“Achieving 100% Clean Electricity in the Southeast” Report + Appendix

Kate Tracy | June 15, 2021 | Reports and Fact Sheets

Download the Report
Read the Report Blog Post
Learn more about a Clean Electricity Standard
Watch the Report Webinar on Duke Energy
Watch the Report Webinar on NextEra Energy
Watch the Report Webinar on TVA
Watch the Report Webinar on Southern Company
Take Action: Urge Congress to Pass a 100% Clean Electricity Standard

“Achieving 100% Clean Electricity in the Southeast: Enacting a Federal Clean Electricity Standard, developed by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), lays out multiple pathways for some of the biggest utility systems in the nation to achieve 100% clean electricity.

As SACE’s recent “Tracking Decarbonization in the Southeast” 2021 report notes, Duke Energy, Southern Company, NextEra, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, are not on track to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2035, or even 2050. This lack of decarbonization effort falls far short of the Biden Administration’s goal of decarbonizing the nation’s electric grid by 2035, a timeframe recommended by scientists to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Our report examines the role a federal Clean Electricity Standard (CES) can play in ensuring major Southeast utilities can reach net-zero carbon emissions sooner. SACE staff will present pathways that represent an aggressive build-out of clean electricity resources like distributed solar, energy efficiency, demand response, and wind. Each pathway meets high-level tests to ensure it would provide adequate power throughout the year based on actual hourly peak data.

Following the report’s release, SACE’s policy staff will host a series of webinars focusing on pathways to 100% clean electricity for the four major Southeast utilities examined in the report and discuss:

  • What a federal Clean Electricity Standard is and how it could be key to kickstarting aggressive decarbonization
  • Multiple pathways with a different power generation mix for each utility to reach net-zero carbon emissions
  • How distributed resources like rooftop solar and energy efficiency are key to decarbonizing
  • Descriptions of the method used to develop and test each pathway to clean electricity
Achieving 100% Clean Electricity in the Southeast Report + Appendix