Energy

Following years of regulatory disputes, the incandescent lightbulb will be almost completely phased out starting this month, according to E&E News’ ENERGYWIRE (subscription).

What’s going on: “Along with prohibiting the manufacture, import and retail sales of most incandescent bulbs, [Department of Energy] rules finalized last year authorize DOE to slap penalties of $542 on companies per each violation. That could mean millions of dollars in fines for large incandescent orders.”

• DOE says the move will cut greenhouse gas emissions and lower consumers’ utility bills.
• While there is not an explicit ban on incandescent bulbs, most of them are unable to meet the efficiency requirements that were set by Congress in 2007 and will now go into full enforcement.

What it could mean: “Industry representatives say the sweep of regulations on various appliances will spike upfront costs for consumers in the market for appliances,” ENERGYWIRE reports. “Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill argue the Biden administration is waging a back-door campaign to ban gas stoves and other appliances.”
 

The Department of Energy released a draft proposal late last week that would impose stricter efficiency standards on water heaters—and increase costs for manufacturers, E&E News’ ENERGYWIRE (subscription) and The Washington Examiner report.

What’s going on: On Friday night, the DOE released a 425-page plan “to mandate energy efficiency levels for new consumer water heaters, which the department defines as appliances in homes and small businesses that use ‘oil, gas or electricity to heat potable water for use outside the heater upon demand,’” according to ENERGYWIRE.

• The Biden administration says the move—which would go into effect in 2029 if approved in its current iteration—would cut carbon dioxide emissions and reduce energy use by residential water heaters, saving consumers money.
• The draft rule arrives just months after the DOE released a proposal to phase out approximately half of the gas-powered stoves on the market. The House recently approved two measures to stop “gas stove rulemaking from DOE and the Consumer Product Safety Commission,” according to ENERGYWIRE.

What it would mean: The water heater rule would force manufacturers to use heat pump technology to produce electric water heaters and condensing technology to make gas-fired water heaters—and it would spike production costs in the process, according to the Examiner.

• “The [DOE] draft outlines the potential effect on manufacturers, estimating the implementation of the updated standards could result in ‘a loss of $207.3 million to a gain of $165.5 million’ through the year 2056. The DOE estimates conversion costs would be $228.1 million,” the Examiner reports.

The NAM says: “These proposed regulations add costs to manufacturers and consumers and remove market options,” said NAM Vice President of Domestic Economic Policy Brandon Farris.

• “Manufacturers believe that regulations should allow manufacturers in America to compete in a global market—while protecting consumers. The targets proposed by the DOE fail to accomplish that goal.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission granted all remaining permits to the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in Virginia and West Virginia on Wednesday, allowing it to resume construction after a pause of more than a year, E&E News’ ENERGYWIRE (subscription) reports.

What’s going on: “In a unanimous order issued Wednesday, the commission said that all work on the 303-mile pipeline could proceed. … The commission also authorized FERC’s Office of Energy Projects to approve any future modifications to the Mountain Valley project as proposed by its sponsors—as long as the director of the office finds them ‘to be needed to complete construction.’”

• FERC approval comes just days after the project received its final water-crossing permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
• The debt-ceiling deal signed into law this month by President Biden contained provisions requiring approval for the MVP, which the agency first approved in 2017.

Why it’s important: “The pipeline has been described by [supporter and West Virginia Sen. Joe] Manchin and others in Congress as a poster child for … the nation’s inefficient energy permitting system.”

• The MVP—the only natural-gas project under development in Appalachia—will help deliver clean, affordable energy from Appalachian shale reserves to customers in the eastern U.S.

A win for timely permitting: “In its order Wednesday, FERC also said it was setting aside its policy of generally considering requests for rehearing before allowing construction.”

What’s next: Developers plan to restart construction “shortly” and finish this year.

There was notable growth in energy-sector jobs last year, according to a new Department of Energy report cited by The Hill.

What’s going on: The number of positions in both traditional and renewable energy grew from 2021 to 2022.

• Jobs in renewables increased 3.9%, while conventional-energy jobs grew even more. Positions in natural-gas fuel rose 24%, those in coal fuel rose 22% and those in petroleum 13%
• “Overall, the energy sector grew by nearly 300,000 jobs, employing 7.8 million people in 2021 and more than 8.1 million in 2022.”

Outsize expansion: The energy sector’s job growth was more significant than that of jobs in general.

• “The report said jobs in the battery electric vehicle field had the most growth overall, expanding by 27 percent from 2021 to 2022.”

The NAM’s view: “The growth in energy-sector jobs demonstrates the strength of domestic energy production, but misguided regulations could undo all this momentum,” said NAM Vice President of Energy & Resources Policy Brandon Farris. “The NAM is working to achieve permitting reform and rein in unbalanced regulations so it doesn’t go to waste.”

A natural gas pipeline that would bring affordable energy to customers in the Mid- and South Atlantic regions of the U.S. got its final permit late last week, according to E&E News’ ENERGYWIRE (subscription).

What’s going on: On Friday the planned 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline—set to run from West Virginia to southern Virginia—received its water crossing permit, which will allow developers to build the project across rivers and streams in accordance with Section 404 of the Clean Water Act.

• The permit was part of the debt-ceiling deal signed earlier this month by President Biden
• Construction of the MVP, the only large pipeline project currently being built in Appalachia, has been paused for more than a year because of legal battles, according to another ENERGYWIRE (subscription) story.

Why it’s important: The granting of the water crossing permit—which comes more than five years after the pipeline’s initial approval—is a step forward for permitting reform.

• The approvals process for critical infrastructure in the U.S. takes far longer than it does in other countries that have comparable environmental regulations, NAM Vice President of Energy & Resources Policy Brandon Farris told Congress at a recent hearing.
• This lag needlessly delays—or worse, drives overseas—critical infrastructure, Farris said.

Manufacturers act: Last week the NAM, along with members of the NAM’s Council of Manufacturing Associations and Conference of State Manufacturers Associations, launched Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations, a coalition aimed at speeding up the  permitting process and addressing the large volume of regulations being handed down by the federal government.

What’s next for MVP: The MVP has approximately four to five months of construction remaining. It could begin service this year or in early 2024, according to one estimate.

• To finish construction, the project will require the permission of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which “must still validate that the project has all their permits,” ENERGYWIRE reports.

Companies that provide services and goods to the oil and gas sector are repurposing some of their machinery for use in renewable energy technologies, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: With investment in renewable energy sources expected to reach $1.74 trillion this year, oil-field-service firms including Baker Hughes are diversifying their portfolios to include investment in new energy segments.

• “Baker Hughes said orders in its new energy segment could reach $6 billion to $7 billion by 2030. At the midpoint, that represents about a fifth of the revenue that Wall Street expects it to generate that year.”
• In addition to maintaining its longstanding book of geothermal business, Baker Hughes is now “looking to do carbon capture and sequestration, which … requires geological knowledge” that the firm already has.

Making progress: “Orders in its new energy business were substantial enough to be noted on [the company’s] earnings calls. It booked more than $400 million of orders in the segment last year and said it is on track to exceed that amount this year.”

• Orders comprised carbon capture and sequestration equipment for a large Malaysia project.
• Some of the services can be a source of recurring revenue, as in the case of California direct air capture projects, which are required to monitor carbon dioxide levels underground for 100 years.

The U.S. railway system may be a solution to serious energy problems, according to ENERGYWIRE’s E&E News (subscription).

What’s going on: During extreme weather events, “trains could dispatch batteries across the country, preventing blackouts without expensive new energy infrastructure,” according to a new Department of Energy study cited by the news source.

• The fix would be less expensive than constructing either new transmission infrastructure or standalone battery storage for extreme-weather occurrences, researchers found.

Why it’s important: Approximately two-thirds of the U.S. is at risk of blackouts this summer, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned recently.

Power by rail: Just one train could carry enough battery storage to supply 50,000 households with energy for 12 hours, researchers found.

• “The reach of the country’s 140,000-mile rail network also makes it attractive from a grid perspective, since it extends into dense population centers and transmission-congested regions. That reach has already prompted DOE to identify rail rights-of-way as potential hot spots for a transmission buildout.”

However … While mobile battery storage looks promising, it needs further exploration on a larger scale, one source told E&E News.

The Department of Energy will give an $850 million loan to battery cell developer KORE Power for the construction of a domestic battery manufacturing plant, The Hill reports.

What’s going on: The DOE on Friday announced the conditional loan to build “KOREPlex” in Buckeye, Arizona, as part of a broader strategy to “strengthen the U.S.’s supply chain for batteries for electric vehicles as well as for energy storage,” according to The Hill.

• It’s a milestone in the Biden administration’s objective to make half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2030 zero-emissions, according to the DOE.

Why it’s important: Once operational, the facility is expected to produce enough battery-cell storage to power more than 28,000 electric vehicles annually, the DOE said.

• The project is slated to create as many as 700 temporary construction jobs and 1,250 permanent operations positions.

Two-thirds of the U.S. is at risk of energy shortfalls this summer—and that share is only going to grow “[u]nless reliability and resilience are appropriately prioritized,” the North American Electric Reliability Corporation warned the Senate at a recent hearing, according to CBS Austin.

What’s going on: In most of the country, “there is the potential of running low on resources including electricity,” CBS reports. “The causes include an overwhelmed electric grid, the slowing use of fossil fuels like coal and natural gas to balance the use of the grid and new regulations like a lengthy permitting process that makes developing new energy take too long.”

• The NERC recently released its 2023 Summer Reliability Assessment, in which it details how, in the current push toward greater use of renewables, “the pace of change is overtaking the reliability needs of the [transmission grid] system,” NERC President and CEO James Robb told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week.

​​​​​​​ Why it’s important: “The hearing comes as more and more Americans are expected to rely on electricity, even being rewarded by switching to electric cars,” according to CBS. “‘When electricity is unreliable, the potential consequences are catastrophic, including loss of human life,’ said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the committee chairperson.”

What can be done: NERC suggests a multipronged plan to shore up grid reliability. This includes:

• Better management of the “pace of change” to mix in more renewables and continued use of traditional energy;
• More natural gas infrastructure to make the grid more resilient; and
• Increased investment in energy storage technologies “and/or hydrogen production and delivery systems.”

​​​​​​​The last word: “Manufacturers rely on access to reliable and affordable energy to power their operations—so if the grid is unreliable, not only will manufacturers suffer, but American families will suffer, too,” said NAM Vice President of Energy and Resources Policy Brandon Farris.

• “The NAM supports an all-of-the-above energy approach that includes renewables, natural gas, nuclear, clean hydrogen and others, as well as efforts to shore up grid reliability.”
• “We must also continue to work on permitting reform to ensure we can build new energy projects in a timely manner and get them connected to a stable grid.”

The U.S. government and automakers are on a mission to supply the nation with better, faster charging for electric vehicles, according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: The Biden administration “is trying to spur the buildout of so-called fast chargers that can charge EVs in about 15 to 40 minutes. That’s still slower than a traditional fill-up at a gas station, but faster than the hours-long experience at public chargers … ”

• Across the U.S., labs including the National Renewable Energy Lab are coming up with designs capable of fully charging an EV in under half an hour. Some trucking firms and charger makers have piloted systems capable of charging trucks in 15-20 minutes.

The challenges: There is debate over the best way to get more people into EVs, however: is it faster chargers or more slower chargers installed “where people park … in order to make charging a car a convenient and ubiquitous experience”?

• Most current EV charging takes place at owners’ homes, typically garages or driveways where the cars can “sip” energy for hours. However, “those in multifamily housing have less access to charging.”
• The more commonly used EV charger, called level 2, will charge a battery to about 80% in four to 10 hours.

Faster charger, bigger issues: “Fast chargers require costly utility infrastructure and charging equipment; ultra-rapid charging would be even more expensive. ‘Higher power costs more,’ [Dan Bowermaster, head of electric-vehicle research at the Electric Power Research Institute] says. ‘You get to a point where for these higher power levels you’d need bigger and bigger wire. At some point the wire gets so big that not only it’s heavy, but it can’t readily bend to curve around the charging port.’”

How to solve it: Mechanical assists could lessen the cables’ weight with robotic arms, according to one fast-charging company.

• Another possible fix? A “solid-state battery in which the electrolyte that conducts the electric current is a solid, rather than a liquid as used in most batteries today.”
• Some automakers are switching to 800-volt charging systems over the more common 400-volt ones, “doubling the power that the same current would provide”—but it’s a move that will require “the highest-level charging equipment.”​​​​​​​