Taylor: Do we need a Green Bank to speed up transition to clean energy?
June 9, 2021
FacebookTwitterEmail
The GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm stands in the water off Block Island, Rhode Island. A Green Bank, at its best, is a public-sector, or quasi-public, financial nudge to accelerate and expand private-sector investment in innovative, climate-friendly energy companies.Eric Thayer /Bloomberg News file photo
Let’s posit for a moment that we want renewable energy, but the technology does not exist to make a fast, substantial shift financially viable in 2021.
Let’s further posit that we’re looking for a financial mechanism for encouraging the renewables shift faster rather than slower, and bigger rather than smaller.
The smartest way to finance clean energy that you ve never heard of - Governors Wind Energy Coalition
governorswindenergycoalition.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from governorswindenergycoalition.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The smartest way to finance clean energy that you’ve never heard of Vox.com 1 hr ago Ella Nilsen © Scott Eisen/Getty Images The GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm stands three miles off Block Island, Rhode Island. It is the first marine-based wind farm in US, and it’s expected to produce more electricity than Block Island needs.
In the United States, financing infrastructure and clean energy projects is often contingent on the quirks of partisan dealmaking in Congress. But there may be a better way.
A green bank model has been successful in several other countries. The United Kingdom’s green bank funded much of its offshore wind boom before the government sold it in 2017. (The current UK government is exploring bringing it back.) Through Australia’s green bank, the largest in the world, the country has invested in wind, solar, and hydrogen development in addition to financing the construction of energy-efficient homes.
1st large-scale, offshore wind project that could power 400K homes approved
By Patrick Whittle
WASHINGTON - An offshore wind project off Massachusetts that would create enough electricity to power 400,000 homes and is touted by backers as a key piece of America’s transition to renewable energy was approved Tuesday by the federal government. Massachusetts should be proud that this decision launches the nation’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project on the Commonwealth’s shores, said Governor Charlie Baker. This groundbreaking project will produce affordable, renewable energy, create jobs and prove Massachusetts developed a successful model for developing offshore wind energy. We appreciate the federal government’s partnership to grant this approval and look forward to working with Vineyard Wind to create thousands of jobs and set the Commonwealth on a path to achieve Net Zero emissions.
Biden Is Pouring Billions into Offshore Wind Energy. Will It Be Enough? Time 1 hr ago Alejandro de la Garza © Eric Thayer Bloomberg/Getty Images The GE-Alstom Block Island Wind Farm stands in the water off Block Island, Rhode Island, U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2016.
Susan Stewart, a Penn State engineering professor specializing in wind energy, waited more than 10 years to see an offshore wind turbine up close. A pregnancy caused her to miss a chance in 2005 to tour offshore turbines in Europe. There, offshore wind farms have produced clean energy since the early 1990s, but regulatory roadblocks and a lack of political will left plans for U.S. plants moldering in filing cabinets for years. Finally, in 2016, Stewart and a group of colleagues toured America’s first ocean wind farm, which had just been installed off Block Island, a popular Rhode Island vacation spot. “I was so excited,” Stewart says of seeing the turbines. “They’re majestic to me.
vimarsana © 2020. All Rights Reserved.