Renewable Energy Advocates Prep for NY Climate Week, Bigly

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New York Climate Week is just a few days away and the clean tech news is flying thick and fast. Why, it’s almost as if the rest of the world is still chasing the renewable energy rainbow, despite the U-turn taken by the US. Even the well known hater of wind and solar power, US President Donald Trump, has gotten into the Climate Week spirit — whether he knows it or not, that is. Read on for more on that and other clean tech news in the runup to New York Climate Week 2025.

Lower Interest Rates Are Good For Renewable Energy

Our friends over at Heat Map have the scoop on the relationship between lower interest rates and renewable energy. Their newsletter of September 18 leads off with a quote from reporter Matthew Zeitlin, who reported that Wednesday’s Federal Reserve rate cut may “provide some relief to renewables developers and investors, who are especially sensitive to financing costs.”

Zeitlin cited Center for Public Enterprise climate analyst climate Advait Arun, who said that “high rates are never going to be exactly a good thing … it’s going to be good that we’re finally seeing cuts.”

“Since solar and wind rely on basically free fuel, the bulk of developers’ costs to build panels or turbines are upfront. That requires borrowing money, meaning interest rates have an outsize impact on the total cost of renewable projects,” Zeitline added. “Renewables carry more debt than fossil fuel plants. When interest rates rise by 2 percentage points, the levelized cost of electricity for renewables rises by 20%, compared to 11% for a gas fired plant, according to a report last year by the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.”

That won’t be much help to the US offshore wind industry, which is all but dead in the water after Trump suspended the federal offshore lease program upon which the industry depends. Still there is plenty of activity in the solar industry field to go around, and the onshore wind repowering field may see some benefits, too.

Trump has been insisting all year on a rate cut, a rate cut, a rate cut. That’s what he got, and according to the law of unintended consequences that may help his arch enemies, the US wind and solar industries, stay afloat over the next three years or so, until he leaves office as scheduled — peacefully one hopes, this time — on January 20, 2029.

Carrier Carries The Torch For Battery-Enabled HVAC, With Heat Pumps

In other news to hit the CleanTechnica inbox before Climate Week, on September 17 Carrier Global Corporation announced that it is trialing battery-enabled HVAC systems. If all goes according to plan, the new storage-plus-HVAC model will enable ordinary households to sock away renewable energy when excess wind and solar power are available, and deploy it under a strategic scenario to help grid managers stabilize the grid through periods of peak demand.

The experiment comes under the wing of Carrier’s new “Carrier Energy” branch. “Carrier has been shaping the future of climate technology since Willis Carrier invented modern air conditioning in 1902,” explained Carrier Chairman and CEO David Gitlin in a press statement. “Now, we’re installing our first battery-enabled HVAC systems in homes to validate performance. These systems can help strengthen the grid, support renewable integration and maintain comfort — all while adapting to evolving energy demands.”

The renewables-friendly effort hooks Carrier Energy up with EPRI, the independent Electric Power Research Institute, which is still carrying on the important task of modernizing the US grid in synch with the decentralized principles of Distributed Energy Resources, meaning wind and solar power among other scalable resources.

“Through these trials, Carrier is assessing how its next-generation HVAC system — pairing more efficient variable-speed heat pumps with battery storage — can help reduce peak demand by shifting energy use from on-peak to off-peak periods, providing greater grid flexibility and resilience,” the company explains.

To put the impact of the storage-plus-HVAC model on the pace of decarbonizing the US grid into perspective, Carrier suggests that we consider that about 30 million of its HVAC units are spinning their fans in homes across the US and Canada, cumulatively accounting for a 100-gigawatt potential for flexible demand. “At scale, these systems could offer utilities a powerful tool to manage electricity demand,” Carrier emphasizes.

So Much Winning For Renewable Energy, For Now

To be clear, Trump, his Cabinet, and his Republican allies in Congress are not hating on all forms of renewable energy. They just hate wind and solar. Hydropower, geothermal, biomass, and even the new field of marine energy are all in the clear, covered by the protective embrace of Trump’s “American Energy Dominance” plan, along with nuclear energy.

As for why wind and solar failed to make the American Energy Dominance cut, perhaps the US solar industry just had the misfortune to get caught in the crossfire when Trump aimed the full force of his perch in the White House to promote his personal vendetta against wind turbines.

If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread. Before you do, consider that “reliability” is the key word in Trump’s otherwise whackadoodle American Energy Dominance plan. As for what “reliability” actually means, your guess is as good as mine, but it probably refers back to an anachronistic, 20th century standard referring to the 24/7 availability of power generation regardless of the weather. Applied to the 21st century, though, the reliability standard conveniently skips over the modern world of energy storage, smart grid technologies, and virtual power plants. However, it does lend a thin veneer of respectability to an otherwise cockamamie energy policy that can only be ascribed to the whims of a dictator. After all, wind and solar — especially solar — are easily the most abundant, accessible and affordable domestic energy resources available today.

Come to think of it, though, since when has Trump needed to veneer anything? After all, this is the man who famously said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”

Well, if the US solar industry is going out, it’s going out with a bang. In yet another email to sail into the CleanTechnica inbox, the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis reminded us that renewable energy in general, and solar energy in particular, has been saving the Texas grid from imploding under its own weight. Almost the entire Texas grid is managed by ERCOT, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which has been scrambling for all the in-state power generation resources it can get because Texas can’t depend on inter-state electricity sharing the way other states can (long story).

That’s where the Texas solar industry comes in. “Solar set a new ERCOT record (last Tuesday) on Sept. 9, generating almost half of total demand in the fast-growing Texas electricity market while providing more than 40% of the state’s electricity for seven straight hours, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.,” IEEFA reported earlier this week.

“The latest record is the 17th of 2025, an astounding 7,785 megawatts (MW) higher than the first record of 22,092 MW set Jan. 24,” IEEFA continued. “New data from ERCOT — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas — also highlights solar’s reliability over the summer: For the period from June 1 through Aug. 31, solar met 15.2% of all demand in the ERCOT system, more than coal’s 12.5% market share.”

Ohhhh there’s that reliability thing again. If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and tell them what you think.

Image (via CleanTechnica archives, courtesy of US Department of Energy): With New York Climate Week approaching, clean tech stakeholders are pumping out all the good news about renewable energy — despite the abrupt shift in federal energy policy this year.