This site in Lynchburg, VA evokes tobacco production - but the whole region can embrace clean energy generation. (Photo by Kipp Teague, via Flickr Creative Commons.)
The Tobacco Region of Virginia, as its name shows, knows economic transitions. It can use its expertise in workforce development and industrial support to train workers and incentivize investors to speed the clean energy transition through this historic section of a rapidly changing state.
This photo of Arkabutla Lake, Mississippi evokes a hydropower project this fund has staked. (Photo by Sean Davis via Flickr Creative Commons.)
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...
This photo of Jack's Solar Garden and its agrivoltaic plans comes from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
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.
Prosperity arises not only from putting power sources in new places. It also flows from helping people currently powerless to tap energy for more active lives.
Lawyers and VCs have sized up the Inflation Reduction Act by now, and American energy systems will likely never stagnate again. For thinking about investment over the decades that decarbonization will take, take a trip back to another crossroads in the nation's energy history.
(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.
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...
