John Fitzgerald Weaver
Kentucky seeking its largest solar power plant via a deal with Toyota and Dow
Louisville Gas and Electric Company and Kentucky Utilities Company are seeking approval for a 100 MWac solar power project to be split among their own customers, plus the two corporations, to be delivered by 2022.
NextEra on its ‘secret sauce’ for energy storage, 2 GW of solar+wind+storage, 10 GW of Florida solar, and more
NextEra’s earnings call showed why the company’s stock has gained greater than 50% in the past year, as it deployed 2.7 GW of new and repowered renewables, including 700 MWac of solar power and 340 MW/1.3 GWh of energy storage in 2019.
Zinc-air battery being deployed in New York aims for extremely low $45/kWh cost
New York state has chosen Zinc8’s zinc-air battery to demonstrate the technology’s viability over a three-year period in a 100 kW/1 MWh storage system.
Hardware Brief: Solar mandate in real life, two types of weird new racking, 50/150 cell 500 watt module, more!
Module pricing is flat this week as the Chinese New Year approaches, Acme Express won $1 million to design new C&I racking, Unirac is testing a new connection technique, and Trina is deploying the largest and newest solar cell type. USA-Editors@pv-magazine.com gets your gear in here!
Tinder, except for solar and sheep
The American Solar Grazing Association is seeking to connect local, available sheep with O&M teams at solar power farms, and they’re raising $4,500 to build phase I of a webpage to make it happen more efficiently.
Dirt-eating solar panel coating wins government funding
Swift Coat has won a $1 million grant from the DOE to develop a solar glass coating that combines industry standard anti-reflective properties with photocatalytic titanium dioxide that breaks down organic materials on solar modules, potentially increasing energy generation by 3% over standard panels.
Arizona utility seeks 400 MW of solar power, 200 MW of it on Navajo tribal lands
Salt River Project has released an RFP requesting up to 400 MWac, in 100 MW or 200 MW increments, of solar power purchase agreements to be delivered before the end of 2023.
First Solar nears final environmental approval for 450 MW Mojave Desert solar power plant
The BLM has given the Desert Quartzite solar power plant a preliminary Record of Decision, which opens the site for a 60-day final review, after which the project will have full approval to move forward with construction.
Hardware brief: Solar panel cleaning robots, Humless’ 5kWh battery, IronRidge’s minimalist racking, more!
Intersolar is in a few weeks, so get your hardware press release out to USA-Editors@pv-magazine.com. In the meantime, modules are holding under 20¢/W, and “large wafers” are coming in a year or three!
All net new electricity generation in the US will be wind and solar power in 2020
The EIA projects that 9.3 GW of new fossil-based power will be countered by 9.5 GW of retiring fossil-fuel plants, while 32 GW of utility-scale wind and solar will be built — plus 5.1 GWac of distributed solar power.
