The Biden administration on Tuesday outlined how states and nonprofit groups can apply for $27 billion in funding from a “green bank” that will provide low-cost financing for projects intended to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The so-called Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will invest in clean energy projects nationwide, with a focus on low-income and disadvantaged communities. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said the green bank — modeled after similar banks established in states such as Connecticut, New York, and California — will unlock billions of dollars in private investment to enable neighborhoods and communities "that have never participated in the clean-energy economy to participate in full force" in creating green jobs.
The U.S. Treasury Department, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the Internal Revenue Service issued guidance Monday on Inflation Reduction Act provisions that aim to spur investment in underserved communities and coal communities. One notice establishes the expanded Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit program under Section 48C of the Internal Revenue Code. The program provides $10 billion in tax credits for clean energy manufacturing and recycling, industrial decarbonization, and critical materials processing, refining, and recycling. The IRS also issued guidance on the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit program that can increase the investment tax credit for wind and solar projects in low-income communities by 20 percent.
Cal Poly Humboldt College of the Redwoods and the Yurok Tribe are teaming up to train crews that will eventually construct future floating offshore wind projects. The initiative provides potential floating offshore wind developers with an opportunity to invest in supporting local workforce training. These investments could then serve as a credit towards developers’ fees for the rights to develop the federally designated wind area 20 miles off the Humboldt Coast, according to tribal officials.
The first U.S. pilot project that will site solar panels over irrigation canals is going to deploy long-duration iron flow battery storage. Project Nexus is a $20 million pilot in California’s Turlock Irrigation District that launched in October 2022. Iron flow batteries use iron, salt, and water instead of critical minerals such as lithium or cobalt.
U.S. solar developer Avantus, formerly 8minute Solar Energy, has entered the construction phase for the 147 MW Galloway 2 solar project in Texas that is majority-owned by Allianz Capital Partners. Galloway 2 is scheduled to go online by the end of 2023 and is expected to generate electricity for about 60,000 people. Most of the plant’s output will be sold under a long-term power purchase agreement with EDF Energy Services, which will supply the generation to BASF Corp under its commercial and industrial retail power business.
Lightsource bp, Xcel Energy, and McCarthy Building Companies have completed the 293 MW Sun Mountain solar project in Pueblo, Colorado. The project will deliver solar power to Xcel Energy under a long-term power purchase agreement. The project is providing enough energy to power more than 53,000 homes, abating over 400,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually.
Texas utility CPS Energy has reached agreements to purchase an additional 100 MW of solar and 50 MW of energy storage capacity for its FlexPOWER Bundle initiative. The solar capacity part will see Ashtrom Renewable Energy, the renewable energy arm of Israeli conglomerate Ashtrom Group, provide 100 MW of the El Patrimonio solar project in Bexar County, Texas, in collaboration with renewable energy project developer OnPeak Power.
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