(The "This Week in Cleantech" podcast was recorded live from DISTRIBUTECH International, North America's largest distribution and transmission utility event. )
This Week in Cleantech is a new, weekly podcast covering the most impactful stories in cleantech and climate in 15 minutes or less. Produced by Renewable Energy World and Tigercomm, This Week in Cleantech will air every Friday in the Factor This! podcast feed wherever you get your podcasts.
This week’s episode features Latitude Media co-founder Stephen Lacey, whose podcast Carbon Copy, broke down the latest data on clean energy investment and whether it’s enough to achieve climate goals.
This week’s “Cleantecher of the Week” is Jon Pevitali from VDE Americas.
1. Profiteering Hampers U.S. Grid Expansion — IEEE Spectrum
Utilities make more money building power plants than transmission lines, and adding interregional transmission means they have to compete with power plants in other areas. Building more interregional transmission goes against utility incentives, which are moving slowly on transmission, sometimes impeding projects. Four proposed high-voltage lines in the Midwest could connect at least 28 gigawatts of wind and solar, but utilities have not moved them forward.
Utilities are currently lobbying against the BIG WIRES Act, a bill to force utilities or competing developers to build more interregional links.
2. Coal’s influence on energy generation is fading fast — Axios
BloombergNEF and the Business Council for Sustainable Energy have a new factbook that shows that U.S. coal-fired power plants are shutting down faster than expected. By 2030, 43 more gigawatts of coal-fired capacity is set to retire.
In 2018, the EIA predicted 37 gigawatts of coal would retire by December 2023. But 37 gigawatts did not retire; 81 gigawatts did.
3. Why Oil Stocks Aren’t That Hot — The New York Times
According to a study by the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, stock-price indexes without the fossil fuel industry slightly outperformed those that included it. Also, a 2023 Columbia University report shows that oil and gas companies have underperformed compared to the S&P 500, a key investor benchmark.
Some analysts foresee a continuous decline of the fossil fuel industry. Others see a more complex picture, where changing energy policies and other factors such as the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine make fossil fuel demand unpredictable.
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