We look at some of the investments, like onshore wind near farmland, that seem compelling with the Inflation Reduction Act in place

Explainer: Who Can Now Benefit From US Tax Equity Policy?

Daniel Lee
Two core incentives take center stage to enhance the market penetrability of renewable energy under the IRA: (ITC) and (PTC). What are the ITC and PTC? Who is eligible? What are the revisions made under the IRA? If these questions sound familiar, this explainer...
David Millar, Wartsila Energy

David Millar Focuses on United States Energy Markets After the Inflation Reduction Act

Lauren Gomez Cullen
David Millar is the Principal of Markets, Legislative and Regulatory Policy at Wärtsilä Energy, a Finnish energy company that claims to “lead the transition to a 100% renewable energy future”. In a recent talk at CBEY, Millar highlighted three trends to watch within the energy markets related to Distributed Energy...
Solar Farm in Mountains

Explainer: How Does the Inflation Reduction Act Relieve Doubts About Clean Energy Tax Credits?

Allan Zhang
Most investment in solar and wind power involves drawing cash from investors who use those technologies' tax credits. The Inflation Reduction Act removes some barriers and doubts about the tax credits, signaling a rise in their use. But nothing is ever simple, and investors are bringing vital questions about timing...
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Electric vehicle charging

Electric vehicle charging / Automotive Rhythms / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

A Market Fix to a Market Failure? Carbon Pricing Policy that Works for Consumers

Mara MacDonell
The Inflation Reduction Act brims with incentives to invest in lower-carbon economic infrastructure. But, asks one economist, what happens if consumers only respond with vigor to the cash they see moving in and out of their checking accounts? The case for a carbon dividend remains open, according to James K...
It's morning in America

Could hydrogen signal a dawn in all sorts of clean infrastructure? 

Explainer: Can Tax Incentives Help Green Hydrogen Outgrow Its Promise?

Douglas Leung
Hydrogen investors say the abundant element can replace carbon throughout economies. Hydrogen skeptics (and shorts) say that producing adequate hydrogen supply requires intolerable amounts of carbon pollution. Some startups are looking at chemistry - and tax credit financing via the United States' Inflation Reduction Act - to increase the supply...
This photo of Arkabutla Lake, Mississippi evokes a hydropower project this fund has staked.

This photo of Arkabutla Lake, Mississippi evokes a hydropower project this fund has staked. (Photo by Sean Davis via Flickr Creative Commons.)

Policy Pinpoint: Bring a Flashlight on a Camping Trip

Alec Appelbaum
The Inflation Reduction Act blazes miles upon miles of trail with clear markers in what had been overgrown backcountry. And the inconclusive recent climate negotiations that the United Nations sponsored in Egypt work as charcoal-gray clouds overhead. Where are attentive capitalists placing investment now that scale is possible and challenges...
Avangrid CEO Pedro Azagra Blazquez

AVANGRID's CEO Sees American Ingenuity Rising With the Inflation Reduction Act

Alec Appelbaum
In this video, AVANGRID CEO Pedro Azagra Blazquez frames his perspective on investment opportunities after the United States Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act. He also weighs in on Europe's investment climate, the outlook for hydrogen as a fossil-free energy source, and other topics where this European-based corporation sees the...
Agrivoltaic projects, where solar panels create shade and revenue for farmers, suggest one compelling development model.

This photo of Jack's Solar Garden and its agrivoltaic plans comes from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. 

Policy Pinpoint: Re-Charge for a Heavy Responsibility

Alec Appelbaum
Now that the Inflation Reduction Act's incentives operate as American law, it will take compromise and conciliation to make the investments that meet those incentives succeed and endure. Let's revisit our metaphors.
Financing and Deploying Clean Energy: Program Insights
Targets for job creation lift at the local level in Ithaca, NY

(Courtesy of Jo Zimny Photos via Flickr Creative Commons.) Ithaca took its buildings off fossil fuel. It aims to take its job base in the same direction. 

Policy Memo: Making Buildings Carbon-Free to Make Real a Green New Deal

Luis Aguirre-Torres
At the local level, a Green New Deal can crowd in private capital. In this update of a Financing and Deploying Clean Energy policy memo, the sustainability director for Ithaca, NY explains the holistic economic and energy-justice strategy driving the city's project to decarbonize all its buildings.
Don't let the sun go down on price reliability, our author urges

(Photo by Don and Suzan Weller, via Flickr Creative Commons.) As the sun sets over Waterford, CT, an expert proposes a price floor in wholesale electricity markets. 

Policy Memo: How We Pay For Free Electricity

Mike Novello
As New England states progress towards decarbonization goals, the electricity spot market will see offers from solar and wind generators that incur no marginal cost. That can harm reliability and put some operators hastily out of business. To retain existing resources and the stability they bring, we need to set...
Patrick Kovarik.Getty Images took this photo for Fashionista.

(Photo by Patrick Kovarik for Getty Images in Fashionista, September 25, 2020.) Chanel once staged a fashion show with wind turbines. The author argues that assertive tax policy can make renewable wardrobes a fashion-forward investment. 

Policy Memo: A Good Look for Apparel's Industrial Decarbonization Path

Elizabeth Rich
The US, as the largest consumer and highest emitter of carbon per capita, bears a critical share of the responsibility to facilitate a transition to sustainable practices. ​​​​​This article lays out the rationale and a pathway for the US to incentivize the apparel industry’s decarbonization. I propose a preferential tariff...
YPCCC-Maine

Policy Memo: Bring Batteries for a Virtual Power Plant and a Virtuous Cycle

Brian Ambrette
Battery storage systems and virtual power plants offer an opportunity for individual ratepayers to improve energy reliability and contribute to Maine’s clean energy goals. Maine has several options for protecting and incentivizing ratepayers, especially low-income ratepayers, to own battery storage systems and join virtual power plant programs.
Climate attitudes in Colorado, courtesy the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

With the Yale Program on Climate Change Communications showing this range of climate concern, should Colorado operate under one electricity provider? 

Decarbonizing the Rockies: A Policy Memo on Colorado's Electricity Market

Aurora Sepp-Peterson
Participants in CBEY's Financing and Deploying Clean Energy certificate program learn technology, finance, policy and climate science. Policy savvy locks in when they write real memos to real players. In this example, a professional in Colorado's community-solar industry encourages a state Senator to work on fostering competition in the state's...
Let's get this turning

The EU needs to open financing channels to more providers to support the intent of the Green Deal.(Photo from Qvinnovindar.)

Walking the Walk: A Memo Outlining Incentives for Women-Powered Energy Storage in the European Union

Esmeralda Colombo
Why should "prosumers" - individuals who make electricity for others to purchase- encounter brakes on their output in European Union policy? In this memo, which the author wrote first in the Financing and Deploying Clean Energy program, the case emerges for releasing female prosumers' entrepreneurial energy. A linked interview with...
Techniques for turbines

(Photo from Energy News.) Wanja Wallemyr contributes millions of kilowatt-hours to a grid that doesn't properly value it. 

Qvinnovindar: Feeding Three Million Kilowatt Hours Into the Grid Each Year

Esmeralda Colombo
What would a prosumer-friendly policy achieve? The Financing and Deploying Clean Energy participant who proposed that direction talked to an entrepreneur whose co-op feeds wind energy into Sweden's electricity system. Wanja Wallemyr's experience outlines what a grid full of prosumers can mean for power and empowerment.