It’s interesting to think about how seemingly unrelated events can have an impact on each other. Who would have thought that the war in Ukraine would end up spurring more clean energy development in New Hampshire? Energy insiders understand the war drove up natural gas prices around the world, but in New Hampshire the bill increase for utility customers was particularly dramatic. Prices for energy supply doubled last August as utilities needed to purchase natural gas on the open market since there are no pipelines into the region. To help ensure price spikes like that don’t occur again, the legislature recently passed a bill allowing utilities to enter into long-term PPAs with clean energy developers. In the past, utilities were limited to just 6-month contracts. The move could lead to the development of more than 1200 MW of clean energy capacity for Granite Staters. Read about it in our lead story for today. |