What Does The PUC Have To Do With It?

What Does The PUC Have To Do With It?

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Dave Roberts, on yesterday’s Volts podcast, interviewed Charles Hua, who is launching Powerlines.org, an advocacy organization dedicated to  help modernize state-level PUCs.   For anyone interested in PUC structural reform, the podcast is a good overview of the issues, and group in Reno is looking at reforms at our state PUC.

In Nevada, the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (NPUC) is the critical regulator.  Reno/Sparks CCLer, Brian Thornton, is interested in encouraging the NPUC to move from “cost of service” regulation (“COS”) to “performance-based” regulation (“PBR”).   It’s a complex issue, and if you are interested in participating, contact Brian at this email.

Primer: Lithium Mining in Nevada

Primer: Lithium Mining in Nevada

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Primer Note:  I’m introducing a concept called “Primer” here.  A primer is an overview or summary of the current state of affairs regarding a single topic — in this case lithium mining in Nevada.

Unlike other posts appearing here, which are time-based and somewhat temporary, Primers are meant to be “evergreen” content.  They will be preserved in a “Primer Library” accessed from the menu bar.

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Nevada has significant amounts of lithium ore.  The US needs a LOT of lithium to make the batteries that store electricity for EVs and the grid. There are two main ways that lithium is produced today:

  • “Brine evaporation” (usually by pumping lithium-rich water from underground brine aquifers and then evaporating the water) and
  • Lithium-bearing ores, such as spodumene (through a process that involves crushing, roasting and acid leaching).

Investors are backing new …

Carbon-negative biogas Startup lands $62m Series A

Carbon-negative biogas Startup lands $62m Series A

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EcoTech Note:  Agriculture waste (manure and unsellable food) decomposes into methane and CO2.  This startup, Reverion, has created new CleanTech that is up to 80% more efficient than existing biogas power plants.   They have a $100 million backlog of orders and a fresh $62 million in a Series A funding round, to be used to begin industrial-scale production of its power plants.  Reverion’s orders come mainly from farmers and industrial plants; no subsidies seem to be involved.

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Nevada utility awarded over $80M to create new solar plant in Pahrump

Nevada utility awarded over $80M to create new solar plant in Pahrump

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A Southern Nevada utility has been awarded $80.3 million to build a new solar generating and storage plant in Pahrump.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, announced in a joint statement that Valley Electric Association will receive the grant.

Funding from the U.S. Agriculture Department will go toward installing a 37-megawatt solar power generation and storage system serving Pahrump and the Fish Lake Valley Region.

Deployments of Clean Power up 91% in Q2

Deployments of Clean Power up 91% in Q2

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U.S. developers added 11 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale clean power capacity in the second quarter, according to the American Clean Power Association’s (ACP) Clean Power Quarterly Market Report.

This record-breaking amount marks a 91 percent increase over the second quarter of 2023.

For the year, there has been 19 GW of installations, which is more than double the five-year average for installations in the first half of the year. With the second half of the year historically much stronger than the first half for clean power additions, the likelihood is high for a record-breaking year in 2024.

In Nevada, Clean Energy Divides the Senate Race

In Nevada, Clean Energy Divides the Senate Race

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In November’s election, Nevadans will vote between two U.S. Senate candidates with vastly different climate and energy positions—particularly regarding solar energy, an issue that has even divided climate and environmental advocates in the state.

Incumbent Sen. Jacky Rosen, a Democrat and Nevada’s junior senator, has consistently backed legislation supporting the renewable energy transition and pro-climate policies, like the landmark Inflation Reduction Act, and has fought against tariffs on imported solar panels. 

Exowatt Unveils Pioneering Modular Energy Platform

Exowatt Unveils Pioneering Modular Energy Platform

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EcoTech Note:  New solar-thermal modular system fits in a standard 40′ container, and operates without much maintenance for 4 cents/kwh.  Just raised $20m from leading VCs.

Exowatt has a backlog of demand of over 1.2 gigawatts for data centers across the U.S. and plans to begin deployments later this year.   The Exowatt P3 modules can be deployed rapidly and cost-effectively on both small and large commercial and industrial projects. As the technology scales, Exowatt says it expects to be able to offer electricity for as low as $0.01 per kilowatt-hour, making it more affordable than fossil fuels and other renewable energy alternatives.

[Notice that no mention is made of the upfront capital cost yet; it’s probably pretty high.]

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

Methane emissions are rising faster than ever

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Emissions of methane — a powerful greenhouse gas — are rising at the fastest rate in recorded history, scientists said Tuesday, defying global pledges to limit the gas and putting the Earth on a path toward perilous temperature rise.

New research from the Global Carbon Project — an international coalition of scientists that seeks to quantify planet-warming emissions — finds that methane levels in the atmosphere are tracking those projected by the worst-case climate scenarios. Because methane traps about 30 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 100-year time frame, the accelerating emissions will make it nearly impossible for the world to meet its climate goals, the authors warned.

“These extra methane emissions bring the temperature thresholds ever closer,” said Rob Jackson, a Stanford University climate scientist and chair of the Global Carbon Project. “Warming that was once inconceivable is now perhaps likely.”

What are the Emissions Impacts of The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024?

What are the Emissions Impacts of The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024?

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EcoTech Note:  The most important federal lobbying opportunity is to press for passage of the Manchin-Barrasso bill — The Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024 — in the lame duck session of this Congress.

Third Way has integrated the quantitative analyses of several thinktanks re: the NET effect on greenhouse gas emissions.  The result?  Estimates show that, worst case, the net reductions in GHGs is about 1% … with the best case scenario showing nearly a 17% reduction in GHG emissions. See also, Nerd Corner discussion.

Measuring the overall emissions impacts of EPRA requires assessing multiple provisions within the bill, including those that could have upward or downward pressure on emissions. While modeling the prescriptive impacts of the bill is challenging, the direction and magnitude of impacts is clear. The chart below places these provisions in scene together, presenting the banded range in which potential emissions impacts could fall.

rooftop solar

Rooftop Solar Costs Decline as Efficiency Improves

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EcoTech Note:  “OK, let’s rise above principle, now, and talk about money,” my teacher once presciently said.  “That explains more.”   I think of that whenever I read this newsletter, which gets into the nitty gritty – like these points:

  • Lawrence Berkeley Lab published its annual “Tracking the Sun” report on customer-owned solar. The report shows continued growth of panel efficiency, a drop in prices and an increase in solar systems that are paired with battery storage.
  • The report is based on a sample of 3.7 million customer-owned solar systems, about three-quarters of the total installed in the United States.  Installed cost/watt is $4.20 nationally, with wide variation by state, mostly driven by “soft costs” like labor, financing and permits.  (Nevada is  at $3.40/watt and Utah is at $5.20.)
Here’s what the hottest summer on Earth looked like

Here’s what the hottest summer on Earth looked like

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EcoTech Note:  This is a reminder that while our advocacy work must sustain over the long run, it DOES constitute an emergency.  Contrary to claims from climate skeptics that advocates are alarmist, it appears predictive models underestimated how fast-bad climate change, would get.

Global temperatures between June and August were 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the preindustrial average, the Copernicus Climate Change Service said Friday — just edging out the previous record set last summer. The sweltering season reached its apex in late July, when Copernicus’s sophisticated temperature analysis program detected the four hottest days ever recorded.

Meanwhile, temperatures for the year to date have far exceeded anything seen in the agency’s more than 80 years of recordkeeping, making it all but certain that 2024 will be the hottest year known to science.