Boise to go 100% renewable, South Carolina students support solar freedom: pvMB for 4/4/19

BANC/SMUD joins the Western EIM party – I hope you like acronyms, because the California Independent System Operator’s (CAISO) Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) has a new member in the crew, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), which, as we all know, is part of  the Balancing Authority of Northern California (BANC). So, say it with me now: BANC’s SMUD has joined CAISO’s EIM. Wonderful. And SMUD now joins the other participants of the EIM, PacifiCorp of Portland, Oregon, NV Energy of Nevada, Arizona Public Service, Puget Sound Energy of Washington, Portland General Electric, Idaho Power and Powerex. Source: CAISO

Boise to go 100% renewable – The hottest legislative move of 2019 thus far has been for cities and states to create plans to transition to 100% renewable energy. The newest addition to the party: Boise, Idaho. Yesterday the Boise City council voted to adopt the “Boise’s Energy Future” plan, which will have the city go 100% renewable by 2035. This comes shortly after the announcement by Idaho Power that the company will transition to 100% renewable electricity by 2045. You go, Idaho. Source: NA Wind Power

Over 1000 South Carolina students support the Energy Freedom Act – Net metering has some new friends, over 1000 of them, as students from across South Carolina have signed their support of the Energy Freedom Act. The bill has been quite popular, garnering bipartisan support, passing in the SC House of Representatives 110-0 and passing out of a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill now resides in the main Judiciary Committee. Source: the American Conservation Coalition

3 MW New Jersey brownfield – AC Power has been given the green light to develop the company’s proposed 3 MW solar project to be located on a former landfill in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey. This is the company’s fourth approved project since just December. What’s notable is that these four projects will all qualify for the now-expired SRECs, as their applications were submitted before last October’s deadline. This is now AC Power’s seventh brownfield solar project in New Jersey. Source: AC Power

Solar powered anti-theft backpack – Solgaard, a company in the business of luxury luggage has launched a new solar powered, anti-theft backpack, the Lifepack Solar 2.0. The backpack features the ability to be locked and affixed to other objects, hidden pockets for valuables and connectivity to the company’s two power banks with integrated solar panels, the Solarbank and the Solarbank Boombox. Now there is a price to be paid for tech like this, with the Solarbank-paired Lifeback coming in at $165 and the Solarbank Boombox-paired Lifepack at $195. Source: Solgaard

And hey, we got some good news out of South Carolina already, so let’s see what it’s northern neighbor is up to:

https://twitter.com/DSIREUSA/status/1113521687499288582