Installations

Tax incentives spurring deployment of energy storage are limited in their application, as they require the system to paired with solar. On top of this, the requirements to receive the tax incentives do not always align with advancements in battery technology and/or system design.

Can the solar industry’s biggest conference make the transition from mulitday marathon to six weeks of virtual “microconferences”? Opening sessions started strong, pragmatic and urgent — with a focus on collaboration and the opportunities ahead.

This is a highly anticipated, high-stakes proceeding that will effectively modify the rules for the NEM tariff in California, arguably the single most important policy mechanism for customer-sited solar over the last decade.

Also in the brief: Solar in schools

A study into the benefits of linking solar with hydro in a full hybrid system configuration has found global potential of 7,593 GW, for an estimated annual power generation of 10,616 TWh and a 20% reservoir coverage.

Facebook now has contracts for 694 MW of solar power in Utah (63% of the state’s solar generation capacity) in its pursuit of becoming entirely renewably-powered by the end of this year.

Also in the brief: NextEra developing a 500-MW solar/500 MW battery project in Kansas, PV system output during California smoke is near zero, solar in Wyoming and Sunrun is cleared to acquire Vivint by US DOJ.

Here are five companies that have raised more than $50 million in funding in recent days — with an emphasis on solving renewable energy problems with software. Plus a climate change SPAC from Mary Powell and David Crane.

Also in the brief: Jacked-up vendor curves, and Major League Soccer goes solar.

To address developers’ frustrations with its interconnection process, Duke Energy worked with solar industry associations to map out a second proposal aimed at rationalizing its interconnection process in 2022, after the existing queue is cleared.