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John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
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Feb 23 • 11 tweets • 6 min read
This @bradplumer @nytimes covers a super important issue for the clean energy transition: being able to connect to the grid. I have a few addenda... 🧵 nytimes.com/2023/02/23/cli…
One reason we can't get transmission built for large scale solar and wind projects is that utilities have gamed the planning system to favor their own interests. @AriPeskoe covers this chapter and verse in his work on the "utility transmission syndicate" ilsr.org/electric-trans…
A particularly perverse policy -- state "right of first refusal" laws that utilities lobbied for in order to overcome a ban of the practice by @FERC. @venerable_bede explains why this undercuts competition and new transmission: ilsr.org/electricity-ma…
The good news is that we can actually build renewable energy that *expands* transmission capacity if it connects and serves local load, like these innovative wind-solar hybrid projects by Dan Juhl and other local developers: ilsr.org/who-needs-tran…
Those projects still face barriers, however, such as utilities gaming the federal competition law, PURPA, to avoid paying a fair price or signing a contract to buy their power: governing.com/news/headlines…
And then there's the ubiquitous barrier of private utilities controlling how their competitors connect to the grid, with widely varying costs and timelines for interconnection of rooftop and community solar (and storage) projects: ilsr.org/are-utilities-… @skycedar
One pending fix would be to collect better data on the interconnection process. @SEIA and @ILSR and others have requested that the @EIAgov collect standardized data from distribution utilities: ilsr.org/eia-survey-int… @SunBaca @DaveGahl
Other folks have looked at ways to expedite permitting and approval processes for new transmission, but we'd be better served by targeting the common barrier: for-profit ownership (investor-owned utilities) of a common carrier (the grid).
As long as utilities have conflicting interests (a profit motive that comes from owning new power plants, poles, and wires) they will continue to delay or divert clean energy that they don't control.
We got free long distance calling once the feds broke up the AT&T monopoly on telephone wires. Who knows what grid access benefits might come from breaking up the utility #monopoly on electric wires? /end @fightmonopolies
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More from @johnffarrell

John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
Feb 23
If you are writing a cover letter or resume, make the connection between the job skills required and your background, don't make the reviewer hunt for it. If you're an "expert program director" don't SAY it, SHOW it.
Your cover letter should have a sentence like this: "I have four years experience as a program director supervising XX staff and managing a budget of XX." Don't make me find it!
My eyes bleed doing candidate reviews like this. Whole paragraphs of "I'm great at A and B and C and D and am a perfect fit" with no reference to the experience that proves any of it. What a waste.
Read 4 tweets
John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
Dec 5, 2022
On #energytwitter, I see plenty of talk about time-of-use pricing, but I wonder if electricity being a monopoly has us overlooking the time value of action on climate change, and the opportunity to tap a much wider array of participants in our energy systems.
With energy efficiency, for example, there are several “cost tests” that regulators will use to determine if a particular measure (wall insulation, window replacement) is worthwhile: a participate cost test, a utility cost test, and a societal cost test.
In each case, the test asks if the benefits outweigh the costs for the named entity. Rebates or incentives are often tailored to maximize the cost-benefit.
Read 11 tweets
John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
Jan 5, 2022
What would you rather drive - gas or electric - in an epic traffic jam? A short thread to emphasize that running either type of car for cabin heating will use a lot of fuel, and that neither vehicle is designed for unlikely scenarios. (*napkin math warning*)🧵
To heat your gas car, you have to run the engine (your heating is actually from the wasted energy from the inefficient combustion of gas). Most Americans buy SUVs, which use roughly 1/2 gallon of gas per hour idling (I rounded up from "large sedan"). energy.gov/eere/vehicles/…
The Honda CRV has a 14-gallon tank. If it's half full when you get stuck in an epic winter traffic jam, you've got 14 hours of heat from idling with 7 gallons of gas.
Read 11 tweets
John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
Nov 19, 2021
You might have heard about the campaign to Save Solar in California, due to deliberations by state regulators to reduce compensation for solar producers. We're being played by utility lobbyists, my friends. Here's a thread 🧵 #solarenergy #NEM
If you haven't heard about the "utility death spiral," read the infamous Edison Electric Institute report that identified customer-owned solar as an existential threat to the profits for utility shareholders. drive.google.com/file/d/1tsF2Hq…
So, Point 1: if we're debating whether solar customers get compensated adequately, let's keep in mind that utilities see it as their legal obligation to screw over solar customers to protect their market share. This debate is their debate.
Read 20 tweets
John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
May 12, 2021
More than half of households have at least two cars, more than half have a garage or carport. With used electric cars available for under $10k, I'd say there are ways to avoid gas lines without owning a Tesla. #DriveElectric
Data on car ownership: cnbc.com/2014/11/18/two…
Data on garages / carports: cnbc.com/2014/11/18/two…
Read 5 tweets
John Farrell ☀️🌬🔋 Profile picture
May 4, 2021
THREAD on comparing utility-scale and rooftop solar, sparked by a good question from @jeffsaintjohn on LinkedIn about this post on jobs from solar.
While my original post compares utility-scale and rooftop solar, we ought to spend less time comparing them because a) they aren't subject to reasonable comparison and b) it's the utility's playbook. Here's a few examples:
1) Utility-scale solar and rooftop solar aren't comparable because one is wholesale, the other retail. Big solar has socialized delivery costs (all customers pay for its transmission and distribution). Rooftop solar provides power at retail, with no delivery cost.
Read 19 tweets

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