U.S. Clean Energy Corps Pursues Climate Resilience

From:Caroline Fortuna

A new program launched by the Biden administration will hire 1,000 people in the U.S. to help expand the country's clean energy infrastructure, a step the White House says is "critical to achieving the president's goal of 100 percent carbon-free, pollution-free electricity by 2035." vital". The Clean Energy Corps will draw on engineering, physical sciences, legislative affairs and contract management in its multidisciplinary work.

Large-scale projects for the Clean Energy Corps will include the government's "Building a Better Grid" initiative. Building a Better Grid will work with community and industry stakeholders to identify national transmission needs and support the construction of long-distance high-voltage transmission facilities. Goals include making the U.S. power grid more resilient to the effects of climate change, increasing access to affordable, reliable and clean energy, and creating U.S. jobs across industries.

The future of clean energy will be led by solar and wind power, which have dominated new power plant construction in the U.S. in recent years, while fossil-fuel power plants — especially coal-fired plants — continue to be retired at a record pace. The sharp drop in the cost of utility-scale solar and onshore wind has made them the cheapest sources of electricity in two-thirds of the world.

According to the language in the bill, the new transmission lines will deploy solar and wind energy to communities across the United States and make the energy grid more "safe, reliable and resilient" to extreme weather events.