News

More than 100,000 workers, growth three times Virginia’s overall jobs growth rate, and advanced energy companies expecting to increase jobs by 7% in 2019 — yet obstacles remain

RICHMOND, August 6, 2019 — Today, national business group Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) released a fact sheet showing that Virginia has 101,400 people working in advanced energy. This represents more than those employed by hospitals (98,549), and twice as many as those in real estate (43,181) across the Commonwealth. The U.S. has a total of 3.5 million working in advanced energy jobs throughout the nation.

In an increasingly changing energy world, state energy markets vary widely in how they allow companies to compete for and retain customers. And that's beginning to matter more in states with large retail customers in a (mostly) regulated vertical energy market, such as in Virginia. 

Dominion Energy, the state's dominant utility, in May filed an application with the State Corporation Commission (SCC) for approval of its 100% renewable energy tariff. If approved, that tariff offering would prevent other retail electricity providers from competing in the market to give large and residential customers a 100% renewable option.

GreentechMedia reposted AEE's popular Top 10 trends piece by AEE's Coley Girouard. See excerpts below and read the entire GTM piece here.

In January, we published a list of the top 10 utility regulation trends of 2018. With 2019 beyond the halfway point, we check in on the top public utility commission (PUC) actions and trends so far this year. Ten prominent trends and actions stand out above the rest, from renewables increasingly dominating utility resource plans, to wildfires sparking utility safety and liability concerns in California, to transportation electrification investments becoming more widespread from coast to coast... 

PV Magazine's daily pvMB newsletter covered the release of AEE's fact sheet on Electrifying Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles. Read excerpt below and see the entire pvMB piece here.

AEE industry fact sheet reveals compelling commercial and public benefits of electrifying buses and trucks, as adoption begins to take off

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 17, 2019 – Today national business group Advanced Energy Economy released a fact sheet outlining the benefits that private and public fleet operators see in electric vehicles (EVs), and why they are beginning to incorporate them into their medium- and heavy-duty vehicle (MDV and HDV) portfolios. While much industry focus has been on the consumer auto and light-duty markets, new electric bus and truck models are gaining the attention of commercial, municipal, and state fleet operators for their cost and operational benefits.

Forbes columnist Jeff McMahon summarizes take-away's from AEE's June 25 webinar, "What Happens When Wind and Solar Compete on Price." He focuses on the experience of panelist Mike Hooper, NIPSCO. See excerpts below and read the entire Forbes piece here. McMahon's second piece in this series is here.

Los Angeles just announced the largest and cheapest solar+storage project in the world, but that's the golden land of dreamers and subsidies. About 1,800 miles to the right, conservative Indiana—with no renewable-portfolio standard—is making similar choices.

Renewables are so cheap, said Mike Hooper, the senior vice president of the Northern Indiana Service Company (NIPSCO), that the utility can close its coal plants early and return $4 billion to its customers over the next 30 years.

Under state legislation passed in April, NV Energy and any power provider in the state that provides 1 million MWh or more of power has to generate 50% of its power from renewable resources by 2030 and 100% from carbon-free sources by 2050.