Sustainable Arlington

Wednesday 20

Bloomberg NEF Forecasts Falling Battery Prices Enabling Surge in Wind and Solar to 50% of Global Generation by 2050

Wind and solar power generation will surge to almost 50% of world generation by 2050 (“50 by 50”), supported by precipitous reductions in cost, and the advent of cheaper and cheaper batteries that will enable electricity to be stored and discharged to meet shifts in demand and supply, according to the new annual Bloomberg NEF New Energy Outlook (NEO) 2018. This year’s outlook is the first to highlight the significant impact that falling battery costs will have on the electricity mix over the coming decades.  BNEF predicts that lithium-ion battery prices, already down by nearly 80% per megawatt-hour since 2010, will continue to tumble as electric vehicle manufacturing builds up through the 2020s."We see $548 billion being invested in battery capacity by 2050, two thirds of that at the grid level and one third installed behind-the-meter by households and businesses. The arrival of cheap battery storage will mean that it becomes increasingly possible to finesse the delivery of electricity from wind and solar, so that these technologies can help meet demand even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.  The result will be renewables eating up more and more of the existing market for coal, gas and nuclear." —Seb Henbest, head of Europe, Middle East, and Africa for BNEF and lead author of NEO 2018Read more at Bloomberg NEF Forecasts Falling Battery Prices Enabling Surge in Wind and Solar to 50% of Global Generation by 2050

Hydro-Quebec, Central Maine Power Agree to 20-Year Cross-Border Transmission Terms

The successful negotiation of contracts this week move Hydro-Quebec's plan to export surplus hydroelectric power into the New England region of the United States one step closer to fruition. The Canadian utility and the Central Maine Power Co. announced Monday they had struck a deal with the Massachusetts electric distribution companies (EDCs) for the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC), which would allow Hydro-Quebec to send about 9.45 TWh of power via high-voltage transmission line into the U.S. annually for 20 years....The Massachusetts EDCs will next file agreements with the state's Department of Public Utilities, per terms of its 83D Clean Energy Request for Proposals. "In the coming months we'll be working closely with Central Maine Power to complete this important new interconnection project, which will not only reduce carbon emissions, but will also bring price stability and supply reliability to the region," said Eric Martel, president and CEO of Hydro-Quebec. The New England Clean Energy Connect is being developed by a partnership that includes utility Central Maine Power, energy holding company Avangrid, and renewables developer Iberdrola. The project is an alternative to the Northern Pass line, which failed to gain support from Massachusetts earlier this year. Developers say the NECEC has several significant advantages over the Northern Pass, beginning with its smaller $950 million price tag.  The line would also run entirely on land owned by Central Maine Power, with about two-thirds using existing transmission corridors. Like the Northern Pass, however, NECEC faces opposition from groups fearful that the[…]

Tuesday 19

White House Called Pruitt's Climate Plans 'Out Of Control'

Last summer, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt was publicly talking up his plans to launch a debate aimed at poking holes in mainstream climate science. His policy chief, Samantha Dravis, got an email from President Trump's energy adviser Mike Catanzaro asking for an urgent meeting to talk about Pruitt's "red team" climate science review. "There are a lot of reports about EPA's planning on this," Catanzaro wrote July 25.  "None of it is being run by us.  This seems to be getting out of control."...'Push and pull'With the red-team approach, Pruitt's intention "was to really attack the science behind the endangerment finding," a former administration official told E&E News last week. The endangerment finding on greenhouse gases is a scientific determination that underpins EPA's climate regulations, and many conservatives hope a red-team exercise will be used to unravel that finding.  "Pruitt really believed that a red-team, blue-team exercise would go to the heart of challenging the science behind all this," the former official said. First he'd have to get past the White House. There was a constant "push and pull" between EPA and the White House last year over the red team, the former official said.  The White House was "just trying to stall it." After Pruitt's aides circulated the draft release on Nov. 4 last year, Pruitt's chief of staff, Ryan Jackson, sent it in the body of an email saying, "I think we are set.  Good?" But the next day, Jackson received an email from sooners7@epa.gov — an address[…]