Join each day information updates from CleanTechnica on electronic mail. Or comply with us on Google Information!
The political divide right here within the US could seem fairly minimize and dried when the subject turns to renewable power, however don’t be fooled. The power transition is gaining steam in virtually each state, no matter what their lawmakers say or do, with Louisiana and Tennessee offering the most recent in an extended collection of examples.
Renewable Vitality & The Dreaded ESG
State-level renewable power opponents have coalesced their efforts round attacking the surroundings, social, and governance (ESG) tips in style with many monetary corporations and companies today. Decarbonizing is a main function within the surroundings slot, and that explains why the fingerprints of fossil power stakeholders might be present in new state legal guidelines aimed toward tipping the legislative scales towards ESG broadly, and renewable power extra particularly.
Nonetheless, the naming and shaming of ESG within the halls of the state legislature doesn’t all the time monitor with the goals of the native improvement authorities, or with state financial improvement places of work. CleanTechnica retains discovering examples of beneficiant incentive packages provided to scrub tech producers to place down stakes in purple states, regardless of the anti-ESG rhetoric of different public officers.
The Inflation Discount Act can be incentivizing clear tech producers to arrange operations in professedly anti-ESG states. Particularly, we’re noticing that states within the Southeast are enticing to producers as a consequence of an extended historical past of “right to work” laws, fostering a wealthy pool of non-union staff.
To ice the cake of disconnection, earlier this month plans had been introduced to arrange a brand new inventory change in Dallas, to cowl Texas and different states within the Southeast. Coincidentally or not, the TXSE undertaking contains Louisiana, Tennessee, and nearly each different state within the former Confederacy, along with Texas.
As for disconnect, in case you guessed that the main ESG-friendly monetary agency BlackRock is likely one of the chief traders within the TXSE, run proper out and purchase your self a cigar.
Louisiana Catches Renewable Vitality Fever
Into this image steps Louisiana. Crimson-state politics apart, Louisiana’s personal in-state offshore building business is credited with offering the tools and engineering expertise behind the Block Island offshore wind farm. Block Island was commissioned for industrial electrical energy technology all the way in which again in 2016 because the very first renewable power set up of its sort within the US. Block Island’s 5 wind generators have set the stage for a string of large wind farms alongside the Atlantic Coast.
To be clear, the Block Island wind farm is just not positioned in Louisiana waters. That distinction went to Rhode Island, the place the political winds had been extra amenable to offshore wind. Now Louisiana appears decided to take up the renewable power management mantle once more. The state is poised to turn out to be the primary on the Gulf Coast to faucet into offshore wind sources within the Gulf of Mexico.
Nearly all the offshore exercise within the US comes below a federal leasing program, however Louisiana shall be an exception. The state has laid plans to plant among the generators in waters that come below its personal authority.
Of Course, Inexperienced Hydrogen
When you’re questioning what’s motivating the sudden curiosity in offshore wind, that’s a superb query. The wheels had been set in movement when former Democratic governor and renewable power fan John Bel Edwards was in workplace. For some purpose, the present management has not made a severe effort to cease the momentum.
We’re guessing that’s as a result of the highly effective Louisiana ammonia business is pushing to interchange fossil-sourced hydrogen with inexperienced hydrogen, which deploys renewable power to push hydrogen gasoline from water, resulting in the demand for extra wind and solar energy, too.
Final summer time, the Louisiana Financial Growth workplace introduced that it was placing collectively an incentive bundle for the agency Monarch Vitality to arrange a inexperienced hydrogen plant in Ascension Parish. In September, the Louisiana department of the main US power agency Entergy adopted up with phrase that it could present sufficient renewable power — specifically, solar energy — to run the Monarch facility.
Supplying clear kilowatts for the inexperienced hydrogen plant is simply the tip of Entergy’s plans for Louisiana. “Entergy Louisiana recently made the largest renewable power expansion request in state history by filing a request with its regulator, the Louisiana Public Service Commission, for approval to add an additional three gigawatts of solar power to its generation portfolio,” Entergy defined in a press assertion final September.
Doing the mathematics, that’s 3,000 megawatts, a giant soar up from Louisiana’s present roster of simply 617 megawatts.
Tennessee To Be A Renewable Vitality Titan
Turning now to Tennessee, we discover this purple state poised, considerably extremely, to host a brand new photo voltaic manufacturing facility aimed toward each the home and abroad markets.
That’s proper, abroad. When was the final time a US photo voltaic producer exported photo voltaic panels in any important amount? When you can monitor that down, drop us a notice within the remark thread.
The corporate behind the brand new manufacturing facility is ReCreate, a brand new undertaking of Create Vitality founder and CEO Dean Solon, and the CEO of RECOM Applied sciences, Hamlet Tunyan. The agency will deploy Create Vitality’s present facility in Portland, Tennessee.
“This new venture will disrupt the solar market by establishing a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility dedicated to producing up to 5GW of modules and cells for the North American and EU markets,” ReCreate acknowledged in a press launch on June 14.
Neither Create nor RECOM has surfaced on the CleanTechnica renewable power radar but, so we’ve got some catching as much as do. Within the meantime, ReCreate follows a now-familiar sample of purple states internet hosting new factories that produce the instruments for killing off fossil fuels in different states.
Tennessee ranks a lowly #30 among the many 50 states for put in photo voltaic capability, but when all goes in response to plan these 5 gigawatts’ value of ReCreate photo voltaic modules will change coal, gasoline, and oil energy throughout North America and Europe.
Tennessee can be heading for an power makeover of its personal. When Ford introduced plans for a brand new mega-campus within the state again in 2021, the corporate anticipated that extra renewable power would turn out to be out there. “BlueOval City was designed with sustainability top of mind, and the company’s goal is for the Tennessee Electric Vehicle Center assembly plant to be carbon neutral and use carbon-free electricity,” Ford reminded everyone earlier this 12 months.
Who’s Afraid Of The ESG?
CleanTechnica has already spilled loads of ink on the anti-ESG motion in Texas and elsewhere, so we received’t repeat ourselves right here. When you’re in search of new examples, right here’s a latest one from Tennessee that includes an assault on — you guessed it — BlackRock.
Louisiana already jumped the gun on BlackRock again in 2022 and now it’s taking intention at different A-list monetary corporations with an curiosity within the power transition.
Nonetheless, home-state companies are following the ESG cash, one latest instance being the the A-list engineering agency APTIM, headquartered in Baton Rouge. The agency is pitching a 2040 web zero objective, although it has reportedly supplied extra monetary help to Republican candidates than Democrats.
“Looking forward, we will continue to prioritize making meaningful reductions in our carbon footprint, and we plan to formally integrate nature-based considerations as reporting standards advance,” defined a spokesperson for the agency simply final week, on June 12.
Who’s afraid of the ESG, certainly.
Comply with me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Picture (cropped): ESG or not, two entrepreneurs intention to make Tennessee a renewable power powerhouse, with a proposed 5 gigawatt photo voltaic manufacturing facility.
