 My name is Rebecca blood. I have the good fortune to be involved in this year's expo and policy forum I'm delighted to be in front of you today and add my welcome. Thank you for taking time out of your lunch schedule to join us It's my privilege to be here in front of one of my favorite topics panels renewables renewable trends I'm a longtime advocate both personally and professionally working on these issues. I have a big piece of my heart that belongs to the hydro power community and But with that we work together as a village in this town So I'm pleased to have with us today some outstanding representatives from the renewable energy sector I will introduce them and start on my left and have them give us less than 10 minutes Maybe 10 minutes max Overview of what's going on in their sector So we have Jeff Leahy to my far left. He's the deputy executive director for the National Hydro Power Association Here in town. We have Bill Hamlin. He's with the is the energy policy advisor for the Canadian Hydro Power Association To my immediate right. We have Mona Mona Khalil with the US Geological Survey Brie Ram to her right now represents as vice president for federal affairs the American Wind Energy Association and to her right my far right is Christopher Mansour VP federal affairs for the solar energy Industries Association so with that Jeff you can sit and speak or stand and talk So I just want to give you all a very quick introduction into the National Hydro Power Association We have over 230 members across the country But hydro is multiple technologies I think everybody sort of thinks of conventional hydro when they think hydro power, but we also represent pump storage hydro power, which is the largest Energy storage technology in the US in the world today. We also represent small hydro power projects like conduit in hydro power As well as marine energy and the new energy Up there we go the new wave and tidal Technologies as well. So all of that together. However, you generate power from water. We represent you What is our role? It's to create a better policy environment and that includes regulatory tax Market policy to support the development of new projects, but also to preserve and to reinvest in the existing System that we have particularly in the hydro side as we're still looking to commercialize some of the newer technologies We see in marine energy and others So I'm going to talk about these but I would also want to put point out from the very beginning particularly for the marine energy technologies and some of the new technologies that are happening in conventional hydro that Appropriations in support for DOE's R&D Budget is a critical issue as many of these projects and devices are in sort of their first or second stages and haven't yet gotten to Commercialization so I just wanted to put that out there up front We've talked a little bit about that in the hall some of the members of Congress the importance of preserving The R&D budgets for the Department of Energy and other agencies that work to support those initiatives So what is the future of the trend for hydro over the last I'd say about 10 years We've seen a modest incremental growth in the hydropower industry. We've added about 2,000 megawatts Of capacity over the course of the last 10 years So basically it's been flat with a modest increase But the Department of Energy and others when they've looked at the potential opportunity in our sector have seen as much as 50 gigawatts By 2050 if the right policies are put in place and we see that potential across all of the sectors So I won't go into specifically about how that all breaks down But if you were to Google hydropower vision report that would come up and it's sort of the Bible of the hydropower industry now It's a and I think there are very few people who have read all 543 pages of it But if you're looking for any sort of fact Information about the hydropower industry, I really would direct you to that document So we have all of this potential that's out there, you know, only 3% of dams have hydropower on them We have these new technologies We have new pump storage projects that are trying to be built but what are the challenges that we're facing as an industry and you know I'm here to say that those challenges are significant and for some sectors of the industry You know, they really are facing a crisis point with a lack of policy support for hydro that is comparable to that for other Industries that my colleagues on this panel represent We all know the electricity sector is a highly competitive sector and The policies in place or the lack thereof for hydro is really making it almost impossible for my industry to compete economically And to be an option that is a viable option not only for new developers But even for the preservation of existing assets So I'm briefly going to discuss some of these and I will try to be very brief regulatory We need hydro is the only renewable resource that is our regulator is the federal government the federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Many other of the federal resource agencies participate in that licensing process and that process along with project construction can easily take 8 to 10 years That is a tremendous amount of time and is not in the same Scale as other resources and I'm we're not saying it should be equal There are some differences for hydropower that that need to be taken into account But when you're looking at 8 to 10 years versus 18 months to 24 months That alone drives investment to other resources in a way from hydropower even though the projects make a lot of economic sense So in the long run so we need a shorter better coordinated and less costly licensing process And you know, I'm happy to report this bipartisan legislation out there in both the House and the Senate that has made strides That we're working on to hopefully see Enacted tax policy the hydro and marine energy tax credits have expired again Some of my colleagues have been lucky their industries have long-term extensions But we need to have those tax credits expired if we're going to be able to compete again In in the marketplace and and for pump storage We're also working and many of my colleagues here are also working on this as well And energy storage tax credit currently there is no tax credit on the federal policy side To support energy storage. We would like to see that enacted in in pump storage included Market policy hydro is a flexible base load resource But in the markets we need hydro and pump storage to be first recognized and second compensated for the grid Reliability services and resiliency services that it brings That is not always happening and again It's just yet another benefit that when you stack up all of these issues that are not getting recognized Compensated for or treated differently than other resources Really puts us at a disadvantage and lastly with regards to policy I want to talk about state policies and just say hydro is not always recognized fully as a renewable energy resource yet It is NHA commissioned the Browell group last year to look at this and they looked at state policies Particularly state RPS policies and their analysis found that the hydro industry is currently missing out on 1.5 billion dollars worth of revenue Or or value Annually because of their disparate treatment under state renewable portfolio standards. So Again, it just sort of highlights how we're just at a different place Than than other resources. So to wrap up, you know Our challenge NHA's challenge and the challenge that we are making to Congress and the administration and the state policymakers is how do we reevaluate and amend some of these policies to Equal out some of these disparities that have been sort of baked into those policies over the course of the last 20 to 30 years the grid has changed tremendously and our Energy portfolio has changed tremendously over the last 20 to 30 years. I would say that it's changed for the better But at the same time that also it is different And so I think we need to look back and look at some of those policies with a different framework And a different in a different lens where we are today versus where we were 20 or 30 years ago With that I will stop and I will turn it over to my colleagues. Thank you. Hi there, Bill Hamlin from Canadian Hyder Power Association where Industry Association representing primarily the Canadian Canadian generators volume on Start with a couple of facts about Canadian Hyder Power Hyder Power is the leading form of electricity in Canada makes up about 60 percent of electricity generation The North American Electrical grid is highly integrated Canadian utilities are Fully integrated that system and it's highly mutual mutually beneficial to both sides like Is that better okay, sorry Electricity flows both ways delivering benefits on both sides of the border But Canada is a net exporter to the United States and in fact we supply 1% of the overall electricity demand in the US small percentage but a small percentage of a very big number and Our significance is is much more important in several border states where we make up a much more significant portion of Generation base Hyder Power is still under development Development in Canada several projects are underway In British Columbia on the West Coast site. See is 1100 megawatt plant It's coming online in 2024 The kiosk generating station in Manitoba almost 700 megawatts in 2021 muskrat falls in Newfoundland and Labrador on the far eastern coast is Going to deliver 824 megawatts starting in 2019 so there's a lot still underway in Canada in terms of greenfield development and There's an enormous potential still still left Canada has the technical potential to double It's already big Canadian Hyder power Installed capacity Let me jump for a minute to the Canadian climate change context, which is Considerably different than in the United States right now Canada remains committed to the Paris Agreement That requires us to reduce our emissions 30% by 2030 We're already 80% Non-emitting in Canada Hydro makes up about 60% of generation Nuclear wind and solar make up another 20% so But Canada has an objective to go beyond that 80% to 90% non-emitting by 2030 Many really regulations are already put in place, but many more are being developed And that includes a carbon pricing system Nationally some provinces already have carbon pricing systems this national national program It's going to start delivering a price ten dollars a ton across the economy In by the end of this year and Go up ten dollars a year To reach 50 dollars a ton by 2022, so it's a significant program Canada's also got a strategy towards meeting Its long-term mid-century goals and that's to reduce 80% by 80% In 2050 and that's based on three pillars increasing energy efficiency Electricity becoming a hundred percent non-emitting and Electrification of much of the economy now those pillars aren't unusual though Those are the those are the things that show up in every deep decarbonization study But it And that kind of strategy necessitates the need for much more hydro much more wind much more solar in Canada the renewable associations are working together closely, so the Hyderpower Association Solar Industry Association Wind Energy Association and marine renewables are all working together to Share that vision long-term vision That not emitting electricity can meet the majority of society's needs by the mid-century We're working together because we recognize the synergies Wind and solar are decree are increasingly delivering low-cost energy But coupled with hydro you get the reliability the flexibility and the energy storage If you pair those resources together, you can essentially deliver a system. That's a hundred percent renewable a good example of How wind and hydro are working together is the case study for manitoba hydro in Minnesota power These companies recognize the need for more renewables More energy storage and a stronger grid Minnesota powers transformational Plan involves moving from being predominantly a coal Company to being one that's 60 66% renewable And that involves a large wind farm in North Dakota and New hydro development in manitoba It also requires transmission and energy storage and manitoba hydros reservoirs Provide that storage and balancing of the system enabling much Much higher penetrations of wind as as Jeff was saying Hyderpower provides many grid services Firmness of supply seasonal storage that can be really important for Solar and northern regions where there's more solar available in the summer and less in the Less in the winter multi-week storage day-to-day storage Storage within the day that allows you to shift Solar production from the daytime to to be used at night and Right down to the second-by-second minute-by-minute Flexibility that enhances system regulation load following and system stability. The problem is As as Jeff pointed out There's there's no real incentives for those kind of services in today's marketplace and as we move to higher penetrations of Intermittent renewables we need to start building in those incentives Storage in perspective The output of Tesla's huge giga factory is Producing between 35 and 50 gigawatt hours of year of battery storage Huge amount But if you compare that with the energy storage, it's already provided in one province in Canada The reservoirs can hold water and effectively act as a battery it would take More than four thousand five hundred years of full production from the giga factory to produce the same amount of storage is already Available in that one Canadian province so the challenge is to produce the the the market signals that Start leading the resources that we have to deliver those services we we need Conclusions we have the opportunity to work together towards a future Electricity system that's affordable reliable secure and virtually free of emissions Hyderpower can enable that future But to get there we need policies to discourage emissions and encourage non-emitting resources We need more transmission and We need new and enhanced market mechanisms that reward flexibility energy storage and other new System services that will be required Thank you. I'll stand up just to get the change to get the blood moving So, thank you. My name is Mona Khalil. I'm with the US Geological Survey. It's great to be here today I wanted to thank ESI and a sustainable energy coalition as well as the caucus for having us here today Some of you may not be familiar with USGS I'll quickly go over a little bit of what we do who we are we're a federal agency Unlike my colleagues here today We work for the Department of the Interior. We are their science agency and that's kind of where we leave it We don't do any policy or regulatory decisions, but we hope that our science can inform those decisions One role that we play for the Department of the Interior is what's called the trust responsibilities So that's where DOI is charged by law to manage And protect species on public lands Species that are conserved under or protected under a variety of acts and so USGS helps with that function and Because energy projects can be built on public lands and they can also impact Species that are under protection We become involved as a science agency that can help managers that that manage these lands and and protected species By making decisions regarding permitting and siding of energy facilities. So putting that in context for today the trends The trends would be maybe greater if there was less impact to wildlife to fish from renewable energy And this is one area that we're really trying to tackle is how do we remove that barrier to more deployment? so this makes our Research portfolio Relatively heavy in looking at energy impacts so Renewable energy has been getting great Great progress as you know and you can actually check this out in one of our maps that maps turbine Deployment across the country. They're now something like 40 54,000 turbines potentially more on the landscape So this is providing great benefits. There's there's no question about that However, the impact to wildlife still largely remains and this is from both Wind turbines from hydropower development even though there's been a lot of effort to allow for fish passage There's room for improvement So as a science agency with a very broad biological portfolio and in addition to all our hazards and water and Volcano work that you know probably know about It be it does become our job to also apply a rigorous and scientific process to understand the risks that are associated with energy development Some of this energy development is very very new and so we don't fully understand those risks yet and and What I want to convey to you today is that essentially today and in the In our history, we are focused on helping find win-win solutions for both natural resource conservation And also for meeting Society's needs for energy that need keeps growing. So that's not something that we'll ever escape. It seems But also I want to mention that Department of Energy is a very big Collaborative of ours and by joining forces. We're able to do some very Innovative research and I'll give some examples of what it is that we're doing with DOE But to give you again a little bit more context, I'm speaking here specifically about wildlife about fish You may be asking aren't there bigger issues, you know, there's You you just pointed out a bunch of new issues, but working in this field and speaking with energy companies I am seeing that Impacts to birds bats fish are a hurdle and if we can reduce those we could have more deployment so There are other factors that come into play with wildlife They're an unruly bunch. We can't seem to tell them where to go or not to go And there are diseases that are impacting their population such as for bats. It's what white nose syndrome, which is Having a lot of impacts on their population And so this is one thing that we're trying to study is how big of a problem Is energy development relatives to some other factors? so The good news is there are technologies and operational practices that can minimize impacts from renewable energy But we're still not where we'd like to be And this is where USGS can help So I'll run through a couple of examples of research that's relatively new that's ongoing We don't have results yet, but this is sort of the nature of USGS is that as soon as we Answer one question so we move on to the next one and work hard to bring the rigor of science to To new questions and new solutions So I assume you all know where we do maps so I'll start with our this is like an old-fashioned very good map to do hiking with and probably other things but our State of the science state of the art maps are now very interactive and I invite you to check out our newest map that Shows wind turbine distributions across the country and we worked with we uh to put this together as well as DOE Where you can see all the distribution of turbines why this is good well other than For your own curiosity of where the turbines are it also helps resource managers Figure out they can download this information and they could see how that might overlap with migratory routes for example People are very interested where ungulates Spend their spring and summer and how they get between those two and so you can see whether they will be crossing Facilities along the way and you can also use that information To potentially site projects in certain areas that are not overlapping with wildlife So again, I encourage you to check that out What we're spending a lot of our research effort on is to specifically figure out the overlap where Energy is the potential is so we know where the wind blows or Where there's good water flow or there's a lot of Sun But also to figure out where species are on the landscape and where they are not and we think that if we can provide that kind Of information to decision-makers they will be able to they'll have better information to make decisions with where Facilities can be placed I'll give you an example of the California Condor This is a species that was brought back from the brink of extinction by the fish and wildlife service and Technology is so good now that we can monitor Every move basically of the condor and so we did a study recently with fish and wildlife service and It's a state of California to figure out what type of airspace Condors prefer and this is again for wind applications So if condors fly above wind turbines most of the time we're good If they actually share wood share space with wind then maybe we want to figure out where we don't put wind turbines and through this kind of detailed research we're able to find out that Condors do actually spend most time above the height of turbines They but they really like ridges and ridge lines And so if you want to be on the safe side and you don't want to strike down a condor You would probably want to put your facility on flatter terrain where there are much more less likely to be above Because they don't like to be stranded up up low either. So we're learning things about Certain species that we didn't know before and this is the kind of research that can help industry Make those choices One example on hydropower. We do have a whole Number of people of biologists doing fish research and fish passage research And we're very excited to start a new project with the help of DOE funding as well as the University of Massachusetts That's looking at ways to Help fish find their way when they're actually trying to make it across the dam. It turns out that once fish find a passage they can cross but Sometimes they just can't figure out where that fish passage way is and this project uses information on fish behavior and You know other techniques to enhance fish Kind of honing towards where they need to go to cross and we're very excited about that because it'll apply to a variety of species But it's still just in the testing phase. And so these these are the types of projects that We we are busy with So I'll wrap it up. I hope that these few examples illustrate a few ways how USGS can Apply biological science so our scientists how they can work with engineers To help develop and improve energy technologies that can help us achieve our goals So, thank you Hello, my name is Brie Ram. I'm with the American Wind Energy Association and I'm going to go through some facts about the latest trends in wind power and then I think I'm going to cut my comments short So we have some time for some robust Q&A So forgive me for my cheat sheet. I've only been on the job for about a month So if you have any questions afterwards, I'm probably going to take a pass The American Wind Energy Association is the trade association Um, everything I said was brilliant, by the way In the United States wind energy provided 255 million megawatts of power I'm sorry million megawatts Hours of generation to the electricity grid in 2017 supplying 6.3% of the nation's electricity The impact is more pronounced at the state level At the state level wind energy Delivers over 30% of electricity produced in Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma and South Dakota And in 14 states wind provides more than 10% of electricity Last year the industry grew 9% adding over 7,000 megawatts of new wind power capacity Currently there are 54,000 wind turbines with the combined capacity, you got it right with the combined capacity of almost 90,000 megawatts operating in 41 states and the territories That's enough capacity to power 27 million homes On the jobs front the US wind industry powers more American homes and businesses than ever before and we employ over 105,000 people in all 50 states Today there are over 500 wind related manufacturing facilities producing components for the wind energy industry And there are about 23,000 factory jobs from from those manufacturing facilities Wind projects and manufacturing facilities are present in 70 percent Of us congressional districts including 75 percent of republican districts and 62 percent of democratic districts in the 2007 Awiya annual market report Which is actually up here and we do have some also at the awiya booth at the exhibit It has a fabulous map of all the congressional districts and where we are located, but it also has a ranking of the 10 top congressional districts for wind energy and I think it's important to note that for Congressman Arrington in texas thornberry also in texas and lucas from oklahoma Each have more wind in their districts than the entire state of california Um, you tell and these are up here and they have great maps of where the wind is and and uh section by section of Megawatts by states So utilities are investing more and wind than ever before they're signing contracts for over 33 megawatts and announcing plans to own and operate 55 megawatts of wind capacity just in 2017 alone In total there's about 84 megawatts wind power being developed and constructed under utility ownership And one of the things that we're seeing is corporations such as google amazon macrosoft and facebook and other non utility Purchasers are continuing to invest heavily in wind energy Last year non utilities signed contracts for wind totaling more than 2000 megawatts Overall non utility purchasers have procured more than 9100 megawatts of wind power I know this uh This panel is about trends and actually awiya does not make predictions But we can say um for 2018 that the outside consultants have estimated that we're looking at Deploying between 10 or i'm sorry seven and eight megawatts. Um, i'm sorry seven and eight gigawatts of wind So seven or eight gigawatts of wind likely in 2018 and that is the number from our outside consultants And so with that i'm going to cut off my remarks and turn it over to my colleague from the solar industry That's not my We're going to have the hydro guys come over here and fix it I'm christopher manson i'm the vice president for federal affairs for the solar energy industries association It's interesting many of my remarks would parallel exactly what brie said in terms of where our industry has been and where it's going in the future Um Real quickly the stats so cia is the trade association like awiya for the entire Supply chain And and sector for the solar industry in the united states everybody from the people were making the polysilicon to put into polysilicon crystal crystalline silicon cells people making the cells Manufacturing the panels manufacturing the racking systems which use a huge amount of a american like solar steel and aluminum products from here in united states To the people who are actually either sawing them on rooftops or putting them on Utility scale projects. So right now we have about 250 000 americans working in solar. This is uh Combined with the wind people and the hydro and others were by far and away Much bigger in terms of the employment impact we have on the american economy than some of the more conventional And traditional sources of of electrical generating capacity i'm speaking of that we had In 2017 solar was 30 of all new generating capacity in united states And actually in this first quarter of this year solar was 55 of all new generating capacity. So solar Uh wind natural gas and hydro are really the the the new sources of electrical generating capacity that's coming on in the united states You don't see too many Utilities looking to purchase new coal plants and right now There's only one new nuclear plant on a construction in uh in georgia So this is where the utilities themselves are looking to purchase Electricity from and purchase those kind of either purchase electricity or purchase the facilities outright One quick fact on that is that you're probably aware that many states have renewable portfolio standards Which tell the utilities in that state you need to procure 30 20 50 in some states of your electricity from renewable sources While those are important drivers for our industry and also for the wind industry as well in 2017 Utilities scale projects and our solar uh industry made up two-thirds of all solar purchasing united states Of that purchased for the utility scale that two-thirds Two-thirds of that were driven not by any state or federal or any or local requirement They were all purchased because the utilities looked at solar and said this is this is where I want to get my electricity From for whatever reason and for the most part these utility executives have you know, 20 30 year Lenses that they that they work through And they're not exactly, you know wild-eyed environmentalists or anything But when they look at where should my utility be getting its electricity from They want to know a couple things. What's the cost going to be? How well how much maintenance cost is it going to Required to be done And and can it provide me with renewable electrical output on a regular basis? And as far as from our standpoint for solar Solar is a goodbye for a lot of these utilities because they get absolute similar to what they would do with wind absolute certainty on what their fuel costs are going to be with with a natural gas generating Facility I believe it's something like 75 to 80 percent of the cost the life cycle cost 30 year life cycle cost is the cost of the fuel And while there's low natural gas prices now They have no idea what natural gas prices are going to be 10 years from now 20 years from now 30 years from now With both solar and with the wind and with hydrogen they know exactly what their fuel costs are going to be it's going to be zero And that makes a lot of utility executives very happy. So that's where we're seeing a lot of Of utilities around the united states making that decision to go with renewables to go with solar based on the pure economics of what's in the best interest of their ratepayers and their shareholders Some of that's reflected reflected in some of the activities going on so far. So right now we got about 56 Gigawatts of solar installed in the united states our estimates are that will double more than double Within adding an additional 61 gigawatts over the next five years That's over the last 10 years we've had an annual growth rate of about 59 percent per year So it's growing pretty pretty quickly on the on the housing side on the solar rooftop side In 2016 we had about a million. We hit the first million installations In the united states and that includes all kinds of solar installations So rooftop on your home or on a hardware store or a large-scale utility project So we hit the first million in in 2016 will more that will double that by the end of this year to 2 million We'll double that again to 4 million by the end of 2023. So the growth on solar is exponentially Booming both on the rooftop distributed generation sometimes it's called, but also on the utility side A couple of things we have about 9 000 companies across the united states working in solar Of that about 85 of those companies have less than 20 employees. So it's a lot of small businesses That are really driving this industry in the united states Right now we're only about 2 percent of electrical generating capacity in the united states So we're trying to catch up to our sisters and brothers and wind and hydro But but we should hit the four to five percent by that 2023 time frame I gotta look through my other fun facts here to throw at Price is done. So the other interesting fact is that In 20 and 2014 there's about 12 states where solar Hit what would be called grid parity with other sources of electrical energy capacity That means we were able to be priced in a way that utilities say, you know, it's everything's equal Should I buy solar? Should I buy wind? Should I buy hydro? Should I buy? Natural gas to reduce my electricity. So that was in 2014. We're in we were grid parity in 12 different states As of 20 at the end of 2017. We had grid parity in 27 states across the united states so It started out kind of more of a niche market you might want to say in places like, you know, california obviously where more than half of our facilities are Arizona, nevada the the logical sunshine states, but it has grown across the united states to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia Massachusetts, new york New jersey all these places necessary what you wouldn't think of being big sunshine minnesota is another big market right now Texas is huge in getting bigger And so there's the growth potential Is certainly there for solar in the next in the next few years On prices alone our power production agreements are coming in at the range of between $28 per megawatt hour To $45 per megawatt hour. So that is actually In line with a lot of the other you know either wind natural gas or hydro in terms of pricing So again, that's where these utilities are making the decision on pure straight economics. What am I going to buy? Where am I going to get my electricity from? I'm running out of fun fact spring In terms of the the outlook for the next few years I think part of the problem that we've had and I think a lot of you may have heard You know we had prices dropped by 52 percent over the last five years that those price declines have kind of leveled out in 2017 primarily because of federal policy Specifically the tariffs that were imposed at the beginning of this year 30 tariffs unimported Solar panels and cells from anywhere in the in the world We're all going to be hit with a 30 tariff so that had the impact of Kind of stopping that decline in prices for panels and for cells But we still see that there will be Prices we're still going to continue to come down over the next few years with with Both the cells and the panels Which are the main component obviously for a solar system So those tariffs have had a significant impact we've had just anecdotal information so far A couple of companies have announced that they've had to cancel or freeze Billions of dollars worth of projects that ordinarily would have gone forward without those tariffs in place And so you know we remain concerned about the overall impact of these tariffs And we certainly are concerned if there's any additional tariffs put on solar Products coming in from other countries Some people are concerned why don't we make panels the united states, you know the american manufacturing Of cells and modules has always been more in the 10 to 20 to 50 megawatts per facility kind of setups other countries whether it's china Thailand malaysia They're doing gigawatts their factories produce gigawatts of cells and panels in a given year So the economy of scale is such that it's it's extremely difficult for american companies to get that kind of investment to actually Come forward and start producing cells and panels in the united states And to my way of thinking it's kind of Backward because no matter where the cells and panels come from as soon as they get in the united states They're using american sunshine to produce you know produce american electricity that's going to power american homes businesses and And vehicles so it's almost irrelevant where those panels and cells comes from So we're looking forward to continued growth I mean 2016 was a record year for for our industry primarily driven again by federal policy where the investment tax credit Was getting ready to expire At the end of 2016, we were able to get that extended in 2015 out for another five years. We were able to maintain that in the most recent tax Reform policy that just was put forward at the end of 2017 So we're very pleased with that working very closely with our friends and you know the wind industry So we're looking forward to so hopefully some more stable environment on the federal side as well as maybe even more supportive Environment policy environment on the state side and happy to take questions Thank you Looks like we have just under 10 minutes for questions I have a round of questions and we absolutely invite audience members to also provide some questions Just identify yourself, but let me go first Um, I'll give every panel member a chance to answer one of two or both of these questions The first one is um Is there a technology on the shelf that you can speak to and describe That if it comes to fruition, it will really get you over that barrier and present your technology your resource your program Make it available in every state that has the capability of doing water or solar or wind right now We think of hydro in the northwest and other areas with great water, but what's that technology out there that can get us into those Other potential sites that we don't think of the same for solar and wind and what you're doing with your information So that's one question. The second one is tell us if you um Are in Puerto Rico helping to redevelop One of our most important territories. If so, give us a highlight of that Um, I'll start with Jeff or you guys want to talk about Yeah, I I would just say quickly on Puerto Rico that you know, there had been some Significant amount of solar and wind operations in Puerto Rico before the storms For the most part are the facilities. They are survived these whatever 150 mile an hour winds Pretty much intact. There was some damage to some panels But they were able to come through for the most part and survive The impact of the storms themselves in the post, you know, the reconstruction side Um, you know, several of our companies rushed Facilities into and equipment into Puerto Rico particularly in places for For hospitals and for schools to try to set up micro grids to keep the hospitals going in particular Um, so there's a lot of potential in Puerto Rico for solar The issue is again government policy the Um What's the how do you pronounce the name of the the the Yeah, the um Prepa, yeah, it's the Puerto Rican electric power authority, right? They have not necessarily been that supportive of what our companies are trying to do there They tend to dispatch solar and I believe wind Last as opposed to trying to make use of those electrons first Um, they're heavily dependent on fuel oil driven generators Which are not exactly the most efficient way to go about powering your grid And so it's it makes it a little difficult for For our companies to get in there and do large-scale projects and on the homeowner side The problem is a lot of people have difficulty with title proving title to their homes and Being able to show that they Get that, you know, either get the loans or get the cash to do So solar cells on there solar panels on that rooftop Thank you anybody else with a Puerto Rico update for us How about a technology that you would like to raise with this audience that could help your sector move forward or I'll jump in there very quickly. I think a lot of the issues in the hydro industry are not technological I mean, we've been around for a hundred years and we have proven technology that lasts a long time That being said, there are always new advancements that are being made in in in the industry But I think a lot of our issues that are holding us back are policy issues But I'll just say that where we see a lot of advancement happening and a lot of interest is in small hydro smaller projects And also in different kinds of settings than the traditional settings. So in pipe inconduit irrigation canal type hydro Again as well also the marine energy ocean tidal ocean wave Technologies which really haven't gotten a chance of gotten a foothold yet because it's it's been a technology issue in getting them commercialized Yeah, not not much to add the the innovations tend to be in how we address sort of the historic Issues and the way we mitigate the environmental impacts and I would I would say More than any of the other traditional generating sources hydropower is obligated to Internalize all of its off environmental externalities and so There are technological advances that are happening, but it's it's really innovation in how we tackle the environmental and social considerations Lona Sure, just a few comments that It's it's really great when An interdisciplinary team can come together to develop technologies I think we've seen benefits of incorporating biologists or ecologists and designing new technologies and there's certainly a lot of potential for that with What jeff just mentioned about small hydro or hydro in new places that haven't developed before So doing that early on I think is is really key and that's where USGS can help and certainly we aren't the only organization that can do that, but It's kind of like a version 2.0 of developing technologies where you try and avoid issues before they Arise so that's all I'll say about that one Yeah, great questions from the audience. I would just say one thing on that though Becky is that is Storage, you know jeff alluded to it with pump storage We are all supportive of the idea of giving an investment tax credit for storage For for electricity that comes from any source. It doesn't matter where it came from. It's a Ecumenical in that respect, but for us in solar the storage Then you see a lot more companies looking they almost are requiring they want to see Storage with your solar facility And so as the price on batteries comes down very rapidly We just look forward to more innovations on that side in terms of increasing the manufacturing of batteries of any kind Whether they're lithium ion or others It's going to be crucial for making it possible to Expand the amount of solar that's on the grid in general Absolutely very important point anybody from the audience here, sir, please identify yourself So the question for those of you may not be able to hear is that what why is the number sort of 3% of dams generate power in 97% Don't why is that number sort of stuck where it was? I think it's been a variety of of different Reasons for that. I think that there are a Significant portion of those dams where it just doesn't make Environmental sense or economic sense The the projects are too small to be viable necessarily with with the infrastructure in place. I think that's part of it. I think Particularly now When you see low natural gas prices and other issues, it's just the to put that kind of investment into a smaller project Where a lot of those dams are smaller projects You just can't make that investment work. You don't get the economies of scale I think part of that is licensing costs that do come into it and the amount of time And then lastly, I think it's everything I said in my speech, which was policy Back when many of these policies for clean energy renewable energy were put into place There was a lot of existing hydro, but not a lot of existing everything else And so in order to make sure that we created a market for new entrants We excluded hydro, but we haven't necessarily gone back and updated some of those Definitions even for new new power generation new new facilities. So it's I think it's just a combination of all of that We're over time, but I'll take one more question Anybody else Okay, if not, thank you very much for coming and