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We’ll Always Have Paris: Advocates Hope COP21 Results In Concrete Benefits For Solar

Many renewables advocates are pleased with the positive results from the United Nations Climate Change Conference recently concluded in Paris. The event, also known as the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21), may not have produced enforceable targets, but some industry experts say the spirit of the proposals bodes well for solar.

“We know public policy choices are a key driver of solar energy growth,” says Kim Stevens, campaign director for Environment Colorado in Denver.

Stevens points out that the three largest polluting countries have recently presented plans to reduce their emissions. In August, President Barack Obama announced the Clean Power Plan, which will cut U.S. carbon pollution from the power sector by 870 million tons annually - 32% below 2005 levels - by 2030. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which produced the plan, the effort builds on strategies the states are already using, such as increasing the amount of solar and wind.

Soon after that announcement, President Xi of China said his country would implement measures such as an emissions trading system in 2017 and a “green dispatch” system that would favor low-carbon sources on the electric grid. Later, India announced plans to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions with goals of generating 40% of its electricity from renewables by 2030 and increasing solar power to 100 GW by 2022.

Stevens says those announcements are a good sign. “We have every reason to be hopeful the Paris climate summit will result in broader international agreements,” she says. “A big part of all these plans is to bring more renewables.”

In contrast, the 2009 climate talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, did not produce positive change on the renewables front.

“There was so much hope going into it, but nothing substantial came out,” Stevens says. “What sets this summit apart is we’ve already seen political action.”

Rebecca Cantwell, executive director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association, agrees that the Paris talks are much more promising than the previous meeting. “Compared to 2009, there is much greater awareness of the magnitude of climate change and the urgency to act and growing awareness that developing countries do not have to choose between tackling climate change and getting affordable power,” she says. “They are intertwined, and that’s where solar comes in.”

Cantwell adds that the countries that are participating in the summit can get a triple win: clean energy, climate action and the reduction of poverty. “I think that’s important to link those things together,” she says. As solar prices drop and more countries seek to electrify rural areas, governments will look to solar as a solution. “The critical thing is not the technology - it’s the political will to embrace this in the future. Solar can play a much bigger role.”

Cantwell notes that just as some developing countries did not build a telecommunications system based on landlines - skipping right to cellular communications - some may decline to build coal plants for electrification and, instead, build distributed solar.

Danny Kennedy, managing director of the California Clean Energy Fund and president of CalCharge, also likes the telecommunications analogy. Solar can accelerate economic opportunity in developing nations. “Solar innovation makes it possible for the developing world to jump directly to distributed, clean energy generation,” he says. “They will get electricity direct from the source while driving down greenhouse-gas emissions and creating a democratizing force that brings prosperity to more people.”

These are excellent sentiments. But, this question remains: Will COP21 produce practical benefits for solar power globally?

“The dramatically plummeting prices and accelerating adoption of solar proves that all parties involved in COP21 can and should commit to ambitious emissions reductions,” Kennedy says. “The climate summit is a chance to have a global conversation about how energy is created and consumed and shed light on trailblazing initiatives like those that are lighting up Africa and bringing electricity to India without the levels of pollution associated with other nations’ industrialization.”

The announcements are important, but people in the solar business will be watching what happens after the event, says Stephen Moilanen, co-founder and CEO of the Boston-based Solstice Initiative. “The question becomes, when American leaders walk into Paris, are they going to be nudged in a more aggressive direction - and does that include solar - or are they going to be recapitulating the commitments we have made?” he says.

Many will be watching to see if the Paris conference yields some concrete changes.

“I hope it will have a large impact in terms of government investment, looking at different ways to reduce barriers and red tape,” says Youness Scally, executive director of Everybody Solar, based in Santa Cruz, Calif. “That’s one of the largest things government can do.”

Scally adds that solar is marching ahead anyway due to lowered costs and increased interest, and the Paris event might help. “As an outcome of the climate summit, we can get more countries, and especially the U.S. government, making specific targets and making specific goals that they can back up with real policy,” he says. - Nora Caley

 

Global Solar Council Launched At COP21

A number of national and regional solar industry associations have joined to form the Global Solar Council (GSC) to cooperate on advocating for the solar power sector at an international level, share best practices and accelerate global market developments.

The announcement was made at the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris.

According to the GSC, solar power is already one of the cheapest forms of electricity globally, and prices continue to decline fast. The levelized cost of solar electricity is 80% lower than it was during the COP15 conference in 2009. The group says that solar could be a 10% share of global power generation by 2030 as compared with less than 1% today, given the right market conditions.

The principal members of the organization are national and regional solar associations from both established and emerging markets, including China, Europe, India, the Middle East, Australia, South America and the U.S. The group hopes to establish its secretariat and legal entity in the U.S. and headquarters in China. Membership is open to any association active in solar power.

“There is consensus that solar power will become the principal source of electricity generation,” says Bruce Douglas, chairman of the GSC. “It has a hugely important role to play in the international efforts to ultimately eliminate carbon emissions from the power sector.”

 

U.S. Government Releases Desert Energy Plan

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) and the California Natural Resources Agency have announced the final environmental review of a land-use plan meant to expedite the permitting process for renewable energy development and support conservation on 10 million acres of federal public lands in the California desert.

The release of the final environmental impact statement for Phase I of the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) comes after the agencies revealed their draft plan in September 2014 and held a public-comment period.

According to the DOI, the blueprint is part of a larger, comprehensive effort with California and covers 22 million acres in the state’s desert region. Collectively, the agency says, these lands contain the potential to generate up to 20 GW of renewable energy development while meeting federal and state renewable energy and climate change goals through 2040.

The DOI says Phase I of the DRECP, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), designates development focus areas with high-quality solar, wind and geothermal energy potential, and access to transmission - allowing impacts to be managed and mitigated. The agency says applications will benefit from a streamlined permitting process with predictable survey requirements and simplified mitigation measures, and the DOI is considering additional financial incentives through an ongoing rulemaking process.

The first phase identifies national conservation lands and designates areas of critical environmental concern, wildlife allocations, and national scenic and historic trail management corridors to conserve biological, cultural and other values. Furthermore, the DOI says special recreation management areas and extensive recreation management areas are identified to recognize and promote recreational opportunities and public access. Thus, these lands would be closed to renewable energy and benefit from adaptive management in the face of climate change, the agency explains.

The non-federal land component of the DRECP, Phase II, is ongoing. It is led by California and includes close coordination among federal, state, county and private land partners. The DOI says the phased approach provides additional opportunities for agencies to work with counties and other stakeholders to address issues and concerns. The department says county planning efforts are critical because these jurisdictions have primary land-use and permitting authority on private lands. The counties include Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego.

The overall planning effort for the DRECP began in 2008, shortly after the desert region began experiencing a surge of applications for renewable energy projects. At that time, most applications for renewable energy projects were reviewed and approved on a case-by-case basis.

The DOI says that between the draft DRECP announced in 2014 and this new release of the BLM component, the agencies held 11 public meetings and received more than 16,000 comments. Based on these suggestions, the DOI says, the agencies made modifications to land area designations, provided more details on management of conservation lands, clarified how unallocated lands would be managed, refined the environmental analysis and reorganized the document for greater clarity.

The federal strategy for these 10 million acres of public lands is detailed in the BLM’s proposed land-use plan amendment and final environmental impact statement.