OCTOBER 9, 2024

Good morning!

This week:

• Bill looks at cleantech momentum in Michigan ahead of the election.
• He then reflects on returning home to report the story after years of living and reporting abroad.
• Amena looks at solar energy driving the growth of renewables in this week’s Data Dive.

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

Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

In Michigan, climate and clean energy initiatives are gaining momentum

BY: BILL SPINDLE

ANN ARBOR, Michigan — The Bryant community, a low-income residential area on the fringes of this midwestern college town, isn’t used to getting attention from government leaders. But these days things are different.

The city of Ann Arbor is helping residents of Bryant reduce energy use and cut their heating and electricity bills with solar panels, new insulation and electric appliances. The projects are funded by the Biden administration’s climate initiatives and state money flowing from the state’s Democratically-controlled legislature.

Read Bill’s full story looking at cleantech in this key swing state ahead of the U.S. presidential election here.

Highlights here:

Ann Arbor has long been a bastion of progressive politics, but Democratic leaders there say the election of a pro-climate president and state government has been key to accelerating their ambitions for the city to become carbon neutral by 2030.

“The outcome of elections can be transformational,” said Mayor Christopher Taylor. “We’ve experienced a sea-change from almost overwhelming headwinds to wind at our back and downhill.”

Since the passage of the Biden administration’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), two years ago, Michigan has announced 30 IRA projects, the most of any state. It has also received the fourth-most funding among states, $11.7 billion, according to E2, a non-partisan group that tracks IRA funds.

The state has embraced efforts by Detroit automakers and other companies to secure funding from the federal government to set up battery plants, boost the production of electric cars and build renewable energy.

The city of Ann Arbor passed its hyper-ambitious decarbonization plan in 2020 and has tapped into the new federal and state enthusiasm and funding to accelerate its decarbonization. Residents even approved, with 71% support, a tax on themselves that generated $7.2 million last year to pay for the work.

Solar panels have gone up in dozens of facilities, from parks to community centers. Municipal car, bus and garbage truck fleets are going electric.

The city also established a department that helps individual homeowners come up with comprehensive plans to reduce their emissions.

Next month, Ann Arbor voters will consider a city-sponsored ballot proposal that would set up a new local utility to help the city connect rooftop solar panels on homes with good sun exposure to nearby homes without solar panels and encourage landlords to put solar installations on rental housing.

Both are challenges the Bryant community faces in boosting the use of solar power to cut residential electricity bills.

Leaner Webster, 74, lives with her sister and two nieces in a home her mother bought when the community was developed. She’s nearing the end of a months-long, city-guided home upgrade that has included everything from new front steps to a new electric dryer, stove and refrigerator, largely paid for by federal, state and local programs.

Glancing up toward the new panels on her roof, she said she can’t wait to receive her first electric bill with the new system fully in place. A neighbor told her that her bill had dropped by about one-third after installing panels, Webster said.

“I’m looking forward to having the money to buy some new furniture,” she said.

Read the full article here.

Lunchtime Reads and Hot Takes

Big Oil Urges Trump Not to Gut Biden’s Climate Law — The Wall Street Journal
Amy’s take: This is one of those stories that is simultaneously juicy and obvious. Of course, companies would lobby to keep tax credits they are benefiting from — regardless of the polarization of the topic.

The Great Florida Migration is Coming Undone — The Wall Street Journal

Cat’s take: In parts of Florida, home insurance has gone up 400% in five years, WSJ reports. This story is timely as Helene repair is still underway in Florida and Milton is barreling toward the Sunshine State.

John Kerry Joins Billionaire Tom Steyer’s Investing Firm — Bloomberg
Amena’s take: As co-executive chair of Galvanize Climate Solutions, Kerry will use his negotiating skills to inform how technology, policy and geopolitics are shaping the shift to clean energy.

Our Taste for Flesh Has Exhausted the Earth — The New York Times
Amy’s take: This article seemed unusually shrill to me, perhaps due to its use of “flesh,” which is (of course) factually accurate but connotationally more emotional. My bias: I grew up on a cattle ranch!

Starbucks Buys Research Farms as Climate Change Threatens Coffee Supply — Bloomberg
Bill’s take: A great example of how companies are going to have to invest in both climate change mitigation and adaptation, just like the rest of us.

Plastic-eating bacteria could combat pollution problems, scientists hope — The Washington Post
Cat’s take: Key quote on the power and promise of bacteria: “The machinery in environmental microbes is still a largely untapped potential for uncovering sustainable solutions we can exploit.”

Supreme Court clears way for Biden limits on methane and mercury pollution — The Washington Post
Amena’s take: GOP-led states led the charge against these rules, saying the government overreached. The high court has yet to rule on the status of the power plant rule curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

Treasury vows to finalize tax cuts for hydrogen — E&E News (subscription) 
Cat’s take: A U.S. Treasury department official hinted it is loosening the rules: “We are working to include appropriate adjustments and additional flexibilities to help grow the industry and move projects forward.”

More of what we're reading:

• Hurricane Milton: Monster storm re-intensifies to Category 5 as Florida braces for direct hit — NBC News
• Biden signs bill cutting environmental reviews for semiconductor industry — The Hill
• NY Fed warns of big flood risk for properties in its district — Reuters
• Helene blows climate change into prime time — Axios
• Mark Carney warns net zero will mean ‘significant’ stranded property assets — Financial Times (subscription)

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!

A reporter returns home to Michigan to take stock of cleantech

Illustration by Nadya Nickels.

BY: BILL SPINDLE

I grew up in western Michigan and lived in Ann Arbor for six years. In the 1980s, I attended college at the University of Michigan and, afterward, worked as a reporter on the police beat at the Ann Arbor News, the long-since closed local newspaper.

After decades living and working overseas, I recently jumped at the chance to return to Ann Arbor to look at the city’s ambitious decarbonization plans. I was especially interested in how those plans were playing out amidst the choppy political crosswinds in one of the country’s swingiest swing states over the last few elections.

Since I last lived in A-squared, as the city is affectionately known to its residents, much has changed. One thing that hasn’t: Ann Arbor is still a haven of progressive liberalism. But Michigan at large is deeply politically polarized over so many issues, often pitting the city’s clean energy ambitions against Republicans in the state.

Until recently, the Republican Party, itself deeply divided between a faction that’s more and another that’s less enthusiastic about former President Donald Trump and his MAGA movement, has stymied clean energy ambition in the state, especially in Democratic bastions like Ann Arbor. With Republicans in control of the state legislature until two years ago, the Democrats who control Ann Arbor’s government were often left to fend for themselves in carrying out their decarbonization plans.

This dynamic changed dramatically with the mid-term elections in 2022. Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer won reelection that year. But even more significantly, the legislature flipped from Republican to Democratic control. The change unclogged a pipeline of federal and state climate funds that are now flowing to the local level. Ann Arbor leaders are currently deploying those funds across the city, which you can read about in my story this week.

Among the things that have changed: nearly all the city parks where I played basketball or ran back in the day now have solar panels installed.

I was thrilled to see that. Almost as thrilled as I was to watch my alma mater, the good old Maize and Blue Wolverines, pull out a last-minute football victory at the Big House against the Trojans of the University of Southern California.

Go Blue!

Read this article on Cipher’s website.

Solar and China drive renewables surge over next six years — IEA

Source: International Energy Agency's Renewables 2024 Report • IEA forecast includes the remainder of 2024 through 2030. Other renewables include geothermal, biomass, ocean waves and solar thermal energy.

BY: AMENA H. SAIYID

The world will be getting nearly half its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) latest findings.

As early as next year, the world is set to get more electricity from renewable sources than it does from coal specifically, the report predicts.

The key to this dramatic change is — in a word — solar. Ranging from a few watts installed on rooftops to gigawatt-sized, utility-scale farms, solar energy has emerged as the cheapest form of renewable energy, owing to sharp price declines, shorter permitting times and widespread social acceptance, said IEA.

Cheap solar power is projected to outpace all other forms of renewable electricity generation in the coming years, with China still manufacturing and deploying most of this clean resource. Between now and 2030, IEA forecasts new solar capacity will account for 80% of the growth in global renewable power.

China, which in July met its wind and solar goals six years early, has “cemented” its position as the global renewables leader, said IEA. The agency projects China will be “home to every other megawatt of all renewable energy capacity installed worldwide in 2030.”

Even though the world’s renewable energy consumption is expected to increase 60% by the end of the decade, it still won’t be enough to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century. To reach that goal, IEA said governments around the world will need to further speed up permitting for new projects, add more transmission lines and find new ways to integrate additional wind and solar into electric grids.

AND FINALLY...
Water-power rainbow

Cipher reader and founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University Jason Bordoff shared this photo of a rainbow formed by water droplets in the air at Niagra Falls in upstate New York during a retreat for trustees of The Nature Conservancy in New York. Over 3,000 tons of water flow over the falls every second. All that water can produce about four million kilowatts of electricity shared by the U.S. and Canada. It also produces rainbows!

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.