New York seeks successor to solar power net metering
The state commission is seeking to wean solar customers off of pure net metering charges, while starting to provide motivation to consider demand charges and time-of-use. Current net metering was extended by a year, so expect these changes to be in effect starting in 2021.
Shutdown continues at Hanergy-owned Alta Devices, high-efficiency PV pioneer
Alta Devices has not located a white-knight investor to save the company and resume its PV cell production. That means no health care or COBRA for its furloughed employees.
The future of the solar-plus-storage industry will look like the air conditioning business
The solar industry will evolve from component brands to system brands and service, according to Barry Cinnamon in this industry perspective.
New Mexico senator seeks solar sales tax to fund early childhood program
Senator Michael Padilla (D) of New Mexico has submitted the Renewable Energy Production Tax for consideration by the state. The 2.5% tax would fund early childhood education and care services, while exempting government and personal generation.
Morning Brief: Sigora Solar on the Virginia Clean Economy Act, Solar Frontier Americas has a financed project
Hello all and welcome to the last morning brief of the year! Today we’re looking at Global Solar layoffs, PG&E paying Topaz, a 100 MW Hecate project and more.
New Jersey approves 75 MW of community solar in 45 projects
The projects represent one-third of the state’s Community Solar Energy Pilot Program’s total capacity and will serve low- to moderate-income communities.
Ten research teams aim for long-duration storage at 5¢/kWh
To get long-duration storage costs down to 5 cents per kilowatt-hour, research teams funded by ARPA-E are pursuing breakthroughs in flow batteries, hydrogen storage and other technologies—even thermovoltaics.
Transitioning Silicon Valley residential PV to solar-plus-storage: optimizers or microinverters?
Barry Cinnamon, a Silicon Valley solar installer, details the transition to energy storage, profiles early solar adopters and notes the challenges of getting to 200-amp residential service.
Six-year-old solar power plant partially repowered with new trackers and bifacial solar modules
OCI Solar Power has upgraded a portion of its Alamo 1 solar power plant in Texas from 295 watt solar modules on ERCAM single- and dual-axis trackers to bifacial modules on Array Technologies trackers.
Installing residential solar and storage in Silicon Valley
“I kind of compliment PG&E because they’re our best marketing department when it comes to battery storage,” says Barry Cinnamon of Cinnamon Energy Systems in the first part of our interview.
