San Francisco offers $2.5 billion to buy PG&E electricity infrastructure – The city of San Francisco has made a preliminary offer in its publicized bid to aquire the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) power infrastructure serving the city. Mayor London Breed and city attorney Dennis Herrera issued a statement Sunday outlining an offer to pay $2.5 billion. If successful with the purchase, the city would look to establish a municipal utility, which would be the third-largest in the state, only sitting behind Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and the Sacramento MUD. Source: KPIX
Three companies combine to do Eastern U.S. development – “A new and complete solar resource assessment (SRA) solution has been introduced to the US market via a collaboration between ArcVera Renewables, NRG Systems (NRG), and Harness Energy. This end-to-end offering will provide solar project developers with the design, manufacture, shipping, installation, and operation of their solar measurement systems, including the delivery of independent campaign monitoring and finance-grade resource assessment reports. Unlike existing solar resource offerings, the ArcVera-NRG-Harness collaboration promotes independence in the three main areas of a solar energy assessment – equipment procurement, installation and maintenance, and data analysis. NRG supplies its highly integrated and standardized solar met stations for a repeatable measurement result; Harness Energy provides the installation and ongoing operations, including the maintenance of mission critical pyranometers; and ArcVera Renewables provides independent technical advisory services, ensuring that the met stations are generating the quality data required to deliver accurate, bankable assessment reports.” Source: ArcVera Renewables, NRG Systems (NRG), and Harness Energy
Urban Grid closes on $100 million to build utility-scale solar – Urban Grid has secured $100 million with Crayhill Capital Management LP, a New York-based private credit manager and asset-based lender in order to finance the late-stage development of more than 5 GWp of utility-scale solar projects under development by Urban Grid. Specifically, the funds will be used to finance significant capital expenditures required by projects prior to construction. Source: Urban Grid
NextEra to sell $1.5 bil in equity units – “NextEra Energy, Inc. announced today that it intends to sell $1.5 billion of equity units. Each equity unit will be issued in a stated amount of $50. Each equity unit will consist of a contract to purchase NextEra Energy common stock in the future and a 5% undivided beneficial ownership interest in a NextEra Energy Capital Holdings, Inc. debenture due Sept. 1, 2024, to be issued in the principal amount of $1,000. The debentures will be guaranteed by NextEra Energy Capital Holdings’ parent company, NextEra Energy, Inc. The holders would be required to complete the stock purchase by no later than Sept. 1, 2022, and their purchase obligations may be satisfied with proceeds raised from remarketing the debentures that comprise part of their equity units. The net proceeds from the sale of the equity units, which are expected to be approximately $1.45 billion (after deducting the underwriting discount and other offering expenses), will be added to the general funds of NextEra Energy Capital Holdings. NextEra Energy Capital Holdings expects to use its general funds to fund investments in energy and power projects and for other general corporate purposes.” Source: NextEra
New Sierra Club ad campaign calls out Duke Energy’s sunny claim of moving ‘beyond coal’ – Sierra Club has begun a new ad campaign calling out Duke Energy’s recent commercial, “So Much More.” highlighting the hypocrisy between Duke’s claim of a commitment to “shift beyond coal,” while still planning to keep coal plants online until as late as 2048. In response, the group’s new campaign in response, “Duke Energy burns coal like it’s 1499” mocks Duke’s claim of moving “beyond coal,” by noting other ancient practices that have been left by the wayside while Duke continues to burn coal. For context, Beyond Coal is the name of one of the Sierra Club’s signature campaigns, so Sierra Club will be running running “Duke Energy burns coal like it’s 1499” on Hulu, national social media platforms, and in key online media outlets in Duke’s service territories throughout the Carolinas, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and Florida. Source: Sierra Club
Montgomery County, Maryland seeks solar+storage microgrid project for electric bus depot “Already on the map for its public service microgrids, Montgomery County is advancing into the next frontier of the technology — its nexus with transportation — with plans for a microgrid-ready depot to charge electric buses. The Maryland county on Wednesday issued a solicitation seeking proposals for energy infrastructure to power electric buses at its Brookville Maintenance Facility in Silver Spring. The county began exploring microgrids after a violent storm in 2012 knocked out power to 480,000 county residents for several days. Last year it activated two advanced microgrids at its Public Safety Headquarters and Correctional Facility. The microgrids were built in a public-private partnership with Duke Energy Renewables and Schneider Electric under an energy-as-a-service contract. Now Montgomery County seeks to duplicate the approach. It’s in search of a partner to develop and help finance the smart depot using a minimum amount of county capital and leveraging tax credits, environmental credits and other incentives. The partner will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the smart energy facility.” Source: MicrogridKnowledge.com
And to end your brief, a look at this super-sweet German solar fence:
https://twitter.com/GideonGoudsmit/status/1170333396112945152
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I hope they can buy it. Better to have a public non-profit utility that will put it residents and customers first rather than a for-profit company that will always put profit before people. All city’s should own and operate all utility services to ensure reliable service and lower rates.