The Growing Role of Renewable Energy in the U.S. Energy Mix

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Clean Energy and Technology Staff Association (CETSA) held a briefing on the state of play for renewable energy and energy storage technology in the United States. Renewable energy technologies now account for a substantial portion of the U.S. energy portfolio. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, renewable energy generated 17 percent of total energy in 2018, and projections indicate this percentage will continue to grow.

This briefing provided an overview of innovations in renewable energy and energy storage, not only in solar and wind power, but also in geothermal power, hydropower, and sustainable biomass. Briefing panelists shared first-hand knowledge from federal agencies and industry to provide the most up-to-date information on the role of renewable energy in the country’s energy mix.

HIGHLIGHTS

 

Daniel Bresette, Executive Director, EESI

• The Energy Information Administration recently released a short-term energy outlook which confirmed that renewable energy is a critical piece of the U.S. energy mix.

 

Bill Parsons, Chief Operating Officer, American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)

• Renewable energy has been growing over the last decade, and it is hovering at just under 20 percent of the total energy mix. Grid decarbonization is going to require far higher levels of renewable energy.
• Key drivers for U.S. renewable energy growth:
  • State renewable energy directives, such as state renewable portfolios and standards, have become increasingly ambitious. Federal policy has not been fertile ground for clean energy policy, but states have taken the lead in driving renewable deployment and investment. Cities are also creating goals for renewable energy.
  • Consumer demand for renewable energy is growing. Ambitious corporate renewable energy goals have driven growth of renewables significantly.
  • Dramatic reductions in cost are also driving renewable energy. Over the last decade, there has been an 88 percent reduction in the cost of solar and a 69 percent reduction in the cost of wind. Onshore wind and solar photovoltaic are competitive with natural gas in many places.
  • Tax credits for wind and solar have been an indisputable policy success, having helped unleash economies of scale by driving demand. These credits are slowly being phased out.
• We have momentum from years of smart policy, but we are at an inflection point in regards to the tax credits. We must engineer smart policy for the next decades.

 

Will Pettitt, Executive Director, Geothermal Resource Council

• Geothermal energy results from the heat generated by Earth; it is converted to electricity or used directly.
• There is no doubt that geothermal energy will be a huge success in the near future. We will need renewable and clean sources of energy that are always on, no matter the time or the weather—sources like geothermal energy, which supplies energy continuously.
• One of the benefits and challenges of geothermal is that it is completely hidden from us underground (that means it has a low profile, but it also easily overlooked).
• Geothermal industry types:
  • Extraction of hydrothermal hot water from deep underground to generate power.
  • Direct use of cooler hydrothermal hot water
  • Geothermal heat pumps that cool or heat individual buildings or houses
  • Enhanced geothermal systems can be used in locations that would not normally be suitable for geothermal energy, but they are still in the research phase
• California will have 60 percent renewable energy by 2030, and other states will follow.
• In the United States, California is the largest producer of geothermal energy.
• Geothermal energy provides a flexible baseload and can provide resilience, reliability, and stability as we transition to renewable energy.
• Geothermal power production creates quality jobs and contributes to local economies near the resources. For every two megawatts of geothermal development, five quality jobs are created.
• Geothermal is a facilitator of other, intermittent renewables. The renewable power industries can collaborate for the benefit of everybody.
• A recent study by the Department of Energy stated that geothermal energy could provide over 60 gigawatts of power, which would be over 10 percent of U.S. electricity demand.
• The Geothermal Resource Council supports the Geothermal Energy Opportunities (GEO) Act, The Advanced Geothermal Innovation Leadership (AGILE) Act of 2019, and the Enhancing Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act.
• Geothermal developers are looking at ways to increase the value of geothermal plants. One way to achieve this is through co-production of minerals. Lithium, for example, is found in geothermal brines, especially in the Imperial Valley in California, and it could potentially be recovered from the brine. The demand for lithium, used in lithium-ion batteries (for smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, energy storage…), is expected to increase significantly over the next 10 years.
• The geothermal industry is helping build a future where geothermal power and heat can be rolled out across the nation as a critical source of renewable energy.

 

Peter Thompson, Project Coordinator, Biomass Thermal Energy Council

• In 2017, 44 percent of renewable energy in the United States was produced by biomass feed stocks.
• Forest areas in the United States are stable despite immense population growth.
• Issues facing U.S. forests:
  • Development pressures: forests need markets to maintain value. Resources need to be valued to be preserved.
  • Forest management: there is a lack of funding for forest management, especially on the West Coast.
  • Rapidly shifting energy markets: wood fuels are not competitive against cheap fossil fuels.
• Forests need to be managed to prevent diseases and forest fires. Removed wood can be used for energy.
• The Biomass Thermal Energy Council supports the Biomass Thermal Utilization (BTU) Act and Wood Heaters Emissions Reduction Act, which would help deploy biomass energy.
• Existing programs, such as EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard and the 2018 Farm Bill, can be updated to further include and expand biomass energy.
• In the case of woody biomass, resources are used within 50-70 miles of where they are extracted. This creates local jobs and helps rural economies.
• Biogas, renewable gas made from organic waste (such as manure and food waste), is also a source of baseload energy that can create jobs. It can help with waste management and nutrient recycling.
• These bioenergy technologies are readily available. They provide economic opportunities, energy resilience, and independence.

 

Jason Burwen, Vice President of Policy, Energy Storage Association (ESA)

• Storage includes many technologies. Batteries are the fastest-growing segment of the industry.
• Storage is important because the power sector is constrained by the need for supply to exactly equal demand at all times. Demand must be met to avoid blackouts and have a reliable power system. Storage provides flexibility to the power system.
• There is just over one gigawatt of batteries connected to the electric grid as storage in the United States.
• The reason why we are focused on batteries is because the cost of lithium-ion batteries is dropping quickly. Cost declines are being driven by electric vehicles, which are creating economies of scale.
• Storage allows people to save money. Instead of building more wires and power plants, we can store energy to meet peak demand without building extra power plants.
• Storage allows for more reliability and resilience, and helps stabilize the energy grid.
• The Salt River Project in Arizona announced they are going to build a 250-megawatt solar facility paired with a 1,000-megawatt-hour battery. The battery can store four hours of capacity from the solar facility, to provide power at night.
• If we are going to go to 100 percent clean energy, storage has to be part of the picture, since several widespread forms of clean energy (like solar and wind) are intermittent.
• States are driving the conversation around energy storage and some states have deployment targets. From the federal level, there is bipartisan interest in energy storage.
• The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the Better Energy Storage and Technology (BEST) Act, which elevates storage to one of the top priorities of the Department of Energy’s applied research program.
• The Energy Storage Tax Incentive and Deployment Act of 2019 is also important. Storage should not be tied only to new solar energy facilities.
• There are enormous economic and job opportunities to retrofitting existing solar facilities with batteries.
• Energy is either converted, transported, or stored. You can get carbon out of the generation and transportation of energy, but if you cannot store energy better than hydrocarbons (coal, natural has, oil), we are going to continue to be dependent on them. When we can store energy without creating carbon emissions, we will be able to decarbonize.

 

Q&A Session

 

What can Congress do before the end of the year to make life better for your industries?

• There is not a single more impactful thing that can get done for renewable energy than ITC eligibility for storage.
• Thompson: Congress should pass the BTU Act (H.R. 1479), the Renewable Electricity Tax Credit Equalization Act (H.R. 4186), and the Agriculture Environmental Stewardship Act of 2019 (H.R. 3744). Tax credits are huge for renewable energy industries.
• In the geothermal world, the Geothermal Opportunities Act, the Advanced Geothermal Innovation Act, and the Enhanced Geothermal Production on Federal Lands Act should be passed.
• At the beginning of the year, there was a lot of talk around the Green New Deal, and ACORE is supportive of those aspirations. You simply have to have massive deployment of energy storage to make those aspirations work. Storage is the aspect that is making itself available politically by being a bipartisan topic. Please have your bosses sign legislation regarding energy storage, electric vehicles, and offshore wind.

 

What is the feasibility of establishing a national Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS)?

• Parsons: This year and heading into an election year, it is not likely. We know that renewable portfolio standards (RPS) work at the state level. RPSs drive demand which fuels investment. RPS could be an incredibly helpful policy tool in any comprehensive climate plan.
• States are already implementing RPSs and the federal government should as well. Greenhouse gas emission targets go hand in hand. Legislation that targets both is important.
• Thompson: Unfortunately, some states treat biomass as a fossil fuel. A national RPS could be beneficial as long as we have accurate carbon accounting.

 

Are you submitting information to the Select Committee on Climate Crisis’s request for information (RFI)?

• ACORE is submitting information to the Select Committee. When thinking about carbon pricing, the common refrain is to make dirty fuels more expensive to get cleaner through economic pressure. However, not all carbon pricing regimes are created equal. Carbon pricing must be purpose-built with a goal in mind.
• Carbon pricing cannot incentivize near-term fuel switching from coal to natural gas. If you do that, you will see helpful reductions in GHG emissions in the near term. However, that will encourage a new generation of natural gas infrastructure that will be used for many years. We need to be smart about carbon pricing so it encourages a move to renewable energy.
• The challenge with storage is that you have to get energy into it faster than you use it. We need energy generation to be there at all times to get the energy into the system. We also need to focus on energy efficiency. Making houses more energy efficiency is important. We need to bring down the need for power in the first place.

 

In 2018 there was a spike in consumer demand for renewable energy. What explains the spike?

• The economic recovery helped support the demand, even in 2018. However, increased corporate demand is new. Big companies like Facebook and Amazon are calling for renewable energy. The increase in solar is the function of a healthy economy. Many are trying to capture the tax credits before they run out.

 

Where do you see the role of renewable gas in the United States’ energy future?

• The most important place to have this discussion is the industrial sector. It is very difficult to replace natural gas in industrial processes. We have to talk about all the options for decarbonization.

 

Clean energy technologies have demonstrated vast potential in the American energy space and are leading to consumer savings, cleaner air and water, and more sustainable resource consumption. America's energy landscape is rapidly changing, raising highly important questions related to issues such as storage, natural resources, the expansion of renewable energy, and the development of carbon capture technologies. To successfully address these questions, it is more important than ever to foster a network of collaboration and information sharing. Better planning of America's energy usage will contribute to enhanced preservation of our public lands and environmental safety, protecting and improving the lives of Americans for years to come.

The briefing was co-hosted by the Clean Energy and Technology Staff Association (CETSA). CETSA, founded in 2018, is a bipartisan and bicameral staff association with 95 members. CETSA is dedicated to promoting the education and adoption of clean energy technologies, and aims to promote collaboration and networking amongst like-minded Congressional staffers committed to the expansion and adoption of clean energy technology within America's energy systems.