Report: Clean energy kept lights on during New England heat wave
A new report revealed how local, “behind-the-meter” solar installations came to the rescue during New England’s recent historic heat wave.
On June 24, ISO New England issued a “power caution” and multiple energy alerts as record temperatures triggered a decade-high electricity demand.
Jamie Dickerson, senior director of clean energy and climate programs at the nonprofit Acadia Center, said solar panels helped ensure people had power throughout the day.
“Solar was helping not just deliver megawatt-hours but also suppressing demand for the entire region,” Dickerson pointed out. “Basically helping ensure that the grid could keep the lights on, could keep the air conditioning running.”
He added it helped save ISO customers more than $8 million on one of the most expensive power days of the year.
Renewable energy backers warn the loss of federal tax credits for solar panels and other green technologies will only slow future development and limit the region’s response to the next peak power event.
Landmark investments in clean energy made possible by the Inflation Reduction Act were largely eliminated by the federal budget bill signed into law by President Donald Trump last week. Massachusetts taxpayers alone benefited from more than $200 million in tax credits for home energy efficiency updates.
Dickerson noted the improvements ease the burden on the power grid in a warming climate.
“Those resources are susceptible to equipment failure and to outages, and there is correlated outage risk across the very large fleet of natural gas generation in the region,” Dickerson explained. “All the more reason why we need to diversify the region’s portfolio.”
He emphasized the removal of federal tax credits will not entirely handicap states’ ability to increase solar development. Massachusetts recently revised its solar program to encourage development in low-income communities as well as rooftop solar installations.
To read the full article from Public News Service, click here.
Rooftop solar strengthens electric grid during recent heat wave
Experts say that roof mounted solar panels moderated electric demand and prices on the New England electric grid during the recent heat wave.
Jamie Dickerson with Acadia Center, an energy nonprofit, said so-called ‘behind the meter’ solar sent to homes and businesses reduces the overall need for electricity at peak periods.
During intense heat on June 24, generation from homes and businesses helped keep the grid running even as operator ISO New England was forced to fire up reserve energy resources after it fell short of requirements.
“Clean energy in fact saved consumers millions of dollars in wholesale electricity market costs and played a vital role in keeping the light on and the air conditioning running,” Dickerson said.
To read the full article from Maine Public, click here.
A Heat Pump Might Be Right for Your Home. Here’s Everything to Know.
They’re the most energy-efficient way to handle both heating and cooling in your home; they also tend to be the most affordable choice in the long term, once you factor in tax credits and incentives as well as decreased utility bills. And they’re usually better for the environment and generally considered to be one of the best ways for homeowners to reduce their carbon footprint without sacrificing comfort. In other words, they’re a win-win.
“A heat pump is probably the biggest thing that consumers can do to help fight the climate crisis,” said Amy Boyd, director of policy for the Acadia Center, a regional research and advocacy organization focusing on clean-energy policy in the Northeast.
Heat pumps also happen to rank among the quietest and most comfortable options available for home heating and cooling.
To read the full article from New York Times’ Wirecutter, click here.
A Message from Acadia Center President, Daniel Sosland on the Passage of the “Big Beautiful Bill”
The so-called ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ is a direct attack on our clean energy future, public health, and the citizen input that is essential to a functioning democracy. By slashing clean energy investments and tax credits, it will raise consumer costs—hiking energy bills by $110 next year and $400 annually within five years—while killing jobs in renewable energy and forcing reliance on expensive, volatile fossil fuels. The bill will severely increase risks to the reliability of our power grid by kneecapping the very clean energy resources that are quickest to deploy, most cost effective, and just recently came to the rescue during a historic summer heat wave event. At the same time, it weakens air pollution controls, increasing asthma, heart disease, and premature deaths, all while cutting Medicaid funding, disproportionately harming low-wealth and communities of color. What’s more, it silences the public and limits scrutiny, allowing developers to short-cut environmental reviews and bypass community input while handing millions of acres of public lands to oil and gas companies. This bill isn’t just bad policy—it’s a giveaway to the most powerful at the expense of working families, public health, and the climate. It is a sad day in America when laws are enacted – by a single vote – to override the right to clean air, affordable energy, and a say in our future. Acadia Center is determined to make the case for a clean energy future, support state and community action, rebut false claims and document the damage done to clean air and energy affordability by this regressive legislation.
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.
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