Green Energy

The future of business in New Mexico is bright – especially in the solar and renewable energy sectors. The New Mexico State Land Office reports in fiscal year 2019 that it received more revenue from business activity than any year before, showing a potential revenue track of $1 billion. That includes a more than 1,300% revenue increase in solar energy lease payments compared to 2018, and a more than 400% increase in wind energy lease payments.

According to the Solar Energies Industries Association, New Mexico is ranked 16th in the nation for number of solar installations, with enough solar installed to power 205,000 homes. With that comes jobs: the report also shows that 2,168 New Mexicans hold solar-based employment. The American Jobs Project, a nonprofit think tank that aims to identify local pathways to advanced energy employment, predicts that through 2030, advanced solar technology can support more than 6,800 directly related jobs in the Land of Enchantment.

With this growth comes the need for workers educated in the field. Central New Mexico Community College has partnered with Nusenda Credit Union to create a certificate of completion in photovoltaic systems, which trains New Mexicans on how to construct and maintain these innovative solar energy systems. In Tucumcari, Mesalands Community College offers a wind energy technology program which aims to provide qualified workers for the state’s burgeoning wind farm facilities.

Government agencies are also embracing renewable energy. In 2014, Bernalillo County and SunEdison unveiled a solar power installation at the Metropolitan Detention Center that provides 20% of the facility’s power. The City of Albuquerque has redoubled its efforts, pledging to move city government to 100% renewable energy within four years.

But renewable energy isn’t just about solar and wind farms – it’s also how individual New Mexicans and their families can benefit. Since 2015, Nusenda Credit Union has partnered with 100% locally owned and operated merchants such as Affordable Solar, Positive Energy, and NM Solar Group that offer solar products, and others that offer energy-efficient products, such as TLC Plumbing & Utility that help residents reap the benefits of our natural resources and employ a total of 635 New Mexicans. With our comprehensive financing for residential solar systems, central air units and furnaces, energy-efficient roofing products, and more, we help New Mexicans statewide who wish to switch to alternative energy sources.

Nusenda Credit Union also has a new partnership with Renewable Taos that has led to a new, statewide discounted auto loan rate for newer-model electric or fuel-efficient vehicles – including 100% electric vehicles, as well as some hybrids.

Nusenda Credit Union’s expanded administrative campus, currently in its final construction stages, also takes into account the environmental health of our hometown. An underfloor HVAC system will lower energy costs; a solar panel system that covers the top level of a new, multi-level parking structure will provide 20% of the building’s electricity needs. New window glazing behaves like progressive tinted sunglasses, cutting down on glare and solar heat gain and saving energy.

China’s parliament will send inspection teams throughout the country to ensure regions are prioritizing renewable energy resources, the official Xinhua news agency reported, in a bid to cut waste and boost the sector’s profitability.

China’s total renewable power amounted to 728 gigawatts at the end of 2018, up 12% on the year and amounting to 38% of total installed generation capacity. This included hydro and biomass as well as solar and wind.

But regulators want plants to operate without state subsidies, partly in order to ease a payment backlog of more than 100 billion yuan ($14 billion).

The teams will cross the country to make sure local governments are implementing renewable energy laws that force all local grid firms to prioritize clean sources of energy and maximize purchases from local renewable power providers.

Regulators have already promised to enforce the law more effectively to help rewewable power providers boost profits so they can survive without subsidies.

Some regions have been criticized for wasting large amounts of potential renewable energy, either by failing to build enough grid capacity to carry the power or by giving priority to more conventional sources of power like coal or natural gas.

The Beijing-based non-government organization Friends of Nature even took regional transmission firms in the northwestern regions of Gansu and Ningxia to court last year for failing to abide by the rules.

China operates a so-called traffic light system to improve what it calls the rhythm of renewable infrastructure construction, giving regions the green light to approve new projects only if they have sufficient transmission capacity to take them on.

Earlier this year, Gansu, Xinjiang and Tibet were all given red lights and banned from launching new solar plants until existing projects had been granted full grid access.

Last week, China said the rate of wastage in the solar power sector fell 1.2 percentage points to 2.4% in the first half of this year, but it was still at 25.7% in Tibet and 10.6% in Xinjiang.

With pliers in one pant pocket and a phone playing a ‘70s electronic song in the other, Naomi Hawk stabilized a row of solar panels on an apartment roof in Southeast D.C.

She has worked with New Columbia Solar installing solar panels across the District since July. A program called Solar Works DC, created in 2017 through the D.C. Department of Employment Services and Department of Energy and Environment, helped her get there.

Solar Works DC has two goals: it pays workers to learn to install solar panels in low-income neighborhoods, providing job skills to participants and low-cost renewable energy to building owners.

“You can see not only the return on the investment for the individual that’s receiving training, but it’s also making an impact in a community and it’s helping to improve this world,” said Unique Morris-Hughes, the director of the Department of Employment Services.

Solar Works DC’s goal is to install free solar systems to 300 homes by 2020, reducing energy costs by about $600 a year per home. Since the program’s launch, it has trained 100 workers and expects to double that by next year. Solar Works DC has cost taxpayers $2.3 million to date.

The program comes as the market for solar energy continues to grow, according to the International Energy Agency. Jobs related to solar power are expected to increase by 7 percent this year, according to a 2018 report by the non-profit Solar Foundation. Solar job opportunities in the District grew by 25 percent in 2016, according to the city’s Sustainable DC 2.0 Plan.

But at this time last year, Hawk didn’t have a job.

“At that time, I was just like, ‘I have to get out of this,’” Hawk, a 27-year-old D.C. resident, said. She wanted to return to studies at Montgomery College but outstanding student loans made that impossible.

D.C. Politics
As demand for solar energy grows, D.C. job training offers both employment and community results

WASHINGTON, DC-AUGUST 27: Naomi Hawk (L) consults with construction manager Mason Holmes at a job site installing solar panels on the roof of an apartment complex in SE Washington D.C. on August 27, 2019. Hawk is a graduate of Solar Works DC, a city program that trains people to work in solar energy and installs solar panels on buildings in low-income neighborhoods. Hawk now works for New Columbia Solar. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
By Cortlynn Stark August 30 at 6:16 PM
With pliers in one pant pocket and a phone playing a ‘70s electronic song in the other, Naomi Hawk stabilized a row of solar panels on an apartment roof in Southeast D.C.

She has worked with New Columbia Solar installing solar panels across the District since July. A program called Solar Works DC, created in 2017 through the D.C. Department of Employment Services and Department of Energy and Environment, helped her get there.

Solar Works DC has two goals: it pays workers to learn to install solar panels in low-income neighborhoods, providing job skills to participants and low-cost renewable energy to building owners.

“You can see not only the return on the investment for the individual that’s receiving training, but it’s also making an impact in a community and it’s helping to improve this world,” said Unique Morris-Hughes, the director of the Department of Employment Services.

Solar Works DC’s goal is to install free solar systems to 300 homes by 2020, reducing energy costs by about $600 a year per home. Since the program’s launch, it has trained 100 workers and expects to double that by next year. Solar Works DC has cost taxpayers $2.3 million to date.

The program comes as the market for solar energy continues to grow, according to the International Energy Agency. Jobs related to solar power are expected to increase by 7 percent this year, according to a 2018 report by the non-profit Solar Foundation. Solar job opportunities in the District grew by 25 percent in 2016, according to the city’s Sustainable DC 2.0 Plan.

WASHINGTON, DC-AUGUST 27: Naomi Hawk works on solar panels on the roof of an apartment complex in SE Washington D.C. on August 27, 2019. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)
[Virginia schools have seen the light, and it’s solar]

But at this time last year, Hawk didn’t have a job.

“At that time, I was just like, ‘I have to get out of this,’” Hawk, a 27-year-old D.C. resident, said. She wanted to return to studies at Montgomery College but outstanding student loans made that impossible.

Hawk said one email about Solar Works DC from the United Black Workers Center, a nonprofit organization, dragged her out of the void in which she felt trapped.

The 12-week training included solar installations and CPR and Occupational Safety and Health Administration certifications.

The first time she climbed a ladder, “My honest first thought was: ‘What the hell am I doing?’” Hawk said. But once she adjusted, she didn’t want to come down.

Hawk said she attended speed interviews held through the program where she met two representatives from New Columbia Solar — including her current boss, Mason Holmes. Three weeks later, she started a full-time job with the company. The process taught her a lot about herself, Hawk said.

On the roof of an apartment building one recent overcast morning, Hawk discussed her passion for photography, urban planning and sustainability. She’s been interested in sustainability since her childhood, despite growing up in an area that didn’t offer a lot of outdoor recreation, an interest she made clear when interviewing for the position.

“I think Solar Works is doing a good job of getting nontraditional people inside the workforce, people who don’t have traditional access to jobs or training,” Hawk said, as she secured a final solar panel with a windbreaker to prevent it from flying away.

Before going on break, she gave her boss a high five.

“Solar Works DC is a great program to get that fire started and excite them and give them the knowledge they need to just start running with it,” said Holmes, a construction manager. He said Hawk’s passion for renewable energy reminds him of himself.

According to The Solar Foundation, black or African American workers comprise 7.6 percent of the industry, while making up 13 percent of the overall U.S. workforce.

Morris-Hughes said she does not know of other programs like Solar Works DC. “Now, minorities are able to participate in the solar industry in a way that other jurisdictions don’t have or haven’t seen,” Morris-Hughes said.

The program offers training in spring, summer and fall. The summer cohort draws from the Marion Barry Summer Youth Employment Program.

Aaron Ray, a 23-year-old senior at Ohio University, spent six weeks with Solar Works DC as part of the summer youth employment program. Ray, who grew up in the District, has participated in the employment program since he was 14. But this summer spent working with Solar Works DC was his favorite.

Most of the week was classroom learning, he said. But Thursdays and Fridays were spent on job sites installing solar panels, 10 participants split into a ground and roof team at each site.

“It was nice,” he said, “just being able to talk to people from different paths about where they’re at and what they’re trying to do and learning from that.”

Ray learned to conquer his fear of heights on the ladder.

Another lesson was not to let outside negativity affect his life.

Ray said he struggled at the beginning of college and switched his major around as he tried to figure out what he wanted to do, eventually designing his own major in technology and project management. Participating in Solar Works DC also inspired him to learn more about agriculture and environmental balance.

While some companies don’t see the benefits of sustainability, Ray said, Solar Works DC does. He said he supports “companies who are trying to actively help those people and create an easier life for people who really need it.”

“I can’t not get behind that,” he said.

The town’s Selectboard sent a letter to state leadership in an attempt to point out a problem many might notice.

The solar industry is expanding rapidly across the state and country, but it’s not necessarily accessible to all walks of life. Selectboard member Robert Armstrong said Massachusetts provides a lot of incentive for people to go solar, though they most often have to invest their own money. He said many cash out part of their retirement savings or take out loans to start solar projects.

This, Armstrong said, presents a problem for low-income people, those who rent and anyone living in a condominium.

“Their tax money is helping the people who can participate,” he said. “The system is set up, in a way, extremely unfairly.”

The letter is addressed to Gov. Charlie Baker, state House Speaker Robert DeLeo, state Senate President Karen Spilka and members of the state Legislature.

“Under the new state solar program, Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART), less than 3 percent of projects qualify as low-income, despite a statewide poverty rate over 10 percent. This does not capture whether those low-income projects saved money, how much and who benefited,” the letter reads. “Neither does it reflect the lack of accessibility of solar for those who are working class but above the poverty rate, renters, non-English speakers and others facing structural barriers to access. State solar policies effectively exclude approximately half the commonwealth’s population, despite every ratepayer paying into utility-run solar programs.”

The letter goes on to state, however, the problem is solvable. The state Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy has held a hearing on at least three bills aimed at making solar power more accessible to low- and moderate-income households. More information on those bills can be found at bit.ly/2ZHU59X, bit.ly/2ZAPWnW, bit.ly/2Le94z3 and bit.ly/2Zpgppr.

The letter also states the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center designs programs to explore and expand clean energy implementation around the state, but those programs typically focus on households only marginally excluded from solar energy.

“However, they have a special responsibility and the means to create mechanisms in these programs that overcome significant equity barriers related to class, race and language isolation,” the letter reads. “We ask that programs are designed in collaboration with excluded communities and constituencies that face the largest barriers to solar uptake.”

Residents do, though, have the option of getting their energy through a solar farm.

Nexamp, a company in downtown Boston, specializes in community solar farms, equally accessible to all. Communication Manager Keith Hevenor explained there is no sign-up cost, credit check or cancellation fee associated with a community solar farm — which feeds clean energy to the local electric grid — and anyone involved gets a guaranteed, fixed 15 percent discount on their monthly energy bill. Solar companies take advantage of incentives from the state to set up farms.

Hevenor said Nexamp has community solar farms in Whately, Hadley, Plainfield, Hatfield and Amherst.

In April, for the first time in the U.S., renewables generated more electricity than coal, according to the Energy Information Administration. Now that renewable technologies like wind and solar are largely commoditized, investors and utilities are looking for ways to improve their margins, and they’re turning to startups in artificial intelligence to do it.

There is a current wave of investment underway in digital technologies that are making renewables the cheaper, cleaner, safer energy option. Venture firms, incumbents and private equity have raised more than $3 billion in new renewable energy-focused funds over the last three years.

Wood Mackenzie’s latest Energy Transition Outlook predicts the world will add 3,000 gigawatts of wind and solar over the next two decades, far more than new gas-fired capacity. Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts that nearly half of the world’s electricity will come from renewable energy by 2050 as costs of wind, solar and battery storage continue to plummet.

And these shifts are expected to occur in tandem as demand for electricity is expected to increase globally more than 50 percent over the next three decades.

One of the key drivers of this wave of investment is the emergence of digital technologies like AI — technologies that can take advantage of a proliferation of data to provide predictive analytics and real-time insights into asset operations.

Within the last five years, we’ve witnessed these technologies emerge in large numbers and scale to create an all-new class of technology that is increasingly being deployed by utilities and energy companies. Increasing business pressures from climate change, static electricity demand, and distributed resources are forcing utility companies — traditionally slow to adopt new technologies — to innovate rapidly.

Core technologies like wind and solar are demonstrably effective and reliable. What’s pushing them into the money — attracting new investment and allowing them to surpass coal — is these new digital technologies that improve margins for investors and asset owners, making the core technologies both more effective and better-performing for the bottom line.

Years ago, when clean energy wasn’t cost-competitive, these technologies wouldn’t have been viable investments. Incremental improvements to efficiency, power or margins are irrelevant if the core technology is too far out of the money. Today, wind is the lowest-cost new resource to build on the grid, with solar not far behind and gas competing on similar margins.

Fifteen years ago, we would have seen stark contrasts in the margins and return on renewables compared to their oil and gas counterparts. Not anymore.

“Less-risky” digital investments

The last wave of renewable energy venture investing a decade ago focused on hardware; today’s clean energy investments are largely in digital technologies because even marginal improvements to efficiency or output can help win contracts and deliver better returns.

Utilities and energy providers are using AI to make clean energy the lowest-cost energy option, increase its reliability and output, speed its deployment, and provide better service to their customers.

The proliferation of accelerators and venture funds dedicated to these types of digital clean energy innovations speaks to incumbent and investor interest. Across the country, accelerators like Clean Energy Trust, Greentown Labs, Plug and Play, and Elemental Excelerator connect startups with global energy household names. Organizations including Exelon, National Grid, Southern Company, Tokyo Gas, ExxonMobil work with the accelerators to identify advanced technologies that can help them speed up the deployment of reliable renewables, save money and make low-risk investments.

From an investment standpoint, one of the main benefits of these new digital technologies is their relative lack of risk.

Investing in hardware involves significant capital costs and long timeframes, which creates substantial risk. Digital technologies, on the whole, have both much better margins and much broader applicability across industries than hardware.

Companies like SparkCognition and DroneDeploy are great examples of this multi-sector relevance. SparkCognition uses AI to predict performance and failures of industrial equipment in industries including electric utilities, oil and gas, aviation and manufacturing. DroneDeploy uses computer vision and AI to analyze data and create maps and 3D models for applications ranging from mining and construction to agriculture and electric utilities. These companies are helping utilities either get more out of their renewable energy assets or deploy them faster, but also have successful track records in other industries.

AI is driving a resurgence in renewable energy investing and moving us inexorably away from fossil fuels. It is helping make renewables the default best energy choice, and enabling utilities to provide better service and cheaper prices to their customers.

AI is also making clean energy attractive for investors by offering great returns and significantly de-risking portfolios. It’s a great time to invest in digital technologies that are not only in high demand across industries but also helping us create a cleaner, more sustainable energy landscape.

Los Angeles made waves this summer by finalizing a 400-megawatt solar project with a record-breaking low price. But the project, developed by 8minute Solar Energy, still needs final approval.

That approval failed to materialize in a vote Tuesday, after the municipal utility union expressed concerns about the project, the L.A. Times reported. The L.A. Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of the Eland solar project, but with one member abstaining and one absent, it failed to clear the majority needed to approve.

The Eland project will get another shot; it is now slated for another hearing on September 10. But the uber-low pricing — $19.97 per megawatt-hour for solar power under a 25-year power-purchase agreement — is predicated on beginning construction this year, before the 30 percent federal Investment Tax Credit steps down. That means it will be imperative to sort out the controversy quickly so that construction can mobilize.

“While we were disappointed the project did not receive approval yesterday, we remain confident the issues raised will be resolved quickly,” 8minute Director of Marketing Jeff McKay wrote in an email Wednesday. “We feel strongly that this project is a win-win for everyone involved.”

The objections to the approval appear to have more to do with the city’s broader transition to cleaner electricity than the Eland project itself.

The leader of the utility union International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 has criticized Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Green New Deal plan, which will shut down three coastal gas plants. IBEW business manager Brian D’Arcy alleges the decision will cut jobs, raise the prices on electricity and threaten blackouts, and even went so far as to call the mayor’s plan “a childlike proposal,” as reported in the L.A. Times.

City officials insist nobody will lose their job due to the plant closures, and power will stay affordable and reliable.

IBEW Local 18 did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The union told the Times that “concerns needed to be raised” about the solar project, but did not describe the nature of the issues in detail.

The Eland project is separate from the effort to close the gas plants, although it is indicative of a new approach to grid planning. 8minute will pair the solar arrays with large batteries totaling up to 300 megawatts of capacity, to make the clean generation available on demand. By shifting solar power into the evening, the plant would reduce the need to rely on gas peakers or hydropower to meet peak demand.

Since the commission vote, 8minute has been working with the IBEW to clarify that all construction jobs will employ California workers under project labor agreements, McKay said. Concern over use of out-of-state labor was one item raised at the hearing.

If that resolves the controversy, the project could get the nod on September 10. If further procedural setbacks arise, even for a project at a groundbreaking low price point, the precedent could complicate L.A.’s quest to power itself with clean energy.