U.S. Government's Investment in Renewable Energy Grows

A little over a year ago, our Bill Culhane piloted a research team which filed a report on U.S. and Canadian government investment in solar equipment, solutions, and services. We’ve turned the pages on the calendar, a new administration is in the U.S. White House, and we probed to see what’s going on presently across the renewable energy industry.

With the consumption of assorted industry reports as the backdrop, we looked in our database to measure public sector purchasing activity. As Culhane noted within his above report on solar/photovoltaic bid request activity, from Mar ’15- Feb ’16, there were 877 pertinent solicitations/bid requests. During our study, and as you’ll see below, the U.S. government bid activity for solar solutions has actually expanded and the movement for renewable energy and wind energy solutions is also noteworthy.

Past: The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), “collects, analyzes, and disseminates independent and impartial energy information to promote sound policymaking, efficient markets, and public understanding of energy and its interaction with the economy and the environment.” As part of their reporting, the EIA released their data on U.S. renewables consumption.

Growth: In a Solar Industry report by Joseph Bebon, posted on May 3rd, 2017, “Wind and solar power provided more than half of the new electrical generating capacity added to the U.S. grid during the first quarter of the year, says a new report from the SUN DAY Campaign, citing statistics from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).”

Future: The EIA, as mentioned previously, a treasure trove of industry data, provided summaries of ‘Renewables and Carbon Dioxide Emissions’ past and future, “Wind energy capacity at the end of 2016 was 81 gigawatts (GW). EIA expects capacity additions in the forecast will bring total wind capacity to 95 GW by the end of 2018.”

How crucial has state, local, and federal involvement been in fostering this growth, and to what scope are governments employing the technologies? For but one case, you may have read the story in Popular Mechanics, back on December 19th, 2016, ‘Las Vegas’ City Government Is Now Powered Entirely by Renewable Energy’. We suggest that Executive Order 13693, which mandates 30% of electricity consumed by federal government agencies is to come from renewable energy sources by 2025, along with local and state level initiatives will help meet EIA’s and other’s expectations.

Now, it’s time for some numbers. In the BidPrime database, we pinpointed the following bid request data. Make note that our discovery specifically targeted the ‘keywords’ noted in the titles. Obviously, there are a multitude of other requirements for associated equipments, services, solutions, and expertise.

Data from Past Year

‘Renewable Energy’ in Bid Title
Total Bids: 99

– State & Local: 89

– Federal: 10

Leading U.S. state: New York

Leading federal agency: U.S. Trade & Development Agency

‘Solar’ in Bid Title

Total Bids: 1,237

– State & Local: 1,038

– Federal: 199

Leading U.S. state: California

Leading federal agency: U.S. Navy

‘Wind’ in Bid Title

Total Bids: 128

– State & Local: 105

– Federal: 23

Leading U.S. state: California

Leading federal agency: Department of Commerce

Sample active bids / RFPs

Renewable Energy, Solar, Wind

The evidence suggests that renewable energy, and the industries contained therein, are in store for extended growth. Your governments, my governments, are currently, and will continue to play a key role. We, at BidPrime, will be identifying and providing the solicitations and corresponding documentation every step of the way.

To review the bid requests and peruse the associated specifications, please call us at 888.808.5356, or visit our website: BidPrime.