Richard Mauro

📈 Corporate PPA activity in the ERCOT market has reached 1.8 GW, YTD 2024. Data from the Enerdatics Energy Transition PPA database indicates that ERCOT has seen ~1.8 GW in corporate power purchase agreements (PPAs) since the start of 2024, constituting over 60% of the U.S. total. 💡 Tech giant Microsoft leads the way, having secured ~800 MW across three deals. Meanwhile, new entrants such as UnitedHealth Group, Sonoco, and AdventHealth are also stepping up their sustainability efforts. 🏆 Key Suppliers Making Waves: > Regional Leaders: Primergy, Leeward Renewable, Scout Clean Energy > International Players: Orsted, ENGIE 🤝 Positive PPA negotiations in ERCOT are driven by the market's lower land and interconnection costs, which help mitigate higher interest rates and supply chain issues. 🌟 Top Deals to Note: > Microsoft and Primergy Solar: 408 MW from Ash Creek solar project > Hyundai and Matrix Renewables: 147 MW (Hyundai’s first U.S. PPA) > RTX and ENGIE: ~38 MW from Priddy wind project #CorporatePPA #ERCOT #RenewableEnergy #Sustainability #Microsoft #Hyundai #RTX #ENGIE #Orsted #Primergy #LeewardRenewable #ScoutCleanEnergy #UnitedHealthGroup #Sonoco #AdventHealth

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Navigating the choice between the ITC and PTC requires careful consideration of project economics, investor preferences, and regulatory frameworks. By aligning incentives with broader climate objectives and mitigating economic distortions, we can unlock the full potential of renewable energy and pave the way for a sustainable energy future. #ITC #PTC #RenewableEnergy

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Kudos to Duane Highley and the team at Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. for seizing the benefits of the #InflationReductionAct to accelerate its transition to cleaner and lower cost #renewables. Power supply to its distribution coop members will hit 50% clean next year en route to a 89% reduction in #GHG emissions by 2030 ... with new resources additions focused on #windpower, #solarpower and #batterystorage with a small amount of #gas for peaker/reliability purposes. This is very much in line with the trajectory envisaged by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) #CleanPowerRules and shows that those rules do not force a "major" change in the industry, rather they run totally with the grain of what makes economic sense, and what is happening on the ground, while of course reducing harmful pollution at the same time. A win all around for coop members and the planet. #climatecrisis #stopburningstuff c Dave Munk Alex DeGolia Keith Klesner, PE Kristen Bertuglia NRECA Jim Matheson Kent Singer Colorado Rural Electric Assn. Mark Jacobson Leah Stokes Michael E. Webber Holly Metzler Sonja Macys Will Toor Chris Hansen Lisa Tiffin Amy Robertson Alana Miller Jeffrey McManus Kendra Foley

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Grid Status is a great website for tracking US electricity markets. https://lnkd.in/dD4uSswg Yesterday at sunset prices reached near peak scarcity prices in ERCOT in the real time market (over $4000/MWh). Grid status summary page for ERCOT lets you see why https://lnkd.in/eZ4PSWSm (admittedly this is on the ERCOT website too but it is only easy to get to today's info on the ERCOT website - at least for me - and a lot less easy to get to yesterday or any day earlier than that there (e.g. today's data readily accessible here https://lnkd.in/gmk74yvz)). Grid status will remark on notable stuff on their linkedin page - here is their post about yesterday's ERCOT prices https://lnkd.in/eR8GFS6E The pic below is from their website summarizing April 16th with those notable realtime evening prices.

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VOLTILITY ENERGY STORAGE GATHERING 2024: ERCOT PREDICTS 11GW OF ONLINE STORAGE CAPACITY BY YEAR-END BESS capacity on the ERCOT system should more than double during 2024, a senior executive at the Texas grid operator told Voltility’s US Energy Storage annual gathering in Houston April 24th. The event, invitation-only for Voltility subscribers & guests, was attended by 150 leading energy storage developers & investors from across the US. Texas Deployment Surge ERCOT told attendees almost 11.2GW of cumulative battery storage capacity was now expected to online by the end of 2024, compared with the 5.24GW available at the beginning of January. A further surge in deployment over 2025 is then forecast to bring operational storage capacity on the system close to 21GW. Smaller incremental increases are expected to take the total past 23.2GW by the end of 2028… + Voltility subscribers – read the article now: https://lnkd.in/es52guzV + Want a free copy of the article? Email us at contact@voltility.net + Want a copy of the ERCOT BESS presentation? Email us at contact@voltility.net Subscribe to our free energy storage newsletter at www.voltility.net   #energystorage #batterystorage

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In this week’s newsletter: Four big Supreme Court rulings just offered a new playbook for polluters. Plus:  🏭 The end of Biden’s LNG pause 🧾 Carbon offset market needs reform ☀️ Community solar delivers on its promises And more of the week’s biggest clean energy stories:

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Natural gas markets are currently showing a trend of drifting lower as they wander aimlessly. The upcoming major influence on this market is the dissipation of the heatwave in the United States. Stay informed about the latest developments in the natural gas price forecast: https://lnkd.in/e5UjDMpZ

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Chris Nelder and I discuss load growth, utility incentives, regulatory responses, and how it's all affecting the energy transition in this episode of The Energy Transition Show. I try to explain why utilities are eager to add gas in response, and what cleaner, lower risk alternatives they can pursue instead. Tune in and if haven't already, subscribe to Chris's great podcast. https://lnkd.in/gJWSMkHh

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Adding more baseload power plants to the energy mix can worsen the country’s power supply in the long run, said ICSC’s Energy Transition Advisor Alberto III Dalusung in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel. This was in response to former Department of Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla’s statement urging the national government to lift the moratorium on coal-fired power plants, citing a need to build more capacity to meet the rising demand as the Philippines continues to struggle with power supply issues. Instead, the Philippines must focus on shifting to a flexible, distributed power system that makes use of various energy sources, including #RenewableEnergy, said Dalusung. “Most of our capacity is baseload coal power plants, they’re a part of our energy mix. But we don’t need more of them; we have too much. We have to take another step back: what kind of new capacities do we really need to address the situation? We need more flexible capacity, and capacity that is distributed along our grid.” Watch: https://lnkd.in/gaBZDh5B Read ICSC’s report on the power outlook for this summer: https://lnkd.in/gdr6Tyu3  #PowerOutlook2024 #EnergySecurityNow

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Exciting news on the energy front! The USA are making strides towards enhancing their transmission infrastructure. In the USA, a bipartisan deal is in the works to strengthen the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's authority for approving transmission lines. The EU Member States need all to recognize the critical link between transmission and transition by emphasizing the need for fast-track permits. The EU is pushing for it; Member States must now implement it. Progress in transmission planning is essential for a sustainable energy future. #EnergyInfrastructure #TransmissionPlanning #SustainableFuture

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We are pleased to see LevelTen Energy's Q2 2024 PPA Price Index Report for North America highlighting an interview with Sustainability Roundtable, Inc.'s market-leading Net Zero Consortium for Buyers (NZCB) 📊📈 SR Inc Member-Clients use SR Inc's NZCB to increasingly democratize the financial and environmental benefits of utility-scale clean energy in both North America and Europe.  In LevelTen Energy's comprehensive quarterly North American report, SR Inc provides an in-depth interview on the current state of the dynamic large-scale PPA market. Key highlights from the interview include: 🌟Common Reasons for Seeking VPPAs: SR Inc’s Member-Clients are increasingly turning away from reputationally-risky unbundled RECs, instead helping cause new renewable energy projects through Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs) to mitigate their Scope 2 emissions. SR Inc Member-Clients are also increasingly partnering with suppliers through aggregated VPPAs to enable the financing and development of new utility-scale renewable energy projects and advance their Scope 3 mitigation. 🌟Opportunities & Expert Guidance: SR Inc delves into the opportunities in the market and offers expert insights on navigating complex buyer-aggregated VPPA processes. SR Inc’s process includes the innovative use of substantively-identical, detailed LOI and Term Sheets, as well as disciplined reverse auctions and negotiations. These processes better define and manage risk in auditable procurement processes for the vast majority of high-credit corporate off-takers, who are not among the world's largest electricity users. The NZCB provides corporate-aligned, risk management-focused procurement solutions in a market previously dominated by the world's largest companies, utilities, and energy traders. 🌟Attractive Markets: Our take on compelling North American markets for corporate VPPAs, which are attracting our Member-Clients' interest and helping them reach the business-aligned goals developed with SR Inc through time-and-cost roadmaps. SR Inc’s Sustainable Business & Enterprise Roundtable (SBER) provides strategic advisory services in enterprise decarbonization, helping Member-Clients develop these roadmaps that identify and price procurement options—which can include aggregated VPPAs among other solutions—for achieving their strategy-aligned annual targets, ultimate goals, and ESG impacts. We invite you to read the full 3-page interview below to gain valuable insights into the evolving VPPA landscape. 📖✨ We have to make this shift happen, and profitably! 🔗Learn more about the full report from LevelTen: https://lnkd.in/eBA4RKYX #Sustainability #RenewableEnergy #PPA #VPPA #SustainabilityRoundtable #LevelTenEnergy #EnergyTransition #SustainableFuture #CleanEnergy #NetZeroConsortiumForBuyers #CorporateSustainability

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Introducing Salient Renewable Energy Our probabilistic sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) forecasts, up to a year ahead, provide solar irradiance components ☀ , wind variables to 100m 🍃 , and precipitation 💧 at an hourly resolution, which can be converted to wind and solar power. In the face of unprecedented weather volatility, the ability to match energy demand with renewable energy availability is increasingly important. Salient helps our customers make confident, data-driven decisions beyond 2 weeks. Request a demo to learn more: https://lnkd.in/eZUmNXRy #forecastfurther

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Sometimes #energytransition progress is talked about with so little fanfare you can almost miss it...unless you read things like the recently published SPP 2023 State of the Market Report. Congratulations to Southwest Power Pool for continuing to reliably manage an increasingly intermittent generation mix, including the continued expansion of #demandresponse resources. "For the second straight year, wind generation produced the highest percentage of total generation, at 37 percent in 2023." "Of the 1,806 MW net increase in nameplate generation capacity from 2022, 1,693 MW were from wind resources, 431 MW were from dispatchable demand response, and 239 were from solar resources." https://lnkd.in/ghVSqNxF #DR #DERs #VPPs

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Another 40 GW of solar and wind capacity coming to the U.S. power grid this year could generate ~10 GW of baseload-equivalent generation because of its intermittency. Will the wave of renewable installs be enough to flatten natural gas’ power gen gains this summer? Yes, likely, say analysts. However, one wrinkle is Canada, according to Wood Mackenzie. The northern neighbor has uncharacteristically flipped to a net importer of U.S. power (5 GW swing in April) and could provide uplift to U.S. generation this summer. Worth checking if Canada-bound electrons are in your model. Natural Gas Intelligence https://lnkd.in/e4iUpp-a

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The DOE report on how to improve and speed up generator interconnection to the US grid is out👇 The many recommendations include: 1️⃣ Improving the scope, accessibility, quality, and standardization of data on projects already in interconnection queues 2️⃣ Creating new and better use of existing fast-track options for interconnection, such as surplus interconnection service, generation replacement service, and energy-only interconnection service 3️⃣ Adopting and implementing a harmonized and comprehensive set of generation interconnection requirements or standards 4️⃣ Exploring and evaluating potential options for delinking the interconnection process and network upgrade investments to increase up-front interconnection cost certainty. 5️⃣ Ensure that generators have the option to elect energy-only interconnection and be re-dispatched rather than paying for network upgrades. 6️⃣ Evaluate all effective mitigation options during interconnection studies, incorporating alternative transmission technologies as well as control options for inverter-based resources (IBRs).

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As the Investment Manager of the internationally diversified Gore Street Energy Storage Fund (LSE: GSF), we have been operating #energystorage assets in the #US since March 2022 when we entered the ERCOT market in Texas, before later completing a transaction in California in early 2023. These acquisitions by the fund followed years of preliminary work driven by the fact that the US has been undergoing a boom in #renewables deployment for several years. Since August 2022 this market appeal has been reinforced by the #InflationReductionAct which continues to deliver #investment tax credits for standalone energy storage and other #renewableenergy solutions. This has led to incredible deployment of new wind and solar generation, as well as the energy storage systems that play a crucial role integrating this clean power. Despite its successes, the future of the legislation has become uncertain as we get closer to November’s presidential #election and a potential second term for former President Donald Trump. A return to a Republican administration would signal a shift in US energy #policy and has the potential to impact the work being done under the Inflation Reduction Act. In our latest blog, we take a look at what the Inflation Reduction Act has done so far, how a new Trump Presidency may seek to change its course, and why any action could face opposition from red states that have received considerable investment under the legislation. While we do not expect existing investments to be affected by any shift in direction, the key takeaway remains that the US is expected to continue to be a key market for renewable energy solutions like energy storage, no matter who is in the White House. The fundamentals of renewables deployment, diminishing thermal generation, falling technology costs and societal demand for #decarbonisation will continue to drive the #energytransition well into the future. We are confident that the enduring nature of this transition and the economic forces driving investment into clean power will continue. You can read our full blog here: https://lnkd.in/eR3V-V2s

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