Morning Brief: Florida munis ask for a second serving of solar, New York bets on batteries

Welcome to the Tuesday morning brief. Today we’ve got ACORE’s assurance that losing the ITC won’t be catastrophic, Origis’ new operations center, an EDF-Array partnership, and more.

December 17, 2019 Tim Sylvia and John Fitzgerald Weaver

Image: Florida Power and Light

New York chooses batteries over fossils: “The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority has signed a contract with Lincoln Park DG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of GlidePath Power Solutions, to build a 20-megawatt storage project in the Town of Ulster, replacing previously planned projects that would have used fossil fuels to generate power for the local community. The project is expected to be completed in early 2021 and supports Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s nation-leading energy storage deployment target of 3,000 megawatts by 2030 as well as his Green New Deal.” Source: Energy Daily

Florida Municipal Power Agency likes solar so much it calls for expansion: Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA), in partnership with 12 municipal electric utilities and Origis Energy made the decision today that 223.5 MW of solar generation have been working so well, that it’s time to add 149 more MW, a 66% increase in generation capacity for FMPA. The two 74.5 megawatt solar farms will be located in Alachua County and Putnam County. The projects are expected to be entirely operational by 2023. Source: Origis Energy

ACORE says, “Year end extenders agreement does little for renewable growth, virtually nothing for climate change.”: From a technical standpoint, solar lost very little as the ITC drop/depreciation bump nets out to roughly 2% of a solar system’s price. By going from 30% ITC to 26% ITC, you go from 85% of the system’s price available to be depreciated in the first year to 87% available as per IRS rules. The wind PTC was extended for a year, so that’s worth something. “The recently announced extenders agreement is a squandered opportunity. While ACORE supports the modest extensions in the package, they will do little for renewable growth and next to nothing to address climate change…If we’re going to have any chance at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to the level that scientists say is necessary, we need smart policies to accelerate the ongoing transition to a renewable energy economy and a modernized, 21st century grid.” Source: ACORE

Origis begins construction on solar + storage remote operations center: “Origis Services announced the start of construction on one of the industry’s largest solar and energy storage Remote Operations Centers (ROC). When completed in early 2020, the Origis Services 10,000 square feet ROC will house 70 personnel to support 500 field technicians. The Origis facility will be equipped with a fully NERC/CIP North American Electric Reliability Corporation Critical Infrastructure Protection remote operations center and will be prepared to support the industry’s growing portfolio of large, utility and distributed solar and energy storage projects.” Source: Origis

New EDF-Array partnership: Array Technologies will be supplying EDF renewables with 2 GW of single-axis trackers. The ability of Array’s trackers to adapt to the ways projects change over the development cycles was given as a leading reason that the company was eventually chosen. Source: EDF Renewables

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