Before the COVID-19 outbreak, the American Wind Energy Association had planned to unveil a new exhibition hub, bringing together the utility-scale wind, solar and energy storage industries at its annual conference and trade show in Denver.

Instead, it settled for a web-accessible three-day event featuring virtual runs, bike rides, happy hours and, of course, panel discussions with homebound speakers.

“We knew it would be different,” AWEA CEO Tom Kiernan said June 2 in opening remarks from his home. “I sure didn’t think it would be this different.”

Last year’s conference in Houston drew more than 7,000 attendees and more than 450 companies, numbers AWEA was expecting to surpass this year with the rebranded CleanPower 2020. Instead, the organization will have to wait until next year, another disappointment in a year where the pandemic brought much of the economy to a standstill.

The wind industry was coming off a “banner year” in 2019, adding 9.1 GW of capacity to crack the 100-GW barrier and $14 billion in new projects. An “unprecedented” pipeline of projects added to the optimistic outlook. (See AWEA: COVID-19 Places 25 GW of Projects at Risk.)

“Obviously, the COVID pandemic was an economic buzz saw for the U.S. and world economy,” Kiernan said. “We’re facing some significant financing challenges.”

Still, AWEA’s lobbying efforts in D.C. have resulted in the IRS issuing a one-year extension of the safe-harbor provision for wind projects begun in 2016 and 2017, giving developers 12 extra months to qualify for production and investment tax credits.

But there is more work to do, Kiernan said, particularly with an offshore wind sector that was “just taking off.” AWEA says the U.S. has 15 active commercial leases for offshore wind development, capable of supporting about 25 GW in capacity.

“We’ve got to keep that momentum going,” he said. “Despite the world’s economic challenges, renewables in general — and wind in particular — have a bright and extraordinary future. Why? Economics.”

Kiernan said renewables remain the cheapest source of generation. Wind costs have fallen about 70% over the past decade, helping the economics remain “so doggone compelling.”

“Utilities are increasingly buying and using renewables,” he said, pointing to the 16 GW of power purchase agreements in 2018. “Americans want it, and we’re cost effective.”

In collaboration with others in the renewable sector, AWEA has put forth a vision of renewables constituting a majority of U.S. capacity by 2030.

“It’s tough to think about going to this great bright future from the depths of where we are now,” Kiernan said. “We have worked to craft a very simple — a very compelling — vision. Pursuing this vision will create hundreds of thousands of jobs, while providing reliable, clean and cost-effective energy.”

Renewable Industries Agree on Advocacy Principles

Kiernan was joined on the webcast by representatives from the solar, hydro and storage industries, who added their thoughts on the majority-renewables-by-2030 vision.

“Having this clear vision is critical. We’re very much mainstream right now, but it wasn’t too long ago that we were alternative energy,” said Malcom Woolf, CEO of the National Hydro Association. “It shows how these technologies work together. We balance each other. We have different attributes that complement each other.”

“It’s really consistent with who we are as an industry,” said Energy Storage Association CEO Kelly Speakes-Backman. “There’s no reason for energy storage to exist without the other sources to our grid. [Storage] is the bacon of the grid; it makes everything a little bit better. We’re more than happy to help resources that make cleaner air for all of us.”

The associations now share advocacy principles “as critical” to attaining their vision of majority renewables by 2030:

• Achieve significant carbon reductions.
• Build a more resilient, efficient, sustainable and affordable grid.
• Advance great competition through fair market rules.
• Actively collaborate across industry segments.

“Taking that shared vision to [Capitol Hill] and our policy advocacy makes it clear to our own constituencies … that we are creating a vision and markets for all of us,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “If you think about the grid itself, it was designed over 100 years ago for centralized power plants. But the rules as centralized power generators have certain attributes that don’t allow for a lot of competition.

“It’s important we have market rules that compensate generators for their attributes, rather than being for a certain fuel source,” she said.

“These principles really lift all boats and help all of our industry,” Woolf said. “It’s so much more effective when we can work it out behind closed doors before we go to the policymakers.”

PJM Panel Pushes Back Against MOPR

Maryland Public Service Commissioner Michael Richard did not mince words during a panel addressing FERC’s December order requiring PJM to overhaul its capacity market by expanding the minimum offer price rule (MOPR) to new state-subsidized resources within its footprint. (See FERC Extends MOPR to State Subsidies.)

“We’ve been very successful in largely being united [against] the MOPR, largely because we agree it’s an unlawful intrusion,” Richard said, speaking from Maryland’s perspective. “Our citizens will be paying more and not getting the clean energy they’re demanding. It’s an unfair windfall for generators.”

State regulators, utilities and load-serving entities have argued in rehearing requests to FERC that the order goes too far in attempting to control their generation choices and fails to prove state-subsidized resources suppress capacity market prices. One of the primary concerns is for offshore wind, which is subsidized by the states and won’t be able to clear the capacity market because its default MOPR prices are well above clearing prices.

Maryland is one of those states, with the administration, energy office and commission all opposing the MOPR. Richard said the MOPR tends to unite PJM’s states, four of whom are members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or are among the 25 states committed to the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

“A majority of our states are moving to decarbonize at different rates. We really need PJM’s support for state policies,” he said, pointing to PJM states’ collective goal of 30 GW of clean energy requirements by 2030. “We’re going to need a lot more renewable energy in the PJM footprint. What FERC is doing, in the words of its own orders, is disregard and nullify its own orders. That’s a great concern and why we’re largely united in opposing the MOPR.”

“The reality is some states care what color their megawatts are,” said Kent Chandler, executive director of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, which oversees a regulated market. “A number of states want green energy, and there are two ways to go about it: either accommodate it or go somewhere else. The only way forward is to accommodate [green energy] somehow.

“There has to be a middle way for some states to get green energy without FERC determining what is some sort of cost shift. I fully expect that by the time the litigation over the MOPR is over, we’ll have a different [market] construct by then,” he said.

Asim Haque, PJM’s newly minted vice president of state and member services, said the grid operator’s recent compliance filing was an effort to balance the various constituencies in its 14-jurisdiction region (13 states and D.C.). (See PJM Makes MOPR Compliance Filing.)

“We have a very diverse footprint. We view that as a strength. It’s a wonderful microcosm of the country at large,” Haque said. “It creates challenges for PJM because when we think about where PJM is in a situation like this, we’re trying to homogenize various market priorities to advance particular fuel types or technologies, without detriments to others.

“Look at the compliance filing,” Haque said. “We worked hard to accommodate as many state policies as we could. The hope is we get through collectively this MOPR phase of the capacity market. Getting through this iteration doesn’t necessarily [solve] the larger problem of how we homogenize these different market priorities within one larger construct.”

Greg Poulos, executive director of Consumer Advocates of the PJM States, said stakeholders have already begun to evaluate PJM’s market design, given its 26% reserve margin, requirements to add 10 GW of wind resources by 2029 and decarbonization discussions.

“The MOPR order hasn’t been implemented yet and already there are thoughts of ‘what do we do now?’” he said. “There’s a clear understanding PJM doesn’t have the ability to implement carbon pricing without the states taking some action. But what are we going to do with [10 GW of wind resources]? There’s not an answer right now. There’s a lot of excess resources, with a lot of resources coming on. How do we pay for all these resources and make it more effective? We’re already thinking about that.”