Senator Romney Tours Utah’s All of the Above Energy Infrastructure

This month U.S. Senator Mitt Romney toured a variety of important Utah energy infrastructure sites highlighting the state’s leadership in the development of innovative domestic energy production and critical minerals.  

Stops from Senator Romney’s tour included Longroad Energy’s Milford Wind Project, the largest wind farm in Utah which has 97 turbines over 16,000 acres, the Align Renewable Natural Gas site in Milford, Rocky Mountain Power’s Blundell Geothermal Plant in Beaver County, and Rio Tinto’s Kennecott Copper mine in Bingham Canyon. 

“One of the great things about our state is that we are really a leader in the area of renewable energy,” said Senator Romney. “We happen to see in this valley behind us all sorts of examples of technology that is being applied to see if we can’t create renewable sources of energy that will help us have power here in Utah, but also around the country and potentially around the globe. We have wind power, we have power that’s coming from recycled animal waste, we also have geothermal.  And in each case we’re developing new advances, hopefully, that will be able to be adopted not just here but around the world.”

Utah’s domestic energy sources are a considerable economic driver for the state and especially rural communities.  TWW’s recently found that Utah’s rural renewables drive an estimated $5.3 billion in total economic output, have created 4,368 direct jobs,  paid $24.6 million in local property taxes, and $6.3 million in lease payments to farmers and ranchers. 

Senator Romney’s tour highlights the important role that the State of Utah can play in developing new energy technologies and mining critical minerals that will drive the world’s economy well into the future.

 

Smart Water Policy is Needed in the West

This piece by TWW’s Jaime Molera first ran in the Arizona Capitol Times on July 26, 2022 and can be accessed here.

Policies will ensure not having to choose between water and economic growth

Low water levels at Wahweap Bay at Lake Powell along the Upper Colorado River Basin are shown Wednesday, June 9, 2021, at the Utah and Arizona border at Wahweap, Ariz. Dwindling Colorado River supplies, as well as inadequate groundwater regulation in large parts of Arizona, have put the entire state in a tough position. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Reading the headlines about water issues in Arizona can be disconcerting. Our state is now more than 20 years into an historic drought with conditions projected to worsen in the coming years.

We can no longer rely on the water resources that once seemed abundant. Dwindling Colorado River supplies coupled with inadequate groundwater regulation in large parts of Arizona have put the entire state in a tough position.

But this is not a reason to despair – or to panic. We don’t need to discourage growth or declare that Arizona is closed for business because of the water challenges we face.

Jaime A. Molera

Instead, we must do what we can individually and together as citizens to demand smart policies from our elected leaders to overcome water shortages and promote economic growth. Thankfully, it seems our leaders are starting to listen.

The state legislature recently approved a $1 billion investment in the state’s water infrastructure in overwhelmingly bipartisan fashion. The money will support a mix of initiatives to conserve water where possible and ensure the state can secure new sources of water as they become available. It’s a pragmatic plan, which Gov. Doug Ducey urged state lawmakers to pass at the beginning of this year’s legislative session.

“Arizonans are, by necessity, water experts,” Ducey said in a statement following the approval of the new billion-dollar water package. “We’re protecting our water supply, strengthening our conservation strategies and ensuring that our future remains bright.”

Arizona has a long history of strong water policy and innovation. This track record includes the Central Arizona Project system that brings water from the Colorado River to Arizona’s major population centers and the 1980 Groundwater Management Act.

These measures helped Arizona grow into the economic powerhouse it is today. But environmental conditions are changing, and we must respond to these challenging new conditions by actively managing our water resources to ensure water continues to be available for industrial, agricultural and municipal users in Arizona.

The recently passed bill is a good start. It sets aside money for critical augmentation projects that will help Arizona shore-up its supply for the long term, as well as $200 million for a dedicated water conservation fund to help Arizonans in the short term.

Noticeably lacking from the legislation were any protections for rural groundwater. Unfortunately, a bipartisan effort to allow rural communities to establish groundwater management areas has failed to pass for several years, and groundwater pumping in large parts of Arizona remains unchecked. That is particularly problematic, as Arizona relies on groundwater for 40% of its water supply and, as supplies from the Colorado River continue to decline due to ongoing drought conditions, that will continue to put groundwater resources under major strain.

Given all this, what will the next chapter of actively managing the state’s water resources look like? To get some answers, I spoke with one of our state leaders, Rep. Joanne Osborne, while the legislature was finalizing the landmark $1 billion water deal.

Representative Osborne says that the bulk of the funding should be set aside for long-term water supply solutions that include desalination technologies to convert salt water into drinking water and “a pipeline to our waterlogged states that have issues of flooding.” However, these high-profile, big-ticket solutions “are going to take some time” and so it’s imperative to also move forward with pragmatic measures to increase efficiency and reduce waste. For example, Osborne said officials could replace “old pipes” that leak water and expand efforts to “reuse and reclaim” as much water as possible from unconventional sources.

Overall, Osborne and Ducey are spot-on in recognizing that the key to future water policy is making sure new initiatives are consistent with Arizona’s “low-regulation, low-tax structure” that has drawn new businesses and new industries to the state.

Too often, environmental challenges are presented in all-or-nothing terms. But thanks to our leaders here in Arizona, our state isn’t falling into that trap. Overcoming big challenges requires both pragmatism and optimism. Because while we must protect our natural resources, we must also maintain a foundation for growth and prosperity.

 Jaime A. Molera is former Arizona state school superintendent, partner of Molera Alvarez, and the Arizona director for The Western Way, a nonprofit organization that builds support for market-driven solutions to environmental challenges.

A ‘Good-Roads Movement’ for the 21st Century

This pieces by TWW’s Greg Brophy first ran in The Colorado Sun on July 19, 2022 and can be accessed here.

If you’re a farmer, you love well-built and well-maintained roads. Without them, there’s virtually no way to get your crops or livestock to market, and therefore no way to make a living.

In fact, farmers played a pivotal role in the “good roads” movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s – a movement that spurred the creation of the modern road system we enjoy today.

A bad road “is a relentless tax assessor and a sure collector,” noted one farmer at the time. More recently, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has declared “well-maintained roads are indispensable to support the transport and economic competitiveness of agricultural goods.”

Today, however, rural America is facing a new infrastructure challenge that’s limiting our economic potential. This time, it isn’t roads – it’s a shortage of transmission lines that are capable of moving electricity produced in rural communities to homes and businesses in major metropolitan areas.

We need more of this infrastructure because electricity is a growing “cash crop” for many agricultural communities. Renewable energy projects – and especially wind farms – are already highly concentrated in rural areas like Colorado’s Eastern Plains. But that’s only part of the story.

Developers of other energy technologies, including small nuclear reactors, battery storage, hydrogen, carbon capture and advanced geothermal, are also looking to expand in rural America. Building in major metropolitan areas is too expensive and often at the mercy of anti-development, not-in-my-backyard political agendas.

But continued investment from the energy sector in rural communities only makes sense if electricity producers can get their goods to market — which is why new transportation infrastructure for electricity, in the form of new transmission lines, is so important.

Here in Colorado, a great local example is a planned transportation corridor for electricity generated on the Eastern Plains. The project is called Colorado’s Power Pathway and the value of the project is estimated at between $1.7 billion and $2 billion.

According to the project developer, Xcel Energy, eastern Colorado “is one of the nation’s best areas for wind and solar.” But without transmission lines to connect wind farms and solar arrays to large electricity markets, including communities along the I-25 corridor, these natural resources would be wasted. Landowners would have less income. There would be less tax revenue for local governments and rural school districts.

This is why we need to reduce the red tape and simplify the needlessly complex permitting process for building new transmission lines. Likewise, individuals and groups that oppose new transmission lines should, respectfully, rethink their opposition.

Here’s why I say that: Electricity is one of rural America’s fastest growing commodities. The only way producers can reach buyers is through transmission lines. In fact, you could say that transmission lines are a lot like roads for electricity.

In everyday life, as individual drivers, we only use a tiny fraction of the available roads. Most of the time, we stick to a handful of routes between work, school and the grocery store. But we also accept the need for a much larger, interconnected system of roads, so that other people can also travel freely, and so businesses have a way to ship their goods to stores or directly to consumers.

It’s the same with transmission lines. Even if they don’t run directly to your house or business, or even to your community, transmission lines are an essential part of a larger, interconnected power grid that supports our economy and our way of life.

And with every passing year, those transmission lines increasingly provide vital economic connections between rural communities that generate electricity and urban communities where so much electricity is consumed.

Just as farmers needed better roads in the early 20th century to get their goods to market, electricity producers in rural America need better transportation infrastructure in the 21st century.

If we can make that happen, it will mean more investment, more jobs and more revenue for essential services in farming and ranching communities – and a more stable, reliable and competitive energy market for everyone, no matter where they live.

Greg Brophy, of Wray, is a farmer and former state senator. He is the Colorado Director of The Western Way.

TWW In-Depth on Geothermal Energy's Potential

This piece first ran in The Gazette on July 10, 2022 and can be accessed here.

PERSPECTIVE: Colorado’s oil and gas goes green

By Greg Brophy

The energy transition that started more than a decade ago continues to accelerate as low- and zero-carbon fuels get cheaper and more reliable. 

But that doesn’t mean fossil fuels and emission-free energy are mutually exclusive. They are not enemies, as some of the loudest voices in the environmental debate want you to think.

In truth, the science, technology and know-how of the fossil fuel industry is laying the groundwork for an economy that runs on reduced emissions energy. That was true more than a decade ago, when flexible natural gas turbines started opening up the power grid to much larger volumes of electricity from wind farms and solar arrays. And it’s true today.

One of the best examples is happening right here in Colorado. An innovative startup called Transitional Energy is using oil and gas infrastructure and advanced heat-exchange technology to produce geothermal electricity.

The Denver-based company has already completed a successful pilot project in Nevada and will demonstrate the technology on a larger scale in the Silver State in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy. The federal agency’s involvement follows an earlier grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade.

Meanwhile, United Power — a Brighton-based electric cooperative that serves more than 300,000 people in northern Colorado — will work with Transitional Energy to convert geothermal heat from oil and gas wells in the Denver-Julesburg Basin into a new local source of renewable electricity.

Breakthrough energy

However, unlike wind and solar, Transitional Energy’s geothermal technology is expected to produce “dispatchable baseload electric power” that’s available around the clock, according to United Power. 

This breakthrough could dramatically expand the availability of geothermal electricity, which is currently available in only a handful of states.

Traditional geothermal power plants use very hot sources of underground water to produce steam, which drives a turbine and generates electricity. According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, these plants require underground water sources with temperatures of at least 360 degrees Fahrenheit.

With current technologies, there are relatively few places where geothermal wells can be economically drilled to reach these superheated underground water sources. But Transitional Energy has found a way around this problem.

First: Instead of drilling new wells, Transitional Energy is harnessing geothermal heat from existing oil and gas wells, which produce hot, briny water as a byproduct. In Colorado, temperatures inside these wells can reach above 200 degrees. But this promising source of geothermal heat has gone entirely unused. With tens of thousands of producing oil and gas wells in Colorado, this is a potentially huge energy resource.

And second: Transitional Energy’s technology uses a specially designed turbine that doesn’t require superheated water and steam to generate electricity. Instead, the turbine uses liquid refrigerant with a much lower boiling point than water.

“We run the hot water from the oil and gas well through a heat exchanger, which flash boils the liquid refrigerant into a vapor,” Salina Derichsweiler, CEO and co-founder of Transitional Energy, said in an interview with The Western Way. “That moving vapor turns the turbine, which generates electricity, just like steam would in a regular turbine, but at a lower temperature.”

According to United Power, this technology will be piloted on producing and non-producing oil and gas wells. This is significant, because it may show that oil and gas wells that are no longer economical can be converted into wells that exclusively generate geothermal electricity.

“Utilizing clean, economical geothermal energy to provide local power that can be dispatched when needed is a critical component of our growing energy portfolio,” Dean Hubbuck, United Power’s Chief Energy Resources Officer, said when the partnership with Transitional Energy was first announced. “Geothermal energy represents a huge untapped renewable resource that can reduce our reliance on power from other traditional sources.”

Tied up in red tape

But to tap geothermal’s full potential, we need innovative policies to match these breakthrough technologies. Historically, geothermal has been caught up in the kind of red tape that wind and solar — and even oil and gas — don’t have to worry about.

For example, in a recent report to Congress, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said permitting for new geothermal projects on federal land was limited because federal law requires geothermal applications to be handled differently.

“Unlike its ability to charge cost-recovery funding of project proponents for wind and solar proposals under … the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, the BLM’s geothermal program has no legal authority to charge cost-recovery funding of project proponents to cover the costs associated with environmental review and permitting work for geothermal energy proposals,” the report found.

“As such, the BLM currently relies entirely on appropriations to fund dedicated staff for geothermal leasing, permitting, and long-term compliance monitoring.”

In other words, while wind and solar developers can be asked to cover the costs of the staff time needed to process their permits — which saves taxpayer dollars — geothermal developers don’t have that option. Geothermal permits can only be funded with taxpayer funds, which effectively puts those projects on a slower and more unpredictable track.

No wonder, then, that geothermal projects made up 100 megawatts of the 2,890 megawatts — or less than 4% — of renewable energy projects approved on federal lands during 2021, according to BLM data. This is a bad deal for taxpayers and for geothermal developers and needs to be rectified.

But that’s not all. Republican lawmakers, led by Idaho U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher and Idaho U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, have found further disparities in the federal permitting process that add more red tape to geothermal permitting applications on federal land than even exist for oil and gas.

The extra layer of environmental review means geothermal developers must wait an additional 10 months on average before they even know if they have a viable project. Just imagine how much harder that makes planning and estimating the cost of the equipment and skilled labor necessary to make these projects a reality.

An end run?

As a result, these lawmakers are pushing a legislative fix that would create “parity” between geothermal permitting and oil and gas permitting at the BLM. “Federal regulations should not discourage geothermal exploration,” Congressman Fulcher said when the legislative fix was first proposed last year. The current permitting process is “long and burdensome” and is standing in the way of “new opportunities to harness this clean energy.”

So much for those political stereotypes of conservative lawmakers only supporting fossil fuels.

Likewise, this year in in Colorado, Republican State Sen. Rob Woodward from Larimer County led a bipartisan effort to pass a bill that treats geothermal energy the same as solar energy in the planning and permitting process. 

When I talked to Woodward about the bill, he said his rationale was clear and simple: Wherever state law provides a benefit to solar energy, “let’s add the word geothermal next to it, to make sure that geothermal gets every benefit that solar energy does.”

Among other changes, the bill limits the fees that local and state governments can charge for approving the installation of a geothermal system — a common-sense guardrail that has certainly helped rooftop solar take off in Colorado.

Woodward’s bill also directs the Colorado Energy Office to develop a consumer education program for geothermal so that homeowners, businesses and school districts know they have other options for on-site renewables in addition to solar panels.

Energy for all seasons

To be clear, the geothermal technology used to heat and cool buildings is different than the geothermal technology being developed to generate electricity. Perhaps the biggest difference is the depth of the well.

Compared to a depth of thousands of feet for the oil and gas wells being tapped by Transitional Energy, geothermal wells for heating and cooling buildings only go “100 feet down, sometimes just 50 feet down,” Woodward said.

By harnessing the “fairly constant” temperature below the ground, geothermal wells can be connected to a heat pump that will “heat your home in the winter and cool your home in the summer,” he told me. “We need to let people know that you can literally put this in your house today.”

And the good news is, Woodward’s bill is now state law. It received a 33-2 vote in the Senate and a 58-7 vote in the House before it was signed by Gov. Jared Polis in early June. In a time when it’s harder than ever for Republicans and Democrats to work together, especially on energy issues, Sen. Woodward found a way.

Yes, our politics are polarized, but politics isn’t everything. When innovative technologies start transforming oil and gas infrastructure into renewable energy infrastructure, that’s something everyone can get behind.

Greg Brophy is a former state legislator from Colorado’s eastern plains and the Colorado director of The Western Way, a conservative nonprofit that seeks pro-market solutions to environmental challenges.

Why tellurium mining is the key to a low-carbon economy

This piece from TWW Visiting Fellow Simon Lomax first ran in the Deseret News on July 7th and can be accessed here.

Utah’s Kennecott copper mine produces one of Earth’s rarest metals — tellurium. Vital to low-carbon technologies, this mining project can help us reduce our carbon emissions

For more than a decade, the U.S. economy has been moving from high-carbon fuels to low- and zero-carbon fuels at an impressive rate. Overall U.S. carbon emissions have fallen almost 20% since their peak in 2007, as cleaner energy sources became cheaper and more reliable than the old mainstays of the power grid — especially coal.

But the next phase of the energy transition will be more challenging.

Just think about all the raw materials it will take to speed up the expansion of renewable power, energy storage, electric vehicles and many, many other low-carbon technologies. 

If we don’t have secure, affordable and reliable access to the building blocks of clean energy technologies, then we can’t have a clean energy economy. If that wasn’t obvious before the pandemic — which turned global supply chains for all kinds of basic goods upside down — it’s crystal clear now.

That’s why the addition of a new production line at the Kennecott copper mine, located 30 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, is a really big deal.

In early May, the mine’s owner, Rio Tinto, started producing tellurium, a critically important mineral for the manufacture of advanced thin-film solar panels.

Tellurium is one of the rarest of the Earth’s rare elements. It’s about eight times rarer than gold, and at this moment, global production of tellurium is dominated by China, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

For this reason, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox says the addition of tellurium production at the Kennecott mine is a matter of national security. At the opening of the facility, Cox even compared this new tellurium production capability to the three squadrons of stealth fighter jets stationed at nearby Hill Air Force Base.  

“I think what we’re doing today is just as important as the F-35s at Hill Air Force Base for national security,” he said.

Rio Tinto projects the Kennecott mine will supply 20 tons of tellurium per year, or roughly 4% of global production, according to USGS estimates. After it’s refined by semiconductor manufacturer 5N Plus, the tellurium will be used by First Solar to produce finished solar panels in the industrial Midwest.

Headquartered in Tempe, Arizona, First Solar is about to open its third manufacturing plant in Ohio, which the company says is “the largest fully vertically integrated solar manufacturing complex outside China.”  

Without tellurium and other raw materials, however, those solar factories in Ohio would grind to a halt. Therefore, working with 5N Plus and First Solar “is an important step towards securing a North American supply chain of critical minerals to support the clean energy transition,” says Clayton Walker, chief operating officer of Rio Tinto Copper.

Producing tellurium at the Kennecott mine isn’t just about securing a domestic supply chain for clean energy technologies, however. It’s also the latest example of “full value mining,” an industry term that means finding ways to get different kinds of metals and other valuable materials out of the same mine.

While copper is the primary metal at the Kennecott mine, there are several others being produced there too, including gold, silver and — of course — tellurium. 

But until now, it wasn’t economical to remove the tellurium from the copper-bearing ores, because officials at the mine didn’t have a customer to buy and refine it. Now they do, thanks to recent growth and planned expansions in domestic solar manufacturing. 

Besides the economic upside, full value mining also has major environmental benefits. When more minerals are produced from the same mine, there’s less waste to manage and smaller surface impacts. Not only that, where mining waste already exists in tailings dams and other storage facilities, that waste can be reprocessed to unlock minerals that have become more valuable due to the energy transition. 

Just as important, adopting a full value approach to mining in the U.S. can reduce our imports of critical minerals, like tellurium, that are mostly produced overseas with fewer environmental safeguards than those we take for granted here in North America.

To be clear: Securing a domestic supply chain for critical minerals and clean energy technologies will not happen on its own.

After decades of discouraging investment in the U.S. mining sector, policymakers will have to find ways to encourage new and expanded production of copper, tellurium, lithium, cobalt, nickel and all the other essential ingredients for a carbon-neutral economy.

That won’t be easy, but it will be worth the effort. Just ask the Utah miners and Ohio solar workers who are already showing us the way.

Simon Lomax is a visiting fellow with The Western Way, a conservative nonprofit that seeks pro-market solutions to environmental challenges, and an editor-at-large with the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. He is a former climate reporter for Bloomberg News and a former congressional fellow with the American Political Science Association.

Western Hydrogen Hub Holds Promise for UT and the West

The piece originally ran in the Salt Lake Tribune on June 14, 2022 and can be accessed here:

https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2022/06/14/steve-handy-western/

Steve Handy: Western hydrogen pact shows the energy transition is working for Utah

The same states that developed fossil fuels can now boost transition to low-carbon energy.

There’s never been a better time to live in a major energy-producing state like Utah. The world needs stable and affordable sources of energy and we can provide them.

That’s true for oil and natural gas, which Russian President Vladimir Putin is using as a geopolitical weapon in his war against Ukraine. But it’s also true for new energy sources and, thanks to market forces, those sources continue to get cheaper, cleaner and more widely used by consumers and businesses across our economy.

In fact, I believe the states that played a central role in developing fossil fuels over the decades will be just as important in the transition to low- and zero-carbon sources of energy – if not more important.

Case in point: Utah’s involvement in a multi-state partnership to spearhead clean hydrogen production in the United States. Called the Western Inter-State Hydrogen Hub, it brings together officials from Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico.

Hydrogen is remarkably clean and flexible. It can provide on-site power generation for office towers, data centers and other large commercial buildings. It can fuel electric motors, especially in large vehicles like trucks, buses and locomotives, which don’t perform as well with heavy batteries.

Large engineering firms like General Electric and Siemens are also working on turbines that can burn hydrogen to generate large volumes of electricity in much the same way that natural gas-fired turbines support the power grid today.

The big difference, however, is that when hydrogen is used as a fuel source, there are no carbon emissions. The only “exhaust” is water vapor.

But the way we currently produce most hydrogen in the U.S. – from natural gas – does result in significant carbon emissions. Therefore, if we can capture and store those emissions, or produce hydrogen directly from water in a zero-carbon process called electrolysis, it will unlock a massive new source of clean energy.

That’s the purpose of the Western Inter-State Hydrogen Hub: To leverage the experience and infrastructure of four Western states across oil, gas, wind, solar and other energy sources to make large-scale clean hydrogen production a reality.

Utah is “the best place in the nation for energy development projects, including clean hydrogen,” said Gov. Spencer Cox when the clean hydrogen partnership was announced. By applying the “resources and expertise” in our state, “clean hydrogen is not just a possibility, it’s inevitable.”

Clean hydrogen research and demonstration projects have been taking place in this four-state region for some time. But the decision to pursue a formal partnership was prompted by the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The infrastructure law passed Congress with broad political support – including from Republican Utah Senator Mitt Romney – and it includes $8 billion in funding to support the creation of at least four clean hydrogen hubs around the country.

No siting decisions have been made, but the Western Inter-State Hydrogen Hub stands head and shoulders above the competition for two principal reasons.

First: Power companies, oil and gas firms and manufacturers in our region are already working on clean hydrogen infrastructure. Taxpayers will get the best return on their investment by working with leading states that have skin in the game.

Second: The energy economy of tomorrow won’t just magically appear. It will be a natural evolution of the energy economy we have today.

And today, more than 15 percent of the nation’s energy is produced in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, even though we account for less than four percent of the nation’s population.

The infrastructure and workforce that supports our economy with a mix of fossil fuels and clean energy today can be repurposed to support 100 percent clean energy tomorrow. It’s just common sense.

There’s no better place to develop energy than in Utah and our neighboring states. It was true in the past, it’s true today – and it will be true in our clean energy future.

TWW Partners with Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy

TWW, along with the Utah Valley Chamber of Commerce and CRES, partnered with the Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy at Utah Valley University for a panel discussion on How Market Forces are Driving a Change in Utah’s Energy Landscape on May 19th.

The event was moderated by former Utah Governor Gary Herbert and included a panel of energy policy experts. Rep. Steve Handy, Dist 16; Landon Stevens, Conservative Energy Network; and Steve Ryder, EVP/CFO of Clearway Energy Group.

The panel discussed the changing energy landscape in Utah and across the country as well as the impacts of different policies impacting the energy sector.

The event was covered by the Daily Herald.

AZ Utilities and Universities form New Carbon Neutral Economy Center

Four Arizona utilities and the state’s three public universities are forming a new coalition with the goal of attaining a carbon neutral economy in Arizona. Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power, and Southwest Gas, along with Arizona State University, the University of Arizona, and Northern Arizona University, will together play a crucial leadership role in helping Arizona move the state toward a robust carbon-neutral economy.

The coalition’s work will operate in a new ASU-based center called the Center for an Arizona Carbon-Neutral Economy, housed within the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory on the ASU Tempe campus. The Center will begin its work by pursuing the creation of a regional clean hydrogen hub under the framework of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed late last year and establishes program guidance and funding to create regional clean hydrogen hubs across the country. In Arizona, a hub would include hydrogen producers, consumers, and a connected infrastructure.

A successful regional clean hydrogen hub will help address difficult-to-reduce carbon emissions as well as grow Arizona’s economy, attract new businesses, and create high-quality jobs. Once operational, a new hydrogen hub would also support a reliable and resilient electric grid, provide clean energy for the electric, transportation and industrial sectors, and create economic development opportunities.

Arizona’s universities are optimistic about what the coalition can accomplish, and are eager to work together to explore the most effective ways to develop a sustainable and thriving carbon neutral economy.

Arizona’s utilities are similarly enthusiastic. Of the coalition, APS CEO Jeff Guldner said,

“The need to address the causes and impacts of climate change has never been more important. By partnering with Arizona’s universities and peer utilities, this statewide hub will help advance hydrogen as a clean-energy solution with tremendous potential to accelerate decarbonization. It also will further Arizona’s reputation as a national leader in the clean energy transition while creating economic opportunities for our state and its people.”

Likewise, Laura Nelson, vice president of sustainability and public policy for Southwest Gas, said,

“Southwest Gas is committed to helping our customers and the communities we serve achieve emissions reductions goals. Advancing hydrogen technology and increasing availability of hydrogen to the market is strategically important to achieving our clean energy goals. With existing infrastructure that can be used to transport this powerful clean fuel, Southwest Gas is excited to work with this coalition and stakeholders to lead efforts to bring a regional hydrogen hub to our state.”

Arizona is already making great strides toward greater deployment of clean and renewable energy resources and growing the clean economy. Further research, development, and deployment of hydrogen through the Center for a Carbon-Neutral Arizona has the potential to significantly reduce even further carbon-emissions while continuing to grow and strengthen Arizona’s economy.

TWW Supports Competitive Community Solar in Arizona

TWW’s Doran Miller submitted comments to the Arizona Corporation Commission today highlighting why it makes sense for the ACC to support and explore a docket on competitive community solar policies for Arizona.

Community solar presents an area of tremendous potential growth for solar energy by broadening the potential customer base to 100% of homes and businesses, thereby significantly expanding access to affordable clean energy for residential and commercial customers alike. However, this can only happen if “the right federal, state, and local policies can institute a supportive regulatory environment.”

TWW believes that creating competitive community solar policies will help unlock significant investment in Arizona as evidenced in a market analysis for the potential cumulative investment in the sector:

“According to a 2015 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), nearly 50 percent of households and businesses at that time were unable to host a PV system due to factors like not owning the building or insufficient roof space. NREL estimated that by opening the solar market to these customers via community solar programs, “shared solar could represent 32%–49% of the distributed PV market in 2020, thereby leading to growing cumulative PV deployment growth in 2015–2020 of 5.5–11.0 GW, and representing $8.2–$16.3 billion of cumulative investment.”

Read TWW’s full comments here: https://docket.images.azcc.gov/E000019275.pdf

Arizona Corporation Commission All Source Bidding Rules Make Sense for Consumers 

This piece originally ran in The Western Tribune on April 29, 2022 and can be accessed here.

Earlier this year, the Arizona Corporation Commission voted down, by a vote of 3-2, the energy rules package it had been considering for more than three years. The package would have required utilities to generate 100% of their energy from carbon-free sources by 2070, more robust energy efficiency standards, battery storage provisions, and critical updates to the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) and purchased power agreement processes. 

The Commission was heavily criticized for ending years of work, but what was largely missing from that criticism was any mention of what happened after the energy rules were voted down: Chairwoman Marquez Peterson brought forward a separate proposal to open a new docket, moving forward with rulemaking on the IRP reform provisions on their own. 

Looking on the bright side

This is good news for Arizona and provides a reason to be optimistic. While the carbon-free standards of the now-defunct energy rules package certainly garnered the most headlines, the IRP process reforms, and all-source RFP provisions contained therein, will significantly benefit ratepayers by ingraining transparency, competition, and market forces in the resource planning process. These are important protections for ratepayers and will lead to a more efficient and effective power delivery system for the state of Arizona

Additionally, it will create a more open energy market that gives clean and renewable energy sources — which are now more cost competitive than ever — a real chance to compete for a place in Arizona’s energy arena.  

Competition carves a path forward to carbon-free

Understandably, it’s easy for someone to overlook the IRP provisions in favor of the headline-grabbing carbon-free goals. When someone says 100% carbon-free by 2050, it’s easy to understand what that means (even without necessarily knowing where all that carbon-free energy will come from). The same cannot necessarily be said for the IRP reforms. After all, they are technical changes to process-related provisions in Arizona’s existing energy rules. But, if done correctly, these provisions have the potential to achieve the same clean energy outcomes that stakeholders involved in the energy rules hoped to achieve. 

How can that be? The answer is simple: by creating a multi-step Commission review process that includes truly competitive, all-source bidding as well as opportunities for meaningful stakeholder engagement and input, all of which are included in the new provisions. 

The problem with existing processes

The existing IRP process is focused on two things: how much energy we need (called the load forecast) and where that energy is going to come from (called the resource mix). 

Years ago, these determinations were made in Arizona as part of a utility’s rate case, and were often contentious. That is because utilities had every incentive to maximize the load forecast. The determination about which resources were needed to meet a utility’s energy demands, while once more straightforward, has similarly become increasingly fraught over the years. It was also incredibly difficult for stakeholders to track and engage on these issues, because rate cases tended to be long and complicated. But in 2010, the IRP process was stripped out of the rate case into its own proceeding, creating additional opportunities for oversight, monitoring over load forecast and resource mix as technologies changed, and better opportunities for stakeholders to engage. 

Likewise, the request for proposal (RFP) process, used to determine the resource mix, has also gone through some changes over the years. In fact, there was a time in Arizona that RFPs were not required at all, resulting in self-dealing on the part of utilities. To deal with that problem, the Corporation Commission created an RFP process that required independent monitoring to ensure bids were truly arms-length transactions. Since then, the RFP process has gone through a subsequent evolution, wherein the parameters of an RFP might only include certain resources (natural gas, for example) or are clearly written to apply to certain predetermined winners. As a result, the situation now is that resources that could meet the energy demands in an RFP — such as renewable energy technologies — might be excluded entirely from a bid. 

Out with the old, in with the new

The new IRP process has three distinct steps to deal with all of those issues to create a more modern process with a truly competitive energy market. 

First, the Commission will review and vote on the load forecast provided by a utility. This provides a far more robust process in terms of stakeholder participation and input, making it much more difficult for a utility to, for example, simply forecast exponential growth indefinitely, and Commissioners will need to agree on the load forecast before the process can continue. 

Once the load forecast has been agreed upon, a utility can move to the second step of the process which is to issue an RFP. That RFP must be reviewed and voted upon by the Commission before it goes out for bidding to ensure it’s truly all-source. This second review also builds in additional Commission and stakeholder oversight and engagement to ensure utilities are not trying to skew the playing field for any predetermined outcome. The all-source RFP will generate a true market response on the resources that could be utilized to meet energy demand, including everything from clean and renewable sources to nuclear to traditional sources of energy production. 

Unlike the current system, an all-source RFP will yield a snapshot of what is actually available and all relevant factors on the various resources. It can even provide information on resource diversity mix, including demand side options like installing thousands of smart thermostats as part of an overall bid to meet a utility’s needs. As clean and renewable energy technologies continue to evolve and become even more cost competitive, the all-source RFP process ensures that those resources are given an opportunity to compete. And, if they are truly the cheapest energy source — as evidence suggests — clean and renewable resources will represent a growing percentage of Arizona’s portfolio. 

Finally, once the bids come in, the utilities propose back to the Commission an action plan outlining the procurement steps. The Commission then reviews the proposal and casts a third and final vote.

With these updates to competitive all-source bidding, market forces will help create an inclusive and cost-competitive energy economy that, over time, can bring Arizona closer to meeting the same types of carbon-free goals for which stakeholders were advocating in the Commission’s original energy rules package. 

Doran Arik Miller is the Arizona Director of The Western Way, a nonprofit organization that builds support for commonsense market-driven solutions to environmental challenges that support the economy and improve the environment.

TWW Joins Heidi Ganahl in Tour of Eastern CO

TWW’s Greg Brophy joined Colorado Gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl on a tour in Eastern Colorado this week. The tour included stops at the Quail Ridge Dairy and Northeastern Junior College’s Applied Technology Campus and focused on important issues impacting rural Colorado.

At Quail Ridge Dairy in Ft. Morgan, owners Chris and Mary Kraft gave an overview of their milking operations and the practices they employ to increase efficiency and use less resources.

“I learned a lot about the efficiency of a dairy farm,” Ganahl said. “Every aspect of the farm creates amazing results of importance for the people of Colorado. I’m also impressed with how much care and love there is for the animals.”

At NJC’s Applied Technology Campus, Ganahl toured the wind technician training facility, hearing from instructors and students on the importance of hands on training that students receive.

The tour also included a visit inside the program’s nacelle model which houses the gear box and generator in a wind turbine. The nacelle was built by students at NJC from donated parts and equipment to help with training.

The tour was covered by the Ft. Morgan Times and Sterling Journal Advocate.

Hydrogen Policy Moves Forward in AZ

As Arizona continues to take a leadership role in clean and renewable energy technology–in particular when it comes to research, development and innovation–it is absolutely critical that the state has policies in place that will support the innovation sector.

In particular, efforts within Arizona to explore and bolster the use of hydrogen as an alternative energy source are gaining ground. For example, last year the U.S. Department of Energy awarded a grant of $20 million to study the production of clean hydrogen from nuclear power at Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Phoenix. In addition, Arizona-based Nikola Motors is working to develop hydrogen fuel cell technology for the commercial trucking industry, and Southwest Gas has teamed up with Arizona State University to to study how hydrogen-blended natural gas can further reduce carbon emissions while still providing clean and reliable energy. These are but just a few examples, though there are more–which is why supportive policies to continue this trend are so important.

Fortunately, Senator T.J. Shope (R-Coolidge), has been a champion of hydrogen technology in the Arizona Legislature. This year, Senator Shope sponsored two bills to support Arizona’s hydrogen industry. The first, SB1396, was signed by Governor Ducey on April 22 and establishes a legislative hydrogen study committee to “investigate and evaluate existing laws and regulations and recommend legislation related to the production, distribution and storage of hydrogen.” The second, SB1599, would have exempted hydrogen from Arizona’s transaction privilege tax, but unfortunately it failed to advance through the legislature.

Senator Shope’s attention to Arizona’s hydrogen economy is exactly the type of approach we need from Arizona’s elected officials. Policies to support the research, development and deployment of new and innovative sources of alternative fuels will help ensure Arizona remains at the cutting edge of clean energy.

AZ Lands Huge Investment for New Battery Manufacturing Facility

This week, the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) announced that LG Energy Solutions will be investing $1.4 billion to build a cylindrical-type battery facility in Queen Creek, Arizona. This facility will be the first of its kind for LGES in North America. Construction on the facility is slated to begin this summer and production will commence in 2024. The facility is expected to bring thousands of highly-skilled high-paying jobs to the area and the state as a whole.

Cylindrical batteries offer high-density, compact energy storage ideal for applications like electric vehicles. According to the announcement by the ACA, the state-of-the-art Arizona facility aims to establish LGES’s presence in North America’s cylindrical battery market while also providing opportunity for further expansion. LGES’ Queen Creek facility will feature a cutting-edge smart factory system including remote support, manufacturing intelligence, logistics automation and more.

Of the announcement, Governor Ducey said, “Global technology leaders like LG are choosing Arizona because of our world-class business environment, advanced workforce, unbeatable quality of life, and culture of innovation - one that’s delivering unparalleled opportunity for current and future generations.”

Arizona’s energy innovation sector, including high-tech manufacturing, semiconductors, electric vehicles, and batteries, is flourishing. The state has seen recent multi-billion-dollar investments from global technology leaders such as Intel and TSMC, EV makers such as Lucid, Nikola, and ElectraMeccanica opening or expanding production operations in the state, and other battery storage and clean tech companies joining Arizona’s ecosystem.

Sandra Watson, President and CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority, highlighted Arizona’s acceleration in recent years toward becoming a hub of clean energy and tech innovation. “With LG Energy Solution’s announcement, Arizona has cemented our reputation as the world’s production capital for cutting-edge battery technology. This high-tech facility further anchors Arizona as a hub for electric vehicles and sustainable technologies, bolstering our already robust EV supply chain.”

Echoing her remarks, Chris Camacho, President and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council, another economic development agency, noted, "The addition of LG Energy Solution's high-tech battery manufacturing facility to Queen Creek is a massive investment that solidifies the market's position as a hub for battery technology and energy storage and is significant for Greater Phoenix as it continues to attract global leaders in emerging industries.”

All of this is good news for Arizona, and underscores the importance of ensuring the state has the right policies in place for it to continue on this positive trajectory.

Western States Respond to Regional Hydrogen Hub Strategy

Yesterday, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming submitted joint response to the Department of Energy’s Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs Implementation Strategy request for information process. The RFI seeks input from responders on the regional clean hydrogen hub provisions in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and how the Department of Energy should develop the overall Funding Opportunity Announcement solicitation process, structure and implementation strategy.  

The four state collaboration known as the Western Inter-States Hydrogen Hub (WISHH), highlighted the key attributes that will contribute to a successful regional hydrogen hub implementation effort, all of which the WISHH states are uniquely situated to provide as part of their collective effort.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law included $8 billion for the creation of four Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs that will create jobs to expand use of clean hydrogen in the industrial sector and beyond.  These hubs will demonstrate the production, processing, delivery, storage, and end-use of clean hydrogen.  The hubs will have to demonstrate feedstock diversity, as the bill requires at least one hub produce hydrogen from nuclear energy, one from fossil fuels, and one from renewables.

Additionally, at least one of each of the hubs will be required to demonstrate hydrogen end-use in either electric power generation, industrial sector, residential heating or transportation. The four hubs are required to be located in different regions of the U.S. and, if feasible, there is preference that at least two hubs be located within natural gas producing regions.

Hydrogen energy has the potential to decarbonize multiple economic sectors, including heavy-duty transportation and steel manufacturing, create good paying jobs, and pave the way towards a grid powered by clean energy resources. Today, the U.S. produces about 10 million metric tons of hydrogen annually, compared to approximately 90 million tonnes produced per year globally.

While most of the hydrogen produced in the U.S. comes from natural gas through steam methane reforming, electrolysis technology, which uses electricity to produce hydrogen from water, is an emerging pathway with dozens of installations across the U.S. This technology could allow for the production of hydrogen using clean electricity from renewable energy including solar, wind, and nuclear power.

The state energy leaders of the WISHH include Thom Carter, Energy Advisor to Governor Cox of Utah; Randall Luthi, Chief Energy Advisor to Governor Gordon of Wyoming; Will Toor, Executive Director of the Colorado Energy Office; Sarah Cottrell Propst, Secretary of the New Mexico Energy Minerals and Natural Resources Department; and James Kenney, Secretary of the New Mexico Environment Department.

The next step will be for the Secretary of Energy to solicit proposals for regional hubs and then select the hubs before August of 2022.

TWW Talks Geothermal Energy with Colorado Sen. Rob Woodward

TWW’s Greg Brophy spoke with Colorado State Senator Rob Woodward (SD-15) about legislation he is carrying this year, SB-118. The bill would encourage the use of geothermal energy across Colorado and would put geothermal energy on equal footing with solar energy with respect to the permitting, installation, and other aspects of residential and commercial geothermal systems.  The bill would also provide an educational component to show how current geothermal systems can be used in residential and commercial applications and the associated cost savings for ratepayers. 

Sen. Woodward and Brophy also spoke about the importance of energy independence and how geothermal can play a role. They discussed how geothermal, as a very localized source of domestic energy which runs 24 hours a day, is impervious to cyber-attacks and has no fuel costs making it an ideal source for our nation’s “All of the Above” energy strategy.


Watch the full interview below.

TWW Supports Colorado Green Hydrogen Legislation

The Western Way supports, HB-1140, sponsored by Colorado Representatives Dan Woog (HD-63) and Donald Valdez (HD-62), the bill will pave the way for green hydrogen projects to be developed in Colorado.  Green hydrogen is defined as hydrogen that is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from renewable resources.  Green hydrogen could be a critical component to energy storage and transportation and industry fuels in the near future.  HB-1140 from Representatives Woog and Valdez would allow for green hydrogen to be added to the state of Colorado’s resource list of allowable renewable energy resources to meet energy standards and the bill would also instruct the state to add green hydrogen to the state’s GHG emission reduction roadmap.  The bill would help spur new investments in hydrogen projects that are expected in the near future colorado.      

Companies and governments around the world are investing billions of dollars in research and development of hydrogen strategies, infrastructure, and deployment.   Colorado recently partnered with neighboring states to compete for $8 billion dollars for Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs. 

Just last week a company in South Texas, announced plans to build the largest green hydrogen production and storage hub in the world.  The facility would utilize 60GW of behind the meter wind and solar and salt dome storage formations to provide up to 6TWh of energy storage.  That’s a big deal and a sign that this technology is being taken seriously by investors and developers. 

"Hydrogen City is a massive, world class undertaking that will put Texas on the map as a leading green hydrogen producer. Texas has been the world leader in energy innovation for over 100 years and this project is intended to cement that leadership for the next century and beyond," says GHI's founder and CEO Brian Maxwell.

Negotiations are ongoing with respect to end-use options for GHI produced green hydrogen, but these options include show the flexibility and potential uses of green hydrogen:

  • Green ammonia for export markets: GHI is exploring the opportunity to export green ammonia to Asia. Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) plans to add 30 million tonnes per year of renewable ammonia to the country's fuel mix by 2050. "Japanese and Korean companies are interesting partners for us in this project given their countries desire to shift to green ammonia" says Maxwell.

  • Green ammonia for the fertilizer market: Higher natural gas prices has led to skyrocketing fertilizer costs for farmers. Fertilizer produced from green hydrogen can help remove unexpected price volatility.

  • Sustainable aviation fuel: GHI is in discussions with potential off takers of green hydrogen as a feedstock for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). GHI believes Corpus Christi is well placed to become a major SAF production hub.

  • Sustainable Rocket Fuel: The company is looking at combining hydrogen with CO2 at the Port of Brownsville to create a green methane rocket fuel for launch operations in South Texas.

  • Fuel switching power plants: H2 can also be used as a natural gas substitute at power plants. Over 4GW of new gas power plants have been proposed in the US that can burn a combination of hydrogen and natural gas.

Idaho Governor Brad Little Leads with 'Working Lands, Working Communities' Initiative

This week Idaho Governor Brad Little convened the final workshop for his Western Governors’ Association Initiative, “Working Lands, Working Communities.”   The aim of the initiative that was launched last September was to examine the interdependent relationships between western communities, state and federal land resource management entities, as well as the role that local communities play in successful land planning and management processes.  WGA held workshops in Utah, Colorado, and Idaho to bring together policy experts and stakeholders. 

When Governor Little kicked off the initiative he noted, “The goal of (Working Lands, Working Communities) is to develop bipartisan strategies to support western communities seeking to improve cross-boundary management of lands, mitigate wildfire, and restore ecosystems.  We face the growing need for additional capacity, both intellectual capacity and physical infrastructure, to responsibly manage the abundant natural resources we are so blessed with in the West.  One challenge is to expand market support for active management on western working lands. A good example is examining potential markets for the relatively low-value timber and biomass that needs to be removed to reduce the threat of uncharacteristic wildfires.”

The final workshop that took place this week in Boise, ID looked at opportunities to pursue natural infrastructure solutions for economic development, how invasive grasses are a catalyst for wildland fires, expanding sustainable rangeland markets, and how Idaho has been successful at creating a sustainable forests products market which lowers wildfire risks and protects vulnerable watersheds. 

Governor Little noted the need for collaborative land management to continue the region’s economic growth and develop more resilient western communities for generations to come. 

"It’s important that we continue to look at improving how we make our communities more resilient," Gov. Little said. "Everybody says we want healthier watersheds, we want less catastrophic fire, we want (better management of) invasive species. Those overarching goals need to have legs under them –policies, recommendations, where to best invest the next available dollar – and that’s what we expect as a result of these panels."  

Read more about WGA’s ‘Working Lands, Working Communities’ Initiatives and watch the workshop videos here.