Morning Brief: sPower merging with AES’ clean energy development business in US, Evergy makes it difficult for Kansas solar
Also in the brief: Utah lawmakers push to block cities from banning natural gas. Climate risks are accelerating. Here’s what Duke, PG&E and 16 other utilities expect to pay, plus Invenergy signs up customers for $1.6 billion, 1,310-megawatt Samson solar energy generation facility.
Another big steel producer turns to solar power
Nucor Corporation has signed the industry’s largest virtual PPA with EDF Renewables North America for 250 MW of new solar energy, set to be constructed in Texas.
SEIA has a solar industry wish list for the incoming Biden administration
A change is coming in 2021 U.S. clean energy policy — SEIA has a wish list for the new administration ranging from tariffs to public lands to the investment tax credit.
Financing the Energy Transition: $200M SPAC from TJ Rodgers, plus funding for nuclear fuel disposal, next-gen CSP and more
Another week, another wave of investments in the clean energy transition.
Morning Brief: Cypress Creek’s 162-MW Wagyu project is delivering power, Sunlight Financial hits $3 billion
Also in the brief: GP Joule completed construction of the first merchant solar project in Alberta, plus OutBack Power helps Power52 with installation training.
China’s ‘Liquid Sunshine’ project demonstrates PV powered methanol
A pilot project in China was brought online this month, combining 10 MW of PV with electrolyzers for hydrogen production and carbon dioxide hydrogenation to synthesize methanol. The methanol is supplied to the chemical industry, or can be converted back into hydrogen for energy use. And the project’s creators say their next goal is scaling the project up to 10 or even 100 times its current size.
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.
