Dive Brief:
Global clean energy spending is on track to exceed $1 trillion in 2021, Edward Morse, managing director and global head of commodities research at Citigroup, said during a webinar on the state of energy finance hosted by Our Energy Policy on Wednesday. However, Citigroup estimates spending must reach $3-5 trillion per year to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
Inosi Nyatta, a partner in Sullivan & Cromwell s Finance & Restructuring Group, said she believes that with the rapid growth of the renewable industry, the world will close the gap between current energy spending, and what is needed to achieve the Paris Agreement. However, others on the webinar panel were less optimistic.
Dive Brief:
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Wednesday introduced a bill that would eliminate tax breaks for fossil fuels and create new incentives for zero-emissions energy resources.
The policy is technology-neutral and would create tax incentives for resources that emit zero or net-zero emissions, while providing a 30% investment tax credit for qualifying grid improvements like energy storage and transmission. It also increases the electric vehicle tax credit for commercial vehicles to 30% of the vehicle s purchase price.
Wyden s bill complements President Joe Biden s efforts to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, and proposals by the administration to extend tax credits for wind and solar power, while creating new credits for energy storage, transmission and other resources.
Dive Brief:
While investors increasingly seek solar company stocks for reliable returns, energy storage is the new rising star of energy venture capital, according to Raj Prabhu, CEO of the Mercom Capital Group.
After a steady recovery in the third and fourth quarters of 2020, total corporate funding for the solar sector rose 21%, from $6.7 billion in Q4 2020 to $8.1 billion in Q1 2021, according to a recent report by Mercom. A second report found that venture capital investment in battery storage, smart grid and energy efficiency companies is up 410% year-over-year.
Solar, an increasingly mature industry, is now largely seen as a reliably profitable investment, attracting fewer but larger deals, Prabhu said. Storage still brings in far less investment but is drawing in venture capitalists looking for the next big energy technology.
Published April 16, 2021 Permission granted by First Solar
The following is a contributed article by Nina Robertson and Katherine Ramsey, clean energy attorneys at Earthjustice and the Sierra Club, and Shana Lazerow, legal director at Communities for a Better Environment (representing the California Environmental Justice Alliance).
The past eight months have given us some of the most extreme weather we’ve seen yet in the United States, sending us soaring heat in California and arctic ice storms in Texas. This weather whiplash is yet another sign of a climate changing in frightening ways. Here in California, rolling blackouts left millions without power last summer, prompting some soul-searching in the state about our energy future as the lights went out.
Yujin Kim/Utility Dive/Utility Dive
This is the latest installment in Utility Dive s Taking Charge series, where we engage with power sector leaders on the energy transition.
Mark Christie, a former Virginia state regulator, joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at a critical moment for its relationship with states.
[Photograph]. Retrieved from FERC.
Last year, Maryland s head regulator described the tension between federal and state regulatory authorities as being at an all time high. In particular, the expansion of the minimum offer price rule (MOPR) in eastern regional transmission organizations (RTOs) has some states considering whether to exit the capacity markets altogether.