Solar industry gets $27.8 billion in corporate finance for company building and projects in 2019
Mercom Capital has released their annual report – describing the year as robust – showing company funding of $11.7 billion, up 20% over 2018, and announced project deals of $16.1 billion, up 14%.
Titan, Mustang and West of Pecos solar power plants move forward
RWE’s “West of Pecos” 100MWac Texas solar facility has turned on, Sunpin Solar is breaking ground on a 70MWac/98MWdc solar plant in southern California, and Solar Frontier Americas closed on finance for its under-construction 210MWdc Mustang Two plant.
DNV projects 1,000 GW of solar power and 90% clean electricity for the USA and Canada
DNV’s report sees federal policy as muddled, but individual provinces, states and cities are pushing electrification of buildings and transportation, significant per-capita efficiency increases, 30% less energy use overall, and coal going away in just over a decade.
Repowering solar power plants for need and greed
Alencon’s silicon carbide-based SPOT allows for repowering solar power plants that need to replace 600V inverters with newer 1000V/1500V gear, or for those that wish to maximize electricity generation at ageing and imperfect facilities with creative engineering techniques.
Hardware brief: mobile military microgrid, $2500 EV tax credit, solar module pricing down, more!
It’s the start of the near year, it’s the start of new gear! Solpad offers an on-the-roof energy storage solution that can easily be scaled upward; Northern Reliability has been chosen to develop a easily movable battery and controllers for the US Navy; Solarrainframe has a mechanical solution to keeping dry under carports, more!
Pragmatic projection sees solar power nearly tripling in roaring 2020s
NREL’s 2019 Standard Scenarios Report looks at 36 models to project what energy sources the USA might use going forward, and what variables might drive that – with the mid-case projections suggesting wind+solar power meeting 28% of all electricity demand.
New York seeks successor to solar power net metering
The state commission is seeking to wean solar customers off of pure net metering charges, while starting to provide motivation to consider demand charges and time-of-use. Current net metering was extended by a year, so expect these changes to be in effect starting in 2021.
New Mexico senator seeks solar sales tax to fund early childhood program
Senator Michael Padilla (D) of New Mexico has submitted the Renewable Energy Production Tax for consideration by the state. The 2.5% tax would fund early childhood education and care services, while exempting government and personal generation.
Six-year-old solar power plant partially repowered with new trackers and bifacial solar modules
OCI Solar Power has upgraded a portion of its Alamo 1 solar power plant in Texas from 295 watt solar modules on ERCAM single- and dual-axis trackers to bifacial modules on Array Technologies trackers.
Enphase prepping commercial inverters and a small-scale, off-grid solar-plus-storage box
Enphase also showed off a 640-watt, two-module commercial inverter and a solar-plus-storage package for two solar modules at its analyst day.
