Topic: Economic Opportunity

External News

Massachusetts Plan Could Double Demand For Offshore Wind Power

Source: WBUR
The Department of Energy Resources released its report on "the necessity, benefits and costs" of pursuing an additional 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind power, which the Legislature last year authorized but did not mandate, and concluded that it would be a good bet for ratepayers, the environment and the economy.
Commentary

Why Low-Income Households Need to Be Part of the Clean Energy Revolution

Source: Yale Environment 360
Nearly a third of U.S. households struggle to afford their energy bills, with one in five cutting back on or forgoing necessities such as food or medicine to pay for electricity and heat, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
External News

North Dakota's New Boom: Wind Energy

Source: Minnesota Public Radio
Wind accounts for just over 3,000 megawatts of energy annually in North Dakota. That's about a quarter of the state's electricity needs.
Electric vehicle charging

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

Is California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard Incentivizing Electric Vehicle Deployment?

Sola Zheng
Research on California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard program suggests the LCFS program design of capacity-based credits has the potential to increase EV deployment, but that some unanswered questions need to be addressed before the point-of-sale rebate program can do the same.
Headshot of Debbie Dooley

Debbie Dooley on the Conservative Case for Clean Energy

Chris Lewis
Georgia’s Debbie Dooley is a founding member of the Tea Party movement, as well as an advocate for renewable energy and president of Conservatives for Energy Freedom. In an interview with CEFF, Dooley discussed where alternative energy can fit into a conservative political philosophy, how to build bipartisan support for clean energy, and her vision for state and federal policy.
Headshot of William Tokash

Strategic Electrification: A Potential Pathway for Load Growth and Decarbonization

Jesse Laniak
What is strategic electrification? Why is it an important topic for clean energy stakeholders and how can they capitalize on this trend? In this interview, William Tokash, a senior analyst for Navigant Research, provides some insights into his recent publication on the concept, and its future path of growth and technological development.
South Carolina Flag

Sleeping Giant: The State of Solar in South Carolina

Andrea Cruz Quiroz
The popularity of solar energy skyrocketed in South Carolina (SC) with the introduction of net metering in 2014 when the state legislature unanimously passed its landmark energy bill. After the introduction of the Distributed Energy Resources (DER) program, the Palmetto State went from having virtually no solar energy to having an installed capacity of 591 megawatts (MW).
Sun in the sky

Following the Sun

Corey Cantor, Scott Wentzell, Tim Bialecki, Vince Tenorio
As of Q3 2018, the solar industry has deployed a total of 60 GW of capacity across the United States, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA). By now, solar PV is no longer seen as a risky investment, but a mature industry. For years, much of the activity in solar deployment has been concentrated in just a few markets like California, Arizona or Massachusetts. Unsurprisingly, the markets that have shown the greatest growth over the past decade have also become highly competitive both in terms of the sheer number of active solar developers and installers, but also in...