Archive for year: 2014

Clean Energy Group has released a new paper about the progress of “resilient power” efforts since the New York City blackouts in 1999 to Superstorm Sandy.

The New England Solar Cost-Reduction Partnership, a coalition of five New England States managed by the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA), has produced a new guide for community group purchasing, “Planning and Implementing a Solarize Initiative: A Guide for State Program Managers.”

Around the country, a new model is arising to provide clean, reliable, locally generated and locally managed energy: solar power combined with energy storage in the form of batteries.

New Jersey recently created the first-in-the-nation “Energy Resilience Bank (ERB).” Designed to address a repeat of the devastating impacts of SuperStorm Sandy, when over 8 million people lost electric power in the region, the ERB will provide $200 million for municipalities to finance clean resilient power solutions.

Every so often, an idea seems to take on a life of its own. For example, a year or two ago, every energy blogger was talking about “solar soft costs,” and how to reduce them. Recently, the phrase du jour is “utility death spiral.”

We in the Northeast have seen firsthand the enormity of the changes wrought by Hurricane Sandy – not only the storm damage itself, but subsequent and longer-lasting changes in state policy addressing resilient power and the electric grids.

A little over a year ago, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) began construction of the New Bedford Marine Commerce Terminal, a multi-purpose facility designed to support offshore wind deployment on the Atlantic coast.

We have been tracking various state and federal initiatives that address resilient power and related issues, such as the integration of renewables and other distributed generation resources, the need to move to a more decentralized power system, and the need to create functioning markets for societal benefits such as resiliency and clean energy.

There is a steady drumbeat of statements arguing for limited government: Government should not pick winners.

We here at CEG/CESA have been touting the growing market for solar combined with electricity storage for a while now. But apparently when Morgan Stanley says something, people listen.