DOE seeks experts in renewables siting to advise 13 state collaboratives
To improve renewable energy siting, the U.S. Department of Energy seeks permitting experts to provide technical assistance to state siting collaboratives. DOE expects to fund each collaborative, and to support additional collaboratives in other states.
A Virginia proposal would give the state a role in siting solar and storage over 20 MW
A draft recommendation calls for creating a Virginia advisory board that would regularize permitting of large solar and storage projects, to help guide the state toward meeting its clean energy goals.
Maine will not pursue a distribution system operator to advance distributed resources
The Maine Governor’s Energy Office has invited comments on how the state may best meet its energy system goals, including growth of distributed energy resources. The office is not pursuing a distribution system operator as a means to meet those goals.
A fast interconnection process like that used in Texas is widely supported
Texas is quickly adding solar, wind and storage to its grid by using a relatively simple interconnection process, and now 24 industry participants have expressed support for the use of a similarly streamlined process across the nation.
Up to 25 MW of solar will benefit ordinary customers of Philadelphia-area utility
Citizens groups won an order requiring the utility PECO to secure up to 25 MW of solar power, which will be Pennsylvania’s largest solar procurement serving ordinary customers.
500 GW of solar could interconnect at existing fossil-fired generators
Fossil generators sharing their point of interconnection with renewable generators could be a “mainstream strategy” for integrating solar, wind and storage “at speed and scale,” say four researchers.
Renewable microgrid projects in remote and tribal communities to receive federal support
A federal partnership program will offer financial and technical assistance to remote and tribal communities that are at any stage of microgrid planning or development.
Software upgrade intended to speed interconnection could receive $49 million grant
Software firm GridUnity aims to reduce interconnection times for utility-scale solar by at least a year through its real-time communication platform that brings transparency to interconnection stakeholders. Three grid operators use an early version of the software.
Seven rural co-ops to add 3 GW of renewables and storage and retire coal units
A Colorado-based generation utility will add renewable capacity and retire coal units, while six other rural electric co-ops plan to add 1.75 GW of clean energy capacity under a federal program designed to lower electricity costs.
ESIG calls for adopting standards for transmission-connected renewables, storage
“Too few entities” in the U.S. have adopted a global standard for transmission-connected solar, wind and storage projects that would prevent future large-scale grid disturbance events, says a brief from the Energy Systems Integration Group (ESIG).
