Morning Brief: Oil firms are collapsing, but wind and solar power are growing — even in Texas

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Texas: how the home of U.S. oil and gas fell in love with solar power. A solar farm the size of a small city will open in the Texas shale heartland this month, adding more competition to a U.S. oil and gas industry that is already flat on its back. The blue rows of panels at the Oberon photovoltaic project will generate 150 megawatts of power when they plug into the grid south of Notrees, an appropriately named town in the Permian Basin. A boom in solar projects is under way across Texas, the U.S. oil and gas capital. Source: Financial Times

Oil companies are collapsing, but wind and solar energy keep growing: A few years ago, the kind of double-digit drop in oil and gas prices the world is experiencing now because of the coronavirus pandemic might have increased the use of fossil fuels and hurt renewable energy sources like wind and solar farms. That is not happening. In fact, renewable energy sources are set to account for nearly 21 percent of the electricity the United States uses for the first time this year, up from about 18 percent last year and 10 percent in 2010, according to one forecast published last week. Source: The New York Times

New York state is nearly halfway done hitting its interim target of 1,500 MW of energy storage by 2025, with 706 MW in storage projects already deployed or having received power contracts, the New York Department of Public Service announced in its first annual “State of Storage” report released April 1. A potential wrinkle, however, is that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to delays for several New York utilities in their bidding processes to procure more energy storage. More insight on the topic at Utility Dive

SolarEdge is planning a virtual solar show on the week of June 15th 2020, due to the cancellations of many industry tradeshows. During the virtual show, SolarEdge will be showing off the company’s commercial and residential smart energy solutions in its virtual booth, offer personal meetings with its team of experts and management, give online lab tours from its headquarters, and provide training sessions and thought-leadership presentations. If you want more information on the show or to register as an early bird, click here.

Sunrun offers solar and storage $1/month for six months: In light of the pandemic, Sunrun has announced that the company will be offering new customers rooftop solar and battery storage for zero-money down and one dollar monthly payments for the first six months.

The offer is available to homeowners in California, Arizona, Hawaii, Texas, Puerto Rico, Florida, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. Previously during the crisis, Sunrun moved all sales consultations from in-person to virtual and began administering ‘no-contact’ installations.

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