SEPTEMBER 4, 2024

Welcome back!

Politics doesn’t drive us here at Cipher, but we also can’t deny its importance in the climate and energy space. That’s why, as we enter the homestretch of the United States election period, we’re also kicking up our political focus just a notch.

In today’s edition, we have a story laying out the cleantech state of play for what are arguably the most important battleground states in the U.S.: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Stay tuned for more in this space!

Also this week:

• A dispatch from India on how geopolitics is upending that nation’s clean energy goals.
• A Data Dive by Cat showing where cleantech jobs are going in the U.S.

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Send your energy photos, story tips and more to news@ciphernews.com.

Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

Here’s how cleantech stacks up in three swing states

Taking stock of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin

BY: BILL SPINDLE, AMENA H. SAIYID & CAT CLIFFORD

The 2024 presidential election is shaping up to be a close contest. While climate and energy aren’t receiving as much attention as other issues on the campaign trail, Cipher wanted to know if they might play a role in the election.

After all, the outcome of the race is likely to have a big impact on climate and energy.

There are signs the election could once again come down to the results in three critical swing states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Read the full overview of clean energy development in each of these three key battlegrounds here.

Highlights here:

Michigan

• Energy mix: About 12% of the state’s electricity comes from renewable energy today, compared to about 34% from natural gas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
• State of cleantech: The Democrat-majority government has promoted clean energy through a package of laws that set a goal of producing 100% clean energy by 2040.
• Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) investments: $15.2 billion has been invested in clean technologies and infrastructure in Michigan since the signature climate law was passed in 2022, according to the Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project of the research firm Rhodium Group and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy.
• Points of tension: Registered voters worry the state’s economy is on the wrong track, and many autoworkers are worried about what electric vehicles will mean for their jobs.

Pennsylvania

• Energy mix: The state gets most of its electricity from natural gas and nuclear power, with renewables currently making up a tiny percentage, according to the EIA.
• State of cleantech: Governor Josh Shapiro (D) has introduced a series of clean energy measures, including one to set a goal of producing 35% of the state’s electricity with renewables by 2030. The Biden administration has also announced that two of its hydrogen hubs will include Pennsylvania.
• IRA investments: Pennsylvania has received $7.4 billion in government and private sector funding for cleantech, according to the Clean Investment Monitor.
• Points of tension: The state is the nation’s second largest producer of natural gas and the third largest coal producer. The industries are responsible for at least 120,000 jobs in the state, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

Wisconsin

• Energy mix: The state gets about 9% of its electricity from renewable sources, while natural gas and coal generate the majority of the state’s electricity. Nuclear also plays a smaller, but significant, role.
• State of cleantech: For much of the past decade, Republican lawmakers hampered clean energy progress. That has been shifting following the election of Democratic Governor Tony Evers in 2018, who set a goal of the state using 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050.
• IRA investments: A total of $3.7 billion has been invested in clean technologies and infrastructure in Wisconsin since the IRA was passed.
• Points of tension: Recently there has been more interest in clean energy on both sides of the political aisle.

Read the full article here.

Lunchtime Reads and Hot Takes

The country’s biggest electric school bus fleet will also feed the grid — Canary Media
Amena’s take: Using what is called vehicle-to-grid technology, each bus can discharge up to 50 kilowatt-hours on a working day, which is more energy than an average U.S. household uses daily.

African nations are losing up to 5% of their GDP per year with climate change, a new report says — AP News
Anca’s take: African nations are responsible for less than 10% of global emissions, are more vulnerable to the impacts of a warming planet and yet are not receiving nearly enough climate finance to deal with it.

America’s fastest-growing job, mapped — Axios
Amy’s take: Wind energy jobs are the fastest growing jobs in the U.S., especially in the Dakotas and Colorado. Wow, this should be getting more attention! Though, to be clear, this is the fastest growing type of job but the absolute numbers are still small compared to, say, nurse practitioners.

Texas grid’s largest stand-alone battery storage site is rising in South San Antonio — San Antonio Express-News
Bill’s take: Batteries and gas are in a pitched battle that will determine the future of the Texas grid.

Ghana signs agreement to build small NuScale nuclear reactor — Reuters
Cat’s take: NuScale, a U.S. nuclear company, was up against bids from France, China, South Korea and Russia to win the contract to bring nuclear to Ghana. Deploying nuclear tech internationally is a competition.

Takeaways from CNN’s interview with Harris and Walz — CNN
Amena’s take: “As vice president I did not ban fracking, as president I will not ban fracking... We can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking," Harris said.

Inside China’s race to lead the world in nuclear fusion — Nature
Cat’s take: Bottom line from a top source: “China has built itself up from being a non-player 25 years ago to having world-class capabilities,” Dennis Whyte, a leading fusion professor at MIT, told Nature.

The Electric: A U.S. Silicon Battery Startup Exploits China’s Excess Production Capacity — The Information (subscription)
Bill’s take: A cautionary tale of how even massive subsidies aren’t always enough to override the incredible production overcapacity of clean energy technology in China.

Energy group Orsted shuts down its last coal-fired plant — Reuters
Anca’s take: The company, formerly known as DONG Energy, did such a good job rebranding itself as a renewable major while pioneering offshore wind that I forgot it still has two coal plants standing.

More of what we're reading:

• Swedish Government Pledges to Abolish Tax on Air Travel — Bloomberg

• Gas industry group says energy demand not reflected in climate planning — Financial Times (subscription)
• Canada’s Wildfires Were a Top Global Emitter Last Year, Study Says — The New York Times

We denote ‘(subscription)’ when publications don’t provide any complimentary articles, but many others may ultimately allow you to read only a limited number each month before subscribing. We encourage those who can afford it to support the journalism you love most!

India's clean-energy push stalls over China tensions

Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

Supply-chain crisis highlights global energy transition challenges

BY: ANURADHA VARANSI

Anuradha Varanasi is a freelance science journalist based in Mumbai, India. Her stories on climate change and clean energy have been published in UnDark, Popular Science, Upworthy Science, Atlas Obscura and Inverse, among others.

MUMBAI, India — This nation’s clean-energy goals are getting caught up in a supply-chain crisis prompted by tension with its northern neighbor — and fellow global superpower — China.

The story centers on transformers, machines that adjust electricity voltages, but it offers lessons for how the global energy transition writ large is intricately affected by geopolitics, economics and even extreme weather.

Read the full article here. Highlights here:

As record-breaking heatwaves ravaged most of India earlier this year, thousands of overloaded transformers on power lines throughout the country were damaged and caught fire, causing 12-hour-long blackouts even in big cities.

Many people might associate the word “Transformers” with the popular toys, TV series and movie franchise. But those sentient robots got their name from the less exciting, though arguably far more important, electrical devices that take higher-voltage currents from the grid and “transform” them into lower voltage currents needed for most applications.

During the 2024 Indian heat wave, just as electricity distribution companies were frantically trying to replace damaged transformers with new ones, the government made several political decisions that abruptly stopped trade of a key transformer component from China.

China provided nearly half of India’s supplies of that key component, called Cold Rolled Grain Oriented (CRGO) steel, until April. Now, transformer manufacturers in India are struggling to get the material and could run out of their existing inventory of CRGO steel in less than a month.

Industry sources say this boycott of Chinese mills could be due to growing border tensions with China in the Indian Himalayas.

“Unfortunately, CRGO steel is caught in the crossfire of geopolitical tensions between India and China, even though the power sector heavily relies on this commodity,” said Saif Qureishi, chief managing director of KRYFS Power Components, a Mumbai-based transformer core manufacturing company.

At present, several commissioned renewable energy projects in remote parts of India have been put on hold due to delays in installing new transmission lines. Industry experts warn transformer shortages in the near future will threaten the government’s ambitious plans of expanding the national grid.

Read the full article on Cipher’s website.

Majority of top states for jobs from new clean energy projects are GOP, battleground

Source: E2, Clean Economy Works: Inflation Reduction Act Two-Year Analysis, The Cook Political Report. Political tilt as of September 3, 2024.

BY: CAT CLIFFORD

Politically conservative and battleground states are leading the way in jobs created by new clean energy projects announced since President Biden’s signature climate law passed two years ago, according to a new report.

Since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed in August 2022, at least 334 clean energy projects have been announced, said E2, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization focused on the environment and economy. A subset of 278 of those projects included job information in their announcements, totaling 109,278 new jobs if all reached fruition.

More than two-thirds of the 15 states projected to see the most jobs are either Republican or toss-up states, according to The Cook Political Report, which assesses the current political climate of each state. Georgia, South Carolina, Michigan, North Carolina and Texas top the list.

Notably, no Republicans voted for the IRA and the law could be weakened or repealed depending on the outcome of the November congressional and presidential elections.

Last month, 18 Republican members of the House of Representatives wrote a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson defending the investments and jobs created by the IRA and begging him to tread carefully when considering whether and how to repeal or reform the law.

“It gets a lot harder to say, ‘We don't like electric vehicles,’ and ‘We don't think solar panels work,’ when you're the one actually making them,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of E2.

AND FINALLY...
Solar for the birds

Cipher reader and executive editor-in-chief of the Clean Energy journal Constance Senior snapped this photo of a solar array on top of a lobster co-op in Little Cranberry Island, Maine. She wondered how well the array was coping with all the gulls and bird poop!

Each week, we feature a photo that is somehow related to energy, the thing we all need but don’t notice until it’s expensive or gone. Email your ideas and photos to news@ciphernews.com.

Editor’s note: In addition to supporting Cipher, Breakthrough Energy also supports and partners with a range of entities working to tackle climate change, including nonprofits, corporations, startups and research firms. For more information on Cipher’s editorial policy, click here.