By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

When New York announces clean energy goals, they do it in the only way the Empire State knows how to do anything: They do it big. So it was when Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his latest bid to reclaim New York's leadership in the clean energy push that's sweeping through the Northeast, calling for 3 GW of energy storage to be added to the state's grid by 2030. "As the federal government continues to ignore the real and imminent dangers of climate change, New York is aggressively pursuing clean energy alternatives to protect our environment and conserve resources," Governor Cuomo said in a press release. "These unprecedented energy efficiency and energy storage targets will set a standard for the rest of the nation to follow, while supporting and creating jobs in these cutting-edge renewable industries." In June, Governor Cuomo announced the State's plan to jumpstart the development of energy storage in New York, calling for the deployment of 1,500 megawatts of energy storage by 2025, or enough electricity for 1.2 million average sized homes, while avoiding more than one million tons of carbon pollution. To achieve the Governor's goal, the Commission today adopted a comprehensive strategy to address barriers that have been impeding energy storage technologies from competing in the energy marketplace. These actions are intended to accelerate the market learning curve, drive down costs, and speed the deployment of the highest-value energy storage projects for maximum benefit to New Yorkers and the electric grid. In addition to the 2025 goal, a secondary energy storage deployment goal of 3,000 megawatts for 2030 is being adopted, which was called for pursuant to legislation signed into law last year by Governor Cuomo. When implemented, the strategy adopted by the Commission today will establish a critical foundation for the emergence of this clean-tech industry across the state and support New York's goal to create 30,000 jobs in this industry. To further stimulate energy storage deployment across the state and spur private sector investment, earlier this week, New York Power Authority (NYPA) announced it will invest $250 million over the next five years to accelerate the flexibility of the electric grid to give New Yorkers greater access to renewable energy resources such as wind and solar power. This multi-pronged, collaborative effort by NYPA will harness the abilities of third-party providers to address key market and financial barriers, and accelerate implementation of 150 megawatts of grid flexibility projects and decrease market risk. Both Commission actions today are the result of extensive public outreach, numerous public hearings, regional forums, active stakeholder engagement, and public comment review. The Commission order also:

• Authorizes a $310 million market acceleration bridge incentive to be administered by NYSERDA, in addition to $40 million announced in November for pairing storage with PV projects, and directs NYSERDA to file a market acceleration bridge incentive implementation plan; and
• Directs the State's six major electric utilities to hold competitive procurements for 350 megawatts of bulk-sited energy storage systems.

As more renewable energy resources, such as wind and solar, are brought online, energy storage will enhance efficiency of the electric grid to better integrate these variable resources. Importantly, energy storage will also enable these resources to meet periods of peak demand. Achieving the 2025 energy storage target will produce $2 billion in gross lifetime benefits to New Yorkers by reducing the reliance on costly, dirty and inefficient energy infrastructure, while also helping to scale up the clean energy industry. According to a recent report by the American Jobs Project, New York is home to nearly 100 energy storage companies with expertise in hardware manufacturing, advanced materials, software development, and project management, and ranks fifth in the nation for energy storage patents due to the depth of research across its universities, national lab, and businesses.

Creating Known Unknowns. In the latest SolarWakeup Live! conversation I speak with Gabe Philips, a college classmate of mine and an experienced energy trader. In fact, he traded electricity generated from a solar farm I developed and built in the past. We hear about power markets with corporate offtake all the time and deals in PJM, ERCOT and CAISO are announced all the time. There is a lot to these transactions and that is what Gabe and I spoke about in this Live! conversation.
 The Electric Fleet Mobilized. California is taking the solar home mandate and passed the similar version of this for transit buses. 25% of buses purchased in 2023 will have to be zero emissions and 100% of those purchased after 2029 will have to follow suit. This means that within about 20 years, all transit buses will be electric. I like when mandates are slower than what the market will do. Much like solar, electrification of fleets isn’t just something that users want, it also means a deployment of capital. Much like selling solar PPAs to schools, you’ll see companies like Proterra offering electric fleet as a service contracts to school districts across the Country. All of that load will have to be serviced and generation will have to be available, more solar will have to be built. 
Cheeeeap Solar. Texas will be the first State to drop PPAs under 2 cents in a big way. First, because storage is harder to pencil with no capacity market and second because it’s so damn cheap to build there. Land is flat and abundant while permitting will be much simpler than other areas. 
Consumers Matter. Long Island’s utility (LIPA) is taking up a similar consumer protection policy as the State oversight board. This follows many other States that have also done this. The problem with the policy isn’t that solar can’t meet it, it’s that nobody is paying attention to actually making solar companies follow the rules. I continue to be amazed at some of the junk that is put on people’s roofs and buildings just hoping that a problem 3 or 5 years from now is someone else’s mess to deal with. There are still many homes that have racking installed with no desire to meet roofing best practices or even code compliance, taking advantage of the local inspectors lack of solar knowledge. The industry must do more to protect homeowners and keep bad solar from hurting the industry. 

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Have a great day!
Yann

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon

The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon

Attention U.S. Department of Commerce: your well-intentioned efforts to help the U.S. solar panel manufacturing industry are not working. Even with 30%+ tariffs on imported solar panels and cells, the remaining U.S. manufacturers are struggling to stay competitive. The good news, as one would expect, is that there is strong demand for Made in the U.S.A. solar panels – both from ordinary consumers as well as government purchases. However, structural issues with the supply chain for solar components puts the remaining U.S. manufacturers at a substantial disadvantage. The reasons for these supply chain challenges are simple. Basically, many of the key components that go into solar modules are not manufactured in the U.S., including wafers, cells, EVA and junction boxes. And many of the components that are indeed available in the U.S. — such as glass, backsheets and aluminum frames — are significantly less expensive at comparable quality levels if purchased from overseas suppliers. To make matters even worse, these essential imported solar components are subjected to additional tariffs when imported from certain countries. Essentially, we are shooting ourselves in our foot if we expect U.S. solar manufacturers to be competitive when 30%+ tariffs are applied to most of the major solar components. A rational plan to make the U.S. competitive in solar manufacturing does not require government support. Instead, it requires government to get out of the way and set a long-term solar manufacturing policy. U.S. manufacturers would instantly be more competitive if they did not have to pay tariffs on imported solar components — particularly cells and aluminum solar frames. Once the U.S. solar manufacturing base is re-established and consistent, U.S. manufacturers could invest in domestic wafer, cell, junction box and other component manufacturing. How are U.S. manufacturers coping with competitive global issues of cell production and purchasing, U.S. production costs, cell and panel tariffs, local and federal regulations, and shifting national policies? The best way to answer this question is to speak with one of the most experienced U.S. solar panel manufacturers. My guest on this week’s show is Mamun Rashid, COO of Auxin Solar, based in San Jose, California. Auxin manufactures high quality poly and mono solar panels for residential and commercial customers. They also do original equipment manufacturing for tier-1 manufacturers who have “made in the USA” requirements. Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show for Mamun’s perspective on the opportunity and challenges for companies manufacturing solar panels in the U.S.