Advanced Energy United Reports

On Friday, August 12, the Inflation Reduction Act (H.R. 5376, IRA) passed the U.S. House of Representatives, the final stop in the legislative process before it arrives at President Biden’s desk for his signature. With over $396 billion in direct federal investments in advanced energy, transportation, and manufacturing, the IRA represents the largest climate and clean energy bill in US history – as well as one of the largest pieces of industrial policy in the modern era.

AEE’s Advanced Energy Manufacturing and Infrastructure (AEMI) Working Group dug into the details of the IRA and produced this detailed synopsis, cross-referencing it with other publicly available summaries to ensure accuracy. Many thanks to the team at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, which provided a careful review and additional analysis.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 and Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will deliver unprecedented investment in advanced energy deployment and production in the United States. Drawing on previous Advanced Energy United (previously Advanced Energy Economy) reports on federal stimulus proposals, this report estimates the economic impact of these two federal laws, both nationally and in 13 selected states. This analysis shows that the combined $444 billion invested through IIJA and IRA will stimulate an additional $1.2 trillion in private investment and result in:

• $2.8 trillion in total incremental economic activity (GDP)
• An increase in employment by 23 million jobs (in job-years)
• $505 billion in tax collections, and
• $60 billion in annual consumer savings

This would represent a six-fold return on investment of federal dollars in advanced energy growth.

Advanced Energy United (previously Advanced Energy Economy)’s vision is 100% clean electricity and electrified transportation in the U.S., and we support a broad range of technologies, products, and services that will get us to that goal.

A team of 13 graduate students in Columbia University’s MPA in Environmental Science and Policy program worked to develop for AEE recommendations to accelerate the adoption of electric school buses in some of the country’s most promising markets. Through a series of policy and financial recommendations, the Columbia team identified pathways to adoption in support of AEE’s ongoing work in three fast-growing Sun Belt states – Arizona, Florida, and Texas. The report discusses the current landscape surrounding energy markets and regulation in these states, analyzes political considerations affecting electric school bus adoption, and provides recommendations for accelerating the transition to emissions-free school transportation fleets.

Acceleration of the clean energy transition is dramatically shifting the types of electric generation technologies used to meet electricity demand and reliably operate the grid. Rapid cost declines in advanced energy technologies like wind, solar, and energy storage are making them increasingly competitive choices for new generation additions. While there has been considerable attention devoted to determining the reliability value of these new resource types, the methods used to evaluate the resource adequacy, or capacity value, of conventional thermal generating resources (including coal, natural gas, and oil-fired power plants) have not been formally reexamined or updated in decades.

Information technology (IT) and data solutions are a central focus of modern enterprise in every industry. Many industries have made the transition from traditional, on-premises IT solutions to cloud computing — and those industries have subsequently benefited from the scalability, flexibility, and efficient use of capacity cloud computing offers. However, regulations that have been in place for nearly a century have delayed the ability of utilities to transition from on-premises systems to cloud computing services. This paper, from AEE and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), examines the regulatory reforms needed to modernize the IT systems that utilities depend on to provide safe, reliable, and efficient operations. 

FERC Order 2222 requires exceptional coordination between distribution utilities, RTOs/ISOs, aggregators, and state regulators. This report, from Advanced Energy Economy and GridLab, a non-profit mission-driven electric grid consultancy group, provides a framework for state regulators to navigate key issues as utilities look to improve integration of distributed energy resources (DERs) into wholesale markets in the coming years.

With the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, funds will be available to state, local, and tribal governments for a variety of advanced energy infrastructure. The bill provides funding to address some of state and local policymakers’ top energy priorities, such as ensuring a reliable electric grid, lowering energy bills, and supporting advanced energy jobs. This document outlines key federal funding streams for supporting these priorities, as well as information about how to access the funds.