Tag: cleantech

Obama Administration Announces Plan to Promote Electric Vehicles

Electric VehiclesIn late July, the Obama administration announced a collaboration with 50 federal and state agencies, electric utility companies, vehicle manufacturers, electric charging station companies, and others in the private sector to promote faster development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure and increased numbers of electric cars on the roads.

This announcement, made in partnership with the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Air Force and Army, comes just after the DOE’s first-ever Sustainable Transportation Summit. To learn more about the collaboration, continue reading!

This collaboration aims to promote consumer adoption of electric vehicles and increase the accessibility of charging infrastructure across the country. Major goals include:

  • Guaranteeing $4.5 billion in loans to finance a national network of electric vehicle charging infrastructure to increase consumer access;

  • Utilizing funds from the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation(FAST) Act, signed into law by Obama in December 2015, to identify zero emission and alternative fuel corridors and developing a 2020 vision for the optimal placement of fast charging infrastructure; and

  • Encouraging state, county, and municipal governments to partner with the Federal government to procure subsidized electric vehicle fleets.

Additionally, the collaboration has agreed to a set of Guiding Principles to Promote Electric Vehicles and Charging Infrastructure to encourage market growth and spur adoption of electric vehicles by developing vehicles and charging infrastructure that are accessible, affordable, reliable and convenient for consumers.

The market for electric vehicles has grown significantly in recent years, with battery costs falling 70%, more than 20 plug-in electric vehicle models now on the market, and more than 16,000 charging stations deployed – up from fewer than 500 in 2008.

ARTICLE BY Sahir Surmeli of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

©1994-2016 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. All Rights Reserved.

2016’s TechBridge Challenge Focuses on Advanced Surfaces

Are you working on or interested in advanced surface technologies? Look no further than the TechBridge Challenge on Advanced Industrial Surfaces! In collaboration with ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company, Fraunhofer TechBridge is using this Challenge to accelerate the development of new material formulations, manufacturing methods, deposition techniques, and other innovations to improve energy efficiency in the petroleum and chemical processing industries. Winners will be awarded up to $100,000 in prototyping, demonstration, and/or validation services from the Fraunhofer R&D network. To learn more about TechBridge, the TechBridge Challenge on Advanced Industrial Surfaces, and how to apply, read on!

Founded in 2010 at the Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems CSE, the TechBridge program aims to advance cleantech startups by evaluating and preparing innovative early-stage companies to demonstrate the value of their promising technologies to investors and the industry. Unlike traditional accelerators, TechBridge provides R&D and prototyping services to its clients, thereby helping to de-risk technologies and increase the chance for private investment.

TechBridge oversees several industry and government-sponsored programs each year, focusing on specific cleantech innovation areas and concluding with the selection of top startups to receive Fraunhofer’s services. For this TechBridge Challenge on Advanced Industrial Surfaces, improvement examples include:

– Improved performance of surface-enhanced features (e.g., improved heat exchange, reduced frictional losses, fouling, or adhesion)
– Improved thermal, mechanical, and chemical stability of equipment surfaces
– Improved deployment of surface modifications in retrofit applications and hard-to-reach locations
– Increased affordability and ease of adoption at scale
– Optimization for process fluids other than water

Completed proposals can be submitted at www.FhTechBridgeChallenge.org/surfaces. Applications are due February 17th so get started today!

Article By Katy E. Ward of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.

©1994-2016 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. All Rights Reserved.

What 2014’s Continued IPO Surge Means for Clean Tech and Renewable Energy Companies

Mintz Levin Law Firm

The year 2014 is on track to be the most active IPO marketin the United States since 2000, with the mid-year total number of IPOs topping last year’s mid-year total by more than 60%.[1] There were 222 US IPOs in 2013, with a total of $55 billion raised, and 2014 has already seen 151 US IPOs, for a total of $32 billion, completed by the mid-year mark. The year 2000 (over 400 IPOs) was the last year of a 10-year boom in US IPOs that reached its peak in 1996 (over 700 IPOs).

What does this mean for emerging energy technology andrenewables companies that might be looking to the capital markets? As of mid-year 2014, there have been six cleantech/renewables IPOs, while there were a total of seven in all of 2013. In both years, these deals have represented a relatively small percentage of total IPOs and still do not match the level of activity in the more traditional energy and oil & gas sector.  In 2014, IPOs were completed by a range of innovative companies, including Aspen Aerogels, TCP International and Opower.

Two unambiguously positive developments for clean energy in 2013 and the first half of 2014 have been the strong market for follow-on offerings and YieldCo IPOs. As was the case in 2013, several larger energy tech companies that are already public completed follow-on offerings to bolster cash for growth in 2014. Following in the footsteps of Tesla, SunEdison, First Solar, and other companies who completed secondary offerings in 2013, Jinko Solar (January 2014), Pattern NRG (May 2014), Plug Power (January and April 2014), Trina Solar (June 2014), and several other public companies capitalized on the continued receptiveness of clean-tech capital markets.

Following on successful YieldCo IPOs in 2013 (NRG Yield, Pattern Energy), there have already been three YieldCo IPOs in 2014: Abengoa Yield, NextEra Energy Partners, and, most recently, Terraform Power. The continued growth of YieldCo deals as well as the growing dollar amount of such offerings is an extremely encouraging sign for the energy and clean-tech sector as a whole, signaling a longer-term market acceptance of the ongoing changes in domestic and global energy consumption. The successful public market financings of these companies – whose strategy typically involves the purchase and operation of existing clean, energy-generating assets – should result in increased access to capital for renewable energy generation assets, as well as related technologies and services across the sector.

If the first half of this year is any indication, 2014 should prove to be a strong year for clean-tech and renewable energy companies opting to pursue the IPO path. The IPOs, follow-on offerings, and YieldCo successes that we’ve seen so far should improve the prospects for forthcoming clean-energy IPOs in the second half of 2014 and beyond.  I expect to see more renewable/clean energy companies follow the IPO route and make the most of the market’s continued receptiveness.

[1]  Please note that there will be some variance in the statistics for IPOs generally. This is because most data sets exclude extremely small initial public offerings and uniquely structured offerings that don’t match up with the more commonly understood public offering for operating companies. The data above is based on information from http://bear.warrington.ufl.edu/ritter/IPOs2012Statistics.pdf and Renaissance Capital www.renaissancecapital.com.

ARTICLE BY:

Sahir Surmeli
OF:
Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C

Wind Farms and Eagle “Take” Permits – Litigation is Coming Over the New “30-Year” Permit Rule

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) recently changed its eagle “take” permitting rules to allow wind developers to apply for 30-year take permits; previously, such permits, which allow the incidental killing of eagles, were available for a maximum of just five years.  Wind developers had lobbied for the rule change based on concerns that shorter permitting periods inhibit their ability to obtain financing.  But now, a bird conservation group, the American Bird Conservancy (ABC), is threatening litigation to overturn the “30-Year” rule.

 

How strong are ABC’s claims?

Not especially strong, because the FWS has powerful responses to each of ABC’s contentions.  The FWS will also be protected by the deferential standard of review that typically applies in this type of lawsuit.  And even if ABC were to prevail on its claims, the end result is less likely to be wholesale revocation of the rule than some delays in implementing it.  That is because ABC’s claims are largely procedural in nature, not substantive.

ABC’s claims are summarized in an April 30 letter to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the FWSannouncing the group’s intention to file suit over the 30-Year rule.  The letter contends that the FWS committed three legal errors when it extended the maximum take permitting period from five years to 30 years.  According to ABC, the FWS violated:  (1) the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), by failing to prepare an environmental impact statement or environmental assessment for the 30-Year rule; (2) the Endangered Species Act (ESA), by allegedly failing to ensure that the rule is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of endangered species; and (3) the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act (BGEPA), which is the statute that authorizes take permits, by prioritizing the concerns of wind developers over those of the eagles the statute is designed to protect.

The problem for ABC – and the good news for wind developers – is that FWS has strong defenses to ABC’s assertions.  First, the NEPA claim will almost certainly turn on whether the FWS correctly concluded that the 30-Year rule falls within a “categorical exclusion” from NEPA’s requirements.  In its letter, ABC quibbles with the FWS’s conclusion, but courts generally review such conclusions under a highly deferential standard of review.  Indeed, agencies often prevail on such claims simply by offering a facially plausible explanation of why NEPA does not apply.  Here, the FWS has done that.  The agency’s NEPA implementation regulations permit the FWS to forego NEPA analysis for rules that have broad or speculative impacts, provided that those impacts will be analyzed on a case-by-case basis in the future.  The FWS contends that is the situation here – it will conduct a NEPA analysis on a permit-by-permit basis in the future.  Courts have rejected NEPA claims under similar circumstances in the past.

The FWS has a similar defense to ABC’s ESA claim.  That claim turns on whether the FWS had a duty to engage in internal consultation about the potential impact of the 30-Year rule on endangered species or critical habitat.  ABC’s letter insists that the FWS was subject to that duty and failed to comply with it.  But the FWS previously concluded, in 2009, that the eagle take permitting rule as a whole would not have any impact on endangered species.  That leaves the FWS in a strong position now, because the 30-Year rule does little more than change the maximum available permitting period under the existing permitting rule.  The FWS will also likely argue that, contrary to ABC’s assertions, the 30-Year rule does not affect endangered species because all it does is authorize the issuance of permits, it does not itself grant any developer permission to undertake any activity.  In sum, the FWS will likely argue that the proper time for ESA consultation is in the context of specific permit applications in the future, not in the context of this more general rulemaking that is not project-specific.

Finally, although ABC insists that the FWS should not have privileged the interests of wind developers over the protection of eagles, that is probably not enough to establish that the 30-Year rule violates the BGEPA.  The BGEPA expressly allows the FWS to permit eagle takes “for the protection of . . . other interests in any particular locality.”

ABC will likely wait 60 days before actually commencing litigation, so as to comply with the ESA’s citizen suit provision.  In the interim, the FWS will surely be evaluating the merits of ABC’s contentions and considering what options it has for addressing them.  Wind developers may want to make their voices heard during that 60 day period, and may want to consider intervening to defend the 30-Year rule in the event this matter does in fact proceed to litigation.

Article By:

Jacob Hollinger
Of:
McDermott Will & Emery

Progress on the Western Front in the Solar Net Metering Battle?

 

The ongoing discussion between solar energy stakeholders and utilities concerning the merits of net metering and the best approach to ensure that ratepayers with installed solar power systems contribute appropriately to overall electric transmission and distribution costs spans the nation,  with state utility commissions from Georgia to California considering this issue.  However, nowhere is that discussion presently more heated and more closely watched than in Arizona and Colorado.

After a day of public comments and a full day of discussions with interveners, the Arizona Corporation Commission (A.C.C.) voted 3 – 2 on November 14, 2013 to modify APS’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) program. (A.C.C. Docket No. E-01345A-13-0248)  In brief, the A.C.C. voted to adopt a 70 cent/kW installed monthly charge for ratepayers with rooftop solar.  For the average-sized rooftop installation of 7 kW, this means a monthly charge of $4.90.  The two commissioners who voted against the decision felt that this did not go far enough in addressing the cost shift from NEM.

While the decision is likely to be perceived as a win for the rooftop solar companies, APS and other utilities can take solace in the fact that the Commission recognized that NEM does produce a cost shift and that the grid has value for all customers.  The details of the cost shift, including consideration of the value of the grid, will be the subject of A.C.C. workshops that will take place prior to the next APS rate case.

Prior to the open meeting, it appeared as though the A.C.C. would adopt a solution that would reduce the NEM subsidy based on a formula that took into consideration the lower cost of utility scale solar.  The monthly charge calculated through this formula ranged from $7.00 to $56.00 per month for a 7 kW installation, depending on the individual Commissioner’s proposal.

However, on the morning of the second day of the open meeting, the rooftop solar interveners and the Arizona Residential Utility Consumers Office (RUCO) negotiated a settlement that was the subject of most of the discussion.  This “settlement” proposed a monthly charge of 70 cents per kw installed or $4.90 for a 7 kW system.  While Commissioner Pierce and others mentioned the lower cost of utility scale solar, the final outcome had less to do with addressing the rate-shift and more to do with the amount that the DV industry said that the average customers, who they contend only save $5-10/month, could absorb and still be willing to install a system.  APS opposed the eventual outcome, as did Commissioners Pierce and Brenda Burns.

The following solution was adopted:

Monthly charge.  New rooftop PV customers beginning after December 31, 2014 will be billed a monthly charge of 70 cents per kW installed to help address the rate-shift from solar to non-solar customers.  For the average-sized system of 7 kW, that would mean a charge of $4.90/month.  The charge can be adjusted by the Commission in the future – either up or down – based on the volume of installations.  Reports of rooftop installation volumes will be provided quarterly.  There is no automatic escalation of the charge based on installation volume.  This charge will be added to the rooftop solar customer’s Lost Fixed Cost Recovery (LFCR) fund assessment currently paid by APS customers.  An offsetting reduction will be made to the monthly LFCR assessment currently paid by customers without rooftop solar.

Grandfathering.  Rooftop installations under the current NEM structure will be grandfathered.  There was a long discussion about grandfathering with a general consensus being reached that while any Commission can change any previous decision made, future Commissions were likely to honor grandfathering decisions made by previous Commissions.  Customers who sign up for systems under the new 70 cent charge will be grandfathered if the charge is increased to 80 cents or $1.00, but only until the next rate case in 2015.  Customers who then sign up under any increased charges (e.g., 80 cents or $1.00) will also be grandfathered until the next rate case.  However, all new rooftop customers (post December 2013) will be subject to any changes agreed to in the next rate case.

The NEM issue will be taken up again in the next APS rate case.

While the net metering discussion in Arizona has reached a conclusion – for now, the debate continues in Colorado.

On July 24, 2013, Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo), Xcel Energy’s Colorado subsidiary, filed with the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) its 2014 Renewable Energy Standard Compliance Plan detailing its updated proposal to meet Colorado’s requirement that 30% of PSCo’s retail electric sales come from eligible energy resources by 2020.  (CPUC Docket No. 13A-0836E)  Long recognized for its substantial commitment to wind energy, PSCo’s renewable energy portfolio also includes utility scale solar facilities and various programs designed to facilitate expansion of distributed solar energy installations, including the popular Solar*Rewards® program which has over 15,000 participants and represents more than 160 MW of installed solar capacity.

In its 2014 RES Compliance Plan PSCo proposed adding 42.5 MW of new distributed solar generation, including 36 MW of retail distributed solar generation through the Solar*Rewards® program and 6.5 MW of community solar gardens through the Solar*Rewards® Community program.  At the same time, the company proposed reducing the per kilowatt-hour incentives paid to customers with distributed solar installations.

The more controversial aspect of the utility’s filing related to PSCo’s call for more transparency in the NEM credit paid to customers with installed solar systems and the costs and benefits associated with distributed solar facilities.  PSCo explains that customers with installed solar arrays receive a 10.5 cent credit per kilowatt-hour of electricity they deliver to the grid, however, that electricity only provides 5 cents in benefits to PSCo systems and customers.  While PSCo acknowledges that distributed solar generation allows for some savings associated with fuel costs, energy losses, and the deferral of new generation resources, the utility argues that the NEM incentive paid to solar-owning customers does not adequately consider other costs related to generation, transmission, and distribution, costs that are presently being borne by non-solar customers.  As did APS in the NEM debate in Arizona, PSCo takes the position that the need for and nature of NEM incentives must be reevaluated as the solar industry moves toward becoming self-sustaining.  If the CPUC does not agree with PSCo’s NEM proposals, the utility indicated that it intends to acquire only enough distributed solar generation needed for minimum RES compliance – a total of 12.5 MW.

Solar businesses and trade groups, renewable energy advocates, and environmental groups have strongly opposed PSCo’s analyses and have characterized the utility’s proposal as declaring war on the solar industry.  These stakeholders argue that PSCo’s analyses fail to properly consider distributed solar’s grid, environmental, and job creation benefits.  To that end, the Vote Solar Initiative (VSI) filed a motion requesting that the CPUC sever the NEM issue from PSCo’s RES Compliance docket and conduct a separate, comprehensive NEM cost-benefit analysis.  While VSI’s motion was supported by various other stakeholders, it was opposed by PSCo and CPUC Staff, and was ultimately denied.

An evidentiary hearing on PSCo’s 2014 RES Compliance Plan, including consideration of PSCo’s proposed NEM changes, is scheduled for February 3-7, 2014.  Until then, it is likely that the NEM battle in Colorado will continue both in the CPUC docket and in the public debate concerning the costs and benefits associated with distributed solar generation, how those costs and benefits should be accounted for and allocated, and the continued need for incentives related to this distributed energy resource.

Article by:

Of:

Lewis Roca Rothgerber LLP