CSP startup Heliogen scores $39 million in DOE funding for supercritical CO2 project
Startup founded by serial entrepreneur Bill Gross seeks to revitalize CSP with sCO2 technology that lowers costs, water usage, equipment size and plant footprint — and supports industrial applications in which PV may not be able to compete.
Jigar Shah: Policy action and tech deployments needed for power sector innovation
“We’ve averaged 2.4 cents a kilowatt hour for the last six months for PPAs. That’s actually too low. I think we would be fine at 3.4 cents… I don’t think that solar and wind industries would skip a beat [without their tax incentives], and they have other policy mechanisms.”
Morning Brief: Texas bill would tax wind and solar but not natural gas, Covid speeds up peak oil
Also in the brief: 100-MW Mustang Two Whirlaway Solar Farm comes online in California, Arizona utility APS offering $144M to tribes in coal-country, Q CELLS to build a 41-MW floating PV power plant.
Morning Brief: Biden’s energy transition team, BlackRock CEO backs mandatory climate reporting
Also in the brief: The Solar Foundation and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council are merging, Trump administration removes scientist in charge of assessing climate change, Cypress Creek closed a seven-year, $200 million debt financing, and solar-powered butter.
Vanderbilt University, Nashville sign power contracts for 125 MW solar project
The new installation is being developed by Silicon Ranch in Tullahoma and will help Vanderbilt become 100% renewably powered, while bringing the City one-third closer to its RPS goals.
The US installed 4.5 GW of utility-scale solar in 2019
For the third year in a row, more utility-scale solar was installed in the Southeast than any other region in the country, while trackers dominate the mounting market.
What’s the value of your solar resource data?
While the median approach has emerged as a potential remedy to optimistic irradiance assumptions, it is a flawed system, one which can lead to significant cash shortcomings. So how does one get valuable, accurate data?
Morning Brief: Six Midwest utilities to spend $15B to deploy 4 GW of solar, 3.6 GW of wind and 1 GW of battery storage
Also in the brief: A rural Virginia county grapples with the pros and cons of a proposed $200 million, 149 MW solar farm, Utah’s solar advocates plan to fight decision by state regulators.
Morning Brief: Five consequences of a Biden administration for US energy, 150-MW solar project in Wisconsin is complete
Also in the brief: The first of presumably many items on solar-powered turkey farms.
In major shift, the MISO territory has 57 GW worth of big solar projects in its interconnection queue
MISO’s renewables mix is set for a potential shift from wind to solar — if it can confront the challenge of transmission costs.
