The energy landscape Biden inherits

Greetings, readers, and welcome back to Bright Ideas, a weekly newsletter about the rise of clean energy. I’m energy journalist Julian Spector, currently soaking up a surprise string of 80-degree days here in L.A. The uninterrupted blue skies in January helped build the Southern California myth, but they’re real.

In less balmy environs, an inauguration is happening this week. Since Joe Biden talked up his ambitions to move fast on climate and energy policy, I figured the best use for this week’s letter is catching you up on the energy landscape he’ll be navigating.

We’re exiting four years of leadership that cared more about saving the coal industry, or talking about saving the coal industry, than accelerating non-polluting sources. But a fresh dataset from the federal government paints a very clear picture of where the electricity industry stands today. Clean energy is winning, and the contest isn’t even close.

Plus, read to the bottom to learn about my new hobby: growing fungi. I’ll tell you which kind and what to do with them.

84 percent carbon-free

The government recently tallied up the power plants expected to finish construction this year. This provides a snapshot of where the nation’s utilities, cooperatives, and profit seeking private developers think their fortunes lie in 2021. Here’s the outlook:

The first thing that jumps out is that solar’s in the lead, with 39 percent of new capacity. That’s a pretty wild change of fortunes for this technology, which was nowhere near this prominent just a few years ago. Also of note, the state with the most solar construction this year is Texas, with about three times as much capacity as runners up Nevada and California. That’s a new phenomenon, too.

Less wind capacity is getting built than last year, but still makes up 31 percent of the expected construction. That puts renewables alone at 70 percent. These sources are still a tiny part of the total electricity generated in America each year—but at this rate, they’re catching up.

The long-awaited Vogtle nuclear plant that I mentioned in the New Years’ newsletter will be at 3 percent, assuming it does indeed arrive. And batteries have surged to 11 percent of new capacity—this is the first time they’ve been a prominent piece of the national pie. All told, that means 84 percent of new power plant capacity this year is from projects that don’t burn fossil fuels. (To be clear, batteries don’t emit any carbon emissions or pollution themselves, but they do load up on electricity from other plants, which means their operations can generate a carbon footprint).

That leaves natural gas with just 16 percent market share of new projects. Gas plants make more electricity than any other source in the U.S. But after a run of years as the go-to new power source, gas construction tapered off while wind and solar picked up.

Listen to industry

As Biden gets down to business, with his plans to boost clean energy as a means of stimulating the pandemic-battered economy, expect some resistance. In the past, arguments against government action on clean energy warned of economic devastation: if you force this liberal agenda on American industry, jobs and prosperity will suffer.

That line of reasoning will run into trouble this time around. Look at that pie chart. American industry is already picking clean energy to meet its electricity needs.

If Washington wants to listen to industry, it could summon the executives of the major power companies to ask why they already promised to zero out their companies’ carbon emissions. If massive, risk-averse utilities thought that was a safe bet, Congress may feel more comfortable following their lead. It’s time for Congress to catch up to the power industry, not the other way around.

Seeing the impressive numbers, it is fair to ask what kind of help the clean energy industry needs at this point. Renewables developers took over the market with little federal assistance besides Bush-era tax credits. That pluckiness recommends the industry as a vehicle for job growth now: where could it go with some actual help behind it?

Knowing how D.C. works, this policy could amount to little more than throwing cash at the preferred vehicles for job growth. But the lasting impact would come from clearing out the barriers to organic clean energy growth across the country. Some states have made great strides in allowing new energy technologies a chance to compete; others block it by clinging to outdated rules from a prior technological era. Here are three Bright Ideas:

• Make clean energy permitting easier. Legislate instant, digital permitting for rooftop solar. Find ways to streamline permitting for large renewables projects. “Cutting red tape” may be a cliche of conservative politics, but it would go a long way to making clean energy more plentiful. There’s a reason why Texas is in the lead right now.

• Require utilities to examine all solutions to a grid challenge. For years, the playbook for serving new demand for electricity was to build another gas plant. Now we have newer tools, like batteries, or networks of energy devices in homes and businesses. When utilities actually look at the full range of options, they tend to find cost-effective alternatives to big-ticket gas plants.

• Plan the electrical transmission infrastructure before all the new power plants arrive, so they can ship electrons to the people who need them. For example, Texas proactively built wires to attractive wind regions, paving the way for the massive wind turbine construction that followed (see previous Bright Ideas coverage here). Other states are not doing this, leading to some messy situations.

In the years when Congress stopped passing energy policy, the energy landscape changed. Biden doesn’t need to bother with incubating an infant industry. His preferred power sources are all grown up.

This week in quarantine: Make room for mushrooms

I made this.

Fungi are fascinating and under-appreciated creatures—check out Bright Ideas-approved science book Entangled Life to learn more. But after I read that, I wanted to understand this mysterious kingdom better in my own life.

My partner Sam intuited this and got me a starter kit from a company called Smallhold, basically a block of compressed sawdust threaded through with the fungi that produce blue oyster mushrooms. If you keep the block moist and out of the sun, the silky threads of mycelium channel that moisture through their intricate grid, and up sprout the mushrooms (technically the “fruiting body” of those subterranean threads). In a matter of days, they went from miniature shoots to an irrepressible protuberance.

Then it was time to harvest, before they dried out. I opted for pan-frying them in oil, topped off with butter, garlic and thyme, served on a bed of whipped white beans flavored with lime juice and garlic.

There’s no way to eat fresher than this—from harvesting to cooking in a matter of seconds. But the mushrooms do have an uncanny sense of personality, like plucking them is more akin to hunting an animal than picking a plant.

Let me know if you want to join the blue oyster mushroom cult, or have some favorite mushrooms recipes to share. I’ve got a new batch growing already.