Distributed Energy Storage Affirmed by US Court of Appeals

Distributed Energy Storage Affirmed by US Court of Appeals; Solar Net Metering Challenge Rejected by FERC; BlackRock Fires Climate Warning Shots; and Green H2 Competitive by 2030

1) US D.C. Court of Appeals denied a NARUC and APPA petition to halt passage of FERC 841. As a result, on-site storage can participate in wholesale markets. Tension is now likely to arise between those markets and the distribution utilities that don't know when those distributed assets are activated, which could cause problems.

2) The FERC ruled unanimously to reject a petition that would have quashed state net metering rules allowing customers to sell surplus solar into the grid at a retail rate, essentially running the customer meter backwards. FERC used a procedural argument to say no, so this may recur.

3) Investment management firm BlackRock - with its $7 trillion under management - reported last week that it used its shares to vote against 53 companies not making progress in addressing climate change. 37 of the companies it addressed were energy companies with the combined market cap of $408 billion.

4) IHS Markit says green hydrogen from renewables being cost competitive with fossil fuel-derived gray hydrogen by 2030.