WRISE has selected six 2020 Rudd Mayer Memorial Fellows and two 2020 Wind at Our Backs Scholars. Each year, WRISE awards fellowships on a competitive basis to women college students or recent graduates. The fellowship honors wind industry pioneer Rudd Mayer of Boulder, Colorado, who passed away in 2002.

Due to the COVID-19 global supply chain disruption, solar developers may experience unforeseen delays in module deliveries for their solar projects. We’ve heard of some module suppliers communicating potential force majeure actions, and fewer sending actual FM notices to individual buyers. We have confirmed that some suppliers had to temporarily shut down manufacturing (notably in Malaysia) due to restrictions on travel and assembly.

Andy Klump, chief executive officer of the China-based and North American-owned Clean Energy Associates, said present supply chain dynamics are “quite a stark contrast to where utilization stood in late January or early February, when factories were shut down post-Chinese New Year.”

“Now we see factories back up and running and fully utilized within China, but then we’re also seeing certain end markets like Germany or the U.S., which are being impacted by the spread of the virus,” Klump said.

First there were the U.S. tariffs on solar components from China, now the coronavirus has struck in the heart of its manufacturing base, and still the solar industry is cranking out more and more panels at lower and lower costs.

Energy storage is a rapidly growing segment of the clean energy sector, and prices are dropping fast. Yet many are still struggling to understand how to value energy storage as an investment.

Energy storage is a rapidly growing segment of the clean energy sector, and prices are dropping fast. Yet many are still struggling to understand how to value energy storage as an investment.

In Vermont and across the country, many businesses, institutions and communities are recognizing the benefits that the sun can have on their bottom lines. In fact, our company Encore Renewable Energy, which specializes in the origination, development, financing and construction of community scale solar energy generation projects, has worked with dozens of businesses, schools, hospitals, utilities and municipalities across our state to give them an energy solution that is affordable, reliable, and good for the environment.

In Vermont and across the country, many businesses, institutions and communities are recognizing the benefits that the sun can have on their bottom lines. In fact, our company Encore Renewable Energy, which specializes in the origination, development, financing and construction of community scale solar energy generation projects, has worked with dozens of businesses, schools, hospitals, utilities and municipalities across our state to give them an energy solution that is affordable, reliable, and good for the environment.

Wind farms remain the most environmentally benign form of electrical generation we have ever managed to create, with solar farms a close second. They have the lowest greenhouse gas emissions per MWh, full life cycle. They mix boundary layers of air over fields, drawing moisture and warmth at night down to growing plants, reducing the likelihood of frost and increasing yields. They shade livestock. They take up about 1% of agricultural land in the areas that they spread across, usually the less arable corners, and perhaps 2% when placed on ridgelines. Their few downsides, such as the low bird and bat mortality figures, pale in comparison to the toll of fossil fuels both directly and through global warming.

Rhode Island is currently in the process of creating an inventory of every brownfield, landfill, and parking lot in the state in their search for new locations to harness solar power. Even here, in America’s smallest state, the intersection of favorable economics and demand for carbon reducing solutions to address climate change makes scaling the number of solar installations in the U.S. inevitable. Meanwhile, finding suitable sites for greenfield development that don’t involve environmental, aesthetic, or interconnection constraints, has become increasingly difficult.

A new paradigm driven by purpose is steadily emerging in the business community. This spring, I attended an impact investing conference in Asheville, North Carolina. The conference was convened to draw together investors and business owners from a host of different, unrelated industries within the Certified B Corporation community to discuss the challenges and opportunities of growing 21st century businesses focused on purpose, mission and triple-bottom-line outcomes.

Our client, the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE)’s CEO Greg Wetstone was recently published in Fortune Magazine’s Opinion Section discussing their $1T by 2030 campaign.

It is no overstatement that the greatest threat facing America’s national security and the world at large is climate change. Denials of science and fossil fuel industry obfuscations seem to be fading from relevance as more Americans now see the reality of climate change impact their day to day lives. 

Gregory Wetstone is president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, a national nonprofit that unites finance, policy and technology to accelerate the transition to a renewable energy economy.