"It's been fantastic that the adoption of rooftop solar [has exploded] over the last 10 or 15 years in Hawaii," said Hawaiian clean energy advocate Jeff Mikulina. "Now we have nearly 100,000 mini power plants on people's rooftops statewide… The bottom line is we need to get off fossil fuel as fast as possible. And it's not a question of, can we achieve it? It's a moral question that we must."
CLEAN ENERGY
Must Be Equitable
Bumps on the road to electric school buses. As the EPA’s Clean School Bus Program doles out $5 billion to school districts across the country to switch to zero-emissions vehicles, some districts say the program is functionally excluding them. For eligibility, the program requires school districts to scrap their old diesel buses as they adopt new ones, but many districts — especially those in low-income areas — don’t own their buses and therefore can’t access the funds. Advocates say flexibility is needed to help ensure all districts can benefit from clean school transportation. (Inside Climate News)
CLEAN ENERGY
Has Many Benefits
GM, Ford, Google look to make EVs a grid resource. The companies are joining solar energy producers in a new joint effort to develop standards to guide the expansion of “virtual power plants” (VPPs). VPPs are networks of decentralized energy resources, like EVs or electric heaters, that can discharge power back to electrical grids. Sustainability non-profit RMI, which is leading the initiative, estimates VPPs can reduce peak U.S. electricity demand by 60 gigawatts by 2030. That represents the average electricity consumption of 50 million households. (Reuters)
CLEAN ENERGY
Is A Good Investment
2022 auto sales & Consumer Electronics Show signal all-electric future. EV sales jumped by two-thirds in 2022 according to the latest year-end figures, even as overall auto sales fell. The Wall Street Journal reports that auto companies see EVs as one of the industry’s biggest growth opportunities, noting that EVs accounted for nearly 6 percent of total auto sales last year — up from 3.2 percent the year prior. This shift in the auto market was also on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. TechCrunch writes that the EV ecosystem was a huge focus throughout the convention, including new electric car and truck models, automotive software, EV charging infrastructure, and other types of electric vehicles like e-bikes and e-scooters. (Wall Street Journal $, TechCrunch)
Solar manufacturer building $2.5 billion factory in Georgia. Looking to take advantage of tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act, Korean solar panel producer Hanwha Qcells has decided to invest billions on a new U.S. manufacturing campus. While the solar supply chains are largely located in China, recent federal policy support has incentivized investment in U.S. production from several solar companies. The Solar Energy Manufacturers for America Coalition projects that domestic plants will be able to meet all U.S. demand for solar panels by 2040. The Hanwha Qcells facility is expected to create 2,500 jobs and production is forecast to begin in 2024. (New York Times $)
CLEAN ENERGY
Is Replacing Fossil Fuels
White House launches plan to fully decarbonize U.S. transportation. The first-of-its-kind blueprint will bring together four major federal agencies (EPA, Energy, Transportation, and Housing) in a joint plan to eliminate emissions from the country’s transportation sector. The strategy will focus on incentivizing urban planning that promotes walkable communities, investments in mass transit, and increasing adoption of electric vehicles across all vehicle types. The transportation sector is the biggest source of U.S. climate pollution, largely from gas-powered vehicles. As such, one of the plan’s main focuses is rapidly shifting drivers to zero-emissions cars and trucks while reducing reliance on cars in the first place. (Washington Post $)
As renewable energy grows, Hawaii leads the charge. The U.S. Energy Information Agency projects that roughly a quarter of the nation’s energy supply will come from renewable sources this year — more than double its share a decade ago. While states like California, Texas, and Washington have led the country in the sheer number of renewable energy deployments, Hawaii has been one of the earliest movers and one of the only states expected to reach its clean energy goals ahead of schedule. Since setting a target for achieving a zero-emissions grid back in 2015, Hawaii has raised its share of solar power from less than 1 percent in 2013 to over 17 percent by 2021 — with much of that growth coming from rooftop solar. (CBS News)
CLEAN ENERGY
Is Challenging
U.S. climate progress desperately needs workers. A skilled labor shortage and historically low unemployment rate threatens to derail the U.S. energy transition, as clean energy companies take extraordinary steps to attract the workers they need to scale up and take advantage of federal clean energy incentives. The Inflation Reduction Act’s $370 billion in tax credits and subsidies for clean energy and electric vehicles are already boosting domestic clean energy investment and are projected to create over 500,000 jobs a year for a decade. Companies have begun offering higher wages and benefits to attract workers, flying in trainers from overseas to upskill their employees, and even considering purchasing roofing and electric repair shops just to bring their workers on board. (Reuters)
