Advanced Energy Perspectives

In his State of the State speech in January, Gov. Jerry Brown announced his Administration’s determination to extend California’s climate and energy goals to 2030. The Governor called for strengthening the state’s renewable and energy efficiency goals and for steep reductions in the use of petroleum, capturing the goals in a catchy formula: 50-50-50. Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León took up the challenge and introduced SB 350. The bill, supported actively by AEE, called for raising the RPS to 50%, increasing efficiency in existing buildings by 50%, and reducing petroleum usage by 50%. It came down to literally the 11^th hour of the session, but the groundbreaking bill passed the legislature on September 11 – minus the oil-reduction goal. Still, it was a big step forward for California’s already nation-leading energy and climate policies – and on reducing petroleum use, Gov. Brown vowed to fight another day.

The EPA’s Clean Power Plan is big news. But what exactly does it mean for the industry that is expected to make it work? Greentech Media’s Julia Pyper sat down with AEE Senior Vice President of Policy and Government Affairs Malcolm Woolf for an episode of Rewired, GTM’s video series, that lays out his top five takeaways from the Clean Power Plan for the advanced energy industry – and all in five minutes.

1) Strong Market Signal Through 2030 

“The Clean Power Plan definitely helps lock in continued growth for the advanced energy sector,” said Woolf. The advanced energy industry is worth more than $200 billion a year in the U.S. and growing at a rate five times faster than the overall U.S. economy last year. The Clean Power Plan sends a strong market signal that this growth will continue over the coming years.

The U.S. solar market has been growing at an astronomical rate in recent years, reaching a new milestone of more than 20 GW of total operational solar photovoltaic (PV) capacity. The Washington Post declared “Solar energy is poised for yet another record year,” referencing GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Q2 2015 U.S. Solar Market Insight report released this week. According to the report, the U.S. installed 1,393 MW of solar PV, bringing total installed capacity to 22.7 GW - enough to power 4.6 million American homes. The growth was driven by 729 MW of utility-scale solar projects, as well as residential solar, that generated a record quarter of 70 percent growth year-over-year. And that’s just the beginning.

In this day and age where information is always at our fingertips and we are constantly connected, the lack of customer engagement in the electric utility industry - on which all our smart electronic devices depend - is mind-blowing. In 2014 alone, the electric utility industry in the United States had revenue of over $389 billion from end use customers. In spite of that level of outlay, it is estimated that the average residential customer only spends about nine minutes a year engaging with an electric utility. Smart meters can change all that. These sophisticated meters have the potential to transform how customers and utilities manage electricity delivery and use. Whether they will, however, depends on how they get put to use - and both utilities and their regulators have a role in that.

It’s not news that electric vehicles (EVs) are changing the trajectory of the transportation industry. Although they make up a small share of the total vehicles currently on the market, EVs are pushing innovation and expanding their reach into almost every segment of the industry. EVs aren’t just changing the game. They’re changing the rules.