carolina’s secret?”

The answer: clean energy policies that give solar companies the business certainty they need to make investments.

The North Carolina Utilities Commission did just that in an important ruling last week that keeps standard solar electricity purchase agreements in place. These contracts between utilities and solar developers typically last 15 years and cover solar projects up to five megawatts. They can make all the difference in whether a solar project is built and in a solar developer’s ability to grow and hire new workers.

Duke Energy and other North Carolina utilities sought to weaken the terms of these standard agreements, which are set by the Utilities Commission. The utilities asked the Commission to abandon requirements that they enter into long-term agreements with solar developers and sought to eliminate the ability of larger solar projects to participate. Read More »

Why 2015 is the Year for Clean Energy in the U.S. and China

By Ben Schneider / Published: January 6, 2015

With a new year comes new promises and new opportunities – and that also goes for the United States and China, the world’s biggest climate polluters.

The good news is both nations appear ready to embrace solar and other renewables, investments that will cement their recent, bilateral agreement to tackle climate change.

Here are five signs renewables will finally gain traction in China and the U.S. in 2015 and continue to grow in coming years:

China’s solar investments are not slowing down.

Even in the very near-term, China is poised for dramatic solar adoption. The country was rushing to build 10 gigawatts of solar photovoltaic projects in the fourth quarter of 2014 alone, enough to power more than 7.5 million homes.

And 2015 shows no signs of slowing down, as China and other solar energy markets across the world are expected to continue to gain ground. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Renewable Energy / Tagged China | Read 4 Responses

Dope Deal: Wall Street Journal Falls for Methane “Facts” Cooked by Industry

By Mark Brownstein / Published: January 6, 2015

Source: flickr.com/photos/earthworks When credibility is your stock in trade, it’s important to have your facts straight. On Monday, the Wall Street Journal blew it.

In an unsigned opinion piece dubbed “Meth Heads in the White House,” the paper dismisses plans expected to be announced by the Obama administration in the next few weeks that would start to tackle the huge amount of methane leaking from America’s oil & gas production facilities.

The question is a significant one, because – as the article notes in passing – methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas (in point of fact, packing more than 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide over a 20 year time frame). According to EPA data, oil & gas operations emit roughly 8 million metric tons of unburned methane annually, enough gas to heat nearly 6 million homes. Read More »

Posted in Climate, Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged Climate, Methane, oil and gas | Comments are closed

Investor Confidence Project Gains Momentum in 2014, Poised for Even More Success in 2015

By Victor A. Rojas / Published: January 5, 2015

The Investor Confidence Project (ICP), an EDF initiative designed to unlock investment in energy efficiency, experienced significant momentum in 2014. By gaining support in key states across the country as well as expanding to Europe, ICP laid the groundwork for even more successes in 2015.

Through ICP, EDF is accelerating the development of a global energy efficiency market by standardizing how energy efficiency projects are developed and energy savings are calculated.

In virtually all established markets, from car loans to home mortgages, standardization in how projects are structured and documented has helped to accelerate underwriting and create a vibrant secondary market, reducing long-term liability and spurring investment. The potential energy efficiency market is estimated at $1 trillion, but in order to realize a fraction of this market, the energy efficiency industry will need to leverage standardization to scale to this level. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, Energy Financing, Investor Confidence Project / Comments are closed

Clean Energy Conferences Roundup: January 2015

By EDF Blogs / Published: January 5, 2015

Each month, the Energy Exchange rounds up a list of top clean energy conferences around the country. Our list includes conferences at which experts from the EDF Clean Energy Program will be speaking, plus additional events that we think our readers may benefit from marking on their calendars.

Top clean energy conferences featuring EDF experts in January:

Jan 26-27: Net Metering 2.0 and Utility Solar Rates, Anaheim, CA
Speaker: Jamie Fine, Senior Economist

Net metering was a simple and appropriate rate mechanism when the solar industry was in its infancy and consumer-installed PV panels were relatively uncommon. But as policies and incentives enticed increasing numbers of home owners and businesses to adopt solar, the growing penetration of these resources onto the grid has resulted in some uncomfortable balancing acts among utilities, customers, regulators, solar providers, and other stakeholders important to the process. The objective of this conference is to explore rate structures that facilitate meeting solar development goals for consumer adoption, while striking an optimum balance among all solar development stakeholders, including utilities, and their business models.

Posted in Clean Energy, Conference Roundup / Comments are closed

Why Falling Oil Prices Don’t Hurt Demand for Renewable Energy

By EDF Blogs / Published: January 5, 2015

By: Victor A. Rojas, Senior Manager, Financial Policy, and Paul Stinson, Program Coordinator

It’s understandable that many people would look at falling oil prices and wonder what it might mean for clean, renewable energy sources. Some recent headlines even suggest that cheaper crude might spell doom for the burgeoning clean energy economy.

Over the last six months, the price of crude oil has fallen by about 40 percent, currently trading below $60 a barrel, the lowest it’s been since 2009. Continuing global production and oversupply mean oil prices could remain low through the winter months and well into 2015.

While it’s true that stocks for some of the more trusted, clean energy investments are being dragged down by dipping oil prices, it doesn’t mean demand for clean energy is also suffering. In fact, as oil prices have tumbled, demand for energy efficiency and renewable energy only keeps growing.

Oil can mean energy, but energy doesn’t mean oil

The historic correlation between the price of oil and the demand for renewable energy has been increasingly weakened in today’s global markets. Like apples and oranges, we use oil and renewables to make completely different types of juice: oil primarily to produce transportation fuels, and renewables primarily to generate electricity. From an economics perspective, oil and renewables are not substitutes: when the price of one decreases, demand for the other does not decrease. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Energy Financing, Investor Confidence Project, Natural Gas, Renewable Energy / Read 1 Response