Steve Kloos

My hot take today is about a little noticed announcement the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released quietly today. It has reopened an opportunity to fund carbon dioxide transportation networks. This is a positive and a much-needed development because Cipher reporting earlier this year revealed that many of the carbon storage projects are not just dependent on securing permits but also on delivering the captured CO2. Aware of the paucity of transport networks, DOE itself noted, the U.S. will need to capture and permanently store approximately 400–1,800 million metric tons of CO2 annually by 2050 to meet its commitments. https://lnkd.in/ef7JPEgr In other top reads by my colleagues, Cat Clifford highlighted a Bloomberg article that spotlights how Holtec International, a company involved in making nuclear waste storage casks, is now looking to revitalize a nuclear plant headed for decommissioning. And Bill Spindle reported about an upcoming gathering of corporate heads of fossil fuel and tech companies. We try to stay on top of breaking news about the global developments in the cleantech and climate space and share them with you so continue reading our Top Reads and Hot Takes at Cipher News. Cheers!

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For anyone who will be at IEEE Power & Energy Society T&D Conference feel free to stop by our panel session on #EVs and #gridreliability. Will be an interesting cross-sector discussion including technology provider, independent system operator, and utility perspectives among others. E-mobility is driving the blending of Transmission and Distribution system planning, design, and operations. Particularly with the growing prevalence of distributed energy resources, IoT and grid-edge technologies, and virtual power plants (#VPPs).

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The EPA is publishing it's GHG Rule for the power sector this week that will harm power reliability in America and make electricity unaffordable for most people by closing the remaining coal plants that produce 20% of U.S.'s power and making it very difficult to build new natural gas plants that could affordably replace the plants and maintain reliability. There is a better way. The Better Way would provide a higher quality of life for all Americans, not just those who can afford expensive power and back-up systems for unreliable power. It would provide affordable, reliable power for all families and businesses so families would have more disposable income for healthcare, education, food and transportation, etc. Emissions would continue to reduce keeping America the world leader in power emission reductions as it has over last 20 years by reducing CO2 emission rates by roughly 35%. We could provide very affordable, reliable and ever lower emitting power over the next 20 years leading the world in emission reductions by another 20 - 25% points. What is that plan? 1. Support Expansion of Natural Gas Production & Distribution - so power plants can use more of the affordable and low emitting fuel which currently reliably powers 43% of the U.S. power system. The growth from under 20% to its current levels of generation mix is the reason the U.S. leads the world in emission reduction rates over the last 20 years. 2. Stop Increased Regulation of Coal Plants and Allow Market to Decide the Fate of Remaining Fleet - just like what has happened the last 20 years. Because of low natural gas prices and a growing gas fleet, the higher cost, higher emitting coal plants have retired reducing coal's part of the mix from 50% to 20%. Some very low cost, low emitting coal plants could run till 2040 and beyond to bring affordable and reliable balance to the energy mix. 3. Let Market Determine Need/Value of Additional Intermittent Wind & Solar. Their hidden costs are becoming obvious to all in the form of a tax on all customers paid in taxes not a power bill, significant power back-up for intermittent source and significant transmission expenditure to move these resources from production regions with low consumption to high consumption areas. 4. National Priority to Start Next Wave of Reliable, Relatively Affordable & Low Emitting Nuclear plants - by working to reduce the regulatory burden to a manageable level for a safe and well understood resource. We have nuclear power plants pulling into major port in the U.S., the nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers, and there is no uproar or need for very large operating/engineering staff. The same could be true for nuclear power plants as we build U.S. capacity for this industry. It's is a very simple but effective plan that mirrors Florida Municipal Power Agency mission to provide affordable, reliable and decrease emitting power to its Members, not just those who can afford expensive power.

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Big news coming out of DOE Office of Technology Transitions today! Today we released our 13th Pathways to Commercial Liftoff report - Geothermal Heating & Cooling AND released an update to our 2023 Virtual Power Plant report. Geothermal heating and cooling technologies are underutilized solutions for a more resilient national energy system while reducing building emissions. This report paves the way to dramatically expand the domestic geothermal industry while helping Americans have better access to local, affordable heating and cooling technologies. Since the publication of the 2023 VPP Liftoff Report, the near-term pressures on the U.S. electric grid have only intensified – rapid growth in peak electricity demand, upward pressure on customer costs from growing transmission and distribution upgrades to accommodate expected load growth, and outages due to extreme weather events and aging infrastructure are placing disproportionate pressure on grid reliability, affordability, and resilience. Against the backdrop of these challenges, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) are solutions that can be deployed at scale in a short timeframe to maximize the use and value of existing grid infrastructure, minimize costs to ratepayers, and ensure a resilient, reliable, and secure grid for all. To learn more, see below and also register for our upcoming webinars where we will share the high level findings of these reports. January 15 - VPP webinar January 16 - Geothermal Heating & Cooling https://lnkd.in/eFbsY8pu #VPP #Geothermal #energy #technology #innovation

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The U.S. DOE's investment of over $100 million aims to prepare the grid for a #netzeroeconomy by modernizing infrastructure and enhancing resilience. This initiative supports the integration of renewable energy sources and facilitates the transition to a sustainable energy future, aligning with broader efforts to combat #climatechange and reduce #carbonemissions Greener Process Systems

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Sadly the CPUC has come out with another bad proposed decision on distributed energy resources - this time on microgrids. The decision, six years in the making, is a utility centered proposal that only focuses on the use of microgrids during grid outages and does not incentivize their deployment missing the opportunity to save California's ratepayers billions of dollars and provide badly needed resilience in local communities. Here is the article in Microgrid Knowledge: https://lnkd.in/e5x4cSvG

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This is the most authoritative piece I’ve read on emissions, and really highlights the benefit of living and operating a business in California. It should make emissions accounting much easier if the cost is already included in electric rates. It should make businesses outside California want back in. https://lnkd.in/eeVkj-_3

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We are in the midst of a clean energy revolution. Framing the conversation is critical to success. Publitics principal Matt Krayton spoke with Futr.tv to talk about how clean hydrogen can be a valuable tool to help decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors. https://loom.ly/4MRCLC8

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🌟 Revolutionizing the US Grid could be easy with New Wire Tech for High Voltage Lines. 🌟 Enhancing the efficiency and capacity of our electrical grid is essential for integrating renewable energy and meeting the growing energy demand it's not always moving the power around and we can do this with existing high volatge poles! Here's some highlights! 🔋 Enhances Load Capacity: Advanced high voltage lines can carry more electricity over longer distances with minimal losses, ensuring renewable energy reaches urban centers and remote areas alike. ⚡ Grid Stability and Reliability: Upgrading to high-capacity lines improves grid stability and reliability, balancing supply and demand more effectively and reducing the risk of blackouts. 🌞 Boosting Renewable Energy Integration: These innovations make it easier to connect wind farms, solar parks, and other renewable projects to the grid, maximizing the use of clean energy resources. 🌍 Reducing Carbon Footprint: Enhanced grid capacity and efficiency reduce reliance on fossil fuels and lower greenhouse gas emissions, helping us achieve climate goals. 🔧 Economic and Job Growth: Investing in grid upgrades stimulates economic growth and job creation in construction, engineering, and technology sectors. Embracing new wire technology for our high voltage lines allws the US to fully utilize renewable resources. Let’s drive this transformation forward! Sometimes the answer is the simpliest and not the most expensive! Forbes goes into more detail. #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #GridInnovation #CleanEnergy #HighVoltageLines #FutureOfEnergy #ClimateAction

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Yesterday, ERCOT issued a notice of "possible future Emergency Condition of reserve capacity deficiency" for Friday & Saturday nights. This makes the latest The Energy Capital Podcast with Zach Dell, founder of Base Power Company, particularly relevant and timely. Residential batteries solve multiple problems. Base Power Company is the first and, so far, only retail electric provider in Texas to offer customers a home battery, monthly energy service, and installation all in one package. This episode highlights one of the things I most love about Texas’ competitive energy market: we are seeing a lot of innovative offerings. And in that category, Base Power stands out. The goal of Base Power is to essentially operate as a Virtual Power Plant (VPP). When the grid is up and running, the batteries installed in participating homes will improve grid stability and lower costs. And when there are blackouts, batteries will provide customers with backup power. People often forget that over 90% of power outages happen at the distribution level. When increasingly dangerous storms, hurricanes, wildfires hit the distribution grid, no amount of large central station generation will keep the power on; that will take distributed resources located at homes and buildings. Residential batteries contribute to resource adequacy, ensuring there is enough bulk power to meet demand for everyone, but they also provide consumers a measure of self-reliance and reliability you can't get from the ERCOT grid. Please listen and share widely! #txlege #txenergy https://lnkd.in/d9XVbckD

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It is exciting to see great discussions and policy work to expand Transmission Grid Capacity and the role of Grid Enhancing Technologies (GETs) in unlocking the Grid for more renewables. We at GridAstra acknowledge some of the pressing challenges mentioned - the laborious work to simulate GETs during studies and lack of software tools to help plan the Grid with GETs. GridAstra recently released ‘𝙁𝙐𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉-𝙏 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿’ to address this very challenge by providing 𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗰𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗘𝗻𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗲𝘀 (𝗚𝗘𝗧𝘀) 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝘀. The ‘𝙁𝙐𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉-𝙏 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿’ can not only perform the detailed pre-projects and post-projects steady state analysis to identify the basecase and post-contingent constraints based on cluster studies, but can also provide automated suggestions for mitigating these constraints with GETs based controls. As a part of such GETs based control actions, it can automatically provide an optimal strategy by coordinating Grid Topology Reconfiguration and Advanced Power Flow Controllers (APFCs), or using any one of these control types based on your choice. In case you are wondering about where to place the APFCs in the Grid for optimal impact (with minimum APFC installation), our software can also help find that out for you! And last but not the least, this software can be easily integrated in your existing Interconnection Study workflows, thanks to its compatibility with industry-standard data formats. Ultimately, our goal with the ‘𝙁𝙐𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉-𝙏 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿’ software is to empower Transmission operators, Utilities, and Generation project developers to reliably connect larger volumes of new generation in a much shorter period of time and at a much lower cost. If you are interested in a demo of our ‘𝙁𝙐𝙎𝙄𝙊𝙉-𝙏 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗿’ software, please reach out to us at [email protected] or https://lnkd.in/g6BacNK5.

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Canary Media with an article on how rural electric cooperatives are tapping into the IRA to fund the shift from fossil to renewable generation. "How $7.3B will help rural co-ops build clean power—and close coal plants This Inflation Reduction Act program is offering 16 rural electric co-ops financing to overcome the up-front costs of shifting from dirty coal to clean power. Rural electric cooperatives, which bring electricity to the most sparsely populated parts of the country, are getting their biggest federal investment since the New Deal — and this time around, the money is going to help fight climate change. Last week, the Biden administration announced $7.3 billion in financing for 16 rural co-ops serving about 5 million households across 23 states. The money will be administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which implemented the Rural Electrification Act, the 1936 law that financed the buildout of the grid in more remote areas of the country. It will also be matched by more than $29 billion in private investments with a goal of building more than 10 gigawatts of clean energy. That’s a big jump from the nearly 16 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity co-ops have today." Read more at https://conta.cc/4d4kLmE #solar #energy #solarenergy #renewables #renewableenerg

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Decarb Weekly, by Industria Partners, is a collection of articles focusing on trends and transactions in industrial decarbonization, clean energy, and renewable infrastructure. This week, Heirloom raised $150mm in Series B funding to scale its Direct Air Capture technology, and CO2 Energy Transition Corp., a SPAC focused on carbon capture, utilization, and storage, raised $69mm through its IPO. Additionally, Amazon partnered with AI startup Orbital to test a new material designed to capture carbon dioxide, and Qualus announced its acquisition of Planet Forward Energy Solutions, expanding its capabilities in program management and strategic advisory services to drive initiatives in grid resiliency, clean energy, and decarbonization. Email [email protected] today or subscribe at the link below to receive updates likes these to your inbox each week! https://lnkd.in/g7m8Pg3e

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Interesting article out of the US which discusses where electric utility rates need to be (in comparison to methane/gas), which is a ratio of 2 or less, in order to make the business case for fuel switching. https://lnkd.in/gwT-PN_6 Thanks Heather McDiarmid for sharing.

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#unavoidableopportunity #climateresilience investment now. "Separately, the Department of Energy is trying to help utilities squeeze more capacity out of the existing grid. That includes “grid-enhancing technologies” such as sensors that allow energy companies to send more power through existing lines without overloading them and advanced controls that allow operators to ease congestion on the grid. It also includes replacing existing lines with advanced conductors, which can potentially double capacity along existing routes. The Energy Department is currently offering $3.9 billion in funding that could go toward these and other solutions."

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has introduced its inaugural roadmap aimed at hastening the integration of additional clean energy ventures into the nation's electrical grid. The strategy is a significant step forward in the country's renewable energy ambitions and focuses on enhancing grid flexibility, modernizing infrastructure, and streamlining regulatory processes. #CleanEnergy #RenewableEnergy #GridIntegration #DOE #EnergyTransition #Sustainability Matthew Scarfo

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Repetition never spoils the prayer--> From Clearloop & WattTime.org in TriplePundit: "The emission reductions from renewable energy projects vary based on the location and what other energy source they replace. Experts argue development should be based on environmental and social impacts, not megawatt hours, to effectively address climate change and ensure equity." #ClimateAction #EmissionsFirst

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#Microgrid project Aims to Cut #Diesel Use, Save on #Energy Costs, Move Toward #EnergyIndependence in 8 #Rural Alaskan Communities: Lucas Miller Laurel Hamilton Trent Maw Michael Stadler https://lnkd.in/g85bhaP8

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