Weekend Reads - Smart Energy Decisions

Distributed Energy Resources, Industrial, Microgrids  -  January 27, 2024

Weekend Reads: Extreme Weather Degrades PV Fleets Faster; UK Needs Workers to Fill Green Jobs

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web:

To keep or not to keep: The fate of scope 3 emissions in SEC’s climate disclosure rule (Utility Dive) When the Securities and Exchange Commission released its climate disclosure proposal in March 2022 mandating that companies describe their levels of greenhouse gas emissions and strategy toward reducing climate risk on their Form 10-K, the announcement was met with much criticism from some Republican lawmakers, industry organizations and dozens of state attorneys general. The common denominator driving most of these complaints: a requirement for companies to disclose their scope 3 emissions — emissions that are not directly produced by the company itself or assets owned or controlled by the company, but by entities that are part of the company’s value or supply chain, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

How Extreme Weather and System Aging Affect the US Photovoltaic Fleet (NREL)  After four years of work, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) researchers have compiled a data set from an unprecedented number of PV systems across the United States—data streams from 25,000 inverters across almost 2,500 commercial- and utility-scale PV sites in 37 states and U.S. territories. The performance of all solar panels is expected to degrade over time due to exposure to the elements. However, a range of factors drives degradation and the average rate of PV performance loss, which is often debated.

WEBINAR: 2024 STATE OF CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY (Atrius)  The Annual State of Corporate Sustainability Report takes a deep dive into understanding the biggest drivers, motivators, and challenges facing professionals dedicated to making our built environment more sustainable. This year is no different; built from the perspective of over 200+ industry professionals, this year’s findings showed that both energy and sustainability professionals have critical roles to play in meeting corporate ESG goals. In this webinar, we’ll review key findings from the report from the perspective of our panelists. REGISTER HERE

Ann Arbor Ponders Microgrid Alternative To Coal And Gas Powered Local Utility (Clean Technica)  Ann Arbor, Michigan has a population of about 124,000 and is home to the University of Michigan. Like many college towns, it tends to skew toward the liberal side of the political spectrum. The city has adopted a policy to get all of its electricity from renewable sources no later than 2030. But it is served by DTE Energy, which is moving much too slowly toward reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. At the present time, DTE gets most of its electricity from thermal generation — 54 percent coal and 14 percent methane gas. To reach its renewable energy goal, Ann Arbor is trying something that has never been done before — constructing a series of community owned microgrids while still maintaining a relationship with DTE Energy.

‘We’re facing a critical shortage’: why UK’s green revolution urgently needs skilled workers (The Guardian) Where are the workers who will bring the government’s green agenda to life? Britain’s greatest industrial transformation since the Industrial Revolution will require a change on a similar scale: hundreds of thousands of jobs are expected to be created by the needs of a low-carbon economy. There are thousands of miles of cables to add to the national grid, electric car battery factories to build, heat pumps to install, and rising demand for wind and solar farms. Experts warn of a “critical shortage” of certified welders and electrical engineers, and fear that the government may have left it too late.

Amid rolling blackouts, Hawaii senator looks to geothermal (KHON 2)  Hawaii’s electric costs are 62% higher than the national average and double the global average. How do we make this transition and keep costs in check?“ From an energy policy standpoint there are three R’s, it’s reliability make sure the lights go on when I flip the switch,” Sen. Wakai said. “Second is reasonable, the prices in Hawaii are three times the national average we pay 42 cents per kilowatt hour in Hawaii, on the mainland it’s like 12-14 cents. The third thing is renewable and we saw that we don’t have reliability the most important aspect of the three R’s we don’t have reliability with intermittent because we’re at the mercy of mother nature.” 

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