Advanced Energy Perspectives

This week, advanced energy is a really, really big deal. Or, the industry is full of big business deals being made. First Solar partnered with Apple, Tesla sees stellar growth ahead, and a new report released by The Brattle Group confirms what most of us suspected – that the EPA’s Clean Power Plan will not threaten the reliability of the grid.

On Tuesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced the “biggest, boldest, and most ambitious project ever,” a partnership with First Solar to buy $850 million-worth of solar power. First Solar will build a new 130-megawatt solar power plant in Monterey County (Apple and First Solar are both members of AEE’s Leadership Council.) It is the single largest procurement deal for a private, non-utility company, and the resulting electricity generated will be enough to power all Apple stores in California, plus Apple’s corporate offices and a data center. In his article for Bloomberg Business, “What Apple Just Did in Solar is a Really Big Deal,” Tom Randall writes that Apple has been increasingly embracing advanced energy. The company already owns two completed 20-MW solar plants in North Carolina, with another in development. Apple’s data centers now run entirely on wind and solar power Randall writes, but Apple’s investment in solar isn’t an altruistic act.

Note: some links in this post reference documents in DocketDash, BillBoard or PowerPortal, applications in AEE's energy policy software platform, PowerSuite. Click here and sign up for a free 14-day trial of PowerSuite.

In 1932, only three utility holding companies controlled almost half of the investor-owned utilities around the country. In response to the Great Depression and the ensuing antitrust government crackdown, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 was passed by Congress in order to limit the size of utility holding companies and to keep the regulated entities separate from their unregulated affiliates. That law was repealed with the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which cracked open the door for consolidation of the utility industry. Now, that door has swung wide open.

Everyone knows that advanced energy is bringing jobs to California, but until recently, we didn't know just how many. Earlier this month, Bloomberg News reported that California's commitment to advanced energy investment has paid off. Companies in California's advanced energy sector are "creating more jobs and investing more money than competitors in any other state."

Advanced Energy Economy Institute recently released a first-of-its-kind employment survey of California's advanced energy industry. Check out the infographic below for insight into what those job numbers really mean. 

This week, CleanTechnica reported that 53.3 percent of new U.S. electricity capacity in 2014 came from wind and solar, 42.8 percent from natural gas. Other advanced energy sources such as geothermal and waste heat capture brought the total new advanced energy capacity to 99.1 percent of the total capacity added in 2014. Not too shabby!

As incredible as they are, these numbers shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention. Earlier this week, we took note of the release of the Bloomberg New Energy Finance/Business Council for Sustainable Energy “Sustainable Energy in America Factbook,” which is full of fun facts and figures about the advanced energy economy. Residential solar has achieved “socket parity” with power from the grid in several states and advanced meters have been deployed to more than a third of all electricity customers nationwide. Advanced energy marches on!

The first week in February always raises two crucial questions: will Punxsutawney Phil see his shadow and doom the country to another six weeks of winter? And what will the President include in his budget proposal for the upcoming year? The groundhog did see his shadow, and the President did offer up a budget, including some interesting items for advanced energy.

The budget request process is a quixotic and oftentimes symbolic effort. It is an opportunity for the White House to show to Congress and the public its priorities and how it would allocate taxpayer dollars, given the opportunity. This year’s budget request mirrored themes from the President’s State of the Union address, particularly when it comes to energy policy. The budget proposal includes a new $4 billion fund for states that goes further and faster than the current timeline allotted in the Clean Power Plan. It calls for a permanent extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and Production Tax Credit (PTC), which is currently lapsed, and asks for money to finance additional clean energy projects.