Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Regulation  -  July 8, 2023

Weekend Reads: Green Skills Gap; Offshore Wind Coming to Life

It’s the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web:

America’s Green Skills Gap Raises Concerns About Energy Transition (The Wall Street Journal) Green skills in the U.S. aren’t growing as fast as green jobs. Generous incentives in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act have prompted billions of dollars in clean-energy investment announcements that are forecast to create millions of U.S. jobs. Recent data shows strong growth in demand for green skills exacerbating an already tight market. It considers green jobs to be ones that include climate action objectives such as removing pollution and preserving natural resources. 

Biden’s hydrogen bombshell leaves Europe in the dust (Politico) European leaders have devoted tens of billions of dollars toward encouraging production of hydrogen. Many of those jobs will be going to the United States instead. The clean energy subsidies that undergird President Joe Biden’s climate agenda have just prompted one Norwegian manufacturer to choose Michigan, not Europe, as the site of a nearly $500 million factory that will produce the equipment needed to extract hydrogen from water.

Inflation Reduction Act Already Lowering US Greenhouse Gas Emissions! (CleanTechnica) For those of us following the cleantech industry closely, we already know this: the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has a huge impact on cleantech production and adoption in the US. It is finally making the United States a genuine competitor in this arena again. Overall, the new study finds that the US will achieve economy-wide reductions 43–48% below 2005 levels thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which is an improvement from a reduction of about 26–35%.

U.S. Offshore Wind Industry Is ‘Coming to Life’ (Scientific American) The Biden administration approved Wednesday a wind company’s controversial plan to raise nearly 100 turbines off the coast of Atlantic City, N.J. Its progress helps close the gap on the White House’s goal of advancing 16 wind farms by 2025 to support a broader climate agenda. Developed by the Danish energy company Ørsted A/S, Ocean Wind 1 is planned roughly 15 miles from the New Jersey shore.

Floating Photovoltaics Emerge as a Promising Solution for Southeast Asia’s Clean Energy Future (NREL) Countries around the world are seeking innovative solutions to reduce carbon emissions while meeting energy security and economic development needs. From rooftop photovoltaics to offshore wind, creative energy generation sources have solved challenges associated with typical renewable energy sources. For countries with abundant solar resource potential and limited land availability, floating PV has emerged as a potential clean energy solution.

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