Panel Says We Will Win The Climate Change Battle (Their Mouths To Universe’s Ears)

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: The Center for America Progress (CAP) held its IDEAS conference yesterday, and the most interesting discussion with Amy Harder with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, progressive activist Tom Steyer and Senior Vice President of Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization, Hip Hop Caucus Mustafa Ali.

Washington State has one of the most progressive solar policy structures in the United States, and Inslee says he believes that progress will continue in the form of the first carbon tax, which is on the ballot as an initiative in his state.

Steyer said – again – that he believes the only way climate change will be defeated is as part of broader coalition that wins elections and makes a strong pitch for community solar.

Ali made the critical point that the United States must fight climate change in a way that doesn’t just push it to underservered, low-income communities.

SolarWakeup’s View: At yesterday’s Center for American Progress (CAP) Ideas Conference, Axios reporter Amy Harder sat down with Washington Governor Jay Inslee, progressive activist Tom Steyer and Senior Vice President of Climate, Environmental Justice & Community Revitalization, Hip Hop Caucus Mustafa Ali, to discuss climate change. What ensued was a fascinating discussion that lasted about 10 minutes and I’m sure will be its own video at some point, like CAP did last year (right now it’s smack in the middle of an eight-hour video of the entire conference).

Several interesting things did come out of the discussion, including:

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Inslee is either running for president in 2020 or at least broadening his national profile so he can be part of the next Democratic administration. Oh, and he touted Washington’s work on climate change, including a carbon “fee” that will be on the ballot in November, which he believes will pass overwhelmingly.

Steyer, who in case you haven’t been paying attention is backing two critical pro-solar initiatives in Michigan and Nevada, said he believes climate change can’t be a stand-alone issue and that it has to be part of a larger progressive agenda to bring a coalition of people to the polls in November.

Ali focused on the importance of making sure underserved and low-income communities aren’t left behind in the climate change battle, saying the overall benefits – cleaner air and water, for example – should also be tied to jobs in those communities (which allowed Inslee to pipe up and tout his own state’s solar plan which, he says, invests money specifically to address the problems Ali highlighted).

The whole discussion is interesting and worth your time. I did a nice thing for you and shared the link that starts at the beginning of the panel. So go watch it now (and listen especially to Ali – his points are important additions to the discussion and are critical to its success).

More:

CAP IDEAS Conference discussion of climate change:

The Energy Show: Best Ways To Heat Hot Water For Your Home

We’re talking about hot water this week. No — I’m not in trouble with my local utility again — just discussing the best ways to heat water for your home. Our focus is on domestic hot water (DHW). This is hot water that you use for your kitchen, bathing and laundry. In the U.S., the average home uses about 68 gallons of hot water a day, with huge variations based on the number and age of occupants in the home.

Taking a step back, I counted six basic ways that people have been heating water since humans discovered fire. Deliberate heating started with a pot on a campfire (or with hot rocks to boil water). Then we used solar thermal to heat water in a blackened container (and we are still using solar thermal systems today). Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) were then used starting in the 1800s in boilers to heat water (the latest insulated tank technologies use high efficiency condensing gas boilers). In the 1900s we started using electric heating elements in hot water tanks. Flash or pass through hot water heating systems – powered by electricity or natural gas — completely eliminate the hot water tank, thereby reducing standby losses. But the current champions for DHW efficiency are the new heat pump hot water heaters. These systems have efficiencies in excess of 200% since they extract ambient heat from surrounding air (essentially cooling the air), and use this heat to increase the water temperature. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these heat pump systems have become much more reliable and cost effective.

On this week’s Energy Show we will review each of the common technologies used to heat water to help you decide what kind of DHW heating system makes sense for you the next time your tank wears out (BTW, according to NREL the average lifespan of a hot water tank is 13 years).

Adjourned Sine Die: Hawaii Storage Incentive Bill Fails To Get A Hearing

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: Hawaii’s energy storage incentive legislation – Senate Bill (SB) 2100 – was adjourned “sine die,” or “without a day,” meaning it will get no more hearings in the current session.

The bill, which would have replaced the current renewable energy technology systems tax credit with tax credits for solar or wind energy systems and energy storage systems, would have been one of the first laws in the country to create an incentive for storage systems.

Without such legislation, it’s fair to ask how Hawaii will reach its mandated goal of reaching 100% clean energy by 2045.

SolarWakeup’s View: Hawaii, with its abundant sunshine and high electricity prices – the penalty they pay for living in paradise – has made the island a hotbed for solar development since the industry’s early days. With an aggressive goal of reaching 100% clean energy by 2045, the solar industry has grown exponentially, and the Aloha State currently boasts one of the highest solar penetration rates in the country.

But with that development has come speed bumps, including a sudden elimination of net metering that nearly strangled the industry, although development has continued, albeit more slowly, under other utility programs. Recently, the state has been trying to figure out how to integrate storage into its solar industry to encourage more self-consumption and less excess electricity export to the grid.

One of the most recent attempts to integrate storage was Senate Bill (SB 2100), which would have changed the current solar tax credit system into a solar + storage tax credit system.

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Unfortunately, SB 2100 failed to get out of committee during this legislative session, postponing any hearings on the bill indefinitely and effectively killing any chance it had of passage.

The problem Hawaii faces isn’t entirely unique. It’s tough to sell incentives in a market that has scaled so rapidly and where prices have fallen so precipitously – and continue to do so. But it’s hard to imagine a world where the state can reach its goal of powering itself entirely by renewable energy by 2045 without something like SB 2100 in place.

Let’s hope that the bill comes back next session and that Hawaii sees its way clear to continue its clean-energy leadership by passing it.

More:

Hawaii Senate Bill 2100 (Adjourned Sine Die)

Low And Behold, GOP Finds Solar Tariffs To Be A Bad Idea

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: GOP Senators from solar states like North Carolina have suddenly discovered that President Trump’s tariffs on solar modules are a bad idea (who knew? Everyone. Everyone knew.).

Bloomberg reports, “The group of eight senators led by North Carolina’s Thom Tillis urged the administration to waive duties on 72-cell, 1,500-volt panels that are ideal for large ground-mounted “utility-scale” projects.”

If they really want to fix this, they should introduce companion legislation to that currently in the House that would remove the tariffs entirely and retroactively pay for the ones already paid.

SolarWakeup’s View: It’s amazing how quickly the GOP gets on board with solar when jobs in their own states are threatened.

Bloomberg reports that “Republican senators from five states with big solar farms are asking the Trump administration to exempt the workhorse of industrial solar panels from tariffs imposed earlier this year.”

Well, isn’t that just swell?

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Of course, exempting utility-scale solar modules from the tariffs doesn’t really solve the overall problem, which is that the duties have cost 9,800 downstream installation and other non-manufacturing jobs, as well as having thrown the industry into chaos for the past year and a half.

And it bears repeating that the tariffs were imposed on the whims of two companies that, in short order, will no longer exist.

If these GOP Senators really want to fix the tariff problem, they could follow the lead of their colleagues in the House and introduce a bill that would eliminate the tariffs entirely, thus protecting their utility-scale projects while also saving jobs in the rest of the industry, too.

But that solution would make far too much sense, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for such common sense to reign.

More:

GOP Senators Want to Exempt Giant Solar-Farm Panels From Tariffs

Bipartisan Tariff Repeal Bill Introduced In Congress – Any Chance It Passes?