‘Record-breaking’ investments drive US energy transition, Factbook reveals

“The economic information on clean energy is astonishing,” said BCSE President Lisa Jacobson, along with BNEF Principal Analyst Tara Narayanan, co-authors of the new Sustainable Energy 2024 Factbook. told me in an exclusive interview on the Electric Ladies Podcast. “We are now deeply involved in this problem for decades, confirming the cost competitiveness of renewable technologies without subsidies,” she says, which means, “We can do this.” ” he added. We can grow our economy and have access to more clean energy. ”

That transition is well underway, according to this new factbook from the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) and Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF).

Together, the Inflation Control Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, CHIPS, and Science Act invest approximately $3 trillion in the U.S. infrastructure and energy ecosystem. But that’s not enough. The goal, Dr. Vanessa Chan, chief commercialization officer at the U.S. Department of Energy, told me, is that these investments will spur an additional $30 trillion in private capital to tackle this massive and urgent energy transition. It is said that it is a thing.

According to the BCSE-BNEF 2024 Energy Factbook and our interviews, the six key trends to watch are:

· The transition to clean energy is resilient. “One of the articles in this year’s Fact Book,” Jacobson said. “The big picture was really the resilience of the energy transition.” This was despite “headwinds” such as COVID-19, high interest rates and supply chain disruptions. But even that technology is “an area that has been in its infancy for many years.” “Things like carbon capture and storage and even to some extent hydrogen” have expanded significantly, she added.

· More renewable energy on the grid: Narayanan said renewable energy sources for generating electricity, such as solar, wind, geothermal and biomass, are “the fastest growing technologies being added to the grid today.” Ta. And every year, more electricity comes from new wind and solar sources. ”

· The transition needs to focus on the demand side as well as the supply side. “I also want to mention a lot of energy efficiency and demand-side technologies. So these are important for the energy transition, especially as we move forward with the electrification of transport and further digitalisation.” emphasized Jacobson. “There are a lot of grid innovations that can deliver efficiencies,” she said, such as the use of optimization technologies, for example.

· Electric vehicle (EV) sales are up 50%. In 2023, U.S. EV sales increased by 50% to nearly 1.46 million units. “This surge was driven by new EV incentives, price reductions, and the launch of more EV models,” says the Factbook’s executive summary. Some automakers have cut electric vehicle production in the short term, but production is expected to increase again once infrastructure to support electric vehicles, such as charging stations, is in place, the people said. ing.

· Focus on strengthening domestic supply chain: The coronavirus has demonstrated the value of domestic supply chains, keeping emissions low from transporting parts and materials. “The United States is really determined to have a domestic supply chain,” Narayanan said. This is the intention of many incentives included in the new law, for example for batteries, semiconductor chips, solar panels and even minerals. She said, “Because of the IRA (Inflation Control Act) that was passed over a year ago, the number of announcements to actually build some of these factories to produce these products here in the United States has increased dramatically. “The number of cases has increased rapidly,” he explained.

· Significant reduction in the share of coal in the energy mix: “Probably the biggest moment of change over the past decade has been the decline in coal generation as part of our fleet,” Jacobson told me, adding that “our reliance on coal is now less than 20%. ” he added. Those electrons are instead supplied by renewable energy or natural gas.

Key energy challenges yet to be addressed

They stressed that one area that has not yet been adequately addressed is the dependence on natural gas due to natural gas emissions in this energy transition. “Various parts of the overall end-use economy and a small portion of the trading economy are now much more dependent on natural gas, and at some point we’re going to have to think seriously about it. Emissions will occur up to the point,” Narayanan claimed.

Another important issue that deserves more attention is carbon pricing, Jacobson said, adding: “Currently, we don’t have that conversation and we desperately need it.” Ta. She said: “This is an iterative process, but we certainly want to see that discussion robustly in Parliament.”

These trends and investments create a de facto U.S. energy strategy: substantial decarbonization.

“We don’t have a national energy strategy, but when you mix all the different interests – community needs, environmental needs, the energy sector, large energy users – there are signals that say that.” Jacobson said. He summed it up by saying, “You can see the picture.”

“This is a direction towards decarbonization, but we are actually doing it. And it is not about taking one industry off the table. The question is whether to use it.”

Watch the full interview with Lisa Jacobson and Tara Narayanan. Electric Ladies Podcast No matter where you listen to your podcast, it’s coming soon.