Massachusetts Bills Create New Opportunities for Microgrids, Non-Wires Alternatives

The Alliance for Clean Energy Solutions (ACES), a coalition of environmental and industry groups, discussed the bill and its other legislative priorities in an interview Monday, as it prepares for energy hearings at the state capitol this week.

“The appetite for local energy and microgrids continues to grow in Massachusetts because of declining costs for solar, progress on energy efficiency, and the attention the Baker administration has given to energy storage,” said Peter Shattuck, Massachusetts director for the Acadia Center and ACES co-chair.

[…]

The non-wires alternatives proposal is within a new grid modernization bill, H. 1725/S. 1875, that would “reset” a proceeding now before the state Department of Public Utilities, Shattuck said. The legislation puts greater emphasis on modernizing the grid via local energy than does the existing grid modernization docket.

[…]

At the same time, the bill would limit how much energy storage a utility or retail supplier could own. Shattuck said that the legislation places emphasis on securing more behind-the-meter – as opposed to utility-scale – energy storage than did last year’s energy storage bill.

“We’re glad to see utilities entering the energy storage market. Eversource, in their rate case, has a significant $100 million of storage proposed across four projects. But there is a clearly a big market for behind the meter storage as well,” Shattuck said.

[…]

Among the several green energy proposals, ACES’s top priority for this year is a bill that increases the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 40-50 percent by 2030, with annual increases running two to three percent after that.  The state’s current RPS requires that 12 percent of electricity come from renewables this year, rising to 15 percent by 2020. RPS requirements benefit microgrids because they create a revenue stream – renewable energy credits – for green energy development. New microgrids often include renewables, solar in particular.

“Given the federal government’s retrograde energy policies, it’s critical that states show a willingness to embrace clean energy solutions,” said Shattuck. “We’re proud of the direction our ACES members have taken in ensuring that Massachusetts remain a leader in the nation’s clean energy future.”

Read the full article from Microgrid Knowledge here.

 

Northeastern states moving on carbon pricing

Peter Shattuck, director of clean energy initiatives for the regional environmental advocacy group Acadia Center, noted that it was a Republican governor, George Pataki of New York, who proposed RGGI in the face of environmental inaction from President George W. Bush. Four of the region’s original seven RGGI signatories were Republicans.

“In a strange way – this may be one of the silver linings of the Trump administration,” he said. “As he guts every major climate policy that was put in place over the last eight years, there’s a need for governors in the region to step forward and show some leadership.”

Read the full article from Yale Climate Connections here.

Forum: We need to reduce energy costs, not tax ratepayers

Op-ed by Bill Dornbos and John Harrity in the New Haven Register.

The Senate Republican proposal to raid ratepayer funds for energy efficiency and renewable energy would decimate successful programs that reduce energy costs for Connecticut businesses and families. But that’s not all. Their proposal would also stifle job growth in the state’s rapidly expanding energy efficiency and solar industries, and it’s about the worst thing Connecticut could do as the harmful impacts of climate change become more apparent every day.

The Senate Republicans’ revised budget would not only divert $68 million annually from Connecticut’s award-winning energy efficiency programs into the General Fund for the next two fiscal years — a major cut that would reduce electric efficiency programs by about one-third — but it would also plunder almost half of the ratepayer funding for Connecticut Green Bank and its renewable energy programs.

In doing so, the Senate Republicans would convert cost-effective investments that save consumers money into a new energy tax on ratepayers to shore up the state’s budget deficit. Every dollar invested in energy efficiency last year produced $3.89 in lifetime savings on utility bills. But this new energy tax would slash that productive investment and then, even worse, cause significant and immediate job losses in Connecticut’s energy efficiency and renewables sectors, crippling these thriving industries at a time when we need to foster local economic growth and job creation to increase state revenues.

These raids also run completely counter to our state’s governing energy strategy, which, wisely, makes efficiency our first fuel source. The benefits of this choice are many and undeniable. Energy efficiency investments made in 2016, for instance, will save consumers an estimated $962 million in lifetime bill savings. Those same investments will also generate approximately 12,000 jobs in Connecticut because energy efficiency replaces fossil fuels imported from out of state with in-state labor. Last year’s investments will also protect public health and the environment by cutting carbon emissions and local air pollution.

The Senate Republican’s proposed budget inflicts even more harm by raiding $26 million annually from the market-based Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Unfortunately, the Democrats’ budget also raids RGGI, which reinvests money from carbon emission auctions in the energy efficiency programs and in the Green Bank. This funding was intended to reduce energy costs and speed the deployment of local clean energy, like rooftop solar — and it has worked.

Plus, the Green Bank has leveraged its RGGI funding to help attract tens of millions of dollars in private investment for in-state projects. Manufacturers and businesses helped by these investments have seen reductions in energy costs. And these reduced energy costs mean more competitive Connecticut companies sustaining more jobs for Connecticut workers.

Beyond these economic arguments is the critical concern about undermining our commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is the most important issue facing all of us for the rest of our lives. And we are fortunate to live in a state that has provided bipartisan leadership in addressing this issue. Governor Malloy’s recent announcement that Connecticut would remain committed to the standards of the Paris Climate Agreement – despite President Trump’s withdrawal from the pact — is just the latest example of such leadership.

Connecticut’s legislature has mandated ambitious, yet achievable, goals for reducing in-state emissions. Harnessing ratepayer funds to invest in zero-carbon efficiency and renewables is a critical means to achieving those goals. We cannot afford to take a break or divert funds or wait for a good budget year to do this important work. Climate change is real, it is relentless, and it is unfolding more quickly than predicted. And it has a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable residents of our state, including working families.

Our kids, and their kids – and children around the world – expect and deserve to grow up in a world that is habitable. We must not step back from our responsibility to future generations in a short-sighted and misguided effort to balance the budget.

Protecting ratepayer funds that support energy efficiency and clean energy programs is good for consumers, good for homeowners and businesses, good for workers, good for people who breathe our cities’ air, and good for the climate.

John Harrity is president of the Connecticut State Council of Machinists. Bill Dornbos is Connecticut director and senior attorney at Acadia Center. Both serve on the steering committee for the CT Roundtable on Climate and Jobs (www.CTClimateandJobs.org).

EnergyVision 2030: What the numbers tell us about how to achieve a clean energy system

What impact will current efforts to expand clean energy markets in the Northeast have over time? Where can we do more to advance these markets? What specific increases in clean energy are needed to adequately reduce carbon pollution and meet targets for deep reductions in climate pollution? What does the data show about claims that more natural gas pipeline capacity is needed?

A few years ago, Acadia Center released a framework entitled EnergyVision, which shows that a clean energy future can be achieved in the Northeast by drawing on the benefits of using clean energy to heat our homes, transport us, and generate clean power. Many studies have shown that a clean energy future will improve public health, increase consumer choice, and spur economic growth by keeping consumer energy dollars in the region. States have started to move towards the future put forward in our EnergyVision framework supporting key clean energy technologies like rooftop solar, electric vehicles, and wind, and increasing investments in energy efficiency and upgrades to the grid.

But other voices have tried to slow or even block progress toward a clean energy future. Claims that the region needs more natural gas capacity continue to be made, most recently by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and states are not uniformly moving forward in all areas of clean energy development. Efforts to reform the power grid vary from state to state, and the data needed to identify what our energy system could look like in a few years and what contribution clean energy can make has not been gathered.

To fill these important information gaps and help answer these questions, Acadia Center undertook a comprehensive analysis of the Northeast’s energy system. Using a data based approach, we looked at where current state and regional efforts to expand clean energy stand and what emissions reductions and growth in markets for clean energy technologies those efforts will produce. We then examined what expansions in clean energy are needed to attain state goals to reduce climate pollution. The result is EnergyVision 2030, an analysis of the energy system that provides a clear pathway towards a clean energy future that empowers consumers in the Northeast.

EnergyVision 2030 demonstrates that the Northeast region can be on track to a clean energy system using technologies that are available now. In the last several years, clean technologies have advanced rapidly, and they offer states an unprecedented opportunity to transform the way energy is produced and used. For example:

  • The nation’s first offshore wind project has recently come online in Rhode Island
  • Electric heat pumps that work in the cold climates of the Northeast are now readily available
  • There has been a dramatic increase in the number of electric vehicle options on the market
  • Efforts to modernize our electric grid are underway in several states
  • Onshore wind is now the lowest-cost electric resource in some reports
  • Massachusetts and Rhode Island have redefined the levels of energy efficiency that can be consistently achieved.

 

And the list goes on.

To determine what growth in key clean energy technologies is needed, Acadia Center used a well-respected model1 to analyze the energy system as it might look in the year 2030 under different conditions. First, EnergyVision 2030 shows what the energy system would look like under current trends, and then if policies were put in place to expand markets for newer technologies more quickly—at rates leading states are already achieving.

With this approach, EnergyVision 2030 finds that the first generation of climate and energy policies has successfully built a foundation for progress. Energy efficiency, renewable portfolio standards, and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) have all contributed to declining emissions since the early 2000s.

To be on track to meet state targets for emissions reductions the region needs to achieve a 45% emissions reduction by 2030.2 We used this 45% reduction as a target to develop our “Primary Scenario,” which features individual targets for clean energy technologies that together would reduce emissions 45%. We also modeled what it would take to get to a 50% reduction, in our “Accelerated Scenario.”

Policy changes drive both of these scenarios, which would see lagging states catch up to leaders like Massachusetts in energy efficiency and other areas, expand and extend renewable portfolio standards as New York has recently done, and grow markets for newer clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and cold climate heat pumps. In other words, if all states did what leading states are doing in each area—if they expanded building heat pumps like Maine, electric vehicles and solar like Vermont, energy efficiency like Massachusetts and Rhode Island, and utility reform like New York—the Northeast would achieve its emissions goals.

The table below shows how much selected clean energy technologies will expand by 2030 under current trends and in the Primary and Accelerated Scenarios.

To foster these clean energy markets, states can redouble their efforts and create a second generation of clean energy policies building on their initial success. The following policy recommendations will help make this possible. A more complete list is available at 2030.acadiacenter.org.

Clean Energy:

  • Extend and increase rooftop and community solar
  • Expand Renewable Portfolio Standards

 

Electric Vehicles:

  • Strengthen market for electric vehicles through consumer incentives and better electric rate design

 

Lower-Cost Heating:

  • Increase the market for heat pumps through incentives and education
  • End policies that promote natural gas pipeline expansion

 

Electric Grid:

  • Modernize and optimize the energy grid
  • Reform utility incentives and regulation to better align them with state policy goals

 

EnergyVision 2030 combines detailed data analysis and policy recommendations to provide a tool for policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders to demonstrate both why state-level policy changes are needed and what we can do to make those changes happen, putting us on the path to a clean energy system. As with the first generation of clean energy policies, results can take significant time to accumulate, so action is needed now to ensure the region is ready to meet 2030 goals. EnergyVision 2030 gives us the targets and tools we need to begin working toward those policy changes today.

EnergyVision 2030 is available as an interactive website and in printable formats at 2030.acadiacenter.org.

 

1 Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning (LEAP) system from Stockholm Environment Institute
2 45% emissions reduction from 1990 levels

The last large coal plant in New England has shut down

The coal plant was the state’s number one emitter of toxins into the environment, and hot water discharged into the bay was killing fish. A decade ago, plant owner Dominion Energy spent a $1 billion to clean up its act and comply with court rulings, but it was too little too late.

Peter Shattuck, director of the Acadia Center’s Clean Energy Initiative, says Dominion didn’t realize there was a revolution going on in energy production — away from coal to natural gas, renewable resources and efficiency.

Read the full article from Daily Kos here.

Here’s what some are saying about Trump’s decision to pull out of Paris Climate Agreement

Daniel Sosland, president of Acadia Center, a nonprofit: “The Northeast region has successfully proven the benefits of pursuing a clean energy, low polluting economy: states have reduced climate pollution while enjoying greater economic growth, job creation and public health benefits. This significant progress on clean energy under both Republican and Democratic leadership at the state and federal level serves as a prime example of what is possible across the nation.”

Read the full article from Mainebiz here.

Mass. joins other states to fulfill US pledges on carbon

“Massachusetts and other RGGI states now have an opportunity to recommit to climate leadership by strengthening the program to deliver deep reductions in carbon pollution,” said Peter Shattuck, director of the Acadia Center in Massachusetts, an environmental advocacy group.

Read the full article from the Boston Globe here.

State and Regional Climate Action Critical as the Trump Administration Turns Its Back on a Clean Energy Future

BOSTON — Today, as President Donald Trump announces he will pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement, Acadia Center is calling for redoubled action at the state and local level to counter the damaging effects of this move by the administration. Studies, including a recent report by Acadia Center, show that the states have the capacity to build a low-carbon energy system that empowers consumers and advances economic growth. As the federal government increasingly turns against consumer-friendly climate policies, the states must act to advance this clean energy future.

“The economic and environmental future of the United States depends upon growing a clean energy economy,” stated Daniel Sosland, president of Acadia Center. “Advancing clean energy technologies improves public health, lowers energy costs, makes the U.S. more energy independent, keeps energy dollars here at home, builds jobs in this booming industry and reduces climate pollution. While the Trump Administration’s decision to leave this historic multi-national agreement will disadvantage the U.S. economically and cede leadership of the clean energy economic powerhouse to China, India and other nations—state, regional and community leadership can and must fill the gap left by this ill-informed decision,” Sosland said.

“The Northeast region has successfully proven the benefits of pursuing a clean energy, low polluting economy: states have reduced climate pollution while enjoying greater economic growth, job creation and public health benefits. This significant progress on clean energy under both Republican and Democratic leadership at the state and federal level serves as a prime example of what is possible across the nation.”

From increasing investments in energy efficiency that reduced energy bills to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), the Northeast’s cap-and-invest program to reduce climate pollution, states have acted to embrace the clean energy future through regional cooperation. Since 2008, RGGI has helped the region reduce emissions nearly 40% and supported over $2 billion in clean energy programs that have allowed consumers to save billions in energy costs as well as from avoided health costs associated with emissions.

Acadia Center’s recent analysis of the Northeast’s energy system, EnergyVision 2030, shows that the states can achieve a clean energy future for all of their residents and dramatically reduce emissions by embracing available technologies. If states follow the recommendations in EnergyVision 2030, they will reduce emissions 45% by 2030 and be on track to cut emissions 80% by 2050—roughly the same target with which the U.S. was set to comply under the Paris accord.

Media Contacts:
Dan Sosland, President
dsosland@acadiacenter.org, 207-236-6470

Krysia Wazny, Communications Director
kwazny@acadiacenter.org, 617-742-0054 x107

Letters: Tesla Doesn’t Threaten Dealers

Recent publications in The Courant have highlighted a common concern that the direct sale of electric vehicles from manufacturers to consumers will result in job losses at car dealerships [May 23, Letters, “Dealerships Matter“; May 23, courant.com, “Auto Dealers Fighting Tesla Pitch to Sell Cars Directly to Customers“]. Analysis done by Acadia Center, however, demonstrates that this suspicion is unfounded.

Acadia Center demonstrated that no jobs have been lost at car dealerships in its report “Direct Sales of Electric Vehicles in Connecticut: Assessment of Employment Impacts at Existing Car Dealerships.” The analysis looked at all major occupations within the auto dealership employment sector in nearby states that allow for electric vehicle direct sales, using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the New York Department of Labor.

Read the full letter to the editor in the Hartford Courant here.

In Somerset, Last Coal-Burning Power Plant In Mass. Shuts Down

Peter Shattuck, director of the Acadia Center’s Clean Energy Initiative, says Dominion didn’t realize there was a revolution going on in energy production — away from coal to natural gas, renewable resources and efficiency.

“The owners really got caught flatfooted, though,” he said. “They put a ton of money into that facility and basically had to drop it a couple of years later.”

[…]

“We’re putting all of our eggs in a big natural gas basket, and it’s risky,” said Shattuck, of the Acadia Center.

He warns we’ve become dangerously over-reliant on natural gas to generate electricity, adding that we need to look to alternatives.

“Brayton is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to show we can go straight from coal to clean energy,” Shattuck said. “We know how to do this. We have the tools: offshore wind, energy storage — these are the technologies of the future. We just need to use them in a smart way to make the grid stronger.”

Read and listen to the full story from WBUR Public Radio here.