Shell Making A Huge Shift to Renewables

Shell is not being shy when it comes to ensuring a powerful transition into renewable energy production. Maarten Wetselaar, the director of Shell’s integrated gas and new energies division, thinks his company could become the largest power company in the world by the early 2030s. “It's mostly driven by the, we think, irreversible choice the world has made to decarbonize, to address climate change, and to go to [a] net-zero energy system,” he said in an interview last week. “And by far, the easiest form of energy consumption that can be carbon-free is electricity. So to an extent, it's about survival, but it's also about, of course, playing a positive role in energy transition. We see the two as equally powerful.”

Even though Shell is the #2 oil explorer by market value they are now spending around $2 billion a year in cleantech so it looks like an honest effort to transition. “They (Shell Official) realize that energy is a big task, and it needs big companies with big balance sheets to really go after it,” Wetselaar said. “You can't just subsidize your way into it, or do it through startups only. It needs also the power of big companies.” “If I build an oil platform of $10 billion, it will cost me $10 billion,” he said. “If I build a wind farm that costs $10 billion, it's typically 75 percent...financed by banks, and I'll typically have partners in it that fund half. So my $1 billion can actually give rise to a $10 billion wind farm. […] So there's a bigger multiplier to our investment there.”

Federal Tax Credit for Residential Solar Systems May Be Extended

As of now the Federal Tax Credit for a residential solar system is 30% of the total cost and is planned to drop to 26% next year. Last month law makers proposed a bill that would keep the tax credit at 30% for another five years so there is hope. SunPower CEO Tom Werner now puts the odds of this happening at 30% while it was 0% at the beginning of 2019. Sunrun CEO Lynn Jurich is not banking on the bill passing and is continuing to prepare for the worst. Greg Jenner, a tax lawyer, said that the recently introduced extender bills "face fairly long odds" as 2019 draws to a close. "Passage of any tax legislation during a presidential election cycle is problematic, and perhaps even more so this election," said Jenner. "The only tax legislation likely to pass, if any, is a bill to extend tax provisions that have or are about to expire. Even then, the chances are that this would only occur as part of a larger appropriations package and not as freestanding legislation." David Bywater, Vivint’s CEO said, “The fossil fuel industry has benefited from direct and indirect support for well over a century, and the renewable energy industry that is employing so many Americans deserves a level playing field,” said Bywater on the call. “Because Americans value pollution-free power, job creation and energy independence, extending the ITC will enable the solar industry to continue its growth and bring the economic and environmental benefits of renewable solar energy and solar jobs to all regions of America.”

Due to all of this speculation the safest best for homeowners is to take advantage of the 30% tax credit right now because there’s a high chance it will be lowered at the beginning of 2020. Check us out at AllyElectricandSolar.com for a smooth ride to energy independence!

Bernie Sanders Proposes Huge Environmental Action Plan

The plan essentially aims to remove all fossil fuel supported systems in the US by 2030. The Sanders Green New Deal strives to remake essentially all aspects of U.S. society by eliminating support for the fossil fuel industry and booming clean energy through investments in wind, solar, energy efficiency, and electrified transport. The plan’s ambition comes with the characteristic Sanders candor, “The federal government electrified America as part of the New Deal. The United States of America put people on the moon 50 years ago. We can sure as hell transform our energy system away from fossil fuels to 100 percent renewables today and create millions of jobs in the process.” The plan would require an investment of $16.3 trillion, the biggest spend a Democratic candidate has proposed thus far, with $1.52 trillion going directly to renewable energy and $852 billion to the build-out of energy storage. To pay for it all, the Sanders campaign said it would eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, cut back global military spending on oil-related activities, and rely on new income tax revenue from the 20 million jobs it said the plan will create. The Sanders administration would also rake in money from electricity revenues between 2023 and 2035, after which it said electricity will be “virtually free,” as well as making the wealthy and large corporations pay their fair share." This call from the Sanders camp is exactly what we need to see in our leaders in order to make the big changes that this planet demands. We can’t tip toe around trying to make small changes here and there in how we produce and use our energy, we each have to do as much as we can asap in order to give ourselves and our kids the best chance to evade living on a toxic planet.