Energy Exchange

Strong Federal Air Measures Still Needed

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 21, 2013

This blog post was written by Tomás Carbonell, Attorney in EDFs Climate and Air Program. Jack Nelson, a legal intern in EDF’s Washington, D.C. office, assisted in the preparation of this post.

Source: EPA

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency put in place last year important standards to protect public health and reduce emissions of harmful air pollutants from oil and gas storage tanks and related equipment. EPA wisely issued those standards after thousands of comments were provided by concerned public advocates for cleaner air. With oil and gas production expanding quickly, tough standards are needed now more than ever to assure air quality protections for people living near oil and gas producing areas.

Recently, EPA proposed changes to standards for storage tanks in the oil and gas sector — a major source of pollutants that contribute to smog, climate change, and other threats to public health and the environment. These changes would undermine the progress made thus far and would lead to significant and unnecessary increases in emissions of volatile organic compounds, methane, and other pollutants. EDF is urging EPA not to finalize the proposed revisions in comments filed together with Clean Air Council, Clean Air Task Force, Environmental Integrity Project, Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club.

Proposed Changes to the Storage Tank Standards

Last fall, oil and gas industry groups petitioned EPA for changes to the storage tank standards, arguing that less stringent standards are needed because these tanks are even more numerous and emit at higher levels than EPA predicted when it was developing the current standards. If anything, this new information indicates the need to maintain or strengthen health-protective standards for storage tanks. EPA’s proposed changes would instead: Read More »

Posted in Methane, Natural Gas, Washington, DC / Comments are closed

How Policy Can Drive Progress In The Energy Efficiency Market

By Kate Zerrenner / Published: June 20, 2013

Energy efficiency is one of the fastest and most affordable ways to reduce harmful pollution. Why, then, aren’t we financing more energy efficiency upgrades?

Well, simply put, there are quite a few barriers that must be addressed and broken down before energy efficiency skyrockets. Yes, there are already many buildings that have set the bar high for others to follow, but some investor and lender hesitancies still exist that we need to overcome.

Furthermore, the efficiency market cannot create itself. And it is currently stifled, despite investors’ eagerness to take part.

The problem, as the investment community sees it, is that there is no secondary market for energy efficiency loans. In other words, the pool of loans is currently not large enough to make these investments worthwhile for institutional investors. Furthermore, there is a lack of uniform standards for energy efficiency loans, limited data on loan and project performance and an insufficient pipeline of projects. There are also challenges to bringing efficiency to scale, namely:

the split incentive—disconnect between the building owner and the residents, who actually pay the utility bill;
utility disincentives—utilities generally make money by selling more energy, not by reducing wasted energy; and
limited information available to consumers on their energy use.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Investor Confidence Project, On-bill repayment / Comments are closed

Investor Confidence Project Releases Enhanced Energy Efficiency Protocols

By EDF Blogs / Published: June 14, 2013

This blog post was written by guest blogger Matt Golden, Senior Energy Finance Consultant.

Source: City-Data.com

The EDF Investor Confidence Project (ICP) is a multi-year initiative to help spur growth in the commercial energy efficiency retrofit market by reducing transaction costs and engineering overhead, and increasing the reliability and consistency of savings. EDF has worked with a cross-functional team of industry experts to assemble existing technical standards and best practices into a straightforward Energy Performance Protocol (EPP) that defines a standard investment quality energy efficiency project to enable deal-flow and investment.

In November of 2012, we released the initial version of the Energy Performance Protocol for Large Commercial (EPP-LC). We received encouraging reviews from industry allies and many industry leaders have committed to join our growing ICP Ally program, a broad based network of organizations that helps us develop, test, and implement the ICP Protocols.

New Release: Large Commercial – Version 1.1

Building on our initial success and market feedback, ICP is now releasing a new and updated version 1.1 of the EPP-LC, which incorporates a wide array of important improvements that will streamline the project development process and improve results.

Our ICP team is incredibly grateful to all individuals that contributed their time and energy to this process resulting in a more streamlined protocol, especially our committed team of experts who dedicated untold hours and contributed a wide array of industry, research, and public sector experience.

Methane Research: The Data Pursuit Continues

By Mark Brownstein / Published: June 11, 2013

Source: Kinder Morgan

Is natural gas really better for the climate? This may seem like a simple question. After all, natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel. And data from the Energy Information Administration in April showed a downward trend in U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. A move many experts believe is largely attributed to the increased production of U.S. natural gas and the shift it has caused in the power sector – old, dirty coal plants being retired because new natural gas plants are more competitive.

But, this is only part of the story. Natural gas is comprised primarily of methane, and unburned methane is an incredibly potent greenhouse gas – 72 times more powerful than CO2 over the first two decades it is released.

The oil and gas industry is one of the largest domestic sources of methane, and while new gas reserves are being drilled every day, too little is known about how much and from where methane is leaking out from across the natural gas system. Lack of direct measurements has been a challenge, as EDF’s Chief Scientist Steven Hamburg explains here.

The need for better data to understand and control methane emissions in order to understand the true climate opportunity of natural gas led to EDF’s largest scientific research project. This effort currently involves about 85 academic, research and industry partners subdivided over five areas of the value chain (production, gathering and processing, transmission and storage, local distribution and transportation). Read More »

Posted in Climate, Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

EDF Energy Innovation Series Feature #20: Renewable Energy Financing From Mosaic

By Jim Marston / Published: June 3, 2013

EDF’s Energy Innovation Series highlights 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 helps illustrate that cost-effective, clean energy solutions are available now and imperative to lowering our dependence on fossil fuels.

Find more information on this featured innovation here.

Mosaic’s “crowd-investing” concept gives people the opportunity to invest in a clean, low-carbon energy economy

Over the last decade, web-based crowd funding has grown from a clever way for fans to fund their favorite artist to a multimillion dollar funding option for just about anyone with a new widget. For as little as a few bucks, anyone can help a friend or stranger get a good idea to market, and you might even get one of the first CDs or gadgets that come off the line.

But crowdfunding isn’t really an investment.

Source: Mosaic

Oakland-based Mosaic wants to do for renewable energy investing what crowdfunding sites have done for entrepreneurs. But rather than just offering a chance to help, Mosaic offers a piece of the profit. Think of it as a renewable energy Kickstarter with a kickback.

“We connect individuals and institutions with high quality solar project investments,” said Billy Parish, president and founder of Mosaic. “The fastest way to grow the clean energy economy is to allow more people to benefit from it.” Read More »

Posted in Energy Innovation, Renewable Energy / Comments are closed

Environmental Accomplishments And Missed Opportunities From The 83rd Texas Legislative Session

By EDF Blogs / Published: May 31, 2013

This blog post is co-authored by Marita Mirzatuny and Kate Zerrenner.

In addition to passing tax cuts and making pecan pie the official state pie of Texas, the 83^rd Legislature heard numerous energy-related bills. As a solution to our Texas Energy Crunch efforts, EDF supported 13 bills that would have provided relief to Texas’ resource adequacy problems; in other words, the issues Texas faces as a result of increasing energy demand, scorching temperatures and a record drought. Among those bills (which we review on page 13 of our ‘State of the Texas Energy Crunch’ report) are a few, highlighted below, that made some – albeit not enough – progress.

Energy Legislation

A big success this session was the passage of Senate Bill (SB) 385 by Chairman John Carona. SB 385, or the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bill, clears some of the hurdles that prohibit commercial and industrial properties from taking advantage of new financing for energy improvements. PACE allows property owners to pay for water and energy efficiency upgrades or renewable energy improvements with loans, which are then repaid through an annual charge on their property tax bill. For more on this legislation, please see our recent blog post covering PACE in Texas.

Chairman Carona’s demand response bill, SB 1351, passed and was referred to State Affairs in the House. Demand response (DR) initiatives allow customers to voluntarily reduce peak electricity use and receive a payment for doing so in response to a signal from their utilities. Additionally, Chairman Rafael Anchía introduced the companion bill, House Bill (HB) 2194. HB 2194 allows for customer, or demand-side resources (DSR), from “residential, commercial, and industrial customers to participate in all energy markets” and specifies that DSR “must be designed and implemented in a manner to increase market efficiency, competition, and customer benefits.” This bill clears the way for demand response, renewable energy, and energy efficiency to become important players in the market.

SB 1280, by Senator Kirk Watson, passed out of the Business and Commerce Committee with a seven to two vote. This bill, regarding Texas’ reserve margin for the electric grid, requires that power regions (such as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT) estimate the available generation at any given time, the expected peak demand (demand at the hottest part of the day when the most energy is being used) and the amount of reserve energy needed to ensure a reliable electricity supply. SB 1280 also directs the use of voluntary load participation programs (think demand response) with at least 20 percent of peak energy demand coming from each of the residential, commercial and industrial sectors.

Senator José Rodríguez’s net metering bill, SB 1239, successfully passed out of the Business and Commerce committee. Texas is one of only seven states where customers are not guaranteed fair compensation for the electricity they provide to the grid. SB 1239 clarifies that all retail electric providers, municipal utilities and cooperatives must buy back extra electricity from residential customers along with churches and schools at a reasonable, market-based value. For example, Los Angeles implemented the largest solar buyback program in the nation earlier this year, paying customers 17 cents a kilowatt hour for excess energy produced.

In the House, HB 303 by Representative Eddie Rodriguez called for a new renewable energy goal – to supply 35 percent of energy demand with clean energy by 2020, with at least two percent coming from solar. This marks an important precedent for the clean energy standards introduced in state legislatures around the country. Additionally, Representative Rafael Anchía authored HB 2196, a bill that addresses payments to customers for renewable energy and other demand-side contributions to the electric grid.

While it’s great that some of the bills gained some traction, only SB 385 made its way to the Governor’s desk. With a hotter than average summer approaching, possibly worse than 2011, electric reliability is not a guarantee and these bills would have provided solutions to help address our energy issues. Already Texas is receiving national attention for our impeding energy shortages.

Source: www.lavacacountytaxpayers.org

Water Legislation

At the last minute, the House and Senate, after much back door negotiating and out front wrangling, approved a plan to fund the State Water Plan. HB 4, by Chairman Allan Ritter, set up two funding accounts to pay for water projects. These accounts must be approved by voters, because the bills would amend Texas’ Constitution to allow the plan to be initially funded with a portion of the Rainy Day Fund. Read More »

Posted in Demand Response, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, Texas / Comments are closed