Added transmission, varying levels of distributed generation, and increasing levels of “load modernization” are all under consideration in an NREL study. The results could illuminate paths for California and other states to reach 100% zero-carbon or renewable energy targets.

Japan’s JGC Corporation reports an efficient method of converting hydrogen to ammonia, which can later be combusted to generate carbon-free electricity. Ammonia, according to JGC, has various advantages over hydrogen in terms of safety and cost effectiveness.

While large utility-scale projects grab the headlines, installation firms in the region racked up 7400 small-scale (under 1 MW) solar installations in 2018. Snapshot stories included.

While a national lab report on floating PV did not estimate its economic potential, the report suggests the most promising markets could be reservoirs in areas with high land costs for ground-mounted solar, and reservoirs with grid-connected hydropower or high evaporation rates.

With every new solar-on-schools contract, more people learn how it’s done, share what they know, and make it easier for neighboring school districts to follow the same path. U.S. schools could host up to 30 gigawatts of solar.

Distributed energy management systems can capture added value from solar and storage by shaving peak loads, providing grid services, and deferring grid investments. Utilities testing such systems have shared their lessons learned, while Western Australia leapfrogs ahead.

Unnecessary grid investments raise costs for all customers, displace solar and distributed solutions, and could be unfairly charged to solar customers. Vote Solar’s director of grid integration Ed Smeloff shares his insights in this pv magazine interview.

Dynamic pricing could advance renewables while cutting both customer costs and system costs, suggests a petition from solar and storage industry participants. They call for a rulemaking process to give all customers the option to choose real-time pricing.

Citing Hawaii’s potential to reach 80 percent renewables by 2030, saving $6.5 billion in the process, the investment fund’s founder says Hawaiian Electric “has the potential to be the utility of the future.”

The Puerto Rico utility’s favored generation plan, in a report prepared by Siemens, involves an LNG terminal at San Juan and would achieve only 55% renewables by 2038. A scenario without LNG would reach 79% renewables by 2038 at comparable cost, based on undisclosed cost assumptions.