Energy Storage

Wood Mackenzie’s number-crunchers are the latest analysts queueing up to predict a bumper year ahead for PV, with falling prices, rising efficiency rates and booming markets outside China all on the cards. And it could be a make-or-break year for mega-projects according to Wood Mac.

The utility’s ’30 x 30’ plan centers on installing more than 30 million solar panels, as one of the most ambitious unveiled by any utility to date. The plan is projected to allow FPL to get more than 40% of its electricity from zero-emission solar and nuclear by 2030.

In this interview California Solar & Storage Association’s (CALSSA) senior advisor looks at what the pending bankruptcy of PG&E should mean for solar and energy storage, from rooftop solar to the future of the utility.

Duke Energy has presented a plan to the City of Orlando for a 1 to 3 MWac solar plant plus a 5 to 10 MW energy storage facility at a local sewage plant. The project is the first of potentially 14 solar+storage sites at strategic city locations.

Today’s pv magazine USA morning brief also features the EIA projecting 4.3 GWac of utility scale solar in 2019, SunPower tapping a new executive to lead its technology business unit, President Trump nominating former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to stay on as the head of the EPA, and more!

AES has installed a 20 MWac / 100 MWh solar plus storage project on Kaua’i that will provide electricity after sundown, and allow the island to get more than 1/3 of its power from solar.

The EV and battery maker wants to start production of its Model 3 for the Chinese market by the end of the year. Next year, according to high-profile CEO Elon Musk, mass production of electric cars will start there, and this is expected to include their batteries as well.

The various utility subsidiaries of Hawaiian Electric Industries have submitted bids to state regulators for seven solar plus storage projects totaling 262 MWac of solar and 1,024 MWh of energy storage, with power purchase agreement prices ranging from 8-12¢/kWh.

One of the best tools that would allow utilities to meet their central stated mission of providing a stable electricity supply is one they are fighting the hardest.

Developers have applied to build 139 GWac of large-scale solar projects in the territory of six grid operators – around five times what is currently online across the country – and that figure doesn’t even cover the entire United States. By any metric, we are looking at an unprecedented boom in solar development over the next five years.