Sam Evans-Brown sees an energy transition on the horizon, as technology improves for solar generating and storing, and electric transportation becomes more affordable.
Evams-Brown, executive director of Clean Energy NH, a nonprofit and clean energy advocate, was the latest speaker at the Amos Fortune Forum, a weekly lecture series in Jaffrey. On Friday at the Jaffrey Meetinghouse, he presented “The Energy Transition and Why It’s Inevitable.”
Evans-Brown is a registered lobbyist, and one of his roles is to speak with and educate lawmakers about clean energy. He said that many of the arguments he hears against a clean energy transition are all able to be overcome — particularly right now, as the cost of some of technology, particularly solar, is on the decline.
“This is the foundation for my optimism,” said Evans-Brown.
Evans-Brown said one of the issues in comparing current fuel sources with solar is that burning fossil fuels results in a lot of wasted potential energy. More-efficient sources will waste less and not have to build up as much production, he said.
Another argument, he said, is the intermittency of solutions like solar and wind — in other words, what to do when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining.
Evans-Brown said in the short term, the answer is already there in New Hampshire’s current energy plants, which could just be used less. In the long term, he said there are potential solutions in over-building the system, or, more practically, implementing better battery systems. But he said it’s not going to be a single solution, that when it comes to the problem of intermittency, there is not a “silver bullet,” but a “silver buckshot” of some technological mix of batteries and advancing geothermal or nuclear power options.
Evans-Brown argued that the energy transition is already underway in other parts of the world.
“People want cheap energy, and solar is the cheapest energy out there,” he said, pointing out the rate of solar energy production globally is doubling every three years.
“It’s growing faster than any source of energy in human history. There’s now more money, globally, flowing into energy transition technology than there is going into fossil fuels,” Evans-Brown said.
The leader in this, he said, is China, but there are about 20 countries that have generated 25% or more of monthly utility electricity supplies from solar farms. In countries like Germany, there is a growing trend of “balcony solar,” where people in apartments can generate electricity with panels hanging on their balcony railings. Evans-Brown said that’s a trend that might start to see traction in the United States, as Utah recently passed a law allowing that type of generation.
“This is a technology people want. It’s inexpensive, and it’s happening,” he said, saying it was like a race that the United States isn’t even aware is happening. “This transition is inevitable. It’s happening with or without us.”
Evans-Brown recently said recent policy decisions at the national level are likely to impact local solar installations, and he anticipates seeing prices go up. He said there will likely be a rush of customers seeking to install solar on their homes before the end of the year, to take advantage of federal tax credits for rooftop solar, heat pumps and other energy-efficient systems, which will disappear at the end of 2025.
Heightened demand is likely to translate into higher prices, said Evans-Brown, and when the tax credit ends, it’s likely to have a depressing effect on the industry.
The next Amos Fortune Forum is July 25 at 7 p.m. at the Jaffrey Meetinghouse and will feature Paul Wainwright, speaking on “New England’s Colonial Meetinghouses; A Little-Known Chapter of American History.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.