Christian Roselund
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Articles by Christian Roselund
Despite SouthCoast Wind setback, offshore wind will lower power prices Original
by Christian Roselund, Rhode Island Current November 20, 2025 It is no surprise that after months of scapegoating renewables for high power prices, Rhode Island Energy has withdrawn from negotiations with the SouthCoast Wind project. This move prolongs our over-dependence on natural gas, which is the true driving force behind the rising energy costs in Rhode Island and all of New England.
Christian Roselund
Despite SouthCoast Wind setback, offshore wind will lower power prices It is no surprise that after months of scapegoating renewables for high power prices, Rhode Island Energy has withdrawn from negotiations with the SouthCoast Wind project. This move prolongs our over-dependence on natural gas, which is the true driving force behind the rising energy costs in Rhode Island and all of New England. The details […]
RI must diversify its energy sources to solve electric bill woes | Opinion
In the past few months, we in Rhode Island have been subjected to misleading claims about the effects of renewable energy on electricity prices, including from our state’s utility. The truth is that the main driver of high power prices in Rhode Island is our dependence on a constrained supply of natural gas. Natural gas prices are inherently volatile and there is often not enough supply of gas to cost-effectively meet our energy needs.
Los aranceles, la menor de las preocupaciones del mercado solar estadounidense
De pv magazine 4/25 El presidente Donald Trump no perdió tiempo en imponer aranceles a las importaciones, una de sus principales promesas electorales. En sus primeras semanas en el cargo, el presidente renovó los muy erosionados aranceles de la Sección 232 sobre el acero y el aluminio, en virtud de la Ley de Expansión Comercial de 1962.
Tariffs the least of U.S. solar market’s worries
From pv magazine 4/25 President Donald Trump wasted no time imposing import tariffs, one of his key campaign promises. In his first few weeks in office, the president revamped much-eroded Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum, under the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. Trump also used 1977’s International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose a new 20% tariff on goods from China, plus 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, albeit after a delay in the latter cases.
Offshore wind boosts winter resilience
In December 2022, Winter Storm Elliott wreaked havoc on the electric grid along the East Coast. While Rhode Island was spared the worst, millions of Americans in neighboring states were left without power in life-threatening conditions, and the costs reverberated through the power system, down to our wallets. The grid failures were primarily due to Already a Subscriber?
Offshore Wind vs. Oil Dependence: No Comparison
The story of the blade failure at the Vineyard Wind offshore wind facility in the waters off Nantucket continues to evolve. As the cleanup concludes, investigations are being conducted into potential manufacturing and/or quality control issues regarding the blade that broke on July 13. Nobody likes having debris wash up on their beaches — even if it is not toxic — and this incident is red meat for those who were already trying to stop America’s nascent offshore wind industry.
US breaks Q1 record to add 11.8GWdc solar capacity in previous quarter
The US installed 11.8GWdc of capacity in the first quarter of 2024 and added more than 40GW of solar capacity to the grid last year, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA). A report conducted in collaboration with Wood Mackenzie said the new capacity additions in Q1 2024 represented a record first quarter for the US solar industry and the second-largest quarter of installations ever, second only to Q4 2023.
Providence is not a generic, car-dependent suburb and we shouldn’t try to be one.
Christian Roselund is a policy analyst and Ward 3 coordinator for the Providence Urbanist Network. Daria Phoebe Brashear is a software developer and cyclist from Cranston. We at Providence Urbanist Network are thrilled by the work that is being done by Providence Planning and the Smiley administration on the Comprehensive Plan update. We strongly support moves to loosen restrictive zoning and allow for more gentle density, such as triple deckers and row houses, in more parts of Providence.
Three US solar trends to watch in 2024
2024 is already shaping up to be a busy, intense year for the US solar industry. We at Clean Energy Associates (CEA) are advising our clients to expect a continuation of 2023’s impressive growth in deployment and a wave of new solar factories coming online. With this new capacity and the ongoing buildout in Southeast Asia and India, we can expect US module prices to continue to fall, somewhat narrowing the gap between US and global prices.
Vineyard Wind Is Coming Online and That Is a Big Deal
Vineyard Wind Is Coming Online and That Is a Big Deal Earlier this week, a turbine at the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project off the south coast of Massachusetts sent its first electricity to the New England grid. News reports, which were frequently bogged down in details of a deadline missed by a few days for a project seven years in the making, consistently failed to capture the magnitude of the occasion.
Death on N. Main Street
Vanda Makovetskiy, was killed by a driver on North Main Street in Providence, Rhode Island at 6 am on October 4, 2023, while she was on her daily walk with her husband. 85-year-old Vanda lived nearby on Doyle Street, and left behind children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in four countries. Zacory Richardson was killed by a driver on North Main Street on February 14, 2023, a few hundred yards away on the same block. He left behind two daughters.
Christian Roselund: Why Peter Alviti Must Go
Dear Members of the Senate Finance Committee, Some time in the coming weeks, you will vote on whether or not to re-confirm Peter Alviti as director of the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT). This is a very important vote that has big implications for the safety of Rhode Island residents on our roads, and will likely determine whether or not we meet our target under the Act on Climate. But before we start, I want to tell you about the tragic death of Mason Sterne.
Auxin Solar tariff case: two paths possible
Contributed by Christian Roselund, Clean Energy Associates The anti-circumvention investigation launched by the U.S. Department of Commerce has thrown the U.S. solar market into chaos and this is unlikely to change any time soon. Despite some marginal clarity provided by Commerce on May 2, developers and contractors are still scrambling to find sources of supply. A main problem is the inherent uncertainty.
California’s solar market is now a battery market
A look at the interconnection queue of California’s grid operator shows that the state’s market has already shifted to batteries—sometimes with solar, and sometimes without. March 11, 2022 Christian Roselund No state has led the energy transition like California has. While other states may have higher portions of wind in their electricity mix, at full sun the output of solar panels in California rivals that of Texas wind power.
Solar Tsunami: 2022
In 2019 the interconnection queue in the US was 139GWac and we were really excited about that much solar, but today it’s 639GWac — a 3X increase. Now that’s a solar tsunami. January 25, 2022 Christian Roselund If you want to get an idea of where the solar market in the United States is headed, a good place to start is the process every developer has to go through to plug their project into the grid.
Shipping and aviation plan to go net zero. How?
October saw a seismic shift, with the global maritime shipping and aviation industries both committing to move to net zero by 2050. For the shipping industry, this is further progress on the landmark Poseidon Principles. For aviation, this shows a new level of ambition. But both sectors are difficult to decarbonize, and a central question remains: How will they do it? We don’t yet have all the details of the technologies that will be used — but neither do these industries.
Lessons on resilience from the US military and Caribbean islands
Three days after Hurricane Ida made landfall, roughly 2 million people remained without electricity in Louisiana and Mississippi. Even critical facilities, including sewage pumps in New Orleans and a hospital in rural South Louisiana, have seen outages. These and other incidents underscore just how dependent our civilization is on electricity. In the case of hospitals, access to electricity can be a matter of life and death.
Shipping & Aviation Plan to Go Net Zero. How?
Courtesy of RMI. By Christian Roselund This week has seen a seismic shift, with the global maritime shipping and aviation industries both committing to move to net zero by 2050. For the shipping industry, this is further progress on the landmark Poseidon Principles. For aviation, this shows a new level of ambition. But both sectors are difficult to decarbonize, and a central question remains: How will they do it?
Shoonya Will Electrify Urban Deliveries in India-Is the World Next?
Courtesy of RMI. By Christian Roselund & Samhita Shiledar The 21st century has made buying things easier than ever. With a web search and the click of a mouse, you can buy almost anything: from a large-screen TV to lunch. And instead of traveling to the store, the goods come to you. Almost invisible to the consumer, the package is delivered from warehouse to your front door. This change is happening around the world, including in the world’s second-most populous nation: India.
What's needed to close the climate finance gap
At the close of the G7 Summit earlier in June, the leadership of the Group of Seven departed Cornwall with a clear mandate to "build back better." Specifically, wealthy nations are attempting to navigate both the ongoing turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-present reality of the climate crisis. In doing so, they must confront certain core aspects of these crises, and the approaches that they take set an important precedent for the COP26 summit in November.
The California Blackout That Wasn’t
Originally published on RMI.org. By Christian Roselund People pay a lot of attention when the power goes out, but we tend to not notice when the grid remains stable — even under trying conditions.
Green steel is picking up steam in Europe
Norrbotten is likely not the first place that comes to mind when thinking of groundbreaking advances in the global energy transition. The county at the northern end of Sweden is larger than Ireland but hosts a mere quarter of a million human inhabitants, and roughly as many reindeer, in a vast boreal forest that fades into alpine tundra to the north. But here in small mining towns and modest coastal cities near the Arctic Circle, a revolution in the global steel industry is beginning.
Bringing Back Clean Air
Originally published on RMI.org. By Christian Roselund, Ali Rotatori, Ben Holland With the promise of vaccines curtailing the spread of COVID, states and economies are beginning to open up again, and we find ourselves getting back not only the good but also some of the negative aspects of pre-pandemic life. Businesses are powering back up, and cars and trucks are roaring down our streets again.
BREAKING: World’s cheapest solar power contract signed for Dubai mega-project
DEWA has signed a US$29.90/MWh PPA with Masdar for the 800 MW third phase of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum solar park. November 29, 2016 Christian Roselund The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has seen some of the lowest-price solar power contracts in the world, which has led to a combination of disbelief and skepticism about the viability of the projects awarded.
Why Is Indoor-Air Pollution Largely Unregulated?
“…gas stoves can cause levels of pollution that would be illegal outdoors.” Synopsis: In this article originally published by Rocky Mountain Institute, Christian Roselund discusses the lack of guidelines and enforcement for managing air pollution indoors. He discusses which regulatory bodies have determined standards for carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide levels, and describes how far we still have to go.
CleanCapital opens C&I solar portfolio to private investors
John Hancock has invested $21 million in debt to lead financing of the portfolio. August 3, 2016 Christian Roselund In what CleanCapital calls a “first-of-its-kind” clean energy finance opportunity, the company has opened a portfolio of 14 operational solar projects on commercial and industrial (C&I) properties to individual private investors. John Hancock Life Insurance is leading investment in the portfolio, which totals around 8 MW, with $21 million in senior debt.
CleanCapital secures $250 million in equity to pursue acquisitions
The company says that the funding will enable it to acquire $1 billion in solar assets. April 10, 2018 Christian Roselund Image: Tricia Pridemore Yesterday CleanCapital, a clean energy investment company with a proprietary technology platform, announced a $250 million partnership with investment firm CarVal Investors. The company plans to pair this with up to $750 million in debt, which it says will enable acquisition of up to $1 billion in solar assets.
Why NextEra's green hydrogen pilot is a big deal
In its recent quarterly results call, U.S. power giant NextEra announced that its utility subsidiary Florida Power & Light (FPL) plans to build a 20-megawatt electrolyzer to produce hydrogen from water. If approved by regulators, the plant will run on power from otherwise curtailed solar and feed hydrogen to burn in FPL’s Okeechobee gas plant. On the global stage, the scale of this investment does not raise eyebrows.
Zero-Emissions Trucks Are The Future: Let’s Do This
Batteries Published on July 4th, 2020 | by Rocky Mountain Institute July 4th, 2020 by Rocky Mountain Institute Originally published on the Rocky Mountain Institute’s website. By Mike Roeth and Christian Roselund Last Thursday, California made history by becoming the first state to mandate that truck makers move to zero-emission drivetrains.
Why Is Indoor Air Pollution Largely Unregulated?
When most of us think of air pollution, we typically envision big smokestacks billowing clouds of noxious gases, the smog that coats major cities, or even the smoky haze that drifts in from wildfires. However, much of the most serious air pollution that threatens our health comes not from giant power plants or freeways, but from inside our homes.
The Map and the Territory
by Christian Roselund June 2020 At the rollout of any plan to deal with climate change, you can expect to see visual representations of wind turbines and solar panels. These technologies have captured the imagination of the world as symbols of our ability to decarbonize. And they’re more than symbols; much of the reduction in carbon emissions that has happened across the world has been in the electricity sector, with solar and wind playing a leading role.
Clear Skies Forever
by Christian Roselund May 2020 The start of spring in Los Angeles was quite different this year. Following California Governor Gavin Newsom’s March 19 “stay-at-home” order restricting travel across the state, the city’s famous 12-lane freeways emptied. And in their place, LA residents started seeing things that this urban area of 13 million people had not before: clear views of the snow-capped San Gabriel Mountains to the northeast and Santa Catalina Island off the southwestern coast.
New Orleans: Actors paid to oppose solar and wind, push for power plant
It turns out that the public support for a proposed gas plant in New Orleans includes actors who were paid to show up and in some cases provide public comment. Entergy has denied any connection to the hiring. May 7, 2018 Christian Roselund Solar and wind are broadly popular in the United States.
CAISO approves clean energy, storage and system upgrades to replace peaker plant
The state’s grid operator has chosen utility PG&E’s proposed mix of substation upgrades, energy storage, renewable energy and demand response to replace a petroleum-fired plant. March 29, 2018 Christian Roselund Image: Google Maps California has become the cutting edge of the energy transition in the United States.
The Energy Transition Magazine
by Christian Roselund April 2020 For 200 years, coal has powered the modern world. It was the prime fuel for the industrial revolution and along with hydropower, coal-burning technology gave the world its first electric power plants. It has been essential in making steel, one of the main materials with which our modern world is literally built. It’s hard to imagine the development of industrial civilization without coal. But it’s dirty.
Everything Is Disrupted
by Christian Roselund March 2020 The global effects of the coronavirus are already severe. In addition to the nearly half a million cases and over 22,000 deaths globally at the time of writing this article, the world economy is reeling. Due to widespread disruptions of commerce, mandates to close businesses, and stay-at-home orders, unemployment has skyrocketed and stock markets have crashed. The effect on the oil industry has been particularly intense.
Transition in Electricity: 2020 Update
by Christian Roselund March 2020 The beginning of the year 2020 is a defining moment for our civilization. As warned by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have 10 years to reduce global emissions by roughly 50 percent or we could lose the ability to keep warming below 1.5°C by 2100. While there are many aspects to this grand challenge, moving away from fossil fuels in electricity generation is central to transforming our energy systems.
Methane, manure and a net-zero pledge
Reducing "biogas" from industrial animal farming is another tool in Dominion's decarbonization toolbox. Dominion Energy made big news last week with its pledge to go net-zero by 2050. It is one of the largest utilities to make this sort of pledge to date, with roughly the same number of customers as power giant Duke Energy. And this is part of a wave in the utility sector, coming only a few weeks after Arizona Public Service announced its net zero pledge.
Arizona and the momentum of 100 percent clean energy
The road to clean energy in Arizona is getting shorter. Last month’s announcement by Arizona Public Service (APS) that it will fully decarbonize the electricity it sells to its customers is a major win for a clean energy future, both in Arizona and nationally. It is also part of a wave of announcements by states, cities and utilities that plan to move to 100 percent zero-carbon electricity.
SEC wants Elon Musk off the Tesla board
The regulator has filed a lawsuit alleging that Musk’s August tweets about having secured funding to take the company private were “false and misleading”, and is asking to have him barred from serving on the board or as a director of a public company.
Making Emissions Visible
by Christian Roselund January 2020 Last November, German Economist Hans-Werner Sinn published an article in The Guardian that claimed that electric vehicles (EVs) cause more CO2 to be emitted than gasoline-powered vehicles. In the article, Sinn alleged that so much carbon is emitted during the manufacture of EVs, and particularly their batteries, that combined with relatively dirty grid power this overcomes the advantages of not burning petroleum-based fuel.
European Green What?
by Christian Roselund January 2020 January 15, 2020, was a big day in Brussels. Under the perpetual gray skies of the European capital, politicians from 28 nations assembled to vote on a proposal unlike any other. Billed as “greatest challenge and opportunity of our times,” it touched on everything from industry, transportation, and buildings to agriculture and land use, even including a section on plastic waste.
The (Green) Hydrogen Economy is About to Take Off
By Christian Roselund December 2019 While standing on the iconic beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, California, it is sometimes possible to glimpse container ships on the horizon, near-mirages that provide scant evidence that just to the south lies one of the world’s largest hubs for international commerce. The Port of Los Angeles spreads across 43 miles of the city’s waterfront with giant cranes, stacks of containers, and ships coming in and out from all corners of the earth.
Can Flying Be Made Carbon Neutral?
by Christian Roselund January 2020 It is a long way from Plymouth, England, to New York; 1500 nautical miles. This summer it took the Malizia II 15 days to make the voyage, a trip that many major airlines complete in less than seven hours. But that wasn’t the point for the 60-foot racing yacht’s world-famous activist passenger, Greta Thunberg. Instead, this was the most dramatic manifestation of her commitment to avoid flying due to the carbon footprint that it imposes.
Leading from Below
By Christian Roselund December 2019 As world leaders meet in Madrid for the COP25 summit, one issue looming over many of the discussions is the plans by the current US administration to withdraw from the Paris Accord in 2020. And while this is definitely a step back for the United States and global action on climate, the nation has long been something of an outlier in global climate agreements.
Doing More with Less
By Christian Roselund November 2019 In many cases, the easiest, fastest, and cheapest way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is to improve the efficiency of existing processes. For industries, improving efficiency often results in enhanced competitiveness, and whether you are a homeowner or running an automotive factory, using less energy means economic savings as well as climate benefit.
21st Century Urban Mobility
By Christian Roselund November 2019 California has been a poster child for the energy transition. The state was getting 29 percent of its electricity from renewable sources – not including large hydro dams – in 2017, with solar serving as the largest source. This has been a driving force in the state surpassing its 2020 goals for greenhouse gas reductions, well ahead of schedule.
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