Getting to Yes

Good morning and happy Friday,

In this week’s headlines, the Department of Energy announces $30 million to invest in reducing wind turbine costs, ACP releases their Q4 market report, and the American West supports 100% clean energy — even in red states.?

Read on for more.

Ohi-no

Local opposition to renewable energy projects is a challenge faced by many developers, and a recurring theme in the Dispatch. An article published this week looks at how pro- and anti-wind forces faced off in Crawford County, Ohio – resulting in a 10-year moratorium on wind development – but also at the ways the larger issue is playing out across the country. Here are some key points from the story:

• National studies have shown that opposition is on the rise, particularly in the form of local laws and regulations. A report from the Sabin Center found local policies to “block or restrict” renewables “in nearly every state,” and a similar NREL study found that in 2022, there were “nearly 2,000 wind energy ordinances and almost 1,000 for solar energy.”
• Notably, people have a more personal reaction to wind and solar projects because they are often sited in and around populated rural communities. “Rather than a traditional coal, gas or nuclear power plant that might only be seen by a handful of neighbors, solar developments and wind turbines are more spread out and invite more NIMBY-style complaints.”
• Property rights are central to almost every debate on the topic of siting. A spokesperson for Apex Clean Energy, whose 300 MW Honey Creek wind farm in Crawford is directly impacted by the moratorium, noted that it “embodies a dangerous and precedent-setting expansion of government authority over local property rights” that “restricted and effectively seized the individual land rights of more than 500 Crawford County farmers and landowners, who lost the ability to decide what they wanted to do with their own property.”

?? The Takeaway

Getting to yes. The U.S. electrical grid accounts for about 25% of national carbon emissions. As NREL notes in another report, getting to a net-zero energy sector by 2035 calls for “rapid and sustained growth in installations of solar and wind generation capacity” that amounts to “more than four times the current annual deployment levels for each technology.” While “setting statewide standards for wind and solar siting” may help in some situations, proactive outreach and communication from project developers are essential to building trust in communities.

Power Up

American Clean Power released its Clean Power Quarterly Market Report for Q4 2022 – in total, the last quarter saw the installation of 9.6 GW of utility-scale wind, solar, and battery storage,“enough to power the equivalent of 2 million American homes with affordable, domestic energy.” Here are some other key takeaways from the report:

• The industry picked up momentum in the fourth quarter, making it the strongest one for the year, but nevertheless “it was the lowest fourth quarter for utility-scale clean energy project installations since 2019,” due to headwinds including supply chain issues, connection delays, permitting issues, and uncertainty over policy and regulation.
• Total clean energy installations for 2022 were 25.1 GW across the U.S., “representing a $35 billion capital investment.” Nevertheless, this represents a 16% decline relative to 2021 (the record-setter so far), and 12% relative to 2020.
• Notably, 2022 marks the strongest year on record for battery storage deployment, with full year installations reaching 4,027 MW / 12,155 MWh, which “increased the total operating MW capacity by 80%, and total operating MWh capacity by 93%.”

?? The Takeaway

Delays ahead? The report notes that “a record 135.2 GW of clean power capacity” is in the pipeline, but also that the rate of growth is slowing: “In 2021 the pipeline grew at an average of 12% each quarter, compared to just 3% quarterly growth in 2022.” Texas, California and New York lead the country in terms of capacity under development, but project delays are slowing the industry’s roll nationwide, underscoring the urgent need to address the multitude of constraints developers are facing.

• Red Dot Blue Dot: Is Ann Arbor area ready for thousands of acres of solar?
• Geo-political Gambling: The US plan to become the world’s cleantech superpower
• So Dated: New skyscraper built to be environmental marvel already passé
• ‘Non-Partisan’ Permitting: Reforming permitting to accelerate clean infrastructure

• Apex secures permit for 209-MW wind project in North Dakota
• Nextera’s 200 MW Cayuga County, NY solar project denied?
• Gage County, NE public hearing scheduled on solar energy regulations
• Ovid County, MI board approves SUP for Apex’s Solar-Coldwater River Solar Project

Four Freedoms

Many financial institutions offer “green” or climate-friendly mutual funds and other products for investors looking to support, and capitalize on, the push for environmentally friendly projects and infrastructure. However, these “holdings are heavily weighted toward large corporations and governments. Figuring out exactly what’s in them and how the funds will be used is difficult for most investors.”

Enter green bonds. Issued by banks, cities, and states, these financial instruments offer modest but relatively safe returns, and are “designed to direct funds into a community with clear insight into the projects it supports.” This week, the Washington Post’s “Climate Coach” describes how he invested $280 with Connecticut Green Bank to purchase a Green Liberty Bond.

Modeled after the war bonds of the 1940s, the goal of the bank’s effort is “to enable ordinary citizens to join the fight against climate change.” The Connecticut Green Bank still has a way to go: so far, they’ve issued about $43 million in green securities, just a smidge less than the $3.2 trillion (in today’s dollars) that the U.S. government raised from 85 million households, or roughly half the country, between 1941 and 1943. However, since 2011 the bank has turned “about $320 million in public money into about $2 billion in private clean energy investments,” which have “avoided emissions equivalent to 2.7 coal power plants operating for one year.”

Perhaps in the not-too-distant future, green bonds will catch on with the public and inspire a modern version of Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” paintings – and someday, in addition to Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear, we can look forward to Freedom from Catastrophic Weather, Freedom from Drought, Freedom from Extinction, and Freedom from Sea Level Rise. Food for thought!