Advanced Energy Perspectives

Can FERC determine compensation for demand response? Can a Hawaiian utility dump net metering? Those questions are in the news this week. Plus, numbers are in, enough to show a boom in solar and wind installations in the U.S. last year.

The Department of Justice filed an appeal to the Supreme Court to uphold the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 745, which directed grid operators to pay for demand response services on par with power generators in wholesale markets. The D.C. Circuit Court ruled in May that FERC did not have the ability to regulate payments for demand response, citing states’ exclusive rights over retail energy markets. The Justice Department argued that Order 745 makes demand response providers “actual and integral participants” in wholesale markets, and thus subject to FERC authority.

Advanced vehicles, front and center at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show, enjoyed another week in the spotlight at the annual Detroit Auto Show. Some impressive numbers in solar employment were released this week, and renewable energy got new recognition from an unlikely source.

America’s Motor City served as a showcase of innovation with this year’s Auto Show as the major car companies pull out all the stops.

This week, the press was abuzz with planes, trains, and automobiles – well, not planes, but definitely the others. On Monday, construction began on a much-anticipated high-speed rail line in California. In Las Vegas, self-driving and fuel cell vehicles dominated the Consumer Electronics Show. But the news this week on offshore wind was not so good, as the developer of Cape Wind got his contracts pulled out from under him. 

The California high-speed rail project groundbreaking ceremony, in Fresno, comes six years after the voters passed a bond act to provide initial funding for the project. Once complete, the rail line will connect Los Angeles and San Francisco, allowing for a three-hour commute between the Golden State’s two big cities. All aboard!

To wrap up the year, we are taking a look back at 2014. Make sure you didn’t miss the other Year In Review pieces published this week: Top 10 Utility Commission Actions of 2014 and Top Trends in State Energy Legislation.

2014 was a big year for advanced energy. Prices for advanced energy generation technologies kept dropping, employment kept growing, and the industry opened new avenues of expansion. Plus, several key policy changes contributed to the rapid growth an already-expansive sector. Here we present the top 10 news developments of this past year, and Advanced Energy Perspectives’ coverage of them.

1)    EPA Writes the Rules on Carbon Regulation

In January we reported that the Environmental Protection Agency was gearing up to release its first-ever greenhouse gas performance standards for existing power plants under the Clean Air Act. By May we had a clearer picture of what the standards would look like, and how they could increase opportunities for both supply- and demand-side advanced energy technologies, and AEE released a report detailing 40 technologies that have the capacity to reduce greenhouse gas while simultaneously growing the economy. When the standards were officially released in June, politicians and pundits scrambled to make their voices heard on what soon became known as the Clean Power Plan. By September, we were starting to see how states would respond to the proposed regulations. In November, AEE submitted its comments on the draft proposal, stating that advanced energy can contribute much more to emission reduction than the draft of the Clean Power Plan contemplates, and provide economic benefits at the same time. AEE filed additional comments just before the December 1 deadline. 

This week we saw a couple of big deals announced for solar involving AEE member companies. First Solar, the world’s largest solar company, has entered into a strategic partnership with the Clean Energy Collective (subscription required) to get into the largest potential market for residential solar in the United States – residents who can’t put solar installations on their own roofs. And for those who can, SolarCity has teamed up with Bank of America Merrill Lynch on a $400 million fund to help them do it.