California regulators are proposing to move C&I customers onto pending time-of-use rates starting on August 1 – despite a lack of clarity as to the details of those rates.
Quality
Tell us your stories for the 6th pv magazine Quality Roundtable at SPI
pv magazine will hold its 6th Quality Roundtable during the Solar Power International trade show in Las Vegas this September, and we’re looking for all of your darkest stories of projects gone wrong.
Markets & Policy
‘Fatal flaw’: Suniva demands GTM retract ‘inaccurate report’
The company says the central assumption of the report – a $1.18 per watt floor price – is wrong and that the headlines resulting from the report could harm its trade case.
Installations
Back in the game: Former SunEdison executives launch Summit Ridge Energy
The new project will focus on commercial and industrial (C&I) and community solar projects, led by the former head of the bankrupt solar giant’s East Coast C&I operations.
Technology
Brattle Group finds no need for “baseload” on the grid
The group’s report for NRDC attempts to put to rest one of the central myths underlying U.S. Energy Secretary Perry’s pending report on the nation’s grid
Installations
Parcel delivery giant UPS announces 25% clean energy target by 2025
Global firm commits to cut emissions from ground fleet by 12% by same date, and targets one in four of all vehicle purchases to be electric or hybrid by 2020.
Installations
America’s most powerful rooftop PV plant goes live
It’s a fraction smaller than the 17 MW rooftop PV plant at Apple Park, but Los Angeles says that the 16.4 MW project will generate more kilowatt-hours per year.
Installations
Enel puts online 150 MW of solar in Minnesota
The Aurora project further advances the Midwest’s leading solar market
Breaking new ground
Central America’s solar boom: Central American nations have emerged from obscurity to a leading role in the deployment and integration of large amounts of renewable energy. But the Energy Transition in this region is just beginning.
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Press Releases
Nuance Energy Receives $3 Million Investment from Tabuchi Electric to Accelerate Growth in North America
Nuance Energy’s Unique Value Proposition in Ground-mount Solar will Enable Tabuchi to Expand its Reach in Distributed Generation Solar+Storage.
Top New Home Builders Choose SunPower to Advance California’s Net Zero Compliance Goals Before 2020
SunPower Installs Solar at 1,000th New Home Community
NYSERDA Board of Directors Appoints Alicia Barton President and CEO
Kate Fish and Sukanya Paciorek Join NYSERDA Board of Directors
Advanced Energy Roadmap Shows How Next Governor Can Drive Economic Development While Making Virginia’s Energy More Secure, Clean, Affordable
Today, Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) announced it has delivered a policy memo to the Virginia gubernatorial campaigns of Republican nominee Ed Gillespie and Democratic nominee Lt. Gov.
Installations
Featured
Minnesota community solar receives boost from U.S. Solar funding
The state's robust community solar program received a boost yesterday when U.S. Solar received an influx of funding that will allow it to focus on Minnesota initially.
Solaria ramps Power XT production line to more than 40 MW per year
While other U.S.-based module manufacturers have struggled this year, the California-based company has quietly been expanding.
...New Hampshire reduces overall net metering credits, orders solar value study
The decision keeps generation and transmission portions of the net metering credits under 100 kW at 100%, but lowers distribution credit to 25% of its current retail value.
...Destroy the industry to save it? Another report warns of Section 201 case’s potentially devastating effects
GTM Research’s latest report predicts a 50% to 60% overall reduction to solar installations if trade action is taken, with the utility-scale sector taking the most significant hit.
...Manufacturing
Featured
Shoals Technologies earns investment from Oaktree Capital
The company announced an investment partnership with the Power Opportunities Group of Oaktree Capital Management that will help the company expand its international business on its current portfolio in addition to joining the energy-storage market.
Silicor low-cost silicon may foster greater cell efficiency
Silicor Materials is striving to demonstrate that its low-cost PV silicon production process should help boost efficiency records in the near future. The company performed its own attempt at producing a mono PERC cell with greater efficiency, and hit a 20% level on the first try, company officials say.
...Seraphim Solar earns confidence of financing firms
In an atmosphere where U.S.-based solar module manufacturers are dropping like flies, it’s nice to see one ramping up production to meet ever-increasing demand for U.S.-made modules.
...Tesla moves one step closer to Solar Roof deployment
Underwriters Laboratories certified the product last week, which should allow Elon Musk to keep his promise to roll the product out this summer.
...United States informs WTO of trade petition investigation (ITC notification embedded)
The U.S. International Trade Commission has informed the WTO that it is moving forward with its investigation into whether Suniva and SolarWorld deserve “global safeguard” protection from their competitors.
...Markets & Policy
Featured
U.S. cities move forward on the Energy Transition, without Trump
The annual U.S. Conference of Mayors has endorsed a 100% renewable energy target for 2035, electrification of transport and other measures, following 31 cities setting or already meeting 100% renewable energy goals.
Montana guts PURPA
A ruling by state regulators reduces contract prices significantly and secures these prices for only five years in the territory of NorthWestern Energy.
...Energy storage target approved by New York legislators
New York is following the lead of California, Oregon and Massachusetts, which have set mandates for energy storage deployment.
...Eicke Weber: Trump’s border wall could host 5 GW of PV capacity
The former head of Germany’s Fraunhofer ISE said in an interview with Spiegel that, although the proposed U.S. border wall should reach a length of only 2,000 miles, this would be enough to build a huge PV installation. With a solar LCOE ranging from $0.03 to $0.05/KWh the PV plant could be amortized in five to six years.
...EnergyWakeup: CALSEIA’s Bernadette Del Chiaro on policy & politics
In this latest podcast from Yann Brandt’s EnergyWakeup, we bring you an interview with California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro on politics in the state, and how this affects the market.
...Technology
Featured
DOE grid study release delayed until July
Secretary Perry’s promised study of whether renewables are shutting down baseload coal and nukes and potential impacts on reliability will have to wait until July.
Cheap gas and renewables are making merchant power untenable (w/ charts)
A new report by Power Research Group and Wilkinson Barker Knauer finds that cheap natural gas, wind and solar make it impossible for merchant plants to recover invested capital, and threaten the basic operation of wholesale power markets.
...Business as usual: Energy Department awards $32 million in small-business grants
Despite having the sword of Damocles hanging over the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), it is still doing its job – encouraging small businesses to innovate in the clean-energy economy so that if the industry is ever no longer under siege, it will not have fallen irreversibly behind the rest of the world.
...Army all in on PV solar, awarding a $6.5 million contract
Four research partners have won a contract from the Army Research Laboratory’s Army Research Office to develop flexible, more powerful solar modules to provide soldiers in the field reliable electricity.
...Scientists blast Jacobson 100% wind, water and solar plan for errors
A new paper by leading scientists is taking a popular plan for 100% wind and solar to task for “errors, inappropriate methods, and implausible assumptions”
...