As part of ACORE’s Finance Forums, experts on federal energy policy outlined what policies are needed to help drive the Biden Administration’s clean energy and climate change policies.

Shaving off 15% would trim new capacity additions by more than 2.3 GW this year alone, based on Energy Information Administration forecasts. Higher prices throughout the solar supply chain are being blamed.

The agreement follows negotiations with Vote Solar, the CLEO Institute, and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, as more than 20,000 Duke Energy Florida customers are reported to behind on their electric bills.

The new capacity additions were brought forward to help the state recover from the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Also on the rise: Report sheds light on low- and moderate-income solar program performance, and renewables bucked a slump in U.S. energy production in 2020.

Also on the rise: Developers scrap an 850 MW solar project after local objection, Rivian plans a second EV plant in the U.S., Ohio regulators consider another 470 MW of solar, and more.

Local opposition forced the action, but the same developers are moving ahead with a nearby $1 billion solar-plus-storage project.

The Clearview Solar I project and the Union Solar project are both set to have hearings in mid-August, bringing the total amount of utility scale solar proposed or approved this summer alone to 1,938 MW.

The report pegged the cost of adding storage to PV on the order of $700-1,300/kWh of storage capacity and the present-value benefit to the host customer of roughly $500-1,000/kWh.

Made up of distributed residential energy storage, these “plants” stabilize the grid and often end the need for new fossil generation. Tesla customers in California are the latest to join the movement.

Also on the rise: Sandia develops a grid-scale battery storage technology, NREL researchers write code to make legacy inverters smarter, and take a moment to admire these solar panels.

The battery operates at 230 degrees Fahrenheit, opening what researchers said could be “a whole cascading cost savings” including everything from less expensive materials to less insulation.

The system can be expanded to a capacity of up to 25 kW, and its creator is using a Kickstarter platform to raise R&D money.

One question is whether or not manufacturers can keep up with demand, particularly inverters and semiconductors.

The achievement was confirmed by the Institute for Solar Energy Research and is claimed as a world record for a p-type TOPCon cells.

Data suggest that renewable penetration might reach only one-half of U.S. electricity supply by 2030, but the goal of 80% by 2030 remains possible.

The deal marks American Clean Power Association’s second major merger since founding in early 2021, and will bring in close relationships with more than 200 companies across all aspects of energy storage.

In court filings, the Ohio utility admitted it conspired with public officials to pay millions of dollars for legislation favorable to its nuclear power plants.

Also on the rise: A solar-friendly infrastructure bill is facing early tests in Congress, the NAACP develops solar power principles to address inequity, and more energy storage enters service in California.

The securitization was backed by more than 6,400 solar rooftop systems and represented the best price to date for a portfolio of solar and energy storage loan assets.

The national laboratory developed the baseline products to develop and document transparent, normalized technology cost and performance assumptions.

Also on the rise: An insurer warns the solar industry about wildfire risks, Hawaiian Electric’s storage incentive program goes live, and solar energy jobs were lost in the pandemic year but are coming back, DOE says.

Researchers developed a silicon heterojunction solar cell based on p-type gallium-doped wafers that they said has an efficiency of 22.6% and improved stability.

Reaching up to 120kW, the three phase inverters have integrated monitoring and a modular design.

Recent research reveals a previously underestimated role for oxygen in limiting the performance of lithium-ion batteries.