A geographer explores the impact of location on worker opportunity and equity in the clean energy economy.

Geography, Equity and the Energy Transition

Energy Policy Now offers clear talk on the policy issues that define our relationship to energy and its impact on society and the environment. The series is produced by the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and hosted by energy journalist Andy Stone. Join Andy in conversation with leaders from industry, government, and academia as they shed light on today's pressing energy policy debates.

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Kleinman Center visiting scholar Severin Borenstein discusses California’s struggle to balance residential solar growth with electricity rate equity.
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California’s residential solar market is at a critical inflection point after years of strong growth. Last year the state, which has more rooftop solar than any other, lowered the net metering rate that it pays solar households for the excess electricity that they feed into the electric grid. The policy change contributed to a steep decline in residential rooftop solar installations. This could complicate the state’s task of achieving 100% carbon free power in just over 20 years.
Yet the reasons behind California’s decision to reduce its solar subsidy are complex and reflect growing tensions over the private versus public costs of rooftop solar. These costs are particularly controversial in a state that already has among the highest electricity rates in the country, as well as aggressive targets for home electrification.
On the podcast Severin Borenstein, a Kleinman Center visiting scholar and faculty director of the Energy Institute at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, discusses California’s residential solar energy policies and the challenge of balancing equity, solar growth, and the pace of electrification. Borenstein also explores the lessons from California’s experience that might be applied to other states where rooftop solar power growth is poised to accelerate.
Severin Borenstein is a visiting scholar at the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy and faculty director of the Energy Institute at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Related Content
Overcoming Economic Barriers to Electrifying Everything (podcast) https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/podcast/overcoming-economic-barriers-to-electrifying-everything/
Residential Battery Storage: Reshaping the Way We Do Electricity https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/residential-battery-storage-reshaping-the-way-we-do-electricity/
 
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California’s Solar Equity Challenge

An expert in electricity markets explains why market price signals alone will struggle to incentivize adequate investment in the flexible electricity resources needed for future grid reliability.

Can Competitive Electricity Markets Deliver Reliable Power?

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse discusses the prospects for bipartisan U.S. carbon border fee legislation, and the need to protect the Biden Administration’s clean energy and climate achievements.

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on the Rising Prospects for a U.S. Carbon Border Fee

The U.S. Department of the Treasury is finalizing rules that will determine which new clean hydrogen projects will receive the IRA’s generous 45V tax incentives, and whether those projects will deliver promised climate benefits. 
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The Inflation Reduction Act provides a range of incentives for the development of clean energy resources in the United States. Highest profile among those incentives are hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits earmarked for new wind and solar power projects. Yet the IRA’s most aggressive incentives aren’t directed at renewables but at clean hydrogen, which is a fuel that is viewed as crucial to decarbonizing parts of the economy that aren’t readily electrified, such as steel making, air travel and shipping.
Over the past few months, the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service have been developing rules to define what will qualify as clean hydrogen, and what level of financial incentive hydrogen producers should receive based on the climate impact of the hydrogen they will make. Final rules are expected this year, and will ultimately determine whether clean hydrogen delivers on its climate promise.
Danny Cullenward, Vice Chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee and a Senior Fellow at the Kleinman Center, explores the climate stakes surrounding the Treasury’s 45V hydrogen production tax credit. Cullenward explains the draft clean hydrogen rules, and why certain interests would like to see those guidelines relaxed. He also explores what the final rules might mean for the pace of clean hydrogen growth, and for the ability of clean hydrogen producers to thrive after the incentives expire.
Danny Cullenward is a Senior Fellow with the Kleinman Center for Energy Policy. He is also Vice Chair of California’s Independent Emissions Market Advisory Committee, and a Research Fellow with the Institute for Carbon Removal Law and Policy at American University.
Related Content
Coordinated Policy and Targeted Investment for an Orderly and Reliable Energy Transition https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/coordinated-policy-and-targeted-investment-for-an-orderly-and-reliable-energy-transition/
Why the IRA’s Carbon Capture Tax Credit Could Increase Greenhouse Emissions (Podcast) https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/podcast/why-the-iras-carbon-capture-tax-credit-could-increase-greenhouse-emissions/ 
 
Energy Policy Now is produced by The Kleinman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. For all things energy policy, visit kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Will Hydrogen Energy be Clean Energy?

Physical attacks on critical European energy infrastructure have risen since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, threatening energy security and the pace of the low-carbon transition.

Geography, Equity and the Energy Transition

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