Cooperative Living August 2020 - 21

CloserLook | by Maria Kanevsky, Contributing Writer
The Rise in
Renewables
Mid-Atlantic to see solar growth
despite COVID-19 pressures
According to federal data, wind
power made up 7.3% of the total
energy generated in the U.S. in 2019.
T
he future of how we receive
electricity is changing. The
energy that we see all around us
-- from the sun, wind and water --
is rapidly being harnessed to power
our lives.
During the last decade, renewable
energy generation has steadily
increased. As of 2019, almost 18%
of all energy generated in the U.S.
came from renewable sources,
according to the Energy
Information Administration,
up from 10% a decade ago.
To break it down by energy
type: Wind energy constitutes 7.3%
of total energy generation, with
hydropower at 6.6%, solar energy
at 1.8% and other sources like
biomass and geothermal energy
also at 1.8%.
Those percentages will continue
to grow as a result of several
factors. The largest contributing
factor is that the costs of renewable
energy projects have declined.
Additionally, many states across
the country have set guidelines
and policies requiring utilities
to produce a certain percentage
of energy from renewables by a
future date. Finally, many large
corporations like Google, Amazon
and Facebook have started to
invest in large-scale renewable energy
projects. They receive a return on
their investment in renewable projects,
while demonstrating a concern for
sustainability to their consumers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has
thrown a wrench into this growth,
however. New installations for solar
co-opliving.com
energy are expected to decline by
20% this year, according to the energy
research group Wood Mackenzie. Wind
energy installations are expected to drop
by 6%. The overall decline of renewable
projects means lost jobs. Research from
BW Research Partnership shows that
more pandemic-related cutbacks led
to the loss of more than 100,000
renewable jobs in March alone.
in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.
In 2018, ODEC entered into a longterm
power purchase agreement with
Cabin Point Solar. That project is
expected to generate 75 megawatts
of solar power with an anticipated
operations date of 2022.
ODEC also entered into a
U.S. Electricity Generation by Energy Source
2010-2020
share of generation
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
forecast
natural gas
coal
nuclear
non-hydro
renewables
hydropower
other
2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
partnership with EDF Renewables
North America in 2019 to initially
develop and build a 30-MWac
portfolio of distributed solar
projects across ODEC member
service territories in the three
mid-Atlantic states.
The projects are intended
to bring local solar energy to
ODEC member communities
while providing regional
and energy diversification to
ODEC's generation portfolio.
This year, ODEC increased
its partnership with EDF
Renewables to 15 projects
that will generate more than
60 MWac of solar power.
COVID-19 will undoubtedly
This chart shows all electricity generation by energy
source, including non-renewable and renewable, over
the past 10 years.
Despite these drawbacks, there is
abundant hope for the renewable energy
market, and many cooperatives in the
mid-Atlantic region are poised for
growth with the help of Old Dominion
Electric Cooperative. Based near
Richmond, Va., ODEC provides power
to 11 member distribution cooperatives
affect the renewable energy
industry in the short-term.
However, despite an overall
drop of electricity production,
EIA says that renewable energy
will still grow 11% this year
in the electric power sector,
faster than any other source. Looking
to the future, there is likely to be
continued value in renewable energy
investments. ■
Maria Kanevsky is a program analyst for
the National Rural Electric Cooperative
Association.
August 2020 | Cooperative Living | 19
GRAPHIC BY ENERGY INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION
PHOTO BY JONATHAN KRATZKE
http://www.co-opliving.com
Cooperative Living August 2020

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