Good morning and happy Friday,

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In this week’s headlines, wind and solar saved Texans $11 billion last year, a Kentucky utility pushes back against solar opposition, and over 150 Americans were surveyed to see what it would take to get them ‘ok’ with a wind or solar farm in their backyard. 

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Read on for more.

Rural renewal — say that 10 times fast. On Tuesday, the Biden Administration announced that it will make nearly $11 billion available in grants and loan opportunities to advance clean energy across rural America through funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act. Here are some key details on the historic investment:

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• The Empowering Rural America (“New ERA”) program will provide $9.7 million in funding and is designed to help rural electrical cooperatives by supporting their transition to renewable, zero-emission sources of electricity.
• Jim Matheson, CEO of NRECA, said "This is an exciting and transformative opportunity for co-ops and their local communities, particularly as we look toward a future that depends on electricity to power more of the economy."
• In addition to the New ERA program, the Administration also announced that the Powering Affordable Clean Energy (PACE) program will provide $1 billion in partially forgivable loans for electric utilities and renewable energy companies to help finance large-scale renewable energy projects.

An electrifying investment. The USDA states that “Together, these two programs represent the single largest investment in rural electrification since President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act into law in 1936.” However, NPR notes that while significant, the impact of the newly announced programs isn’t likely to be on the same scale – in the 1930s, only 10% of U.S. farms had electricity. The times they are a-changin!

A multi-year battle over whether the New York Power Authority (NYPA) should build renewables and compete directly with private developers has cleared a major hurdle and is now included in the state’s 2024 budget, engendering mixed feelings among clean power advocates. Here’s what folks are saying:

• The Build Public Renewables Act directs NYPA to “plan, construct, and operate renewable energy projects in service of the state’s renewable energy goals,” ensuring that 100% of its electricity comes from renewables by 2030 and that it phases out its gas peakers by the same year.
• Public Power New York called the bill “a historic win for climate and clean jobs;” the legislation contains provisions for development of a clean energy workforce and directs NYPA to invest $25 million per year in workforce training programs for the renewables sector.
• BPRA also requires NYPA to provide access to community solar for low- and middle-income (LMI) residents and give them credit on their monthly electric bills for renewable energy produced by the power authority, in addition to including “labor and energy justice provisions for workers displaced by fossil fuel projects.”

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Cool reception. The above notwithstanding, BPRA was opposed by a group of six state and national trade associations. In a joint statement, the group said the bill could dampen interest among private sector developers and that giving NYPA such authority “does not create a level playing field with the private sector.” The Empire State has been attractive to independent developers for many years – time will tell if BPRA will have a cooling effect on this hot market.

• Our Greatest Asset:Clean energy investment can restore the middle class
• Bad Hockey Stick: Wind turbine prices surged to decade high in 2022
• Bad Boom: Renewable diesel is choking other renewable investments
• i-Solar: How robots could dramatically speed up solar farm construction

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• Pattern Energy signs PPAs with Shell & University of California
• Savion goes before OPSB in Madison County
• Wind and solar moratorium is brewing in Clinton County, Michigan

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Hydrogen is a hot topic these days because many believe it has an important role to play in a low-carbon future. It’s relatively easy to make – electrolyzers use electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen, and voila! You have a stable, versatile, energy-dense fuel that doesn’t produce carbon when combusted.

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Not so fast, some environmental advocates say: unless it’s “green hydrogen” – that is, unless you’re using renewable energy and not fossil fuels to generate the electricity used to split those water molecules – it’s just a shell game that still produces emissions.

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Colorado hopes to get ahead of this curve. Lawmakers recently passed a bill to create the nation’s first-ever clean hydrogen standards. The legislation seeks to achieve a compromise between ensuring “green hydrogen” lives up to its name, while also enabling the fledgling industry to find its feet before the regulations kick in.

As a result, “the final version of Colorado's proposed clean hydrogen standards only enforces the toughest restrictions when one of two milestones are met: After 2028 or when Colorado’s hydrogen industry builds 200 megawatts of electrolyzers. It also only applies to investor-owned utilities making hydrogen or companies seeking the state-level tax credit.” Sounds like a fair tradeoff to us!