Advanced Energy Perspectives

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Uber screenshots from China, India, England, and the United States. Images courtesy of Uber.

The personal transportation market is evolving in new ways. In the near future, it is reasonable to expect that car-sharing and ride-hailing will combine with autonomous vehicle technology and connectivity to remake personal transportation. Cars may not fly, but riding from here to there will be on-demand, cleaner, and safer.

This week in the news, we have everything from more affordable electric vehicles driving demand to major investments in wind and solar, as well as a new solar+storage pipeline and blockchain technology changing the game once again. Just an average week in the world of advanced energy.

The Sunshine State is finally living up to its nickname. In early May, both chambers of the Florida legislature passed SB 90, the implementing legislation for Amendment 4. With Florida state government currently tied up in budget deliberations, SB 90 has not yet been delivered to Gov. Rick Scott. Once it has been, he will have 15 days to sign the bill or let it become law without his signature. With the mechanics for implementation nailed down, the constitutional amendment will extend important property tax exemptions for renewable energy installations, including solar, on both commercial and residential properties. Florida has long been a sleeping giant for the solar industry. Although it ranks third nationally in solar potential, the state is currently 15^th in installed capacity. With passage of SB 90, Amendment 4 will fulfill its promise – and open up the market for solar in Florida, which is poised for takeoff.

This post is one in a series of feature stories on trends shaping advanced energy markets in the U.S. and around the world, drawn from Advanced Energy Now 2017 Market Report, which was prepared for AEE by Navigant Research.

Utilities and electricity regulators in the United States and Europe are facing new electricity market realities: flat load growth, rapid adoption of distributed energy resources (DERs), emission reduction requirements, and ambitious goals for renewable energy deployment. In Q2 2016 alone, regulators across 42 states took more than 100 different regulatory actions addressing DER adoption, positively or negatively including measures on fixed charges, net metering, solar valuation, third-party ownership, and community solar. New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision proceeding (REV), launched in 2014, stands out as an example of a regulatory strategy that promotes more efficient energy use, better integration of renewables and onsite power, and more customer choice.

As readers of Advanced Energy Perspectives are aware, the Trump Administration may be turning its promises to bring back coal jobs into an attack on advanced energy. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has ordered the Department of Energy to conduct a closed-door study of the electric power system. As designed, the purpose of this study seems to be blaming the growth of solar and wind energy for the declining market share of “baseload resources,” namely coal-fired and existing nuclear power plants, and suggesting that the decline threatens the reliability of electric power service. Though off base from the start, we can only expect that such a study, with its apparently predetermined result, will lead to policy action that will attempt to harm our industry’s continued growth.  Although the Department has not initiated the customary process of seeking public input on this study, when it comes to sharing the extensive evidence in literature and practice that the system is changing, but changing for the better, we are not waiting to be asked.