Utility Scale PV

The usual suspects and a few surprises in the island state’s largest ever renewable energy procurement — for 460 MW of solar power and nearly 3 GWh of energy storage.

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.”

Building on what has been a successful 2020 in terms of fundraising, the company has closed on a $225 million letter of credit with partners KeyBank, HSBC, Rabobank and Nomura Holdings.

Solar plants are now expected to last 32.5 years and have operational costs of $17 per kW/year, as shown by a Berkeley Lab survey of industry participants.

Also in the brief: Q Cells and Silfab achieve top performer rating in the 2020 PV Module Reliability Scorecard, Tigo sues APS.

Executive and boardroom moves in solar, storage, cleantech, utilities and energy VC.

The company has filed a Certificate of Authority application with state regulators for a 675 MW portfolio of solar projects, the first step in the company’s larger goal of 1,000 MW of solar in Wisconsin by 2023.

According to a new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), health risks from lead in crystalline silicon PV panels are one order of magnitude — or about one-tenth — below the risk levels set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

MIT scientists have suggested that used electric vehicle batteries could offer a more viable business case than purpose-built systems for the storage of grid-scale solar power in California. Such ‘second life’ EV batteries, may cost only 60% of their original purchase price to deploy and can be effectively aggregated for industrial scale storage even if they have declined to 80% of their original capacity.

Also in the brief: GOP Senators seek help for renewables, Engie is among those chosen in Hawaii’s largest renewable tender.