Morning brief: Encouraging news this Women’s History Month, energy bill stalls

A new report offers some encouraging news this Women’s History Month: The percentage of clean energy news and opinion articles quoting women doubled in 2019 compared to 2018. Women were quoted in 42% of clean energy articles in 2019, up from 21% the year before. The annual report, titled Renewable Energy Narrative Trends, found that almost all of the top 10 women quoted were members of the U.S. Congress including New York democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, Abigail Ross Hopper, CEO of the SEIA, and Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association. Source: Smart Energy International

Energy bill stalled amid amendment gridlock: A mammoth energy policy bill hit a roadblock in the Senate on Monday night with a stalemate over amendments threatening to derail the legislation entirely. Lawmakers voted against closing debate on an updated version of the bill that included a package of noncontroversial amendments forwarded by its sponsors, a sign lawmakers are still eager to push for some of the 191 amendments that have been proposed for the bill. The path forward for the bill, which had been expected to pass as soon as Tuesday, is now unclear. Source: The Hill

Morgan Stanley: Duke, other utilities ignoring profit opportunity by failing to decarbonize rapidly: As the cost of clean energy has plummeted, energy analysts have reported with increasing frequency that a transition by utilities from coal to less costly clean energy would save the nation’s electricity customers billions of dollars. The latest, and perhaps more surprising, wave of reporting comes from Wall Street analysts, who now say that in addition to saving customers money, a rapid coal-to-clean energy transition would also be highly profitable for utilities’ investors…the analysts found that the switch to lower-cost renewables creates an opportunity for the utilities to invest $64 billion in capital expenditures through 2025, creating profit opportunities while saving customers money. Source: Energy and Policy Institute

The Washington State House and Senate passed a bill that will update the state’s solar recycling policy: This bill will inform the final design and adoption of a comprehensive solar recycling program that is data-driven and considers the lifespan of modules that can last up to 50 years in the field. Washington Governor Inslee is expected to sign the bill into law. Source: SEIA

• Trend 1: Digitalization
• Trend 2: AI-driven smart upgrades
• Trend 3: Unmanned PV plants
• Trend 4: Proactive support for power grids

See the other trends here.