Electrification – the process of making transportation and building heating reliant on the electric grid rather than fossil fuels – is key to decarbonization. This is reflected in many state decarbonization plans. Yet, electrification brings with it an added challenge: grid capacity must increase to serve the added demand for electricity. In Massachusetts, for example, electrification is predicted to result in peak electric demand doubling by 2050. This typically means more power lines, more substations and more generation. The Commonwealth plans to accomplish this using renewable power, but with federal solar tax credits ending, offshore wind permits denied and projects waiting years to get through the ISO-New England interconnection queue, the question is whether large-scale renewables will be scaled fast enough or if alternatives need to be found.
One alternative is to expand the natural gas fleet. ISO-New England, the regional grid operator, has long pushed for more natural gas pipelines; natural gas has grown from 15% of the region’s electricity generation in 2000 to 50% today. If new, large-scale renewables do not come online fast enough to meet the need, more natural gas is likely to be the default response. This would be a mistake. More reliance on gas would result in higher energy bills, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and decades of additional pollution in communities surrounding fossil fuel generators.
Another alternative is to focus more attention and resources on fast-growing distributed (behind-the-meter) clean energy resources, which can be aggregated to provide grid-scale services while reducing energy cost burdens and improving quality of life for communities. To explore this strategy, Clean Energy Group, Vote Solar and the Union of Concerned Scientists contracted with Applied Economics Clinic to assess the feasibility for Massachusetts, with the results detailed in two new reports on “Electrification with Equity.” These reports show that distributed solar paired with battery storage can meet increased peak demand cleanly, quickly, and equitably.
The first report, “Electrification with Equity, Part 1: The Opportunity for Behind-the-Meter Solar and Storage in Massachusetts,” establishes the enormous technical potential for distributed clean energy statewide. It shows that 92 GW of behind-the-meter solar, paired with 40 GW of battery storage, could be sited at homes and business across Massachusetts. That’s more than enough to serve the predicted 24 GW peak demand by 2050, without a single new fossil fuel plant being built (and without repowering aging gas- and oil-burning plants expected to retire).
The second report, “Electrification with Equity, Part 2: Scaling Behind-the-Meter Solar + Storage in Massachusetts Environmental Justice Neighborhoods,” focuses on centering equity by showing that more than 31 GW of behind-the-meter solar, paired with more than 13 GW of battery storage, could be sited in Massachusetts environmental justice communities – areas that have historically been disproportionately burdened with adverse environmental impacts. And 91% of this clean energy potential is located in heat-vulnerable “hot spot” areas, where people are most in need of relief from high energy prices, as well as reliable backup power to run air conditioners when the grid goes down on hot summer days.
Credit: sonnen
Both reports identify barriers to achieving distributed solar and storage deployment at scale, and both recommend changes to existing programs and regulations to address these barriers.
Making the needed program updates and expansions will not be easy. But neither is this pie-in-the-sky ideal that can never be achieved. Massachusetts already has some of the best solar and storage programs in the country. The value of deploying behind-the-meter clean energy resources has been demonstrated over and over again, with benefits accruing to communities, to the electric grid and to ratepayers. Battery-based virtual power plants, of which Massachusetts’ ConnectedSolutions was one of the first, have sprung up in at least 27 states. Peak demand reduction is what these programs are best at, and what is most needed in the coming years – in Massachusetts and in many other states.
In other words, we have the technology, the programs and the know-how. We just need to expand our effort to meet the growing need.
Clean Energy Group began this work in New England over a decade ago; we are now enlarging our scope to support aggregated, distributed solar and storage programs in many states. Read more about our work accelerating virtual power plant programs across the country here.
