Congress can influence TVA to add renewables, trade groups say
Transmission planning by the federally owned utility TVA can bring more low-cost solar and wind power to customers, and Congress can guide the utility in that direction, says a report from two renewables trade groups.
Churches become solar-plus-storage resilience hubs in Louisiana
To help save lives when a hurricane strikes, churches in Louisiana are installing solar-plus-storage so they may provide essential services during a power outage.
Strategies for charging EVs with solar, boosting demand for solar power
More solar power would be used to charge electric vehicles if inexpensive level-1 chargers were deployed at workplaces, and rate design favored daytime charging, a study says.
Indiana utility favors managed EV charging once 5% of customers have EV chargers
Utility AES Indiana and software provider Camus said in a study that the utility can best reduce costs by preparing now to launch managed EV charging by early 2029, when it projects 5% of its customers will have installed EV chargers.
DOE roadmap shows how to speed interconnection of distributed solar and storage
The roadmap presents 39 ways to improve interconnection of distributed energy resources. DOE plans to offer funding support to collaborative teams working to implement the solutions.
Grid connection barriers and solutions for utility-scale renewables
Network upgrade costs for generating projects recently withdrawn from interconnection queues averaged 70% of total interconnection costs, Berkeley Lab researchers found. They proposed solutions for interconnection issues in a paper published in Joule.
OpenADR 3.0 standard can maximize demand flexibility to help integrate renewables
Berkeley Lab’s CalFlexHub says global adoption of an improved communications method can foster a transition from event-based demand response to continuous price-based demand flexibility—increasing demand for renewable power at sunny and windy times.
Half of distribution transformers are approaching end of life
Utilities buying distribution transformers face waiting times and higher prices, as do solar developers needing similar step-up transformers. Distributed solar can extend the useful life of distribution transformers, says an NREL report.
Off-grid solar-plus-storage could power data centers used for training AI models
Firms building datacenters to train artificial intelligence models could power the centers with high-solar microgrids in the southwest U.S., researchers found. The power demand for such datacenters is estimated at 15 GW to 150 GW by 2030.
A novel approach enables comparison of hundreds of generating capacity portfolios
By using a “robust” approach to planning for new renewable and storage capacity to meet future energy demand, stakeholders can identify low-cost portfolios that can be quickly tested against various cost scenarios, said Derek Stenclik of Telos Energy.
