CICE and Conservatives for Clean Energy honor six clean energy champions in NC

Yesterday, CICE’s Ryan Evans, IOM and Michele Querry traveled to the City Club Raleigh for the 9th Annual North Carolina Clean Energy Champions Awards, co-hosted by Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy & Conservatives for Clean Energy (NC)

We were proud to honor these six champions for their commitment to clean energy and economic innovation.

👏 Cornerstone Clean Energy Champion Award winner:
Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina (EDPNC) received this prestigious award for their continued commitment to helping NC realize the economic benefits of clean energy. They recently announced 3 of most significant econ investments in NC’s history re: clean energy and transportation.

Other clean energy champion businesses:
🏢 Charlotte Regional Business Alliance for participating in several events with federal, state, and local government officials and hosting over a dozen Taiwanese #EV manufacturers / suppliers to discuss investment opportunities in NC.

🏢 ABB for ongoing efforts to educate NC’s legislators, governor, state agencies, and other decision makers about the importance of pro-electric transportation policies, programs, and investments in NC.

🏢 Mystic Farm and Distillery for for being the world's largest solar powered bourbon distillery & for operating w zero-waste in their production process. The New York Times featured them as part of a “36 hours in Durham” story.

And two legislators were recognized:
🏛️ Representative Patrick Mchenry for co-sponsoring National Clean Energy Week resolution in the House every year since its inception.

🏛️ Representative Kyle Hall, who as a Chair of the NC House Energy & Public Utilities Committee, has spearheaded legislation on solar net metering, solar leasing, funding for a NC university energy center, and a study of possible utility market reforms.

Congratulations and thank you to our 2023 North Carolina Clean Energy Champion Award winners!

CICE staff attend, present at Ohio Energy Conference

Last week, the Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy team attended the Ohio Energy Conference to present and meet with chambers and business leaders across the state. Hosted by the Energy Coalition of Ohio , the OEC is the state's fastest growing energy education and networking event.

CICE’s director of public policy Emily Burlinghaus discussed challenges and opportunities for #energystorage companies on a panel alongside Kyle Shen, CEO & President of Nexceris; Roland Dixon, President of Special Power Sources; and moderator Rick Stockburger, President & CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators.

Emily highlighted federal tax credits (such as 48C and 48E) available to energy storage companies through the #InflationReductionAct, as well as state-level initiatives (procurement targets, grid firming requirements, clean peak standards, and compensation mechanisms like indexed storage credits and resource adequacy contracts).

The opportunity to deploy energy storage in Ohio offers utilities and grid operators new avenues to ensure reliability in light of a complex energy transition.

Some other notable themes from the conference:

• Discussion of opportunities to overcome roadblocks to utility-scale solar in Ohio

• Debate of potential improvements to grid data transparency to benefit ratepayers and manufacturers

• Profiles of efforts to ensure that state and federal incentives serve environmental sustainability and equity goals

• Highlighting of #innovation to promote and commercialize clean energy tech in Ohio

• Repeated emphasis on workforce development to ensure both scalability and reliability of emerging clean energy tech

Along with Emily, recent additions to the CICE team Logan ONeill, IOM, OCED and Kelsey (Forren) Pepitone attended. Logan summed up the experience as eye-opening: “The amount of companies out there that are starting to pop up to address this evolving and growing industry is happening at such a rapid rate, there was a lot of discussion about not over-regulating, and the risk stifling the innovation and progress.”

Thanks to the Energy Coalition of Ohio for a great event.