Spencer Nelson
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Biography
Spencer Nelson is Managing Director of Research and New Initiatives at ClearPath. He leads ClearPath’s research on the cheapest path to energy system decarbonization. Spencer works with industry, national labs and other stakeholders to develop insights that guide both ClearPath’s work and broader carbon mitigation advocacy efforts.
Prior to this role, Spencer worked for Chairman Lisa Murkowski on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he was the lead on all the Committee’s clean energy and climate activities. He was a lead architect of the Energy Act of 2020, which is the first comprehensive energy legislation enacted in over a decade and comprises over 40 different clean energy bills.
Before his stint on the Hill, Spencer worked at ClearPath for four years during which he held multiple roles. Most significantly, he managed ClearPath’s work on nuclear energy, energy innovation, and international engagement as a Policy Program Director.
Before that, Spencer worked on state-level solar policy and conducted environmental genetics research at both UNC Chapel Hill and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Education
B.S. in Energy and Sustainability from UNC Chapel Hill, B.S. in Quantitative Biology from UNC Chapel Hill, MPP Candidate at George Washington University
Area of Expertise
Energy Innovation, Decarbonization, Energy Analysis
Featured Content from Spencer
Federal and private sector investments have unlocked exciting carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) development opportunities. Projects like the Lone Cypress Hydrogen Project in california, or the Air Products Clean Energy Complex in Louisiana plan to make hydrogen from natural gas while sequestering the carbon dioxide (CO2).
The industrial sector encompasses a vast array of energy-intensive processes and is the fastest growing source of emissions in the U.S. Therefore, low-carbon innovative solutions that don’t compromise productivity are essential. The suite of new or enhanced federal programs, investments, and incentives have demonstrably jump-started industrial decarbonization.
This second edition of “Clear Path to a Clean Energy Future” updates the inaugural edition, tracking the power sector, clean technology, and policy trends in America. In our previous report, we identified that utility commitments contribute to significant additional reductions in emissions beyond what was projected in our reference case. Still, underinvestments in new technologies and retirement of the existing nuclear fleet could result in a rebound in emissions out to 2050.
Hundreds of gigawatts of energy projects spend years in the interconnection process, where projects undergo evaluation by transmission providers, regional grid operators or utilities, to determine their impact on the broader transmission system. The interconnection queue, the list of projects under evaluation for grid connection, has become so dysfunctional that some transmission providers are freezing their process to work through the project backlog and pausing the acceptance of new applicants.
Geothermal provides emissions-free heat and power with the highest capacity factor of any renewable energy source. It also has a small land footprint, which is an increasingly valuable trait as large-scale renewable energy siting runs into headwinds. States, utilities, and investors are all beginning to realize that geothermal is a no-brainer – all that’s left is getting the regulations in order.
