Advanced Energy Perspectives

Last week, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) issued its first order in the Commission’s groundbreaking Reforming the Energy Vision (REV) proceeding.  We have been covering REV since it was announced last year and, as AEE’s Lisa Frantzis characterized it in a statement, the PSC’s order is “a huge step toward a better energy future for New York State.”

This week we saw announcements of significant cost savings for SolarCity, a major advanced energy investment from Citigroup, and a move into Mexico for Pattern Energy. So, costs are down, investment is up, and AEE members are taking their influence worldwide. Bottom line: It’s a good time to be in advanced energy.

Following last week’s announcement that Apple partnered with First Solar to build new solar to power its headquarters and a huge portion of its California operations, Google announced that it would be lighting up the Googleplex – its Mountain View, CA, headquarters – entirely with wind power.  Google is entering an agreement with NextEra, which owns the Altamont Pass installation, to purchase 50 percent of the wind farm’s power production. The resulting 43MW of capacity will be enough to run the entire Google campus. The deal will also bring the pioneering wind installation of 30 years ago into the modern era of advanced energy.

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.

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!