Energy Storage

CAISO has warned state regulators that there could be a 4.7 GW capacity shortfall in 2022, in the early evening hours of the annual peak demand events of September. The grid operator has suggested alteration of water cooling laws, as well as increased procurement of resources.

Hidden in a natural gas plant modification application, Duke Energy has released findings that constant ramping is causing solar to contributes increased emissions onto the grid. If only there was some way to cover solar’s shortfalls without fossil fuels.

Happy Monday and welcome to this edition of the pvMB. Today we’ll be looking at Engie’s storage installation for a school district, Virginia’s Fairfax County seeking solar and more!

In today’s pvMB we also bring you EDPR’s big solar + storage contract with San José’s CCA, Dominion’s battery pilot, a new union-backed training program for renewable energy workers, and more.

The same report that expects utility-scale PV costs to fall 54% from 2017 to 2021 also presents a constant-cost scenario from 2018 onward, on an equal footing with the “mid” and “low” cost scenarios. Utilities could be tempted to use the constant (high) cost scenario in their resource plans, and thus plan little or no added solar.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company has requested that its bankruptcy court judge approve a 10% and 11% reduction on five contracts for solar and storage projects under development, in exchange for extensions ranging from 12 to 24 months to deliver working projects.

This op-ed by Eversheds Sutherland looks at some of the financial drivers and supporting policies that underlie the rapid development of the U.S. energy storage market.

The small Missouri utility has proposed massive solar and wind development under its new integrated resource plan, with a focus on distributed solar.

BNEF has published its latest Energy Storage Outlook report and says large scale deployment will provide the majority of the 1,095 GW/2,850 GWh of battery storage worldwide in 2040, with prices driven down further by grid services demand and EVs.

CALSSA says that a pending vote by the Contractors State License Board which could restrict most solar contractors from installing batteries could have “catastrophic” impacts on the state’s energy storage market.