Addition Over Subtraction

Contributed by RNW Staff

At the News Data Western Energy Conference in Boise, our Executive Director, Nicole Hughes, called for a strategy that “lifts all boats” in the electric sector. This comment has raised questions, and we’d like to address what this actually means for Renewable Northwest (RNW) and our clean energy mission.

At its core, RNW’s mission has always been clear: to accelerate the transition to renewable energy. That goal has not changed in more than 30 years of our existence, and will not change in years to come. What has changed is the external landscape within which we do this work.  Today the challenges to grid reliability, affordability and deployment of clean energy are greater  than ever, requiring us to continually refine our priorities and strategies.  

While the pathway to this mission has evolved in response to shifting external forces, the goal of expanding renewable energy — and recognizing its essential role in decarbonization — remains at the heart of our work. The nuance lies in how we pursue that goal: shaping state policy, engaging in regulatory proceedings, and advancing smart market and transmission solutions. We believe the way we achieve a goal matters every bit as much or more than the goal itself. 

In 2021 when RNW advocated for 100% clean energy policies in Oregon and Washington, load growth was essentially flat. At the time, no one anticipated the massive increases in electricity demand utilities are now forecasting over the next decade. Starting in early 2023, utilities began sounding the alarm: fossil generation was retiring just as load growth was accelerating for the first time in more than a decade. Layer on top of that a strained transmission system, global supply chain disruptions, and inflation, and the landscape for utility planning has shifted dramatically. Today, concerns about affordability and wildfire risk dominate utility priorities, while meeting clean energy mandates has fallen much lower on the list of immediate challenges.  

Now that it is clear demand for electricity is increasing rapidly, everyone agrees new energy generation will be needed. Our view of the “all of the above” strategy is simple: in a fair, stable market, renewables will be the first choice the vast majority of the time. This is why RNW advocates for renewables to be accurately and fairly quantified from both a cost of and risk perspective in utility planning and procurement proceedings, among other settings. When renewables are allowed to compete unencumbered in energy markets, they are often selected over costlier and riskier alternatives, like fossil fuels.  

When geographically diverse renewable energy and storage resources are linked together with an effective market, a robust transmission network, and scalable demand response programs, it is possible to operate a system primarily off of wind/solar, storage and hydro resources. However, we are far from this utopian market and decades of inaction on new transmission capacity means it will be some time until we have the electricity infrastructure and market available to see this reality come true. In the meantime, we cannot put our desire to rapidly transition to a cleaner grid ahead of basic reliability and cost pressures. The grid still needs a diversity of resources when reliability, weather, or operational limits require solutions renewables alone can’t provide. That’s where the nuance of our approach comes in.

An “all of the above” approach doesn’t mean defending every existing resource indefinitely. Rather, we need to think critically about what the incremental resource should be — one that minimizes cost and risk while making strides towards clean energy mandates. Operating a grid dominated by high-emitting sources carries serious risks. Coal has become too costly and damaging to justify and is being replaced — not only by renewables alone, but by a diversity of resources that have included more efficient natural gas plants. Along with hydroelectric power and storage assets, natural gas can provide the flexibility needed to integrate more wind and solar. 

We recognize that building new fossil fuel generation carries its own risks, and we highlight those risks throughout the utility planning and procurement process. However, given today’s grid pressures, we believe policies that categorically block a specific resource without a holistic examination of the system needs are shortsighted. Such restrictions risk undermining grid reliability, slowing progress toward a cleaner system, and deepening the political and social divides over energy generation. The mix of resources powering our homes and businesses should not be dictated by politics and ideological battles, but guided by physics, economics, and the shared goal of a reliable, affordable, and cleaner grid.

Nicole’s comments at the NewsData conference should not be seen as a shift in our mission — RNW will not begin advocating for gas - that has never been our role and never will be. What we will continue to do is seek out areas of alignment with partners in the electricity sector that support our mission while keeping our focus squarely on our area of expertise, scaling new renewable generation, as we’ve done for more than 30 years. In sum, RNW’s “all of the above” strategy is about addition, not subtraction: building a cleaner grid by scaling renewables while protecting reliability and affordability.