US Vitality Dept. Begs For Extra Renewable Vitality Pleeeeeze

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After slicing the US wind and photo voltaic industries off on the knees all yr lengthy, the Trump administration has lastly woken as much as the truth that wind and photo voltaic are the one considerable, accessible home power sources that may meet the nation’s surging demand for electrical energy ASAP, STAT, on the double, economically, safely, and at scale, too. At the least, that’s what one might imagine upon a cursory studying of the Vitality Division’s new “Velocity to Energy” plan. It’s tailor made to vault renewable power again to precedence standing in federal power coverage — or not, because the case could also be.

Extra Renewable Vitality, Pleeeeese!

Truly, “Velocity to Energy” is extra of a plea than a plan. In a September 18 announcement, the Vitality Division let all people know that it has issued a proper Request for Info, desperately searching for any and all concepts from the non-public sector on the best way to “speed up the pace of large-scale grid infrastructure mission growth for each transmission and technology.”

The Vitality Division certain sounds anxious sufficient to attempt something. Within the announcement, the company admitted that “the present charge of mission growth is insufficient to assist the nation’s quickly increasing manufacturing wants and the reindustrialization of the U.S. economic system.”

“The Velocity to Energy initiative will assist guarantee america has the ability wanted to win the worldwide synthetic intelligence (AI) race whereas persevering with to fulfill rising demand for inexpensive, dependable and safe power,” the Vitality Division added, which is a sideways method of indicating that US President Donald Trump’s new fossil-friendly “American Vitality Dominance” plan has already fallen on its face.

Actually, the pitch for Velocity to Energy slots neatly into the renewable power image. The US wind and photo voltaic industries (particularly photo voltaic) have spent the higher a part of the early 2000’s demonstrating that they’ll ship kilowatts on the megascale quicker, and extra economically, than every other power useful resource in the marketplace as we speak.

Restarting the Renewable Vitality Engine, Or Not

The US renewable power observe document is much more spectacular contemplating that the nation’s wealthy offshore wind sources have barely been tapped as but, having hit the doldrums all via the Obama administration and the primary Trump administration, too.

Former President Joe Biden lastly wrangled the offshore trade into pace mode with a near-term objective of 30 gigawatts. By the point US President Donald Trump took workplace, a protracted checklist of Biden-era offshore wind initiatives was already via the evaluation stage and on the best way to development. Actually, some had been deep into development when Trump pulled the plug.

If the Vitality Division is admittedly that determined to make Velocity to Energy occur, maybe Vitality Secretary Wright may discover a tactful technique to counsel that US President Donald Trump’s fossil-friendly “American Vitality Dominance” wants a little bit of a tweak, notably regarding the US offshore wind trade.

For instance, one want look no farther than the Revolution Wind mission, a 704-megawatt offshore wind farm positioned off the coast of Rhode Island. The work was 80% full as of final August, when Inside Secretary Doug Burgum ordered the work to cease.

That’s peanuts in comparison with the two.4-gigawatt SouthCoast Wind mission in Massachusetts, which was greenlighted for development till Burgum pulled the plug final Friday.

And, that’s the issue. As an alternative of collaborating with different federal businesses on important home power initiatives, the Vitality Division is just searching for initiatives inside its funding wheelhouse. The Velocity to Energy RFI covers “near-term funding alternatives, mission readiness, load development expectations, and infrastructure constraints that DOE can deal with,” the Vitality Division explains (emphasis added).

The Vitality Division’s authority over US power coverage is rooted within the nuclear trade of World Struggle II, so it’s no shock to see a concentrate on nuclear energy within the RFI. Apart from, even when Vitality Secretary Wright needed to handle constraints on the offshore wind trade, first he must ask Inside Secretary Doug Burgum to restart the federal offshore lease program upon which the complete offshore trade relies upon, and cease issuing stop-work orders on initiatives already within the pipeline. Wright may also have to inform Environmental Safety Company Administrator Lee Zeldin to cease re-reviewing offshore wind permits that had been already reviewed and authorized.

As well as, Wright must get Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to reverse his reversal of a federal grant program geared toward upgrading 12 seaports across the nation to function offshore wind trade hubs, and he must persuade US Lawyer Common Pam Bondi to reverse her reversal of prior offshore wind approvals, too.

Renewable Vitality And The Reliability Canard

If you happen to’re pondering that Velocity to Energy will fall simply as flat as American Vitality Dominance, drop a observe within the remark thread.  In the meantime, in an beautiful coincidence of timing, the Vitality Division issued its plea for extra energy technology simply three days earlier than renewable power advocates from everywhere in the world descend upon the US for New York Local weather Week 2025.

CleanTechnica might be in and round New York all week, and we’re notably to know what representatives from the worldwide wind and photo voltaic industries make of Velocity to Energy, notably with regard to a different stipulation coughed up by the Vitality Division within the new initiative.

Along with searching for enter on initiatives solely inside the Vitality Division’s funding authority, Velocity to Energy depends on the identical outdated “reliability” canard that shuts the door on wind and photo voltaic. Within the September 18 announcement, Secretary Wright emphasised that the hunt is on for any and all “inexpensive, dependable and safe sources.”

“With the Velocity to Energy initiative, we’re leveraging the experience of the non-public sector to harness all types of power which are inexpensive, dependable and safe to make sure america is ready to win the AI race,” he repeated.

In case anybody didn’t get the message, the Vitality Division cited its lopsided new grid report, by which it warned that that “blackouts may enhance by 100 instances by 2030 if the U.S. continues to shutter dependable energy sources and fails so as to add further agency capability.”

Positive, Let’s Save All These Coal Jobs

So, the place does that go away the Vitality Division? With not a lot, that’s for certain. The company has fallen again on costly, wasteful emergency measures reminiscent of pulling the mothballed Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan out of mothballs.

The Vitality Division has additionally pulled the emergency twine to pressure a lumbering, antiquated coal energy plant in Michigan to stay open previous its scheduled retirement date. That’s not a plan, that’s a sop to the US coal trade, which remains to be clinging to the hope that Trump will lastly make good on his promise to save lots of coal jobs.

“Coal costs are far much less unstable than these of pure gasoline,” the coal trade group America’s Energy notes weakly, however that received’t assist. Pure gasoline has been pushing coal out of the US energy technology image because the early 2000’s, and it’ll proceed pushing with or with out an help from renewable power sources.

Final week, for instance, the Ohio-based energy engineering agency Babcock & Wilcox joined with the funding fund Denham Capital to announce a brand new partnership geared toward leveraging present transmission infrastructure within the US and Europe to transform coal energy crops to gasoline. “By way of the partnership, substantial investments might be made to transform coal-fired energy crops to cleaner pure gasoline options, which symbolize an important bridge for the clear power transition,” the companions defined.

By way of the renewable power transition, that “bridge” pitch is price debunking, however the level is that coal’s place within the energy technology profile is shrinking it doesn’t matter what lifeline the Trump administration tosses into the seas.

Renewable Vitality Will get The Final Chortle, Ultimately

Oh the irony, it burns. Trump’s personal insistence on a Federal Reserve charge lower may give renewable power investing the sting over coal and gasoline, too, in accordance with some analyses. For that matter, Trump’s rigorously articulated American Vitality Dominance plan incorporates the seeds of coal’s destruction. Along with throwing a protecting blanket over the US nuclear trade, the plan consists of a number of renewable power sources, together with hydropower, geothermal, and biomass together with marine power.

All of those renewable sources face price and timeline obstacles underneath the present state of expertise, however none of them are going away. Neither is the wind or the sunshine, for that matter. They may all be sticking round lengthy after Trump leaves workplace on January 20, 2029, as scheduled — peacefully, one hopes, this time.

Picture (cropped): US Division of Vitality by way of CleanTechnica archives.