Shifting to a renewable energy-friendly policy framework is a win-win

The latest IPCC report on climate change (“Trump says he’ll review UN climate change report”, Oct. 9, 2018) confirms what many in the energy and environment nonprofit sector and beyond have known for decades: Climate change is perhaps the most significant threat to the livelihoods and quality of life of people everywhere.

A natural response to the steady drumbeat of news about the growing calamity is to feel hopeless, but there is good reason for hope. In the past few decades, the U.S. has made dramatic progress developing and deploying renewable energy and energy efficiency technology. Today, we have mature industries ready to mitigate the worst impacts of climate change by transitioning our economy away from fossil-based sources of energy.

{mosads}The two lowest-cost, zero-emission renewable energy technologies in the U.S. – wind and solar energy – are well-positioned to power not just today’s electricity system but, the inevitable future electrification of transportation, buildings, and industrial processes. Enormous progress on our climate goals is achievable simply by accelerating deployment of these proven, affordable, low-carbon technologies that we already have.

The dramatic cost declines of wind and solar in recent years is one of the most exciting developments in the U.S. energy sector. New wind and solar projects are outcompeting other energy sources on cost in many places, even without considering the economic benefits of pollution reduction and water savings. As technology continues to improve, the already-low costs of deploying wind and solar will continue their steady decline, making these technologies by far the cheapest available. This is great news for residential ratepayers as well as large corporate energy buyers such as Walmart, GM, and Microsoft – many of whom are now ensuring that cheap renewable energy is available before deciding where to locate their facilities.

Given the advantages of these clean technologies, it might be tempting to conclude that market forces alone will propel wind and solar forward and that policy advocacy is no longer necessary. This is not the case. The U.S. wind and solar industries are projected to build an average of 20 gigawatts (GW) of new projects each year over the next five years, a pace that is not nearly fast enough to meet U.S. climate goals. Under one recently produced scenario, the U.S. will need to build an average of nearly 39 GWs of new wind and solar each year until 2050 to meet those goals. This can only happen if substantial changes are made to energy market rules, utility procurements, and transmission infrastructure.

Growing wind and solar at a pace sufficient to meet the ~39 GW annual target and maintain a healthy climate for future generations will require a host of new energy and infrastructure policies, including new market rules that appropriately value the grid services that solar and wind provide and new transmission lines to deliver the lowest-cost renewable resources to demand centers.

Shifting to a renewable energy-friendly policy framework can deliver the low-cost, carbon-free electricity needed to power our economy, while also creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs. That’s a win for the economy, human health and the environment.

John Kostyack is executive director of the Wind Solar Alliance.