Opinion: Page 6

The latest opinion pieces by industry thought leaders


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  • The coal-fired Amos power plant in West Virginia, with smokestacks and cooling towers.
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    Joesboy via Getty Images
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    Affordable energy in West Virginia starts with economic dispatch

    West Virginia’s utilities have been operating their coal plants while incurring large losses and could have saved their ratepayers money by taking advantage of cheaper available power sources in the PJM market.  

    Ashtin Massie, Maria Castillo, Joe Daniel • Aug. 9, 2023
  • Solar Panel Community in Austin Texas
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    RoschetzkyIstockPhoto via Getty Images
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    California must act quickly or risk losing billions in federal community solar incentives

    The clock is ticking because a federal program to support community solar requires that states receiving a portion of the $7 billion start providing subsidies within 18 months of it being awarded.

    Aaron Halimi • Aug. 8, 2023
  • The imperative of free, green and secure wires reform

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must advance transmission planning reforms and bolster interconnection rules to improve grid reliability, lower consumer costs and cut power plant emissions.

    Devin Hartman and Jennie Chen • Aug. 7, 2023
  • Smoke stack of coal power plant
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    martin_33 via Getty Images
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    Industry cries wolf yet again over EPA’s power plant carbon rules

    In case after case, industry has complained that EPA rules would be more costly than predicted. But, in fact, the costs are typically much, much less than the agency anticipated.

    Sophia Ahmed • Aug. 4, 2023
  • Floating offshore wind turbines
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    Charlie Chesvick via Getty Images
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    Despite headwinds, US offshore wind is poised for a breakout

    U.S. offshore wind ambition should be far higher — billions in investment and hundreds of thousands of new jobs, along with a stable and clean grid, are at stake.

    Taylor McNair • Aug. 3, 2023
  • Northeast's Largest Public Electric Vehicle Fast-Charging Station Opens At JFK Airport.
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    Spencer Platt via Getty Images
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    Fast charging, high costs: Eliminating demand charges won’t solve the problem

    Demand charges are essential for a utility to recover the cost of maintaining, upgrading, and building the electric grid, according to the author.

    Chip Silverman • Aug. 2, 2023
  • Electrical Power Transmission Lines at Sunset.
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    Ed Lallo via Getty Images
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    Interregional transmission: The US is the tortoise, China is the hare

    A failure to dramatically scale up interregional transmission capacity ensures the U.S. will fall further behind in the economic race with China.

    James McCalley • Aug. 1, 2023
  • High angle view of solar panels.
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    Huntstock via Getty Images
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    Everything talks to everything: Building resilience into the power grid

    In the face of unprecedented distributed energy growth, building a dynamic and resilient grid will require key elements such as data management and a transmission buildout.

    Don Tappan • July 25, 2023
  • Green hydrogen renewable energy production pipeline.
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    audioundwerbung via Getty Images
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    Hydrogen can fill a critical gap in decarbonizing, but can utilities make the business case?

    As electric and gas utilities seek approval from regulators, they will need to address concerns about hydrogen economics, sustainability and safety.

    Leah Kunkel, Wesley Miller and Jessica Wright • July 24, 2023
  • Electrician worker and electricity power lines over sunset sky.
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    imagedepotpro via Getty Images
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    I claimed energy independence for my co-op last summer — Here’s what happened next

    No community should be dictated what source of power generation they have to consume — and no group should be beholden to another group charging them ever-escalating and opaque pricing.

    Luis A. Reyes, Jr. • July 21, 2023
  • Solar panels, wind turbines and a transmission line.
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    lovelyday12 via Getty Images
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    It’s time to rethink grid reliability

    While the grid shifts from a fossil fuel-heavy system to one that is powered by clean, carbon-free electricity generation, there are three questions we need to answer.

    Michelle Solomon • July 20, 2023
  • An image of the sun setting over the Salton Sea.
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    Dramaguy11 via Getty Images
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    Digging deep: Why oil and gas should take a closer look at geothermal

    Rather than equivocating in their commitments to clean energy, oil and gas companies should draw on their strengths in innovation and cost reduction to bring energy solutions to market.

    Andrew Howell and Karine Kleinhaus • July 19, 2023
  • Electrical Power Transmission Lines at Sunset.
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    Ed Lallo via Getty Images
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    America faces another high-wire moment: This one around its energy future

    The debt ceiling bill included some much-needed reforms to improve the efficiency of the permitting process for energy infrastructure. But they were step one. The question is, what comes next?

    Amy Andryszak and Jason Grumet • July 18, 2023
  • Before sunrise solar power plants.
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    huangyifei via Getty Images
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    Bigger meals require better receipts: A call for coordinated greenhouse gas emissions tracking

    States need to work together to create a consistent, transparent and ironclad greenhouse gas accounting system, writes Abigail Anthony, a commissioner with the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission.

    Abigail Anthony • July 12, 2023
  • Large electric power transmission lines and modern wind turbines generating electricity in central California.
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    phleum via Getty Images
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    How years of mismanagement and regulatory failures broke California’s utilities

    There is a chronic misperception that Herculean efforts are required to overhaul utility infrastructure and set California back on the path of improvement. In fact, the solutions are much more basic than that.

    Jeffrey Conklin and Andrew Heath • July 11, 2023
  • Green hydrogen renewable energy production facility.
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    audioundwerbung via Getty Images
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    How hourly tracking can prevent a ‘clean’ hydrogen boondoggle

    Hourly matching is feasible, in use today and absolutely necessary for deploying clean hydrogen and building a clean grid.

    Ben Gerber and Killian Daly • July 10, 2023
  • Thick smoke billowing into the sky from a factory chimney.
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    George Clerk via Getty Images
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    From power to pharma, companies need better carbon emissions reporting

    The key to progress is interoperability, or the ability to compare, share and use information across greenhouse gas accounting and reporting systems.

    Liv Watson and Marian Van Pelt • July 7, 2023
  • Electricity from solar panels, dams, and wind turbines. Environmentally-friendly renewable energy concept.
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    bombermoon via Getty Images
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    Tapping into DOE’s $250B of loan authority for projects that reinvest in US clean energy infrastructure

    Potential projects include replacing retired infrastructure with nuclear energy or renewables with or without storage, retrofitting power plants, reconductoring transmission lines and more.

    Jigar Shah • July 6, 2023
  • Aerial shot of a housing development in Northern California.
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    Jaskaran Kooner via Getty Images
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    Local solar and storage are essential to the electrification movement

    The key to lowering the cost of electrification is energy management and demand response, starting with local solar and storage.

    Robin Dutta • June 28, 2023
  • Rural lane meanders among modern windmill technology and steel electrical pylons. Laramie, Wyoming, 2009
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    Chuck Schug Photography via Getty Images
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    When it comes to transmission, customers must come first

    The key to grid planning is first to acknowledge the central role states play so that transmission is built according to customer need, not arbitrary mandates.

    Tony Clark • June 26, 2023
  • Solar panel installer installing solar panels on roof of modern house.
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    Eloi Omella via Getty Images
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    False promises: As states tackle residential solar complaints, how companies can avoid problems

    Misrepresentations have spurred the ire of state AGs when solar companies exaggerate their systems’ potential to save consumers money, despite financing that may end up costing the consumer more.

    Clayton S. Friedman, Ryan Strasser, Mackenzie W.J. Jessup and Carson Cox • June 22, 2023
  • Water rushing out of hydro dam.
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    Kat72 via Getty Images
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    Hydropower, America’s first renewable industry, could help achieve net zero — if Treasury allows it

    Requiring energy producers to source electricity only from newly built clean power would negatively impact the United States’ ability to rapidly scale its clean hydrogen industry.

    Malcolm Woolf • June 21, 2023
  • Several vehicles lined up along a curb are blurred while in the foreground a white and silver electric vehicle charger is in focus.
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    Permission granted by Enel X Way North America
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    6 lessons from transportation electrification’s past to guide its future

    We need to prepare for a future that looks very different from the present while learning from prior experiences deploying charging infrastructure and early utility efforts to design and implement customer EV programs.

    Bryan Jungers • June 15, 2023
  • Accelerate the US high-capacity transmission build-out with voluntary, strategic co-location

    Designing a transmission route based on unmet needs for rural broadband connectivity will create incentives for landowners to welcome high-capacity transmission lines.

    Robin Allen • June 13, 2023
  • Pylon with power lines against reddish sky at sunset, rural North Carolina, USA.
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    Karl Weatherly via Getty Images
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    FERC’s backstop siting authority: Why considering emissions, EJ will get transmission built

    Powerful actors have attacked the agency’s authority to consider air pollution and environmental justice when siting transmission lines. These skeptics are wrong on the law, the author writes.

    Matt Lifson • June 8, 2023