Welcome to your Friday Rundown for the week ending Nov. 17. Rundown will be taking a two-week hiatus. But in the meantime, we’ll always keep eyes and ears open for inquiries at info@clearpathaction.org.
NUCLEAR’S BRIGHT (AND NON-NEGOTIABLE) FUTURE
ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell argued this week in the Wall Street Journal that the future of U.S. nuclear power is not only bright— it’s non-negotiable.
A robust civilian nuclear sector is mandatory for the U.S. to remain a major geopolitical, economic, military and environmental leader, Rich wrote. After decades of policy neglect, Washington is finally addressing what is both a national and global necessity and a tremendous opportunity.
That includes growing bipartisan support to reform new reactor licensing and improve tax incentives for new nuclear facilities, led in Congress by clean-energy advocates as well as national-security and energy-reliability hawks.
At a Nov. 15 event hosted by Roll Call, Rich touted the Energy Department’s kickstarting of a grid resiliency review at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a potential opportunity to preserve the existing nuclear fleet, embolden advanced reactor efforts and lower total emissions grid-wide while not disrupting wholesale energy markets that don’t properly price grid reliability.
As part of that FERC rulemaking, ClearPath has proposed two new structures:
One is a ready-reserve market to house those power sources like coal that can be rapidly ramped up in a large scale to handle emergencies and other power disruptions. That would free up more space on the normal capacity market for other power sources, including gas and renewables. A second structure would be a resiliency auction that could particularly provide a marginal revenue stream to help nuclear power.
Overall federal clean energy investment should also “significantly increase,” but “just as importantly, we need to be doing it in a smarter way,” Rich said. That includes “significant reform” and “tightening the ship” at the Department of Energy to prioritize dollars to a few potential breakthroughs. More targeted goals have sparked past breakthroughs such as the SunShot solar program and could be replicated for nuclear and advanced fossil energy. “It’s knowing what we’re going to buy,” Rich said.
PJM Price Formation Proposal Would Dramatically Change How Prices Are Set UTILITY DIVE
ENERGY EXTENDERS MAY MOVE SEPARATE FROM TAX REFORM
Sen. Chuck Grassley said the upper chamber will consider a host of energy tax credits in an extenders package that will be moved separate from tax reform. That may include the 45Q incentive for carbon capture projects and a key advanced nuclear production incentive. A set of orphaned credits – including for small wind, microturbines and other next-generation energy technologies – may also be included. A House-approved tax reform bill (H.R. 1) includes the extension of the advanced nuclear production credit.
Meanwhile, the House Science and Technology Committee by voice voice Nov. 15 approved a bipartisan bill from Rep. Randy Weber that would authorize $35 million next year in the Office of Nuclear Energy to construct a “versatile neutron source” facility that could expedite development of advanced nuclear reactors. The “Nuclear Energy Research Infrastructure Act” (H.R. 4378) would increase spending for this facility to $350 million by 2025. “We cannot afford to lose the ability to develop innovative nuclear technology,” Weber said.
WHY ARPA-E IS SPECIAL
The Information Technology & Innovation Council has a new must-read report about how ARPA-E has been a catalyst for energy innovation, and the jobs and other economic impact that come along. As of February, the Department of Energy agency has led to 56 new companies and raised more than $1.8 billion in private-sector follow-on funding. But the ITIF report stresses that the agency needs higher federal funds to cover many more “white spaces” in energy technology that haven’t been explored. ARPA-E could also have a trust fund established with royalties from oil and gas production on federal lands to provide stability and certainty.
The report’s authors – David Hart and Michael Kearney – joined Drew Bond of the American Council for Capital Formation and other energy experts at a Nov. 15 event to discuss the report and ARPA-E broadly.
The American Energy Innovation Council’s Brad Townsend also details what’s so special about ARPA-E and its accomplishments since its 2009 inception. That includes completing 330 projects, reporting nearly 1,500 subject inventions and issuing 208 patents.
The Department of Energy Thursday approved a presidential permit for the 192-mile Northern Pass Transmission Line project, which will deliver 1090 megawatts of hydropower from Quebec to Deerfield, N.H. The $1.6 billion project was first proposed in 2010. Construction is expected to start as early as April, pending approval by the State of New Hampshire’s Site Evaluation Committee. DETAILS
Energy Secretary Rick Perry authorized national lab contractors to use Agreements for Commercializing Technology to boost partnerships with the labs in a broader effort to facilitate public-private partnerships that can more quickly lead to development and commercialization of clean energy technologies. DETAILS
Melissa Burnison, director of federal programs at the Nuclear Energy Institute, has been nominated as the Energy Department’s assistant secretary for congressional and intergovernmental affairs.
The Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute released “The Global Status of CCS: 2017.” Among the highlights: In 2017, two large-scale carbon capture facilities, Petra Nova and Illinois Industrial, came online in the U.S. and a third, Lake Charles Methanol, entered advanced development. Nearly all (10 out of 12) carbon capture facilities in the Americas are in the industrial sector, reflecting that the near-term opportunity may be even greater in industrial plants like steel, cement, chemicals, paper and pulp than it is in power generation.
SPEED READ
U.S. Restarts Nuclear Testing Facility In Idaho After 23 Years ASSOCIATED PRESS
NERC: Growing Gas Reliance Demands New Planning Strategies UTILITY DIVE
Solar Installers Grow, Profit By Using Storage GREENTECH MEDIA
Hydrogen Could Deliver One Fifth of Global Carbon Cuts by 2050 REUTERS
THE PATH AHEAD
NOV. 28: The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosts a discussion on the “Status of Carbon Capture 2017: Will Technology and Market Forces Drive a Surge in New CCS Projects?” Speakers: Global CCS Institute General Manager Jeff Erikson, International Energy Agency analyst Samantha McCulloch and Thunderbolt Energy Agency CEO Eric Redman. DETAILS
