Last year, I took a look at the energy earmarks included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and asked, “Will this funding result in tangible results, or lose its way amidst a forest of bureaucracy and red tape?” Now, almost two years after the US Senate passed the $838 stimulus bill, we are finally getting our answer in a report released by the White House entitled “The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy Through Innovation.”
According to the report, the purpose of the ARRA was to design and implement a three-pronged attack on our teetering economy and at-risk infrastructure. “The Recovery Act’s design was three-fold: to rescue a rapidly deteriorating economy; put the country on a path to recovery by putting Americans back to work quickly; and reinvest in the country’s long-term economic future, building a foundation for a new, more robust, and competitive American economy.”
Of the four areas the report highlights as examples of the innovative and “game-changing breakthrough” initiated by the ARRA, two—renewable energy and private sector innovation (which includes the Smart Grid)—are dominated by energy efficiency programs and projects. The report’s executive summary highlights some of the energy-related benefits achieved as a result of ARRA funding, including the impact of the Section 1603 Payments-In-Lieu-Of-Tax-Credits program, which has resulted in, “deploy more rapidly the latest generation of solar power technologies while expanding manufacturing of these technologies here in the US” and “helping to ramp up production of wind energy and its component manufacturing base in the US, maintaining strong demand and financing for projects and helping attract billions of dollars of additional private investment.”
As for private sector innovation, the report specifically discusses the Smart Grid that, thanks to ARRA funding, will “further empower consumers in their energy usage decisions, increase flexibility, and enhance reliability.” Part of this empowerment and reliability includes “significant investments in broadband aim to bring America’s telecommunications capacity into the 21st century,” “$4.4 billion provided to the Department of Commerce, $2.5 billion in funds was provided to the Department of Agriculture to increase broadband access in rural America,” and the addition of 18 million new smart meters, 875 transmission system sensors, and 700 substations to improve system reliability, “prevent minor disturbances from cascading into large outages” and “detect and respond to system irregularities, thereby helping to avoid outages.”
Here’s a look at some of the specific numbers enumerated in the report:
Payment-in-Lieu-Of-Tax-Credits (1603)
• Over $3 billion so far in payments-in-lieu-of-tax -credits to over 500 projects in 44 states to support renewable energy generation projects
• Supports more than 10,000 construction jobs and over 2,000 ongoing operating and maintenance jobs
• Brings more than 4 GW of new renewable energy online
• Leverages $2 of private capital for every $1 of tax credits
Manufacturing Tax Credits (48C)
• Over $2 billion in tax credits to 183 projects in 43 states for clean energy manufacturing projects
• 30 percent tax credit for qualifying advanced energy projects in new, expanded, or re-equipped domestic manufacturing facilities
• Competition was more than 3x oversubscribed
• Leverages $2 of private capital for every $1 of tax credits
Loan Guarantees
• $2 billion in conditional or closed loan guarantees for renewables deployment and manufacturing projects
• Projects will create or save more than 5,000 construction and permanent jobs, lead to more than 3 GW of clean power generating capacity, and avoid more than 30 million tons of CO2 per year, according to company estimates.
• Leverages more than $4 of debt and equity for every $1 of loan guarantee subsidy
So what do you think? Are these the kinds of results we were hoping for? Are you disappointed by the absence of any mention or discussion about the role distributed energy can and should play in any national energy policy? Or is this exactly the kind of PR spin you expected to hear?