Energy development attorney Morten Lund was quoted in Utility Dive in an article titled “2021 Outlook: 10 power sector trends to watch,” published January 13, 2021. The publication asked power sector experts for their predictions as to changes that might occur in 2021 that would affect utilities and the renewables industry — from shifts in energy policy likely to happen under the Biden administration to challenges to the continued wide-spread use of natural gas to the need to address the ongoing threat of cyberattacks on the power grid.
For his part, Lund notes that electric vehicles (EV) are “no longer the crazy man’s or rich guy’s hobby” — declining battery costs are expected to increase the number of EV models available to U.S. customers by a factor of more than three over the next three years.
Lund also addressed the outlook for companies in the renewables industry, which due to the pandemic and its economic fallout experienced delays for some projects and a small dip in solar installations. Lund said that the industry may be insulated against a potential slump later in 2021 by the tax credit extensions contained in the last economic stimulus package, combined with the Biden administration’s favorable view of renewables, but he sounded a cautionary note.
“We managed through 2020, essentially on built up inertia and fumes. But that could start running out,” he said, in part based on “the sheer uncertainty” facing the markets.