You guys must have been reading my mind. Just last week i was asking Gemini AI if it would be legal for a city to create a municipal utility based on solar parking lot canopies +on-site BESS +Vehicle-2-BESS level 2 chargers, behind the meter, at every large hot asphalt parking lot in town, at large apartments, condos, shopping centers & business parks. Like France, turns out that Gemini Ai is all in on this idea. France, ...the country with the highest % of nuclear generation & a single nationalized utility has already mandated it, within 5 years!
So,...we hate MAGA fossil energy policy, but we really don't have to just fold up our tent and wait for 4 years to do anything about it. Create an SEU, or find out why your CCA isn't already preparing to deploy this strategy. Existing utility monopolies will never do it, even though they see the value, according to Patti Poppy, CEO of PG&E, California's largest utility.
In Texas, on ERCOT, we have retail providers that provide free nights. The best way for consumers to save money is with a battery system. Charge the batteries overnight, and release the energy during the day.
Genuinely so fascinating! I grew up in the AA area, so I've been watching this with envy from Chicago. Still, this episode managed to really clearly ask the tough questions: financing, micro-grids, heat load from geothermal. It all makes a lot more tangible sense to me now - and I'm more jealous than ever
Fascinating episode! Having grown up in Ann Arbor, I was benumbed to the wonderful diversity and opportunities that existed around me in my community - it was just a given. I will definitely be following A2Zero to watch its progress.
One quick note on the GOP recission of energy ITCs: 30% incentives were eliminated by the MAGA budget, but the impact is actually more dramatic. When someone contemplates a renewable energy project, let's assume a $10,000 capital outlay, with a 30% tax credit, the net cost comes in at $7,000. When normal folks budget for something, net cost is key.
Absent the 30% credit, that net project cost will now be $10,000. That is not a 30% increase, it is nearly a 43% increase. (10k ÷ 7k = 142.8%)
Interesting conversation, but I am still not really clear what the goal of this entity is. The idea seems to be opt-in electric utility that only provides electricity generated by renewable sources.
In theory this makes some sense- they were granted the legal right to operate as a utility. But in practice, if you look at the history of electric utilities, they were generally entities that were granted the right to operate as a regulated monopoly because they already were serving a particular area and had made significant infrastructure investments. Seems like a gargantuan task to build a utility from scratch (even with the legal right to do so).
It doesn't really seem like there's a clear roadmap for the entity here. What I got was something like this:
1) they will start by using 'seed funding' to purchase large, operational, BTM solar projects (i.e. from school district).
2) those operational assets will provide revenue streams. How? I guess the idea being that, as a condition of selling system, the previous owner would opt into billing with the SEU.
3) those revenue streams will let the SEU access finance markets to raise capital for larger infrastructure investments.
4) the SEU will use this financing for... something. Probably to fund new renewable energy projects.
Say you are a homeowner that wants to install solar. Even if we acknowledge that DTE does not have the best incentives, how is the SEU supposed to help? Until their is a parallel set of distribution infrastructure, BTM solar projects will need to be interconnected into the DTE system. I guess the SEU could own the system and sell you the power - but that's not much different from the private solar companies out there that offer PPA's. Maybe that's the idea- publicly financed, third party owned solar systems?
I do see how having the utility charter would help with building microgrids by allowing you to connect systems across property lines. Perhaps that is the logical starting place for this?
***EDIT***
I hope I don’t come across too negative here. I just think actually running an electric utility is a massive financial, legal, and technical undertaking. While they seem to have successfully solved one legal challenge (gaining the right to build electrical infrastructure), there are countless more challenges ahead.
If the goal here is really just to contribute to decarbonization at the margin, then scope becomes a lot more manageable - though I don’t see why the utility designation would really help too much with that.
You guys must have been reading my mind. Just last week i was asking Gemini AI if it would be legal for a city to create a municipal utility based on solar parking lot canopies +on-site BESS +Vehicle-2-BESS level 2 chargers, behind the meter, at every large hot asphalt parking lot in town, at large apartments, condos, shopping centers & business parks. Like France, turns out that Gemini Ai is all in on this idea. France, ...the country with the highest % of nuclear generation & a single nationalized utility has already mandated it, within 5 years!
So,...we hate MAGA fossil energy policy, but we really don't have to just fold up our tent and wait for 4 years to do anything about it. Create an SEU, or find out why your CCA isn't already preparing to deploy this strategy. Existing utility monopolies will never do it, even though they see the value, according to Patti Poppy, CEO of PG&E, California's largest utility.
This is great, and also there is a precedent for SEU work in Minnesota - the brainchild of Dr Cecilia Martinez who developed it when she was at the University of Delaware https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/cecilia-martinez-brings-low-income-communities-green-debate-st-paul-minneapolish/ (she also has published academic literature on it)
In Texas, on ERCOT, we have retail providers that provide free nights. The best way for consumers to save money is with a battery system. Charge the batteries overnight, and release the energy during the day.
Genuinely so fascinating! I grew up in the AA area, so I've been watching this with envy from Chicago. Still, this episode managed to really clearly ask the tough questions: financing, micro-grids, heat load from geothermal. It all makes a lot more tangible sense to me now - and I'm more jealous than ever
Fascinating episode! Having grown up in Ann Arbor, I was benumbed to the wonderful diversity and opportunities that existed around me in my community - it was just a given. I will definitely be following A2Zero to watch its progress.
One quick note on the GOP recission of energy ITCs: 30% incentives were eliminated by the MAGA budget, but the impact is actually more dramatic. When someone contemplates a renewable energy project, let's assume a $10,000 capital outlay, with a 30% tax credit, the net cost comes in at $7,000. When normal folks budget for something, net cost is key.
Absent the 30% credit, that net project cost will now be $10,000. That is not a 30% increase, it is nearly a 43% increase. (10k ÷ 7k = 142.8%)
Kudos DR, for spotting this important innovation going on in A2 and booking Dr Stultz.
Interesting conversation, but I am still not really clear what the goal of this entity is. The idea seems to be opt-in electric utility that only provides electricity generated by renewable sources.
In theory this makes some sense- they were granted the legal right to operate as a utility. But in practice, if you look at the history of electric utilities, they were generally entities that were granted the right to operate as a regulated monopoly because they already were serving a particular area and had made significant infrastructure investments. Seems like a gargantuan task to build a utility from scratch (even with the legal right to do so).
It doesn't really seem like there's a clear roadmap for the entity here. What I got was something like this:
1) they will start by using 'seed funding' to purchase large, operational, BTM solar projects (i.e. from school district).
2) those operational assets will provide revenue streams. How? I guess the idea being that, as a condition of selling system, the previous owner would opt into billing with the SEU.
3) those revenue streams will let the SEU access finance markets to raise capital for larger infrastructure investments.
4) the SEU will use this financing for... something. Probably to fund new renewable energy projects.
Say you are a homeowner that wants to install solar. Even if we acknowledge that DTE does not have the best incentives, how is the SEU supposed to help? Until their is a parallel set of distribution infrastructure, BTM solar projects will need to be interconnected into the DTE system. I guess the SEU could own the system and sell you the power - but that's not much different from the private solar companies out there that offer PPA's. Maybe that's the idea- publicly financed, third party owned solar systems?
I do see how having the utility charter would help with building microgrids by allowing you to connect systems across property lines. Perhaps that is the logical starting place for this?
***EDIT***
I hope I don’t come across too negative here. I just think actually running an electric utility is a massive financial, legal, and technical undertaking. While they seem to have successfully solved one legal challenge (gaining the right to build electrical infrastructure), there are countless more challenges ahead.
If the goal here is really just to contribute to decarbonization at the margin, then scope becomes a lot more manageable - though I don’t see why the utility designation would really help too much with that.