POWER March 2020 - 22

GENERATION TRANSITIONS
Moving Toward Mainstream-
The Rise of Renewable Goals
More states are setting targets for renewable energy. Cities and counties are
joining in. Utilities are formalizing commitments. And economics, as always,
play a major role.
Darrell Proctor
he transition to clean energy across
the U.S. is accelerating. More than
a dozen states, districts, and territories,
along with more than 200 cities
and counties, have committed to using
100% clean electricity over the next
several years.
Utilities have joined the march as
T
well. Duke Energy, Avista, Idaho Power,
Xcel Energy, Green Mountain Power,
Public Service Co. of New Mexico, and
more recently Arizona Public Service are
among the power companies that have
set clean energy goals.
But setting those goals may be the
easy part. Achieving carbon-free targets
promises to be more problematic, as
lawmakers and regulators become involved
in the process of moving away
from coal- and natural gas-fired power
generation, and toward solar, wind, energy
storage, and other technologies.
There's also the question of what's considered
renewable, or clean, and whether
nuclear power is part of the equation.
" While present-day utilities have all
announced clean energy goals, transitioning
from standard practices to meet
these goals is a long and arduous process, "
said Rami Reshef, CEO of GenCell,
a fuel cell development company,
in an interview with POWER. " Utilities
in most cases by definition are large and
cumbersome organizations that face
enormous pressure to meet many difficult
and often conflicting goals. First and
foremost, utilities are challenged to provide
their customers with a stable, reliable
and resilient flow of power to meet
their energy demands at any power level,
at any time, and in increasingly severe
weather conditions. "
The economics of power generation
have been a driving force behind the
closure of coal-fired and nuclear power
plants, as the costs of renewable energy
decline. But expanding the use of clean
energy technologies is not without its
own financial challenges.
22
" Utilities must invest significant resources
to maintain power generation
and transmission equipment and infrastructure
for safe operations throughout
their long lifetimes and in strict
compliance with governmental regulations,
while at the same time aiming to
keep costs down to minimize electricity
rates, " Reshef said. " We need widescale
investment by the private sector to
build out and ensure that the global infrastructure
for transmitting and distributing
clean energy is stable and reliable. "
Overcoming Obstacles
As states and cities adopt clean energy
mandates, it's clear there are many paths
to achieve carbon-free targets, and many
issues to be considered.
" Renewables, though growing in
popularity, still face major obstacles, "
debate. The Trump administration's fiscal
2021 budget proposes to eliminate several
ITCs for individuals and businesses.
Though Congress likely will push back
against those cuts, clean energy advocates
are concerned the current administration's
moves will slow the march
toward carbon-free energy.
" The leadership now rests with the
states and at the local level, " said David
Hochschild, chair of the California Energy
Commission, in his keynote address at
the InterSolar North America conference
in San Diego, California, in early February.
Hochschild said, " We have a White
House that is in retreat " on climate
change, which he called " the greatest issue
facing our world. "
" The current administration has attempted
to impose regulations that
would conflict [with] state clean energy
" Renewables, though growing in popularity,
still face major obstacles. Some challenges
are a result of economic issues-some cities
and states have space constraints that
prevent them from being able to physically
build new renewable sources. "
-Ken Pedotto, CEO of Solar Simplified
Ken Pedotto, CEO of Solar Simplified,
a company that supports community
solar projects, told POWER. " Some
challenges are a result
of economic
issues-some cities and states have
space constraints that prevent them
from being able to physically build new
renewable sources. Ironically, states
with available space tend to have significantly
lower energy costs and thus
require subsidies to develop projects or
they will not be feasible. "
Those subsidies and incentives, led by
investment tax credits (ITCs) at the federal
level, are the subject of continued
www.powermag.com
and efficiency policies, " said Pedotto.
" Despite this, over 100 U.S. cities have
declared they wanted 100% renewables
as of 2019. States have taken the lead in
mandating their own clean energy goals.
Each state is responsible for creating
their own implementation plan, just as
the governments set the goals and can
mandate utilities to comply. "
" The benefit of many technology advancements
like renewable energy is
that lessons learned in one state can
easily apply to an entire region, " Aaron
Berndt, head of energy sales partnerships
at Google, told POWER. " It is often
POWER | March 2020
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POWER March 2020

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