Clean Energy EXPO 2023: Clean Energy and National Security

The 26th Congressional Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency EXPO and Policy Forum was held on Tuesday, July 18, 2023. The event was hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), with the Senate Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (REEE) Caucus serving as honorary co-host. It featured six panels, including Clean Energy and National Security.

Highlights

Paul Farnan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations, Energy and Environment, U.S. Department of Defense

• Renewable energy and energy efficiency are critical to the army’s mission, bringing increased capability and protection for soldiers abroad and increased resilience on the home front.
• The military’s battlefield tactical vehicles are expected to be fully electric by 2050.
• Tactical vehicle electrification reduces noise and heat emissions, making soldiers less of a target and increasing their safety.
• Tactical vehicle electrification also reduces the fuel that needs to be moved to the battlefront. In Iraq and Afghanistan, 1,000 casualties were suffered in the process of transporting fuel to remote locations.
• In an age where modern warfare is cyber warfare, our domestic energy grid is a target. Renewable generation is the best way to increase our resilience. It is also critical to U.S. military capability, and will enable us to win future wars.

Jake Gentle, Program Manager, Infrastructure Security, Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

• In 2022, 10.2 percent of electricity generation in the United States came from wind power, 3.4 percent came from solar power, 6.2 percent came from hydropower, and about 18 percent came from nuclear power. Generation of solar-powered energy is expected to triple by 2028, and greater infrastructure buildout is needed.
• The U.S. energy system must be resilient to potential disruptions, and reliably provide for U.S. energy needs.
• Public-private partnerships between renewable energy groups and experts in national security, including cybersecurity, are key to moving the clean energy transition forward. The work cannot be done in silos.

Jennifer Schafer-Soderman, Executive Director, Federal Performance Contracting Coalition (FPCC)

• Energy Savings Performance Contracting (ESPCs) provides energy savings, energy resilience, and facility improvements with no up-front costs. Performance contractors obtain financing for the project, and are paid back through the energy savings.
• Performance contracting can be leveraged to further cybersecurity and resiliency.
• Performance contractors should leverage existing appropriations, such as the $550 million appropriated for the Energy Resilience and Conservation Investment Program (ERCIP) for 2024.
• Funding also exists through the Assisting Federal Facilities with Energy Conservation Technologies (AFFECT) Program under the Department of Energy. The program provides grants for performance contractors to make energy efficiency upgrades to government-owned facilities. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) provides additional funding for this program.

Jeremy Harrell, Chief Strategy Officer, ClearPath

• The Department of Energy, U.S. academic institutions, and the private sector together offer robust research and development capabilities that put the United States on track to be a leader in the global energy transition.
• Over the past five years, Congress has demonstrated overwhelming support for this goal. Recent legislation has invested in resilient grid technologies, energy efficiency, energy storage, and flexible generation.
  • The bipartisan Energy Act of 2020 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 were the single largest investments in clean energy since 2005.
  • The IIJA led to more than $62 billion in investments in public-private partnerships.
  • The CHIPS and Science Act has driven investment in U.S. supply chains.
• Today, the United States is almost 100 percent dependent on foreign nations for 12 of the 50 critical minerals needed for a clean energy transition, and over 50 percent dependent on another 30 of those minerals.
• Future policies around critical minerals should consider how to independently source the materials needed for a clean energy transition, how to use innovative technologies to find alternative materials, and how to partner with allies abroad to meet domestic energy needs.

Compiled by Nicole Pouy and edited for clarity and length. This is not a transcript.