Patty Durand, Energy Updates from the Field

I’ve been remiss in reporting good news so I’ve decided to try something new. I’ll  alternate newsletter themes of good news vs myth busting vs actual Georgia Power hard news so that you get a better understanding of what’s happening in the energy ecosystem that so profoundly affects all of our lives.

So let’s keep the Halloween fun going with some good energy news today. In the interest of time I’ll limit this newsletter to the six best stories I can find. Click image for anything you want to read more of.  

Coming in at #1, this story shows what we mean by resiliency: hardening the grid and buildings against severe storms.

This next headline is amazing: solar is “unstoppable”? Wow. According to this article, “In a single year, in a single technology, we’re providing as much new electricity as the entirety of global growth the year before,” said Kingsmill Bond, a senior energy strategist at RMI, a clean-energy nonprofit. A decade or two ago, analysts “did not imagine in their wildest dreams that solar by the middle of the 2020s would already be supplying all of the growth of global electricity demand,” he said. Yet here we are.  This article is behind a paywall but I can provide you with a gift link, though it would be great if you could subscribe because as someone once said, writers deserve to be paid.

For number three let’s talk about the successful Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022. Manufacturing that was once off shored has been coming home, new manufacturing has started up with plenty more in the pipeline with over $115 billion in clean energy projects. It’s a stunning development for just two years in.

Has it solved all our problems? No. We need a carbon tax. And we need to stop conflating clean tech manufacturing with the clean energy transition, which means actually transition away from fossil fuels, which isn’t happening at all in Georgia. Instead, we’re scrabbling up all the clean tech manufacturing we can as we also expand fossil fuels.

The IRA has done more than just expand clean technology manufacturing here – is also helps create more demand for these products. Energy companies that use U.S.-made components for new wind or solar installations qualify for an extra tax credit, and did you know that you can get up to $7,500 toward a new [domestically manufactured] EV? Get one! EVs are super fun to drive and far less expensive to maintain and operate than a gas car.

Although the the energy transition is still too slow, this IRA money has been wonderful to see.

To read more, click here.