How rooftop solar is helping New England stay cool during the heat wave
As New England bakes during the first heat wave of the summer, electricity use is surging. The power grid has so far been able to meet the demand, thanks in part to an assist from the sun.
Around the region, thousands of solar panels on rooftops, over parking lots and along the sides of roads are converting sunlight into electricity and helping relieve stress on the grid.
“Behind-the-meter solar is already benefiting New Englanders by shaving summertime peaks” in energy demand, said Joe LaRusso, manager of the Clean Grid Program at the Acadia Center, a nonprofit focused on clean energy research and advocacy.
Most of New England’s electricity comes from burning natural gas and nuclear power. But when energy use spikes, the grid operator turns to “peaker plants” to help meet the demand. These tend to be older, more polluting facilities that are expensive to operate; in New England, many of them burn oil or coal.
“Without behind-the-meter solar, New England would have needed to burn that much more coal and oil to balance the supply of electricity with customer demand.” LaRusso said. “It reduces the cost of meeting the peak, and reduces system-wide emissions that contain not only carbon, but other pollutants including airborne particles that can cause respiratory illnesses.”
As evening fell on Monday, solar production dropped off, and oil production increased. By 7 p.m., oil and coal accounted for about 1,900 megawatts of power on the grid. In the future, LaRusso said, as more behind-the-meter solar is installed, and batteries to store excess power become more common, he hopes the region can rely even less on peaker plants to get through heat waves.
To read the full article from wbur, click here.
ISO-NE CEO Gordon van Welie Announces Retirement
CEO Gordon van Welie has announced plans to step down at the end of 2025. He will be replaced by longtime ISO-NE COO Vamsi Chadalavada.
Joe LaRusso of the Acadia Center said van Welie’s retirement comes at a “pivotal moment” for ISO-NE, with power demand likely to grow after a long period of stability, intermittent renewables set to come online, and increasing conflicts between state and federal energy policy.
“I expect the transition from Gordon to his successor Vamsi Chadalavada to be a smooth one,” LaRusso said, adding that Chadalavada “is well aware of all of the challenges facing the ISO and will certainly see current initiatives such as capacity market and reliability reforms, and Longer-Term Transmission Planning and FERC Order 1920 compliance through to completion. The ISO won’t deviate much, if at all, from its current path, and Gordon’s stamp will inevitably remain imprinted on ISO New England for some years to come.”
To read the full article from RTO Insider, click here.
Cutting energy efficiency and renewables is not the answer to R.I.’s rising energy costs
Rhode Islanders felt the sting of high energy costs this winter as colder-than-usual temperatures drove up utility bills. This surge in costs has brought the energy affordability crisis front and center.
Some are pointing fingers at energy efficiency and renewable energy programs, but that’s like blaming your seat belt for a car crash. These are the very tools that help protect us: they lower energy bills over time and reduce our dependence on polluting, price-volatile fossil fuels. Cutting these programs would be a costly mistake in the long run as each dollar invested has brought back $3 in value. We need smart investments, not shortsighted cuts.
Our nation-leading energy efficiency programs have lowered Rhode Islanders’ monthly bills significantly by providing families with energy-saving measures like home insulation, programmable thermostats, and modern heating/cooling systems.
Energy efficiency not only cuts carbon pollution, it also improves the comfort of our homes. And by reducing how much energy we use, energy efficiency investments have saved us all money.
Building out more renewable energy in the state and region slowly but surely divorces our bill from polluting, price-volatile fossil gas, more commonly called natural gas.
Right now, New England generates roughly 50 percent of its electricity from gas. That’s gas we must purchase from a global market, which means prices can fluctuate wildly because of events outside of our control (like Russia’s war on Ukraine). Gas companies want you to think that the solution to these cost issues is to commit billions of our hard-earned dollars into their businesses — because they profit from fracking gas and building pipelines to then ship it into our region.
Rhode Island doesn’t need more gas. What we do need are renewable alternatives that provide more predictable and stable pricing and to build out our clean energy economy, including battery storage for long-term reliability.
As energy costs rise, Rhode Islanders deserve to have confidence that every dollar spent on the energy system is to our benefit. The good news is, there are proposed laws that can help. These bills would help make the state’s energy system work for its customers by reigning in utility overspending, deploying modern and efficient technology to get the most out of our existing grid, and making sure community members are involved in making decisions.
H5818 and S593 would restrict Rhode Island Energy from using customer dollars on lobbying expenses and shareholder benefits, and cap how much Rhode Island Energy can add to our bills each year for infrastructure costs. H5573 and S862 would give our energy siting board the ability to scrutinize transmission spending and support modern, low-cost technologies that can move more energy for every dollar we pay.
Finally, H5815 and S378 would provide resources for Rhode Island communities to directly participate and stand up for themselves when faced with proposed utility or other energy-related projects. We all deserve the ability to speak up and be heard when a new, polluting propane terminal or gas power plant is built in our neighborhood.
Unfortunately, there isn’t one silver bullet solution to cutting our energy bills. We need to make smart, strategic decisions that help Rhode Islanders cut energy demand and upgrade us to price-stable clean energy that is available right here in our state and region. But gas companies don’t want that future for us. They are driven by their profits and not our ability to pay the bills. That’s why they are pushing so hard to convince us that chopping programs like energy efficiency — which have provided significant cost savings and other benefits to Rhode Islanders — and relying even more on volatile out-of-state energy sources is the answer.
Before brashly believing their disinformation, let us take a more thoughtful approach. One that’s driven by what our families and businesses want — not one that parrots the talking points of fossil fuel companies and utilities driven by their bottom line.
Rhode Islanders have the right to efficient, modern energy systems that cut bills and pollution — and we won’t give up on strategies that help make an affordable, sustainable energy future a reality.
Emily Koo is senior policy advocate and Rhode Island Program Director at Acadia Center and Jamie Rhodes is a senior attorney and the Director of Clean Buildings for the Conservation Law Foundation.
To read the article from the Boston Globe, click here.
An economic opportunity, or an energy crisis in waiting? Data centers are coming to Massachusetts.
Have you used AI today? Or, more likely: How many times have you used AI today?
Whether it’s ChatGPT or a simple Google search, AI is getting faster, more pervasive, and harder to avoid. And all that comes with a cost. Data processing of this magnitude requires a staggering amount of electricity, at a time when households in Massachusetts are already reeling from high utility bills and the state is trying to wean itself off fossil fuels to combat climate change.
“I have major concerns about data centers,” said Kyle Murray, Massachusetts program director for the advocacy group the Acadia Center. In other parts of the country, where data centers are being rapidly built, he said, “they just end up driving up costs for everyone else — they get a favorable rate, and then average citizens end up paying more.”
To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.
Rhode Island weighs bills to quash solar incentives, net-metering
Rhode Island is considering legislation to repeal the state’s two compensation programs for renewable energy.
House Bill 6202 would place a moratorium on net metering contracts, subsidies for heat pumps, and long-term contracts for the purchasing of solar or wind energy. House Bill 6203 would repeal the Renewable Energy Growth Program, which compensates for the development of distributed generation projects under long-term tariffs at fixed prices, paying renewable energy generators cash for their electricity production.
“Blaming renewable for rising energy costs is also misguided, when the volatility of our supply costs is driven in large part by the region’s overreliance on natural gas and other fossil fuels,” Acadia Center said in its testimony. Along with the volatility of global gas markets, Acadia said, “the price of our gas and our electricity can also be impacted by extreme temperatures, supply constraints, and demand at certain times of the day and year.”
Acadia said adding new sources of both small and large clean energy can help diversify the state’s supply and insulate the Northeast from swings in fossil fuel prices.
“Rhode Island leaders can and should take tangible steps to tackle the state’s rising energy burden: pursing oversight of utility spending, introducing support for meaningful participation, and ensuring that our most vulnerable have access to affordable energy,” Acadia said.
To read the full article from PV Magazine, click here.
Regulators Focus on Energy Affordability at NECPUC Symposium
MYSTIC, Conn. — Government officials and industry executives discussed how to mitigate rising energy costs in New England at the 77th annual New England Conference of Public Utility Commissioners Symposium May 19 and 20.
Jamie Dickerson, senior director of clean energy and climate programs at the Acadia Center, said it was “a cold, tough winter, there’s no doubt about it,” but added that “the primary driver of costs was gas and oil, not renewable energy.”
He said adding more clean energy to the grid will help diversify the supply mix and drive down market volatility. The New England Clean Energy Connect transmission line, which is slated to come online at the end of 2025 should save ratepayers millions annually, while the winter-peaking power production profile of offshore wind should provide significant relief for winter price spikes, Dickerson said.
He resisted the idea that adding new pipeline capacity to the region would lower consumer costs, telling attendees that “we actually don’t see that there is an economic case for the buildout of pipelines into New England.”
To read the full article from RTO Insider, click here.
Massachusetts utility bills are climbing. Here are four possible fixes.
Rising bills for gas and electric service have many consumers up in arms. It’s charges for the Mass Save energy efficiency program to blame, some say. It’s the utilities padding their bottom line, others say. It’s too much spending on infrastructure. It’s the colder winter.
The profit margin adds to the cost of any infrastructure projects that regulators approve, noted Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation at Acadia Center, a nonprofit focused on clean energy policy.
“Return on equity is certainly something to look at,” said Murray, who has made filings asking regulators to lower the profit rate. ”They’re making profits off of every additional pipeline. Every pipe that gets put in the ground, that is profit for them.”
To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.
Ray of Hope for Diversity and Inclusion in Environmental Careers
Acadia Center will serve as a host organization for a fellow from the Environmental Fellows Program (EFP) this summer, affiliated with Yale University. To kick off the fellowship and internship program, the annual New Horizons conference opens a unique opportunity for mentors and supervisors from host organizations to meet with incoming fellows and interns in their organizations. Acadia Center was represented by two staff members at the conference: myself, Joy Yakie, Environmental Justice and Outreach Manager; and Paola Moncada Tamayo, Senior Policy and Data Analyst. Also present at the conference were alumni of the fellowship program, professionals at different levels of careers in the conservation and environmental sectors, academics, students, vendors, and others. The sessions at the conference offered insights on how mentors could support fellows, as well as peer-to-peer learning opportunities among mentors from host sites.
This year, the New Horizons conference presented an opportunity to take a pulse check on environmental progress in the past year. From keynote presentations, plenary sessions, workshops, and flash talks, speakers delved fully into the progress and challenges of the last few years in environment and conservation. Two of my favorite sessions included a panel session that provided insight on the environmental movement and another session that explored current and future directions of energy policy and practice by looking at the gaps and shortcomings of the previous years and the work that lies ahead. Speakers for both sessions were former top government advisors and current professors in energy, environment, and climate from the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, the Yale School of Environment, and other institutions.
The Environmental Fellows Program (for master’s and doctoral students) and Yale Conservation Scholars – Early Leadership Initiative (targeted towards undergraduate students) are programs administered through the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Sustainability (JEDSI) at the Yale School of the Environment. These programs, put in place in 2016, resulted from the support of various foundations to see diversity in the environmental sector following a deep-dive report by Professor Dorceta Taylor in 2014 on the lack of diversity observed in conservation and environmental non-profits, government agencies, and foundations. Today, with diversity in the environmental sector still lacking and its value contested, the New Horizons convening brought a ray of hope by gathering like-minded stakeholders on the importance of diversity in the environment.
Acadia Center believes in diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), and continues to ensure that those values are incorporated in our programs and organizational objectives. It understands that a climate-safe and clean energy future is only possible when all communities are represented in the planning and decision-making process; hence, Acadia Center’s continued support for diversity and inclusion in the programs that bring about such representation. In addition to hosting a fellow from the Environmental Fellows program, we are also partnering with the Black Girl Environmentalist initiative to support a pipeline of environmental professionals of color. Acadia Center is confident that these initiatives will lead to a more diverse environmental and climate policy arena that fosters equity and inclusion.
Trump says the solution to high New England energy costs is a natural gas pipeline project. It’s not nearly that simple.
WASHINGTON — As Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey and leaders of other Northeast states try to reduce high energy costs, President Trump is pitching a simple but controversial solution: resurrect a major pipeline project to bring more natural gas to the region.
Joseph LaRusso, manager of the Clean Grid Program at the Acadia Center, an advocacy group working to cut Northeast carbon emissions in half by 2030, said building the pipeline now would probably cost $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion.
“While the conversation around pipelines has become resurgent again in the wake of this cold winter and concerns about affordability, there really is no indication that any increase in interstate gas transmission pipeline capacity into New England would make a difference in terms of prices,” he said, noting that prices have not moderated despite the region’s pipeline capacity increasing by 51 percent since 2014.
To read the full article from the Boston Globe, click here.
Merrimack Valley prepares to launch New England’s first zero emission passenger ferries
Merrimack Valley officials are planning to launch New England’s first-ever zero emission ferry next year to provide passenger service on the Merrimack River between Haverhill, Amesbury and Newburyport. The small scale project is being eyed by other transit officials as a kind of proof-of-concept that could open the door to wider use of zero-emission boats around the state.
Kyle Murray, who directs state policy at the Acadia Center, an environmental and clean energy advocacy nonprofit based in Boston, welcomed the Merrimack Valley ferry plan, especially if it leads to other lower-emission ferries in the region.
A GBH News investigation, Poisoned Ports, has highlighted rising public health concerns about port communities’ exposure to harmful air pollution from ships burning heavy fuel oil and diesel.
“There are genuinely extremely difficult questions when it comes to certain aspects of decarbonization, particularly with heavy freight,” Murray said. “[But] certain types of things can go all electric with relative ease. Those are ideas we should be really trying to pursue … that can really drive innovation forward.”
To read the full article from GBH, click here.
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