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Good morning and happy Friday,
This week, Munich Re issued a report on the cost of natural disasters in 2024, which increased significantly from 2023, noting that “climate change is taking the gloves off.”
That’s horrifyingly clear in Los Angeles, parts of which have been turned into “a hellish inferno” due to wildfires fanned by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds, while Texas braces for a severe winter storm. Seems like a particularly bad time for Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg to invite climate disinformation by tossing its fact-checkers...
Speaking of tech moguls, Open AI founder Sam Altman is bullish on fusion, and sees it as a solution to the surging demand for energy created by AI; as we noted last week, Virginia is on track to welcome the world’s first commercial fusion power plant.
And as GOP lawmakers met with President-elect Trump to discuss how the budget reconciliation process could be used to advance their energy policy priorities, outgoing Washington State Governor Jay Inslee said he isn’t worried about Trump’s agenda, and instead puts his faith in the value of state-based climate action.
Read on for more.
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Okie-nokie
Oklahoma gets more than 40% of its electricity from clean sources, and according to ACP, in 2024 it ranked fourth in the country in clean energy capacity, which generates nearly $230 million annually in revenue for landowners and local communities. So naturally, you’d expect that renewables would be welcomed – but you might be wrong. Here’s what’s afoot:
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A small but potentially influential group of anti-renewable activists rallied this week to ask Governor Kevin Stitt to ban new clean energy projects and “stop solar, wind, and other green energy companies, especially foreign ones, from buying up Oklahoma land.”
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The Heatmap News article cautions that “renewable developers should pay close attention to the Oklahoma uprising,” an “insurgent populist movement” that is difficult to counter, opining that “companies need to be really careful about how they approach community benefits.”
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Concerningly, it notes that rather than seeing the financial benefits from projects as net-positive for the community, “some aggrieved residents see tax abatements for developers as taxpayer dollars going to large companies without their say.”
⚡️ The Takeaway
The Sooner, the better. Clean energy advocates in the Sooner State might want to look north for ideas. The Rural Minnesota Energy Board has been instrumental in “helping to insulate the region from the kind of controversies and misinformation that have plagued rural clean energy projects in other states.” The Board ensures local decision-makers have accurate information and focuses on the economic development aspects of renewables, which are bolstered in large part by a wind production tax, 80% of which goes to the counties hosting projects.
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Credit Where Credit’s Due
On January 3, Treasury released the final rules for the Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit established by the IRA, and on January 7, it finalized guidance for the technology-neutral 45Y and 48E clean electricity tax credits. How many articles on tax credits can we cover in a single Dispatch feature? Buckle up, because we’re about to find out!
⚡️ The Takeaway
Energy moon shot. Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Department Wally Adeyemo called the technology neutral tax credits “an energy moon shot,” and indeed, many believe they will prove to be the most powerful tool for decarbonization. Taxpayer eligibility for the full value of the credits depends on meeting standards for wages, apprenticeships, and other criteria designed to help grow the clean energy workforce. Bonus credits related to project location and use of domestic content are also available. |
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Waste Not, Want Not
“Doxxing” – that is, the act of revealing personal information about someone online without their consent – isn’t a good thing, but it turns out that “redoxxing,” to coin a term, may be a great idea.
To wit, researchers at Northwestern University have developed a new kind of battery that uses industrial “byproducts” – aka, industrial waste – to store energy.
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) take triphenylphosphine oxide, which is created in the process of manufacturing products like vitamin tablets, and “convert it into cyclic triphenylphosphine oxide, which has a high potential for storing negative charge.”
Encouragingly, RFBs have demonstrated durability, with “no reduction in effectiveness even after 350 charging and [discharging] cycles.”
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The lead scientist on the team says RFBs are “designed to be safe and have large capacities, so they could be used to store energy from wind and solar generation,” but notes that “they are unlikely to replace lithium-ion batteries in cars or smartphones because of their bulk.”
RFBs could potentially offer a sustainable replacement for batteries made from lithium and cobalt, critical minerals that are in short supply. Sounds like news we can get charged up about!
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