John Fitzgerald Weaver
How solar power operations and maintenance costs fell 50%
Robb Wilson of sPower has seen the field evolve along with technology, and shared some of the institutional knowledge he has gained over the years.
Hardware brief: Sonnen gets smarter, tariffs biting harder, Vikram Solar’s new modules, more!
Only a couple of weeks until Solar Power International when we get to see the hardware in person – but for now, you get us! Kern Solar Structures galvanizes their steel well, a delta between 275 and 310 watt modules, and Solis is launching a utility scale inverter in the USA.
The necessary evil that is net metering
Research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that as net metering expands, financially challenged electric customers will begin to pay a higher share of the electric companies guaranteed revenue streams – and while this would be true in a static world – the broader picture of the value of individual energy empowerment makes this an acceptable systemic risk.
Los Angeles says “Yes” to the cheapest solar plus storage in the USA
Los Angeles’ municipal utility has voted 5-0 to approve a 25-year contract with a 400 MWac solar plus 300 MW / 1.2 GWh energy storage facility, with the aggregate price of the electricity from the project at 3.962¢/kWh.
A solar titan born before us – Esdec buys IronRidge and Quick Mount PV
The European rooftop solar racking manufacturer launched in the United States last year and has now bought three US residential racking companies that represent 60% of the market, with greater than $250 million in combined revenue.
In lab secrets, Tesla is talking about 20-year lithium ion batteries
Researchers have found that over three years of testing lithium ion NMC532 graphite battery cells have the potential to stay structurally sound long enough for cars to reach greater than 1 million miles, and grid connected energy storage to last more than 20 years under daily use.
Radio killed the solar power operations and maintenance contract
Enel’s vision of future inverters include individual sub component health monitoring, while Southern Power spoke of paying closer attention to onsite transformers while presenting at O&M conference PV Operations Dallas 2019.
Hardware brief: Tesla solar patents, RBI’s “Underground Surety”, solar+storage+SCADA, more!
Hey, when you see me at SPI in Salt Lake City – make sure to show me things to take a picture of so I can get it into the brief! Otherwise, enjoy your weekend and some gear: small scale solar from Morningstar’s SureSine, module pricing trending downward, more!
How the cash flows when we electrify buses, agriculture and more
The Brattle Group has developed a Total Value Test to help determine a more accurate economic valuation of energy efficiency programs historically, including case studies of city bus electrification, indoor agriculture and water heating.
Residential solar plus storage is taking over Hawaii’s grid
Sunrun’s solar+storage Brightbox systems – 1,000 of them totalling 4.3 MW of capacity – are included in a contract for grid services submitted to Hawaii regulators.
