Sabotage

Good morning and happy Friday,

In this week’s headlines, Joe Manchin killed Congressional climate action, “unequivocally” rejecting any spending bill that includes provisions to clean up the nation's electricity grid. Scorching heat waves, mass wildfires, and unprecedented floods are front-page news around the globe as President Biden announces plans to expand federal programs to help Americans cope with the extreme weather wrought by climate change.

In the meantime … solar panels are getting so much sun they are actually losing PV efficiency as Europe’s heatwave hits the industry.?

Read on for more.

Climate activists, policymakers, and clean energy developers want to decarbonize the world’s electricity supply, but shortages of key commodities could short-circuit these plans.

• Both Fortune and pv magazine have flagged the looming shortage of polysilicon as a potentially serious stumbling block for solar, with a recent article in pv magazine noting that prices have risen over 200% in 2022.
• Meanwhile, not far away on ye olde periodic table of the elements, shortages of another hot metal – copper – are chilling hopes of achieving a net-zero electricity sector by 2050.

A recent report from S&P Global, The Future of Copper: Will the Looming Supply Gap Short-circuit the Energy Transition? finds that demand for the eternal metal is projected to double between now and 2035, rising from 25 million metric tons (MMt) today to about 50 MMT by 2035.

?? The Takeaway

Shortages of critical commodities could hamper clean energy expansion. As demand continues to surge, technological advances may offer some respite, but increasing the rate – and improving the economics – of recycling key materials may become essential. Here’s to closed loops!

Federal policy regarding leasing public lands is heavily skewed in favor of the fossil industry, a new report from the Center for American Progress finds. Specifically,?

• 90% of all BLM-managed lands are open to oil and gas leasing
• >50% of the outer continental shelf is open to oil and gas development
• Oil and gas leasing is prioritized even “on lands that the Department of the Interior has determined have low or even no drilling potential,” significantly reducing opportunities for conservation and recreation, not to mention climate-friendly renewable energy
• Yet despite the need to ramp up low- or zero-carbon energy production, “77 percent—more than 78 million acres—of valuable renewable energy lands in western states are in areas with low oil and gas potential, but these lands are still prioritized for oil and gas leasing.”

?? The Takeaway

It’s time to level the playing field. If the U.S. is to fulfill its potential and help lead the transition to clean sources of energy, we need national policies that reflect a rational approach to expanding renewables.

• Blacked Out: Texas Narrowly Avoids Rolling Blackouts?
• Gut Punched: House bill for US offshore wind takes a beating
• Coal Story, Bro: Old Coal Plants Help Deliver Renewable Power
• Facelift: GE Renewable Energy Renamed to GE Vernova

• Pattern Energy buys 3-GW SunZia transmission project
• ConnectGen’s 504-MW Rail Tie wind project interconnect approved
• BLM Approves 500-MX Oberon Solar Project in California
• RWE progresses 30MW Texan battery project

U.S. Plans to Tackle Climate Change Are a Hot Mess

In 2021, the Biden Administration set forth bold plans to cut U.S. emissions 50-52% by 2030 relative to 2005 levels. While ambitious, many experts believe this is achievable – if supported by broad legislation. Unfortunately, legislation to address climate change has once again stalled in the Senate, kicking the proverbial can – or should we say, planetary/societal/economic time bomb? – further down the road.

Noting that the end of 2030 is a scant 101 months away, this Washington Post article acknowledges that under the current business-as-usual trajectory, U.S. emissions are trending downward, “But that’s nowhere near enough to meet the [Biden Administration’s] pledge.” According to the scientists behind the Climate Action Tracker, America’s goals are “insufficient” to keep warming below 3 degrees Celsius, much less the 1.5 degrees Celsius called for in the Paris Agreement.