Live from ‘Clean Energy Coachella’

Welcome back to Energy Source – coming to you today from sultry New Orleans.

I’m in town for the American Clean Power Association’s annual convention, America’s largest green confab, which one executive has dubbed “Clean Energy Coachella.”

The gathering has never been bigger – with more than 8,000 attendees in the city, ranging from family-run appliance makers and Cleantech Brothers to large renewables developers and utility colossus. As capital flowed into the sector at an unprecedented rate in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act, the ballooning size of the event came as no surprise. To paraphrase Kermit the Frog, being green has never been easier.

But the clean energy industry is no longer the preserve of well-intentioned environmentalists alone. Today Big Green is big business. And industry came to town with a lot of gripes – and demands.

Meanwhile, a controversy is unfolding at one end of the world over the role of Sultan Al-Jaber, the head of the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil conglomerate, as president of the UN’s COP28 climate conference. Many US and EU lawmakers want him out. My colleagues Aimee and Camilla have the latest.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll dive into some of the big themes that emerged from the ACP conference. In Data Drill, Derek returns to hydrocarbons and gives a rundown of America’s largest private drillers — a shopping list, perhaps, for Big Oil looking for inventory.

Thanks for reading – Miles

Major Theme of Green Get Together in NOLA

IRA Cleantech Supercharged On

John Podesta – the man charged by the President with implementing the Green Revolution – took to the stage at the conference’s opening to declare “there has never been a better time for clean energy in America”.

“Almost every day there is news of another new clean energy investment,” he said to cheers from the crowd.

He is not wrong. Enel this week announced it has selected Oklahoma for a $1 billion solar panel manufacturing facility, while GE announced construction of a large-scale wind turbine parts assembly line in Schenectady.

More than $100bn worth of green investment has been announced since the IRA was passed nine months ago as tax credits over a 10-year horizon spark a flood of capital.

“It’s extraordinarily exciting to think about a development you can plan for more than a decade away,” said Craig Cornelius, chief executive of Clearway Energy, one of the country’s largest developers. “We’ve never been able to do this in the history of (the industry).”

Praise for Ira was overwhelming. But in the panel discussions and interactions during the conference, the adversities holding back the sector were increasingly talked about.

but it takes a long time to make things

The earliest complaints included the time taken to make the projects a reality.

The plethora of approvals required at the local, state and federal levels from a host of different bodies and agencies means that it can take more than a decade to get projects on line.

This is true not only of large wind and solar developments, which require permits from agencies ranging from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as state and county-level green lights, but especially This is a problem with the transmission lines needed to send electrons across the country.

“There’s a fundamental question of this country’s ability to build big things quickly,” said ACP chief Jason Grummett. “We particularly have a problem with what we call linear infrastructure – anything that has to move across multiple jurisdictions – is so difficult because you literally need to line up every process at this exact moment.”

Developers also put up long queues in connecting projects to the grid as regional grid operators are overwhelmed with applications. Backlog hinders investment.

Various bills are circulating in Congress to streamline the permitting process. But none has gained enough political traction so far. There is hope that a bipartisan agreement on a permissive reform package could be reached before the end of the year. Without this, those present said, the aims of the IRA would ultimately be unrealised.

“We need to do better and we can do better and we must do better if we really want to capitalize on the potential of this industry – especially with this bill that was recently passed,” said Wind Developer said David Hardy, US head of Oersted.

and parts are very hard to get hold of

Then there’s the problem of the supply chain — a particular point of contention for the solar industry.

Icy relations between the US and China are a constant headache – given that the latter is responsible for manufacturing the vast majority of solar wafers and modules.

The Department of Commerce is set to impose hefty US anti-dumping duties on Chinese parts in many cases after a Department of Commerce investigation found companies were using it as a backdoor. (The White House has put any such expansion on hold until next year).

But separate regulations prohibiting imports involving forced labor have resulted in parts being held by customs officials for long periods while their provenance is being investigated.

IRA has provided subsidies to build a supply chain for domestic solar components. But it will take time for the industry to move away from dependence on China.

“People will move these factories here because of the incentives,” said Leo Moreno, president of AES Clean Energy, a major clean energy developer. “They will move these wafers and cell and module factories to America but it will take years.”

“Between now and the date when these facilities come online, the supply chain is still constrained. There are still many suppliers who cannot bring products into the US.

According to ACP, solar development in the US was supposed to be brought online last year, with a 40 per cent delay. The industry fears a huge windfall when tariffs are raised next year before the domestic industry takes root.

Still, the ‘Big Green’ Has Arrived

still between beer and happy timesThe conference was underpinned by the sentiment that the clean energy industry was no longer just along for the ride.

It was not a rag-tag group of activists and do-gooders. The industry is now organized and a force in Washington. This month, ACP also announced that it had hired Frank Macchiarola from his role as champion of fossil fuel control at the American Petroleum Institute.

The Big Green has big demands on America’s political elite – it wants to be at the table. And it has big plans to make big money.

The ACP’s Grummett said: “I think it’s fair to say that the people who have been most prominent over the last 20 years – the people who have been most successful in some ways – have been the warriors.”

“For the next 20 years the people who are going to be most successful are going to be builders and fixers and developers.”

(Miles McCormick)

data drill

For public companies seeking growth, Enverse’s new list of the 100 largest private oil and gas producers is practically an M&A target list.

That’s because compared to their public rivals, private-equity-backed companies face less scrutiny of their environmental performance and aren’t under the same Wall Street pressure to curb spending. There are also several clandestine, family-owned manors. And they’ve been ramping up production — and cash flow — in recent months to entice buying.

And they’ve grown up. The data supporting the list below shows that the top 100 private US oil companies produce about 2.4 million barrels a day, which is about 20 percent of the country’s total output and far more than OPEC powerhouse Kuwait’s output. is not far. They pump about a third of America’s total natural gas production.

Continental Resources, which was taken private last year by shale pioneer Harold Hamm, is the largest private oil producer in the US, pumping 280,000 b/d. It is also a natural gas power station. Second and third places are held by Permian producers Maywborn Oil and Endeavor Energy — hardly household names beyond West Texas. Collectively, the top five produce more oil than the UK.

power points

Energy Sources was written and edited by Derek Brown, Miles McCormick, Justin Jacobs, Amanda Chu and Emily Goldberg. reach us energy.source@ft.com and follow us on twitter @FTEnergy, Keep track of past editions of the newsletter Here,