Advanced Energy Perspectives

It was a dark and stormy session for the Texas legislature, dominated by electric power issues surfaced by Winter Storm Uri. With the Texas electricity system under more scrutiny – and more up for grabs – than at any time since restructuring in 1999, we at the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance (TAEBA) had our hands full. But when the dust settled and the legislature gaveled out on Memorial Day, the outcome for advanced energy was net positive – even though the legislature missed a golden opportunity to enhance grid resilience with distributed energy resources.

New York State has some of the nation’s most ambitious climate goals as established by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which commits New York to a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 1990 levels by 2030 and an 85% reduction by 2050. Transportation electrification is critical to achieving these goals, given that transportation is the largest source of emissions in New York State, accounting for nearly one-third. Legislation that is currently awaiting action has the potential to not only bring the state closer to meeting these ambitious goals but also encourage growth in the electrification transportation (ET) supply chain and bring jobs to the state.

This post is the fifth in a series of excerpts from the Advanced Energy Now 2021 Market Report, prepared for AEE by Guidehouse Insights.

Advanced Fuel Production took a bit hit in 2020. Global revenue fell to $184.3 billion, following its highest year on record in 2019 at $221.8 billion. The United States experienced an even steeper revenue decline, down 38%, to $33.6 billion. This drop was largely due to volatility in Ethanol and Butanol revenue, which fell sharply in the U.S. in 2020 (47%) following 101% growth in 2019. Hard hit by COVID-19, U.S. ethanol consumption fell from 15.8 billion gallons in 2019 to 13.7 billion gallons in 2020. The Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for Global Advanced Fuel Production revenue over the 2011-2018 period was 6%, while in the United States CAGR was -3%.

Since January, Advanced Energy Economy has been tracking hundreds of pieces of energy-related legislation filed in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the United States Congress. With some sessions already over and some just beginning, a number of trends have begun to emerge. Of course, just getting filed does not mean a bill will become law, or even that it stands much of a chance at all. But the patterns that arise in our survey of filed bills, which is by no means exhaustive, say a lot about what’s on lawmakers’ minds. And of course, some bills are already on the move. In what follows, bills with an asterisk have passed one house of its legislature as of May 25; two asterisks means that the bill has passed both houses (click through to see if it has been signed into law). We’ll be back this fall to catch up on what legislation has made it all the way to gubernatorial desks. For now, here is a look at our top 10 energy issues generating legislative activity across the country.

This post is the fourth in a series of excerpts from the Advanced Energy Now 2021 Market Report, prepared for AEE by Guidehouse Insights.

At $384.4 billion, Advanced Electricity Generation is the largest advanced energy segment globally and the second largest segment of the U.S. advanced energy market, at $39.8 billion. Global revenue fell 10% from 2018 to 2019 and stayed largely flat (down less than 1%) in 2020, but this weakness masks significant growth in solar in 2019 and wind in 2020. In the U.S., advanced generation revenue has grown in each of the past two years and was up 10% overall in 2020, with solar and wind both up in 2019 and wind growing dramatically last year.