Jobs in the U.S. energy industry rose 3.8% last year, faster than overall employment growth and led by work in clean energy, the Department of Energy said last Wednesday. According to the U.S. Energy and Employment Report, jobs in clean energy, a wide category including wind and solar power, nuclear, and grid technologies and battery storage, grew about 3.9%, adding 114,000 jobs.
There will be 30 million to 42 million light-duty electric vehicles on U.S. roads in 2030, requiring a rapid, widespread buildout of charging infrastructure that will be focused on homes and multi-family residences, according to a new report from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The mid-adoption scenario of roughly 33 million plug-in vehicles will require 26.8 million Level 1 and Level 2 ports at single-family homes, apartments, and other locations. Another 182,000 public direct current fast chargers, or DCFC, will be needed, along with 1 million Level 2 public chargers located near offices, retail stores, and in high-density neighborhoods.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s launch Wednesday of a $1 billion clean hydrogen initiative aims to solve one of the largest problems facing the emergence of the fuel in the United States: a lack of buyers. The new initiative, which will be run by DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, seeks to reassure the nation’s first major producers of low-carbon hydrogen — specifically, those backed by billions of dollars in infrastructure law funds — that they can find reliable purchasers. Currently, low-carbon hydrogen is rarely made in the United States. Last year, DOE said it was planning to award up to $7 billion this fall for the nation’s first six to ten “hubs” — major demonstrations of low-carbon hydrogen production, storage, transport, and consumption.
Despite months of protests against a rule change for solar panels decreasing the incentives new solar panel owners get for giving their excess energy back to the grid, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) denied an appeal made by a number of environmental groups for the commission to rehear and review the new rule. The rule, which took effect April 15, revolves around “NEM” or net energy metering, a tariff created for people with solar panels which allows them to give energy they don't use to the grid in exchange for credit on their electrical bills.
The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has approved the plan for construction and operations of the Ocean Wind 1 project, off the coast of New Jersey. The project will have an estimated capacity of 1,100 MW of clean energy – capable of powering over 380,000 homes. This marks the Biden-Harris administration’s third approval of a commercial-scale, offshore wind energy project in the United States. It joins the Vineyard Wind project, off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, and the South Fork Wind project, off the coast of Rhode Island and New York, both now under construction.
Federal land managers auctioned off thousands of acres in Nevada’s Amargosa desert for solar development, resulting in the highest-yielding onshore renewable energy auction in the agency’s history. Last week the U.S. Department of the Interior announced the sale of leases on four highly sought land parcels in the Amargosa Desert totaling 23,675 acres for a record return of $105 million. Together, the land could produce up to 3 GW of clean solar energy — enough to power more than 2 million homes.
The Canadian company behind a compressed-air energy storage proposal in eastern Kern County, Hydrostor, is asking state regulators for more time to work out and possibly relocate the $1 billion-plus project in response to unfavorable geological findings and other potential concerns. The Willow Rock Energy Storage Center would inject air deep underground to be stored under hydrostatic pressure. Then, when renewable energy sources come offline and the state power grid calls for electricity, compressed air released upward would power turbines feeding electricity, through nearby interconnections, to electric transmission lines.
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