Opinion
The latest opinion pieces by industry thought leaders
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Ensuring your EPC contracts incorporate the IRA’s prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements
The IRA has undeniably presented owners with new and significant opportunities connected to building new clean energy projects, but taking advantage of these opportunities has also presented considerable challenges.
Laura Fraher and Mikayla Sciscente • Dec. 20, 2024 -
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A path to equitable permitting reform: Fast-tracking clean energy while empowering communities
For a sustainable future, the U.S. must adopt a more just permitting reform model — one that accelerates clean energy projects while centering environmental justice, community engagement and resilience.
Shriya Pai • Dec. 19, 2024 -
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Saving the IRA won’t save residential electrification
The incumbent residential energy model — built on pushing a single product rather than building broad demand — is badly failing both investors and customers and is in structural decline.
Steve McBee • Dec. 17, 2024 -
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The key to successfully deploying heat pump water heaters? Funding innovation.
The impact of small grants on spurring testing of new technologies and approaches underscores exactly why programs like TECH Clean California are vital to scaling climate solutions.
Chris Badger • Dec. 16, 2024 -
Courtesy of Ford Motor Co.
The EV transition is taking time. That’s expected.
If all new car sales right now were EVs — a target for more than a dozen states by 2035 — it would still take at least a decade, and likely far longer, to fully transition to electric vehicles.
Trey M. Gowdy • Dec. 13, 2024 -
Accelerating grid modernization with open technology and standards
As the power and utility industry digitizes, it can look to the tech industry for inspiration on how to innovate.
Alex Thornton • Dec. 12, 2024 -
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Can regulators protect small customers from rising transmission costs for big data centers?
Federal-state consensus is needed around whether to ring-fence non-data-center retail customers from the costs of expanding the transmission grid to meet data center load.
Abraham Silverman, Suzanne Glatz and Mahala Lahvis • Dec. 11, 2024 -
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Stepping up to achieve local climate progress despite federal headwinds
State and local action will be one of the most effective means of continuing the momentum for clean energy deployment and cost reductions.
Darren Springer • Dec. 10, 2024 -
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Electrons vs. molecules: The critical role of hydrogen in hard-to-abate sectors
To meet the urgency of the climate crisis, we must embrace a dual approach: electrify where possible and deploy hydrogen where electricity falls short.
Rinaldo Brutoco • Dec. 9, 2024 -
Courtesy of Climeworks — The Mammoth plant
Regulatory red tape holds back the carbon capture opportunity in Texas
President-elect Trump’s nomination of Lee Zeldin to lead the U.S. EPA could restore sanity to an agency that is holding back billions of dollars in new investment — including in the fast-growing carbon capture industry.
Matt Welch • Dec. 6, 2024 -
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Clean firm generation is an important piece of the energy transition, but it’s no silver bullet
Due to the high cost of clean firm energy, it may be best considered as part of a broader generation portfolio that relies on much lower cost wind and solar most of the time.
Michelle Solomon • Dec. 5, 2024 -
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Mitigating price volatility: How flexible assets can strengthen renewable portfolios
Together, battery storage, gas generation and demand response provide a crucial buffer against the risks associated with renewable energy, making portfolios more adaptable and financially resilient.
Andrew Warrell, Spencer Holmes and Tyler Bowen, McKinsey • Dec. 4, 2024 -
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A costly lesson in supply and demand: How to address PJM’s capacity shortages
The first law of holes says that you should stop digging when you’re in one. It’s time to stop retiring dispatchable resources if we don’t want the hole we’re in to get any deeper.
Michelle Bloodworth • Dec. 3, 2024 -
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AI power demands are rising, and so are attacks on utilities. Here’s what they can do about it.
While the spike in electricity demand from artificial intelligence creates exciting new opportunities for utilities, it also makes them a prime target for both physical and cyberattacks.
Carmelo McCutcheon • Nov. 27, 2024 -
Courtesy of Port Arthur LNG
FERC’s rubber-stamp approach to LNG is bad news for our economy, consumers and environment
By prioritizing LNG exports, FERC is constraining domestic gas supply, risking deepening economic inequities, exacerbating price volatility, and straining a power sector already tasked with increasing demand and struggling to keep up.
Megan Gibson • Nov. 26, 2024 -
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Shaping the future of data centers in light of FERC’s AWS, Talen Energy ruling
The ruling shows the need for more comprehensive data center energy sourcing standards that create long-term efficiencies and investment clarity for project pipelines while protecting captive utility customers.
Mike Granowski • Nov. 25, 2024 -
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A model tariff can speed distributed power plant deployment and lower grid modernization costs
Distributed power plants can improve system resilience now, complementing longer-term grid upgrades that will take years or decades to build.
America Garcia and Shannon Anderson • Nov. 22, 2024 -
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As the 45V hydrogen tax credit rolls out, we have a major problem to address
Despite hydrogen’s promise, one critical challenge persists: ensuring that emissions from its production are accurately measured and held to a clear, consistent standard.
Zane McDonald • Nov. 21, 2024 -
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What COP29 entails for the global energy transition, business priorities
COP29 will be a “critical moment” in the global climate transition, further shaping the ESG landscape and motivating companies to ramp up sustainability initiatives, says Workiva’s chief sustainability officer.
Mandi McReynolds • Nov. 14, 2024 -
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PJM sees ‘easy button’ to meet power needs, but Appalachians see higher bills and more pollution
Mandates and market manipulations are keeping expensive coal online, and consumers are paying the price.
Marcia Dinkins • Nov. 13, 2024 -
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Pursuing 24/7 carbon-free energy is complex. Here’s what really matters.
For power providers to monetize the opportunity afforded by the rising demand for nonstop clean energy requires meticulous planning that considers both strategy and operations.
Goran Vojvodic and Edo Macan • Nov. 11, 2024 -
Courtesy of Climeworks — The Mammoth plant
How good data can fuel carbon capture and storage adoption for power plants
CCS is vital to complying with recent EPA emissions mandates, but slow permitting and inadequate data are delaying deployment.
John Tombari • Nov. 7, 2024 -
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In the wake of increased scrutiny, ESG leaders aren’t backing down.
Amid a polarized political landscape, companies are beginning to view sustainability and corporate social responsibility through the same strategic lens.
Sona Khosla • Nov. 1, 2024 -
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To minimize AI’s cyber risks to energy infrastructure, start with the design phase
Artificial intelligence will escalate cyber threats, and — if left unprotected — it could create new vulnerabilities at the heart of energy infrastructure.
Leo Simonovich • Oct. 31, 2024 -
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Where the wires meet the road: Fixing missed opportunities for long-distance transmission
We need to find ways to better integrate the planning of transmission and the siting of transmission from the get-go so that we don’t end up in situations where ideal pathways for transmission are missed.
Adam Kurland • Oct. 28, 2024
