Utility Scale PV

A 500 MW project is being considered today by the Kern County Board of Supervisors, the latest in the ever-growing list of mind-bogglingly large projects in California.

Long seen as a slow region for solar deployment, the U.S. Midwest has seen an explosion of project development in recent years. And while there is still a lot of speculation and uncertainty, one way or another this region is going to see major development.

Good morning and welcome to today’s pvMB. We also bring you on this fine morning Midsummer’s new solar metal roof, a new iteration of S-5!’s clamps, a collaboration between Soligent and Pika Energy, and more!

pv magazine has found six projects totaling over 1 GWac that have siting board approval, interconnection agreements and/or PPAs, suggesting that large-scale solar development is about to take off in a big way.

Thanks to a hot mic, regulations instituted to gut PURPA in Big Sky Country have been overturned and the door to solar development has been re-opened.

It’s springtime – so get outside this weekend – but first read your pv magazine morning brief where we talk about GameChange manufacturing in Detroit, 1.3 GW of energy storage coming to New England, solar cost recovery approved in Florida, and more!

In this op-ed for pv magazine, Tony Clifford of Standard Solar highlights the indomitable spirit of the solar industry, passing and thriving in the face of all hurdles with Olympic effectivity.

Happy Thursday and welcome to the pvMB. Today we’ll be looking at SMUD joining the EIM (those words may mean nothing to you now but will soon), a new New Jersey brownfield project (not a Futurama joke), a new solar powered anti-theft backpack (with a built-in boombox model) and everything else you need to tackle the solar industry today.

TVA has launched a solicitation for renewable energy projects with a minimum size of 2 MW, noting a preference for energy storage. The request for proposal pricing structure takes into account energy storage, seasonal and time of day pricing.

Last year’s 1% growth in global PV additions is a sharp drop from increases in prior years, and a long way from the 15-29% annual increases that a Science journal article maintained were “challenging but feasible” through 2030. Continued progress on five major challenges can get us back on track.