Tag Archives: increase

You Know Who’s Still Betting Heavily On Solar? Corporations, That’s Who!

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Corporate renewable energy procurement has hit a new record high in 2018, according to the Business Renewables Center, an arm of the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Procurement levels reached 3.57 GW, beating the previous record of 3.12 GW in 2015 and increasing nearly three quarters of a gigawatt ahead of last year’s number of 2.87 GW.

[wds id=”3″]

Jon Creyts, managing director at Rocky Mountain Institute, said:

The Business Renewables Center applauds the acceleration of corporate renewable energy procurement and the dedication these companies are showing to turn commitment into action. We are bearing witness to unprecedented growth in this market, which is critical to achieving the goal of a clean, prosperous, and secure low-carbon economy.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook led the way, putting corporate procurement into record territory with the deal it announced last month to procure 437 megawatts (MW) of solar energy from Pacific Power for a data center in Oregon.

The announcement also claimed:

[This] highlights the growth of corporate-backed renewable energy transactions, which have totaled 13.52 GW in the U.S. since 2008, according to data collected by RMI’s Business Renewables Center. To date, BRC member companies have been involved in 99% of all U.S.-based non-utility transactions for renewable energy, and the number of corporates contracting directly for clean energy has grown from just four companies in 2013 to nearly 60 companies today.

The year-over-year growth is not unexpected, particularly given the difficult circumstances the solar industry found itself in last year with the tariff discussions. Corporations were waiting to see how the tariff situation would play out before deciding to move forward with solar procurement. What is most interesting, however, is that not only have the circumstances not changed significantly – the 30% tariffs are still in place – but the situation has gotten worse (with new 25% tariffs being imposed on inverters and modules).

And yet corporations are still investing in solar as their future – which is an indication that the Solar Revolution has moved beyond its strictly policy-driven past and into a future driven by pure economics. And that is something we can all agree is best for the solar industry in the long run.

APS Is Trying To Kill Steyer-Backed RPS Initiative

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest utility, is again trying to stifle solar development in the state that has the most insolation in the country, because reasons.

  • The utility behemoth, which wields enormous power in the state’s politics, is trying to kill a ballot initiative backed by progressive billionaire Tom Steyer that would raise the state’s RPS to 50% by 2030.
  • To counter the measure, APS is pushing hard for a bill in the legislature that would make the penalty for not making the RPS goals almost laughably negligible – $1,000-$5000, a penalty APS could pay with the change they find in their couch cushions.
  • Arizona is the third known Steyer-backed RPS initiative that is being considered for November’s elections. The other two initiatives are in Michigan and Nevada.

SolarWakeup’s View:  I was once at a meeting in Arizona where there was a panel discussing the relationship between utilities and the solar industry, which I missed because of a bad burrito the night before. And what I heard about it afterward made me so sorry I’d missed it.

Apparently, a representative from Arizona Public Service (APS) – the state’s largest utility – nearly got into a fistfight with another panelist who dared criticize their solar policies. There was most certainly shouting and (allegedly) some shoving, which gives you a sense of the lengths APS will go to protect its electricity-production monopoly from an ever-increasingly powerful solar industry.

I use that story as a backdrop to the current attempt by the utility to beat the state’s solar industry into submission. This time, they are trying to stop a ballot initiative that would amend the state’s constitution to increase the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 50% by 2030.

The initiative is the third known attempt by progressive billionaire Tom Steyer to get such an issue on the ballot (right now, attempts are being made in Michigan and Nevada). What’s interesting is that APS’ attempts to use a sledgehammer to kill a flea are happening before the ballot initiative even has enough signatures to get on the ballot – which may indicate how frightened they are that it just might pass.

The counter to the initiative that APS has concocted is a breathtaking display of the terrifying power they have in the state’s political structure and the shamelessness they have about wielding it so publicly. They have, through the legislature, introduced a bill that would limit the fines the state could levy on it for not making the modest RPS increase in time would be somewhere between $1,000 and $5,000.

Hell, those are fines that, in a pinch, I could pay (not that I’m offering). The idea that they would be an incentive for APS to increase its renewable energy production to meet the RPS requirements is laugh-out-loud ridiculous.

This is another attempt by APS to destroy the solar industry in Arizona before it can even get started. It cannot stand.

More:

Why APS Is Squashing The Clean Energy Vote (NBC 12 News)*

*Hearing Ryan Randazzo of The Arizona Republic compare APS to a lazy teenager is worth clicking on the link alone.