Renewable Energy Archives

Clean Energy jobs increase in 2017

Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2) in collaboration with The Clean Energy Project (CEP) have produced an in-depth report into the current status of clean energy jobs in Nevada. The report is part of an on-going effort to formulate a better understanding of the economic and job creation impacts of the energy efficiency and clean energy sector throughout Nevada. From their extensive research it is hoped that we will be able to better identify opportunities and create policies to further drive job growth in the State.

The report found that clean energy jobs (which consist of energy efficiency, smart grid, energy generation and clean transport) employed 31,194 in 2017, an increase of 2,700 or 9.5% on 2016. The vast majority of jobs reside in energy efficiency and renewable energy (52% and 45.6% respectively). Jobs in energy efficiency are relatively evenly spread between several industries with the majority in Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC), but then significant contributions from LED lighting, Energy Star Appliances and Advanced Building Materials and Insulation. In renewable energy however almost all jobs were in solar (13,852 out of 14,500) which is unsurprising considering the significant solar resources available in Nevada.

Potential areas of growth?

While energy efficiency and renewable energy made up the majority of current jobs, the report highlighted areas that could see significant growth over the coming years. One notable area is that of Advanced Transportation. As cited in ImpactNV’s previous articles, Electric Vehicles (EVs) are set for a huge increase over the forthcoming decade. Las Vegas is the city with the largest EV growth in the United States and with companies such as Tesla basing themselves in Nevada this trend looks likely to continue. With this comes an increase in business and therefore employment opportunities.

Smart grids is another part of the clean energy sector in which we can expect significant job growth. Nevada has an aging grid system that was not designed for renewable energy generation. Improvements to the grid and new grid construction is likely to be in the form of smart grids. These help utilities to manage the grid system, ensuring that it is balanced and supply meets demand at any given time. They also allow the addition of storage and multiple clean energy generation sources.

The future

The report puts forward some policy suggestions to enhance job growth in the clean energy industry. With the landmark vote on energy choice in 2018 it could drastically change the industry. If the public vote in favour of energy choice it is imperative that policy is implemented to ensure any retailers’ source a certain percentage of energy from renewable resources. In conjunction with this they should look to run energy efficiency programs. There are also calls to build upon the current EV infrastructure and encourage the charging of vehicles at times of low demand.

The clean energy industry continues to grow and this is likely to continue. The work by E2 and CEP illustrates the progress made, but also the huge potential for Nevada to create further employment within the sector and this can then be used to drive toward a more sustainable economy.

The full report is available here

Clean Energy – Legislative Update

The Clean Energy Project organized an excellent and informative update of the key energy bills that are currently part of the 2017 legislative session. The event was hosted by Jennifer Taylor from the Clean Energy Project, with Assemblyman Chris Brooks and Senator Patricia Spearman providing an in-depth insight into the progress of the energy bills and their importance to Nevada.

This is a very busy legislative session for bills relating to clean energy and energy efficiency. With the overwhelming result of Question 3 backing energy choice, the Governors Energy Task force Green Bank study and a strong push from businesses and non profits towards a cleaner economy, energy bills have taken center stage.

Chris Brooks stated how the current set of bills are all pieces of the puzzle when it comes to Nevada becoming a global leader in energy. However when pressed on which bill carried the most value he opted for AB206 which looks to increase the Renewable Portfolio Standard to 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2040. This will give true direction and leadership for Nevada, giving prospective businesses the confidence to invest in the State, creating more jobs, improving the environment and strengthening the economy. What is more it will push industry to innovate and develop more and better energy practices. Referring to AB206 Assemblyman Brooks is confident “we will get there cheaper and faster than people expect” and warns that despite protestations from certain groups “we don’t have time to wait”.

Brooks pointed to the clear mandate the legislators have been given by the public when it comes to energy, “you need to lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way! It’s what voters want. Nevada’s time is now”. He also pointed to the fact the the required technology is already available and prices have dropped significantly over recent years.

Senator Spearman highlighted the importance of SB407, looking at the establishment of a Nevada Green Bank, now to be named the Nevada Green Energy Fund. The aforementioned Green Bank Study was a detailed 82 page report which concluded its implementation could have huge benefits for Nevada’s economy, increasing uptake of renewable energy and energy efficiency. It would also ensure that these projects are affordable for more people by providing unsecured loans distributed by a non profit Green Energy Fund. Citing the research Senator Spearman emphasised how Nevada will benefit from $700 billion over the next 5 years” after its foundation.

Another key issue raised by Senator Spearman was the importance of energy security. Currently the US is reliant on finite resources such as oil and gas making it susceptible to geopolitics and geography of resources. By employing more renewable energy such as solar and geothermal Nevada can greatly improve energy security for the State, leading the Country and the World.

Currently all of the energy bills mentioned below are still in play, having being passed in their first house or being provided with deadline exemptions. These bills are part of a larger puzzle which is complete will propel Nevada forward ensuring our future success.

The Bills in Question

Nevada Assembly:

AB206 – revises the Renewable Portfolio Standard. Boosts Nevada’s current RPS to 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2040

AB405 – establishes protections for and ensures the rights of people who use renewable energy in Nevada

AB270 – revises provisions governing the eligibility of certain customers of electric utilities in Nevada to participate in net metering and revises provisions governing the billing of customers of electric utilities in this State who participate in net metering.

AB452 – directs the Legislative Committee on energy to conduct an interim study concerning energy choice.

AB223 – requires an electric utility to submit to the PUCN an energy efficiency plan designed to be cost effective, providing for a certain percent of the expenditures of the utility to be specifically directed toward energy efficiency programs for low-income customers.

AB5 – provides for the creation of certain local improvement districts that include an energy efficiency improvement project or renewable energy project.

AJR10 – expresses opposition to the development of a repository for spent nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada.

Nevada Senate

SB65 – revises provisions related to the filing by certain electric utilities of an integrated resource plan.

SB145 – establishes a program for the payment of incentives for the installation of certain energy storage systems, creates the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Demonstration Program, repeals provisions requiring each electric utility to create a Lower Income Solar Energy Pilot Program.

SB146 – revises provisions governing the filing of an integrated resource plan with the PUCN

SB150 – requires the PUCN to establish for each electric utility in this State annual goals for energy savings resulting from the implementation of energy efficiency programs and requires each electric utility to implement an energy efficiency plan designed to be cost effective and to meet the annual goals for energy savings established by the Commission.

SB204 – requires the PUCN to investigate and establish biennial targets for certain electric utilities to procure energy storage systems under certain circumstances.

SB392 – requires the PUCN to adopt regulations establishing standards for the operation of community solar gardens, requires a subscriber to a community solar garden to receive a credit on the subscriber’s utility bill for the subscriber’s share of the electricity generated by the community solar garden and requires a utility to purchase the unsubscribed electricity of a community solar garden.

SB407 – creates the Nevada Clean Energy Fund, creates the board of Directors of the Fund to administer the Fund, sets forth the duties and powers of the board.

Howto engage Today

1. Visit https://www.leg.state.nv.us/App/Opinions/79th2017/A/

2. Select the bill number e.g. AB5

3. Select “FOR” and add comments if desired

4. Enter your constituent information at the bottom of the page

A huge thank you to the Clean Energy Project for such a great event, and to Senator Spearman and Assemblyman Brooks for giving such a great overview and progress update.

Building a stronger economy – Community Energy

Emerging research demonstrates how energy projects which are owned by the community can provide significant contributions to social wellbeing, resilience and health of a region as detailed in Part 1. Economics however, are often the deciding factor as to whether a project will come to fruition. Traditional projects worked to the economies of scale principles, with the view that larger projects would generate cheaper energy and greater employment opportunities.

New, innovative governance models combined with the falling price of renewable technologies have started a transition toward more small scale, community ownership. Numerous case studies now suggest that this small scale ownership is significantly more beneficial to investors, communities and provides more economic value than traditional corporate projects.

A resilient economy

Community ownership can play an integral role in ensuring money remains local, allowing countries and communities to build a stronger long term future. Through reducing reliance on centralized energy generated by private utilities, communities can ensure profits created from energy generation remain within the community. Wadebridge, a small town in Cornwall of 8,300 people, created a Renewable Energy Network (WREN), a non-profit community organisation. They conducted a cost analysis of the local energy economy drawing the conclusion that over £13 million was spent annually on energy, £5 million of which was on electricity with minimal amounts remaining locally. This is a very common problem for towns all over the world, resulting in weakened community resilience, brain drain and poorer local infrastructure especially in rural areas.

While much of the world’s centralized energy is generated by large utilities, smaller community energy projects can actually provide greater economic value. A U.S. think-tank study found that local ownership increased the economic benefits of renewable energy projects by 50-240% by keeping money and jobs in local communities. The British government has predicted community projects will result in 12-13 times as much community value reinvested back into local areas as would be achieved through 100% commercial models, before factoring in wider social and environmental returns.

In 2014 all European Union countries were net importers of energy. This has come not only at a financial cost, but also gives rise to geo-political issues relating to energy security as well as damaging local to national economies.

Local Investment opportunities

Through community ownership models such as cooperatives, the vast majority of the income from bills remains local and can offer significant returns for local investors. Cooperatives are the most common governance structure for community projects, with local people being afforded the option to buy shares in the project, with a low buy in price. Income is generated by selling energy back to the grid.In many developed countries this is done via a feed-in-tariff type mechanism, paid per kWh generated, income is then split between shareholders.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), based in the USA, represents in excess of 900 cooperatives across 47 States, all of which are not for profit. While this is a growing movement the focus is on local development and investment. By attracting funding from local investors it ensures the community’s interests are put ahead of profit making, as happens with traditional energy models. What’s more, investors often see excellent returns on their investment in comparison to bank interest rates. Although this depends on the feed-in-tariff/ net metering rate. If local people are seeing a profit from their investment they are more likely to spend more locally, continuing the cycle of keeping money and profits in the local economy.

Many projects will also set aside a percentage of revenue to be used on local improvement projects and provide grants for local organisations. This can include improving energy efficiency or reducing energy bills in public buildings, supporting local charities or improving energy education to those in fuel poverty.

Economic viability and future policy

While there are clear economic benefits of community energy there are still concerns over the financial viability of many projects. Many of the governance models in place rely upon net metering or feed in tariffs. This brings about concerns of the subsidizing of renewable energy, and raises questions of which technologies should be financially supported. On the other hand many fossil fuels are heavily subsidized and green technologies are reducing in cost to the point where they are cheaper than traditional energy methods.

There is a balance required to help promote these new technologies for a duration long enough for them to become economically viable on their own merits. Inconsistent policy surrounding the support of certain technologies can be detrimental to community energy uptake. In the UK, solar had received a healthy feed in tariff rate until 2016 when government drastically cut the rate by 65%. This caused a 75% drop off in solar projects as they were no longer financially viable, additionally it damaged confidence in the industry and led to the loss of over 12,000 jobs. This is despite the fact that it was widely acknowledged that the solar industry could become completely self-sufficient with just a few more years of subsidies.

While it is desirable for community energy and renewable technologies to be self-sustaining, this must be conducted in a measured manner. Abrupt changes in policy can set the industry back years and damages the economic viability and predictability of returns for community projects. This is of particular concern for community projects which often take longer to come to fruition with thousands of volunteer hours and community resources being put in jeopardy.

With their clear economic and holistic advantages in comparison with large commercial projects there is a need to alter policy to protect community projects. Policy should make allowances for the greater benefits of such projects by allowing a greater time frame for completion and maybe a separate tariff for community projects. Distinguishing them from their commercial counterparts and giving communities the confidence to invest in their energy future.

Benefits of Community energy: Potential for Nevada?

Historically, energy has been local. Settlements were built near natural resources such as wood for fire or water to turn millstones, progressing into small scale utilities, producing energy and distributing it to the surroundings. Progressively, due to the greater generation capacities of oil, gas and coal, more centralised energy systems, have led to energy being transmitted over long distances.

We are now in the midst of a new energy era. With climate change an ever increasing concern, fossil fuel supplies rapidly declining and a fast growing energy hungry population, the world has increasingly turned to renewable energy as a solution. Energy generation from solar, wind, hydro and other renewable sources offers a viable way to reduce carbon emissions, reduce the demand for finite resources and improve environmental health.

In order to maximise the social, economic, health, and environmental benefits of renewable energy there is a need for more community ownership and participation. It is in many ways ironic that societal progress gave birth to centralized generation and it is now that same progress that requires us to go back to our local roots.

Holistic Benefits of Community Energy

Community energy refers to renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts led by the community and owned/controlled wholly by the community or in partnership with private or public entities. With the democratic management, participation and shared benefits integral to community energy projects, it can create a basis for the significant infrastructural and cultural change required to tackle climate change, energy justice, security and to boost local economies. These ideas are integral to the United Nations initiative of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) who focuses increasing access and duplicating both renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts. At the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) of SE4ALL in 2014, Chilean President Michelle Bachelet proclaimed “Democratization of Energy should be the sign of our times” highlighting the global importance of locally owned energy and its holistic benefits.

Stable energy bills and increased employment

Community energy can stabilized energy prices and improve consistency as they are not dependent on the global price of fossil fuels. In recent years there have been huge spikes in global oil and gas prices which have been passed on to consumers due to a reliance on imported energy. Moving to a more democratized system such as community energy can result in reduced energy bills and more stabilized pricing as well as increasing energy security. Unlike corporate companies, community projects are not driven by making large profits for shareholders.

Another major regional benefit is an increase in local employment. While renewable energy as a whole creates more jobs than traditional energy production, community owned renewable projects create an average of twice as many jobs as absentee-owned projects. Unlike commercial projects, communities often use local tradesmen, adding greater value to the economy. Work comes in the form of shorter term construction jobs, planning, consultancy and longer term maintenance and administration roles. Research by Community Energy England found 45% of the projects spend went to local contractor. The main expense that left the community was the purchasing of specialized equipment which often came from abroad.

Barriers to community energy

A major concern for potential projects is accessibility to financing. While most projects are constructed using capital from share offerings there are significant costs associated with planning, grant applications and feasibility studies prior to generating any income. This has created a reliance upon grants that could be argued as unsustainable for the sector. A key reason for this is the life cycle of the grants being offered, forcing communities to rush through their applications in case the finance vanishes. This highlights a need for governments to implement a long term financial plans with no flip flopping of policy to increase confidence in the sector

There is a need for a consistent policy supporting community energy projects over the long term, or until the technology is cheap and efficient enough to be self-sustaining. Many projects are reliant on the support of a feed-in-tariff type mechanism to make them financially viable, essentially an incentive from the government for producing clean energy.

While projects clearly generate money and provide jobs locally they are also reliant on volunteers, especially prior to the generation of any energy/income. By placing so much expectation on volunteers it could have the effect of making success more unreliable and projects taking significantly longer. Therefore, community projects need consistent policy and financial support to become established and to enable local economies to flourish and to reap the economic benefits of locally produced energy.

Conclusion

There are numerous holistic, economic, environmental and security arguments for the development of community energy projects. Reducing fossil fuel resources and access means that it is imperative that we work on building a mixed economy of sustainable energy. Emerging research shows that energy projects which involve the community are well supported by the community and can provide a significant contribution to social wellbeing, resilience and health of a region. There are many further economic arguments for the development of community energy that merit a more in depth discussion in subsequent posts. While the economics may often be the driver towards a project coming to fruition it is clear there are many more holistic benefits that should also be considered when designing our new energy landscape.

The Future Direction of APEX Industrial Park

The Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Technical Assistance Panel (TAP) have released a report into the potential future direction for the 18,000 acre APEX industrial park in North Las Vegas and Clark County. They were commissioned to do the work on behalf of the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance and the City of North Las Vegas, with the view of transforming an industrial park into an innovation hub.

The area consists of a variety of stakeholders including APEX landowners, local business leaders, real estate professionals and utilities companies, and representatives and staff from the City of North Las Vegas. All of whom were involved in a visioning process for the development.

The TAP team identified the potential for APEX to support an array of companies that would create 20,000 extra jobs, and induce an additional 56,000 jobs in the region. However they identified a need for improved transport connections and improved water and energy services.

So what is the way forward?

A SWOT analysis was conducted on five key themes: land use; mobility; workforce; sustainability and finance. This raised a number of opportunities for the future direction of APEX.

The team identified the need for a thorough sustainability plan. In order to tackle the issue of power they suggested the construction of several solar plants that would service the park and surrounding area. There was also a strong desire to create a sustainability showcase of existing users and promote sustainability to create an “eco-hub”, taking advantage of the positive progress that has already been made. This provides environmental benefits but also helps to encourage responsible behaviour and it can be used to market the area to prospective businesses.

This style of sustainable environment has been seen to be attractive to many industries, particularly in the technology sector. There is therefore the prospect of encouraging higher end tech employment and higher education opportunities. There is the possibility of doing this in the form of a designated innovation district. This could see collaborative opportunities with local Universities, boost job growth, increase incomes and strengthen the economy.

The Future

TAP found that APEX is poised to become the premier facility to develop a next generation of Technology Testing and Manufacturing Hub. A way forward for APEX will involve a consolidated effort to foster a competitive advantage for next generation companies. APEX has the potential to become a place where a program of projects creates synergies across industry clusters, and a manufacturing ecosystem where people want to work and innovate.

APEX is of such a scale that it will have a large impact on the region’s economic development and sustainability. Its future management should cross-pollinate with industry leaders and local academic institutions to benefit all parties. Future management is crucial in ensuring APEX has the potential to be a sustainable hub that benefits both businesses and communities. Creating more jobs, diversifying the economy, developing the surrounding area and minimizing environmental impact.

FULL REPORT HERE