Big Changes For US Energy
Happy Tuesday!
Welcome back to ET weekly, Energy Terminal's weekly newsletter where we cover trends, opportunities, events and updates across the energy industry.
In this issue:
💲3B for low-income solar and battery loans
🌱 What's the need for biofuels?
💥 Green hydrogen's potential
‼️ Congrats to the Emerging Leaders Program cohort
📈 US regions with the highest air pollution
🚨 Top 3 Energy Opportunities 🚨
1) Sunrun, Solar Associate Civil Engineer
Sunrun is the #1 Home Solar Company in America. The Associate Civil Engineer is responsible for reviewing photovoltaic solar system designs for structural integrity and code-compliance, and providing structural analysis for a high volume of residential solar projects
2) D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments, 2023 Summer Generalist Intern (New York)
D. E. Shaw Renewable Investments (“DESRI”) is a market-leading owner and operator of renewable energy projects throughout the United States that acquires, develops, owns, operates, or has contracted more than 6 gigawatts of capacity across a portfolio of over 60 renewable energy projects.The internship is an opportunity to participate in the development, acquisition, and management of renewable energy assets.
3) Bloom Energy, Policy Intern
Bloom Energy's mission is to make clean, reliable energy affordable for everyone in the world. A key way they do this is through the development of their solid oxide fuel cell. The policy intern will assist with the management of expectations, timeline, and deliverables for the completion of Economic Impact Study Update of Bloom Energy In Delaware, as well as a variety of other tasks.
📣 Episode 27
More important than financing, policy, or even technology is the workforce that will build the energy transition. Over the next decade, we’ll see millions of new jobs created in the energy industry led by a booming cleantech sector.
Joining us on the show is Jason Radisson, serial unicorn breeder and CEO and Founder of Movo, a company leveraging technology to provide frontline workforce solutions to the clean energy, healthcare, and warehousing industries and more. In the episode, we talk about what kinds of energy jobs are in highest demand, how universities and trade schools can shift their curriculum to support cleantech jobs, how to find entry-level energy jobs, and much more. If you’re a young person looking for clean energy jobs or a company looking to hire more effectively, you won’t want to miss this episode.
‼️ Emerging Leaders Program Graduation ‼️
Huge congratulations to our inaugural cohort of Emerging Leaders for completing the Emerging Leaders Program! Over the past ten weeks, cohort members spoke to nine different guest speakers across different climate verticals, participated in a pitch competition on emerging technologies in clean energy and networked with fellow cohort members. Our cohort had representatives from nine different universities all with diverse passions and interests in the energy industry.
And, a huge thank you to Energy Terminal's Director of Programs, Mudit Agrawal, for leading a fantastic program.
Interested in being a part of the next cohort of the Emerging Leaders Program? We will be having a Fall Cohort !! Stay tuned for application announcements.
📚 Reading List
Modernizing the US grid + scaling nuclear! Check out this week’s handpicked reading list to learn more about these groundbreaking energy topics 🔥
🎙️Podcasts:
Climate One, Missed Connections: Modernizing Our Multiple Grids
Connecting renewable energy projects to the grid is difficult because there isn’t a national grid in the U.S, there are three major regional grids: The Eastern Interconnection, Western Interconnection, and The Texas Interconnection
The permitting process for getting energy projects on line is slow and tedious, and permitting reform to fast track energy infrastructure is being called for
Rural America is currently facing the highest energy prices because people are living in older and less efficient housing, but the IRA has incentives to bring more energy efficiency to these rural homes
Many see the clean energy transition as an opportunity to reinvest in rural communities and bring them prosperity
The Interchange Recharged, Can SMRs Scale Fast Enough to Reach Climate Goals?
Nuclear is carbon free and has a large history of resilience and reliability
SMRS (Small Modular Reactors) are smaller than traditional nuclear reactors, they can fit into a variety of locations in different parts of the grid and be partners to intermittent renewables
This partnership could be key to reliable, affordable green energy
For nuclear to be successful in the future, policy must reward it
Nuclear is a wonderful solution to the combined need for energy security and the need to transition to a net-zero economy
However, we may need a bit more of an improvement in its technology to make people comfortable with nuclear moving forward
Volts, What’s going on with biofuels?
Biofuels emerged in the early 2000s as a promising alternative to fossil fuels, but the many targets set by the EPA and other administrations have largely fell flat
Electrification is likely to dominate for passenger car transport, especially as battery costs have fallen nearly 10x in the last 10 years
Biofuels are likely to be most successful for aviation and other hard-to-abate sectors
Shifting from crop-based biofuels to waste-based (like municipal waste or used oils) will mitigate the land use and other negative effects of biofuels
📰️ Articles:
Canary Media, Sunnova receives $3B backing from DOE for low-income solar and battery loans
Sunnova, a Houston-based residential solar provider, received a $3 billion partial loan guarantee from the DOE’s Loan Programs Office to support solar in low-income communities
The loan guarantee is estimated to support residential solar installations for between 75,000-115,000 homeowners in the U.S. and deliver 568MW of added solar capacity
Sunnova will also provide software to track and manage energy usage, enabling virtual power plant capabilities in these homes
CNBC, California and other Western states lead in unhealthy levels of air pollution, report shows
Western states are experiencing worsening heat, drought, and wildfires, leading to more polluted air, and this is bad because air pollution takes over two years off the average global life expectancy
Over ⅓ of the U.S. population (120 million people) lived in areas with unhealthy levels of air between 2019 and 2021, with over 64 million of these individuals being people of color
People of color are nearly 4x as likely as white people to live in an area with unhealthy ozone smog (comes from vehicles, factories, industry, etc.) and particle pollution (comes from factories, power plants, wildfires, etc.) levels, showing the disproportionate effects of air pollution
Wired, Forget Cars, Green Hydrogen Will Supercharge Crops
The Yuri Project is producing green hydrogen, combining it with nitrogen and using this to produce ammonia for crop fertilizer
Hydrogen as fuel for vehicles is generally what people think about when green hydrogen is discussed, but over the past few years discussion has shifted to other carbon-intensive industries that hydrogen could decarbonize
Production of ammonia for fertilizer contributes to 0.8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, green hydrogen may be a great alternative to current ammonia production since the process to create green hydrogen produces zero carbon emissions
Green hydrogen is also gaining traction in the freight transport industry
Hydrogen can be stored, efficiently transported, and is getting less cost-intensive as renewable costs plummet
⏰ Missed Episode 26?
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