The National Law Review covered comments by AEE's Senior Vice President for Policy and Government Affairs, Malcolm Woolf, in an article entitled, "Grid of the Future: Opportunities, Challenges, and Solutions in Corporate Energy Procurement." From the article:
AEE Senior Vice President of Policy, Malcolm Woolf, followed with a presentation highlighting policy issues, including:
- Advanced energy provides substantial economic benefits. In 2015, advanced energy generated over $200B in revenue in the U.S., which was more than the $190B in revenue generated by pharmaceutical energy.
- Advanced energy produces jobs. The advanced energy sector is growing at 5 times the U.S. economy.
- Companies are increasingly seeking advanced energy (71% of Fortune 100 companies and 43% of Fortune 500 companies have set climate and/or clean energy targets), but face policy barriers resulting in an inability to access advanced energy. This increased market demand provides a political opportunity to reframe advanced energy– that is, policies need to change in order to allow powerful companies to access the commodity they desire.
- Despite the exciting growth among corporations interested in PPAs, it is difficult to actually execute deals. Creative structures are being devised to overcome some obstacles. But all companies should have a selection of clear, straightforward pathways to decide how, when, and where to access advanced energy.
- Four major state-level barriers to corporate access to advanced energy are the following: (i) state laws that prohibit third-party off-site PPAs; (ii) renewable energy tariffs that impose a premium over market rates (when PPAs for renewables in some areas are priced lower than utility rates); (iii) state laws that prohibit third-party on-site purchasing of power; and (iv) few states have adopted statutory authority for community renewables projects.
Read the full article here.