Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy Forum (EXPO 2022): The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Energy Modernization

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the House and Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) Caucuses held the 25th Annual Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Policy Forum (EXPO 2022) on July 25, 2022. In the first panel, panelists discussed how the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) is promoting energy system modernization, with an emphasis on transmission and renewable energy resources.

• Kelly Speakes-Backman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy (DOE)
• Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO, National Hydropower Association (NHA)
• Joy Ditto, President and CEO, American Public Power Association (APPA)
• Bill Parsons, Vice President, Federal and State Affairs, American Clean Power Association (ACP)

Highlights

Kelly Speakes-Backman, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Department of Energy (DOE)

• Through the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) (P.L. 117-58), Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration have invested $62 billion in the Department of Energy (DOE). IIJA creates 60 new programs and expands 12 existing programs, tripling DOE’s annual funding.
• IIJA gives DOE the opportunity to invest in U.S. infrastructure beyond research and development.
• DOE opened a joint office with the Department of Transportation to advance electric vehicle charging infrastructure. DOE launched a new Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and created the “Building a Better Grid” initiative, aimed at engaging stakeholders in the buildup of new transmission lines.
• DOE has started recruiting 1,000 staffers for the department’s Clean Energy Corps, which will work on projects to accelerate clean energy deployment and cut greenhouse gas emissions.
• All this work is designed to expand and improve the U.S. electricity grid; enhance clean energy supply chains; research and develop hydrogen, carbon capture, energy storage, and electric vehicle supply chains; and collaborate with stakeholders.
• In the nine months since the passing of IIJA, DOE has made progress in soliciting feedback from stakeholders and developing programs based on their input.
• Of the 60 new DOE programs, nearly half have issued requests for information to gather feedback from stakeholders.
• Announcements on IIJA-related DOE programs and funding can be tracked on www.energy.gov/bil.
• There are three pillars of work in the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE): renewable power, efficiency, and sustainable transportation.
• To advance renewable energy, DOE launched the Interconnection Innovation e-Xchange (i2X), a new partnership funded through IIJA and focused on grid operators, utilities, state and tribal governments, clean energy developers, and energy justice organizations. The partnership aims to connect more clean energy to the U.S. power grid by addressing challenges such as limited data, a shortage of human resources, and complicated grid-impact assessments.
• Modernizing the power grid helps to solve both technical and community challenges related to resilience, efficiency, and transportation electrification buildout.
• The DOE released a notice of intent to fund an $8 billion program to develop regional clean hydrogen hubs across the country. The hubs will create a network of hydrogen producers, consumers, and local infrastructure to accelerate the use of hydrogen as a clean energy source.
• DOE announced its intent to provide $225 million to state and local governments to expand the implementation of the latest building energy codes, which support building decarbonization.
• These programs are critical to advance DOE’s goal of a 100 percent clean energy grid by 2035 and net-zero carbon emissions economy-wide by 2050.

Malcolm Woolf, President and CEO, National Hydropower Association (NHA)

• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is transformative and aligns with the priorities of the National Hydropower Association (NHA). NHA represents all forms of water power and marine technologies.
• Hydropower and pumped storage are essential parts of a reliable, clean energy grid. Hydropower is a clean energy resource, providing power to about 30 million Americans and representing about 7 percent of U.S. electricity generation and 40 percent of U.S. renewable power generation.
• Hydropower provides about 100 gigawatts of clean, dispatchable power [dispatchable power comes from a source that can be quickly turned on and off to meet shifts in demand], 80 gigawatts of traditional power, and over 20 gigawatts of pumped storage.
• Pumped storage is a force multiplier. As the grid is supplied by an increasing amount of variable energy, long-duration energy storage is critical for a clean and reliable system. Pumped storage provides 90 percent of long-duration energy storage in the United States.
• It is necessary to have policy parity and federal support for hydropower.
• The number of voluntary hydropower license surrenders has been increasing. Forty-one facilities surrendered their licenses in the 2010s, along with 17 in the last two years. The costs of relicensing are high.
• Half of the U.S. non-federal hydropower fleet is due to be relicensed by 2035. Relicensing takes an average of eight years, with many facilities taking over a decade to go through the process, so companies are starting now. It is difficult for facilities to get financing for relicensing due to the uncertainty of the process.
• NHA has worked with the environmental community and tribal communities, through a process called the “Uncommon Dialogue on Hydropower,” to put together a bipartisan policy package for support on federal taxes and license reform.

Joy Ditto, President and CEO, American Public Power Association (APPA)

• Public power includes non-profit, community-owned utilities that exist in 49 states and five territories. There are 2,000 publicly-owned utilities nationwide, many of which exist in communities with 10,000 people or fewer.
• It is more expensive to produce infrastructure in lower-density areas, which has made the private sector unable or unwilling to provide electric service in these regions of the country.
• Public power utilities make up 15 percent of utilities, providing electricity to 50 million Americans.
• The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is a significant opportunity for the power sector, helping public power utilities to address clean energy needs and climate change.
• There is concern about the ability of small entities to access IIJA funds. The American Public Power Association’s (APPA’s) focus is on enabling members to interface with the federal government, providing members with the resources to access funds as they become available and ensuring the eligibility of public utilities to obtain funding.

Bill Parsons, Vice President, Federal and State Affairs, American Clean Power (ACP)

• American Clean Power (ACP) is the unified voice of the utility-scale clean power industry, including onshore wind, offshore wind, utility-scale solar, transmission, and green hydrogen. ACP members are largely energy developers, which build and operate over 80 percent of utility-scale clean power in the United States. Some utilities are members of ACP, and, increasingly, utilities are participating in renewable energy development and ownership.
• The IIJA contains backstop siting authority for transmission. A 60 percent increase in high-capacity transmission for the energy grid is needed to facilitate the transition to clean energy, which will cost an additional $300 billion in public-private capital investment.
• Funding from IIJA’s Transmission Facilitation Program is important to support transmission work.
• There is about $7 billion in IIJA for the supply chain for energy storage, supporting the need for more domestic sourcing in the United States.
• DOE is required to build four clean hydrogen hubs, but ACP suggests that they should build 10.
• There is a maritime crewing provision of the IIJA that makes offshore wind construction vessels from other countries eligible for funding out of a DOE loan program. This is important because the United States has only about 82 percent of the vessel-hours needed to support the industry.
• The House recently passed a bill containing crew requirements, which, if enacted, would disrupt all offshore wind projects currently under construction.

Q&A

Q: What is your vision for the energy system of 2030?

Speakes-Backman:

• There is a lot to do to decarbonize the U.S. economy by 2050.
• The United States is moving towards the goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 with a whole-of-government approach.
• DOE anticipates a clean grid by 2035 incorporating renewable energy, energy storage, geothermal energy, innovative technologies, and modernized transmission.
• By 2050, DOE envisions a decarbonized economy across the energy grid, industry, transportation, buildings, and agriculture.
• Many required technologies are cost-competitive and ready to be deployed.
• DOE has programs like the i2X program and SolarAPP+ to help deploy technologies.
• Programs and funding that impact everyday business at the local level are the most important.

Woolf:

• A reliable and clean grid is something everyone wants. Although there is a strong focus on building gigawatts of clean energy, reliability should also be prioritized.
• Gigawatts of clean energy require the corresponding amount of storage capacity.
• The United States needs to preserve the existing hydropower fleet. Despite the drought in the western United States, hydropower has been producing twice the expected amount of energy. On hot days, hydro companies save their water so they can produce energy when solar is ramping off.

Ditto:

• In the electric sector, the provision of reliable and affordable energy is essential.
• The clean energy transition is expensive, but IIJA helps to defray the costs.
• If reliability suffers, the drive towards a clean energy future may pause.
• It is necessary to have a baseload energy source that enhances reliability such as nuclear, fossil fuels, or hydropower.
• The United States needs to balance bulk, interstate transmission with distribution lines that support the retail side, building up capacity in both arenas.
• As investments in new technologies increase, there is greater pressure on the supply chain. Lack of availability of key materials is an issue which should be addressed by 2030.

Parsons:

• Wind and solar are intermittent sources of power, but they are not unreliable.
• ACP members comprised 14 percent of clean energy generation in 2021, though they have provided up to 80 percent of the power at times in certain locations. There is plenty of room to grow without compromising reliability.
• Effective policy is critical to reach the goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030. According to the ACP Second Quarter Market Report, this year renewable deployment fell by 55 percent due to trade, tax, and supply chain issues.
• Annual deployment must double, which is dependent on federal policy support.

Compiled by Christina Pelliccio and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.