Jul 26, 2023 · 28m · green-blueprint
A surprise benefit of rooftop solar in New England
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gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
Host Stephen Lacey and reporter Ben Storrow examine how behind-the-meter rooftop solar unexpectedly solved New England's winter grid reliability dilemmas, comparing these findings to Texas's summer renewable performance and discussing the expansion of domestic clean energy manufacturing.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. How this is scored →
The hosts as informed peer 6.3 Guest teaching 3.8 Guest disagreement 1.0 The hosts pushing back 1.0
speaking balance: gold is the hosts, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 6:05 Guest critiques New England clean energy hypocrisy
The guest candidly points out that despite aggressive rhetoric on climate goals, New England's actual record of building utility-scale renewables lags behind the rest of the country.
Hardest push from the hosts ▶ 17:52 Host highlights limits of daytime solarThe host challenges an overly simplistic narrative around solar by outlining the steep evening ramp and duck curve dynamics that require complementary resources.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 10:45 Guest explains the oil reserve stretching mechanismThe guest explains the specific operational insight from ISO New England's study, showing how behind-the-meter solar preserves on-site fuel oil reserves during extreme winter freezes.
The host holds their own ▶ 9:30 Host outlines renewable penetration thresholdsThe host demonstrates deep technical domain fluency by citing studies showing grid viability at 80% renewables and explaining why modest solar volumes make outsized market impacts.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | The hosts as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | The hosts pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New England's Winter Fuel Dilemma and Mystic Generating Station | 7 | 4 | 1 | 1 | The host provides specific regional context regarding the Mystic Generating Station, its LNG reliance, and pipeline constraints, while the guest details ISO New England's recent FERC findings. | |
| Podcast Introduction and CorePower Sponsor Feature | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | The host contextualizes New England's transition away from legacy fuels, while the guest points out the sharp disconnect between regional climate rhetoric and utility-scale renewable buildouts. | |
| Shifting Renewable Energy Realities and Regulatory Validation | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | The host probes the sudden regulatory reversal regarding solar's value, and the guest details how state regulators successfully pressed ISO New England to model real-world grid operations. | |
| How Rooftop Solar Stretches New England's Winter Fuel Reserves | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | The host notes that modest renewable capacities substantially reduce reliability risks, and the guest explains how winter solar preserves on-site dual-fuel oil reserves during peak cold snaps. | |
| Valuing Distributed Energy Resources and Solar Forecasting | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | The host directs the conversation toward distributed energy valuation and Texas grid stress, with the guest sharing real-time operational data from ERCOT heat waves. | |
| Comparative Grid Dynamics: Resource Abundance and Energy Efficiency | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | The host articulates the evening ramp and duck curve challenges across grids, prompting the guest to contrast New England's efficiency focus with Texas's resource abundance. | |
| The Long-Term Challenges of Managing Grid Decarbonization | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | The host frames long-term grid decarbonization trade-offs and adds the real-world impact of wildfire smoke on solar forecasting, which the guest affirms. | |
| Episode Credits and The Carbon Copy Outro | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | The host conducts a collaborative interview with a clean-tech executive regarding public-private partnerships and domestic battery manufacturing under the IRA. |
Statements from this episode (18)
Lacey: Half of New England's power generation relies on natural gas
“Today, half of the generation mix is gas, but pipeline constraints have led to high prices and unscheduled power plant outages in the winter.”
Storrow: Subsidies keeping Mystic Generating Station open will end in 2024
“New England consumers basically are paying a subsidy and have been paying a subsidy the last couple years to keep that plan open, but that, those payments are gonna end next year”
Storrow: ISO New England study finds rooftop solar stabilized regional grid
“And the study finds that, no, actually, New England's grid is, at least in the next couple of years, is actually in really good shape. And a big reason that it's in really good shape is that New Englanders have put so much solar on their rooftops that it is ef…”
Lacey: ISO New England reversed stance to deem rooftop solar critical
“For years, rooftop solar was overlooked as a reliability solution in New England. But in a very sudden reversal, the grid operator says it's critical to keeping the lights on across the region.”
Lacey: Gas replaced retired New England plants due to NIMBYism, not renewables
“But in New England, because of interconnection constraints and lots of nimbyism, gas has pretty much filled in the gap, not utility-scale wind and solar.”
Storrow: New England Lags Most Regions in Utility-Scale Renewable Resources
“In terms of utility scale, renewable resources, I mean, you know, we pretty much are behind everybody.”
Lacey: Rooftop solar shaved enough demand to shut down major fossil plant
“And then suddenly you have this finding that rooftop solar can shave enough demand to shut down the region's third biggest fossil power plant.”
Storrow: Southwest Power Pool Regularly Sets Records for Renewable Grid Penetration
“SPP, the grid operator, and the Great Plains, like, every year is setting new records for, I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but, like, just The vast majority of the system is running off of renewables.”
Lacey: Most Grid Researchers Agree Grids Can Handle 80% Renewables
“And now most serious people who are studying this say we can handle on a lot of grids, 80% renewable energy.”
Storrow: Winter Renewables Extend New England Gas Plants' On-Site Oil Reserves
“These gas plants that we keep talking about as a sort of a reliability buffer, they've all installed oil fire backup. They have oil tanks on site. So if the spot price for gas gets really high, or the pipeline got constrained, they can switch over. And start b…”
Storrow: Texas is setting records for load, renewable, and solar output
“Texas is setting new records during this incredible heat wave that they're having for load for renewable output, and for solar output”
Storrow: Renewables are serving 30% of Texas's 82 GW peak load
“We're getting, on some of the records, we're seeing there are days where, you know, renewables are serving 30% of the Texas, of Texas load, of ERCOT load, and I mean, 30% of ERCOT's load, it's 82 gigawatts.”
Storrow: Solar generation mitigated Texas grid crises during summer heatwave
“They have issued some voluntary conservation notices, but it has not been quite as White knuckle driving as it has been in the last couple years, and a big part of that is, is the amount of renewable generation, and particularly solar, that they're having.”
Storrow: Texas historically neglected energy efficiency due to abundant cheap power
“Texas is an, I should maybe say energy resource poor region of the country, and Texas is an energy rich resource of the country in pretty much every sense of the word, right? And so I think when I talk to people down in Texas, the solar and the wind are a real…”
Storrow: The core grid challenge is phasing out fossils while incentivizing retention
“We're starting to push past that first phase of the energy transition where we're just bringing, and it Megawatt hours of clean power online and we're not really to the upward bounds of, like, You know, we're not to 50 or 60% renewables yet, but, like, we can …”
Lacey: Wildfire Smoke Drastically Cut Solar Power Generation in New England
“Wildfire smoke here in New England has drastically cut solar power production, so none of this is easy to model out.”
Lacey: More than $70B in clean energy manufacturing announced post-IRA
“Since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, more than seventy billion dollars in new clean energy manufacturing investments have been announced, according to a Canary Media analysis.”
Gorrill: North America has minerals for 100 years of US battery production
“Well, I think if you can develop the cell manufacturing plants, which is what we are, we're a cell manufacturer, and then all the upstream supply chain, you should have, there's enough minerals in North America to supply the United States' need for this type o…”