“I’ll be honest, I have no idea what a gigawatt-hour is,” Colleton County Council Chairman Steven D. Murdaugh told local leaders at a February groundbreaking at a new battery factory. “But I do know what a $279 million investment will do for our county, and I know what impact 575 jobs will have on our community.”
CLEAN ENERGY
Must Be Equitable
Biden launches Office of Environmental Justice. President Biden signed an executive order creating the new office as part of an effort to improve environmental justice coordination across federal agencies. The new office will direct federal agencies to alert communities about the presence of toxic substances, support research, and track federal agency records on environmental justice issues. The announcement comes after years of organizing by advocates and communities burdened by the harms of pollution and other environmental impacts, which disproportionately affect communities of color and low-income communities. (USA Today)
CLEAN ENERGY
Has Many Benefits
Buses are an underappreciated climate solution. Transportation is the single largest source of U.S. climate pollution, and while EV sales are rapidly growing, experts say simply electrifying the national fleet is “insufficient” to meet climate targets. Enter the city bus. Research shows that supporting frequent and well-connected bus service can help ensure the country decarbonizes within the necessary timeline, since mass transit can meet people’s transportation needs more efficiently than individual car ownership. Buses have the added benefits of reducing traffic congestion, lowering transportation costs, improving equitable transportation access for non-drivers, and being deployable without building new infrastructure like train tracks. (Scientific American)
CLEAN ENERGY
Is A Good Investment
Climate law is a gold rush for small towns. Across the country, small towns are competing for federal funds and incentives for clean energy projects — from battery factories to hydrogen production and solar panel assembly — as they seek to secure a slice of the $3 trillion in new clean energy investments expected this decade. Many of these towns want to get in on the clean energy economy primarily because of the promise of jobs, revenue, and economic development. Because of their lower taxes and labor costs, many of these investments are flowing to Southern, Republican-leaning states. (Wall Street Journal $)
CLEAN ENERGY
Is Replacing Fossil Fuels
U.S. renewables to boom through 2030. The U.S. is expected to add enough renewable energy to power 100 million homes by the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Thanks in large part to a boost from the Inflation Reduction Act, the country could bring 600 gigawatts of clean power online by 2030 if the U.S. also adds adequate transmission capacity. Analysts say the U.S. could deploy as much as 358 GW of solar panels, 137 GW of wind power, and 111 GW of storage. These deployments would represent a major step towards President Biden’s goal of a zero-emissions power grid by 2035. (Bloomberg $)
Sodium batteries are coming for lithium’s crown. At this year’s Shanghai Auto Show, new advances in sodium-ion batteries show the emerging technology could remake the lithium-dominated battery market as we know it. As battery manufacturers and automakers look for new technologies to shore up supply chains and bring costs down, sodium-ion batteries have captured attention for using cheap and plentiful resources that are less prone to fires and performance issues in cold weather. While sodium-ion batteries are generally less energy-dense than lithium-based batteries, analysts say they could play a major role in grid storage and small city EV markets. (Wall Street Journal $)
Energy Department invests in a solar renaissance. The agency announced over $80 million in funding last week to support domestic solar panel production, expand solar energy access, and study more efficient solar panel chemistries. $52 million of that funding will go to 19 solar projects across a dozen states, while another $30 million is intended to integrate solar energy into the power grid. On top of those investments, another $10 million is being set up as a prize for a competition to fast-track community solar development. (Associated Press)
CLEAN ENERGY
Is Challenging
Land use is the next energy transition hurdle. The energy transition will require a lot of land, and it’s more important — and difficult — than ever to find the right places for it, according to the ICF Climate Center. To maximize the speed and benefits of the energy transition, the analysts say developers and regulators should consider factors like local grid capacity to ensure projects can come online. Grid interconnection has become a major bottleneck for clean energy, with nearly 8,100 projects waiting to plug in at the end of 2021. Today, less than one-fifth of wind and solar projects actually end up getting connected to the grid. The analysis also encourages development in communities that have historically relied on fossil fuels to ensure these “energy communities” can benefit from a just transition. (Washington Post $)
MULTIMEDIA
Video: Largest geothermal energy apartment complex in the U.S. is under construction in Brooklyn
