What utilities can teach us about fighting climate change
在2018年，我们已经看到气候变化的恶劣影响，出现比预期的要快得多, and carbon emissions continue toincrease at a record pace。但对这种赤裸裸的背景下，并在联邦层面不明朗的政治意愿来解决它，闪亮的业务和政府主导的行动的例子说明，以低碳的可能和盈利的转变，降低成本的能源结构。
Nowhere has this trend been more visible in 2018 than among American electric utilities, and not just those in blue-state strongholds. Motivated not by politics but by lower costs, value creation and customer preferences, a growing number of electric utilities across the nation unilaterally have announced ambitious targets for carbon reductions in line with science-based goals and the international commitments made under the Paris Agreement.
Colorado is an indicative and encouraging example of this emerging trend. Colorado is anunabashedly purple statewith split priorities on climate, but its 41 electric utilities serve communities across the political spectrum using the same set of objectives focused on safe, reliable and affordable service. No matter where in the state or political spectrum you look, these same timeless objectives are increasingly aligned with accelerated adoption of low-cost renewable energy.
The largest public recognition of this emerging reality has come from eight-state Xcel Energy, whose Colorado operation provides electricity to over half of the customers in that state. Xcel, afterdiscoveringearlier this year that continuing to run two coal plants would cost its customers an extra $200 million compared to retiring and replacing them with renewables and batteries, this month became the first major, multi-state U.S. utility to提交to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2050.
Other utilities serving a diverse cross-section of Colorado customers have taken similar steps in 2018. Colorado Springs Utilities, serving a military town,announceda plan to provide over 20 percent of its energy from solar projects by 2024. The board of Platte River Power Authority, serving four municipalities in northern Colorado,voted unanimouslyto adopt a goal of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2030. And Holy Cross Energy, a small cooperative utility in the mountains of central Colorado,adopteda goal of 70 percent renewable energy by 2030.人们日益认识到，随着成本较低的可再生能源取代煤将受益客户。
These new goals from diverse Colorado utilities ensure that over half of all electricity sold in the state will come from zero-carbon resources by 2030, leapfrogging the 30 percent standard set by the legislature and providing a business-led head start for the policy goals of Gov.-elect Jared Polis, who campaigned with a 100 percent renewable energy target. Incoming governors in other states, includingNew Mexico,Wisconsin和Maine，正致力于清洁能源，甚至作为联邦政府doubles downon high-cost, legacy coal technologies.
Electric utilities across the country have come to the same conclusions about the emerging cost-effectiveness of low-carbon resources compared to legacy coal technologies. Even among utilities who own and operate significant fleets of coal-fired generation, there is increasing recognition that replacing coal with lower-cost renewables will benefit customers — and even help make systems more resilient against disruption.
例如，太平洋电力公司，大型公用事业六个西方国家的客户提供服务，发布了study (PDF)in early December showing that 13 out of its 22 existing coal-fired generating units were more costly to keep running than to replace with new, cleaner resources. Consumers Energy in Michiganfiled a plan6月份其调节到2040年退役所有的燃煤发电机组，可再生资源和能源效率的投资替代它们完全。而北印第安纳公共服务公司在煤炭国家的心脏，在去年11月宣布它可以通过淘汰所有的燃煤电厂提前与风能，太阳能和电池更换为他们节省了客户$ 4十亿。
即使公用事业在他们的野心落后于迅速朝低成本的清洁电力移动，美国企业超过收拾残局。所以，在2018年至今，公司有signed deals买了近5000兆瓦的新的可再生能源项目，砸在往年的记录集，并再次证明了利润动机，没有政治动机，应对气候变化行动的情况。
As world leaders gather in Poland for COP24 to negotiate international goals for climate action, a quiet revolution is meanwhile underway in the American power sector, driven in large part by economics and the power of innovation.
Although much progress is yet to be made by U.S. utilities in setting and achieving climate-aligned goals, 2018 has shown how quickly even our $400 billion utility industry can move when the money is right and the need for climate action is clear. As we struggle with ways to further decarbonize our economy and limit the worst effects of climate change, policymakers and business leaders in other sectors can take a lesson.
