Live near a big city? Expect big utility bill spikes, thanks to Covid-19
A D.C.-based analytics company has released an analysis showing that summer electricity bills will rise by about 10% on average for households in the 13 of largest U.S. metro areas.
NREL study backs hydrogen for long-duration storage
Pumped hydro and compressed air energy storage will soon be cost-effective for day-long storage, while hydrogen for long-duration storage will be cost-effective by 2050 or sooner, the national lab’s study projected.
What’s going on in the world of thermal energy storage?
Can this technology be commercialized? A partnership between Siemens Energy and EnergyNest to develop thermal storage solutions together is the latest development in an industry with lots of potential, but little practical application thus far.
Colleges reassessing energy needs, sustainability goals in the face of Covid-related shutdowns
In an effort to accelerate their renewable goals, a number of U.S. colleges and universities have been using Covid-related shutdowns to assess their energy needs, how those needs are filled and what more they can do.
PV module prices are falling faster than all predictions
New research from Wood Mackenzie shows that overall system costs for installations using mono PERC modules are set to fall by as much as 20% by 2025.
American module shipments spiked in quantity and plummeted in price at the onset of Covid
2.05 GW of PV modules were shipped in March before plummeting to 1.24 GW in April. Yet, while shipments slowed, the cost per peak watt reached and sustained record lows.
Fluence’s sixth generation of storage technology has over 2 GWh of commitments at launch
Featuring a monitoring system that tracks system performance, a comprehensive operating platform and stackable system design, Fluence claims its new solution is capable of reaching gigawatt-sized deployments while driving project costs down as much as 25%.
90% clean power by 2035 is ‘challenging but feasible’
“90% by 2035 is the sweet spot” for a pathway that uses existing technology, allows “judicious use” of existing generation assets, and “achieves near-complete decarbonization in a realistic timeframe,” said study co-author Nikit Abhyankar of UC Berkeley. The resulting lower wholesale cost of electricity by 2035 “was a surprise for us.”
Solar costs have fallen 82% since 2010
The levelized cost of energy generated by large scale solar plants is around $0.068/kWh, compared to $0.378 ten years ago and the price fell 13.1% between 2018 and last year alone, according to figures released by the International Renewable Energy Agency.
Morning Brief: Kentucky’s biggest PV project has a contract, Covid’s effect on the New York solar industry
Also in the brief: Terra Pave Albedo is an America Made Solar Prize competition finalist, a list of environment and climate organizations that have made statements on racism. Plus — “Coal consumption will be crushed in 2020.”
