All Roads To West Virginia. The White House is working with Senator Manchin to drive a bipartisan option for the infrastructure bill which is currently gapped by some $700billion between the two sides. To get the reach to the other side of the aisle, Biden’s team is working with Senator Capito from WV and her group of Senators to find ways to make the bill approvable from their perspective. The two sides are talking and while there is public disagreement about where things stand, both Capito and Buttigieg seem to be indicating optimistic potential to find a road forward.

The Undertones. West Virginia needs the economic uplift that the infrastructure bill provides. In a world where coal has been driven out by capitalism, West Virginia is ready, willing and able to provide the support America needs for physical infrastructure and adopting climate change solutions. I note that the state legislature in WV recently approved solar leases and while WV is very red, it is also very unionized for labor and overlaps with the goals of the infrastructure bill. There are also billions in allocations for coal mine decommissioning and local infrastructure work that Manchin and Capito would like to bring home.

Taxes. You haven’t head a lot about the infrastructure bill adding to the deficit. Infrastructure spending is very popular on both sides of the electorate and Biden had proposed a $2.2trillion bill that was fully funded by recouping half of the tax cuts passed in the previous administration. The GOP is going to trade the tax rate increases for a smaller infrastructure bill using deficit spending instead of increasing the tax rate and nobody wants the public to really know that everyone in DC loves deficit spending when it creates revenue for every congressional district in America.

A Map Of Need. The NYT has a nice visualization of where in America we need to built more solar and wind. You’ll see that the map has pockets of resource that then rely on transmission to spread the electrons to the demand pockets which are not always overlapping with the resources.

• Reuters: ‘Real compromise’ on U.S. infrastructure bill possible – Republican senator
• Politico: Buttigieg: Americans can’t wait for ‘dorm room debate’ over infrastructure
• New York Times: Where Wind and Solar Power Need to Grow for America to Meet Its Goals
• Utility Dive: Republicans include $4B for EVs in 2nd counteroffer to Biden infrastructure plan
• New York Times: A Look at What’s Inside Biden’s $6 Trillion Budget Request
• Axios: The role of EVs in the climate fight
• PV-Tech: Canadian Solar launches US$150 million fundraise to support battery storage growth
• Energy Storage News: Around 200GW of energy storage in US interconnection queues at end of 2020
• Canary Media: Why rooftop solar and home batteries make a clean grid vastly more affordable

 Opinion

• PV-Magazine: Proposed bill that could gut California rooftop solar draws fire

Best, Yann

Have A Great Weekend. This will be the week that highlights another significant set of events in the energy transition. If you want to see how far we’ve come, read the IEA’s World Energy Outlook from 2012. 

• Utility Dive: Senate Finance Committee advances energy tax credit overhaul bill amid partisan deadlock
• PV-Magazine: Enough solar and wind to clean the U.S. power grid… available yesterday
• Reuters: The little engine that could, and the oil giant that couldn’t
• Politico: Senate Democrats pile on GOP infrastructure counteroffer
• New York Times: A Temporary U.S.-China Trade Truce Starts to Look Durable
• Solar Builder: One in three solar module manufacturers failed some part of PVEL’s 2021 Reliability Scorecard
• Canary Media: Arizona passes rule for 100% carbon-free electricity but extends timeline

 Opinion

• GreenBiz: The war to electrify – America can do it

Best, Yann

The Climate Pendulum Swings. Big news from a shareholder vote at the Exxon shareholder meeting. It appears, at first indication, that Engine No. 1, an activist investor, has won the election of at least two board seats that are considered to be in line with the fund’s climate change-related goals. Reporting highlights the need for final vote counts as the activist attempted to win four board seats but Exxon losing the election of two of their preferred directors is near unprecedented.

Emissions Must Be Reduced. At the same time, in the Netherlands, Shell was told by a Dutch court that it was obliged to lower emissions by 45% by 2030 compared to 2019. This was related to the impact that the company was causing to people though the Court gave in to the company saying that current emissions were not unlawful. The company expects to appear the decision which is not expected to be enforceable beyond the Dutch border.

So Many Billions. Ford announced it would invest $30billion to build out its electric vehicle manufacturing.

Advocate For Storage. SEIA announced yesterday that it was launching a Storage Advocacy Network. CEO, Abby Hopper, said “There is a massive gap between our energy storage goals and where we are now, and business as usual is not a recipe for success.” I guess it’s a good time to get into energy storage?

Bill Speaks, Listen. The biggest question regarding the anti-solar legislation is how it is even possible in this era. Why would the State that has invested so much in building out the solar market turn that around with a single bill? A bill you say? Bill Walton says no dice to AB 1139 and he’s getting involved!

• The Hill: In historic first, climate activists are now on Exxon’s board
• New York Times: A Dutch court rules that Shell must step up its climate change efforts.
• Axios: Ford says it will invest $30 billion in electric vehicles by 2025
• Solar Power World: SEIA creates Storage Advocacy Network to boost policy support for new technology
• Bloomberg: Fight Over Solar Subsidy Tests California’s Climate Commitment
• Canary Media: California may build 11.5GW of almost all carbon-free resources to replace its last nuclear plant
• Reuters: Extreme heat drives ‘high risk’ summer for U.S. power, especially in California
• PV-Tech: Solar and wind outpacing all other renewables growth in US
• Energy Storage News: Overheating reports prompt LG Energy Solution battery recall

 Opinion

• PV-Magazine: A cliff-hanger as Illinois edges closer to passing desperately needed energy legislation

Best, Yann

• Politico: Manchin wants more time for a bipartisan infrastructure deal
• Canary Media: GreenStruxure gets $500M to grow ‘distributed energy-as-a-service’ to gigawatt scale
• New York Times: Biden Opens California’s Coast to Wind Farms
• PV-Magazine: California poised to order 11,500 MW of new electric capacity, mostly from renewables
• Axios: Microsoft sets up nonprofit to cut software-related carbon emissions
• Reuters: Shell wins $2.5 billion Australian power contract with battery storage
• Energy Storage News: Connecticut looks to join seven other US states in setting energy storage target
• Solar Power World: EPRI releases open-source Distributed Energy Resource Value Estimation Tool

 Opinion

• Utility Dive: Taking Charge – AES CEO Andrés Gluski on meeting the demands of the clean energy transition

Best, Yann