TOLEDO — "Two companies in northwest Ohio, First Solar and Toledo Solar, are harnessing the power of the sun using American innovation.

'Outside of the country of China per capita, this is the most amount of solar manufacturer, manufacturing in the world,' said Aaron Bates, the CEO of Toledo Solar. 

The companies are neighbors, but not competitors. First Solar supplies the utility-scale solar market and Toledo Solar supplies the non-utility market, meaning residential homes and commercial buildings."

-- Taylor Bruck, Spectrum News

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NEW YORK -- "U.S. manufacturing takes up a lot of energy, but there’s untapped potential in solar power for that sector, new research finds. A study looked at how installing solar panels throughout manufacturing sites could meet a third of that sector’s power needs.

Researchers used a survey from the Department of Energy and compared states to understand where rooftop solar could best supply electricity needs for manufacturing. They found that companies that focus on textiles, apparel, and furniture would benefit the most from transitioning to solar energy. Their work is published in the journal Environmental Research: Sustainability and Infrastructure.

Matthew Eckelman, an associate professor at Northeastern University, told Earther that he and other researchers used the DOE survey to find regional estimates “of how much electricity each type of manufacturing uses per unit of floor space.” They determined that states in the Southwest, including Arizona, California, Nevada, and New Mexico, received enough sunlight to meet a large portion of energy needs. During spring and summer months, some companies could use solar for up to 40% of their electricity needs, the study found."

-- Angeley Mercado, Gizmodo

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The arrays on Parsons Avenue and Jackson Pike on the city's far south side could be complete by the end of the year

COLUMBUS -- "Columbus is adding more solar energy on the far south side of the city that could power the equivalent of 7,500 homes, according to city officials.

Two arrays on Parsons Avenue and Jackson Pike will add 45 megawatts of solar power to the city's clean energy supply. Mayor Andrew Ginther and other city officials broke ground Thursday at the Parsons Avenue location.

Ginther said the new arrays will help the city achieve its goals to reduce carbon emissions."

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• What would NOPEC say to customers who have experienced huge, unaffordable bill increases while other Ohioans participating in aggregation programs have seen bill savings, especially in this moment when so many vulnerable community members are struggling to make ends meet?

• Why was so much of NOPEC’s purchasing tied to the volatile natural gas market? Does NOPEC plan to purchase more renewable energy to better hedge against price fluctuation?

• Why did other aggregators in Ohio get this right and NOPEC got it so wrong?

• Do we anticipate leadership changes or organizational reforms in response to this blunder that is impacting so many Ohioans?

• When did you know the price per kwh was 12¢ and what steps did you take to inform and protect consumers? When did you take these steps?

• When and how did NOPEC inform their 240 member communities of their decision to switch customers off NOPEC and onto the standard service offering?

• NOPEC leadership forecasts spring 2023 energy prices to be more affordable for customers. If they can forecast into next spring, why couldn’t they forecast this summer’s steep prices and avoid them or at least warn consumers?

• How does the suspension of NOPEC’s aggregation program affect the terms of its contracts with communities?

• If the PUCO revokes NOPEC’s certificate to aggregate, what happens to its contracts with member communities? Should member communities shop around to other aggregators?

COLUMBUS — "NOPEC must defend its right to be an electric energy aggregator in Ohio after announcing plans to lower electric bills for 550,000 customers by purging them from its rate plans, state regulators ruled Wednesday.

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio directed NOPEC to show cause and explain why its certificate to do business should not be revoked by Sept. 28. The commission also waived rules so NOPEC could transition customers to other providers without a 90-day notice.

PUCO Chair Jenifer French said the PUCO wants NOPEC customers to benefit from lower electricity prices, which is why it ruled in favor of NOPEC in granting the waiver on Wednesday. But the commission is still concerned about NOPEC’s plan to move so many customers at once."

-- Seam McDonnell, cleveland.com

link to full article

CLEVELAND -- "NOPEC, the default electricity supplier for much of Northeast Ohio, is temporarily moving nearly all of its more than 500,000 customers to their utility’s default choice so customers can save money on their monthly bills.

The Northeast Ohio Public Energy Council, a nonprofit energy aggregator that normally offers among the lowest rates, is making this move because its standard program price is now much higher than the default pricing available through the Illuminating Co., Ohio Edison and others.

...NOPEC spokesman Dave Jankowski said this decision is unprecedented. Until now customers have had to call to opt out of NOPEC’s default price. But Jankowski said NOPEC decided switching was in customers’ best interest, and this would be easier than having each customer make a call."

--Sean McCDonnell, cleveland.com

full article

CLEVELAND -- "The strange and volatile energy markets the world has seen in recent months have caught up with NOPEC, the region's largest energy aggregator that supplies power to more than half a million people in more than 240 Ohio communities.

The rates NOPEC charges customers, which in the past have often been lower than what utilities would charge, are now deep underwater compared with the current standard service offering customers would get by default. NOPEC's rates are now about twice what customers would pay to their utility by default — a rate that is shown on their bills as the "price to compare" and is obvious to consumers.

As a result, NOPEC is cutting nearly all its electric customers loose — about 550,000 out of a total of just over 560,000."

-- Dan Shingler, Crain's Cleveland

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House Public Utilities Committee

Chairman Hoops, Vice Chair Ray, and Ranking Member Smith

Proponent Testimony on House Bill 351

Testimony of Rachael Belz

Ohio Consumers Power Alliance

September 29, 2021

Chairman Hoops, Vice Chair Ray, Ranking Member Smith, and Members of the Public Utilities Committee, my name is Rachael Belz, and I am the Director of the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance, a project of the Ohio Citizen Action Education Fund dedicated to educating Ohio’s energy consumers around opportunities to diversify Ohio’s energy portfolio and policy actions that could impact consumer choice and spending.  Our members fully support House Bill 351.

Ohio Consumers Power Alliance was opposed to House Bill 6 when it was being debated in 2019 and strongly supported the efforts to fully repeal the legislation once it was revealed that the bill was at the center of a $61 million bribery scandal. What began as bad public policy soon became bad public policy born of corruption and collusion.

While the Ohio General Assembly has passed legislation to remove the nuclear subsidies and decoupling provisions from House Bill 6, there has still been no full repeal. That means the coal subsidies created for the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) included in House Bill 6 – which have been estimated to be worth $700 million — remain in place, to be funded by Ohio consumers. These dollars are intended to bailout two dirty coal-fired power plants, one of which is even located in Indiana.

In fact, House Bill 6 expanded the bailout of the OVEC coal plants to require FirstEnergy customers to pay for the bailout starting in January 2020. Every dollar collected under these subsidies from FirstEnergy customers is handed over to AEP, Duke, and Dayton Power & Light to further subsidize the bailouts for those companies.

Photo by Alvin Trusty via Flickr.com;

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Lima,Ohio recently joined the Power a Clean Future Ohio (PCFO) initiative; therefore committing to lower its' carbon emissions by 30% by the year 2030. Lima is "setting an example for other cities of what it means to prioritize sustainability in 2021 and beyond...According to Clean Fuels Ohio, the state currently stands as the nation’s sixth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, presenting an opportunity for carbon pollution reduction initiatives in the state to make a significant impact." Power a Clean Future is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that is "dedicated to helping cities and towns move away from pollution-generating energy sources."

"Chief of Staff Sharetta Smith said this commitment represents a continuation of their efforts. For example, the city in northwest Ohio benefited from federal energy grants in 2008 and 2009 to make the transition to LED lighting inside the city’s buildings and some government-owned streetlights. The city had considered using grants more recently to replace its more than 75 vehicles over time, but that grant money was no longer available.

We’re interested in picking that work back up, starting with the analysis of moving to alternative fuel use for our vehicles, but then working through the process to get some technical training to create a sustainability plan for the city,” she said. “And so, we’re working with Power a Clean Future Ohio to again collect data.”

To read more about Lima's recent commitment to PCFO, please check out this article by Lauren Caggiano here. 

Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee

Chairman Peterson, Vice Chair Schuring, and Ranking Member Williams

Proponent Testimony on Senate Bill 117

Testimony of Rachael Belz

Ohio Consumers Power Alliance

May 12, 2021

Chairman Peterson, Vice Chair Schuring, Ranking Member Williams, and Members of the Energy and Public Utilities Committee, my name is Rachael Belz, and I am the Director of the Ohio Consumers Power Alliance, a project of the Ohio Citizen Action Education Fund dedicated to educating Ohio’s energy consumers around opportunities to diversify Ohio’s energy portfolio and policy actions that could impact consumer choice and spending. Our members fully support Senate Bill 117.

Ohio Consumers Power Alliance was opposed to House Bill 6 when it was being debated in 2019 and strongly supported the efforts to fully repeal the legislation once it was revealed that the bill was at the center of a $61 million bribery scandal. What began as bad public policy soon became bad public policy born of corruption and collusion.

While the Ohio General Assembly has passed legislation to remove the nuclear subsidies and decoupling provisions from House Bill 6, there has still been no full repeal. That means the coal subsidies created for the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation (OVEC) included in House Bill 6 – which have been estimated to be worth $700 million — remain in place, to be funded by Ohio consumers. These dollars are intended to bailout two dirty coal-fired power plants, one of which his even located in Indiana.

In fact, House Bill 6 expanded the bailout of the OVEC coal plants to require FirstEnergy customers to pay for the bailout starting in January 2020. Every dollar collected under these subsidies from FirstEnergy customers is handed over to AEP, Duke, and Dayton Power & Light to further subsidize the bailouts for those companies. FirstEnergy customers bear the brunt of bad utility policy on multiple fronts, but you can change that with your support of Senate Bill 117.

FirstEnergy and other utility giants should not receive any benefit from legislation passed under the shadow of corruption and lies. Dollars collected through an OVEC bailout should never leave the pockets of hardworking Ohioans and should never be used to line the pockets of wealthy executives.

Corruption made HB 6 possible, and we have continuously called on members of the General Assembly to right this wrong and repeal all components of the bill. Repealing the OVEC subsidies included in HB 6 is an important step in restoring faith in our government by standing up for real, everyday Ohio consumers.

I strongly urge you to remove the OVEC subsidies remaining from HB 6 and support the people of Ohio by supporting Senate Bill 117.