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US presidential election ’24 and energy storage: Industry views from RE+

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With the US election rapidly approaching, ESN Premium has heard the views of system integrators, developers, and EPCs.

The US goes to the polls next week in what has been a memorable presidential election run-in, to say the least.

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RE+ was, as you are perhaps already tired of hearing by now, the biggest clean energy trade event ever held in the US, with an estimated 50,000 attendees, mostly from the solar PV, energy storage and adjacent sectors.

So, where better to gauge the outlook and opinion of the energy storage industry about the choice between a Trump-led Republican administration and a Harris-led Democrat one?

We’ll be publishing more of these vox pop-style interview segments in the next few days as the country makes up its mind.

Developer rPlus: Last four years has been great

Luigi Resta, RPlus Energies CEO

RPlus Energies is a developer of solar, wind, co-located hybrids, battery storage and pumped hydro. Founded by CEO Luigi Resta six years ago, the company focuses on developing and owning assets in the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) ISO territory—a mostly rural region which Resta believes is both a ripe, untapped market for clean energy and a slice of America that needs the environmental and economic boost that decarbonisation can bring.

It recently brought online a 400MW PV and 400MW/1,600MWh battery storage hybrid resources project in rural Utah, and is vying to be one of the first developers to get a pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) project built in the US in over 35 years.

“From my perspective, we’re providing the service that’s going to be needed, regardless of the outcome [of the election],” Resta says.

“I’ve been doing this a long time, and utilities have to work beyond administrative changes. Administrations come and go. Policies come and go. Energy is a needed commodity, regardless of the policy or administration.”

“My view is: you take it like a utility would view it and as long-term. We are certainly keenly aware of the upcoming election and what the ramifications can be for our industry as a whole.”

That could mean additional tariffs on solar or battery materials, components and products imported from China, which a Republican administration might be expected to introduce.

“We’ve had Biden for the last four years. It’s been great: the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) Act. The infrastructure has been great.”

But the previous Trump administration from 2016 to 2020 did not necessarily impact the industry as much as some thought it might, he says.

In fact, the Republicans, and Supreme Court Justices they appoint, might cut red tape and speed up development of projects, although this would perhaps be solely motivated by economics and “less on the true benefits of everything we (the industry) do, from economic diversity and global warming and climate change and transition to a lower carbon-emitting resource,” Resta says.

System integrator Fluence: Both parties have reasons to support clean energy

John Zahuranick, Americas president, Fluence

Fluence, consistently ranked as one of the biggest energy storage system integrators in the world, recently began production of its battery modules in Utah. While its business is of course global, with 11.1GW deployed in 47 different markets, the US remains a key focus.

John Zahuarancik, who was one of Fluence’s founders back in 2018, echoes Luigi Resta’s view that clean energy is here to say, whether under Trump and Vance, or Harris and Walz. He notes, too, that although it enjoys policy support today in the US, energy storage had been deployed unsubsidised for several years prior to that.

“Every case of where we sold and installed the system, it was on the pure merits of the benefit. It was a better and cheaper way to do the job that we needed to do,” Zahurancik says.

A few years ago, energy storage began qualifying for investment tax credit (ITC) incentives if paired with renewables, and the IRA unlocked standalone storage ITCs from 2022, but in many other territories Fluence operates in, there are no incentives or policy support at all.

Nonetheless, support mechanisms help accelerate the deployment, and cost reduction of technologies, and where that has already happened for solar PV and wind, it is now happening for energy storage, which Zahurancik believes has entered an “aggressive growth phase.”

At the same time, technology advances, companies innovate, further bringing down costs and increasing efficiencies.

“That is happening regardless of whatever political scenario we go into. Generally, that’s happened with renewables, where it’s the least cost source of power in most places, and so we’re just going to see that continue.”

Zahurancik says that what happens with foreign trade policy and tariffs is “probably the biggest political question” that the industry faces, and that Fluence is prepared for a range of outcomes.

“Both parties have signalled they’re going to do tariffs, we’re in a period where everyone expects tariffs on Chinese goods, and then the question is, how high does that go?”

How prospective tariff increases come in will also have an impact, he says. The current Biden administration recently hiked up tariffs on batteries from 7.5% to 25%, which is steep but does not go into effect until 2026, a runway, Zahurancik says, which gave the industry time to adapt.

So, retrospective tariffs or sudden changes in policy could have a negative impact, but Fluence is prepared in any case, he claims, referring back to its strategy of supply chain diversification, domestic manufacturing of modules and domestic sourcing of cells.

“If there’s heavy policy support, great, Fluence will continue to do what it’s doing and take advantage of that for our customers. If we see high trade barriers and tariffs, we think domestic manufacturing makes sense in that environment.”

And, ultimately, if clean energy is good business, both Republicans and Democrats have strong reasons to support it, he says.

“On the Republican side, we’re creating a lot of jobs in red states. The factories that we’re interacting with, and building, are largely in Republican states, so from [perspectives of] economic development, independence from oil and other fuel sources, innovation and reducing costs and increasing reliability, we think that makes the argument. The other party likes the climate and managing climate change. Each party has its reasons to like and support what we’re doing.”  

Energy and climate have hardly featured in either candidate’s election campaigning—certainly in the presidential debates it has warranted little to no mention at all.

“I think the issues that are driving the campaign are general economic prosperity, immigration and other things,” Zahurancik says.

“My general take is, we’ll probably see some surprises that come whichever group wins, but I don’t think it’s going to be a wholesale change.”

That said, in the short term, the Fluence co-founder noted that the election run-up has meant that some people have hesitated to finalise investments, particularly for battery manufacturing.  

Our series of brief interviews will continue this week…

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