Renewables

Conversation with EIPC’s John Buechler, Keith Daniel, Jordan Bakke, and Zach Smith about the white paper “Planning the Grid for a Renewable Future.”

“We work with local neighborhoods, community-based organizations, and churches and communities of faith to build solar and other clean energy projects that help reduce energy burdens for people in the neighborhood and help to support local jobs.”

“We thought about ourselves as a provider of thermal energy. If we thought about the power of geothermal from a utility scale, we could see real potential value.”

We conclude that from a market perspective, the combination of new RES, added gas generation, and carbon prices may cause lignite plants to retire at a faster pace than in the current resource plans.

Hydropower: a cornerstone of our clean, affordable, reliable electric future.

The energy we use attributable to battery charging is not necessarily renewable energy even if renewable units are running.

How wind and solar became cheaper than hydro, coal, and nuclear.

We must pass a carbon tax or cap-and-trade legislation to limit carbon dioxide emissions and phase out fossil fuels, including a large portion of our natural gas, to achieve a renewable future.

We expected to find that Europeans had figured out a pathway to a clean-energy future, but to our surprise, this was not the case. We found Europeans tackling many of the same challenges we face in the United States.

The basic solar approach to development and utilization works well in early-stage markets with little renewables penetration.