Advanced Energy Perspectives

A heat wave hit the eastern United States last week, sending temperatures skyrocketing from the Ohio Valley to the Eastern Seaboard to the Great Lakes.  Called a “heat dome,” a formation of hot, stagnant air sat over much of the country. Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., New York City, and Boston saw heat indices as high as 110 degrees. As people strained to keep cool, spot market prices of electricity hit 10 times their usual, and the electrical grid strained to keep up. As this report from Boston public radio station WBUR – featuring AEE member company EnerNOC – made clear, it was a good time for air conditioning sales, ice cream promotions, and demand response.

The buzz this week is investment, with reports of more dollars committed to advanced energy. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, investment in solar, wind, electric vehicles, and related technologies is up 22 percent this quarter over Q1 2013, although 2013 is still underperforming compared to 2012. Most of the additional investment comes from the United States and China, as German and UK investment fell last quarter.

No surprise, given recent announcements. Here are a few: $42 million for solar farms from Eastern Bank, new wind projects under development in Minnesota and North Dakota, and a colossal 33,600 acre wind farm in development in New Mexico. Soitec, a concentrated photovoltaic firm, just completed the Newberry Solar 1 project near San Bernadino, CA, and Ivanpah, the world’s largest concentrated solar plant, is just weeks away from completion.

Nuclear energy provides nearly one-fifth of America’s electricity generation capacity but the most recently constructed nuclear power plant dates back to 1978. So far this year, four of America’s aging nuclear reactors have been shut down permanently, reducing net electrical capacity by 3 percent nationwide this summer. Globally, nuclear power generation has declined from a peak of 17 percent of the power mix in 1993 to roughly 10 percent last year, as the average age of the nuclear reactor fleet reached 28 years.

This week President Obama unveiled his “Climate Action Plan” in a speech at Georgetown University. The plan (which we previewed in last week’s news round-up) incorporates policies like new energy efficiency standards, increased advanced energy deployment on public lands, and performance standards for new and existing power plants. The plan moves the United States “toward a smarter energy future” and will “make the U.S. more of a leader in advanced energy, which is a $1 trillion global market opportunity for American companies and American workers,” AEE’s CEO Graham Richard said.

In Washington, DC, there is a talking-heads policy forum nearly every day, but few generate as much buzz, at least in energy circles, as the one held earlier this week by the New Republic (video here). There, White House advisor Heather Zichal said that the President’s much-anticipated climate plan could be announced “in the weeks ahead,” as other reports have hinted at July for a rollout. The plan, she said, would touch on three “key opportunities,” namely higher energy efficiency standards for appliances, accelerated development of renewable energy on federal lands, and greenhouse gas regulations on electric power plants – possibly including existing power plants, not just new ones, the regulations for which are already past due.