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Power United States

US Regulators Approve Rule That Could Speed Renewables (npr.org) 23

Longtime Slashdot reader necro81 writes: The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which controls interstate energy infrastructure, approved a rule Monday that should boost new transmission infrastructure and make it easier to connect renewable energy projects. (More coverage here, here, and here.)

Some 11,000 projects totaling 2,600 GW of capacity are in planning, waiting to break ground, or connect to the grid. But they're stymied by the need for costly upgrades, or simply waiting for review. The frustrations are many. Each proposed project undergoes a lengthy grid-impact study and assessed the cost of necessary upgrades. Each project is considered in isolation, regardless of whether similar projects are happening nearby that could share the upgrade costs or auger different improvements. The planning process tends to be reactive -- examining only the applications in front of them -- rather than considering trends over the coming years. It's a first-come, first-served queue: if one project is ready to break ground, it must wait behind another project that's still securing funding or permitting.

Two years in development, the dryly-named Improvements to Generator Interconnection Procedures and Agreements directs utility operators to plan infrastructure improvements with a 20-yr forecast of new energy sources and increased demand. Rather than examining each project in isolation, similar projects will be clustered and examined together. Instead of a First-Come, First-Served serial process, operators will instead examine First-Ready, allowing shovel-ready projects to jump the queue. The expectation is that these new rules will speed up and streamline the process of developing and connecting new energy projects through more holistic planning, penalties for delays, sensible cost-sharing for upgrades, and justification for long-term investments.

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US Regulators Approve Rule That Could Speed Renewables

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  • This is good news. (Score:5, Informative)

    by olsmeister ( 1488789 ) on Wednesday May 15, 2024 @08:51PM (#64475683)
    Nice to see some common sense being used. NPR did a podcast about this very thing a year or so ago.
    https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16... [npr.org]
    • by necro81 ( 917438 )
      That podcast episode is linked-to in the summary:

      But they're stymied by the need for costly upgrades [npr.org], or...

      But, yes, it's an excellent piece of reporting on a frustrating but abstruse process that's holding things back. Now, hopefully, the way forward will be easier.

  • Meanwhile, as of last Tuesday, Biden has imposed or raised tariffs on solar panels, aluminum and steel for them, batteries, electronics, etc..

    * Solar cells and panels: Raised from 25% to 50% in 2024
    * Aluminum/steel: From 7.5% to 25% in 2924
    * Lithium batteries and battery components (e.g. Battery Management Systems.) From 7.5% to 25%: in 2024 for EV batteries, 206 for others (e.g. Solar system storage). Of course some cell types are dual-use so bare cells will be assumed to be "f

    • Tariff typos:
      * Aluminum/steel: From 7.5% to 25% in 2924... 2024 of course.
      * Lithium batteries and battery components... 206 for others (e.g. Solar system storage).... 2026

    • by chefren ( 17219 )
      Yes, trade war with China is a policy that Trump and Biden see eye to eye on. Trump started it, Biden is continuing it. Trump stated this year that he could see 60% on everything coming from China, so if he wins, I guess there will be additional tariff hikes. See https://www.reuters.com/world/... [reuters.com].
  • No doubt whatever positive impact this has will be undone after the election.

    • you're not wrong... but there is still the Administrative Procedures Act which requires that one can't just reverse policies immediately [not that I'd see Trump not trying], and that policies [or policy changes] can't be "arbitrary or capricious" [not my words, but rather the law itself]. This is why a) in Trump's last months he rammed through a bunch of regulations, and b) Biden had to spend over a year slowly undoing them.

      • "Immediately" is not the issue for projects with 30 year lifespans and many years ROI. Investments in renewables in the USA is largely lagging other western nations because of uncertainty. That is it. You can't plan a wind farm if one administration's hot hard-on is the next administration's hateboner.

        That's not me saying this by the way. That's the industry itself. We talk about why there's no Chinese cars in America but plenty in Europe, the answer was BYD's executive has said there's way too much regulat

  • Glad to see Biden streamlining the road to hell. There is a reason all those hoops have to be jumped through.

    In addition, the environmental quality hoops are going to be waived in the interests of environmental quality.

Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.

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