Apparently, over 450,000 U.S. warehouses and distribution centers could host enough rooftop solar to power almost 20 million homes (186 TWh). Clocking in at 16.4 billion square feet of installation planes they represent a considerable opportunity for developers. CA alone offers 66,000 warehouses and distribution centers with 1.5 billion square feet of roof surface.
Biden signed a new executive order establishing an Office of Environmental Justice that focuses on communities more heavily impacted by toxic pollution and environmental problems. It is called Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All and expands on Clinton’s 30-year-old Executive Order 12898.
The ICF has found that IRA tax incentives for renewables will lower project costs by up to 67%. Unsurprisingly, they also found that finding project locations and plugging them into the grid will be difficult. They reported that almost 1.3 TW of clean energy projects have applied for grid interconnection, but many projects wait for years waiting for approval while others are canceled due to insurmountable transmission upgrade costs.
Nico Johnson of the Suncast podcast interviews the cofounders of Raise Green, an innovative platform for crowdfunding climate energy proliferation. Launched in 2018, the organization has mobilized $6 million for climate solutions with the help of about 3,000 investors and 20,000 members. Their discussion includes a description of Regulation Crowdfunding, something that enables companies to raise up to $5 million each year by selling securities such as equity or convertible note to the public online.
23 global venture capital firms have created the Venture Climate Alliance (VCA). VCA looks to support early-stage climate tech startups focused on cutting emissions to help them sustainably scale in a way that engenders net zero emissions. Members share best practices for collecting, interpreting, and reporting climate impact data. Right now the members represent $62.3 billion in assets.
In this sixth of nine excerpts from a SunCast/SolarAcademy solar conversation between solar industry veterans Jon Bonanno, Kerim Baran, and CEO of Caelux Scott Graybeal, Scott talks about the market impact of Caelux’s incremental efficiency and cost reduction exectuted via its global operations. The video is below.
In the sixth of a nine part SunCast/SolarAcademy solar conversation, Ted Thomas, founder of Energized Strategies and former chair of the Arkansas Public Service Commission, discusses the role of load balancing authority in managing the electricity supply and demand in real-time. He explains how an electric distribution company that isn’t in the transmission business can get hit by the market power of the utility and how the RTO’s purpose is to break that up and give those entities more alternatives. Ted further explains how supply and demand under the laws of physics have to match all the time in the electricity system, and the load balancing authority manages that. He uses the example of a water tower as a standing reserve where they can balance the needs of the system in real-time within their own network. The video is below.